WeMakeThe.City is the festival that aims to make the city and its surroundings a better place. In 2018 and 2019 the festival had a major presence in Amsterdam and the metropolitan region and continued with the long-term program WeMakeThe.City Green 2021 and 2022. This was directly connected to the festival Floriade Amsterdam – Almere 2022. It’s been running for over a year in Almere, Amsterdam and other places in the region, for instance in the provinces of Flevoland and North Holland. The festival includes lectures, talk shows, workshops, expeditions, exhibitions, film screenings and a lot of storytelling suitable for a wide audience.
WeMakeThe.City is an initiative of the Municipality of Amsterdam, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam Economic Board, Amsterdam Smart City, AMS, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Waag. It was created after it received the iCapital Award (Innovation Capital of Europe) by the City of Amsterdam in Brussels in 2016. WeMakeThe.City Green was initiated by the municipalities of Almere and Amsterdam and is produced by Pakhuis de Zwijger (Amsterdam) and Avanti (Almere). The theme is: The Voice of Urban Nature.
Why?
Urban regions are still growing rapidly, especially the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. The corona pandemic has made the major societal challenges we face today even more painfully visible. Urgent issues related to health, climate, food, biodiversity, energy, safety, construction and affordable housing are demanding all of our attention. The major problems we’re facing are complex and can only be solved through close collaboration and innovative solutions between parties in and around the city. WeMakeThe.City informs and inspires, showcases developments and innovations, gives leaders a platform and connects policy, research and practice. The leading question in all of this is: in what kind of city do we want to live in five, ten or twenty years?
WeMakeThe.City Green
The biggest challenge over the coming decades is to make the densely populated and busy city a greener, more sustainable, climate-adaptive, circular, energy-neutral and healthy place for all its inhabitants. The program and the online platform WeMakeThe.City Green focuses on giving you the tools to take action. How can you (and your neighbourhood, company, organization or institution) contribute to the green city of the future?
Our experts offer workshops to help give you a better understanding of how it all works behind the scenes. By offering expeditions and guided tours we are also able to show how things can be more efficient and effective. Some examples of how that is already happening is in the wood building business, for the province of Flevoland or with recycled and biobased materials in Almere and Amsterdam. This is also happening with local rain collection and water storage, organic fermentation processes that produce green gas for the neighborhood and initiatives that bring bees, birds and butterflies back into view.
WeMakeTheCity Green showcases the latest developments in the areas of ‘green placemaking’, urban agriculture, green balconies and gardens, ‘bricks out-green in’, food forests, campuses and school buildings, garden allotments, green buildings and facades, green roofs and bringing nature back into the city. They don’t only do this in our own city but also but also in other Dutch, European and international cities. Also at regional level, including the Defense Line (Stelling) of Amsterdam, water programs, the green wedges and city parks. By doing this we’re connecting the ultra local, regional, national and global.
Who is it for?
Young and old, citizens and entrepreneurs, scientists and civil servants, students and interns, volunteers and professionals are all invited to participate in and contribute to making our cities and the surrounding area of our metropolitan region greener. By sharing the stories and activities of all the different people involved allows for all of them to become a participant and co-owner of the philosophy of WeMakeThe.City Green.
