Architecture of Peace Dialogues - How do we materialize peace?

ARCHIS and Stroom Den Haag welcome you for the Architecture of Peace Dialogues.
Moderated by Saskia van Stein

The question ‘how do we materialize peace?' is as old as humankind, though unfortunately more relevant than ever. The Middle-Eastern tensions have not come to an end, and yet the USA is preparing for new confrontations. The ‘super-powers' are arm-wrestling over world hegemony and segregation, and expulsion leads to growing gaps in societies.

This afternoon gathers experts from different backgrounds around this question, grouped around two sub-themes:

1) Reconstruction: What is needed today for the rebuilding and reconstruction of cities in post-conflict situations (i.e. Syria)? And how to avoid the mistakes we've seen in the past?

2) European context: Can the lessons learned in post-war areas be useful to prevent potential conflict zones in a European context?

These topics have already been discussed during the past months with a larger group of experts working in the fields of architecture, international aid, the military, and academia. These experts shared their experience and helped to formulate the agenda for the future activities of the Architecture of Peace project, initiated by ARCHIS in 2010.

During the wrap-up event at Stroom Den Haag, Syrian architect and urbanist Bengin Dawod and disrupted societies expert Anatol Itten will introduce the two sub-themes. Invited guests will add their perspectives with special focus on education. The discussion will be moderated by Saskia van Stein.

The Architecture of Peace Dialogues have been made possible by the participants who generously contributed their knowledge to the Dialogues: Narda Beunders (Roof for Humanity),  Karishma Chafekar, Vasyl Cherepanyn (Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv), Rakesh Datta (Punjab University), Bengin Dawod (Common Affairs), Jolle Demmers (Utrecht University), Randa El Hallak (Architecture Student), Anatol Itten (Disrupted Societies Institute), Berend van der Lans (African Architecture Matters), Sanne Letschert (Prince Claus Fund), Nienke Nauta (Pearl), , M.B. Michelle Parlevliet (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Jan Willem Petersen (Specialist Operations), Willem van de Put (Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp), M.G.H. Schoonderbeek (TU Delft), Kathelijne Schenkel (PAX for Peace), Deborah Stolk (Prince Claus Fund), Ivan Thung (UN-Habitat Iraq), Allard Wagemaker (Netherlands Defence Academy), Ronald van Warmerdam (TU Delft) and Cristina Garriga who has acted as moderator of the Architecture of Peace Dialogues.

Lilet Breddels, Arjen Oosterman, Francesco Degl'Innocenti, and Denisse Vega de Santiago participated on behalf of ARCHIS/Volume.

See also The Good Cause (2014), exhibition at Stroom Den Haag curated by think tank ARCHIS. A research project into how architecture and design can contribute to a sustainable world peace.

The venues that hosted these meetings were: Ondertussen, Amsterdam; Academy of Architecture Amsterdam; and the Prince Claus Fund, Amsterdam.

For more information:
www.volumeproject.org
www.architectureofpeace.org

This event is hosted by Stroom Den Haag as a part of the long-running program See You in The Hague (SYiTH): a multifaceted narrative about the ambition and reality of The Hague as an International City of Peace and Justice. The complex situation of the city's public image on the one hand and its self-image on the other, of both justice and peace and conflict, of constructive contributions to world peace that sometimes have destructive consequences for the quality of life in areas of the city, of operating on the world stage and switching to the local stage, of a comfortable peace and an uncomfortable security, of an open society and closed zones - is a complexity that returns in many guises in See You in The Hague.