With pragmatic Dutch flourish the Rotterdam-Hoogvliet International Building Exhibition, aka WIMBY ("Welcome Into My Backyard!") proposes a far-reaching menu of large and small architectural and urban design projects that heighten the quality of life in this corner of Rotterdam (a post-WWII "New Town"). The effort seeks to enhance everyday experience, and extends to a formal encouragement of a search for identity:
This independent foundation is based in Hoogvliet's Tram-shed and has the goal of raising the restructuring of Hoogvliet to a higher standard. This is achieved through the development and realisation of a varied series of projects, programmes and partnerships related to architecture, urban planning and socio-cultural projects. In addition, WiMBY! brings together residents, entrepreneurs, officials, researchers and designers to enable Hoogvliet to discover the future in its own way. Besides professional innovation, WiMBY! has the goal of making Hoogvliet into a sustainable and attractive place to live and work, making it known internationally, nationally and regionally.
You might notice how the name of the group plays on the notion of NIMBY or "Not In My Backyard," the ubiquitous mantra used to fight a variety of architectural, public works, or urban design projects around the world. A piece of their kaleidoscopic (trust me) manifesto, courtesy the eclectic SpacingWire, which also links to a recent Toronto Star article about NIMBYism:
We believe that each town or city can become its own Utopia simply by saying Yes to every Excess. By not making it conform to a generally accepted idea of what makes a town good, but exaggerating all that makes this town this town. … So to every situation that would normally provoke reactions of Not In My Backyard! we say Welcome Into My Back Yard.
How to plan when there is no way to know how a town should be? Easy. You look around at all the ugly, beautiful, good, bad, big, small, light, heavy, things and find out that most of it is there accidentally, the result of too little or too much contradictory planning. And then you wave your magic wand and declare that all of it is worth your love.
Check it out. (Below, an image of a new park on the outskirts of town.)
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