Cities of Making Project
Cities of Making (CoM) Project had been exploring the future of urban based manufacturing in western European cities (Amsterdam, London, Rotterdam) in terms of technology, resources, place and application.
Following years of decline and offshoring, European cities are being confronted by a range of issues simultaneously: firstly, manufacturing jobs have shifted quickly to services and have created large gaps in the employment market, concepts such as circular economy are being taken seriously by cities and finally new technology is emerging allowing industry to be quieter and more discrete. This may offer a raft of potential benefits, including jobs for sociodemographic groups most affected by unemployment, innovation, more efficient use of materials and urban resilience. Urban centres play an important role in nurturing new forms of green urban manufacturing, based on a clean, knowledge- and labour-intensive manufacturing sector.
Cities of Making has used a combination of strategic and action research resulting in concrete projects. Our ambition was to identify what works in supporting a resilient and innovative industrial base and to test those solutions in a real-world setting. The biggest questions we’ve touched include:
- What technology/resources are suitable for 21st century urban industry?
- Where can it be located in the city in terms of planning and spatial constraints?
- How can we leverage the change?
More on: citiesofmaking.com