Since Cities of Making was launched in April 2017, the project have been working with understanding the complexity of what 21st European cities should be making, where it should be making and how to support existing and future forms of manufacturing to find their place in the city.  During the last two years, the team has spent much of its time learning about the dynamics on the ground: speaking to businesses, public actors, community organisations and gaining a better insight into what happens on the ground.  This work has used Brussels, London and Rotterdam as case studies to ensure that the results of their work were not made in isolation. The project has not been exploring this topic in alone – colleagues in the Veneto, Milan, Paris, Manchester, Vienna, Seoul, New York and beyond have shown that questions around the productive city and urban manufacturing are increasingly making their way on the urban agenda and cities globally are challenged with finding strategic and just ways of accommodating making within cities.

As the project is nearing its end the team will organise two concluding events starting September 6 with the opening and preview of the exhibition “Production in Brussels” & Cities of Making film premiere. Secondly, on September 11, a full-day workshop for practitioners and policy makers interested in exploring and supporting the productive sector the tools developed for planning will be showcased.

Both events form part of a larger program called ‘Making Cities Work’, in collaboration with the Symposium on the Foundational Economy (Monday 9 and Tuesday 10).

Read more about the events here.