Winy Maas, Pirjo Haikola, Ulf Hackauf, The Why Factory (eds.)

Design:Thonik/BENG, Illustrated (colour and b/w), Paperback, 408 pages, size: 15 x 21 cm
English edition, ISBN 978-90-5662-741-6, € 35.00 / OUT OF PRINT
May 2010

In association with MVRDV, The Why Factory and Delft University of Technology

The Why Factory dreams the Green City
There is confusion about what green means for design, architecture and urbanism. Winy Maas asserts that green projects are still disconnected efforts which fail to attain the scale of the interventions that are actually called for. Green is fashionable, but its design potentials remain unexplored.

Green Dream questions what is currently labelled as ‘green’ and in conjunction with experts elaborates how it ought to be defined. It challenges architectural conventions and looks into the potentials of new green architecture. It recognizes that green buildings alone do not make a green city, but also looks at potential solutions within the cities themselves, how it will change them and where the boundaries lie. Is a green city actually feasible? The Why Factory concludes that green is ultimately about performance. If you understand the metrics and numbers, then greenery can serve as inspiration. Visionary projects illustrate the green future that contextual, large-scale, imaginative and measurable architectural and urban projects might produce for us.

• Probing research by The Why Factory, MVRDV and Delft University of Technology
• Essays by John Thackara and Winy Maas
• Green urban projects and observations of the future

Also available:
> The Why Factor(y) and The Future City
> Visionary Cities

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Reviews

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The Why Factory

The Why Factory is a new global think-tank and research institute, led by Winy Maas/MVRDV and Delft University of Technology. The Why Factory advocates the necessity of research, theorization and politicization with regard to the urban future as the territory proper of architecture. The Why Factory initiates independent research projects, post-doctoral programmes, studios for MA courses in architecture and urbanism, post-doctoral studios at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, master classes, workshops, debates and round-table discussions.

The Why Factory explores the possibilities for the future develop¬ment of our cities, focusing on the production of models and visualizations for cities of the future. The Why Factory confronts our world’s existing reality with the future of the city.

The results of this research programme are being presented in a series of books, the ‘Future Cities Series’, which is being published in association with NAi Publishers in Rotterdam and Thonik/ BENG Graphic Designers in Amsterdam, and in films produced in collaboration with Wieland & Gouwens in Rotterdam and the BBC in London. The studies will be presented on television by the VPRO public broadcasting company and will be shown at the various exhibition venues (the Netherlands Architecture Institute, the Hong Kong Design Institute and the Aedes Gallery in Berlin).