Home - Amateur Cities

2023

Critical Imagination

Amateur Cities

Housing debate: Alternatives to Ownership

Op donderdag 28 maart organiseert Amateur Cities de debatavond Alternatieven voor woning eigenaarschap bij de Independent School for the City in Rotterdam.

Critical Imagination

Het publieke programma Vormgeven aan (samen)leven, georganiseerd door Amateur Cities bij CASA/NiCo, in Arnhem vond plaats op 30 november 2023. Tijdens het debat Vormgeven aan (samen)leven was de ‘normaliteit’ van hoe we nu wonen het centrale thema. In een gesprek over andere vormen van wonen hebben we gefocust op de vraag hoe je deze concreet kan maken.

Critical Imagination

Amateur Cities

Radical Care: Embracing Feminist Finance

Amateur Cities and the Institute of Network Cultures are launching the Feminist Finance Zine: Embracing Radical Care. It is a collaborative work focusing on economic alternatives and inclusive financial futuring. The zine aims to inspire local networks of care and democratic infrastructures of money.

Critical Imagination

Dounia Kchiere

The Racism Onion: Considerations on Discrimination

This article is a personal reflection on discrimination and racism. The author unfolds different layers of what she calls the Racism Onion. She analyzes the different shapes and forms discrimination takes depending on who we are and our particular circumstances.

Critical Imagination

Amateur Cities

Woondebat: Bouwen met een langdurig perspectief

Op donderdag 8 februari a.s. organiseert Amateur Cities het debat Bouwen met een langdurig perspectief bij Waag Futurelab in Amsterdam - een avond waarin we kijken naar de woonopgave en de toekomst van ons wonen, en naar hoe we écht langdurige relaties met het landschap en onze zowel menselijke als niet-menselijke buren op kunnen bouwen.

Critical Imagination

Amateur Cities

Debatreeks: Anders werken aan wonen

Nederland staat voor een complexe woonopgave. In het licht hiervan organiseert Amateur Cities vanaf het najaar van 2023 een drietal publieksevents rond het thema Anders werken aan wonen, als onderdeel van het gelijknamige programma van het Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.

Critical Imagination

Amateur Cities

Feminist Finance Syllabus

Feminist Finance Syllabus is a supplement to the Feminist Finance Zine titled Radical Care: Embracing Feminist Finance by Amateur Cities and Institute of Network Cultures. This syllabus is a starting point for diving into the field of feminist finance. It features scholarly concepts, grassroots projects, artistic thought-experiments, fictional responses, and questions without answers.

2018

Critical Imagination

Cristina Ampatzidou
Ania Molenda

Bottom-up Turned Inside Out

Rather than a political vision of how life in cities ought to be organized, contemporary planning resembles a managerial task that coordinates flows of money, materials, people, and information. Paradoxically, this increasing centralization of power is accompanied by a rhetoric of citizen empowerment.

Critical Imagination

Davide Tommaso Ferrando

The City as Advertising

The urban image today is the product of a complicated relationship between the specific characters of local environments and the global imaginary of the market, in which the former reshape the latter and not the other way around.

Wishful Thinking

James Kerr

Social media faces

What if dividing parts of our personality over different online channels, fundamentally changes the way we perceive ourselves?

Wishful Thinking

Ryan Mendoza

The White House

What if we could make places so telling about the less glorious parts of urban histories more prominent?

Critical Imagination

Rebekka Kiesewetter

From Exclusion to Autonomy: Publishing as a Spatializing Act

Publishing, understood as a process of ‘making a public’ that informs a ‘capacity to act,’ has the potential to develop as an institutionalizing means, an interface for connecting people with different backgrounds, and as a way to relate with each other. It can be used as a means for instigating critical discourse and engagement, for proposing alternative value systems and opening new political horizons.

Wishful Thinking

irene pittatore

Public Anagrams, 2016

What if we started approaching controversial issues through playful devices?

Wishful Thinking

Huey Hoong Chan

The Monument, 2016

What would a monument to capitalism par excellence look like?

Critical Imagination

Military check point in the street, Kimihurura Neighborhood, Kigali, 2017.

Elisa Tangheroni

Contemporary Urban Paranoia

The permanent spatial state of exception in the urban environment is a much-discussed topic in postmodern discourse, yet a critical re-assessment of the contemporary situation is needed. The global proliferation of urban enclaves, and in consequence their ghettoization, indicates an urgent need for social sustainability.

Critical Imagination

Maria Dada

The Other City Map

Cities today are digital-physical hybrids. Parts of the city exist in our computationally mediated imagination and other parts are experienced through our bodies.

2017

The Unmasters

Cristina Ampatzidou
Ania Molenda
Michal Gdak

Is Fair Building Possible?

During the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, entitled ‘Reporting from the Front’, Dominika Janicka in cooperation with Martyna Janicka and Michal Gdak curated the exhibition ‘Fair Building’ at the Polish Pavilion, taking a close look at the ways in which architecture is made and the rather questionable conditions in which the construction industry operates. – Read our conversation with Michal on the possibility of fairer architecture.

The Unmasters

Cristina Ampatzidou
Lea Schonfelder

No happy endings

Lea Schönfelder designs what she calls games for adults. They are meant to motivate her players to reflect on the paradoxes of contemporary life, their ethical choices and politics of the everyday life.

Critical Imagination

Fernando Ferreira

Barbican on Solitude: a Story of Walking

Walking is a verb that describes the body’s movement traversing a specific surface. Walking is also a practical and theoretical methodology that has been explored by various contemporary artists, architects and art movements, especially since the beginning of the twentieth century. Fernando Ferreira assumed the act of walking as an allegorical and potential narrative at the Barbican. His walk story is unfolds in a three-act structure.

The Unmasters

Christopher Lindinger
Cristina Ampatzidou

Technology, Creativity and the future of Cities

Christopher Lindinger, co-director of Ars Electronica Futurelab, talks about the creative lab culture that forms his working environment, shares his thoughts on group dynamics and organizational structures, and reflects on the potential and challenges of technological development for the future of cities and their inhabitants.

Wishful Thinking

IaaC Introductory Studio-G1 of 201516

Active Public Space, Plaça de les Glòries

What if currently dormant public spaces become activated by different forms of human and machine actions?

Wishful Thinking

Martha Rosler

Housing is a Human Right, 1989

Housing is not a matter of solidarity, helping those in need on a cold winter day, it is a human right.

Wishful Thinking

La Jetee

Friction Atlas, 2014-ongoing

What happens when we redefine the rules of behavior in public as the visible surface of a playing field?

Wishful Thinking

Raphael Kim

Microbial Money – Stock Analysis

What would an economy based on money as living organisms look like?

2016

The Unmasters

Alex Foti
Ania Molenda
Cristina Ampatzidou
Trebor Scholz

Towards Collective Subjectivity

Interview about the possibility of collective subjectivity with Alex Foti and Trebor Scholz by Cristina Ampatzidou and Ania Molenda at Moneylab #3 - Failing Better.

The Unmasters

Ania Molenda
Arthur Roing Baer
Cristina Ampatzidou
Emily Rosamond

The Price of Surveillance

Interview about the price of surveillance with Emily Rosamond and Arthur Röing Baer by Cristina Ampatzidou and Ania Molenda at Moneylab #3 - Failing Better.

Wishful Thinking

Scott Hocking

Ziggurat, East, Summer, 2008

What if the right to decide about abandoned sites had an an expiry date and unattended buildings eventually became part of the public domain?

The Unmasters

ZUS
Cristina Ampatzidou
Ania Molenda

The Unobvious Ways of City Making

ZUS merges the theoretical and practical aspects of what we today call city making, yet they are also a design office for architecture and urbanism. Together with ZUS principal, Kristian Koreman, we discussed the ways they combine the two, how it was to be at the forefront of emerging unsolicited architecture and what do they mean by the necessity of engaging with unobvious design tasks.

Wishful Thinking

Yto Barrada

Vacant Lot, 2001

What if a vacant lot could stay in a permanent state of lingering?

Wishful Thinking

Aristide Antonas

Landscape with crane rooms and keg apartments

What does it mean to live together or in isolation and what extent of isolation renders a common future impossible?

Wishful Thinking

Femke Herregraven

Liquid Citizenship, 2015

There are many reasons to question the form and the idea of citizenship today. What if we think of new ways to define our relationships to territory?

Wishful Thinking

Richard Barnes

State of Exception, 2012

What if we could trace the human stories behind the objects that have been discarded along the way?

Wishful Thinking

Davide Tommaso Ferrando

Alles ist Kontext

When removed from their direct surrounding, can iconic buildings maintain their landmark status?

Wishful Thinking

Karolina Kowalska

An unexpected breakdown of the advertising market, 2011

When all advertisements and commercial information are replaced with a neutral white, what is left of the architectural surfaces of the city to remind us where we stand?

Wishful Thinking

Skid Robot

The Art Living Project

What if housing as a human right would finally be universally respected?

Critical Imagination

Max Haiven

The Four Faces of Financialization: Cities as a Site of Struggle

In spite of describing an important set of social and economic transformations, the word financialization has become used so frequently and in so many contradictory ways, that it risks becoming as fragile and confusing as other recent buzz-words like globalization, neoliberalism and gentrification. Yet the forces at work behind the term are real and have far reaching impact on citizens, cities, theorists and activists; and we ignore it at our peril.

The Unmasters

Ania Molenda
Cassie Thornton
Cristina Ampatzidou
Steyn Bergs

Play and Imagination Against Debt

Interview about imagination and debt with Steyn Bergs and Cassie Thornton by Cristina Ampatzidou and Ania Molenda at Moneylab #3 - Failing Better.

Critical Imagination

Nurul Azlan

Bersih 4: Street Protests as a Form of City Making

Protesters participate in city making, but what does it mean when protesters refuse to contest the space, and instead choose to politely hover just beyond its boundary?

Wishful Thinking

Rush Pleasnuk

Memory 02, 2014

What if we could bring places back into existence by giving them a place in our memory?

Wishful Thinking

Soon Min Hong

Risk Theme Park, 2015

Similar to children in playgrounds, could adults learn to appreciate risk taking in a playful manner?

Critical Imagination

Tobias Revell

Seizing the means of rendering

There is a history of the future written in renderings; images of fantasy assembled as marketing, escapism and policy toolkits.

Critical Imagination

Rosa Rogina

Call to Action – On How the Political Potential of Architecture can Give Power to a Marginalized Community

Is architecture only a passive reflection of current political matters or can it formulate its own claims, demands, agendas and above all, can architecture use the means of activism to critically engage with broader social and political concerns?

Critical Imagination

Kolar Aparna

Lost Cities and Losing oneself in the City

What if we gave up the wish to contain cities and citizenships?

The Unmasters

Lorenzo Romito
Cristina Ampatzidou
Ania Molenda

Walking across Actual Territories

Rome-based collective Stalker has been exploring the neglected areas of the Italian capital and engaging with their marginalized populations for more than 20 years. Stalker co-founder Lorenzo Romito reflects on the group’s evolution and future plans.

Wishful Thinking

Xavier Delory

In a state of decay, 2014

What remains when the icons of the past are stripped of from the grand visions they embodied?

Critical Imagination

Alberto Vanolo

Urban Branding and the Violent Ghosts of the Politics of Representation

City branding is a relevant issue among urban policy makers. In a nutshell, it refers to the promotion of the image of a city, mostly in order to attract tourists, investments, mega-events, such as the Olympic games, and new wealthy residents, such as the members of the so-called ‘creative class’. This commentary will summarizes some ideas that analyze the politics of representation triggered by the common, and apparently banal, everyday practices of urban branding.

Wishful Thinking

Skye Yuxi Sun

Treasure Island, 2015

What if power and money could change the course of evolution?

2015

Wishful Thinking

Larisa Bulibasa

The Labyrinth of the City of London, 2015

What if we could imagine the complexity of the financial world as a labyrinth for which we hold Ariadne's thread?

Critical Imagination

Brett Scott

Bringing the Jungle to the City

The ambiguities of urban dynamics and the interfaces that connect and disconnect us from the larger context and from each other.

Wishful Thinking

Dunne & Raby

Very Large Bike (VLB), United Micro Kingdoms, 2013

What if we started to modify our bodies to make them fitter and more suitable for the environment we are living in rather than modifying the environment?

Wishful Thinking

James Kerr

Crap Tag, 2014

What if you are stuck behind your screen with nothing to share?

Wishful Thinking

Dillon Marsh

For What it’s Worth: Nababeep South Mine (1882 to 2000) – 302,791.65 tonnes of copper extracted, 2014

What if we could always get a preview of the breakdown that shows what things are made of and the values of those ingredients?

Critical Imagination

Edwin Gardner

Hack the City!

A vanguard of architects is not building skyscrapers or concert halls. They are not bothered by having their own signature style. Even aesthetic perfection leaves them cold. The self-conscious designer of modernism, with its unassailable belief in social engineering, is waning. One could say that the new architect is more of a hacker.

Critical Imagination

Alberto Vanolo

Smart City or The serial reproduction of an urban vision

A couple of months ago I bought a brand new video game console, Sony’s well known PS4. Despite being almost 40, I enjoy video games very much, and I also think that they are relevant cultural products to be carefully considered in the social sciences (I often use such an argument in order to justify my playing). Included in the console package, there was one video game called Watch Dogs, which monopolized my late summer nights.

Wishful Thinking

Peder Norrby

Houses throwing up trees

What if a computer error could physically change our direct surroundings?

Critical Imagination

Chiara Quinzii
Diego Terna

An Old Way of Living, Yet Innovative

The Statement on the International Co-operative Identity ratified by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) in 1995 voices that ‘Co-operatives are based on the values of self-sufficiency, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity’. Nearly 20 years later terms such as ‘self-sufficiency’ have acquired an extensive array of meanings, ranging from energy and food production to the advent of a myriad of types of user-generated multimedia content provided by the so-called web 2.0.

Wishful Thinking

Giuseppe Licari

Wild Gold, 2014

What if nature would escape the exploitation and control imposed upon it in the cities?

Wishful Thinking

Matthieu Cherubini

Ethical Autonomous Vehicles, 2014

What if the ethical code of our self-driving vehicles would become just another commodified feature to purchase and change at one’s will?

The Unmasters

Let us keep our own noon_2013_David Horvitz

David Horvitz
Cristina Ampatzidou
Ania Molenda

No one owns the beach: On time and public space on and offline

David Horvitz uses the city and the Internet as fields to challenge the definitions of public domain, uniqueness and time.

Critical Imagination

James Brown

Cage Free?

What are the implications of the spirit of late capitalism if it blends work and play, labour and leisure, especially given that this blending happens not only in terms of time but also in terms of space? The coworker’s professional life is distributed across various places (home, co-working space, the occasional office, depending on the project they are working on) and times (smartphones and other portable devices are also part of this ethos). How does this new architecture of professional and personal life reconfigure time and space?

Wishful Thinking

Anna Ruminska

Borders, 2014

What if the nanny state would stop taking care of us?

Wishful Thinking

Architecture Snob

Building Not Available, 2014

What if media could replace locality?

The Unmasters

Mark van der Net
Ania Molenda
Cristina Ampatzidou

Fewer Regulations, More Open Source and a Broader View

This is what Mark van der Net thinks can uncover new perspectives for architecture and urban planning.

Critical Imagination

Tobias Revell

Continuous Monuments and Imaginable Alternatives

This essay aims to connect the world of global homogeny that Superstudio were critiquing with their seminal work ‘The Continuous Monument’ with the modern project of the Smart City and suggest that, particularly with the activation of imagination of technologists, designers, architects and urbanists, this new homogeny might be challenged and alternatives might be imagined.

2014

Critical Imagination

Chryso Onisiforou

This is not an Urban Plot

Recent conditions of the construction crisis and widespread recession have led us to believe that we live in an era of not only strict economic restrictions and austerity but also and unavoidably, in an age of an irrefutable decreasing of resources.

Critical Imagination

Ania Molenda
Cristina Ampatzidou

On Amateurs

The word amateur has two meanings. One refers to the etymological origin of the word and is derived from French - amateur ‘lover of’ or from Latin - amator ‘lover’. Both come from the verb amare ‘to love’. According to this definition an amateur is a person that engages in a pursuit on an unpaid basis; one would assume – out of passion or love. One might also say that being an amateur is then quite nobilitating and can be associated with social values such as altruism.