Archiprint 6 On the Way, but Where Does lt Lead To?

Archiprint6 Creating & Expen¡encing ldentity

Archiprint6 Creating & Experiencing ldentity

19 Alcuin Olthof

On the Way, but Where Does lt Lead To? What is your identity as an architect? What defines your identity as an architect? An architect's personal identity is undoubtedly related to his/her frame of reference.

In this essay, Alcuin Olthof describes the relevance of becoming aware of your personal 'archive'. lt can be valuable to start this 'journey' - with a reflection on your learning path - and to explore your qualities in or­ der to develop a better self-awareness and understand­ ing of yourself and as an architect. One way to express this quest in a concrete form is through drawing. The visualized 'quest' and 'search' within yourself can prove to be a powerful tool for getting to know your qualities, desires and capacities.

The walls on either side of the stairs consist of books as far as the eye can see. From top to bottom, perpendicu­ lar to the length of the staircase, they form a huge accu­ mulation of written language. lt seems an almost physical impossibility; there in the depth, where vanishing point and origin are placed, the pressure on the books has to be huge. 1 The Courthouse The text of The Courthouse contains three parts in total: The Case, The Journey and The Play. The above frag­ ment is trom The Journey. lt calls to mind the image of an archive. Are archives not the memory of organizations and in this case the source of critica! (self)-examination?

What did I read? Which information did I consume? What is stored? What is its value?

In his graduation project, Van Heel feit more or less forced to engage in concepts such as origin and objectiv­ ity. In his philosophical search and writing, and by making an architectural model of the spaces he describes, Van Heel organized all this information into a suggestion that shows how to deal with questions like these.

Workshop In March 2014, together with a small group of students,

1 worked on an imaginary depiction and drawing exercise based on Van Heel's The Journey. In 1988, The Journey, the metaphor for 'being on the way', was a major influ­ ence in my own final thesis called Masterpiece. After seven years of studying, 1 had the idea I was only starting to 'be on the way', trying to find my way in architecture and understanding what I was doing in the professional work field. What makes me study Architecture? Present tense, indeed, because the question and its subsequent research are still relevant to me.

The reason I used Van Heel's work for the workshop is because there is a story written and published, besides the physical model. My own thesis is only carried by images and therefore less transferable. By reading part of The Journey out loud and asking tor a representation, 1 challenged the students to approach architecture the way Van Heel and I did.

Essay This essay is a result of an interesting conversation about the metaphor of an archive, and the importance of an architect's self-reflection.

Another question arose in the same conversation: What does your archive look like? And more questions followed, like: Which books are stored in it? What is your source of inspiration? Where does your fascination lie?

Why do you study architecture? Why do you study it at this university? Is it architecture or engineering? What is architecture about?

Thinking These are meaningful questions, which can only be answered in moments of reflection and by self-enquiry.

There is no objective and there is no conclusive answer.

Free translation trom Dutch trom: Gerard van Heel, De Gerechtsplaats (Rotterdam: NAi Uitgevers, 1994), 26.

The Courthouse is the graduation project

(1993) of Gerard van Heel at the Academie van Bouwkunst in Arnhem, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, faculteit Bouwkunst. With this project he was one of two winners of Archiprix '93.

Archiprint6 Creating & Experiencing ldentity

There is no truth. There is only your own truth - for the moment. After all, if everything moves, the truth will move too. One of the bearing questions of Van Heel is about how to approach truth objectively. Is truth more than the quantifiable, more than 'to which one measures'?

The philosopher Martin Heidegger thinks and writes about the basic existence of people. One of his tools is etymological research and with this tool he argues, for example, that life and the act of building equate to 'being' or 'existence'. And the act of building is filling a spot, the ein-frieden.

As a result, space and the limitation of it is directly linked to the subject that takes care. This 'subjectifica­ tion' is a way to live and build a place to give. Truth is one of Van Heel's most important research points. He seems to be influenced in his approach by Heidegger. Like Hei­ degger, he examines the word 'truth' through etymology.

In this way, according to him, there is a completely dif­ ferent explanation captured in the Dutch word waarheid (literally 'truth', but in this meaning translated as 'where­ ness'). In Dutch, the word waar is about the question of 'where'. In this way it is approached as an adverb of place, an inquiry to place. According to Van Heel, 'where­ ness' is in essence an architectural concept.

Transformation In my graduation project, 1 considered it important to rest a moment and see where my seven years of study had brought me. Why was I here, what was it about and where was I going? 1 described a part of my quest in a scenario. And make, in this way, a lively but realistic travelogue approach that draws attention to relations be­ tween (personal) opinions, developments and possibili­ ties. 1 took a city as subject, one that gave answers to my questions. The butterfly as the metaphor tor transforma­ tion was the logo of my study. lt will never be the same after its transformation trom a larva. The same goes tor awareness and gathering knowledge. Once you have gained it, there is no way back. lt is about an everlasting change.

Marcel Derkse, a master in Business Administration, deals with existential issues about change and trans­ formation. In his book Free as a Butterfly he describes the meaning of learning. Learning is both gathering knowledge and transferring knowledge, according to Derkse. The Dutch word tor knowledge is kennis. Derkse describes knowledge as experience that has become insight.

Alcuin Olthof

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The Gothic word 'ken' and also the Yiddish word 'ken' mean 'right'. We take what is right for us to know or right to carry over to others. The one who transmits knowl­ edge has the responsibility to ensure that what he or she has experienced is transferred as correct. Second-hand knowledge is no knowledge. 2 Derkse likes to describe the profound and patient art of transferring knowledge as education. In Dutch there are two words for education, namely educatie and onderwijs.

For this treatise, he makes a relevant sidestep into the original meaning of both words, and especially into the apparently contradictory movement that they indicate. To be able to assert oneself - to turn outside - one should also be able to turn inside, and step onto one's own (learning) path. 3 Living in circles In December 2013, it was exactly 25 years ago that 1 graduated at the Architecture Academy in Rotterdam.

This special moment made me look back at my gradua­ tion project and again there was a point for reflection. In my quest, 1 returned to this point and I looked at it with other, more experienced, eyes. 1 saw the richness of what I had touched that time. In relation to the metaphor of Van Heel's archive, 1 saw that a lot of knowledge has been stored since then; and a lot of knowledge has hard­ ly been touched. 1 recognized the old perspective and the emergence of a new perspective.

The circle seems to close itself. Long ago I became an architect because I like to draw and now I acknowledge the importance of the (architectural) rough as my way to speak out and to investigate.

The drawing Like architect Michiel Riedijk stated in his inaugural speech, architectural design originates in the drawing.4 1 completely agree with that vision. That is why the former workshop with students about The Courthouse by Van Heel is used as a depiction exercise. For an academie environment, Riedijk defines architecture as shaping a spatial idea. In this context it is always good to realize 2 Free translation trom Dutch trom: Marcel Derkse, Zo vrij als een vlinder. Werkboek voor transformatie (Deventer: Ankh-Hermes, 1998), 116.

3 Ibid.

4 Michiel Riedijk, 'The Drawing. The Architect's Raison d'Etre'. Lecture delivered upon as­ suming the office of Professor of Architectural Design at the Faculty of Architecture of Delft University of Technology on Friday, 23 January 2009. (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 2009), 8.

Archiprint6 Creating & Experiencing ldentity

that architecture is thereby not a free art, but social, socially and culturally embedded. In the case of Van Heel the spatial idea is about an archive. In my own case the idea was about the way to the centre, the source.

The workshop resulted in a next step. The focus was on investigating the own attitude to life, which serves as a foundation for the four dimensions of professional and personal leadership: self-awareness, decision making, decisiveness and capacity. He or she who obtains a self-awareness, can articulate the own will much more sharply. The person who knows what he wants can take more responsibility for his own decision making. From that particular responsibility acts and behaviours acquire more consistency and perseverance. Because we are studying architecture, imagining and investigation of this (spatial) reality takes place in the architecture drawing.

Masterpiece, 1988 [illustration: Alcuin Olthofj

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The market is a place lor exchange, and exchange is a ritual. Rituals can be regarded as principles tor organizations: a standardized cyclic pattern of practica where participants' fixed roles are connected to fixed times and places. Rituals also teach and confirm (individually and as a group, trom tradition) our identity, our lives and ethic ideals. Memory is important lor the ritual because it acts with it.

The market organizes both an individual and collective memory. To organize or to structure is an architectural act.

Archiprint6 Creating & Experiencing ldentity

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Alcuin Olthof

In my Master thesis there is no city - the city only occurs in the eye of the observer. The centre, the source, is covered by a complex structure of columns, reflecting vertical slabs and a labyrinthine structure.

Masterpiece, 1988 [illustration: Alcuin Olthoij

Masterpiece, 1988 [illustration: Alcuin Olthoij

Archiprint6 Creating & Experiencing ldentity

23 There is only one right comparison to make: the comparison wrth myself a week, a month or 25 years ago. The centre is my centre. Atthough the shape of my centre has changed with time.

The vertical extension has become bigger. The obstacles to reach the centre have turned out to be more complex. Why? Il you only obey, you learn nothing. Learning is thinking about things you hear and see, investigating them and seeing in which way they fit you. lt is like a coat. Il rt fits, you wear it. Il not, you put it in the closet. And then there is magie: something happens without explanation, suddenly, out of control. lt is a sur­ prise, free and poweriul - 1 believe in magie.

Masterpiece 2.0 [illustration: Alcuin Olthofj

Masterpiece, 1988 jllustration: Alcuin Olthofj

Masterpiece 2.0 [illustration: Alcuin Olthofj

1 used to call the city Trimo because of the three (tri) powers, but it seems to not be the right name. One morning I wake up with the name Token in my head. The dictionary tells me that a token is something used to indicate authentic­ ity, authority or something serving to represent or indicate some fact, event or feeling. This meaning fits better with the new approach.

The approach is different. This time there is no alternative. 1 have to enter the city one way or another. 1 see myself overseeing the city.