Creative Factories

Handbook for the creative industry man: Low-profile and efficient Amsterdam

No more, no less than an entire weekend, I wandered through the hippest places in Amsterdam looking for older or newer industrial areas that have been temporarily converted to accommodate creative projects. My aim was to discover what makes them work ‘over there’ and not yet here, and how come no one takes full advantage of the large scale industrial areas in Bucharest. Amsterdam is abounds of industrial areas of all sorts, from the more red brick shed roofed picturesque ones to those dating from the 70-90’s, built with concrete prefabricated, industrialized components, much resembling the ones from our socialist era.

Klokgebouw Strijp S, Eindhoven
‘Try to be different’

Strijp S, the former Philips factories, plays an important role in the history of Eindhoven. In the early 20th century, the city was still rather a collection of villages, transformed by Philips from the 1920’s into an industrial area. Daily, more than twelve thousand workers passed the entrance gate at Strijp S. For years the area was closed to the public and fenced off. Nowadays, the monumental buildings at Strijp S are the motor behind the transformation of the area into a creative brainport with metropolitan allure, a place where people can live, work, go to school and entertain themselves.

Culture park as global village.Westergasfabriek , Amsterdam

Text/Photo: Vera Cerutti

The Westergasfabriek, a former gas factory in the western part of Amsterdam was converted into a Culture Park, a combination of a multi-functional park, cultural activities and creative industries. Due to the fact that it functions as a neighborhood park but is also known for its ambitious international programming, it is among the most inspiring examples of successful transformation of industrial heritage; in 2010 it received the Europa Nostra Award, European Union’s prize for cultural heritage.

Text: Constantin Goagea

The mission – is a project initiated by Eurodite and part of the DISC (Dutch Initiative for Sustainable Cities – www.disc-network.eu) activities. Together with Emil Boc, the Mayor of Cluj, Vice Mayors in Bucharest, Cluj, Constanta, Timisoara and Head Architects of Cluj and Bucharest, a representative of the port of Constanta, as well as other professionals in the connected ministry, we have been in an intense and dense visit to Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Utrecht. The top Romanian delegation met Vice Mayors and members of other ministries, their peers, and learned about projects already carried out and a way to manage. The mission worked out in these three days the targets of DISC platform, made to provide Dutch support to Romanian cities and their effort to build up initiatives meant to revive urban regions and areas ignored so far.

25 and 26 November 2011, Bucharest, South-West

City. Money. Architecture.
A super-debate in which you are invited to participate

National Museum of Contemporary Art
Friday, December 16th, 9:30–14:00.
The conference is in English. Free entrance.

How can our cities become more attractive, both for their inhabitants and for investment? By whom and how could new projects be implemented, partnerships being created, how could funds for all of this be attracted?