wonderlab: funding urbanism

Posted on: 3rd March 2015

FUNDING URBANISM CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

In the past decade, as an effect of various social movements and the economic crisis, many actors in the architecture and planning fields recognized that traditional funding models lost their capacity to feed small-scale, community-oriented urban projects. While designers elaborated new methods and working models to address problems of locality, community, participation and ecology, they created alliances with a new generation of developers, economists, social media experts, social and political scientists as well as law specialists to elaborate the appropriate funding models to finance their ideas. 

Between 28.10.2014 and 1.11.2014 the wonderland platform for european architecture will hold in Berlin, in cooperation with the Deutsches Architektur Zentrum (DAZ) and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), a workshop with lectures, debates and film screenings on the topic of alternative funding models to help bottom-up urban regeneration in our cities. 

Wonderland invites protagonists of this new economic movement to send their concepts and case studies, contributing to an exhibition and discussion of alternative funding mechanisms in urbanism. The contributions may be in the range of, but not limited to crowdfunding, seed-investment, cooperative financing, community land and development trusts, community shares, community investment, development trusts and social finance. 

Contributions may be in the form of texts, projects, videos or any other communicative means which will allow to share a valuable insight of a practical experience or a theoretical insight. The jury, composed by the Wonderland Board and DAZ, will select 15 cases that will be invited to Berlin to share their experience and join the debate, all expenses will be covered by the organisation. All the contributions that will be considered interesting by the Jury will be presented in the DAZ during the meeting period and authors will be invited to join the conversation though Skype. 

Deadline: 5th September, 2014

Evaluation: 10th September, 2014 

Formats:   – design projects in A3 format vertical, pdf files 

– text max 5 A5 pages, doc files 

– videos (in English or with subtitles) 

The Berlin workshop is second in a series on alternative funding models in urbanism, after the Rotterdam event in late August (organized with Pamphlet Urban Debate, Rotterdam and New Generations, Madrid) and before the Paris event in late November (organized with Banlieues d’Europe within the UrbArt project funded by the Youth in Action program). 

Title image produced by SDO, SKINN and the other participants of the Project Space Budapest 2013.