Archiprint 5 - Movement in Architecture

Archiprint Movement in Architecture

February 2014 \\ Volume 03 \ Issue 01

Editorial

Movement in Architecture Architecture is never at a standstill. There are always new developments in the field and architecture is therefore forever on the go and subject to change. This is more than good: it is vital. Change prompts us to reconsider conventional, contemporary thinking and practices in architecture. Change, consequently, is never merely based on what is ‘new’. It builds on what is there already, or forges relationships between different ‘old’ ways of thinking.

The theme of this issue is Movement. We address various different ‘acts of change’ in the architectural design process as a continuous narrative. We focus on the way perspectives are currently changing in this process. Among other things, we touch on topics like sustainability, generative design, freehand drawing, user behaviour, education and designing in itself. In addition to this wide range of topics, we chose to add two highlights in this issue, which each focus exclusively on a single, specific subject.

We singled out generative design and freehand drawing, because they are currently predominant in education, design methodologies and the public debate.

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The advent of computer aided design has been exerting a strong influence on the way buildings are designed for years. Increasingly, working with parameters and computer models – so-called generative design – is used to design complex projects and to meet every requirement.

This often leads to surprising results and configurations. What the role of the architect is, in an age where computers dominate the design process, remains to be seen. Will it limit designers’ possibilities? Will it create new opportunities regarding the possibilities and formal language of buildings?

On the other hand, we haven’t ignored analogous designing. The triangular relationship between design, body and the experience of space and time still plays an important part in the design process. The growing interest in phenomenology and the merit of freehand drawing for the design process, for instance, create new perspectives in architectural practice and education. The fact remains that by assessing the past and the present with a critical glance – not only with regard to the topics mentioned above – it is possible to catch up with the public debate.

Is this a shift in contemporary design? Do we do things differently now than we did before?

And if so, how does that benefit contemporary architectural practice? Are we creating a new movement? With this issue of Archiprint, we hope to equip architects and students of architecture with new perspectives and methods that will inspire and encourage development and change!

Annemiek Osinga and Michael Maminski

Colophon

Archiprint February 2014 \\ Volume 03 \ Issue 01 Eindhoven Free publication ISSN 2213-5588 Journal for Architecture, created by students of the Department of the Built Environment of the Eindhoven University of Technology and architecture study association AnArchi. anarchi@bwk.tue.nl, www.anarchi.bwk.tue.nl/archiprint Editor-in-chief Michael Maminski Final editor Annemiek Osinga Editors Julie Bosch, Renée van Kemenade, Frank van Kessel, Hannaneh Sobhani, Kavitha Varathan, Peyvand Yavari Guest editors Sander Boer, Erik van Eck, Fátima Fernandes, Kristel Hermans, Herman Hertzberger, Joren Hoogeboom, Laurens Jan ten Kate, Frank van Kessel, Zubin Khabazi, Edoardo Mentegazzi, Ricardo Ploemen, Jouke Post, Dennis Rietmeijer, Christiaan Rijnen, Roger Tan Contributors Mahsa Bagheri, Luuk van den Elzen (AnArchi), Léon Tonnaer Advisory committee Bernard Colenbrander, Jacob Voorthuis, Gijs Wallis de Vries, Maarten Willems Layout design Michael Maminski Translation and language correction D’Laine Camp Printing Drukkerij Van Druenen, Geldrop www.vandruenen.nl Address AnArchi association Eindhoven University of Technology Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning Vertigo Building Den Dolech 2 5612 AZ Eindhoven The Netherlands facebook.com/pages/AnArchi issuu.com/anarchi This magazine cannot be republished or reproduced without the permission of the publisher.

Generative Design

Contents

Erik van Eck and Roger Tan 6

Generative Design is the Future Sander Boer 19

Towards a (De)contextual- Tool-Based and ization Self-Organizing Architecture The Revival of the Architect EXp[at] HOME

The Importance of Sketching Christiaan Rijnen 29

Freehand Drawing

A Holistic Approach Towards Architecture

I Draw (with) the Body FĂĄtima Fernandes 31

Kristel Hermans 9

Dennis Rietmeijer 21

Jouke Post 11

Joren Hoogeboom 23

Design Digitally, Make Digitally A Disembodiment of Today’s Image-Based Architecture Parametricism: Practice The Act of Change in Architecture Zubin Khabazi 14

Ricardo Ploemen 26

The Future of Architecture

Herman Hertzberger and Laurens Jan ten Kate 34

Born from Sensibility Frank van Kessel 37

AnArchi Agenda

The 5th Board of AnArchi 38

Edoardo Mentegazzi 17

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Generative Design

Interview

A Holistic Approach Towards Architecture Roger Tan and Erik van Eck interviewed by Kavitha Varathan and Michael Maminski Today’s architecture practice is strongly subjected to changes and market developments due to the recession. On the other hand, the recession has also proven to be an effective climate for focusing visions, redefining capabilities and stimulating new developments. Archiprint spoke to two board members of the Rotterdam-based architecture office Broekbakema about their past, their current situation and future visions and developments in architecture.

A firm like Broekbakema with its rich history must have adapted often over the years. In the context of the crisis we are now in the middle of, can you walk us through Broekbakema’s past?

Roger Tan: Well, as you can see, I’m not as old as the firm itself (laughs)! Broekbakema is more than 100 years old and indeed, in that time it has been subject to many changes, including the two World Wars.

6 About the interviewees Roger Tan has been an executive director at Broekbakema since 2010. Under his management the firm underwent a major innovation in that same year.

Erik van Eck has been with the firm as an architect since 1997. He joined the management board as architect director in 2002.

In more recent history, say the last ten years, there have been a few defining moments. In 2006, well before the crisis, Broekbakema merged with the relatively young and small architecture firm SAAS and Aldo Vos and Seibold Neijenhuis (of SAAS) joined as directors. The next defining moment was the start of the crisis in the financial sector in 2008 that spilled over to the building sector in the Netherlands in 2009 to 2010. So in 2010, we had to rethink the firm. The volume and the size of the commissions were rapidly changing – decreasing. In the 2000s, a large project in the company would have been somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 m2. Currently, a large project is maybe around 15,000 m2 or less. This is a significant difference that impacts the decisions for the teams that we need to have available for projects or the people we employ.

How has Broekbakema responded to the crisis?

RT: In 2010, we critically rethought the firm to cope with the new situation – for the short term and the long term. That’s when we changed our emphasis and introduced the two pillars – Sustainability and Process Innovation into our design process. Our aim was to create a firm that is able to flexibly cope with the crisis. We don’t know how long the crisis will last, but we want to be ready to take off when the crisis ends with new competencies, as a new kind of architecture firm.

The old Broekbakema was quite traditionally organized with separate departments for almost all separate functions – technical design, drafting, project management, architecture – with very strict borders between the departments. We wanted to break through that because, quite simply, if you have a smaller project you want the same people to wear different hats.

In recent years, sustainability has emerged as a clear and distinct interest of Broekbakema.

You mentioned that this was also a strategic response to the crisis. In what way?

RT: In response to the crisis, we needed competencies for a new market and sustainability emerged as a clear and distinguishing factor. Erik van Eck had already been involved with sustainability for many years on a low level and we decided to bring it to the forefront. We want to be one of the top five sustainable architecture practices in the Netherlands in, let’s say, five years. This is quite difficult to achieve for many reasons. The way people look at your firm is directly related to the kind of buildings you have delivered. It takes time to achieve a really authoritative portfolio in sustainability.

We do a lot of things within the firm to drive it. For example, we have one dedicated sustainability manager within our firm who is certified in different credentials like BREEAM, GPR (used by the Dutch government), etcetera. We have expanded that to other employees. Other efforts include a ‘Quickscan’ on sustainability in each phase of the project. It’s based on the BREEAM system and provides a kind of score, which helps create a dialogue on sustainability with the client throughout the project.

So is it fair to say that your clients have changed since you adopted sustainability as your central focus?

RT: They are slowly changing. Sustainability is a definite driver for us with regards to our clients. Interestingly, our enhanced sustainability profile gets us clients who want more than the basic or basic-plus level of sustainability. One good example is the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen’s Energy Academy, which wants a building in the vision of the discipline – a net zero emission building. That means all of the emissions must be

compensated by climate measures in the building such as PV (Photo-Voltaic) cells – not only those released while the building is in use, but also the emissions released during construction.

It’s very ambitious, especially considering that even energy-neutral buildings are not common right now. It’s a step up for us, we’re working on the final design now and it’s looking very good!

What do you think particularly triggered the sustainability tide in recent times?

Erik van Eck: Al Gore put it back on the agenda. Personally I’ve worked with sustainability for more than 17 years, long before it was widely accepted. There was a period when everybody was talking about sustainability but nobody was willing to act on it. Now we see that many companies are also acting. It’s like oil spreading on water, slowly covering a larger and larger area.

People are more willing to listen now and the next time if not this time they may act. In the meantime, it helps us gain knowledge and deepen our understanding of sustainability. So it works both ways!

Talking about deepening your understanding of sustainability, tell us about your research project on the topic – the Green Living City.

EvE: In the future, I see a world population Do you think the vision of the Green Living that is increasingly centralized in areas or cities City is realizable? with higher levels of economic activity. It’s not sustainable to shelter people the way we have EvE: Yes. However, it is fundamentally differin the past. It is really necessary to look for an ent from our cities because the Green Living City alternative sustainable urban environment. With is entirely public. This is a completely new type Green Living City, instead of growing cities in a – most of the time these dense, vertical structures horizontal direction, we decided to grow a really are buildings. You can close a building and check urban, dense and green city vertically. who is occupying it, but when it’s a part of the city We created what we call Super Floors – you cannot. You have to define ways to filter and green floors where anything you find in the city operate. There are other issues like the allocation can be accommodated. They adapt to all kinds of of responsibilities. In flat city development, the functions or the mood in society. For example, if government looks after streets, lighting, etcetin the future people tend to work more from home era. However, when you organize a city vertically, or need more working space, they can adapt. The who is responsible for these things? So there are Green Living City responds to every eventuality. real issues to be addressed before the Green There are also cultural or social issues. Young Living City is realized. people like to live in the city, but young couples with children tend to move to the suburbs. We Concepts such as the Super Floors versus want to create an environment that can shelter temporary structures are particularly architecdiverse user groups. tural responses to sustainability, different from We combined this sustainable idea with all material or energy choices. Are they already kind of sustainable measures into a future conused in your current projects? cept. For instance, the really permanent Super Floors are set against timber frame structures EvE: Yes, I always think about architecture that can easily change with the programme. It’s like that – Generic and Specific. I try to make a not really a future concept for in ten or twenty generic structure, which accommodates more years – that depends on how fast we adapt. It is than the present functional requirements. The about creating tomorrow. specific need of the time is something that

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Erik van Eck (left) and Roger Tan. Photography by Archiprint.

can change easily. Of course there are budget limitations, but we try to convince the client to spend the extra money on things that are really permanent.

RT: Our firm takes a holistic approach towards sustainability. One of the phases is architectural, but there are other people involved like insulation advisors, MEP advisors, who we innovate with. A study like Green Living City helps us think about new concepts on different levels, some of which are integrated in current projects.

Do you have to sometimes compromise the quality of architecture – in terms of experience of space for instance – in favour of a sustainable decision?

EvE: How to define sustainability? In the end sustainability is about so many things and we shouldn’t talk about it as a separate issue.

For me, it’s an issue that is fully integrated with architecture. That’s perhaps my limitation, but for me it’s natural.

RT: Things like PV cells are often set onto buildings as an afterthought. What we are trying to do is to integrate them from the start, so that we make not only sustainable buildings but also beautiful buildings.

But sustainability is usually a parallel argument to architecture in many universities, firms, and so forth. Do you see it as an integrated new movement in the future?

EvE: Fifty years from now, we may not talk about sustainability anymore. It’ll be grounded in design thinking. Now, we talk about saving energy. When that’s achieved, we may talk about smart materials. There’ll always be new sustainability goals. Like architecture – good architecture always changes with society.

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Does this acceptance and practice of change have to do with the legacy of the office? Jaap Bakema and Jo van den Broek were important protagonists of the structuralist movement, which can also be detected in the Super Floors we discussed earlier.

EvE: Perhaps, I know I started working at Broekbakema for that reason. Not in a very conscious way but it’s in the DNA of the office. You have to develop it though. Bakema’s ideas have not crystallized, rather they have evolved.

RT: Our long heritage is a strength. It’s not only the current generation that is moving architecture forward, there are layers of history beneath that live on in our projects.

Has the new management change refocused your interests?

RT: Of course it has. The last big management change was last year, when two of the somewhat older partners, who led the firm for 25 years, moved out of active management. It let the new management change its focus to be more flexible, which is needed in these times.

Besides sustainability, process innovation has been significantly emphasized recently. Tell us about integrating BIM (Building Information Model).

RT: We first started experimenting with 3D in 2006-2007. Since 2010, we have switched completely to 3D modeling in Revit. Now, we’re gradually including other parties into the design and construction process. With BIM, the quality of the design, efficiency and the value for the client increases. Put simply, we can make mistakes in the process but not on the construction site.

Secondly, we integrate all parties early on with BIM and it becomes a model of communication.

Problems become clear at an earlier stage, so

solutions are found earlier. Finally, BIM provides a digital model for discussions and solutions. The client has more insight into the project and internally it’s a more efficient process because it allows an easier coordination.

EvE: What is significant about BIM is that not only architects are BIM-ing, but all of the other parties involved in the process are too!

What was it like to transform the whole office to BIM? EvE: That costs energy (laughs)! It’s all about change, as humans we don’t like to change, but we have to!

RT: We used the crisis – we invested in Revit software, in server hardware and training employees. We are able to provide the central server onto which all the different advisors log in and coordinate in BIM – and that’s something not a lot of architects do! We want to be at the forefront of this innovative process. We even have a dedicated BIM manager! BIM is now integrated into the firm, just like sustainability.

How do you think BIM will evolve in the future?

RT: Architects will start moving towards BIM in the future. Many of them will be limited to the traditional way of working though as it is quite costly to gain knowledge in BIM, especially in smaller offices.

As a firm BIM enables us to expand in other areas. For example, we’re building our first pilot with cost-management parties to do a fully integrated cost management in BIM. That means they can log on to our BIM server, link their cost figures database and provide cost estimates several times during the process, based on changes in our model.

We have also moved into the space of construction with BIM, where contractors usually coordinate with different subcontractors using

2D prints but are slowly moving towards 3D. In the future we can see ourselves play a role also in maintenance of the building, when the building is in use. BIM facilitates planning of scheduled maintenance, energy conservation, etcetera – there are a lot of possibilities.

We were talking about architects evolving and keeping up with change and new specialists that now have their place in an architecture office – a dedicated BIM manager, sustainability manager, etcetera. How do you see yourself, what is the role of a business director in an architecture firm?

RT: Making sure the business is still there in a couple of years! Architects are notoriously bad at making profitable businesses. If you look at the figures from the last few years, they have not always been profitable. You have to make profit to survive and create good architecture, to attract good people, pay fair salaries, provide a good environment – like we have here and it’s also necessary to contribute to education and research.

Closing question, what qualities should the future architect have?

EvE: You really have to know what you are good at and excel in that. That is important. We all have our strengths and in the future we have to find ways to combine these. We should not limit ourselves and we should focus outside our natural boundaries and comfort zones to connect with other disciplines. Because when society becomes more diverse, you have to adapt to that in your architecture. You can’t do that on your own – you have to connect with others.

Kristel Hermans

(De)contextualization Architects obviously have to consider the context explicitly during the design process. Or don’t they? Is it possible for a building, to be unrelated to the environment? Are buildings in an interchangeable context always unrelated to their context? Kristel Hermans explores the importance of the context for the design (process).

I was amazed to read the description of the Water Culture House in BIG’s book Yes Is More.

In a couple of text balloons, they explain that the design process failed because of external factors and that the original client never had it built. Years later, it turned out that another city was interested in the design: ‘We started a strange process of retrofitting our old concept onto the new site. We weren’t really altering either program nor spaces, but actually only the view.’ 1 Of course, this fragment draws only a very limited picture of the activities and changes that have taken place in this part of the process, but

1 BIG, Yes Is More – an Archicomic on Architectural Evolution (Cologne: Evergreen, 2010).

About the author Kristel Hermans recently graduated cum laude in Architecture & Building Technology at Eindhoven University of Technology. She is currently working on three challenging design projects and is starting up her own business.

they suggest that a design can be moved without changing either the programme or the style.

The fragment makes me wonder whether the design was connected to its context at all. Can a design be generic and thereby easy to project on other locations?

The discussion about whether or not designs ought to be embedded in the context is kind of never-ending. Although I was taught at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) to take the context into consideration, I have to assume there are also designers that do not subscribe to that notion: otherwise, the discussion would not exist.

Context Before we can discuss this matter in more detail, we have to explain the term ‘context’ more specifically. According to Wang, the term can be defined in at least three different ways: ‘Firstly, as the immediate, physical environment in which a design assignment is carried out; secondly, both the built and the written architectural discourses; thirdly, the broader social context, in other words: the cultural values that play a part in design decisions.’2 Decontextualization Starting from the assumption that architecture is related to use, it is strongly connected to our global civilization. The global civilization is changing; focusing on the attainment of autonomy.3 Architecture reflects this by becoming more abstract and decontextualized; it gets to the essence of things and discards all limitations.

Decontextualization is what happens when local and cultural influences are also seen as limiting factors and are, for that reason, excluded.

In OASE 76, Stuhlmacher and Holtrop describe this development as: ‘a building method that has very little connection with here and now, an architecture that does not derive its concepts, 2 Wilfried Wang, ‘About the Growing Irrelevance of Context in the Generation of Form, or: Why There Is No Longer Any Difference Between an Urn and a Chamber Pot’ (eds. Mechthild Stuhlmacher and Anne Holtrop) in: OASE 76 – Context (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2008).

3 ‘Autonomy is the Freedom to Make Your Own Choices’ Encyclo. Autonomy. [Online encyclopaedia] Accessed on 26 July 2013, available on: http://www.encyclo.nl/begrip/autonomie.

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images and character from a specific place and time.’4 Designers themselves choose the architectural rules that guide them during the design process. They like to start with a tabula rasa: a blank slate on which the idea for a completely new plan can be realized without taking the existing buildings into account.5 The resulting buildings cause some concern among those who are of the opinion that such buildings affect the character of the city. Contextualists such as Frank, Mendelsohn, Scharoun, Venturi, Rossi, Czech and Diener & Diener are set against urban renewal because they feel it destroys the authenticity, the character and the memories of a location.2 When designing new buildings, these designers prefer to start from the genus loci: the individuality of the location.6 Reference Projects BIG’s Water Culture House contrasts with many other projects of the architectural firm in which they fully explain their building design in terms of physical context. Those projects are greatly influenced by, among other things, characteristics of surrounding buildings, orientation and solar effects.1 When designing the Trek-in, it could have felt logical to disregard the context because the exact location, or ‘physical context’, was as yet unknown during the design process. The building was going to be mass-produced and included in the hikers’ cabin network in various locations.

Nevertheless, the context did greatly influence the design: the target group was known to specifically choose hikers’ cabins because of their natural surroundings. This contrasts strongly with the current situation, in which users have a very limited view of the surroundings. Without knowing its exact future location, the new design is wholly focused on the perception of context due to the inclusion of large glass surfaces and the arrangement of its functions.

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A reference project that Floris and Holtrop describe in OASE 76 is an office building in Zug, designed by Miller & Maranta Architects. Miller, architect and co-founder of the architectural firm, says that with designing this building, they purposely decided to detach from the context.

The aim was to give the location of the design a more subtle and elaborate appearance and start new developments that way.7 This sounds simple, however, to be able to say what it means to detach from the context, it is necessary to first consider the existing context. It may be that the building is also contextual: perhaps not as a logical continuation of architectural characteristics, but in a more abstract manner.

Conclusion The above mentioned contextualists declare themselves against renewal, as they feel it may harm the authenticity and character of a location. Are new buildings supposed to literally correspond to buildings in the immediate vicinity, for instance with regard to typology and materialization? Would it suffice for buildings to somehow anticipate, for instance, sightlines, gutter heights or alignments? Is it alright for new buildings to represent contemporary architectural ideas? Perhaps the question ought to be something like: is it necessary to fully preserve the context, or is the context subject to change as well? Is it alright if the character of a location changes slowly? Can we make room for innovation, and do we want to? I cannot imagine that we have to continue living and working in exact copies of buildings that were built many years ago and were useful at that time; conditions have changed.

The reference projects do not succeed in clearing up what it means when a design is not related to the context. How can a designer adopt a decontextualistic attitude? For reasons

4 Mechthild Stuhlmacher and Anne Holtrop, ‘Editorial’, in: OASE 76 – Context (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2008) 5 Roel Griffioen, Tabula Rasa. Accessed on 26 July 2013, available on: www.architectenweb.nl/ap14295 6 Roel Griffioen, Context. Accessed on 26 July 2013, available on: www.architectenweb.nl/ap1382

Top Trek-in. Photograph of the front of a Trek-in featuring large glass panes that open the central living space up to the landscape. Photograph by Tim van der Grinten.

7 Job Floris and Anne Holtrop (eds. Mechthild Stuhlmacher and Anne Holtrop), ‘Tradition Is to Feed the Fire, Not to Preserve the Ashes’, in: OASE 76 – Context (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2008)

Bottom BIG’s Water Culture House. The arrangement of baths and the changing context. Image credits: BIG, Yes Is More – an Archicomic on Architectural Evolution.

unknown, that is something designers seem unwilling, perhaps even afraid to talk or write about. Is that due to social aspects? Do we expect designers to conform to the context and is it therefore taboo to admit in a publication that the context was taken off the table during the design process?

The fact that it is still often unclear what it actually means for a design to be or not to be related to its context, is partly because nobody provides a clear definition of ‘context’. Perhaps the separation is not that clear as expected before; perhaps designers cannot simply be divided into two groups: ‘contextualists’ and ‘decontextualists’. The project may also influence the attitude of the designer.

Two out of three reference projects show buildings that do, in one way or another, establish a relationship with their surroundings. This suggests that it is not impossible to move a design into another location, but that, if it is moved, an extra step in the design process is necessary to ensure that the entire design, inside and out, matches its new context. Given the example of the office in Zug, the question also arises whether the building will have the same effect in another context, and whether that effect will be desirable in that other context, where totally different processes take place. Yet the BIG quote does suggest that neither taking a next step, nor change is necessary.

The reference projects described are not a full representation of the different attitudes among designers, yet they provide an insight into the issues behind the debate and are interesting food for thinking about the meaning of the notion ‘context’ and the attitude we ourselves want to take.

Jouke Post

The Revival of the Architect Changing perspectives in society lead to a more pointed architectural presence in housing development After their realization of the first Dutch Cradle to Cradle house in 2012, initiators Jouke Post and Petra Reijnhoudt took a year to consider and debate the question: ‘What next?’ They have currently launched the 4C-concept: Cradle to Cradle combined with Joint Project Commissioning.

How did architecture manage to get to this point?

And is the ‘bottom-up’ approach going to result in a different domestic architecture?

The paradigm of our society is in shift: the simple society we knew during the industrialization of the 1900s, when people were roughly speaking either workers or bosses and were housed accordingly is a thing of the past.

A lot has changed. People are now more prosperous and better educated, and the introduction of things like electricity has led to big changes. Blue collar workers became a minority. Around the 1960s, the need for alternative forms of family living grew exponentially. The religion-based compartmentalization of society gave way to a society built on social and societal

consensus. More individually interpreted forms of cohabitation and family life became feasible.

Today, issues such as religious persuasion, political colour or status are hardly the subject of debate anymore. It is now self-evident that people create their own niche in society. Our collective consciousness has become more searching, and more liberal. We are much more committed to social issues, including energy and environmental problems.

Shifting Paradigm Nowadays, people are more informed when they choose a house and neighbourhood to live in.

The housing stock that exists in expansion areas rarely matches their wishes. Providers of housing, such as developers and brokers, convinced they knew the market well, had architects design houses with and without roofs, semi-detached houses in twos or threes, and detached houses.

In recent decades, architects no longer played a significant role in housing development. The developers were the clients, and the architect had only to stick appropriate façades on marketable designs. This period led to the impoverishment of the housing stock.

The role of the architect has changed a lot since the 1920s. Looking at designers in domestic architecture, we first see them getting involved in the 1920s. At that time, policymakers assigned architects to design large-scale housing schemes on the basis of the social inclination to provide people with the well-designed dwellings in pleasant neighbourhoods they were, ideally, entitled to. The influence of the then Amsterdam alderman Floor Wibaut on the issue is legendary. Many Amsterdam School buildings and neighbourhoods are the result, many of them monuments today. The intensive involvement of architects was reignited during the post-Second World War reconstruction. Architects theorized about the ideal city and neighbourhood, and en masse began designing homes for the low-

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About the author Jouke Post is an architect and a director of XX-architecten.

In addition, he has long been affiliated with the Faculty of Architecture of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e).

‘Innovations’ were tolerated on a small scale Cradle to Cradle est-paid. Major expansions, with attention paid to scale, size, health and good homes in, for – an attitude not uncommon in our country. This The ‘lifespan’ vision we introduced in the XX project (see intermezzo) was later supplemented instance, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, were the also applied to other views, for instance with regard to eco-construction and individual alter- by the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) approach. C2C result. These efforts led to a rich and interesting native energy production. literally means: from the cradle to the grave, also environment that would not have existed without Construction has been experiencing a seri- known as ‘waste = food’. Representing a cyclic their efforts. ous crisis for several years now. Many construc- approach, C2C takes the position that everything We look back nostalgically at environments that is used or produced will eventually end up that combine work and domestic life, where dif- tion companies have shrunk or disappeared from the market. The structural drop in demand is re- back in the environment. It is therefore imporferent lifestyles meet: they can still be found in the inforced by the demographic decline in Limburg, tant not to use toxic materials that will end up old hearts of big cities. Some groups of residents Groningen and Zeeland. Also, housing associ- poisoning our surroundings. Replacing the old have therefore taken the initiative to develop small neighbourhoods, completely to their own ations have stopped building and municipalities approach that revolved around environmentally have discontinued their project organizations. safety advising us to use less harmful materials, taste, bringing their own architect, in the context of some form of Joint Project Commissioning They have many years of handling large finan- it is a positive approach that actually benefits (CPO). In the eyes of developers, this is an in- cial problems due to bad land investments to nature: let’s do more of a good thing, rather than look forward to. Bouwend Nederland, the Dutch efficient building method that leads to relatively less of a bad! The challenge is to organize the organization of building companies, has for years expensive housing and, therefore, not something way materials are produced according to the now been saying that the government should ‘more of a good thing’-approach. This applies they would want to see applied more widely. intervene and should stimulate construction, but The tension between the individual needs to clothing, food, toys, detergents, and so forth, of the user and the so-called efficiency require- the fact remains that there is no real demand and also to building materials. In addition, C2C anymore. ments of the developers has been a problem assumes that an unlimited amount of limitlessly between providers (the industry) and clients useable energy exists. This in itself is correct, (user) for a long time. As early as the 1960s, this Timeline however, energy is expensive, which is why we inspired John Habraken to publish a book called But there is a glimmer of hope, and that is the have adjusted the model to include energy use, aap, noot, mies, huis (Three r’s for Housing). In advent of a new kind of client. Groups of future always assuming the availability of renewable it, he suggested that it was actually really easy residents organize themselves to build jointly; energy sources. to meet housing demands, by simply organizing municipalities create room for a variety of initithe housing stock in a different way – which was atives, things small-scaled are given a chance.

The First C2C Dwelling NL technologically feasible even then. Unfortunately, For one of my lectures, I once drew a timeline With this vision and the science developed at the building industry lobby was and is strong demonstrating the abrupt change from quantity the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), and organized around projects, which benefits to quality. These changes have been associated it was inevitable that when I decided to build my everyone – or at least the building industry. with an increased interest in global environmen- own home, I once again turned it into a stateLone voices in the wilderness, like that of tal issues. First gently, with experimental projects: ment. I only wanted to build a house, and subseCarel Weeber who advocated ‘wild living’, the once these have established political support, quently develop its principles into another form of issuing of lots to be built on without restrictive they become viable subjects of discussion. The housing, one that was more in tune with popular rules were hardly taken seriously. A completely timeline also shows the increasing scale of the demand and took current focus areas into condifferent organization of all stakeholders was problem as well as possible solutions. We are sideration. My house thus became a prototype required. Literally and figuratively, people were now in the thick of things: right now, there is room for a new approach and perhaps an answer to afraid of ‘Belgian scenes’: imagine that everyone for other views likes Cradle to Cradle, renewable the problems outlined above. We named the would just romp about building their own house! energy, etcetera. dwelling ‘The First C2C Dwelling NL’ to signal More threatening of course was that this would what we were trying to do. Our aim was to deploy seriously compromise the then current earning natural processes and materials where possible. model.

Obviously, we had to consider situation and lo-

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Intermezzo The innovative XX-architecten has always made efforts to address environmental concerns within the discipline, not posing questions but stating facts and indicating directions.

As mere architects and builders, we are but small cogs in the machine. Our best effort consists of the conception and later realization of Project XX: a building that disintegrates after 20 years, subsequently returning to raw materials.

The building is located in Delft and has a life expectancy of seven or more years. We thought that the lifespan of a building ought to determine the use of materials and, consequently, the environmental impact.

4C Neighbourhood cation, but we included lifespan as well. During its lifetime, the building must not pollute the envi- We then had to realize the increase in scale.

People do not object to new types of dwellings ronment, it must only use renewable energy and yet at the same time must to be so comfortable – as long as these meet their specifications. Essentially, it is not about the process, but about that ‘everyone’ would want to live in it while, at finding a home that suits its future owner, taking the end of its lifespan, it must leave no harmful into consideration social and environmental prinresidues behind. In addition, its design must be ciples. To this end, we have developed a new, spatially and aesthetically valuable. modified type of Joint Project Commissioning At the TU/e we developed a so-called C2C tool to test the C2C content of an area or building. (CPO), its purpose being the realization, in a The instrument is also a tool with which to calcu- self-organized environment, of a suitable property that fits the budget and can be constructed late the consequences of various decisions, thus facilitating the careful consideration of options. within a couple of years.

This modified form of CPO became the subWith a lot of research and cooperation of numerject of discussions with the municipality of Lanous companies, we have been quite successful in achieving our goal. ‘The First C2C Dwelling NL’ singerland. Would the municipality be willing to make a location available for us to test The First scores 8.9 out of 10. This is the result of careful analysis of every decision at every level: macro, C2C Dwelling NL on the basis of the prototype meso or micro. We had to do a lot of research: and given a new, modified CPO constellation?

How can we optimize the environment for energy, After a year of talking and negotiating, a contract experience, diversity and materialization purpos- has now been signed.

We have named the concept 4C, meaning es? And more technically speaking, what is the chemical makeup of the used materials? What Cradle to Cradle, Comfort and Co-design. This ingredients can we use, what types of glue in is trying to express that the properties meet the particular? How can we create an energy-neutral Cradle to Cradle principles, which are, among building that uses only renewable energy? And other things, the use of renewable energy and the last but not least, where do we find construction recycling of used materials, and also guarantee partners? It was a lot of work, we wore down Comfortable housing, while Co-design means four installation companies among other things, that the user can impact the planning process but it was also very educational: ideal for a pro- at the level of both the dwelling and the neightotypical approach. bourhood. One could say that this approach is

a demand-driven providers’ model; on the one hand, prospective buyers have almost complete freedom to shape their own home and neighbourhood. On the other, they can rest assured that the project will be realized within budget and on schedule, and that all of this is embedded in a socially responsible context.

The concept has thus acquired a position between the two existing methods: buying a lot and organizing the building individually, or buying an existing house on the market.

Is this bottom-up approach going to result in another kind of domestic architecture? New clients are neither the authorities as in the Amsterdam School period, the housing associations as in the reconstruction period, nor developers as in the past few decades, but residents themselves. Not on a sprinkling of individual lots, but on the scale of a residential neighbourhood, so effectively on the scale of a project. New clients take an interest in the aesthetic, spatial and social quality of dwellings and neighbourhoods.

Unlike construction that is green only to sell well, new construction is driven by the need to be environmentally responsible. This will lead to higher-quality districts, neighbourhoods and homes. Because more and more people work at home, over time neighbourhoods will become less and less monotonous. Chances of more suburbs being built are getting significantly slimmer. Architects that have regained their positions can use their influence to develop a value-based architectural language. Once again, we have the opportunity to develop a new domestic language of architecture!

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The first C2C house in The Netherlands.

Image courtasy of XX-architecten.

The emergence of computer software in architectural offices most-

Generative Design

Interview

Design Digitally, Make Digitally Where Codes and Algorithms are the New Tools of Architecture Zubin Khabazi interviewed by Hannaneh Sobhani and Peyvand Yavari Creativity always starts by sketching some ideas and then jumping right into the drawing of plans, sections and three-dimensional models on our laptops. But the conventional approaches do not fit the ever-expanding technologies anymore. Generative design has started to change the face of architecture recently, and as a matter of fact, it is going to pervade more in the world of architecture in the near future. Architect Zubin Khabazi explains the general principles of this new field, in a simple language.

What is the general, principal difference between the process of design in classic architecture and generative or algorithmic design?

To make a short statement of the difference, I would say that the use of computer software actually started to change the way we design spaces and also it affected the way we make architecture.

Fabrication is the new term that we use in this field. We started to design everything by digital media and to deliver this design to the machines that could make architectural products by means of digital code. So in a way, we are trying to make a building made by digitally designed and fabricated pieces.

ly affected the formal representation of architectural design. So what we are looking at is a long history of architectural representations using 3D software. It was the very first step. During the time a style of architecture arrived that we called blob architecture or ‘blobitecture’.

The difference between classic architecture and this new movement was the incorporation of curved surfaces. But most of those projects remained on paper and have not been realized because of the building technologies.

Gradually, the process of digital design shifted towards digital fabrication. Therefore, the idea is to design something and then try to make it with digital machinery. The moment that architects were mostly engaged with only form has now passed. They are trying to develop systems to implement other issues like climatic themes or adaptability. I know a couple of projects where they are trying to deal with planning issues by optimizing the surfaces, better views to the outside and accessibility on the inside, but at the moment there has only been a small step taken in that direction. But I think there are going to be quite a lot more taken in the near future.

About identity in architecture: Is it possible to put factors of context in the process of this kind of design?

What I see in the current catalogue of contemporary architecture is pretty much the same type of architecture everywhere. I would say that the aesthetic factors are derived from software generators.

Architects tend to use curved surfaces and component-based design, using almost the same types of software and algorithms. So design outputs are almost the same. But the general process of algorithmic design and fabrication is not only in the direction of designing new buildings; it is a very general tool, capable of cooperating with classical architecture as well. For example in the [morphogenesism] laboratory, we have designed and fabricated a couple of traditional Iranian domes like a Karbandi dome; all made by patterns generated by classical Iranian geometry and the fabrication process was also a combination of modern and classic methods.

As this method is quite newly introduced, we are curious to know how this system deals with the practical aspects of traditional architecture like planning or circulation.

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About the interviewee Zubin Khabazi, architect, researcher and writer, is the founder of [morphogenesism]. He studied Master of Emergent Technologies and Design (EmTech) at the Architectural Association, School of Architecture (AA) London. He has taught and lectured at different universities and schools of architecture but recently broadened his research and design investigations through publications of ‘Generative Algorithms’ worldwide. ‘Generative Algorithms’ as a design research medium in the field of parametric architecture and algorithmic solutions has gained global attention from students and architects.

A set up to construct the final shell of the workshop, after material system development and tests.

AA Visiting School in Lyon, Les Grands Ateliers. Image courtasy of [morphogenesism].

Generative Design

So you are using it as a tool for now, but if it becomes smarter and more responsive then it will actually become a design method, not a tool. Am I right?

Yes, even at the moment it is a way of designing, but there are few people who can develop design algorithms. Lots of people are using these software packages but they are all using the same methodology, which they have learned in tutorials or from known projects.

But if these new design technologies expand a little bit, I am sure we will see more of people’s backgrounds or different impacts of classical geometry or their methods of construction and this would change the catalogue of forms we are looking at.

How about the role of the architect in the process of parametric design? Is the architect an operator or a person who gathers information and puts it in the software? Or can he choose to put identity and creativity into the process?

Of course the architect is still there, but instead of designing on paper, you are using a different medium. In order to arrange your ideas you need to code and you have to be capable of using design algorithms through computation, knowing how your design will be generated in a computer scheme. Still, there are many steps that the designer should take, but the design medium has changed. So the complexity of the project that requires an information process has shifted from your mind to the computer’s mind and it helps you to ask its power of data processing to think instead of you, but you define almost everything for it.

This question has another aspect. Would all architects then be creative? Or are some of them going to use the predefined algorithms that are available from some online plug-ins? There are photography apps that can change the look of photos on your iPhone, so now we can do something that a professional graphic artist was doing ten years ago! It would happen in architecture as well. It would be possible for so many people to use these software packages just by using prepared algorithms and systems.

It has been said that this design method would be so sustainable and there will be no waste of energy and material. But on the other hand, custom-producing every element requires a large budget.

What is your attitude towards this production method?

There’s a difference between what is happening now and the ideal approach that we are working towards. At the moment it is not really economical because we are using high-tech machines and lots of materials.

I would say that what superstars like Zaha Hadid are doing is not sustainable. But since these projects are mostly museums, high-quality hotel projects or stadiums, let’s say iconic projects, they have funds from the government or investors. Maybe in five or ten years we will

Final shell of a digitally designed fabric form work in combination with raw earth. AA Visiting School in Lyon, Les Grands Ateliers.

Image courtasy of [morphogenesism].

see that these algorithms can deal with all the aspects of the building at the same time to prevent the extra costs and be more sustainable.

Can you explain the term non-standard architecture, which every component is going to be designed in the most efficient way, so there wouldn’t be any specific standard component anymore?

In standard architecture each component, for example doors and stairs, is fabricated in factories by t method of mass production.

As personalization or customization appeared, industries decided to change the quality or the appearance of the products based on customer’s desires. So the idea of mass customization happened.

Digital machines were used to mass customize the products based on market demand. Architects started to design complex projects, which were not standard and then they subdivided these non-standard projects into pieces that were similar, but not exactly the same and digital fabrication machines were used to cut and make these building pieces. These machines use digital codes and they cut shapes based on these codes, so changing a code and asking for a different shape is easily possible. It is actually happening now for wall systems of interiors and façades. But I would say that those parts of the building that are based on human needs like toilets and doors will not change that much.

Can you also explain the approach in your workshops? Do students gain basic knowledge about generative design and will it be practical for them in the future?

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Generative Design

Digitally designed and fabricated Karbandi dome (a Structure from old Iranian Bazaar). ‘Karbandi’ Digital Design and Fabrication Workshop, 2012. Image courtasy of [morphogenesism].

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Computational design is somehow new all around the world. When you go to different universities you see that still, even in the UK, there are lots of universities that have conventional design approaches.

When I was studying at the Architectural Association, School of Architecture (AA) in London, I started to develop the generative algorithms online book, which was quite new in terms of the methodology at the time. So it was also a sort of non-standard education! And I realized that the computational design technique is not really at the core of educational agendas either in Europe, or Iran or the USA. So I started these types of workshops, which are happening in Iran, Europe and the USA. This is quite a non-standard way of educating people who want to learn this new design approach but do not have the opportunity in their university courses. We teach students how to combine the physical production of architecture with digital design techniques on the computer with simple outputs, medium or small-scale prototypes and models. It really helps students to see how the progress of their design could be completed through the parallel work of the computers and their hands.

For example in our recent workshop we designed a Minaret prototype (minarets are the cylinder-shaped elements in Iranian mosques) we started by researching traditional minaret types and their façade

pattern. Then we designed a simple prototype of a minaret on the computer and subdivided it into solid components, which were later fabricated using plaster. It is a technique to see how we are able to digitally generate the classic elements of Iranian architecture. The students found it interesting that how a complex design project could happen during a one-week workshop, while at their universities they still have to sit down and design on paper without really touching any materials or real work with machines.

And finally, how do you usually start a design process? By sketching or do you just put everything into the computer at the outset?

No, we still use hand-drawn sketches, meetings and discussions when we are in a group. We discuss the design strategy, we sketch, we use even physical models and gradually try to understand the problem and develop the responsive approach. After that point we use computers to develop algorithms. I always ask my students and colleagues to first realize and understand problems analytically to see what we are dealing with, and then go through designing with software computationally.

Parametricism: The Act of Change in Architecture Parametricism is a relatively new term in architecture. What does it mean and how does it influence the development of architecture? In this essay architect Edoardo Mentegazzi describes the growing role of generative algorithms as a parametric method used especially to create complex freeform structures, such as Gridshells.

1, 2, 3 Patrik Schumacher, Parametricism as Style, 11th Architecture Biennale, Venice 2008 4 Rivka Oxman, ‘Digital architecture as a challenge for design pedagogy: theory, knowledge, models and medium’, Design Studies 29 (2008), p.109 5 Zubin Khabazi, Generative Algorithms, Concepts and Experiments, 2_Porous shell, 2011. Form Finding is the search for optimal shape. In Architectural design: ‘form finding can be seen as shape finding with the optimum being rather subjective to the opinion of the architect. In structural design, the shape itself is not optimized, but the optimum is found in an optimal structural behaviour. For finding the optimal structural shape, different techniques can be used’ (analogical, digital, algoritmical). Toussaint, A Design Tool for Timber Gridshells, MSc Thesis, Delft University of Technology, 2007, p.69 6 ‘The name of grid shell commonly describes a structure with the shape and strength of a double curvature shell, but made of a grid instead of a solid surface. ...Long continuous bars are assembled on the ground, pinned between them in order to confer on the grid a total absence of plane shear rigidity which will allow large deformations.

The grid is deformed elastically by bending until the desired form is obtained and then rigidified.’ Douthe, Baverel, Caron, Form-finding of grid shell in composite material, IASS, 2006, p.1-2 7 John Shannon Hendrix, Topological Theory in Bioconstructivism, paper 28, 2012, p.1

Parametricism The term parametricism was used as a manifest for the first time by Patrik Schumacher during the 11th Architecture Biennale of Venice of 2008 and is without doubt the new design paradigm of today.

Generative Design

Edoardo Mentegazzi

Contemporary avant-garde architecture is addressing the demand for an increased level of articulated complexity by means of retooling its methods on the basis of parametric design systems. The contemporary architectural style that has achieved pervasive hegemony within the contemporary architectural avant-garde can be best understood as a research programme based upon the parametric paradigm. We propose to call this style: Parametricism.1 Schumacher defines parametricism as the new great style after modernism, while postmodernism and deconstructivism are seen only as transitional episodes in the course of research and innovation. According to him, even the term style becomes more complex and goes further than the traditional definition of the word. ‘My thesis is therefore: Styles are design research programmes.’2 Transforming itself into a ‘design-research-program’, style loses its traditional definition and becomes a complex design method. This method consists of methodological rules based on avoiding particular research paths or pursuing them. Schumacher calls these rules negative heuristics and positive heuristics. Negative heuristics avoid familiar typologies, platonic/ hermetic objects, clear-cut zones/territories, repetition, straight lines, right angles, corners…

They do not add or subtract without elaborate interarticulations. Positive heuristics ‘interarticulate, hyberdize, morph, deterritorialize, deform, iterate, use splines, nurbs, generative components and script rather than model’, etcetera.3 This approach, becoming pervasive in contemporary design and architecture, has created a new paradigm in architecture, changing the design theory and methodology. Parametricism introduces new concepts such as continuous versus discrete, intricate versus hierarchical, topological versus typological, and structure versus form.4 Shifting from the spatial, formal and compositional terminology of postmodern architecture, parametric design allows new generations of skilled architects to understand and to replicate the complex and mutational rules inside nature.

Nature as Model and Bioconstructivism Nature has always been a fascinating source of inspiration and ideas for researcher-architects and designers. One of these pioneers is German architect Frei Otto who, in collaboration with biologist J.G. Helmke, started his studies on Radiolaria microorganisms, looking for a structural design medium able to recreate the state of natural equilibrium of lightweight structures.

As a result of these studies, he developed the so-called Form-Finding, a process in which a predefined material system in predefined conditions becomes naturally self-organized.5 Otto used analogic models, like hanging chains or nets of cables, to investigate the structural behaviour of Gridshell structures.6 These studies have become a series of publications published by the Institute for Lightweight Structures (IL). The form-finding technique has evolved since the analogic models of Frei Otto. Today, form-finding means form-improvement or even form-exploration. It no longer concerns a structural optimization, but a morphogenesis of free-form shapes. This approach, called bioconstructivism, involves the engagement in architecture of generative models from nature.

This is in the tradition of natura naturans in architecture, which is the imitation of the forming principles of nature, as opposed to natura naturata, the direct imitation or mimesis of the form.7

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Generative Design

Computational Geometry and Generative Algorithms Computational Geometry is a branch of computer science that uses generative algorithms (GAs) for solving problems with geometrical aspects and outputs.8 In algorithmic processes various parameters that play a role in conventional design systems, like site, program, building type, facilities, beauty, structure, etcetera, are transformed into algorithms, to generate design solutions. The algorithm acts as a set of rules that provides instructions to calculate and process data and carry out a specific task, following a predefined step-by-step procedure. Any given input (the data) results into a calculated design output, which is performed by the algorithmic process.9 In computational geometry, generative algorithms need a design medium in order to perform geometrical operations. This is possible thanks to Grasshopper, a plug-in for design software Rhinoceros that combines script language with a visual interface. Using this platform, a new variety of Gridshell typologies, based on the control of self-organization and surface distribution, can be created.

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Porous Shell10 Porous Shell is an experiment published by architect, researcher and writer Zubin Khabazi, with the aim to share the knowledge of algorithmic design applied to specific subjects. It is based on the Radiolaria structure configuration and it is created within the Grasshopper platform using a specific generative algorithm. The author shows the process behind this experiment by dividing it into four phases. Starting from modelling a generic double-curved shape in the Rhinoceros program, passing through its organization and optimization with the use of ‘algorithmic morphogenesis’ and ending with the fabrication algorithm including the assembly process.

Phase 1: Center Point and Contour lines The organization of chambers in radiolaria is center-oriented and radial. ...After locating a center point, several closed curves as contour lines should be generated around it up to the edges of the surface. The general scale of the surface and desired size of chambers define the amount and distance of the contour lines. This phase of the algorithm corresponds to the general geometry of the input surface.

Phase 2: Surface Subdivision and Triangulation Basically the algorithm divides the contour lines into pieces and connects them to generate the base lines of triangulation. The number of base lines and the distance between them are all adjustable. Manipulation of them depends on the chamber sizes and local surface curvature. This phase corresponds to the physical behavior of the natural morphogenesis of the organism.

Phase 3: Chamber Generation Each node of the net is a center point for a chamber to be drawn around it, using parameters of all net segments connected to that point. After all chambers being generated, these curves and their inside area should be subtracted from the main surface which makes a lattice shape surface which is porous shell.

Phase 4: Fabrication All issues regarding size and number of chambers, thickness of lattice, etc. should be defined by the values coming from the product, design, material and fabrication necessities. While the design phase has been informed by such information, now the porous shell is ready to go to the process of fabrication and assembly.

To conclude, it can be said that parametricism and its specific area of computational design gives skilled architects the opportunity to manage three important stages of a project at the same time: design, analysis and fabrication. Creating the rules and the susceptibility to let them interact with each other, like it happens in nature, all of the aspects of the project can be improved and controlled.

Radiolaria microorganisms. Image credits: Khabazi, Z. (2012). Generative Algorithms (using Grasshopper). [morphogenisism].

Porous Shell. Image credits: Khabazi, Z. (2012). Generative Algorithms (using Grasshopper). [morphogenisism].

8 ‘GAs are probabilistic methods of optimization that rely on random selection factors and probabilistic decision. ‘The basic principle is extracted from Nature and its selection method’, that is why Genetic Algorithms rely on on the collective learning paradigm and implement the principle of population, mutation, recombination and selection.

‘Charles Darwin showed that Nature uses random mutation and in that way creates a huge variety of designs.’ Miloš Dimčić, Structural optimisation of Grid Shells, Based on Genetic Algorithms, itke, Stuttgart, 2011, p.25-27 9 Zubin Khabazi, Generative Algorithms, using Grasshopper, Morphogenesism, 2012, p.7 10 Passages taken from: Zubin Khabazi, Generative Algorithms, Concepts and Experiments, 2_Porous shell, Morphogenesism, 2011, p.16

About the author Edoardo Mentegazzi studied architecture at the Polytechnic of Turin and he graduated in 2005. In 2006 he moved to the Netherlands where he established his interdisciplinary office: E M A (Edoardo Mentegazzi Architect), operating in the fields of Architecture, Design, Research and International Competitions, fully based on a digital and three-dimensional design method. Mentegazzi is also working on the book Behind Gridshells, Morphogenetic and Parametric Design Strategies, expected to be published in 2014.

Generative Design is the Future Traditionally, an architect is involved in the process of designing a building from the first sketches and ideas all the way through to the last laid brick of the product. In recent decades the roles have shifted, to the architect just dealing with aesthetics and the rest being left to ‘specialists’. According to generative designer Sander Boer, this is a disturbing trend, as there are many advantages to having a good overview of the entire process. What can be done to regain this overview, thereby improving the outcome?

The Dutch architecture industry is currently experiencing a crisis, with a massive reduction in the joint commissions portfolio as a result.

But there is also another crisis going on: a crisis concerning the scope of the commissions. Architects are both being engaged later in the process and being let go earlier than before. In short: the architect is becoming increasingly less relevant to the building process. This trend is as serious as it is finite, with the curve of the architect’s relevance ending just above zero, with all that is left for him to design the façade.

Even the image is made by someone else.

The Mea Culpa of an Architect I can come up with only one explanation for the dwindling relevance of the architect and that is rigidity. I long thought that specialist thinking was to blame, that specialists were taking over the responsibilities of the architect until only design work was left. Incidentally, this is actually happening: the times when the architect was responsible for construction management, wrote the specifications, or could perform a cost calculation that was actually used by others, are long gone.

Specialization is a reality that will not go away, but the perception that the architect is no longer needed once the design has been made is incorrect. Yes, the architect is a design specialist, but the view that a design is an end product is wrong. We are trained in a design approach that divides buildings to scale – we always design from large to small, which is even specified in contracts, and this is a decreasingly flexible process. This is essentially the reason for the declining relevance of

About the author Sander Boer (1972) has a strong background in architecture. He graduated from Eindhoven University of Technology and has worked for leading architecture firms. Sander is currently employed by MAUC architects in Rotterdam. He is an expert on generative and parametric design, BIM and non-standard architecture.

the architect: at a certain point, the design is fixed and the rest can be coloured in by specialists; the architect can take his leave. Lately, it has become quite common for architects to be thanked and given their walking papers after handing in the definitive design.

Actually, this is a curious practice, for it is a fact that the work is to create a ‘thing’, something tangible, which has dimensions, made of materials that cost money, using the free energy of the sun and the free water of the rain. And this ‘thing’ is our thing, we have come up with it, we have measured the dimensions, decided on the materials and put a considerable amount of effort into the consideration of heating load and rain water harvesting systems. This thing is what everybody is working on, and making money off of. It is literally the topic of discussion, the protagonist, the hero of the story, and we are the only ones equipped to adjust it. Anyone who has been closely involved in a construction process knows that adjustments are the order of the day and that, due to the increasing complexity of the construction process, adjustments may be costly and confusing.

Generative Design

Sander Boer

The BIM Diversion Fuelling the fire of our degradation is the Building Information Model or BIM, a new type of product that is supposed to replace drawing, but in fact creates a greater complexity. In itself it is a big step forward to have floor plans, sections and façades matching for once, but the integration of disciplines is still a long way off. And in the meantime, the demands made upon the BIM are continually revised upward. The Dutch Building Information Council is therefore busy spending millions on a central building library, a costly misconception I could devote a separate article to. The main problem the BIM creates for architects is ‘retrofitting’: we still want drawings, we bother about line widths, we continue to think from large to small and in phases. There is a lot to be said about the Building Information Model, but the fact is that it accurately describes the ‘thing’. It is a 3D model (correct measurements!) with extra metadata (materials!). Drawing thus diverts us from the actual goal, which is creating the best 3D model including the best metadata for a particular client and a particular group of stakeholders.

Although the BIM suffers from hype and false promises, having a 3D model informing the building chain is of crucial importance and such a model is potentially a vital link in that chain. Once we can manipulate 3D models and the associated metadata at each scale level and at any time, we’ll have become twenty-first-century architects. And as 3D models are computer generated and computers can be programmed, there is no reason why we should not be able to become just that.

A 3D Model has No Abstract Features A 3D model is by definition hyper-real and scale-agnostic. Hyper-real is a notion of Kas Oosterhuis, who uses it to point out that a 3D model is anything but virtual, as each element can be measured with perfect precision. A 3D model leaves no room for interpretation, which is why looking at an abstract 3D model is a strange experience. Apparently, our brain is not equipped to identify a picture of blocks and a blue foam model as one and the same object. >

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Generative Design

Making an artist impression from a generated model takes only a fraction of the time one would normally need. Image courtasy of Sander Boer.

The term ‘scale-agnostic’ refers to the fact that unlike models or drawings, 3D models do not have a scale, they are 1:1 representations of a design. All things considered, designing from large to small is putting things upside down. A building is ‘constructed’ from its smallest parts. Whereas classic design processes end with the details, actual construction begins with details.

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Simultaneously There is no reason to believe that the design of a 3D model cannot begin with the details. There is a real fear that the final image is going to be no more than the sum of its parts, and building concepts are difficult to define when you start with a single brick.

But what if the design is not rigid, by definition? What if the design provides the specialist team with relevant data at all times?

What if the design can inform every stakeholder about relevant issues, especially after adjustments, at any time? What if adjustments are the rule, rather than the exception? Computers can be programmed to inform people on a large scale. Instead of a blue foam model, a 3D volume can be drawn with a scripted façade and floor surfaces that precisely follow the project brief. If the width of the building is modified, the computer will automatically adjust the depth and the façade to correctly maintain the specified dimensions.

This is what I call generative design: the design is laid down in rules and parameters, and algorithms are written to interpret the rules and parameters.

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Generative Design, Flexibility Rules Mind you, I am talking about generative ‘design’, not generative ‘geometry’, the forums of Rhino Grasshopper and the like are full of systems that are only suitable to create pavilions, and student work inspired by UN Studio, Zaha Hadid or Emergent Architecture features a notable absence of doors and often has glass panes the size of half a football field. In some cases, such examples are even submitted for contests.

Generative design does not require a complex geometry: that is merely a possibility. Generative design is algorithmic design, a design procedure, a decision tree. This may sound modern, but the old-fashioned sketch on a piece of paper is both a study and an illustration of an algorithmic thought process. The architect ‘works’ algorithmically, but the deficiencies in the product – the drawing – freeze the parameters of this process that are considered relevant at a certain point in time. An architectural design is the outcome of a journey through a maze of possibilities and decisions.

For example, a selected nave size excludes certain types of staircases, and certain types of staircases push the bathroom to a particular side of the façade, which in turn determines the façade openings. The generative design I am talking about quite simply aspires to keep this maze of interconnected decisions alive. The process ‘is’ the product. In practice, this means making a mock-up, for instance with Grasshopper, during the design process and ultimately writing an application for the client. The advent of products like Unity3D and open libraries like three.js for WebGL make 3D applications more accessible than ever.

Interactions Moreover, unlike in the digital world, in the analogue world decision iteration is an expensive process – think about changing a nave size. In the digital world, such iterations are free and that opens up another whole new world of possibilities, for instance for optimizations, and makes the complexity of, for instance, sustainability in construction a lot more manageable. A generative design is by definition a 3D model and there is no reason for it not to be set up as an IFC model. As people in the BIM world are now elbowing each other out of the way to stack as many complexities in the work process as possible, much can be gained by deploying a generative design to direct the BIM model.

Conclusion In closing, I would like to recommend the educational establishments to orient the text-centric approach to design and research more towards hyper-text, meaning text with links to other texts. In the context of generative design, a design has a multitude of scenarios, which I consider fertile ground for architectural research.

Towards a Tool-Based and SelfOrganizing Architecture Modern architecture is caught in a trend – buildings need to be adjustable in order to function. Adjustability in this context refers to the extent to which the user can alter the characteristics of the building to serve the purpose it fulfills at a set moment in time. What can an architect do to guarantee such a level of adjustability? Dennis Rietmeijer explains the importance of tool-based and self-organizing architecture.

1 Michel Foucault, ‘Confinement, Psychiatry, Prison’, in: L. Kritzman (ed.), Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews and Other Writings, 1977-1984 (New York: Routledge, 1988), 197 2 VPRO, Tegenlicht, De kapitale kracht van geluk (Dutch-English spoken), broadcast 4 February 2013 3 Magazine ARCH+, issue 2: Kybernetik, Systemtheorie, published 1 April 1968 4 See also the computer simulation Game of Life designed

by John Conway, published in 1970 in: Martin Gardner, ‘Mathematical Games – The Fantastic Combinations of John Conway’s New Solitaire Game “Life”’, Scientific American 223 (1970-10), 120-123

About the author Dennis Rietmeijer obtained his Master’s degree in architecture at the Academie van Bouwkunst in Rotterdam. He has enjoyed a versatile career and is the owner of Atelier Rietmeijer Architects, a broadly oriented firm that operates in the fields of residential and commercial architecture, urban design, and research.

My position is that it is not up to us to propose. As soon as one ‘proposes’ – one proposes a vocabulary, an ideology, which can only have effects of domination. What we have to present are instruments and tools that people might find useful. By forming groups specifically to make these analyses, to wage these struggles, by using these instruments or others: this is how, in the end, possibilities open up.1

Generative Design

Dennis Rietmeijer

Owners and users of buildings are increasingly staging the architectural design process, even up to the point where they become designers themselves. For instance, employees of a company or organization are more involved in the design of their future work spot and future homeowners design their houses themselves. This ‘down to top’ method is preferred over the traditional ‘top down’ approach where the architect dominated the design process.

The focus in ‘down to top’ systems lies in the completion of processes by employees, rather than dominating them. The employees are ‘agents’ in these non-hierarchical systems and have the satisfaction of more responsibility. This makes them more motivated which results in higher productivity. For example Semco, a company founded by Brazilian entrepreneur Ricardo Semler,2 is successful in applying non-hierarchical self-organizing systems in its organization.

By shifting roles and letting clients, employees or companies be the designers instead of the architect, the product becomes more user friendly and in sync with the user. The danger in this approach is that the result could be chaotic. But like Semler did at Semco, some simple rules and conditions have to be applied so employees can take self-direction and self-control.

The question remains, how can architects cope with the shifting role?

In the 1950s the German brothers Eberhart and Wolfgang Schnelle, founders of the Quickborner team,3 were the first to propose a self-organized system in designs for office layouts. They proposed to group employees based on relationships between employees or objects instead of going along with the typical Tayloristic ordering system based on hierarchy.

Every time relationships changed inside the organization, the employees could change the office layout themselves. The result was a more dynamic office landscape. The main advantages were the liberation from a hierarchical company and a more productive employee.

However, the big disadvantage was that buildings could not cope with the dynamics of the open Bürolandschaft. Noise, lack of daylight, insulation and ventilation problems are just a few examples why the strategy does not work in all situations.

The Schnelle brothers proposed a self-organizing grouping format or a strategy giving companies tools for redesigning and rearranging their interior by themselves. Architects could contribute to these interior processes by studying these self-organizing interior processes and proposing buildings based on these processes. In this case the only things the building design provides are opportunities and constraints to the interior, setting a breeding ground.

If we study these self-organizing processes, we have to look at nature and biological systems. In nature these processes also take place, for instance in structuring ant colonies.

Ant colonies are structured by internal processes and conditions, in combination with the constraints of their environment. Each individual completes tasks for a greater cause, in this case the survival and growth of the colony. Mathematicians have studied these processes and transformed them into algorithms. With these algorithms engineers can simulate self-organizing processes with the use of computers.4 The outcome of the simulation is not known because of the complexity level and the varieties of input. Thanks to the use of computers, calculations can be done in far less time.

To help clients who strive to be self-organizing, architects could propose designs based on self-organized processes. Instead of making complete designs, architects should, like Schnelle, present design tools and instruments for making designs. Clients can use these tools to make their own layouts. For the architect, designing tools is designing rules. Like the design of a hammer; to hammer a nail into a wooden beam you need to apply a shaped

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Generative Design

material in a certain way and use it with a particular force. A rule is created to put a nail into the beam. These rules are interlinked with the object. So to design a tool or set of tools could be a complex task. Not only the purpose of the tool and how to apply it must be clear, it also has to be tested in different situations. Architects can present a specific design as a (temporary) end result. The design should be based on a tool or toolset for clients that can also be used at a later time to change or expand their design.

An example of a self-organizing system in a design process based on a set of tools was the proposition for a business centre at Rotterdam-The Hague Airport consisting of individual work spaces. In order to optimize the commercial value of a unit by the guarantee that the unit will be exposed to a sufficient amount of daylight, a virtual lab was built to simulate the ordering process. In this virtual lab daylight with an overcast clouded sky was simulated.

One of the tools used was a computer program that operated inside the virtual lab. This tool calculates the exact amount of natural light falling into a cell, thus deciding if the cell will live or die and should move or rotate.

To describe the beginning of the process, one can use the analogy of a Petri dish with bacteria in a laboratory. If we translate this way of thinking to the design process, a breeding ground for units is formed according to the fire safety rules and conditions for evacuating a building. This breeding ground is specifically located around an elevator shaft (and emergency stairs). Outside this breeding ground, a cell cannot survive, setting constraints to the location of the cells. The location of the first shaft is rather randomly determined, yet in accordance with local regulations for emergency evacuations. In the virtual lab we let the computer ‘grow’ units around the shaft using a set of tools as described above, up to the point where the position of a unit is no longer in compliance with the maximum distance to an emergency exit. That’s when a new shaft will be generated and the process of growing units repeats itself. The growth comes to an end, either by the distinct (physical) borders of a site or building or by the absence of breeding ground. In this case clients could use the tools to expand or change the design and generate different possibilities.

In the example above a simple self-organized strategy was presented based on tools containing different computer algorithms. In this case the role of the architect has shifted to a tool designer. Instead of designing final solutions or designs, the architect becomes an indirect designer of final propositions and presents possibilities. This certainly doesn’t make the position and responsibility of the architect less important. The architect not only needs to know the volume or space of the client’s internal processes, he needs to know in detail how the processes are working in order to shape and advise the right tool or toolset. To operate on this level, the architect could propose alterations in the client’s processes, which makes him more customer-minded. After he shapes, has tested and presented a tool, the architect needs to have the ability to let go of the client’s design process. An architect that has built up experience with this approach has built his own tool store for future projects.

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Possible outcome for a design for a business centre near Rotterdam-The Hague Airport.

Image courtasy of Dennis Rietmeijer.

Joren Hoogeboom

EXp[at] HOME The world is a smaller place today. Space and time have found new definitions in an increasingly fast, virtual and connected existence.

In all this, architecture’s nostalgic ruminations about place has somewhat become old-fashioned. Although for most it is still a reluctant and slow letting go of a place called home, some

seem to effortlessly drift. The phenomenon has profound implications for the meaning and experience of space if one does not dwell but merely finds shelter in architecture. ‘Traces of Mobility’ is a fascinating photo essay that captures the fleeting, placeless, adventure of an expat couple.

Architects that make housing have their specific opinion about the experience of a dwelling.

Spaciousness, access to light and a nice living environment are the issues architects use to design their projects. I know, for I am an architect myself. But how do the residents experience this architect’s vision? They generally pay more attention to the practical side of a house: Do the bed and the couch fit well in their rooms? Isn’t the toilet to noisy? Can I open a window in the kitchen? Can I make it cozy in here?

A distinct group of users are the temporary residents, like expats. I wondered how they experience the houses they live in during their stay abroad. In a short photo assignment I found out how different those expats think about living and coziness. >

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Cos·mo·poli·tan /ˌkɒzməˈpɒlɪtən

24 About the author Joran Hoogeboom, a professional architect and photographer, is the founding director of Atelier voor Architectuur & Fotografie, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He strives for quality in two-dimensional and three-dimensional expressions – photographs and architecture – that he perceives as his unique, personal interpretations of reality.

Text and photography by Joren Hoogeboom www.architectuurenfoto.nl

Cos·mo·poli·tan /ˌkɒzməˈpɒlɪtən A city, place or person that embraces its multicultural demographics World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship That was the first word that occurred to me after I met the lovely couple Ray and Lisa Whittaker from Darwen, UK. I asked them to summarize the conversation I had with them, to confirm this thought.

The work that Lisa does takes us to many places in the world. She is a project manager for Accenture, a large multinational consultancy firm. Fortunately, my work as a self-employed business branding consultant allows me to travel with her since most of my work can be carried out on the Internet.

For many people, the idea of spending so much time away from home, travelling from place to place, is something they would not contemplate. The possessions that we have with us fit into two suitcases and backpacks. People often wonder how we cope with leaving most of our stuff back at our home in England. As long as we have our phones and laptops, we can stay in touch with people. And as long as we have each other we can make ourselves comfortable anywhere. We both love to travel and although it can sometimes be difficult living out of a suitcase, it’s worth it to visit new places and meet new people.

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Ricardo Ploemen

A Disembodiment of Today’s Image-Based Architecture Practice With current technology, we can produce realistic digital representations of designs. Buildings are presented, reviewed and implemented on the basis of these representations. The reduction in time and cost that these digital developments bring is attractive, but does judging the quality of designs on the basis of visual perception alone suffice? To what extent are other senses we use to perceive architecture being ignored? Ricardo Ploemen discusses notions arising from the increased focus on a visual or conceptual approach of architectural designs.

Introduction Due to an exponentially increasing digitization of our environment in recent years, in which images are (re)produced incessantly, the visual perception of images has come to supersede our other senses. Changing presentation techniques and the present-day wizardry of computer graphics in the field of architecture, causing today’s iconic mode of architectural representation,

have resulted in an ongoing stream of published projects, built or to be built. Consequently, the published image of a building is praised as a representative factor to decide whether or not that building is a success.

I remain skeptical about the way this actually contributes to the usage and experience of the built object, the real architecture, as architecture to the utmost extent should relate to the way built objects are lived. In fact, most of today’s designs seem to exclusively create imposing retinal images, which in general lead to buildings that lack a true connection with the user’s bodily experience. Such a disconnection is mainly caused by edited pictures of situations that we have never encountered, and therefore in no way can be referred to in our memories.

Juhani Pallasmaa argues: ‘Contemporary design has housed the intellect and the eye, but it has left the body and the other senses, as well as our memories and dreams, homeless.’1 It is therefore important to value architecture that responds to context over architecture that strives for concept and strong images.

From a phenomenological point of view that emphasizes the body’s central position in the world, one needs to question whether exclusive visual perception sufficiently succeeds in understanding the surroundings we encounter.

Philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty extensively elaborated on the phenomenology of perception in his eponymous magnum opus. In accordance with his theory on this subject, I argue that the human body is our medium for the world and consequently enables us to perceive relations in the space we engage with. Opposed to this notion, images actually turn into an artificial reality and unconsciously become a crucial part of the decisions we make and how we live our lives.

A Phenomenological Approach A detailed look at phenomenology and embodiment seems to be indispensable to obtain a

sufficient understanding of how we perceive and more specifically how images are interpreted.

Hence, I would like to refer to the way Merleau-Ponty added understanding to the act of relating ourselves to the world that surrounds us.

He claims that ‘our body enables us to approach the world; through our body we act in the world we are living’.2 This approach to the world lacks completeness of that which is perceived since we always see things from a certain perspective and under certain aspects, leaving other aspects out of our perception. This incompleteness tends to strongly increase where images are concerned.

The phenomenological view of Merleau-Ponty suggested that the value of people’s experience of the world, gained through their immediate bodily engagement with it, remains greater than the value of understanding gleaned through abstract systems.3 Things mean something to us due to our bodily relation with them.

This return to the things and the world describes how we perceive the world through the body when interacting with it. According to Merleau-Ponty, this interacting requires both the world (object) and the body (subject) to exist, which is called ‘intentionality’.4 The intentionality of the thinking body arranges the physical space and interprets the architectural qualities that surround it.

One could say that the phenomenological way of encountering reality offers an account of space, time and the world as we live them by attempting to provide a direct description of the phenomena we experience. A phenomenon would be best described as a directly observable occurrence that is perceived by an individual, though present to all human beings. This perception starts on a subconscious level and, as a result, it mainly remains inaccessible to our consciousness. This actually means that perception precedes our reflecting consciousness.5 Merleau-Ponty provides an interesting view on

26 3 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1962), p.11 1 Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin (London: Academy Editions, 1996), p.10 About the author Ricardo Ploemen recently graduated in architecture at Eindhoven University of Technology.

2 R. Bakker, Merleau-Ponty (Baarn: het Wereldvenster, 1965), p.73

4 Maurice Merleau-Ponty (2003), De wereld waarnemen (Amsterdam: Boom, 2003), p.16 5 R. Bakker, Merleau-Ponty, p.61

side the monolithic presence, and windows that frame the surroundings as if they were paintings.

The building seems to adapt to its function of ‘showing’ by remaining in the background and providing both physical and mental space to encounter the exhibited works. In contrast to Case Study Museums In order to explain the apparent disparity be- the white spaces that have become the standard environment for installations of contempotween designing based on bodily experiences rary art and generally cause visitors to end up and memories, and designing based on a more disoriented, Zumthor created a strong spatial visual or conceptual approach of the design presence that guides and supports the visitors and its process, I would like to discuss two built during their journey through the art collection. museums: Peter Zumthor’s Kolumba Museum On my journey through the museum I encounin Cologne and Rem Koolhaas’s Kunsthal in tered numerous well-chosen materials – conRotterdam. crete, stone, chromed steel, glass, mahogany, Highly inspired by the phenomenological way of thinking about the world and our exis- leather – that were composed in vigorous choreography. The materials Zumthor used express tence in it, Zumthor recalls lasting memories of their age and history as well as the passing of places and things he once experienced through time and human use. This can be connected to their sensual qualities and considers them as fundamental aspects of designing. Accordingly, the way Merleau-Ponty describes the things we Zumthor carefully designs his buildings to stim- observe. He states that every perception captures a formerly perceived dimension of the past ulate experiences and evoke memories. Here he echoes architectural practitioner and writer and a dimension of the future that eventually will be perceived.8 In that sense every moment is Juhani Pallasmaa’s thoughts, that in a world where technologies operate so fast that sight is sufficiently connected to the past and focused the only human sense that can keep pace, archi- on the future. Equal to Merleau-Ponty’s aforetecture should emphasize other senses that re- mentioned suggestion that the value of people’s main more immediately resonant.7 To represent bodily experience of the world remains greater our bodies engage physically and to a greater extent intuitively. It shows that every touching experience of architecture is multisensory and therefore cannot be reduced to the eye only.

Kunsthal, second floor, white exhibition spaces, artificially illuminated. Photography by Ricardo Ploemen.

this by saying that ‘to perceive’ is actually ‘to believe’ in a world. This belief – Urglaube – can be seen as our awareness of being anchored in the world, in the spatial situation within which an individual is mentally and physically positioned.

In this sense, the body is our general medium for an interrelation with such a world.6 The act of entering a building exemplifies the way we require our bodily interrelation with the world and buildings that are part of it, to allow the ability of experience and interpretation.

When standing in front of the door we generally need to grasp for the doorknob as an obligatory act which enables us to enter the building and perceive its interior spatial arrangement, materiality, atmosphere and so on; we now find ourselves in a spatial situation with which

Zumthor’s views on approaching and conducting his designs, my bodily experience of the Kolumba Museum in Cologne will be discussed now.

When I approached the introvert building and entered the tomb on the ground floor, it was immediately clear to me that the project design had started from the inside, from the site and the collection of the church’s preserved remains.

Built on top of the remains of the St. Kolumba church that was bombed during the Second World War, this museum completely adapts to its specific location. The building merges a variety of embodied images: the remembrances of the religious past of the site, the tangible paintings and sculptures that are exhibited in-

than that of understanding gleaned through mathematical, scientific or technological data, Zumthor treated these materials in such a way that my bodily engagement with the different spaces and even the exhibited collection was amplified.

The design for the second museum that will be discussed, the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, is strongly based on a conceptual way of thinking. In this specific building neither the viewer, nor the works of art take a central position; the concept of temporality and neutrality are considered to be most important. In contrast to the first example, which clearly showed that Zumthor consciously avoided the white spaces that are

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6 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, p.146

7 Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin

8 R. Bakker, Merleau-Ponty, p.67

commonly used for installations of contemporary art, the exhibitions that I encountered at the Kunsthal did make use of today’s dominant display system. Whereas Zumthor privileged the individual contemplation of art in specific spaces, Koolhaas attempted to provoke interaction between viewers by providing a neutral stage that allows the exhibiting of ‘art on the move’. Even though this concept would fit best to a Kunsthal, a museum presenting exhibitions without owning a collection of art, this undue neutrality remains questionable. As Andrew MacNair puts it: ‘The Kunsthal acts as a train station without trains, an airport without planes, a terminus which is a place of intersection between ordinary people and ordinary art. Nothing stays very long.’9 Un-

ously awaken all the senses. The built object or image should not be considered as architecture; it is the bodily movement through a sequence of spaces, a series of partial experiences, that actually creates architecture. The second museum discussed, which clearly fits the conceptual type of architecture that more or less exclusively focuses on imagery, showed a lack of sensual and embodied essence. Consequently, many ways of perceiving the world are getting lost and people that are confronted with buildings

fortunately, that is exactly what I felt like when visiting the building and strolling through its exhibition spaces. Sensual aspects were to the utmost extent left out of the building; its spaces and applied materials were not able to move me in such a way as those in the Kolumba Museum.

Most of the materials that Koolhaas used in this design – sheets of glass, enameled metal and synthetic materials – present their unyielding surfaces to the eye without conveying anything of their material essence or change over time.

What remains, as a result of the lack of sensual and embodied essence, is emptiness between the building and the user’s bodily experience.

Concluding Thoughts The initial task of architecture is to create an embodied reality that structures and re-enforces man’s being in the world. Though currently there seems to be an over-emphasis on the visual and conceptual dimensions of architecture. A two-dimensional representation limits itself by only partially engaging the myriad sensations evoked by architecture. This shows us that images that we visually perceive do not suffice in understanding the reality of spaces we (are about to) live in. Only architecture can simultane-

28 Kolumba Museum, reading space, surrounded by mahogany-clad walls, related to the exterior world and its changing conditions. Photography by Ricardo Ploemen.

9 Andrew MacNair, ‘Kunsthal Rotterdam’, A & U: architecture & urbanism (August 1994), p.120

of this type are likely to become dissociated from it. Therefore, when aiming for true architecture, designing based on bodily experiences and memories would need to be emulated over designing based on a more visual or conceptual approach of the design and its process. Conceptual architecture reflects and externalizes ideas and images of life; architecture that captures phenomenological qualities materializes our images of ideal life.

The Importance of Sketching How Sketching by Hand Adds Texture and Intelligence to Design There is a multitude of drawing and modelling software on the market and as a result, people are increasingly less likely to sketch by hand. Nowadays, computers even threaten to interfere with the source of the design process, where ideas are conceived. Christiaan Rijnen takes the view that architects ought to deploy quick, handmade sketches as important design contributions and continue to do so throughout the design process. He’s not denying the qualities of the computer, even encourages the combination of techniques, yet he considers sketching by hand a process that includes a certain volatility that can stimulate the effective generation of ideas.

Information Overkill A trace of fear or distrust of the computer makes me escape to the drawing board every time. That is not to deny that the computer is a great medium for the development of the final stages of a project, but sketching by hand simply has a certain fluency of its own. Hands and thoughts become one and the vision controls the fingers, superimposing itself on the paper. A handmade sketch strengthens the connection between the ideas and the results.

In a time where almost everyone has several computers at their disposal, many students perceive sketching as an old-fashioned or cumbersome method. As a consequence, sketching by hand and in some cases even writing by hand is becoming terra incognita.

There are many architecture and gadget blogs, so data and pictures are easily available. But the risk of people failing to absorb this information overkill is growing. There is an increasing superficiality that destroys our sense of material and time. There is a hasty obsession with striking, glitzy and floating buildings. The question is whether this development causes people to think differently, and make decisions in a different way.

A Visual Urge In 2012 I visited the NAi exhibition on Louis I. Kahn. Besides models and photographs of his work, many drawings and sketches were exhibited: not only design sketches, but also drawings he made on his travels through Europe. Although these drawings are many decades

About the author Christiaan Rijnen is currently earning himself a Master’s degree in architecture at the University of Antwerp.

old, they continue to intrigue me. A special feature of handmade drawings is that they withstand time in a different way than renderings. This is the ambiguity of architectural sketches: on the one hand, they are simply a means of communication, used to express ideas. On the other, they carry the personal signature of the architect. This enhances their presence at the exhibition and urges us to experiment with various drawing techniques and paper sizes and types.

Designers reconstruct on the basis of everything that inspires them. That may be buildings, or the development of personal working methods and means of communication. Handmade sketches are in this sense a perfect didactic tool, because they immediately represent the used materials and techniques.

Freehand Drawing

Christiaan Rijnen

An Unnecessary Middleman Although the accuracy of the process is reflected in various forms, the computer plays a dominant role today. It is important not to use this medium as the most important piece of equipment from the very beginning. Using the computer means: only making contact with a series of abstract codes and programs. This actually makes drawing a simple line a far-fetched process. The use of the computer itself already requires a certain degree of concentration and in the early stages of the design process this can be seen to create unnecessary distance.

It will also cause the designer to reason differently than what would be the case if he drew manually. The time necessary to anticipate the computer software and its associated problems may influence the decisions he makes. It is harder to be objective and sometimes he may lose sight of the big picture. The designer is thus limited to the capabilities of the computer he works with. Thus, the texture and imagination of the process threaten to be lost, and he obtains a representation of the end result that is out of touch with reality.

Sketching by hand in the early stages ensures that the design process is immediate. The evolution of the process needs fewer steps, which creates a kind of freedom. Therefore, the designer can focus completely on the drawing itself. This way, the architect utilizes all his opportunities in the essential design stage. Subsequently, the result can be, partly or in its entirety, digitized.

The Importance of Identity in the Digital Era We live in a digital era and therefore we cannot ignore the computer while developing a project. It gives us the opportunity to combine analogous and digital methods. This step demonstrates the resourcefulness of the designer and yields visually challenging results. It is important to transpose the visual urge that one feels while sketching, to working on the computer. This is a kind of reverse reasoning, since many students are highly dexterous when it comes to CAD-programs.

Another kind of dexterousness includes being able to reinterpret traditional building techniques that ensure the building is firmly embedded in its surroundings from the outset. Peter Zumthor’s Bruder Klaus Kapel in Wachendorf is a good example. Thin trees cleared from the area were used as inside casing. Next the concrete was poured and then the trees were burned in a fire that lasted three weeks. >

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Freehand Drawing

Zumthor’s design method is characterized by a strong determination with regard to both the design and its practical implementation.

The academic process is ignored completely and the design is projected pragmatically through plans, sections, elevations and details.

This makes his architecture consistent and fair. The construction and building techniques are both legible and a logical consequence of the design and material.

Reconstruction Architects do not invent new things, but do not simply copy either.

On the basis of the conscious or unconscious stealing of ideas, they reconstruct. Both students and professional architects observe and recycle little bits of different things that have been applied at an earlier stage in the extensive history of architecture.

Encouraging students not to work by computer from the outset can encourage them to pay more attention to conceptual ideas and details

as well as to the development of a personal methodology. The crucial contribution sketching by hand can make ought to be emphasized and addressed during classes more strongly.

When we look at large urban icons, famous at home and abroad, we can conclude that everybody recognizes such structures. But to what extent can architecture students sketch these buildings from memory? Having students study some of these huge buildings and then make them sketch them trains their powers of observation and sense of general structure.

The Factory Having students manually visualize their ideas by sketching ceaselessly may take them on a voyage of discovery into their own imaginations and possibilities. Of course this also depends on the fantasy and imagination of the students themselves.

Each building expresses both architectural ambition and technical, programmatic and conceptual specifics. A design should not have too many different ambitions, either. Too many ambitions within a design cancel each other out and make the building as uninteresting as one lacking ambition altogether. In principle, each design is unique and therefore we cannot speak of mass production. The latter term is only applicable during the realization of the building itself, when separate parts are combined to a whole in various stages and by different people.

The confluence of different media and techniques can lead to inventive and vivid results. The ambitions experienced during the concept and design phases must be directly converted into handmade sketches. If this ambition is then sustained in the development phase of the project, during the so-called digitalization by computer, it will provide added value. Good design, finally, persuades in all its forms: as a building and construction, but also on paper, in section and in detail.

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Mixed media drawing of the Cathedral in Antwerp, Belgium, where the sketch of the cathedral was made from memory. Made by Christiaan Rijnen.

I Draw (with) the Body Yo dibujo (con) el cuerpo Drawing is an important tool in the design process that all architects use in one way or another and the range of applications is practically endless. Fátima Fernandes, architect and tutor of architecture projects at the Escuela Superior Artística de Porto (ESAP), writes about using the medium of drawing as a way to discover a place, unearthing the elements that comprise its genius loci.

1 Manoel de Barros, Arranjos para assobio (Rio de Janeiro: Record, 1998), 73 2 Frank van Kessel, free translation of the poem by Manoel de Barros, ibid.

3 Escola Superior Artística do Porto. http://www.esap.pt/ cursos.asp?grau=mestrado_integrado 4 Álvaro Siza, Emaginar a evidencia (Rome-Bari: Gius Laterza e Figlie, 1998), 27

About the author Fátima Fernandes is an architect, titular professor of projects and director of the architecture course at the Escuela Superior Artística de Porto (ESAP) in Portugal.

Para entender nós temos dois caminhos: o da sensibilidade que é o entendimento do corpo; e o da inteligência que é o entendimento do espírito Eu escrevo com o corpo.

Poesia não é para compreender, mas para incorporar.

Entender é parede; procure ser árvore.1 We have two ways to comprehend: Sensitivity, the comprehension of the body; and intelligence, the comprehension of the mind.

I write with the body.

Poetry is not to comprehend but to embody.

Comprehension is a wall; seek to be the tree.2 The human body is a natural measure of architecture, therefore it is used as a constant reference throughout the process of design. During their education at ESAP3 students in architecture are trained by the drawing teachers to understand the proportion of the body, its movement and the consequences of these movements in space. The lessons spent on drawing models in the classroom and analysing and recording the rapid movements of people in the gardens and the streets of the city have made the students proficient in using an important instrument in design; the esquisse, a sketch that is not as raw as a croquis but more developed, while still not being a completely worked out visualization. It is an instrument that allows one to put something on paper that goes beyond the apparent reality of what is seen and observed, a mediator between reality and thought. This mediator offers students the possibility to rapidly capture their ideas at the speed in which they appear. The operation of investigation and inquiry of ideas and thoughts reflect the attempt to capture in a space the memories of travels, readings and even dreams; an attempt to rapidly assess a construction detail or the vision of a territory, drawing architecture before its material existence. The implied velocity of execution of the esquisse, and the elementary means with which this is done places this instrument in the centre of the design development process.

The esquisses that the students develop from the beginning are the operational support of a much broader system of instruments that can act on intuition and chance in an organized and rational action necessary for the development of an architectural project. The consequential universality of the esquisse as the architects’ working instrument makes it possible to draw forms with the intention of materializing a series of criteria and foundations at the beginning of the process of conceptualization. While still not immediately legible, these slowly conform the space and – later – their professional work. Ultimately, at the base of that action is a theoretical and critical way of thinking that goes on paper as threads of ink that help define the problems and bring about their solution, reaching the geometry of the space. ‘Architecture is to geometrize.’4 The drawing is the great appoggiatura of the teaching practice in the ESAP project. This instrument, which all students master by the end of their second year of school, allows them to interpret every imaginary manifestation that arises from moment to moment, checking their correspondence or discrepancy to introduce adequate advancement in the arduous work of 31 progressive projective operations that aim for the humanization of cities. In the process of getting to know a location in which these passionate students will intervene, the esquisse will show their abstract desires in observation exercises that register ratios and proportions of the surroundings more easily understood and memorized than what would result from actual observation by eye. Like Daedalus, they open their wings and fly over the earth to draw from below and from above; from all its sides, its times and its silences. They draw the colour of the days and the light over the body of the city in movement, in all of its abstraction. >

Freehand Drawing

Fátima Fernandes

Freehand Drawing

These are drawings of their involvement in reality. But never is it reproduction. These are drawings made by bodies that are subtly charmed by the cityscapes. The students observe them, they wrap them without ever touching them and they apprehend them in order to later transform them.

Every exercise they are presented with in the course of their training as apprentices of architecture is an opportunity to give consistency and materialize an idea, to propose an adequate architecture for a given site, which is simultaneously subject and object, and the construction of an identity that consciously appropriates itself being elements from other cultures or those of its own, in a constant dance that links the past to the future.

The communication of an idea of living, considering the architect as a creator that has the privilege to materialize the conscience expectations and the unconscious imagery of an individual or a collective, is an essential act for contemporary architecture, especially if one wants to achieve its full compliance. Before all, the project is a mental thing. In the beginning, there is no physical location. It is the task of the architect to fix the ideas and images that his mind produces through drawings, through models, but also through writing. The idea as a result of the mind is cloudy and incomplete. It only encounters its own form after the exploration, the speculation and the modifications produced by the drawing and the models, which are instruments of evaluation, formalization and materialization.

The geographical nature of the Atlantic and at times fluvial granite landscape of the

Top Example of an esquisse, by ESAP student José Soares. The student released himself from the ground and tried to draw what he imagined the site would look like from above. Image courtesy of Fatima Fernandes.

Bottom Example of another esquisse, by ESAP student José Soares. Image courtesy of Fatima Fernandes.

city of Porto is set up as the perfect laboratory, an authentic figurative territorial structure. A complex formal structure with which the new ‘architectures’ and the public spaces proposed by the students can confront themselves and with which they can entangle. Any architectural intervention in this territory has the need to undertake a confrontation and procession with a system of relations of both great and small scale, embracing and linking with the geography of this complex location, and consequentially engage in a dialog with a role of reference, of visual and physical characters of the same territory, with the genius loci of the location.5 At the same time the students learn to make the project comprise the drawing of the land itself, the steep areas of the city and of the escarpment, the river and the misty sea, which means the plan of a system of constitutive relations of a new territorial order, in summation the plan of a landscape in the most comprehensive sense. The architecture will be the result of these conditions; it will have to be generated by them to become a mediator between nature and our perception of it. It will be a kind of sensitive skin that will surround the human and protect him.

These exercises are in turn inscribed in the interest for the values of a whole, composed of the natural and built on a process of the ongoing relationship with the individual components of architecture. The concept of space appears obviously determined by the interaction between the whole and the part, the mix of forces which, requiring the drawing of all parts, never loses sight of the whole, from the urban logic to the constructive system and an essentialism of the forms, so that the sense of balance is not solely physically but also sensory. A precious condition that guarantees the attempt of coherent definition of new landscapes, more consistent with the natural environment and unequivocally supported by the poetics of place, practising architecture as a poetic profession whose writing is drawing.

32 5 Norberg-Schulz defines the local character as a ‘necessity for any authentic architecture’ and says that ‘since the ancient times this quality has been recognized as genius loci or ‘local spirit.” See also Norberg-Schulz, Christian: The principles of modern architecture: about the new tradition of the 20th century. Reverte, 2005, p. 185. See also Norberg-Schulz, Christian: Genius Loci, Academy Editions, University of Minnesota, 1980

Freehand Drawing

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Interview

The Future of Architecture Herman Hertzberger and Laurens Jan ten Kate interviewed by Hannaneh Sobhani, Renée van Kemenade and Annemiek Osinga On 14 November 2013, Herman Hertzberger and his studio partner Laurens Jan ten Kate visited Eindhoven University of Technology to view the building location of Flux. On that occasion, Archiprint was given the opportunity to discuss current developments and the future of architecture with the both of them. Herman and Laurens Jan spoke frankly about their personal development as architects, about the way users influence the design process and about the flexibility of the design brief. ‘Give buildings an identity, make sure they have character, and avoid designing yet another container.’

Our current issue of Archiprint focuses on movement in architecture. I want to jump to this theme and ask: What is your attitude towards new trends such as sustainable design, and how do they relate to buildings now and in the past?

Laurens Jan ten Kate: You have to understand that for the past twenty years there has

been a separation between buildings and functions. When I studied and Herman was my teacher (1984-1989), architects still believed that they understood what would happen to their buildings.

That has changed completely. So now we don’t design especially functional buildings, because the function of a building is not a stable function anymore. Of course there are processes happening in buildings, but the current architect or the new generation of architects have a totally different attitude towards making buildings than twenty years ago. That means that you have to create environments and spaces that can be used for many purposes without knowing in advance what the exact function will be.

Herman Hertzberger: Actually, the only thing certain is that you need toilets and elevators and staircases! Like in this building (Vertigo, the building that houses the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU/e), which used to be a building for the Faculty of Chemistry and now is a building for the Faculty of Architecture!

Maybe next year it will house something else.

So the whole idea of shaping a building based on a written programme doesn’t work anymore.

Do you believe that a building can work as well as it could if you were to design it for one particular function?

HH: Yes! But it’s not simple! Let’s say the future of architecture is that we have to design just ‘building’ buildings! Not housing or offices or whatever. Like the Ministry of Social Affairs we designed, which used to be housed in an apartment building. Then they moved to the new building and then the other building became housing again! In our very unstable society it doesn’t make sense anymore to say we are going to arrange a building in such a way that it works as an office building or a Faculty of Architecture.

We have to learn methods to make buildings as collections of spaces in such a way that they can

be designated to different functions. It is maybe difficult but that’s the assignment.

LJtK: And in fact that’s also very sustainable.

Vertigo is a good example of a sustainable building. It’s a challenging building. You can practice any form of meeting with people, education and so on. So that means that if you want to restore, like what you see happening with a lot of standard commercial office buildings in the Netherlands: they are being abandoned because they are designed at a moment in time when working in closed rooms and doors was common, with only the corridor as the communal space. Due to the use of the computer, however, with mobile phones we are now living in a totally different world! What you see happening is that these buildings lack environments that promote creativity and communication. That means that we have a typology that no longer works, so what we have to do is create environments in which people can meet in all kind of ways. How will they meet in twenty years? We will see.

HH: But the really big pitfall to avoid is to conclude that you should make such generic buildings neutral. That just leads to dull spaces, perhaps very cheap, but without any identity. In fact, the identity of a building changes when it gets another function and after that another function. I compare it with the body, which can be dressed up for a party or for spending the weekend at home, but undressed has as such its own identity. That is the big thing: How can we make buildings that have a character that is not based on function but on an identity of their own.

There is a style change visible in your architecture over the years of your career.

HH: Really?!

Your earlier work is more cubical and your later work is more organic – it has more round forms. Would you say that this is because you

34 About the interviewees Herman Hertzberger (b. Amsterdam, 1932) graduated from Delft University of Technology in 1958. Immediately after graduating, he started his own practice in Amsterdam.

In 2007 his office was transformed together with Laurens Jan ten Kate en Patrick Fransen into Architectuurstudio HH. He was editor for the Forum magazine, a lecturer at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam and professor at Delft University of Technology.

Laurens Jan ten Kate (Groningen, 1965) studied architecture at Delft University of Technology. He has worked at Architecture Studio HH since 1989, where he is now a partner. He is lecturer at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam.

Herman Hertzberger.

Photography by Léon Tonnaer.

have decided to be yourself more or could it be due to the influence of partners like Laurens Jan ten Kate?

HH: In my opinion my work has not changed that much. There are elements that I’ve added or retained. Actually it’s the shift in time that has made the conditions completely different from when I began, but from the moment of my first publications I always identified the same things, so in that sense I am a very dull person because I kept my point of view! And the fact that you do it with different means is maybe an enrichment of the language; it’s more language than anything else.

So you say the main part or the ‘body’ is still the same but the way it expresses itself is different?

HH: Yes, although my own body is not the body of a young man anymore!

LJtK: Take the Faculty of Beta Sciences in Utrecht, for example, a faculty building Herman and I worked on together. Of course you’re right; Herman’s language has changed, but I think that’s good. What, in my opinion, has happened in Herman’s architecture is that it became more free. What we spoke about is challenging spaces and this is what this building got. There, 600 people work in one space. In the whole of Western Europe there is no other faculty building where that happens. It’s a free space that they can use in any way they want. It’s not anonymous – it has a great architectural identity, but it also has a lot of freedom. And they like it. That’s very important to us.

HH: But it’s just an attempt; for me it’s not my last word because we all think it’s very difficult

This thinking of going towards the making of free environments to change functions; did you have this thought from the beginning of your career or did the modern crisis bring this idea to your office?

HH: Well, I claim that I have had the idea for a very long time but now it became topical. This idea of polyvalence, which was also for instance proposed by Louis Kahn, by his making servant and served spaces, already tells the same story.

Like: there are spaces you always need such as toilets and elevators and storage rooms next to open space-units which can be used in different ways, so it’s not quite my invention – the basic idea was on the floor already. When you take Aldo van Eyck’s orphanage, you see the same potential, apart from the fact that he disagreed with this idea. He wanted the function to stay

to find a way to deal with this modern condition.

the same as he intended; very functionalist. >

35

LJtK: In the history of architecture this development has been taking place for more than 100 years. You had Beaux Arts and you had Art Deco. That was the end of the old profession of architecture, and actually all those buildings were the same. Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau were just styles. Then came a revolution; that was the start of a totally different attitude towards architecture. The architect was no longer a stylist, but he became a person helping to reinvent society. Le Corbusier and architects of his time were working closely together but not in a style.

Modern architecture became a style, but it was never intended to be so. They made everything white to get rid of style! From a historical perspective, we are liberating our buildings from style and using architecture much more as a way to help society.

Centraal Beheer by Herman is a good example. It illustrates a paradigm shift in architecture: it told the story of a working environment in a totally different way. This was the moment in which you got a space that was temporarily a library, but could’ve been anything. So there is a trend in Western European architecture of liberating the building from its function, as we already mentioned.

HH: But be careful that it has a character and that it is not an open space, a different container. You should think about how people want to live, what you think of daily life. Then you should decide what the criteria for architecture are? That is the philosophical background you have to concentrate on. To say it bluntly: Is it to make people feel better? Or should it be attractive? What is quality in architecture?

I think that for architects it’s time to really start spending time on history, sociology, psychology, philosophy and forget about just making stylish buildings. At this moment it makes no sense to make something that is just pretty. It only makes sense to think about what our position is and what our possibilities are. There was a period

36

Laurens Jan ten Kate (left) and Herman Hertzberger. Photography by Léon Tonnaer.

when we thought that architecture could improve the world and I still believe that we could use it to improve the world, or anyway don’t make it worse. We should start by looking at what is feasible – not utopian thinking. Stop moving your hands, start moving your brains.

Right, so how do you deal with the fact that users today want to integrate in the process of designing? People want to interfere more and more with what’s happening.

HH: Doctors get patients that ask for a certain medicine that they found on the Internet.

Sometimes the doctor doesn’t agree, but the patient threatens that if he doesn’t prescribe the medicine in question he will go to another doctor. Architects occasionally have to deal with the same problem. Clients know so well what they think they want for themselves, that they put you in a subordinate role. However do realize that you are at the service of society as a whole.

LJtK: A good architect is a good doctor.

Somebody needs space and we as architects deal in space. We deal in good space. For ex-

ample, the new building on the campus for the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics: during the competition we had some discussions and we showed the Faculty of Beta Sciences in Utrecht, which is very open. We got the commission, but they wanted a less open environment. I think university buildings are already becoming more and more open, like Vertigo, but they have references from the past. What we had to do is bring them into the future.

Have you ever built something that you disagree with, but you built it because somebody else wanted that?

HH: Maybe sometimes, but it’s not my favourite way of doing things. I try to fight with those people. As an architect you have knowledge, like a doctor has knowledge, and the people just have a will.

I was wondering one thing, because Laurens Jan, you said that you are two people speaking with the same voice, but you just told us that when you were studying at Delft Univer-

sity that Herman Hertzberger actually taught you. So, do you think this influenced the way you feel about architecture and directed you more towards his way of thinking?

LJtK: Well, you know, when I studied in the 1980s in Delft there was a big hall filled with 250 first-year students. Carel Weeber made a speech: ‘It’s crisis, five of you will become architects and the others: I don’t know, I also don’t understand what you’re doing here.’ That meant one thing: it was a big battle to be one of the five.

So, what my generation did was choose an environment: Rossi and Carel Weeber’s rationalism, Hertzberger’s polyvalence and modernism, or Rem Koolhaas’s spectacular architecture, which was more impressive. As students we had to choose our point of view, I felt the best with Herman’s polyvalence. I was most attracted to this view, but I’m also influenced by Koolhaas. That’s logical because I’m a younger architect. Herman is influenced by Aldo van Eyck. The essence is that we agree on our position, but I’m also very impressed by the work of other architects.

HH: But equally important is: What are you after? This is a little secret in architecture. Some architects want to change the world. Others want to earn a lot of money. And they never say: I want to become an architect because I want to earn a lot of money. They talk about changing the world but in fact architects also want a good practice and nice cars. It’s very obvious that many architects drive very nice cars. Be aware of them!

They have their interest somewhere else. But now it’s time to think and decide for yourself.

Why am I becoming an architect? What could architects do if they didn’t change the world?

What else could we do?

Frank van Kessel

Born from Sensibility Almost half a century after its completion, the Leça Swimming Pool complex, designed by Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza, has gracefully retained its architectural integrity. The Leça Swimming Pool complex has established itself as an example of Siza’s careful reconciliation of nature and his design.1 Siza’s works seem to be born from engaging with the conditions that surround them, embracing and upheaving the genius loci and ultimately presenting its sensibility by means of his architecture. Likewise, the way projects are approached at the Escuela Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) is one inspired by the location in a very sensible and profound sense. Right from the very start of the project the students are confronted with the Portuguese city of Porto and will follow their curiosity, ultimately arriving at a design that is a result of the contemplation of the cityscape and its different tropes that, like the works of Siza, embrace or play with the genius loci of the site.

The students start by choosing an exemplary artist or architect and continue by studying the abstract importance of their work. Based on the profound findings on the artists’ body of work, they develop an experiment that they then ap-

About the author Frank van Kessel is an architecture Master’s student at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), currently studying at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM). His article contemplates a way of working on a project that is totally different than the approach taken at his home university in Eindhoven, but equally valid. It aims to provide an insight into other ways of approaching an architectural project.

ply to the ambience of Porto, ultimately creating a cartography, representing the sensibility and profoundness of Porto’s tropes in a metaphysical sense. They don’t know the actual needs of the city, nor a program to incorporate, and will not need one. They have made an image that represents Porto in a much more interesting way, one that transcends the concrete and factual and represents Porto as a non-site.2 These representations include cartographies of Porto’s poetical relation to the sea, the waves breaking on the shore, the taste of its wine, its elevation that ends into the river, the people’s image of the city or the rubbish in Porto’s harbour, just to name a few. They use their cartographies and models and bring to the table objects that bear a metaphysical relation to their vision of the city. It is of utmost importance that the students are not hindered by limitations that might impair their intuition to react to sensibility, it is a way of designing by heart and gut-feelings rather than cold hard programmatic logical choice-making.

Many students will find themselves disorientated in the process, wanting a more structured design process, but this is where the teachers will challenge and guide them towards a final design.

The students will submit their design at different scales, containing at each scale a certain sensibility and profoundness rather than technical and structural information. The students are free to design whatever they wish, therefore the choices the students make will not come from a higher virtuous programme that acts as an inevitability that no-one will be able to escape from, but will come from their own experience and the journey that has already begun. It is however an essential base from which to follow through to designing with an actual programme.3 1 Balters, Sofia. ‘AD Classics: Leça Swimming Pools / Alvaro Siza’ 6 August 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed 24 November 2013. http://www.archdaily.com/?p=150272 2 A recurring term and theme, coined by artist Robert Smithson to embody a site that is no site, but rather a sensation of spatiality, of ‘siteness’, for example where one space borders and transitions into another, like the space confined by a door opening in between two adjacent rooms. It is the sentiment of the form that defines the site rather than its physical appearance.

3 This article is based on participation of the writer in a project at the ETSAM, guided by Concha Lapayese Luque, Rafael Beneytex Durán, Francisco Arques Soler, Ana Martinez Matos and Pedro Moreno Cano.

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AnArchi

From left ro right: Marijn Smits, Leonie van Buuren, Luuk van den Elzen and Marjolein Benen

In office since October 2013, AnArchi’s fifth board, consisting of myself, Marjolijn Benen, as president, Leonie van Buuren as secretary, Luuk van den Elzen as treasurer and Marijn Smits as activities supervisor, is thoroughly pleased to have the honour of representing AnArchi this year. We are presently halfway through that year and have some enjoyable and interesting months to look back on. We have had a number of fun activities, and many are yet to come. Our year began with the Architecture Pubquiz in the Black Box and so far, three LunchMovies have been screened in De Trappenzaal. In addition we have made several pleasant field trips, one of them to Mecanoo Architects. In December, we also started the sale of figurines in the scales 1:50, 1:100 and 1:200.

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Meanwhile, every effort is being made to organize good and interesting activities for the next six months, when the fact that this is a lustrum year will begin to show. First, there is going to be a grand celebration in March, with SpaceTime as the lustrum theme; the annual field trip organized in collaboration with VIA will take us to Miami this year; and of course there are more field trips and LunchMovies on the agenda as well. We are looking forward to it, and we hope you do, too: keep an eye on our Facebook page, Facebook group or the information boards, and sign up for one of our activities!

The 5th board of AnArchi

Agenda February \\ PubQuiz \\ Lunchmovie March \\ Architecture Firm Visit: Ector Hoogstad \\ Lunchmovie \\ Fifth Anniversary Celebration AnArchi: Theme: ‘SpaceTime’ April \\ Field Trip Miami (18-28 April 2014) \\ Visit Reynaers Aluminium July \\ Tekenen op Reis (Drawing on the Road)

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