Date: Sunday, December 3, 2023
Start: 12:00h CET
Duration: +/- 2 hours
Entrance: Free, including coffee/tea/pure claude (please register your participation via: info@varia.zone)
Starting point: Varia (Gouwstraat 3, Rotterdam)
Language:* Dutch (but English-speaking participants are very welcome)

Get to know the Biotope of Charlois; from the rats in the Maas to the bats in your cavity walls. Together we will investigate how nature makes good use of Rotterdam's urban planning and technological infrastructure to make the city their home. Ecologist André de Baerdemaeker will guide us through Charlois and its surrounding area, from the derelict Wielewaal to the docks of the Waalhaven, to see what thrives between the asphalt and concrete.

Biotoop Charlois is the first edition of a new event series organized by Varia, in which we take a critical look at the cross-connections between biology and technology in Rotterdam. Every season we investigate how these two influence each other and how developments in nature and urban policy are entangled. Central to this is an interwoven vision of urban nature, in which the way nature accomodates to city life offers hints and hints for our own survival in times of growing urbanization. From gray pigeon to gray mouse and from petting zoo to community garden; what can we learn from each other and where do we do this?

André De Baerdemaeker is an ecologist for Bureau Stadsnatuur at the Natural History Museum Rotterdam. He previously worked as a biology teacher in secondary education. He is also a volunteer chairman of the board of Vogelklas Karel Schot, the bird sanctuary in the South of Rotterdam and the surrounding area. He was also involved in the nai010 publication 'Making Urban Nature' of De Natuurlijke Stad. As a born and bred Rotterdammer, André has always been concerned with the city's nature. There are few streets where he hasn't looked at a bird at some point.

This project is supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL.