Human Cities network selected thirty projects presented the happenings Droog Event 2 as a way to enhance

Human Cities network selected thirty projects presented the happenings Droog Event 2 as a way to enhance

on the following pages of this book. Half of the projects International Unauthorized Collaborations and Urban

are videos and photographs, and some of them are real- Interventions. The subtitle of his book is even called

life objects, installations and urban performances. The “The Amsterdam Route: New Catalysts for Public Play

international dimension is really strong knowing that the and Interaction in the City” and shows how spontaneous

projects came from all corners of the world such as India, creativity can influence the urban environment and

Israel, Japan, the United States, Australia, South Africa, lifestyle. Those initiatives are well developed on the

the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, France etc.

The cho sen projects are also to be presented in the public digital society and the immaterial world surrounding us. space in Brussels during the Human Cities Festival from 6

Perhaps celebrating public space as a common good to 16 May. The festival is a showcase for raising awareness

brings us closer to a better quality of environment of public spaces in Brussels through various events and

and everyday life. The misunderstanding of the urban city interventions. The program of the festival aims at

place or the misuse of public space are on of today’s reaching the largest number of people as possible and

major urban challenges, which could be acted upon at fostering public commitment right in the prominent

by perceiving cities as “design labs”, a recent concept, public spaces and through socio-cultural institutions that

which has been promoted at the 12 th Jacques Cartier’s are running relevant projects in locations such as city

Workshops in Saint-Etienne (FR) last November 2009. The squares and gardens, inner-city parks, busy thoroughfares

stakes are to create an innovation platform around urban or hidden alleyways, disused industrial sites...

design in order to accelerate change, to communicate and develop shared initiatives to benefit to everyone.

Human Cities Festival stresses the concept of cohabitation Therefore, the design process itself appears as one as one way of sharing the common space and to attract

possible model for the future – through public panels, people to exchange their perception – either positive

workshops, competitions and activism. It also allows for or negative – about the existing or dreamed ‘place to

greater human interactions and empowers us to participate be’. Designed objects and city installations, which are

in the transformation of our own life environment. worked out at a city scale, can become, in that sense,

visual and symbolic references of our urban and social May the Human Cities project, and its future initiatives, be environment. As citizens, we seem to long for more

the signal of the emergence of a vivid design and hacking intense and creative relationships with artifacts – the more

culture in European cities, may it spur a urban regeneration sensual and tactile the object, the better. This evolution is

process geared towards our most humane longings, certainly due to the ever-changing developments of the

leading to the existence of ever more real ‘places to be’.

UN- square of Faenza, her native city in Emilia

Federica Zama, Federico Lega

Faenza, Italy

Federica Zama seeks to ensure that the

DER- to the Roman forum, has assigned it. Her

Romagna, Italy, once again ful fils its function as a public place for aggregation par excellence, a function which the Mediterranean tradition, from the Greek agora

STAN- USA; Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1989), directed

video City Lost/City Regained shows a mix of scenes recorded in the city with images from following movies: Before Sunrise (1995), directed by R. Linklater, Columbia Pictures,

DING alone, stresses Federica, although this too

by G. Tornatore, Titanus, Italy; and Roma (1972), directed by F. Fellini, Ultra Film, Italy. ‘The resolution of complex city problems is certainly not the prerogative of architecture

THE improvement in the quality of life’.

must play an important role in the creation or revaluation of spaces and contexts that can encourage, on a psychological level, a climate of hospitality relative to “others”, and a general