3 2 is not the user; an (interior)architect designs a house but is not the one who will inhabit it; the artist realizes a work of art in order to be experienced by others; ….). IDW believes that making design ideas more tangible during fun events, design sessions and building campaigns not only involves and engages residents that usually don’t attend participation events, but also increases the awareness of the residents about the issues at stake. Moreover it is a chance to highlight communities’ existence, their needs and potentials. We believe that design is able to trigger parties, to provoke interactions between actors that have not been identified before, and inspire for solutions that have not yet been thought of. IDW2020 looked upon the capping of ring road as the creation of a new urban common. It focused on the Northern part of the ring road, more particularly the connection between Luchtbal and Lambrechtshoeken, and aimed at giving voice to those groups and communities that are not reached by regular participatory approaches and at revealing qualities of places that were overlooked. It was an edition in which the whole area and connection between both neighborhoods were explored. IDW2021 continued this endeavor, in spite of rigid COVID restrictions. It focused on culture - culture as an emanation of what was and what is, but also as a space where future is made. Culture is performative. Cultural “performance” gives exposure to both “what lives among people” and “how the world could become”. Next to local groups, communities and individuals, the edition specifically targeted youngsters of Luchtbal. IDW2022 expands the scope of targeted actors, and next to local groups, communities and individuals, now particularly reaches out to schools (children of 10 -14 year old). It explores the statement that infrastructural works are not primarily a matter of engineering, but of culture. Wicked problems, such as the capping of the road, call for holistic approaches. Arts and Architecture provide the way to bring Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics into the realm of society and culture. From STEM to STEA²M STEA²M for the MEANTIME Digging tunnels and covering them, is a huge infrastructural work. It is a good example of how Science has given birth to Technologies, that have led to Engineering, strongly relying upon advanced application of Mathematics, the well-known STEM-unity. However, its impact is societal and – thus – cultural. Engineering is no goal in itself. While the goal of the tunneling is to have traffic swiftly pass the city, the covering of that very same tunnel becomes a new place in that city, a place that is an offer to the citizens of a fast rejuvenating city! How can huge infrastructural works be understood from the cultural context in which they intrinsically take place, and to which they intrinsically belong? How can the ‘meantime’ of the construction works become a period of meaningful transition and empowerment, rather than a temporary nuisance and burden? How can conceptions of such huge infrastructures primarily include cultural concerns, rather than traffic concerns. IDWstates that Art and Architecture provide fruitful ways to do so. While STEM is limited and problematic, STEA²M is rich and promising. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Architecture and Mathematics). Designing the Meantime The capping of the Antwerp ring road creates new opportunities. On the one hand it offers an answer to the supralocal problem of traffic flow around and through Antwerp, on the other hand, at local level it offers the adjacent neighborhoods a new place for urban live. For both levels, the supralocal and the local, conceptual design proposals have been made. What has not or insufficiently been done yet, is to develop ideas about the quality of urban live during the time of construction, which can be estimated at 10 to 15 years – the duration in which a child becomes a youngster and a youngster adult. How can this timespan become a meaningful given in the creation of a better future for this area and its inhabitants? The central design-action question: How can the long term of the construction works become a period of meaningful transition and empowerment, rather than a temporary, but one decade long, nuisance and burden? IDW Luchtbal considers the timespan of the construction works as a unique opportunity for the city and the involved neighborhoods to gradually rearrange and transform this area into a fair and vibrant piece of Antwerp. The area of Luchtbal has a remarkable history and a diverse and complicated population today. Although it might be known as a “difficult urban area”, its tangible and intangible heritage, its vast open space and young population provide rich grounds for getting such process of transition started. IDW Luchtbal aims at identifying and revealing “what lives among people” – particularly young people – and providing help in giving it a proper “place”. In IDW the “D” of design is understood as a process of identifying available resources, actors and ideas, and bringing them into a new constellation, in order to reveal something better then could be expected so far. Design is always meant to be owned by someone else (a product developer conceives a new product but Arts and Design turning infrastructure into a cultural endeavor. From STEM to STEA²M. How can huge infrastructural transformation be understood from the cultural context in which they intrinsically take place? How can the ‘meantime’ of the construction works become a period of meaningful transition and empowerment?
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