Independent School for the City

The Independent School for the City is a playground for all kinds of urban thinkers, do-ers and designers, for those who have just graduated and those who already have years of experience. It is a place to learn, to reflect, to make, to be inspired. It’s place to sharpen your position towards pressing urban issues, such as climate change, social inequality, biodiversity loss, migration, and the affordability of housing. The Independent School for the City believes that in order to face these questions, we need critical urban professionals who can work in an interdisciplinary context and who constantly push the boundaries of their profession. We need citizens that embrace the complexity and contradictions of the modern city, who keep an open-minded and curious attitude, and who are not afraid to take a stand. Through lectures, workshops, and education studios, and by using its hometown Rotterdam as a laboratory, the School aims to be a place for life-long learning. We offer a professional playground to historians, architects, sociologist, artists, and other urban professionals, to expand their skills in doing research, to tell stories and to develop strategies for the city.