Images courtesy IABR from www.iabr.nl

Upcoming at the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam which began on September 25 and runs through until January 2010 are a series of films, talks, tours and exhibits worth a mention.

Screenings
Sunday 29 November 2009 screening of documentary entitled Bogotá Change by the Danish filmmaker Andreas M. Dalsgaard (Denmark, 2009, 55 min.)
Location: The Hood, NAI

Bogotá Change, is the unique and surprising story of two mayors, Antanas Mockus and Enrique Peñalosa, who have changed behaviour patterns in the Colombian capital, bringing Bogotá out of a negative spiral of violence and chaos and remaking it as something of a visionary role model for other megacities.

Director Andreas Mol Dalsgaard combines streetscapes, interviews, archive footage, and animations in a dynamic reconstruction of this success story. It is the tale of two visionary and forward thinking mayors who, unencumbered by party politics, succeeded in transforming hopeless deprivation into a head start. Nowadays, Bogota’s metamorphosis is seen as a shining example of humane urban renewal.

December 16 & 20 2009 Garbage Dreams directed by Mai Iskander (USA, 2009, 79 min.) Location: The Hood, NAI

Garbage Dreams: Raised in the Trash Trade is an award winning feature-length documentary focused on the Zabbaleen people, who are trash collectors and proud of it. This community of around 60,000 Coptic Christians inhabits a suburb of Cairo. For generations, they have been collecting, sorting and processing the trash this metropolis produces. A social worker named Laila, whose roots are in the Zabbaleen community, tries to make her people aware of the risks of working with refuse and to solve the problem of their diminishing incomes. Almost poetic imagery combines with interviews with the boys and Laila to contrast the closely knit Zabbaleen community with the indifference of the city.

Lectures and Conferences
Rotterdam Global urban Summit 2009: A conference on urban area development and sustainability
Date: December 3 - 4 2009
Location De Doelen Congress centre, Rotterdam

A live dialogue will be held on 3-4 December where cityplanners, scientists, citizens, experts, project developers, corporations and architects participate to create a blueprint for the future of cities.

Speakers include: Mr. Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, USA;
Mr. Winy Maas, architect/partner MVRDV; Mrs. Sharon Nunes, Vice-President of Technology, IBM; Mr. Alexander Rinnooy Kan, Chair International Advisory Board, Rotterdam; Mrs. Liesbeth van der Pol, Chief Government Architect of the Netherlands; Mr. Brent Toderian, Director of Planning City of Vancouver, Canada, Mrs. Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology at Columbia University.
More information: www.urbansummit.rotterdam.nl

December 17 2009 Open City Lecture and Debate
Lecture by writer and journalist Robert Neuwirth on the theme Squat and ‘Squatter Communities’. Robert Neuwirth is author of Shadow Cities, he wrote Squatter City on the City issue of Cluster.

Reservations; www.nai.nl/inschrijven
contact: +31 10 4401342
Location: Auditorium, NAI time: h.20:00

Open City and Talks and Tours
Visitors are able to participate at talks given by on exhibition themes and guided tours, in English, of thematic exhibitions and the entire exhibit Open City: Designing coexistence.

Saturday November 28 2009 Talk and Tour with Stephen Cairns (GB), sub-curator of the ‘Reciprocity’ exhibit.

Saturday December 5 2009 Talk and Tour with Tim Rieniets, about the ‘migration’ theme in the exhibition.

Contact: Information and reservations: +31 (0) 10 440 1342
Location: The Hood, NAI
4th IABR day ticket (€ 10 / 7) / PP + €2.50
Language: English Time: h.14:00

Biennale cycling Tours
Date: Sunday November 29 departure: h.12:00
In cooperation with the IABR, Rotterdam ArchiGuides will be organizing bicycle tours combined with a visit to a Biennale exhibit. This week’s theme is ‘Parallel Cases’.
Under the supervision of an enthusiastic and expert guide, participants will cycle to the exhibit at the RDM-Campus in Heijplaat. En route, the cyclists will look for examples of the sub-themes of the 4th IABR: Maakbaarheid, Refuge, Reciprocity, Community, Squat and Collective. At the end of the tour, the participants will return by boat.

Reservations: +31 (010) 4332231 / www.rotterdam-archiguides.nl
The event will depart from and return to Rotterdam Central Station
€25 including guided tour, bicycle rental, admission to the 4th IABR, and a beverage.

For all information visit www.iabr.nl