Winy Maas, The Why Factory (eds.)

Design:Thonik/BENG, Illustrated (colour and b/w), Paperback, 168 pages, size: 15 x 21 cm
English edition, ISBN 978-90-5662-781-2, € 18,00
Juli 2010

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

Inaugural Speech Prof. ir. Winy Maas, opening The Why Factory in Delft and symposium My Future City, 15 October 2009

“...Welcome to The Why Factory, a research platform and urbanistic think-tank that, through fundamental architectural research and argumentation, explores the possibilities for the development of our cities. We produce models and visualizations for the cities of the future. Our ultimate mission is to reveal through bigger projects the mechanism of thinking about, and ultimately producing a series of critical alternatives through images.
I want to address this initiative today by describing the need for fundamental research and argumentation, the why factor, that requires us to keep asking questions until we reach the answer and thus, the next question.
I will place this initiative in a new or renewed model for education and research: the why factory. I will show how it found its current place … on and in the tribune. And I will finish by revealing the why factory’s first agenda: the future cities program...”

This book is based on the inaugural speech by Winy Maas at October 15, 2009 to mark the acceptance of the Chair of Architecture and Urban Design at the Faculty of Architecture of the Delft University of Technology, the opening of the Why Factory by Dutch Minister of Education and Culture Ronald Plasterk and the symposium on “My Future City”, where a variety of students, inhabitants, architects, urbanists, thinkers, developers, politicians, technicians offer their future city…

> Order at NAi Booksellers

Also available:

> Green Dream
> Visionary Cities

---

Reviews

---

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).