MVRDV co-founder and principal architect Winy Maas is presenting the PoroCity book on the 28th of January at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam. 

PoroCity - Opening up Solidity is a manifesto for the introduction of the public realm into the private sphere of our cities. The book provides the tools to make urban porosity socially, environmentally and economically valuable. A sneak preview of the book can be seen here. This book gathers the research conducted by The Why Factory into what we term ‘urban porosity’. Using both analogue and digital approaches, our researchers and students explored modes to open up our cities. What might be imagined to open our towers and city blocks? Stepped floors? Public stairways? Grottos in which city dwellers might meet? Could we manipulate building envelopes in order to increase façade area? Might we perforate built volumes and thus create pocket parks?

The Why Factory (T?F) is a global think-tank and research institute led by professor Winy Maas, founding partner of MVRDV. It explores possibilities for the development of our cities by focusing on the production of models and visualisations for cities of the future.

Date: 28 January 2019

Location: Pakhuis de Zwijger, Piet Heinkade 179, 1019 HC Amsterdam, the Netherlands