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Maarten Hajer appointed chief curator of IABR–2016

United Kingdom Architecture News - Sep 03, 2014 - 11:00   3298 views

Maarten Hajer appointed chief curator of IABR–2016

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The International Architecture Biennale of Rotterdam (IABR) has announced the appointment of Maarten Hajer as Chief Curator of IABR–2016–. The theme of the seventh edition of the Architecture Biennale will be “The Next Economy” and it will open in May 2016.

Maarten Hajer is internationally renowned for his exploration of the relationships between public policies, urban development and environmental issues. He is professor of Public Policy at the University of Amsterdam and currently serving a 7-year term as Director– General of the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. As director of the PBL, Hajer is one of the prime advisers to the Dutch Cabinet on issues ranging from land use, planning, environment and nature, to water and transport.

Ed Nijpels, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Biennale said the Board was delighted to confirm Maarten Hajer’s appointment as Chief Curator of IABR–2016–. "We are very pleased that in Maarten, the Biennale has again attracted an independent curator of outstanding ability. We look forward to welcoming him working with our team to realize an inspirational program of events in 2016."

George Brugmans, Chief Executive Officer of the IABR said, "Maarten has collaborated on IABR–2014–, and his concept for IABR–2016– will no doubt reflect this work as well as his conviction that, in order to realize necessary sustainable transitions, we need smart urbanism in aggregation with great design. I look very much forward to seeing Maarten further strengthen the IABR’s international role as an incubator for innovation and a global platform for exchange on how to make better cities."

On his appointment to the 7th Biennale of Rotterdam, Maarten Hajer said, “We need new ideas, new visions. We do need smart urbanism. As curator of IABR–2016– I look forward to bring together the best of science, design, arts, politics, citizens, and business to jointly reflect on where we stand and where we’re heading, what possible alternative urban futures we may imagine. Cities and citizens have to think strategically, as there really is something to choose. A platform such as the biennale is vital in that it provides a safe space, a stage where everybody is free to think, to debate, and to agree and disagree on the urban future we want.” 

Maarten Hajer will formally commence his appointment as Chief Curator of IABR–2016– in September 2014.

About Maarten Hajer
Maarten A. Hajer (1962, Groningen) is an internationally renowned Dutch political scientist and urban and regional planner. He was educated at the universities of Amsterdam and Oxford and published widely on issues of city politics, public space,political discourse, environment and democracy. Since 1998, he has been a professor of Public Policy at the University of Amsterdam.

In 2008, the Dutch Cabinet appointed him Director–General of the PBL NetherlandsEnvironmental Assessment Agency. While primarily focused on political decision–making in Holland PBL is also active for international bodies, such as the European Commission, OECD and UNEP.

After obtaining his DPhil from the University of Oxford, working with geographer David Harvey, he worked at the University of Leiden, at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, collaborating with sociologist Ulrich Beck, and as senior researcher at the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), where he was project coordinator of a highly influential report on spatial development politics.

Hajer has held a number of public appointments. As a member of the VROM-council of the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment he was responsible for the report on climate change as a structural spatial issue (“De Hype voorbij – klimaatverandering als structureel ruimtelijk vraagstuk” - 2007). In addition, he was a member of a party principles manifesto committee of the Dutch Labor Party (2000); a columnist for the Dutch newspapers Het Parool and Staatscourant; and a member of the jury for the Spinoza Prize, the Dutch EO Weijers competition for landscape architecture,and for EUROPAN 9, the European award for young architects; and board member of the Amsterdam Art Council and the Van Eesteren, Fluck van Lohuizen Stichting (EFL).Currently he is a board member of the Rotterdam Maaskant Prize for Architecture and a member of the UNEP Resource Panel (IRP) concerned with strategic issues of resource scarcity, decoupling and resource-efficiency.

Hajer is the author of many articles and books, among them Smart about Cities: Visualizing the Challenge for 21st Century Urbanism, with Ton Dassen (NAI010 Publishers / PBL, 2014); Strong Stories: How the Dutch Are Reinventing Spatial Planning, with Jantine Grijzen and Susan van ‘t Klooster, (010 Publishers, 2010); Authoritative Governance: Policy Making in the Age of Mediatization (Oxford UP, 2009);In Search of the New Public Domain, with Arnold Reijndorp (NAi Publishers, 2002); and the acclaimed study The Politics of Environmental Discourse (Oxford UP, 1995). He was the editor of Deliberative Policy Analysis – Understanding Governance in the Network Society, with Henk Wagenaar (Cambridge UP, 2003), and of Living with Nature,with Frank Fischer (Oxford UP, 1999).

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