Samenvatting

Fossil fuels have greatly affected the world. How we move around in our cars, how we produce and consume our food, how we keep our economy running, generate electricity and spatialize our cities. But whether we like it or not, we are moving
towards a future without these fossil fuels ¬– an era in which cities and daily reality are radically reformed. In a design and research studio of the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture six students investigated between September and December 2020 the transition to that post-fossil era, we visualized the expression of the post-fossil city of the future, we explored systems and solutions that we cannot yet imagine. This little book shows their results and discoveries. This studio on the post-fossil city combines design and research. It is about learning
students ‘to think’ – in other words, to train them to discover, develop and test ideas, solutions and plans in a well-founded way. This thinking process is crucial to exploring a far and unknown future. By researching, writing and designing students will form
their thoughts and theories on the post-fossil city of tomorrow. In that sense the studio was a continuous laboratory, a collective search for what the city of the future is or should be. It was an ongoing process of experimenting, testing, inventing, switching, reflecting, starting over. In other words, making an unknown future imaginable step by step. The idea was that by thinking (and researching, writing, doing, designing) a narrative was built up, a well-argued foundation of a personal vision on the post-fossil city of the future, a healthy balance between intuition and legitimacy, between free thinking and realism – based on knowledge of relevant developments and techniques,
perspectives of others, inspiring references (historical and current) and ultimately creativity and imagination.
This book reflects on a third year cross disciplairy studio at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. Students: Miks Berzins, Floor Hendrickx, Maro Lange, Siân McGrath, Martynas Solovejus, Valerie Smalen