On the invitation of Milton Keynes we programmed a day during the Festival of Cultural Urban Living which is taking place from September 23rd to October 13th and is curated by RaumlaborBerlin. During that period, Midsummer Boulevard in central Milton Keynes will bring together citizens, artists, architects, urban planners, creatives and many others to deliver a free programme of exhibitions, events, creative workshops and performances.
On October 3rd, the topic is ‘Utopian Radicalism’. We have compiled a program around the new tendencies of self-organisation popping up all over Western Europe which are especially relevant in New Towns. After all, New Towns have always been built according to a masterplan, a blueprint made by professional designers and built by a government and professional managers. But nowadays residents ask for a more active role, more freedom and agency and they have started to organize themselves. Because they are usually not profit-driven, they can bring interesting new experiments in housing and social projects, create more diversity, better value for money, and include groups of inhabitants that would normally be excluded from the market.
During this day we bring examples of inspiring and provocative projects from (mostly) other New Towns who have been designed and realised by (groups of) residents, as an alternative to the ‘business as usual’ way by commercial parties. With: MVRDV, Stad in de Maak, Superblock, Rotterdam Housing Cooperative, De Warren Cooperative Amsterdam, Raumlabor, Studio Ossidiana.
