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Floor van Ditzhuyzen

Floor van Ditzhuyzen is an architect and co-founder of the Ontwerpwerkplaats, an interdisciplinary spatial designstudio based in Rotterdam. The studio operates on the treshold of interior design, small-scale architecture and public space. Leading in the work of the Ontwerpwerkplaats is the human scale, in both interior and exterior design. 

Besides her practice as an architect Floor is engaged in teaching and research, with public space as central focus. She is also known as the Public Space Detective, on ongoing research project into common and uncommon phenomena in public space. Within the team of the We Love Public Space Festival she is responsible for research and content development. 

www.publicspacedetective.com

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Martine Verwaaijen

Martine Verwaaijen is passionate about how urban design impacts our lives. While studying at King’s College London, Martine discovered her passion for urban design and how it’s linked to people’s behaviour. For her thesis she conducted qualitative research on how urban design influenced physical activity behaviour. During this research, the work of Jan Gehl became an inspiration. She’s looking into continuing her thesis research in Rotterdam. 

Martine is currently working as a Quality Assurance Officer at Willem de Kooning Academy. Prior to that she organised festivals and events in the Rotterdam arts & culture sector.

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Sander van der Ham

Sander works as an urban psychologist in the field of urban development, among others for Stipo and Stichting Thuismakers Collectief. As an urban psychologist he does research on the relation between human behaviour and the build urban environment. Recurring themes in his work are the transition between private and public space (the stoop), feeling at home (why do people feel at home?), communities and social networks. He works mainly for housing corporations, municipalities and developers to create places where people feel pleasant, experience a sense of ownership and maybe even feel at home. 

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Ron van Vliet

Ik ben stadsmaker in meest brede zin van het woord.
Ik houd van mooie gebouwen, mooie plekken maar ik houd vooral van de wijze waarop mensen hun stad maken.

Wat doen ze; wat beweegt hen; hoe grijpen ze in om hun omgeving echt hún omgeving te maken.
Mijn ambitie in mijn werk is om die menselijke maat te brengen in al die grote lijnen, grote projecten en groot geld.

Met humor, slimheid, kennis van zaken. En door zo veel mogelijk te luisteren.

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Marieke Hillen

Marieke Hillen initiates, coordinates and writes within the field of urban development. She tries to develop a form of slow criticism that keeps up pace with the slow urbanism of the projects she initiates. Hillen initiates projects that include locals, and works mainly in mixed neighbourhoods like Rotterdam-West. Singeldingen is a recurrent festival in the summer months. Encounters, music, experiments, poetry, educational projects, tea, coffee, cooks all play a role in an accessible event. Recently, she and others started the Wijkpaleis – a place to have it made. It is an emerging initiative that breathes new live into the makers culture that is existent in Rotterdam-West. It motivates people to broaden their horizon by making and considers the neighbourhood as a social library in which you can consult and utilize the capabilities and knowledge of neighbours.

Marieke Hillen is a wild thinker who not only builds theories but also realizes them. She starts unorthodox forms of cooperation and exchange. Her bottom-up initiatives create new views on society.

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Vera van de Nieuwenhof

Vera van de Nieuwenhof studied architectural history at the University of Amsterdam. She produced the lectures and debates of Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Moneylab symposium for Institute of Network Cultures until she decided to cycle to Japan. Nowadays she is based in Kunming (China) where she develops cultural initiatives for gokunming.com.

Vera Regina van de Nieuwenhof

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Annemieke Fontein

Annemieke Fontein is a landscape architect and the head of landscape architecture at the Municipality of Rotterdam. Her work is transformative, powerful and it has a strong impact on the feel and the identity of the city.

Some of the projects she worked on include the transformation of Zuiderpark and the development of de ‘Rotterdamse Stijl’. Lately, she has been working with a large team on the greening and attractiveness of the waterways in Rotterdam and since 2008, she is stimulating urban farming in and around the city.

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Saskia Naafs

Saskia Naafs is a journalist and urban sociologist. She lives in Rotterdam and writes about urban development, housing, smart cities and technology for weekly De Groene Amsterdammer.