For our fourth monthly event ARGUS is promoting the reflection on how cities built from scratch can be designed for prosperity. The case of Rotterdam is used as a trigger for further debate after the screening of the Rotterdam 2040 documentary.
Bakema introduced the problem of The Heart of the City in the CIAM 8 congress (1951). As a kind of provocation, the architect de ned the core as “the relationship between man and the things”, that when manifested reflect the lavishness of life as a consequence of cooperative action. The non-orchestrated behaviour of people in the major central squares of many European cities are outstanding examples of how life is celebrated in a well composed city centre, but what happens when cities lack such a historical attachment to its squares? What if planned cities, like the new towns in the United Kingdom, fail to establish a successful interaction between its citizens and its supposed core?
