T-Factor

What chances and possibilities lie within the temporary initiatives or ‘meanwhile spaces’ of urban areas? How can we enliven these initiatives in an inclusive way that offers space to a variety of life forms: people, plants, animals and microbes? For the upcoming two years, Waag will explore these questions at Amsterdam Science Park with the EU-project T-Factor. 

The challenge
Together with ecologists, artists, researchers and local ambassadors we will investigate how animals, plants, humans and microbes come together at Amsterdam Science Park. We want to unravel what kind of urban ecology practices are needed to enliven and strengthen the temporary use of urban areas in development, in a nature-inclusive way. With T-Factor, the goal is to demonstrate how culture, creative collaboration and wide engagement can unleash vibrant urban hubs of inclusive urban (re)generation. Moreover, these places offer space for social enterprises. 

T-Factor at Amsterdam Science Park 
Waag will coordinate the Amsterdam pilot from its outpost at the Amsterdam Science Park. Together with the local coalition of actors, we will use the Amsterdam Science Park masterplan as the starting point to steer collective inquiry into its meanings and narratives, experiment with different kinds of explorative and urban ecological practices in the field and co-create shared visions of future spaces and uses.

From there, we will host field trips, workshops, walks, symposia, presentations and public programmes for anyone who is interested in creating ecology-related improvement in urban areas. Take a look at the symposium Building as Being for example, that we organised in april 2021 together with artistic researcher Esmee Geerken.

T-Factor on a European scale
T-Factor is a European project that targets regenerations in a diversity of urban areas in London, Bilbao, Amsterdam, Kaunas, Milan and Lisbon, with a unique ecosystem of capacity-building for radically new city-making approaches.