How did the city of Groningen transform into an exemplary city?
© ARK.Amsterdam
In 2024 we are celebrating the 60th jubilee of the twinning of cities Graz and Groningen. On this occasion the Haus der Architektur Graz invited the Dutch/German architecture and urban planning office De Zwarte Hond – which has played a key role in shaping Groningen’s urban planning – to present Groningen to the people of Graz.
With the exhibition ‘Bold city, brave decisions. How the city of Groningen transformed itself into an exemplary city’, the office provides insights into the transformation of the Dutch city in recent decades and encourages a lively exchange about the challenges the twin cities are facing and the future brave decisions they need to make.
In Northwestern Europe, many mid-sized cities such as Groningen and Graz, are developing into attractive urban centres, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Cities which both have steadily increasing populations. Today’s new pressures on cities developments are manifold: How can growing cities respond to recent challenges for sustainable urban development? How can we create highly liveable, sustainable, and inclusive cities which can grow along with their populations? Whom can we learn from, to make inspired decisions on how to design and manage the cities of the future? How can we ensure a high quality of life in a socially and environmentally sustainably designed city? In other words, how can we make cities liveable today?
Graz and Groningen have a lot in common: Both have a population of around 300.000 and a historic center located along small rivers. Their universities, each with more than 60.000 students, are important national centers for research, science, and culture in their region and beyond. Both cities have a lively and diverse creative scene with festivals and event centers for art, music and design. Finally, both can look back on a long history of quality architecture, characterized by a thoughtful combination of historic and modern buildings. With these many similarities, it seems particularly interesting to bring together the respective approaches to urban development in Graz and Groningen.
The exhibition takes a closer look at the city of Groningen, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the town twinning, to present the urban development in Graz. After an overview of the historical development of Groningen, three of the most important ‘brave decisions’ and their implementation in various phases of urban development planning are presented as through the three C’s, Continuity, Collectivity, and Compactness. These are respectively exemplified by the implementation of Berlage’s urban expansion plan, which was developed in 1928 and updated in 1932, the development and implementation of Max van den Berg’s transport plan in 1977 and the support of innovative and sometimes controversial architectural projects by Ypke Gietema, who was Groningen’s city councillor for spatial development from 1978 to 1992. Together, these bold decisions from the past century have made Groningen the compact, characteristic, and exemplary city it is today.
The exhibition ‘Bold city, brave decisions. How the city of Groningen transformed itself into an exemplary city’ aims to inspire citizens and experts alike and to invite a discourse on the topic of the city and its future, to present its public and political dimension and to promote the relationship and exchange between its inhabitants.
Exhibition Bold City, Brave Decisions
In 2024 we are celebrating the 60th jubilee of the twinning of cities Graz and Groningen. On this occasion the Haus der Architektur Graz invited the Dutch/German architecture and urban planning office De Zwarte Hond - which has played a key role in shaping Groningen's urban planning - to present Groningen to the people of Graz. With the exhibition ‘Bold city, brave decisions. How the city of Groningen transformed itself into an exemplary city’, the office provides insights into the transformation of the Dutch city in recent decades. Both Graz and Groningen can look back on a long history of quality architecture, characterized by a thoughtful combination of historic and modern buildings. With this many similarities, it seems particularly interesting to bring together the respective approaches to urban development in both cities. The exhibition at the Haus der Architektur takes a closer look at the city of Groningen. After an overview of the city's historical development, three of the most important 'brave decisions' and their implementation in various phases of urban development planning are presented. Both citizens and experts are targeted by the exhibition to partake in discussions on the city and its future.
data
- Location
- Graz, AT
- Size
- Client
- Haus der Architektur Graz
- Discipline
- Research, Urban Design
- Program
- Culture, Integrale verstedelijkingsstrategie
- Period
- 2023-2024
- Status
- Completed
- Photography
- The Schubidu Quartet/HAD
- themes
