CAPE TOWN, 27 July 2015
The recently launched Studio Rotterdam is an online magazine at the intersection of two urban centres: Rotterdam and Cape Town.
Launched in May of 2015, StudioRotterdam.co.za is an online magazine at the intersection of two urbanisms – that of Rotterdam and Cape Town. Essays, interviews, conversations, exhibits and extras will trigger new interpretations of the future urban development of both cities. Content will feature leading minds and voices in urbanism but will also amplify unexpected voices. This magazine will scan, explore and investigate the future of these two historic port cities, both in parallel and apart. The series of publications aims to extend and enrich the discourse in urban sustainability catalysed by the Department of Design event in 2014.
StudioRotterdam.co.za will become a temporary home for the curation of contributions from various actors in each city – shining a light on contemporary events and thinking in Rotterdam and Cape Town, and to some extent across South Africa and the Netherlands. Once the series is complete, its online home will remain as a capsule of the conversation as it happened.
Rashiq Fataar, director of Future Cape Town, says, “When reimagining Cape Town, it is important to stretch our minds beyond local borders, and engage in an exchange of ideas with a growing, vibrant and interesting city like Rotterdam. The Studio Rotterdam magazine website, is one such collaboration which promotes dialogue, ideas and a long term conversation between two very different cities. As the series of content is published, this dialogue will evolve and we have already engaged with exciting people and projects”
StudioRotterdam.co.za is supported by the #cocreateSA fund, a fund initiated by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa, and is a project of Our Future Cities NPO, a registered nonprofit organisation in terms of the South African Nonprofit Organisations Act 71 of 1997. It currently houses the movements Future Cape Town, Future Johannesburg, Future Lagos, Future Gold Coast and Future London.
Says Netherlands Consul General, Ms. Bonnie Horbach: “What is fascinating to see is how young people all over the world are connected with each other. Studio Rotterdam and Future Cape Town are examples of future forms of co-creation and by transcending boundaries, the perfect example of #cocreateSA: South Africa and the Netherlands meet on an equal footing, deciding together what they want to share, learn and experience.”
For more information contact Olivia Labonte email at olivia@futurecapetown.com.
Notes to editors:
- Interested in contributing to Studio Rotterdam? More information is available here: http://www.studiorotterdam.co.
za/contribute - About Future Cape Town: Future Cape Town is a non-profit organisation creating platform for dialogue, awareness and action around the future of cities.http://futurecapetown.
com/about-us - Find #cocreateSA on http://cocreatesa.co.za , Facebook and Twitter .