POST-GROWTH CITY

2022 Post-Growth City Studio at Independent School for the City Collaborators: BURA urbanism and CRIMSON Historians and Urbanists Team: Frank de Boer, Emil Evenhuis, Grant Penfield Haugen, and Nick Williams.

Project Location: Rotterdam, the Netherlands

This project aims to come up with a new urban paradigm designed within planetary and social boundaries.

Increased urbanization, combined with the destructive effects of climate change, continue straining our cities. Current development patterns champion growth and destructive measures that work against nature. The blueprint of current urban planning strategies promote, accommodate and rely on the generation of value for a certain number of people, regardless of and at the expense of negative impacts to the environment and needs of many people. The post-growth city provides an alternative scenario, challenging our notion that economic and/or population growth are necessary in determining the success, both present and future, of a human settlement. It’s a way of bringing about structural change in the way people perceive their cities, allowing us to image a future that isn’t dependent on the capitalist rhetoric of accumulation and wealth. The post-growth economy is non-commercial and in balance with the living world, improving the environment, while creating unlimited social and welfare growth.