Stadslab Master Class on Place Making and Urban Transformation, Fukuoka (Japan)

Stadslab European Urban Design Laboratory operates as an international think tank and design laboratory for urban design in today’s cities. We develop tailor-made Master Class programs aimed at participants with an academic background in architecture, urban planning or related fields. Our programs allow hosting municipalities and regional authorities to have cases of their choice examined in one of Stadslab’s Urban Design Laboratories. The general aim of all programs is to offer design expertise to cities and regions in order to support them in creating coherent, sustainable and successful urban environments.

Stadslab is engaged in a three year program to support a strategic development agenda for cosmopolitan Fukuoka. Fukuoka is the largest city on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. It is a modern metropolis with good international air and sea connections. Cosmopolitan Fukuoka boasts of an amazing collection of architectural masterpieces, by international top architects such as Aldo Rossi, Toyo Ito, Emilio Ambasz, Rem Koolhaas, Steven Holl, Kisho Kurokawa, Cristian de Portzamparc, Michael Graves and many others. 

Strategic agenda for Fukuoka is to invest in some of its main assets: an innovative and top-level business district, a modern and more seamlessly connected network of public transport modalities, enhanced connectivity between knowledge institutes and businesses, modern harbor and airport terminals and in general an attractive environment for its workforce. 

As part of a three year program Stadslab now offers a Master Class on Placemaking, taking place in Fukuoka, April 12-21, 2012, supervised by Saline Verhoeven (Landscape architect at Bureau B+B urbanism and landscape architecture, Amsterdam) and Andrew David Fassam (director urban design at URA, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore).

Two larger themes and sites will be addressed during the Master Class:

Theme I Downtown Public space design, place-making, connectivity and accessibility

Theme II Waterfronts Urban transformations, re-programming dockyards and other port areas,  creating incubator districts

The Master Class is aimed at young to mid-career professionals from a variety of urban design related disciplines (architecture, landscape architecture, public space, landscape architecture, media design, urban economics, sociology). We accept a limited numbers of applications. Check our website for more information: www.stadslab.eu