The exhibition is a manifesto relating to global water issues, and the ensuing problems and crises. Today, a majority of the world’s population lives in cities close to the sea. What challenges does this mean due to climate changes and the rising sea level? The demand for drinking water is sharply rising as a result of dramatic population growth. Can we expect the development of spatial escapes to become more relevant and even necessary - with the help of water buffers that increase the capacities of rivers and open up our cities; with buildings that are raised, that want to stack, bend, lift and float and can withstand the unpredictabilities of nature; with estuaries that clean our polluted waters? What can architecture do in these matters? How can it literally absorb these urgencies? And can it thus regain one of its possible agendas?

The exhibition illustrates problems and challenges (the urgencies). Projects, visions, studies are juxtaposed to show possible solutions (the escapes). Big prints and movies, models and panels show different projects situated at and around the waterfront, representing more than 25 years of work of Rotterdam-based architects MVRDV.

This Dutch practice, founded in 1991, has specialized in issues relating to waterfront architecture. In the Netherlands, construction always has to accommodate the daily challenges presented by water. Approximately half of the country is situated less than a meter above and nearly a quarter of the landmass below sea level. The show provides an overview of recent examples of MVRDV’s water city projects from all over the world – such as the study “climax” on climate change, developed by MVRDV in cooperation with the Cité de Sciences et de l’Industrie (Paris, 2003/4), the Lagoon City master plan for a marina in Istanbul (2006), a master plan for a neighbourhood at Siutghiol Lake in Romania (2007), and a prototype for an “escape house” in New Orleans, plus many more.