Atlantis #18.1

ATLANTI

EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE BUFFET EAT AS MUCH AS YOU WANT 4.99 EURO

reserved greed & gluttony

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i s s u e 1 8 n r. 0 1 j a n u a r y 2 0 0 7

2 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - FROM THE EDITOS

FROM THE EDITORS CRISTINA AMPATZIDOU

The New Year is always a good motivation for setting new goals and redefining directions. For the coming issues ATLANTIS wishes to behave actively as a mediator between the academic and the world of practice. By emphasizing equally on educational and research activities that are taking place in the faculty and the positions and approaches formed by practitioners, we hope that ATLANTIS will manage to function as an interface between these two, offering insights to both.

In the same direction, we are establishing an exchange page with TU Eindhoven to be up to date with the activities that are taking place in another university, and the section “education in the mirror� to reflect on the quality of the programs offered in the urbanism department of TU Delft. It is the beginning of a new platform where students, teachers, employers and employees will be able to evaluate their education and give suggestions for a more useful and holistic learning.

Interaction is a very significant value in our effort, thus we hope that the present issue will stimulate some response which will help us advance the quality of content and our communication skills. We are looking forward to some critical feedback.

CONTENTS - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 3

CONTENTS 02 03 04 05 06

From the editors Contents From the board Polis Manifesto of eating project

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‘Vinex’ bedreigingen en kansen voor een duurzame ontwikkeling

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Photoreport New Orleans

22 27 28

Floating City Ijmeer VIA Eindhoven Centrality and urban flow

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The Deltametropolis after the RPB Report

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Education in the Mirror

44 45 46

Agenda Polis Statement Polis partners

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4 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - FROM THE BOARD

FROM THE BOARD ERWIN STOFFER

A new Atlantis again. A fantastic result of a totally renewed redaction. You can be proud of this first edition!

Meanwhile the new Polis board is getting acclimatized to their tasks. More and more we see how great it is and thatthere are also a lot of things to do. But we can’t do it on our own. Polis need help. The number of active members that participate in organising activities, excursions and workshops is not too much.

As Polis board we therefore want to ask you, students and practice members, to give Polis a new input.

Ideas are welcome, and also sponsoring, but especially active members, both on the organizing as on the participating side. Get in touch! You can reach us at cabinet 9.51 or by e-mail polis@bk.tudelft.nl.

The last months some successful activities are organized, like a trip to the municipality of Almere. In the morning we had a meeting at the office, with a presentation and discussion about the city Almere.

In the afternoon we became more active in a workshop to design the missing links of a future radial city Almere.

Futher on a series lunch lectures will start this year. Every month a speaker will be invited, who tells about the year’s theme ‘Act small, think big’. In our view the lunch lectures are likea red cord in the Polis year.

Finally I want to extend a word of thanks to all the enthousiastic students and tutors for all the work they have done.

POLIS - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 5

POLIS, PODIUM VOOR STEDEBOUWKUNDE Historie De vereniging Polis is in oktober 1989 opgericht door docenten en studenten Stedenbouwkunde aan de Faculteit der Bouwkunde van de Technische Universiteit Delft. Het initiatief kwam voort uit de wens om de kwaliteit van het stedebouw onderwijs te handhaven en te versterken, onder druk van onderwijsherzieningen.

Daarnaast werd en wordt het initiĂŤren van een intenser contact tussen onderwijs, wetenschap en praktijk als een belangrijke doelstelling van Polis gezien.

Stedenbouwkunde Stedenbouwkunde is dynamisch, volgend en sturend. De inhoud van het stedebouwkundige vak is steeds aan veranderingen onderhevig en onderwerp van discussie.

Dit wordt aangestuurd door veranderingen in de maatschappij. Als stedenbouwkundige in zowel de praktijk als in de wetenschap is het belangrijk om van deze veranderingen kennis te nemen en met deze kennis als stedenbouwkundige een positie in de maatschappij in te nemen. De stedenbouwkundige kan dan vanuit zijn positie een visie op (ontwerp) opgaven in de maatschappij geven.

Podium Polis, Podium voor Stedenbouwkunde, wil voor stedebouwkundigen in zowel de praktijk als in de wetenschap een podium aanbieden waarop deze positiebepaling mogelijk is. Het doel van Polis is het verleiden van stedenbouwkundigen om het podium te beklimmen. Het verleiden gebeurt door het ontplooien van verschillende activiteiten. Zo worden er onder andere excursies, lezingen, debat-ten, symposia en prijsvragen georganiseerd.

De periodiek Atlantis speelt hierbij een belangrijke rol. De Atlantis vormt een platform voor discussie. Daarnaast geeft de Atlantis een goed overzicht van de Polis activiteiten.

Overleg Polis vormt een schakel tussen wetenschap en praktijk. Polis onderhoudt contacten met verschil-lende partijen in de stedenbouw. Polis voert binnen de Faculteit op verschillende niveaus overleg over de kwaliteit van het onderwijs. De relevantie voor de wetenschap en praktijk is hierbij een belangrijk criterium. Om het bereik van Polis te vergroten wordt er binnen en buiten de Faculteit overleg gevoerd met verwante organisaties.

PolisFonds Het PolisFonds is in het leven geroepen door Polis, podium voor stedebouwkunde om individuele en kleinschalige initiatieven, die voortkomen uit de dagelijkse stedenbouwpraktijk of wetenschap te kunnen financieren. Neem voor een aanvraag contact op met Polis. In het PolisFonds hebben de volgende leden zitting: Roy Bijhouwer, Stedenbouwkundige Quadrat, atelier voor stedebouw, architectuur en landschap, Esther Heemskerk, vice-voorzitter Polis en student bouwkunde, Miranda Reitsma, redactie tijdschrift Stedenbouw en Ruimtelijke Ordening, Maarten Schmitt, stadsstedebouwer Den Haag, Thom Wolf, adjunct directeur Dura Bouw Amsterdam.

Donaties blijven van harte welkom op gironummer: 8522358 o.v.v. Polis Fonds. •

6 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - MANIFESTO OF EATING PROJECT

MANIFESTO FOR AN EATING PROJECT [ both parts ] YIORGOS TZIRTZILAKIS

Dear xristina, 1. The mouth is the place of philosophical thinking (says Michel Leiris) but also the place of the bad breath and saliva, of the informe loogie. This mixing is becoming today the ultimate projectual and conceptual principle. Writers as Fernand Braudel, George Bataille, Norbert Elias and Rolland Barthes made us suspect about the social and cultural significance of eating practices.

“Everything is reflected on the bottom of the plate”, insisted Jean-Francois Berger. It is all about a paroxysmic approach in which the French culture of the last three centuries has exposed an exaggerated virtuosity. Indeed, the “bottom of the plate” documents in microscopic way an unfinished territory: Time, geography, life styles, the relationships between city and nature, the structures of production and distribution, the pollution, the corporeality, the sexuality, the behaviors, the human relations, the definitions of identity, the discriminations and the mental representations. The fact that the informatics has made us all talk today about “menus of commands”, harbingers what expects us on the level of dwelling and thinking. In this sense, we could maybe transform the famous heideggerian triptych “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” in “Eating, Dwelling, Thinking”.

2. The love for the judicial elevator (in which, as you are saying, you are in), the distraction caused by the vertiginous void, are cultivating the delightful mood of eating everything around us. If we wish to talk about an “eating project”, even about an “eating urbanism”, we have to recombine –like in cooking books- pragmatic virtues with compensative pleasures of the senses and mostly with social recipro-city. The person who established the dictum “you are what you eat”, Brillat Savarin, was saying that these pleasures [that the mistrustful could name with the virtuvian expression Venustas, or with the Voluptè of Baudelaire] are not something thorough or needless but necessary.

3. Eating the landscape, we are working the way gardeners do: a little bit here, a little bit there… Do not underestimate a situation like this. I cannot find a better definition of the contemporary metarchitectural condition.

It is hard to find an argument to support convincingly the way in which such an ambitious recombination could be realized in the cultural and post-urban field. Thus, I propose to retrace and appropriate certain relational eating projects of artists like Rirkrit Tiravanija or Daniel Spoeri. I put forward an intricate description of the last: “Snarepicture: object found at random, in order or disorder (on tables, in boxes, in drawers), are fixed -’snare’- as they are. Only the surface

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plane is changed: in order to call the result a ‘painting’ [in our case a ‘plan’], what was horizontal must now be placed vertically. For example, the remains of a meal are glued to the table itself here the meal was consumed, and the table is hung on the wall”.

4. One of the most important artistic movements in Brazil, during the 20th century was called “anthropophagy”. By eating a culture we mix it in a hybrid way, we provide a body to it and we integrate it – we don’t deny it fearfully, nor we suppress it hysterically. There are no similarities, just differences. Matri Guixé’s use of genetics, produced different results and forms according to a propositional pattern, to elaborate processes of contaminations by crossing foods: “Working with food makes it easier to demonstrate that the object is a form of potential energy: the metaphor is that of digestive system which, like an incubator, favors the transformation of the object into energy”. The “eating project” provides total priority to the energetic practices.

5. All of us now look at the landscape in distortion. It looks like it is not straight any more. The urbanist-gourmet, as the artist-gourmet, the architect-gourmet and the philosopher-gourmet, perceives the anthropological and energetic setting of the “eating project”, without addressing only the body or the mind, but all of the senses. First of all it does not through away any ingredient.

There was a time that even fat was appealing to the Gods.

6. The landscape has become the largest metalinguistic machine in the age of postmedia condition, an existential mouth, producing waves of emotions, arbitrary

connotations, images and experiences. An ideal introduction to the “eating project” is the various illustrations of eating of 18th and 19th century, that obtain from a unified idea of representation, from an imaginary that today we recognize its intertextual character.

More than the “trattati” of Quatremère de Quincy, these illustrations describe the “building pittorsco” as a generic taste and not in the form of technical indications of construction. Could somebody imagine a better prelude for the “Continuous Monument (An Architectural Model for Total Urbanization)” of Superstudio from the “Déjeuner sur l’ herbe” tou Ědouard Manet? The natural image of a world, the way we would like it to be, identified with the perceptual self-reflexivity.

7. Often we design in the same way that when we eat, we need to elevate the indecision into a political and aesthetic virtue. The Greek writer Evgenios Aranitsis suggests that in the old times the great eaters knew that they had to be anorexical at the same time, while today we have confused bulimia with anorexia as two alternating symptoms of a cultural device where one reflects the other in an inversed form. What is being judged in the cultural implication of the definition “digestive system”? Digest? Assimilate? Eat my language? The notorious “end of the city” [the way we knew it] is multiplying its opinions for the city, leaving behind thousands of pages that look filling almost by starving.

The inversion is obvious: if at some time the great eaters should be anorexic, in the contemporary culture, hunger is the eminent feeling of the stuffed eater. Here is the point of departure towards a theory of the eating project in the post-urban field.

Y

Yorgos Tzirtzilakis is an architect, critic and independent curator who lives and works in Athens. Assistant professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly and consultant at the DESTE Foundation, now curate the Greek Pavilion for the next 52th International Art Exhibition Biennale of Venice (2007).

8 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - VINEX BEDREIGINGEN EN KANSEN VOOR EEN DUURZAME ONTWIKKELING

‘Vinex’ bedreigingen en kansen voor een duurzame ontwikkeling SAKE ZIJLSTRA PAUL STOUTEN

De wind verzamelt stemmen en papier herfst en nieuwegein een auto en een man en een rivier vanaf hier is alles wat het lijkt de kaart waarop hij kijkt de sneltram en het kruispunt en het zwembad U Bevindt Zich Hier herfst en nieuwegein in alles wacht vandaag de eeuwigheid…. spinvis

In Nederland wordt evenals in andere landen gewezen op het ontstaan van nieuwe vormen van urbanisatie en benadrukt dat het verstedelijkingsproces fundamentele veranderingen ondergaat en veroorzaakt. In dit artikel leggen we de nadruk op de gevolgen van urbanisatie en suburbanisatie als onderdeel van deze nieuwe ontwikkelingen welke tot stand zijn gebracht met de realisatie van de Vinex opgave. De in de Vierde Nota Ruimtelijke Ordening Extra (VINEX, VROM 1993) geformuleerde doelen en wensen voor het ruimtelijke beleid worden getoetst.

De naam van de aangewezen locaties is aan deze nota ontleend. Daarbij staat het begrip Compacte Stad, de grondslag van de in deze nota genoemde maatregelen, centraal.

Aan de hand van de thema’s vervoer, (hoogwaardig) openbaar vervoer, functiemenging, samenhang, zonering, en dichtheid wordt nagegaan wat de

duurzaamheid van de gerealiseerde locaties is. Deze duurzaamheid wordt beoordeeld in het kader van de gestelde doelen uit de VINEX (milieu!) en mogelijke aanpasbaarheid aan nieuwe eisen op de (midden) lange termijn.

Mede aan de hand van een uitgebreide casestudy voor Carnisselande (gemeente Barendrecht, Vinex locatie voor de Stadsregio Rotterdam (SRR)) blijkt dat de Vinex geen duurzaam, antwoord geeft op de eerder gestelde uitgangspunten van (hoogwaardig) openbaar vervoer, functiemenging, samenhang en dichtheid.

De doelen uit de vierde nota zijn niet behaald en voor de toekomst moeten nieuwe maatregelen ontwikkeld worden.

De oorzaak is dat richtlijnen niet hard waren, er geen dwingende instrumenten voor Het Rijk ter beschikking stonden.

Ir. Sake Zijlstra studeerde in juli 2005 af aan de faculteit Bouwkunde te Delft met het onderzoek “Vinex: Compacte Stad met Hoogwaardig Openbaar Vervoer?” waarop dit artikel mede is gebaseerd. Inmiddels werkt hij als promovendus aan dezelfde faculteit en werkt aan zijn promotieonderzoek getiteld “demand driven housing management”.

Dr. Ir. Paul Stouten is universitair docent (Ruimtelijke Planning) aan de afdeling stedenbouw van de faculteit bouwkunde en promoveerde in 2004 met het onderzoek Duurzaamheid van de Stadsvernieuwing”. Hij heeft ruim twaalf jaar gewerkt aan stedelijke vernieuwingsprojecten in verschillende wijken en steden.

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Inleiding Het suburbane woonmilieu is voor een belangrijk deel van de Nederlandse bevolking een aantrekkelijke woonomgeving. Suburbanisatie is in Nederland in vergelijking met USA en andere West-Europese landen veel later op gang gekomen. Dit heeft te maken met de industrialisatie die pas in Nederland na 1945 met vertraging tot ontwikkeling kwam. Ruim dertig jaar geleden kwamen met de bouw van groeikernen op grote schaal suburbane landschappen tot stand.

Terwijl daar in de USA al in de eerste helft van de 20e eeuw sprake van was (Hayden, 2003). Het is echter geen eenduidig begrip. Hayden (2003) onderscheidt een zevental basisconcepten waarvan rond 1870 al een ‘streetcar buildouts’ – een soort steenpuisten rondom tramhaltes bestond.

Sinds begin jaren negentig vormen Vinex locaties een nieuwe periode in de geschiedenis van de suburbanisatie. In 1993 zijn deze wijken aangewezen door de Minister van VROM als uitbreiding nabij de bestaande steden. Het gaat om 635.000 woningen die tussen 1995 en 2005 zijn gebouwd of worden. Compacte stad, hoewel niet genoemd in de VINEX, vormt wel een nadrukkelijk streven (De Roo, 2003). Het concept van compacte verstedelijking (Dantzig and Saaty, 1973) blijkt uit de plannen waarin sprake is

van een centrum, met daaromheen woningen in hoge concentraties. Vervoer wordt door een snel en hoogwaardig openbaarvervoer geregeld. Zonering en balling maken verschillen in functies van wijken mogelijk. Nieuw is dat compacte wijken in verband worden gebracht met duurzame ontwikkeling.

De uiteindelijke realisatie kenmerkt zich echter door een zekere mate van tweeslachtigheid tussen stedelijkheid en een suburbaan woonmilieu. Het contrast tussen gebouwde omgeving en landschap lijkt te (zijn) verdwijnen. Opvallend is dat de betekenis van natuur en ‘artifice’ meer en meer wordt omgedraaid. Het stedenbouwkundige ontwerp in het kader van de stedelijke groei wordt steeds meer als een natuurlijk verschijnsel gezien terwijl de natuur de ‘artifice’ is geworden (Stouten, 2004).

In dit artikel staat de analyse van Carnisselande centraal (Zijlstra, 2005). Een Vinex locatie waarbij de ontsluiting door middel van hoogwaardig openbaarvervoer (HOV) een belangrijke plaats inneemt. Kortom een concept dat in USA al in 1870 tot ontwikkeling kwam (Hayden, 2003).

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Duurzame ontwikkeling De laatste tien jaar krijgt het concept van de compacte stad ook internationaal veel aandacht. Daarbij wordt met belangstelling gekeken naar het Nederlandse beleid (Dieleman, 1999). Vanaf midden jaren zeventig zijn met het concept compacte stad verschillende doeleinden nagestreefd.

Dit concept vormt een breuk met het beleid van na de oorlog, dat was gericht op spreiding en suburbanisatie. Vooral de laatste jaren wordt de compacte stad als beleidsdoelstelling nieuw leven ingeblazen door de verbinding met het thema duurzaamheid. Twijfels zijn er echter rondom de maakbaarheid en haalbaarheid van dit concept. Hoe is het met de leefbaarheid in de toekomstige compacte stad gesteld en hoe staat het met de intensieve integratie van functies?

Voorstellen voor de compacte stad door middel van een verhoging van dichtheden kunnen voor verschillende gebieden en daarmee voor verschillende bevolkingsgroepen, anders uitpakken.

De mogelijkheden en grenzen van de bestaande (steden)bouwkundige structuur om de veranderingen van eisen en wensen op te nemen vormen een randvoorwaarde voor duurzaamheid.

Een definitie van duurzaamheid die verwijst naar de vergankelijkheid van materialen of situaties is bovendien statisch en behoudend. Zeker in relatie tot duurzame stedelijke ontwikkelingen is een dergelijke benadering problematisch omdat lang niet alle situaties en eventueel

daarmee samenhangende problemen, geconserveerd dienen te worden. Daarom is een meer dynamische benadering van duurzaamheid met meer oog voor maatschappelijke en economische ontwikkelingen noodzakelijk.

De complexiteit van deze dynamische benadering is evident.

Immers: aanpasbaarheid en levensvatbaarheid van de gerealiseerde kwaliteit aan de nieuwe eisen en wensen worden beïnvloed door economische en sociale ontwikkelingen die de afgelopen dertig jaar ingrijpend zijn veranderd. Bovendien is het eindresultaat van deze veranderingen niet in een eenduidig beeld te vangen omdat we pas aan het begin staan van een nieuwe periode met nieuwe moderniteiten.

Een definitie die meer gericht is op het proces betreft de definitie van duurzame stedenbouw volgens het Nationaal Pakket Duurzame Stedebouw. Volgens deze definitie is duurzame stedenbouw te definiëren als:” De stedenbouw die in alle stadia van het planproces kansen en mogelijkheden benut om een hoge ruimtelijke kwaliteit in combinatie met een lage milieubelasting tot stand te brengen, en die beide in de tijd weet te handhaven, zodat ook toekomstige generaties daarin delen” (Nieuwe Gracht, 1999).

In deze definitie blijft evenals in veel andere definities van duurzaamheid, de gebruikswaarde en de mogelijke verschillen daarin voor de diverse bevolkingsgroepen onbesproken (Stouten, 2004).

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Vinex doelstellingen Door de voorgaande planning van de groeikernen met gebundelde deconcentratie als centraal thema, was het woon-werkverkeer sterk toegenomen. Het beperken van deze mobiliteitsgroei was bij de totstandkoming van de VINEX een belangrijk uitgangspunt. De rijksoverheid had met de VINEX een drietal doelen voor ogen. Op de eerste plaats was er de wens het milieu te beschermen, zowel ten aanzien van de uitstoot van zogenaamde broeikasgassen door de personenauto, als ten aanzien van de bescherming van open (groene) ruimte. Ten tweede had men de doelstelling om hoogwaardige stedelijkheid te bereiken door balling en functiemenging. Bovendien wilde men binnen Europees verband de economische positie van Nederland, vooral van de Randstad, verbeteren.

Daarnaast werd er een woningbouwopgave geformuleerd om de – voortdurende - woningnood op te lossen. Er moest geconstateerd worden dat er nog steeds sprake was van een kwantitatieve en kwalitatieve woningnood.

Sinds de jaren zeventig is er meer aandacht voor de maatschappelijke veroudering van de woningvoorraad die is ontstaan door de verandering van woonbehoeften.

Daarbij ligt de nadruk niet langer alleen op de woningplattegrond maar is sinds eind jaren tachtig eveneens op de uiterlijke vormgeving en woonomgeving komen te liggen (Stouten, 2004). In combinatie met de beoogde milieubescherming en

het laten afnemen van het gemiddelde autogebruik per kilometer kreeg de ontwikkeling van Hoogwaardig Openbaar Vervoer hoge prioriteit. Dit kon volgens de nota bereikt worden door nabij bestaande steden compact te bouwen met een goede aansluiting op deze steden en in hoge dichtheid met functiemenging.

De middelen en beleidsinstrumenten om gestelde doelen te bereiken zijn in de VINEX echter niet expliciet opgenomen.

Dit had tot gevolg dat de uitwerking van de VINEX via de convenanten beperkt controleerbaar was.

Vraagstelling De convenanten met betrokken partijen over de uitwerking van de opgave zijn vrijblijvend met betrekking tot de lange termijn. Aan de stadsgewesten, provincies en gemeenten zijn bouwopgaven ten aanzien van wonen en werken uitgedeeld, gekoppeld aan een locatie. Het Rijk, met de ministeries VROM, V&W en BZ, hebben deze opdracht contractueel vastgelegd met de gemeenten, provincies en de stadsgewesten. Samen met de grondeigenaren en de ontwikkelaars zijn afspraken gemaakt over het te leveren product. De inhoud van de convenanten behelst de locatie, het aantal woningen, de verdeling van categorieĂŤn (alleen financieringsklasse en prijsniveau), de grondkosten en de verdeling van kosten voor de aanleg van infrastructuur. In

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sommige gevallen is de ontwikkeling van een bedrijvenlocatie en de inspanningsverplichting tot het realiseren van hoogwaardig openbaar vervoer opgenomen. In de verdere uitwerking van de convenanten naar uitvoering van de bouwopgave hebben de gemeenten geen krachtige instrumenten voor handen gehad om de vorm van de locatie te beïnvloeden. Het overheidsbeleid is gezien als een richtlijn en als onderhandelbaar, tijdens de totstandkoming van de locaties.

(Rigo, 2001) De doelstellingen van de VINEX zijn in de eerste plaats gericht op de lange termijn: milieu, hoogwaardige stedelijkheid en versterking van de economische positie.

Pas daarna is er invulling aan lagere doelen zoals woningbouw gegeven. De doelen en de uitwerking van middelen zijn, hoewel expliciet opgenomen in de VINEX, niet meer in de convenanten opgenomen waardoor ze niet of minder meetbaar zijn.

Hierdoor rijst de vraag of de realisatie van de Vinex-locaties wel een antwoord geeft op gestelde lange termijn doelen. Centraal staat de vraag of de Vinex-locaties ruimtelijk gezien (stedenbouwkundig en programmatisch maar ook architectonisch) voldoen aan de gestelde doelen ten aanzien van milieu, hoogwaardige stedelijke kwaliteit en versterking van de economische positie.

Bieden de Vinex-locaties op de lange termijn een oplossing voor de vraag naar

woningen? Zijn de locaties aanpasbaar in geval van veranderde woonwensen. Laten zij bijvoorbeeld ruimte voor intensivering of verdunning? Dragen de locaties bij aan de afname van verplaatsingen per auto, dan wel door toegenomen openbaar of langzaam vervoer gebruik, dan wel door functiemenging (letterlijk maar ook door de samenhang van programmatische onderdelen en de zonering ten opzichte van elkaar) of door de nabijheid van grote steden?

Kortom, zijn de Vinex-locaties een duurzame toevoeging aan de gebouwde (stedelijke) omgeving in Nederland?

Het antwoord op deze laatste vraag wordt in dit artikel gebaseerd op het onderzoek “Vinex: compacte stad met hoogwaardig openbaar vervoer” (Zijlstra, 2005).

Casusbeschrijving: Carnisselande De keuze voor de Carnisselande als casus is bepaald door het feit dat er een functionerende HOV aanwezig is (als een van de weinige locaties in heel Nederland) en omdat de locatie qua omvang (4.000 tot 10.000 woningen) en ligging (in de randstad nabij een van de grote steden) behoort tot een van de gemiddelde locaties in Nederland.

Er zullen volgens planning 10.000 woningen zijn gerealiseerd waarvan 30% in de (sociale) huursector. 75% van de woningen worden eengezinswoningen

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en 60% heeft meer dan vier kamers. Het gevolg is dat de woningprijzen ook aan de hoge kant liggen, gemiddeld 179.000 Euro voor een woning (prijspeil 2005).

De stedenbouwkundige opzet van Carnisselande is ruim en mede doordat het een oude polder betreft is er veel aandacht voor de integratie van water in het ontwerp. Dit is gecombineerd met ruimte voor langzaam-verkeersroutes, zoals fietspaden. De stedenbouwkundige opzet is duidelijke geïnspireerd op jaren 70-80 nieuwbouwwijken: een hoofdontsluiting gekoppeld met op woonerven geïnspireerde oplossingen.

De aansluiting op de gemeenten Rotterdam en Barendrecht is slecht.

De mogelijke verbindingen worden afgesneden door snelwegen, treintracés en water. Met betrekking tot het vervoer op en van en naar de locatie moet een duidelijk onderscheid gemaakt worden tussen de verschillende modaliteiten.

Carnisselande is met de auto slecht ontsloten: het is slechts op drie plaatsen mogelijk de locatie op of af te rijden.

Op de locatie zelf is gekozen voor een grote grid-achtige structuur voor het autoverkeer. De locatie wordt ontsloten door HOV in de vorm van de door de RET geïntroduceerde Tramplus. Deze tramlijn loopt over één van de hoofdassen van de locatie. De route heeft het karakter van een laan; het autoverkeer wordt voor een groot deel van de laan geweerd, of laat slechts bestemmingsverkeer toe.

Afbeelding 1: Carnisselande in haar regio, de locatie bevindt zich midden onder Rotterdam (hel-rood gekleurd). (bron: de Nieuwe Kaart van Nederland, 2002 p.53)

Afbeelding 2: Carnisselande. Gepland als drie woonsferen; de dunne zwarte lijn is de HOV, Tramplus route; links van de snelweg die Carnisselande van Barendrecht scheidt is de bedrijvenlocatie (hier groen). (bron: www.nieuwbouw-locaties.nl)

Foto: de HOV-laan, gedifferentieerd gevelbeeld, gelijke plattegronden. Grote, dure (op grachtenpanden geïnspireerde) woningen trekken niet veel bewoners, wel inkomen, naar het centrum van Carnisselande

14 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - VINEX BEDREIGINGEN EN KANSEN VOOR EEN DUURZAME ONTWIKKELING

Foto: aandacht voor water en langzaam verkeersroutes.

De oostelijke fietsroute naar het centrum.

Verspreid over de locatie zijn voorzieningen op klein schaalniveau gerealiseerd waarbij er inconsistenties in het programma voorkomen. Zo is er bijvoorbeeld een flat bestemd voor ouderen die ver van het winkelcentrum is gelegen en niet is aangesloten op een openbaar vervoerslijn. Werkgelegenheid is nauwelijks op de locatie gerealiseerd.

Wat er aan bedrijfsruimten is gerealiseerd, is geconcentreerd in een zone aan de rand van de locatie tegen Barendrecht aan volgens het aloude recept van functiescheiding. Hierdoor wordt de barrière veroorzaakt door de snelweg nog versterkt. Langs de “HOV-laan” zijn nog wel woon-werk woningen gerealiseerd maar deze leveren eerder een negatieve bijdrage aan de dichtheid door hun relatieve grote ruimtebeslag. Daarnaast wordt slechts een klein deel van de woonwerk woningen als zodanig gebruikt.

Bijna op het einde van de HOV ligt het centrum van Carnisselande. Bovendien loopt deze laan uit op een weiland en eindigt met een keerlus. Hier zijn de winkels geconcentreerd in een opgetild winkelcentrum in de hoek van een groot plein. Het centrum, hiertoe wordt ook de HOV-laan gerekend, kent een relatief hoge dichtheid wanneer we deze vergelijken met de rest van de locatie; 38 woningen per hectare tegenover 30 woningen per hectare over de gehele locatie als gemiddelde. Daarmee is dit is het door het Rijk vastgestelde minimum gehaald.

Foto: eind van de HOV-laan, het begin van de weilanden: de keerlus voor de Tramplus.

Foto: direct achter de woningbouw in centrum

HOV-laan dichtheden?

Foto: de HOV-laan laat slechts bestemmingsverkeer en de Tramplus toe. In de verte (de hoge gebouwen) zijn deel van het winkelcentrum.

VINEX BEDREIGINGEN EN KANSEN VOOR EEN DUURZAME ONTWIKKELING - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 15

T o e k o m s t ; duurzaamheid Om een blik te kunnen werpen op de toekomst nemen we eerst de huidige situatie in beschouwing. Veel locaties zijn nog niet af. Er wordt tot op de dag van vandaag veel discussie over de kwaliteit gevoerd. Soms wordt de toegankelijkheid van de locaties, of juist de ontoegankelijkheid daarvan door de slechte verbinding met bestaande steden als nadeel of juist als een zegen beschouwd.

Een slechte verbondenheid zou volgens het RPB (2006) er toe kunnen leiden dat locaties kunnen gaan functioneren als zelfstandige kernen of kleine dorpen binnen de bestaande gemeente waaraan zij zijn toegevoegd. Met dit enthousiasme wordt voorbijgegaan aan de vraag of de doelen uit de VINEX behaalt zijn en vooral de doelen voor de lange termijn.

Op basis van de analyse van Carnisselande moet worden geconstateerd dat de Vinexlocaties in vele opzichten niet voldoen aan de gestelde doelen. Ter illustratie van een meetbare prestatie nemen wij hier de parkeernorm. In de VINEX werd voorgesteld deze laag te houden, nabij 1 (ĂŠĂŠn auto per woning). Tijdens de realisatie is deze norm al aanzienlijk opgeschoven (naar ongeveer anderhalf), en nu de locaties hun voltooiing naderen, blijkt de gerealiseerde norm nog te laag. Hiervoor zijn twee redenen aan te voeren. Ten eerste was het laag houden van de norm bedoeld als stimulans (negatieve) voor het gebruik van het openbaar vervoer, maar mist ogenschijnlijk zijn uitwerking (men

wil toch die tweede auto bezitten, rijden en parkeren). Op de tweede plaats is het zo dat in veel gevallen het openbaar vervoer laat, niet, of niet hoogwaardig gerealiseerd wordt op de uitbreidingslocaties. Het gevolg is dat men, wanneer men er komt wonen, al een keuze voor een modaliteit maakt en deze niet gemakkelijk wordt bijgesteld (Harms, 2003). Het doel van milieubescherming is daarmee niet behaald en VINEX blijft met betrekking tot duurzame ontwikkeling in gebreke.

Daarbij dient wel als kanttekening te worden geplaatst dat niet alleen de slechte waardering over nabijheid, bereikbaarheid per openbaar vervoer, functiemenging en bundeling oorzaken zijn van de hoge automobiliteit. De bevolkingssamenstelling, opleiding, arbeidsparticipatie en levensfase (leeftijd, kinderen) geven eveneens een verklaring voor de hoge (auto)mobiliteit.

Hoewel deze wel lager is dan in andere nieuwbouwwijken (Snellen et al., 2005).

Daarnaast zijn veel woningen in vergelijkbare typen en prijsklassen gerealiseerd. Hiermee hebben zij een aanzuigende werking op bepaalde bewonersgroepen uit de (nabije) steden. Er is sprake van een selectieve suburbanisatie. De woningen zijn vooral toegankelijk voor huishoudens met een modaal of hoger inkomen. Hierdoor neemt de segregatie economisch gezien in de kernsteden van de regio toe, waar

16 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - VINEX BEDREIGINGEN EN KANSEN VOOR EEN DUURZAME ONTWIKKELING

door deze verscherping, uiteindelijk een eventueel economisch hertstel van de gehele regio wordt bedreigd. Merk hierbij op dat er nog een bedreiging bestaat: de hogere inkomens kunnen aan de uiterste randen van de Vinex locaties met uitzicht op weilanden wonen voor zolang het duurt. Op basis van de Vijfde nota kan dit uitzicht op korte termijn al weer veranderen als gevolg van nieuwe suburbane uitbreidingen die als een olievlek kunnen uitlopen in het landschap. De deur naar een ongebreidelde suburbanisatie staat al op een kier. (VROM 2006.)

In de toekomst zijn Vinex locaties echter minder geschikt voor herstructurering in de traditionele (56 wijken) zin van het woord. De woningen en de stedelijke opzet lenen zich slecht voor intensivering of voor een aanpassing binnen de gerealiseerde voorraad. Er is weinig bruikbare restruimte welke zonder problemen gebruikt kan worden voor verdichting in bepaalde zones. De woningen zijn veel van een vergelijkbaar type en veelal gebaseerd op gelijke plattegronden. De woningen hebben veel gemeen qua uitstraling, ook bij vergelijk van locaties onderling. De woningen kennen nog de verdiepingshoogte van 2.40 meter wat hen ook minder geschikt maakt voor transformatie.

Op stedenbouwkundig niveau is er te weinig differentiatie in de dichtheid toegepast.

Hierdoor mist het centrum zowel draagvlak voor de winkelvoorzieningen

Literatuur • Cunningham, M. (1999) De Uren. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker.

• Dantzig, G. en T. Saaty, (1973) Compact City: A Plan for a Livable Urban Environment. San Francisco, California: Freeman.

• Dieleman, F.M. en S. Musterd (red.) (1999) Voorbij de compacte stad?

Assen: Van Gorcum.

• Harms, L. (2003) Mobiel in de tijd. Den Haag: Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau.

• Hayden, H. (2003) Building Suburbia Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000. New York: Pantheon Books.

als voor het gerealiseerde HOV. De lage dichtheid en de eenzijdigheid van het programma zoals tot stand gekomen door de sterke scheiding van functies, komt het draagvlak zeker niet ten goede.

In het ruimtelijke concept is niet voorzien in een aansluiting bij Barendrecht óf Rotterdam. Bovendien zijn de fietsafstanden naar Rotterdam (centrum) en Barendrecht (van de uiterste rand tot het centrum) te groot. Er ontbreekt in het geheel een directe verbinding met het, meest nabij gelegen centrum: het centrum van Barendrecht. De verbinding met het centrum van Rotterdam is wel goed gerealiseerd door middel van de tramplus.

Alles wijst erop dat VINEX de herstructureringswijken zullen zijn over 30 jaar.

Aanbevelingen VINEX blijkt verschillend gewaardeerd door bewoners, professionals en beleidsmakers (RPB, 2006 en Karsten et al., 2006). Het (hoogwaardig) openbaar vervoer, de voorzieningen en winkels zijn later beschikbaar dan gepland maar er is eveneens kritiek op de flexibiliteit ten aanzien van wijzigingen van (woon)bestemmingen en typen. De geschiedenis van suburbane concepten laat een spanningsveld zien tussen individueel en collectief gerichte oplossingen en mogelijkheden. Bijvoorbeeld in de

• Rigo Research (2001) Spanning stedelijke ontwikkeling en Mobiliteit.

Amsterdam: Rigo • Roo, G. de (2003) Coping with the growing complexity of our physical environment. Groningen: RUG department of planning and environment.

• RPB (Ruimtelijk Planbureau) (2006) Vinex! Een morfologische verkenning, NAi Uitgevers, Rotterdam.

• Karsten, L. en M. de Stigter-Speksnijder (2006) Vinex-wijken: de professionele kritiek en de dagelijkse woonpraktijk – een essay. Utrecht: NETHUR. • Nirov, de Nieuwe Kaart van Nederland, 2002

VINEX BEDREIGINGEN EN KANSEN VOOR EEN DUURZAME ONTWIKKELING - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 17

Amerikaanse droom van het beeld van huis met tuin, en de oneindige repetitie daarvan, met nadruk op individualiteit leidde tot ruimtelijke concepten die vooral voor vrouwen van traditionele gezinnen leidden tot fysieke en sociale isolatie. In het boek “Hours” van Michael Cunningham is dat gepersonifieerd in een van de hoofdfiguren, de groene weduwe ‘Mrs. Brown’ die in het Los Angeles van 1949 woont en op de rand van een zenuwinstorting verkeert. Dit soort beelden dient echter te worden genuanceerd.

Op Vinex-locaties wordt, niet altijd zichtbaar, (on)betaald werk verricht. De werkgelegenheid is zeker voor wijken die niet bij een grote stad liggen erg laag. Daartegenover is de sociale binding groter, groter dan verwacht. (Karsten et al., 2006) Mede daarom is het belangrijk om voldoende aandacht te besteden aan collectieve aspecten en voorzieningen.

Niet alleen de kwaliteit van de woning maar juist ook de infrastructuur, het openbaar vervoer, de scholen, de sociale en commerciële voorzieningen, de parken etc. moet centraler staan in het “af-ontwerpen” van de Vinex-locaties.

De strijd tussen bewoners die willen genieten van meer ruimte, grotere tuinen en een betere woonomgeving, en de ontwikkelaars die vanwege verhoging van hun opbrengsten de ontwikkeling van collectieve voorziening tekort doen vormen daarmee het tweede thema in de

suburbane geschiedenis (Hayden, 2003).

Mooiere architectuur kan op zichzelf de voorwaarden van de als maar meer versnipperde uitbreidingen van steden van ring naar ring niet veranderen. Om te voorkomen dat deze nieuwe wijken in de toekomst in een isolement terechtkomen is het versterken van de verbindingen met andere stadsdelen en stedelijke centra in de regio noodzakelijk. Dat betekent aansluiten op de randen van de steden door gedeeltelijk overkluizen van de bestaande barrières zoals snelwegen en spoorlijnen. Het vereist ook de (door)ontwikkeling van openbaar vervoer netwerken tussen de verschillende centra in een regio. De gemeente(n) dienen bij de ontwikkeling een sterke regiefunctie te hebben die is gebaseerd op de eveneens in de Vijfde nota gewenste woonvisie.

Het mengen van wonen en werken en het mengen van (woon)programma’s gericht op diverse leefstijlen zal het uitgangspunt vormen. Naast bedreigingen zijn er ook nog kansen…

• Nieuwe Gracht (1999) Nationaal Pakket Duurzame Stedebouw. Utrecht: Nationaal Dubo Centrum.

• Snellen, D., H. Hilbers en A. Hendriks (2005) Nieuwbouw in Beweging – een analyse van het ruimtelijk mobiliteitsbeleid van Vinex. Rotterdam: NAi Uitgevers. Den Haag: Ruimtelijk Planbureau.

• Stouten (2004) Duurzaamheid van de stadsvernieuwing. Delft: Delft University Press.

• VROM (1993) Vierde nota over de ruimtelijke ordening extra, deel 4, planologische kernbeslissing nationaal ruimtelijk beleid. Den Haag: VROM.

• VROM (2006), nota ruimte, ruimte voor ontwikkeling, deel 4. Den Haag: Ministeries van VROM/LNV/VenW/EZ. • Zijlstra, Sake, (2005) Vinex: compacte stad met hoogwaardig openbaar vervoer? afstudeerrapport TU Delft, Faculteit Bouwkunde, Afdeling Real Estate and Housing (http://homepages.ipact.nl/~benthuis/benthuis/Afstuderen/afstuderen.html)

18

NEW ORLEANS MONIQUE SUKSMANINGSIH GIJS VEUGEN

New Orleans is a city built on the shores of the large Mississippi delta, with the French project drawn up by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne in 1718.

The port of New Orleans is the main element of urbanization of the city with the river as major artery for communication. Albeit it is one of the important American port cities, urbanization in the city fabric however remained the same for 130 years.

New Orleans, which often referenced as ‘The Big Easy’, is one of the most unique and visited cities in the United States. Related to the richness of its cultural heritage, New Orleans has always been home to various celebrations, including Mardi Gras, Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Second Line Parade which is also known as Jazz Funerals.

The greater metropolitan population was 1.2 millions inhabitants with the city population of 462,000 inhabitants. Since Hurricane Katrina, the population within the city limits of New Orleans itself has been estimated between 200,000 and 250,000 inhabitants with 278,000 jobs lost.

The recent tragedy of Hurricane Katrina was neither infrastructure failure nor nature disaster, but it was clearly a manmade disaster. The urbanization of very low areas in New Orleans is seen as discriminatory factor with social class of residents. The city’s controversial racial history reflects the conflicts of urban poverty. The racial makeup of the city was 67.25% African American, 28% White and 5.75% from other races. Analysis after the Hurricane suggests that many of the African American population are to be displaced with Hispanic.

The second layer after the Mississippi river in the development of New Orleans was the urban grid, following the French planning tradition. The pattern of grid systems that structure the urban fabric and infrastructural networks are based on the distribution of historical plantations. In the present, the city fabric of New Orleans is conceived as fragmentation of urban life. The urban frame dominants parallel to the river are exposed as rhythmic shifts within the rectilinear system. Because of the form of fragmentation of the grid system, the socio economical organization of the city are as well being framed and delimited between each others.

• The pictures were taken last fall, on a study trip to New Orleans, by: B. Vlaun, J. Stefanovska, M. Suksmaningsih, G. Veugen.

NEW ORLEANS PHOTO REPORT - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 19

Architectural heritage

Second line parade

Mississippi

Disaster remains

20 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - NEW ORLEANS PHOTO REPORT

Ghost city

Bridging the Mississippi

Streetcar on Canalstreet

French Quarter

‘Pimp my ride’

NEW ORLEANS PHOTO REPORT - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 21

Public messages

Visible services

Superdome

Even McDonalds doesn’t rebuild

Highway within the city

1

22 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - FLOATING CITY IJMEER

FLOATING CITY IJMEER ACCELERATOR FOR DELTA TECHNOLOGY Winner First Prize of Royal Haskoning Deltacompetition 2006 MONIQUE SUKSMANINGSIH

Royal Haskoning Delta Competition 2006 ‘Deltasync04: Floating City IJmeer’ is the first price winner of Delta Competition 2006, held by Royal Haskoning.

The competition focuses on innovative solutions for problems faced by densely populated delta areas, including flood protection, spatial planning, urban planning, architecture and construction, infrastructure and port. In many cases, delta areas have the fastest economic growth, and are often transformed in urban planning to add space for working, living and recreation. At the same time, these areas also often face environmental degradation and are highly vulnerable due to climate change, rising sea levels and increasing river flows. The recent Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans demonstrated the effects of natural disasters in a delta, causing major catastrophic for the country. It leads for policy makers, urban planners, and engineers to rethink the Netherlands flood protection strategies, to seek for innovative, integrated and sustainable solutions to this threat.1

The paper ‘Floating City IJmeer’ was presented in the book ‘Innovative Solutions for the Delta’, together with the four other best papers. From second to fifth place: Sustainable Growth in Urbanised Delta Areas, the opportunities of a geographical approach to the Pearl River Delta (TUDelft); All you need is space, Long-term and large-scale sustainable development in deltaic areas (University of Twente and TUDelft); The Flood house Concept, A new approach in Reducing Flood Vulnerability (TUDelft); A Hydrologic Flood Forecasting System for Mesoamerica (Louisiana State University) Among the panel of eight juries was Prof. Ir. L. de Quelerij, Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TU Delft.

FLOATING CITY IJMEER - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 23

Design concept of ‘Floating City IJmeer’

RoyalHaskoning-DeltaCompetition 2006

dutch areas below sea level

The concept of “Floating City IJmeer’ explains how more room for water can be created by applying a more dynamic spatial planning and risk management system to the delta area. IJmeer has high demand on space due to number of competing functions. The development of both Amsterdam and Almere are expanding towards IJmeer, which will result in additional pressure on existing and new demands of recreational locations. It also brings room for innovation for being located at the Randstad north wing as national importance. European top business project Zuidas in Amsterdam which depends on availability high-quality housing locations, is seen as strong economic connection to IJmeer. 2 Climate change, sea level rise, population growth and ongoing urbanization result in higher vulnerability of the Rhine delta because it will result in increased flooding frequency, increasing investments and increased use of water, energy and other resources. The Rhine Delta also faces strong competition from thriving economies such as China and India.

After agriculture and industry, services

24 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - FLOATING CITY IJMEER

regional connections

are moving away to low cost countries as well. Conventional urbanization increases flood risk. This study presents a more self-supporting, non risk increasing concept of urbanization in the AlmereAmsterdam region that will contribute to further economic and technological development of the Rhine Delta. This transition experiment aims to learn and build experience with non risk increasing modes of urbanization in order to contribute to the societal change to a sustainable Rhine delta. It uses local water and energy resources instead of external resources only. Moreover, its addition to housing capacity does not result in an equal addition to economic damage in case of flooding. 2

The new concern for IJmeer project discussion is more on developing new building technology such as floating structures, rather than applying the proven conventional concept of rising terrain by hydraulic fill. The floating city becomes an accelerator for delta technology; it offers a testing ground for pilots of new water, energy and floating technology. It will enhance knowledge based activities in the Amsterdam-Almere region, a unique area with high economic potential and environmental pressure. The testing ground in this region will attract knowledge intensive hi-tech companies as well as highly educated knowledge workers. The project itself proved to be regional landmark, not only as floating city, but also because

FLOATING CITY IJMEER - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 25

impression of the floating city concept

the buildings can be entered from an inner courtyard

26 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - FLOATING CITY IJMEER

detail of floating element

of the surrounding wetlands and tourism facilities. 2 More sustainable urban areas also mean balancing economic (mobility), social developments (flood security and housing demands) and ecological developments. The development of the floating city is combined with large scale wetland development in the IJmeer to create an ecological improvement. Using floating technology, the constructed wetlands as breakwaters improve the role of IJmeer as part of the European ecological main structure, by increasing appeal to migratory birds. Moreover, Floating City IJmeer contributes to reduce regional mobility and housing problems and anticipates on an expected increased

demand for water recreation. The transition management governance model is used to place the floating city in a broader perspective and offers guidance on turning this concept into reality. 2 The innovative contributions from ‘Floating City IJmeer’ project include turning knowledge into practices, a pilot project for larger floating cities, a positive influence on regional ecology, accelerator for floating technology which also resulted in knowledge and products to be exported, sustainable energy of heat pumps and decentralized concept for water technology. Micro scale transition of the project also demonstrates sustainable development for delta technology.

1 www.deltacompetition.nl 2 www.deltasync.tudelft.nl, Delta Sync 04: Floating City IJmeer The ‘Floating City Ijmeer’ team members are Rutger de Graaf (PhD student on water management, TU Delft); Bart van Bueren (studies Master of Architecture and Master of Building Technology in TU Delft); Karina Czapiewska (studies Master of Real Estate and Housing, TU Delft); Michiel Fremouw (studies Master of Building Technology, TU Delft) and Maarten Kuijper (studies Master of Civil Engineering, TU Delft).

GREETINGS FLOATING FROMCITY EINDHOVEN IJMEER - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 27

Dear colleagues in Delft!

(P)leisurecity This is our theme of the first semester of the year 2006-2007. It’s a combination of pleasure and leisure, some actual topics in urban design. For example think about the concept of Bataviastad near Almere. A so called ‘factory outlet center’ with the design of an historic Dutch city. It’s attracting much people. Also here in our student association there were some girls very enthusiastic to visit Bataviastad… with the purpose to write an article for our magazine, VIA. But a very expensive article I think: on location they spent around 150 euro’s each!

Besides of the Bataviastad-article our whole new ViaVIA is written within the theme of (P)leisurecity. In January 2007 the ViaVIA will be brought out, I will try to send one to you.

Also we have had a VIA-party in the theme of (P)leisurecity: VIA Las Vegas. Some other activities we organized this semester: an excursion to the Eindhoven High Tech Campus; a concentration of High Tech companies along the A2. Built on the former area of Philips Natlab (laboratories). Inbo stedenbouwkundigen, who designed the campus, gave us a guided tour and at the moment they were very proud, because they just heard about the first price of the campus as the best business-area of the Netherlands. a visit to Bureau VHP in Rotterdam, including a workshop. They were the designers of Bataviastad. a SketchUp-workshop; to give, in particular Bachelor-, students some basic knowledge of the program. the Christmas lunch; our traditional activity around Christmas. Students and teachers were invited to enjoy a nice lunch.

Since last year we work with themes. The first successful themes were Industry and Watercities.

Within the Industry-theme we made a study-trip of five days to the country where the industrial revolution began: North-West England, the region of Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield. A very interesting trip. Some other examples of the Industry-theme were a lecture about restructuring (a very actual topic in the Netherlands) and an excursion to the Ruhr area in Germany.

Within the Watercities-theme we had for example a lecture given by the Water Boardand an excursion to the Drechtsteden: the region around Dordrecht. A good example of cooperation between cities without seeing the rivers as borders of their municipalities.

So as you can read we have a broad offer of activities, most organized within themes.

The next theme we will have is something with the combination of Urban Design and development. It’s not decided at the moment as I write this article.

You should visit our website: www.viastedebouw.nl! Here you can find our activities, photo’s and all other interesting information about who we are and what we do! A new website is under construction, we hope to launch it in January 2007.

Maybe in the future we will see each other at an activity organized by both Polis and VIA!

GREETINGS FROM EINDHOVEN

This is an update from your colleagues in Eindhoven. Like you, we have our own association for Urban Design at the faculty of Architecture: VIA Stedebouw. I will give you a view of what we have done the last months.

28 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - CENTRALITY AND URBAN FLOW

CENTRALITY AND URBAN FLOW A CASE OF NANJING YING JIN

Introduction Nowadays, the city is more and more seen as an open phenomenon. Different from the traditional urbanism, contemporary urbanists realize that the city is not an end product but a process, a self-organized system that can not be totally controlled. If it is true, I would propose that the city functions as an urban body. Since the city is such a complicated system, the urban body needs to be anatomized first to understand how the system works before we propose programs for develop, sustain or revitalize the city. But prior to anatomizing the urban body, we need to understand what sort of urban body it is. “Cities are places of work, consumption, circulation, play, creativity, excitement, boredom. They gather, mix, separate, conceal, display. They support unimaginably diverse social practices.

They juxtapose nature, people, things, and the built environment in any number of ways.”

The urban body is a superposed system. There are many systems working together, such as economic, social and political systems, behind various urban phenomena. The city is more than just spatial formations, but also a product of interaction of political, economic and social systems, or better to say forces.

However, the key issue to activate the system is relationship or interaction. There are diverse relations in the city. Some are obvious and easy to be traced. Others are hidden behind involuted urban phenomena and hard to be discovered. To read these relationships is important to understand the whole city system. But how can we explore these visible and invisible relations? “All social relations become real and concrete, a part of our lived social existence, only when they are spatially ‘inscribed’ – that is, concretely represented – in the social production of social space.” In other words, anatomizing the physical relation is helpful to understand other relations and the whole urban body system. What should be mentioned is that we cannot isolate the site from the whole system when we doing the operation. According to Asian medical theory, the body is a whole integrated system. So any changes of the body will more or less influence the whole system, even far from the changed point, which is also true for the urban body. The urban phenomena are often response for conditions quite remote from the actual locations. Furthermore, the changing urban reality makes the urban body becomes a more integrated system, which can be traced from the physical phenomena. “What is now highlighted much more vividly than before are all the connections, the cables, the means of transportation, the vehicles linking spaces together …… if you cut a structure-making site from its connections, it simply stops being able to structure anything.” That is why we can not isolate the site during the analysis and design. Flow shows their priority in this paper.

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Interaction between high and low scale of flow It seems that intersection is crucial for centrality. But what is the reason? As we all know that human body, as a dynamic open system, depends on metabolism, the exchange process of substance and energy with outside environment, to be sustained. The exchange is essential for maintaining body system. For the blood vessel, capillary vessel is the place of exchanging molecules between blood and interstitial fluid. Therefore the density of capillary vessel network can be seen as an indicator of intensity of metabolism. For the urban body, the exchange process is also essential. Intersection provides possibility of exchange in the urban body. Therefore, a magnetic field of human activities comes into being in the junction.

By this it does not mean exchange activities must happen, but just a possibility. Moreover, intersection is also the place of exchanging between different scales. “The kind of centrality we experience in urban places, centrality as effect, is a consequence of the layering of diffuse (preindividuated) intensities in active network infrastructures of different scales over each other. It is a consequence of the ways overlaid movement grids working at different scales cause their moving materials to interact with each other, bringing different speeds and divergent space time frames – through the populations inhabiting them – into constructive and mutually interdependent interfaces with eachother.” It is intersections that transfer all energy, information or substance from global environment to local daily life. These points like pins go through the global scale to local scale. Because these points, every local point are related to the world and influenced by global context.

There is another form of exchanging flows: the connection between parallel roads. But the distance should be

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walkable, normally no longer than about 800 meters. When the distance is short enough, many flows will be attracted to this connection road, where becomes the exchange place, although not so direct. The higher scale of parallel roads and connection road, the more powerful centrality will emerge. But why the adjacent lower scale roads are even more prosperous than the intersection point. By this I would like to talk about inter-human space. The city is, ultimately, serves for and depends on the people. The exchange process will be realized only when people interact with each other. Intersection of L scale road only provides strong possibility of exchange between many layers of people, or better to say carry multiple layers of people to here. But it does not mean exchange process must happen. In fact, nowadays roads become more and more car oriented, especially high scale of roads. People in the car are like in a moving bubble, without any communication with others. Human activities on sidewalks are seriously disturbed by constant to-and-fro traffics. So intersections only provide basic condition or sources for exchanging, while the adjacent public space, no matter public buildings or streets, affords inter- human space for the process of exchanging, because it has less traffic and people are easier to move. The more city daily life related to the centrality, the better condition of inter-human space is needed. It is one of reasons why site 1 did not develop to adjacent lower scale of roads.

In a word, intersection of L roads is precondition of prosperous of adjacent public space, while the latter supplies inter-human space to help strengthen the centrality of intersection area. When they come together to form a binate condition, it will come very powerful for centrality. What should be mentioned is that generally street is much more open, free, and easy than public buildings. It is a tolerant container, which can be used freely by various people, no matter hurried businessmen or rambling poets, fainĂŠant stroller or homeless hobos. Everyone is equal in this container. Therefore, there is more possibility of multi-layer of users, and provide more chances for exchange than public building. All these conditions are also interact. They support and cooperate with each other. So the combination of more conditions will create much stronger condition for centrality. One plus one is always more than two. It is the magic of cooperation or integrated relation.

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Summarizing Urban body is an open and dynamical system, which need metabolism to be sustained. It is constant circulation and movement which constitute its existence. In other words, the city system is activated, especially during this new age with fast-developed technology, by the flow or the circulation. Urban centrality is the swirl of urban movement. Urban space here is not only a sort of passive container for urban movement. It directs the flow and provides the possibility of exchange, which is decisive for living urban body. As I mentioned before that tracing the trajectory of human activities in urban space is the only possibility to understand other hidden city relations. “The particular social and cultural vitality of these environments is underpinned by a rich overlap of social and cultural meanings constructed within relational spaces – where individual and group territories are specific and clear without being exclusive, and relations between the local and the middle urban scales is strong and direct.”

32 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - THE DELTAMETROPOLIS AFTER THE RPB REPORT

THE DELTAMETROPOLIS AFTER THE RPB REPORT Implications for the Department of Urbanism: curriculum and research INA KLAASEN

In November 2006 the Ruimtelijk Planbureau (Spatial Planning Agency; RPB) published a report entitled Vele Steden maken nog geen Randstad (Many Cities don’t necessarily make a Randstad – no translation available yet).

Important conclusions: *The Randstad doesn’t function as a connected whole * The underpinning of complementarity in the Randstad is meagre and * if a metropole could develop in The Netherlands the Amsterdam region has the most potential. Given the role the Deltametropolis plays in the curriculum and research program of the Department of Urbanism, the question arises what impact this report should have with regard to curriculum and research.

Dr.J.Luning Prak. 1960. De Randstad en haar belagers (The Randstad and her Attackers). Zaandijk:P Heijnis (met illustraties van Opland)

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Views on Randstad/Deltametropolis In 1996 Niek de Boer published De Randstad bestaat niet (The Randstad doesn’t exist – no translation available). “Amsterdam is not a metropolis, neither is Rotterdam, let alone Den Haag or Utrecht. If we count them together, including what is situated between them and call this Randstad (a ring of cities around a so-called Green Heart) a new metropolis just doesn’t magically appear”, to quote the summary on the back flap of the book. From 1969 till 1989 Niek de Boer hold a Chair of Urban Design at our Faculty – the last few years specifically focused on the scale of city and region.

About the same time the municipal executives of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag and Utrecht decided to combine forces, which resulted in 1998 in a joint strategy to transform the Randstad into an urban complex of international stature: the Deltametropolis. The motivation was that the Western part of the Netherlands, given its surface area and the amount of inhabitants, should be regarded as a metropolis, even if the connected agglomeration would have to be further strengthened by strategic interventions. The second starting point was the complementary nature of the four large cities. An important initiator of the Deltametropolis was a successor of De Boer as Chair holder Urban Design/ city and region, Dirk Frieling. The Deltametropolis was a new name for the Randstad and the Green Heart. This idea of the Deltametropolis (‘National Urban Network’) contributes to the national physical planning policy as well (Nota Ruimte, Ministerie van VROM 2004/2006).

Not every one in the academic world supported the idea of the Deltametropolis. Willem Salet, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Amsterdam, remarked “With the new name the four large cities strive for international acceptance.

It is an original marketing concept” and in his 2003 Hofstad lecture he stated that if one considers commuter traffic, then Amsterdam is more connected to Almere, Het Gooi and Amersfoort than to Rotterdam. Subsequently, Rotterdam and Den Haag are more oriented towards Brabant and the Ruhr area .

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The Deltametropolis in curriculum and research program Dirk Frieling, as Chair holder Urban Design, propagated the concept in the Department of Urbanism during the mid 1990s by introducing The Deltametropolis/Randstad as a theme in the curriculum with the research program, “Graduation studio: Deltametropolis in the frame of the Architectural Intervention Project”. (Studio publications included Deltametropool - Tijd als instrument van ordening in 2000, and in 2001 Deltametropool – Strategische rol van het ontwerpen), the research laboratory “Delta Design” and the research project “Randstad Ranking”.

Criteria and design approaches From an academic perspective, the difference in views regarding the existence of the Randstad/Deltametropolis is linked on one hand to a pattern-oriented approach in the domain of urban and regional design/planning, and on the other to a process-oriented approach. Followers of the first approach consider the Western part of the Netherlands to be a metropolis, or a developing metropolis, based primarily on the population density. The second approach is based on the indication of regional connectivity, the level of urbanization attained as well as the complexity of cyclic societal processes in a given area (For notions on pattern-oriented design and process-oriented design see Klaasen 2004: 86 ff.). Irrefutably, this notion of the ‘Deltametropolis’ is highly colored by political administration, in the sense that the desire sired the illusion of a real, existing Deltametropolis and that subsequently strengthened the concept that the Deltametropolis should be included within national policy.

Facts Based on empirical research of socio-cultural and economic relations the RPB report Vele steden maken nog geen Randstad (RPB 2006), makes short work of the idea of the Randstad as a metropolis.

It is ‘everyone for themselves’ rather than the cities in the Randstad being complementary; in the past decade, the urban regions in the Western part of the country have become more similar. Essentially business relations between the urban regions are no different then the relations with businesses in other parts of the country or for that matter, in other countries. Shopping takes place primarily within an urban region. With regard to commuter traffic the level of scale of the Randstad is indeed of importance, the Amsterdam region shows as being the main focus. According to the Ruimtelijk Planbureau , if a metropolitan potential does exist, it exists in the Amsterdam region.

a The author is indebted to Wendy Tan for her comments in the English translation.

De doffe Deltametropool – 7 Jan 2004: an article from the Haagse Courant over the Deltametropolis, featuring Salet’s remarks. (http://www.ey.nl/?pag=788&nieuws_id=1888)

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This is a cruel report for those who put their money on a metropolitan Randstad; but a confirmation of the findings of earlier studies for Deltametropolis dissidents. In Marc Jacobs’s doctorate thesis Multinodal Urban Structures (2000: 91 ff.) some of these studies were mentioned. The Report Ruimtelijke Perspectieven (Spatial Perspectives, RPD 1986) draws attention to a publication of the NEI (Netherlands Economic Institute) which concluded that the most favourable conditions for economic development are found in the Northern Wing of the Randstad, and within this, the Amsterdam region, given the presence of Schiphol Airport and the international allure of the city of Amsterdam.

Moreover, the question also arises on how actively the members/municipal executives of the Deltametropolis organization since the last municipal elections still pursue the Deltametropolis, especially those of the four large cities. Den Haag for instance is working on a new plan (structuurplan) entitled Wereldstad aan Zee, which translates itself as ‘Metropolis by the Sea’.

Possible consequences for the curriculum and research program A pressing question that needs to be answered now, is what all this should imply for the curriculum and research program of the Department of Urbanism. At first sight, one could be forgiven for thinking: let’s get rid of the - Deltametropolis-directed research project ‘Ranking Randstad’, which was not so successful anyways – and also it’s intended successor Stad en Land in the Delta (City and Countryside in the Delta). Get rid too, of the first Masters in Urbanism semester that also focuses on strategic interventions aimed at strengthening the Randstad. This “throwing out the baby with the bath water” approach revokes the past of the Department’s over-rigorous curriculum changes.

An initial reaction could also be to ignore the RPB report, just as earlier studies have been ignored; or one could decide to disagree with the conclusions. For instance, because the non-existence of the Deltametropolis is again based on societal processes and not on the population density of the Western part of the country and the implied potentials (what is not yet the case could become the case). One should keep sight though, that the possibility that other urban configurations might have better potentials.

The questions formulated at the beginning of this section deserve a well-considered answer.

Ruimtelijke Planbureau -The Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research (RPB) is the national knowledge centre on space and planning.

The Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research promotes a more informed public debate on spatial planning, is an independent centre of expertise on spatial development, serving the Government, Parliament and regional and local authorities in the Netherlands, and upholds a position of authority on the strength of its professionalism and independence. – www.rpb.nl (2006)

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Aspects and considerations The subject of whether to continue focusing on the Randstad in curriculum and research involves two important questions: (1) Is it prudent to have location-bound curriculum units and research projects?

(2) Is it prudent to base curriculum units and research projects on a politicaladministrative choice?

From a curriculum perspective, in light of teaching materials and teaching expertise, in the first two Master semesters much is to be said for projects bound to a specific location, especially when this location is ‘close to home’. An argument against it could be that a majority of the master students are foreigners, coming from countries where spatial, socio-cultural and economic conditions are (very) different from in the Netherlands.

Subjects such as urban water management and sunshine related problems should be treated in a wider context then those in the Dutch situation. In the second year of the Masters program, just like it is at present, a specific location should not be forced upon the students. On the one hand because the curriculum is becoming more internationalized and on the other hand because graduation projects are not necessarily location bound (design could be theory-directed, limited to case studies). In the Bachelor program and the first two Master semesters a political-administrative coloured assignment shouldn’t be objected to though, provided that this assignment could be criticized.

From a research perspective, limiting empirical and practical (design) research to a specific location is not a prudent idea. Expertise in the domain of urban design and planning would be needlessly limited to (Dutch) location-specific knowledge. The fact that some people favour location-bound research may be linked to the view that since every location is unique, developing generic scientific knowledge in the domain of urban and regional design is not an option.

Broadening the focus on the Dutch Delta to delta regions in general could be an alternative except for the fact that general delta issues are mainly of an ecological and civil engineering nature.

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The Randstad revisited?

Perhaps part of the research program could be directed at the Randstad– we are after all a Dutch university ideally situated in its centre. What we should not do however, is implicitly base ourselves on only one approach towards urban and regional design and limit ourselves to only one political-administrative concept and on a singular development perspective linked to this one concept. Point of views should be the exploration of the ins and outs of various approaches, different concepts with different, both probable and possible development perspectives. The Randstad could be a good research case.

Take for instance studying the development of Almere as part of a network ‘Zwolle/ Amersfoort/ Utrecht/ Amsterdam’, instead of as part of a bipolar linear development Amsterdam/ Almere, which at the moment is apparently considered to be the only option.

Other regional networks should be options as well, like the above mentioned network development between Rotterdam and Antwerpen. By relating theoretical urban-regional developments like these, to societal and spatial-ecological conditions and effects, a body of knowledge of urban design and planning can be developed through research by design to which Master students could gainfully contribute to in their final year.

De Boer, Niek A.. 1996. De Randstad bestaat niet. Rotterdam: NAI Uitgevers Jacobs, M. 2000. Multinodal Urban Structures, a comparative analysis and strategies for design. PhD Thesis. Delft (Neth.): Delft University Press Klaasen, I.T. 2004. Knowledge-based Design: Developing Urban and Regional Design into a Science; Series Design/Science/Planning (Delft (Neth), Delft University Press/ Amsterdam, Techne Press) Ministerie van VROM. 2004/2006. Nota Ruimte. Den Haag: Ministerie van VROM Rijksplanologische Dienst. 1986.Notitie Ruimtelijke Perspectieven – op weg naar de 4e nota over de ruimtelijke ordening. Den Haag: Ministerie van VROM RPB(Ruimtelijk Planbureau). 2006. Vele steden maken nog geen Randstad. Rotterdam: NAI Uitgevers

38 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - EDUCATION IN THE MIRROR

EDUCATION IN THE MIRROR

Msc1 URBANISM

A: Camelia, what was your position in the Msc1?

C: I am guiding the student work together with Remon Rooij, for the third time already.

A: I have heard the location has changed and the MSc 1 students now work on Almere, beside this shift has anything else changed?

C: Compared to last years all is the same, but very different to the system two years ago.

We are still in a transition; I can feel this in the meetings with other teachers, this semester is not completely functioning as MSc 1 yet […] we also see that there is a big gap between students…

A: Is this related to the different nationalities of the students, did you experience any tensions?

C: There are tensions but already among the Dutch students, the one coming from the bachelor course and the HBO students, which are sometimes educated as engineers – sometimes they have difficulties to imagine things.

A: So if looking at students in total there is a large heterogeneity. Has this influenced the final output?

C: Yes, definitely … I am only guiding a group of around 15 people but there already exist very different students and nationalities, therefore the quality is also diverging. Sometimes you have students having problems to understand what we want, even to grasp the scale, as often they are only used to grab the scale of a house.

A: Do you think the regional scale is then the right assignment for the Msc1?

C: I do think the regional is a bit too fast, especially as it goes first before the real design.

The idea behind was that our department wants to introduce all scales to the students in the first semester.

A: A bit ambitious..?

C: Well, somehow they have to do it. Personally I would suggest doing it more step by step.

A: What would you improve else?

Msc1 URBANISM

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C: A clear assignment, as the regional assignment is very vague and students are not told what to do. The best thing would be to start with a small scale area and define precisely the assignment. When I studied (editorial note: before the bachelor-master reformation) we had also shorter assignments of 2 months length, this was better to the point.

A: So shorter assignments but still in group-work? How do you evaluate this way of elaborating an already complex topic?

C: It is good as you learn the interaction which would not take place if everyone works on his own. Especially the Dutch-Foreigners mixture is very crucial and anyway working in group is a must for later years in the practice field.

A: But what is then left for the MSc 2, it seems to me all is already put in the MSc 1, all scales, working in groups, etc...?

C: Mmmh…. Maybe working in smaller groups would be then better A: Generally speaking where are the strengths and weaknesses of the MSc 1?

C: Maybe the strength of this semester is that it includes a lot of different things, as scales, topics but also teachers, it is probably the largest diversity in the master assignment, but as it is also so large it implies you can not reach a certain depth, it stays rather shallow.

A: And the weakness?

C: …I think it is still very tough to equalize the standards of the students…

A: How would you change this?

C: Well I am not so familiar with the structure, but I heard all 30 ECTS in this semester are obliged, a certain freedom would allow students to go deeper in special topics, also to gain information to better specific weaker sides of their knowledge.

A: That sounds a bit like back to the old, as before at least the Free choice courses were spread over the different master semesters.

C: Well you had more freedom, I could imagine something like this - to oblige some components and leave other free choices to following particular interests.

CAMELIA MULDERS-KUSUMO _ interview by ANTHONY FUCHS Having been in TUD for three months, I think I have learned a lot from the lectures, workshops and studios. It is very helpful to learn methodology as we did in the lectures of “design & strategy”. However, there were some other lectures I couldn’t understand very well because of my language problem and unfamiliar with the local situation. I think it’s better to offer more background information and summury of the lectures for preparing and reviewing. And at the end of this semester, we are facing to the selection of the courses for the next semester. If there are some introduction of the free choice courses for urbanism students just like Architecture’s, I will be very glad and know which one to choose...

SHU XU _ Msc1 student

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A: Remon, as first question please clarify your function during the MSc 1.

R: I am teacher of spatial planning, as the MSc 1 consists of pairs of two teachers, one of urban design and one of spatial planning. I cover the planning part.

A: Can you condense your experience of the MSc 1 in a few sentences?

R: Well that’s extremely difficult as there are so many different aspects due to the group process; you have to deal with international students…. that is always something special.

Concerning content I will address this topic later…

A: How satisfied were you with the output of the MSc 1?

R: Difficult to conclude as we are not there yet, at the end of the semester we’ll get the products on which students receive their grades on, my satisfaction will depend on this outcome.

A: Did you phase any problems during the elaboration of the MSc 1?

R: Indeed I faced some problems that mainly has to do, how to get started in the semester, has to do with the expectations of the students that are not comforted enough by the department. This would be one of my suggestions to give an introduction week to the students of the whole urbanism program. It would help to put the role of MSc 1 in a larger context for the benefit of both, students and teachers […] as it is now the students are very critical, that is good, as they miss a kind of coherence… if the department would give this introduction week, for all MSc semesters together, I could imagine that the chairman of urbanism gives a little speech, same for the master coordinator additionally Polis and the secretary could be there to show who they are and what they do… with good catering, the goal would be to see each other, therefore EMU students and Phd-ers should be also there as it could be very interesting for students. In the second half of this first week, lectures should give the additional input and the needed overview […] A third element should be an exhibition of the current research, showing the research program to get to known the content of the department work and the person involved...

A: This all sounds like the plans of our department circulating around the urbanism week, based on the two elements: communication and representation.

To draw back the attention to the MSc 1, if you compare the new and the old system (editorial note: the now Msc1 was the former MSc2), was not the former master structure smoother, with the exploring the Netherlands course for the international students to gently introduce them with the Dutch landscape and urbanism.

R: This would exactly be what I would like for the second week, covering excursions, an intense workshop … together with the item I forgot to state for the first week, debates about all different topics, future of urbanism, metropolization, globalization […] all these issues standing in the middle of our research agenda would help to put our department in a position, get to known the most important topics and the state of art in our field.

Msc1 URBANISM

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A: This sounds like a very sound way to introduce the Master to the students but what role could then the MSc 1 play in this context? Is the current MSc 1 the good way you think?

R: There are discussions about the coherence of the master structure […] The elements of the MSc1 are basically the atlas and a rounding off at the end (editorial note: perspective followed by an own design), I think it should be a bit different […] students should do parallel a research and be given a related design task, as in past years the atlas was a document in its own but was not used for the further steps of perspective or design.

One of the complains of the students is about the urban scale, as the Msc1 is towards a regional perspective a very abstract level, only in the second quarter students have to deal with the urban scale. If running the personal design task parallel to the atlas, students can already much early think about issues I felt they are concerned about, namely urban quality being more concrete.

A: generally speaking is it wise to start directly with a regional scale, as most bachelor programs are very architectural based.

R: I find the totality of scales and their relations is the most appealing of the MSc1, their interrelation with the design, whether top down or bottom up…

A: I didn’t question the regional approach per se just if it well positioned in the master structure. It stays somehow piecework, as the MSc 1 is also about learning to deal with a group, etc, so work remains superficial, due to the amount of information, would it not be wiser to choose for a smaller scale?

R: No I do not agree as it doesn’t matter. The thing which matters is to give students better direction.

A: If taking this as a goal would strengthen all moduls, students have to follow during the Msc1, help to give the whole Msc1 a direction.

R: The feasibility studies is already well integrated, the lecture series about the perspective, I get the feedback from the students that this is also good already, the theories of design and strategy, unfortunately I am not aware of their content but I think they have the potential to be well connected to the studio, finally the work of Taeke (editorial note: Taeke De Jong, in charge of the Territory Course) he takes a different approach a bit more difficult to integrate, but as the department thinks it is important I don’t have to say much about.

A: thank you for your time and this interview.

REMON ROOIJ _ interview by ANTHONY FUCHS

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I’ve been in TU Delft since 2002, so I can say a bit more general things about the education provided in our faculty. The most important thing that I think is missing is that the student has very little space to choose his or her own route. The 15 ects that are free for that now is just too little. Because, like the master, the bachelor is packed full with mandatory subjects to do. Then because of the semesters it is all not so easy to study. In principle the semester is a package that you should finish in one go. But it only gets interesting when you do subjects/things next to it, because in the semesters there is little freedom to do what you like. You just have to do what is asked in the semester book. My second point of criticism goes out to this. I don’t like teachers who base their education on what is written in the semester book, without explaining why it is important.

Sometimes the teachers are also a bit odd. There are some great ones, but also some that students wonder why they teach at a university. They teach students really nothing.

Then what I think is lacking is relevant theory about designing, a lecture series like the Urban Question is something I could never choose and also have never been confronted with before. What I like is to have discussions about this and I think it should be in the urbanism program, or at least it should be possible to choose at an earlier stage… I think the education in urbanism is orientated very much to practice, how one should do this or make that specific product. What I think is most imporatant to learn is how to think and how to think about it. I need time for reflection; a student needs others to learn this, to influence each other.

I also feel that being able to work on the things I choose myself is also more stimulating, it makes me more enthusiastic about my work. And I think this is missing at a large part. I think a teacher should be guiding this process, to encourage a student’s own way of doing.

A teacher who just gives lectures well… That is just silly in my opinion.

I think these are the most important things I think about my education. I want to have more choice in deciding how I meet learning goals, how I can work and what sort of product I hand in. That way I can connect the different subjects in the semester much better. And afterwards discuss the results with the teacher, this is really seldom done. But I think it is important, it is part of reflecting on what I’ve done. Only getting a grade is too little, or a table with plusses and minuses in some cases. I hate that even more, because teachers feel that they are giving students more information. I just want to talk about it, or get a text about what the teacher thinks about what I’ve done.

I think this is all my own responsibility; the university can not do it for me. But I think I can speak out my mind about the education, because the university should offer the best guidance it can give me towards becoming an urbanist.

PIETER VAN DER KOOIJ _ Msc1 student

Msc1 URBANISM

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The Master’s Programme in ‘Urbanism’ at the TU Delft University enables to understand and cope with the challenges of urban development in the 21st century through an integration of engineering and social science.

Being an Msc3 Urbanism Master Student at the TU Delft, Faculty Architecture, Department of Urbanism, I would like evaluate the quality of the master programme respectively.

The International Master of Urbanism is an intensive two-year program that develops professional and creative abilities in a context of contemporary urban planning theory and practice. The program combines an outlook on the global trends with extensive use of case studies of Dutch work. Teaching is made by a combination of University staff and visiting practicing professionals.

The Department of Urbanism at the TU Delft emphasizes theory, methodology and practice in community planning and social policy, land use and infrastructure planning, and sustainable environmental planning.

The Department has a multi-disciplinary approach to education in acknowledges the importance and relevance of related disciplines, such as social sciences (MSc1 Social Developments), law and politics (MSc1 Land development and Feasibility study), various natural science (Msc1 Public Territory).

What I found the best in teaching approach is focusing on the students’ experience of life and work, allowing the individual student to discuss and view his/her experiences and to qualify such experiences in scientific terms. At the same time students are expected to extend their presentation methods by developing illustrative, writing and verbal skills appropriate to urban design.

I would like to mention organizational framework of master programme. In general managerial framework provides a qualitative informational and educational level. Teaching stuff varies from PhD students to Professors. During MSc1 some courses (like Rijland Atlas) were conducted by PhD students; they were very motivated, enthusiastic and inspired students.

The Master programme in ‘Urbanism’ is internationally orientated, creative, conceptual, intellectual and practice based for you future. If you want to continue your higher education in urban planning field I will recommend you to join master in ‘Urbanism’ at the TU Delft.

ANASTASIA MOISEEVA _ Msc3 student

I did not think too much about what I would experience in the field of urbanism when I started my first year in TU Delft. As a former architecture student from China, everything is fresh and interesting.

In MsC1, we started directly with the Atlas of the Rhineland, collecting data, analyzing, mapping. I felt a little bit awkward at the beginning. I was used to have some instructions from the teacher before doing anything, but here, as my student colleague told me, you should figure out what to do by yourself.

I found it is not so easy to adapt to this kind of study. Fortunately, there are also courses helping me to built up a primary understanding of urbanism and some of them are closely related to the studio work and very helpful.

MsC2 surprised me a little. In the first quarter, there were lectures on urban theory and history, and also visualization, which made me really feel being back to the first year of my college. While knowing all the knowledge are necessary for going deep into studying urbanism, I was always wondering if it would be better if I started with Msc2, since the structure of the program and the content is more familiar for me. And the answer might be yes, might be no. After diving into urbanism by ourselves, the study of theories and history is more motivating and meaningful.

I am quite satisfied with the Msc1, but I wish there could be something related to the program of the second year. It’s easier to find your way when you have some idea about your final destination.

CHEN YUE YUE _ Msc3 student

44 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - AGENDA

OTHER ACTIVITIES

AGENDA POLIS ACTIVITIES Polis; Lunch lectures In February, March, April, June Speakers talk about the theme ‘Act small, think big’. Projects and ideas from the city to the street in different scales! www. polis.bk.tudelft.nl NAI ACTIVITIES

Honderd jaar bouwen aan Arnhem 10 november 2006 - 31 maart 2007 De expositie 100 jaar bouwen aan Arnhem geeft een overzicht van wat Arnhem aan architectuur en stedenbouw uit de twintigste eeuw te bieden heeft.

Verborgen ruimte, de ontdekking van ondergrondse architectuur Vr 21 July 2006 - Zo 11 March 2007 De tentoonstelling ‘Verborgen ruimte’ toont voorbeelden van ondergrondse architectuur. Daarbij worden verschillende aspecten behandeld, zoals daglicht, uitzicht, het maaiveld, oriëntatie, vormkracht en bescheidenheid, maar ook constructieve, bouwfysische en geologische aspecten komen aan de orde. www.muzeeum.nl/

Spectacular City 23 september 2006 - 7 january 2007 New spectacular photographs portray the beauty and potential of urban landscapes, iconic buildings and deserted interiors. Not just the new cities of China, but a perfectly ordinary German street corner scene and a highway intersection come across in these illustrations as a revelation of what mankind has made.

Winterevening Casla The synergy of landscape and architecture 28 februari 2006 (evening 19.30) Film about the synergy of landscape and architecture in the polder. The polderlandscape has very strong spacial aspects.

How goes the culture landscape over in a recreative city? www.casla.nl

Neither town nor country 7 oktober 2006 – 25 february 2007 The transition zone where city and farmland meet has time and again evaded the customary orderliness of Dutch spatial planning. This exhibition uses maps, drawings and photographs to give viewers an image of the unpredictable ways these spaces tend to develop.

Istanbul De Stad en de Sultan 16 december t/m 15 april 2007 Deze winter staat een van de meest bijzondere steden ter wereld centraal in een grote tentoonstelling in De Nieuwe Kerk: “ISTANBUL”. Een kruis punt van wereldbeschavingen en bakermat van cultuur. www.nieuwekerk.nl

POLIS STATEMENT - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 45

Mc Luhan is elaborating an acoustic or simultaneous space which is compressed and indivisible. Harvey is describing the post modern condition as a phenomenon of timespace compression. Geography of Globalization, as commonly used in our everyday discussions, can be deconstructed in terms of strategic sites where global processes materialize and the linkages that bind them.

What are the effects this condition poses on people? In the effort to approach the infinite speed everybody tend to become a nobody. The lack of referentiality to coordinate oneself causes disorientation and loss of identity. But without a boundary to begin pre-sensing, can there be a being?

What do these mean for the future of the cities? Already megalopolises, a product of the phenomenon of universalization, prove that cities are no longer able to maintain a defined form. Is this simply a result of a demographic explosion? An effect of an accelerated human reproduction? Does this simultaneity of space create a geography of nowhere, as Kunstler claims? Will every city in the world become a suburban satellite to every other city? Is the regional perspective of urban development the planet itself ?

COMING NEXT

Human evolution seems to have taken place with a tremendous speed. Means of communication provide the way to overcome spatial distances and the literal mobility means are becoming faster and faster. The mass reproduction and the industrialization of means have accelerated not only our access to the world but also our tolerance towards world’s stimulus. Our perception is advancing to keep up with the paces of a world in dramatic flux. It seems that the rapidity of time tends to annihilate the barriers of space, while at the same time it erodes place into space, creating a disconnection to place, a universal placelessness.

46 ATLANTIS JANUARY 2007 EAT THE LANDSCAPE - POLIS PARTNERS

ATLANTIS Magazine for urbanism, a publication from POLIS, podium for urbanism, published 4 times a year.

18th year, number 1, January 2007 quantity: 500 issues

Main Editor Cristina Ampatzidou

Adress of the Editorial Office POLIS

Editors Anthony Fuchs Gijs Veugen Monique Suksmaninigsih Herman van Essen Tanya Bergqvist Arjen Spijkerman Thomas de Bos

Printer Thieme GrafiMedia Groep, Delft Advertisements Information at the address editorial office

POLIS PARTNERS - EAT THE LANDSCAPE 2007 JANUARY ATLANTIS 47

Articles Articles, admissions and reactions can be offered to the address of the editorial office.

Author guidance are available at the editorial office. Copyright with the permission of authors and acknowledgement of sources.

Subscriptions Polis-members receive the atlantis for free.

Polis-yearcontribution: Students: € 10 Alumni: € 15 Practicalmembers: € 30 companymembers: €60

Cover and Layout: Tanya Bergqvist Thomas de Bos Cristina Ampatzidou

Previous issues: € 3

ISSN 1387-3679

© 2007 Polis, Podium voor Stedebouwkunde