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August 14, 2012

We Don't Trust You Architects

Review on the WIJkonomie project for Tarwewijk in Rotterdam



The Way We Are
Cynical Residents

Four architects spending two months of thinking about Tarwewijk and spending three weeks physically in Tarwewijk does not make any difference. The people of Tarwewijk have a lot of people like us seen come and go. Well educated groups with high flying plans, spreading hope for a prosperous future. When they are gone, live in Tarwewijk is more miserable than before. All expectations and trust by the people of Tarwewijk did disappear with the people foreign to the place.

Tarwewijk does not need us to know what to do; Tarwewijk knows exactly what to do. Do it yourself Tarwewijk! We propose a project stop, a concept stop and a subsidy stop for initiatives from outside of Tarwewijk . The people of Tarwewijk know how to do things; they know how to start a business, they know how to work around regulations. We trust in the power of the people in Tarwewijk.

blog by Renny Ramakers

Many thanks to: the people of Tarwewijk, droog, Jan Konings, Kosmopolis and the NAI

TD team: Theo Deutinger, Stefanos Filippas, Elisa Mante, Ana Rita Marques

sound: Heinz Riegler

The Way We Are

Produced for WIJkonomie Tarwewijk. The project is by Droog in partnership with Kosmopolis Rotterdam, Jan Konings and the Netherlands Architecture Institute and is supported by DOEN Foundation. Production team: Theo Deutinger, Stefanos Filippas, Elisa Mante, Ana rita Marques Music: Heinz Riegler (Mushroom music publishing)

Cynical Residents

Produced for WIJkonomie Tarwewijk. The project is by Droog in partnership with Kosmopolis Rotterdam, Jan Konings and the Netherlands Architecture Institute and is supported by DOEN Foundation.

WIJkonomie Tarwewijk Symposium

From hairdressing to car repair and radio broadcasting, the residential neighbourhood of Tarwewijk in the South of Rotterdam has a hidden network of homeworkers. WIJkonomie Tarwewijk visualizes and builds on existing social and economic networks in Tarwewijk, proposing new tools and strategies to strengthen the economic and social vitality of this area. By Droog in collaboration with Jan Konings, Kosmopolis Rotterdam and Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI), the symposium featured design proposals and interventions by Jan Konings, TD Architects, Thomas Lommée, Crimson with Maxwan and Doepel Strijkers Architects. Designers, politicians, entrepreneurs and residents of Tarwewijk entered into discussion addressing questions like: how can local entrepreneurship strengthen both economic and social vitality of a neighbourhood? And how can design interventions and strategies be more valuable in the long term? After all, the effect of these kinds of interventions - although well-intentioned, often turns out to be short-lived. The symposium, moderated by journalist Yvonne Zonderop, featured Ole Bouman, Charles Renfro (Diller Scofidio + Renfro), artist Jan Konings, Renny Ramakers (Droog), historian Wouter Vanstiphout (Crimson), Wim Hoogendoorn (director SoZaWe Rotterdam) and Robert Kloosterman (professor of Economic Geography and Planning, University of Amsterdam).