Values for Survival explores thinking and design with which we can live and survive the current times of uncertainty and not-knowing. The results of this research, which include science, policy and design, will be published in Cahiers. In these note- or logbooks results and reflections are documented in time to be an inspiration for the future.

Social and ecological urban developments in Europe are increasingly seen in relation to one another. The mapping of these developments takes place at various levels, from personal lives to international politics.

As there are increasing signs that the Earth is depleting and the climate is changing, the relationship between humans and environment is being challenged. Unprecedented forms of care and management are necessary now that it is clear that unexpected threats can arise in a short period of time, and climate-adaptive concepts for urban planning and management are therefore under development.

The way people deal with ‘being different’ means that difference is almost unconsciously made invisible, especially when there is power inequality. From different perspectives, we examine how a critical and emancipation-focused paradigm for design, research, and policy can emerge from a ‘difference’ that generates energy, abundance, and success.

Cities have become complex systems in which each element interacts with many others. Research in cities requires an integrated and interdisciplinary approach – sharing and collaboration between different fields of knowledge can partly determine the quality of life in the city.

Locally and globally, socially and ecologically, physically and virtually, in materials and in data – a circular economy needs many perspectives to be successful. Amsterdam is a pioneer in strategically translating the concept of circularity into practical methods, tools, and projects in the city.

This Cahier 2 is a distillation of a series of experiments that are part of the complimentary research programme of the Dutch contribution to the 17th Architecture Biennale carried out during the Covid-19 lock-down, when travelling and physical proximity were severely limited. The Biennale organization had postponed the exhibition, and all events associated with it were cancelled. In this totally unforeseen and dramatic situation, new questions arose around the nature of collaboration itself.

Can intuition and experience be shared between people who do not know each other and cannot meet?

Tools, still in use in Venice and found in archaeological excavations in Amsterdam, are presented as a catalogue in which the visual technical Venetian expertise is juxtaposed by the Dutch scientific presentation of the same tools of 300 years ago. Discovering the convergence in maritime tools at such a basic level of detail exposes previously unrecognisable areas of common ground in these two European deltas and unveils the significance of craft for understanding history.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Arsenals of Globalization project group.

Venetians and the Bangladesh diaspora in Venice are connected by the threat of sea level rise. The Bangladesh fled from their home country as a consequence of climate change, to a country with a similar thread of rising waters. Without sharing one language, the team engages with Venetian Bangladeshi climate refugees and with Venetian families who are experiencing the increased destruction of floods through generations.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Vanishing Homelands project group.

Studying tourism in Venice, Amsterdam and Glasgow, a new, more organic approach to the development of policies for tourism is developed during a unique moment in time when there is very little tourism because of the Covid-19 lockdown. Spatial, temporal and demographic analyses are executed in relation to one another to enhance or to weaken tides of tourism in certain areas, at certain times, for certain groups.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Tides of Tourism project group.

Underwater ecological challenges are made more visible by a new aesthetic, mapping the complexity of factors that influence the life of Vongole in the Venice Lagoon. Vongole are the little shells that grow in the Laguna and that are crucial for the Venetian Pasta di Vongole. The team includes social, economical, geological and biological data, and applies artistic graphic skills for rendering the complex changing reality more understandable.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Talking Sands - Fisheye project group.

Because of Covid-19 all meetings with residents for input in the new Spatial Vision, which aligns the initiatives for new buildings, urban landscape and infrastructure for the coming years, were cancelled. Then the municipality asked seven cultural smart catalysts to invent various ways to catch stories in all 7 boroughs of Amsterdam during lockdown. The seven story catchers ask residents and entrepreneurs ‘What do you need in the future to come?’

Read the biographies of the seven Story Catchers, the collected stories about the future of Amsterdam and the openresearch collection about the Environmental Vision of the City of Amsterdam.

We are here Venice’s continuing campaign to anchor the debate about the future for cruise ships and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations during the weeks of the Exploratorium, fuelled discussions on protest and art. Sharing experiences and reflecting upon these, a bold statement is formulated and a beautiful collection of questions is gathered that every individual is confronted with, once you decide to be engaged.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Protest or not to Protest project group.

The patterns of the Space of Other resonate with the performers’ childhood memories of the vibrant borough Fin do Mundo in Lisbon. His long-time partner in performance travels to the borough where he guides her through his memories by phone searching for elements of recognition in a place that has been demolished more or less completely over time. It appears that the power of shared imagination is able to revitalize memories of a place that is destroyed.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Space of Other project group.

A trail of possible meetings, a tragedy, inspiring books, websites, a WhatsApp conversation that led to the Comedia del’arte, missed scenario’s and plots, a scanned, sold out book full of fans, inspire a new perspective on communication in times of climate crisis. Created in a dialogue with text and images, as we did for centuries, a plea for playfulness and fantasy emerges.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Unfolding Arch of Forging Fantasy project group.

Is it possible to design a garden for ‘forbidden plants’ in abandoned Hortus Botanicus of Venice? When it becomes clear that it is not possible to enter the premises, the focus on the wall surrounding the Hortus Botanicus unveils an extraordinarily history. Even though all libraries are closed during Covid-19 lockdown, diverse historical sources inspire the fine drawing that represents the depth of thinking that has been put into the space and its situation.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Forbidden Garden project group.

Inspired by the work of the Food Forest in Amsterdam Zuidoost, a new community has gathered on the Green Triangle in Venice. Guided by the Amsterdam experience, local community organizers include residents in learning about green spaces in a city, on how one can become a group to take care of such a space. This experience is an occasion to start exploring a new methodology for engaging people in relation to the revitalization specific areas.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Radical Observation project group.

Zoöp is a formal collaboration between human and non-human actors in a specific place, which aims to acquire even a legal status as convivial configuration between human and non-human actors. Conversations about experiments in a Berlin communal space, the Paris Zone Sensible, an Amsterdam house garden and the salt marshes in Venice, trigger a lot of new thinking and reaffirm existing ideas on approaches for protecting human with more-than-human configurations.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Zoöp project group.

Different researchers and filmmakers decide to explore the reality of Sant’Erasmo, a large island in the Venetian lagoon inhabited mainly by market gardeners with very few tourists. Finding creative ways to communicate through streaming camera’s, they travel together and meet in 2038, while not being in the same place in the summer of 2020. Artichokes, a playground and robot fish seem to dominate the scene.

During the last months, all members of the team have been working on different future scenarios for Sant' Erasmo, and have shared them with each other along with text, drawings and all kinds of references. Lately, we realized that it was not possible for us to agree to one single scenario, and we needed to find a way to co-exist in stories. The result is a speculative science-fiction performance as a series of recorded, non-edited trips to Sant Erasmo in search of connections between the stories.

Listen to the accompanying interview with the participants of the Sant Erasmo 2038 project group.

Can the lagoon have voice to protect itself? Is it possible to imagine a script of the lagoon? Two marine scientists have identified the particular sounds of over 100 types of fish. With the sound of the fish the composer makes a composition. The composition generates a virtual underwater world. The sounds and movements can be the basis for a new imaginary script. A very powerful emotional stimulation arises from a dimension of lagoon life that is otherwise unknown.

Watch the accompanying video presentation of Scripts of the Lagoon.

Listen to the accompanying digital album of Scripts of the Lagoon.

In the last few years many cities have positioned a small group to connect research in the universities to policy needs. After three conferences and five online thematic workshops during the lockdown, the cities conclude that City Science needs to be recognized as its own paradigm in which academic and scientific research is complimented with design practices on different levels for bridging research to policy making.

Read the complete 'City Science for Urban Challenges' report.