Bnieuws 50/07 - Symbolism (2016/17)

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INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT

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Colofon

Bnieuws Volume 50 Issue 07 09 May 2017 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

CREATE 23

Post-wall Scenarios

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Niche for Colors

Editorial Team Nadine van den Berg Lydia Giokari Ruiying Liu Noortje Weenink Editorial Advice Edo Beerda

LEARN 13

The Institute of Utopianism

Contributors Pim Pelt Cover Another Perspective

by Lydia Giokari Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken Next Deadline 20th of May Bnieuws Volume 50 Issue 08 Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies Rectificatie Het artikel over de nieuwe regeling voor gastdocenten is, in tegenstelling tot wat genoemd staat, niet namens alle gastdocenten geschreven. © All rights reserved.

Although all content is treated with great care, errors may occur.

EXPLORE 06

Made in China

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Attractive Cities

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Catwalk

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From Legacy to Legacy

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Visité

SPEAK 28

In Memoriam: Henk Hoeks

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Peter Russell’s 10 Rules for Life

Editorial

AS SYMBOLS GO BY

To borrow the expression “measure out one’s life with coffee spoons”, modern architecture probably measures out its achievements with symbolic frames. Take a look around—our beloved central library is a symbolic creature. When people get used to a symbolic expression, it becomes part of the culture. Some modern architectural symbols have really made an impact on the cultural life. They are iconised, carrying collective identities and pride. These symbols, they are made; like you would call a person with achievements “made”. And they embody such beautiful visions that designers around the world appropriate them to embellish their own creations.

But are we just symbol mongers living off made symbols of the glorious past, or are we capable still of making authentic new cultures? The theatrical expressions of otherness is almost unknown to old craftsmen of the ordinary environment; yet they have left behind some of the most authentic and beautiful works.

This issue is inspired by a reflection over symbolism in architecture and the built environment. Noortje tracks down the bizarre “duplitecture” in China and contrasts it with the vernacular architecture. Lydia, our new editor, interviews Carlijn Kingma, the girl who chased a utopian dream in her graduation project and found it in her stunning hand drawings. Nadine invites us to contemplate on the making of good cities with cases of iconic metropolises. And Pim, our new contributor, reveals the symbolic expressions in the architects’ code of dressing. Finally, Ruiying searches for the past life of symbols— metaphor—in the story of the Green Heart planning concept.

Meanwhile, the Dean’s 10 Rules for Life counts down to nine, and Yafim presents us an inspirational project that creates architectural knowledge with the help of the digital technology.

Hopefully as symbols go by, so too the wisdom grows.

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#Bnieuwd

Symposium / ARCHITECTURE INFLUENCING BEHAVIOUR Students from the Explore Lab studio organise the symposium ‘Architecture Influencing Behaviour: A Study on Prison Design’. Three lectures will be given to discuss how prison design can influence the behaviour of the inmates.

Lecture / ROTOR Visiting Professors Lionel Devlieger and Maarten Gielen of the Brussels based office Rotor will give a lecture on deconstruction and reuse of modernist

Room T / 11.05.17 / 13:45–16:45

Orange Hall / 11.05.17 / 12:45

and contemporary buildings.

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To do / A LEGACY OF MIES AND KING What do you do with a library designed in the sixties by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and named after Martin Luther King Jr.? This was the question that Francine Houben, creative director of Mecanoo architecten, wanted to answer with her documentary film ‘A Legacy of Mies and King’. An investigation of the past and present in order to design the library to fit for the future.

To do / COMMONING THE SMART CITY An event on the theme of “A City as Smart as Its Citizens” will examine different aspects of a smart society. The event is organised by the DATAstudio Eindhoven, an initiative of the city of Eindhoven and Het Nieuwe Instituut.

Het Nieuwe Instituut / 15.05.17 / 17:00

Bibliotheek Eindhoven / 23.05.17 / 19:30–21:30

#Bnieuwd

Conference / THE GLOBAL PETROLEUMSCAPE This workshop will show how Petroleum flows and people associated with them, have shaped cities and buildings around the world in visible and invisible interconnected ways. The spatial impact of oil and its representation will be compared between different places over the last 150 years from an interdisciplinary perspective.

BK / 17.05.17–19.05.17 / 09:00

Evenement / DAG VAN DE ARCHITECTUUR Binnenkijken in bijzondere gebouwen in Den Haag kan tijdens de Dag van de Architectuur. Er zijn gidsen die je rondleiden door nieuwe en vernieuwde gebouwen die normaal gesproken niet toegankelijk zijn.

Den Haag / 20.05.17

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Event / JANE JACOBS IS STILL HERE Roberta Brandes Gratz, the celebrated author of “We are Still Here, Ya Bastards” and Susanne Komossa, Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and author of the book “The Dutch Urban Block and the Public Realm: Models, Rules, Ideals” will discuss Jacobs’ ideas and answer questions from the public.

Seminar / DESIGN FOR REFUGEES The Stedelijk Museum organizes a one-day seminar to create a platform to discuss how designers, architects and companies can have a meaningful impact on the lives of war refugees.

BERLAGE Room 1/ 16.05.17 / 12:45–13:45

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam / 21.05.17

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Explore

MADE IN CHINA Words Noortje Weenink

The usually crowded pavements underneath the Eiffel Tower are deserted, with the exception of a sole individual strolling along the water, breaking the reflection of the metal structure. A man rests at the edge of the fountain—his head protected from the blazing sun by a straw head, his wooden wheelbarrow loaded with grains waiting to continue its journey. Facades are embellished with wrought-iron balconies, and characteristic Parisian chimney pots tower above the zinc rooftops. Apart from the lack of people, the scene looks oddly familiar.

Large Chinese characters advertising on a supermarket make you wonder if you might have found yourself in Quartier Asiatique, the “Chinatown” of Paris.

Replica-cities Wrong. You’re in Tianducheng, a residential and commercial development in China built after the City of Lights. Located just an hour from the city of Shanghai, the district is a gem for tourists and newly weds who can’t afford to go to the original city of Paris. Other than that, there is not much to do. The complex of residence and commerce aimed to house 10,000 people, but according to local media it has evolved into a ghost town with merely 2,000 residents.

If you become bored in Tianducheng, you might want to consider taking a two-hour drive northwards to see another city of replicas: Suzhou. Suzhou is home to many “upgraded” icons from all over the world, accustomed to fit the needs of Chinese urbanity. Here, the Tower Bridge has not two, but four towers to accommodate the necessary highway.

Dozens of concrete apartment buildings reside in place of the historical context of London’s original.

As many as 55 other replica bridges stretch over the river. There is a “practical” version of Paris’ Pont Alexandre III, made of concrete instead of steel. You can take a short walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, reduced to one-third of the original size to fit the river banks. And do not worry about getting homesick if you’re Dutch, because in the same district you can be amazed by the deserted “Dutch Village”—windmills included, but preceded by a Chinese moon gate.

The Imitation Game Copying icons, while ripping them out of context, is not a new phenomenon. We all know the images of Las Vegas. Half of the world’s icons can be found at the Strip. And while

< A farmer poses in front of the replica Eiffel Tower in Tianducheng. Photo by David Hogsholt.

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the replicas of Sin City seem to have a different connotation than the ones in China, both sentiments signify an architectural pissing contest of tremendous proportions. They just use a different approach. The relatively new city of Las Vegas is sailing along with tourists’ demands for the spectacular, resulting in hotels literally trying to overshadow each other.1 The latter is building complete cities and amusement parks on the premise of western UNESCO heritage, while neglecting its own culture. Like in Las Vegas, Chinese real estate developers seem to have made it their life’s mission to tap into consumerism by imitating and adjusting western icons to conform to their newly acquired locale.

Aside from what you might (not) think of contemporary society, China’s imitation game brings about relevant questions for us, creators of the built environment. Is, as the saying goes, imitation merely the sincerest form of flattery, or is there more at stake? When even defunct features, such as chimney pots—once a symbol of wealth, as coal was more expensive than wood in the Victorian Age—rise on the rooftops of the Chinese replicas, what does this mean for the need for honesty in architecture? If the Tower Bridge is mimicked up till its finest details, and not merely once, but double pasted in new surroundings without regard to the original site, what does that mean for the quest for authenticity? Is authenticity even necessary, if there is such a thing at all? And what is the responsibility or the role of real estate developers in this situation?

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The Rise of Capitalism After Mao’s death in 1976, housing became a free-market commodity in China. It invited real estate investors from different countries to exploit the new opportunities in the booming housing market. With the historic grandeur of the west that the duplicate houses represent, comes “luxury and exclusivity, the chance to posture and parade among plastic facsimiles of “progress”—displays of conspicuous consumption that are enactments of status among China’s emergent nouveau riche.” The rise of Chinese duplitecture, as journalist Bianca Bosker calls it, started in the 1990s.2 Unfortunately, the investors were too eager to trust in the free market and as Tianduchen demonstrates, many of the duplicate developments fell into abandonment.

In Tianduchen, not much harm was done aside from the loss of money. The development was erected amidst empty farmlands, and the square around the replica Eiffel Tower is now occupied by a vegetable garden where farmers can carry out their work. However, in other replica cities, such as Suzhou, bigger issues are at hand. Suzhou is a 2500-year-old city. It has its own vernacular architecture and cultural heritage, for example its canals, giving the city its nickname Venice of the Orient. The fact that the local government nevertheless ought to harvest from the grounds of heritage half its age speaks volumes about their lack of confidence in their own culture.3 Therefore, many Chinese find that the replica-icons devalue Suzhou’s rich, traditional architecture.

The Chinese Condition In addition to questions of architecture and honesty, duplitecture also opens up the

discussion about the symbolic, political and social power of architecture. With the replica-cities, China seems to have found itself in an absolute postmodern condition.

While trying to uphold an image of western prosperity, China finds itself copying a few pieces out of the global icon-puzzle and trying to form the image of a brand new and better prospect by reassembling the fragments. As David Harvey states in The Condition of Postmodernity: “The rhetoric of postmodernism is dangerous for it avoids confronting the realities of political economy and the circumstances of global power.”4 So how can a fragmented, alienated and inconsistent version of history ever lead towards a constructive future?

The answer to this question is exemplified in the grimness the replica-cities radiate. The Xiancheng district, where most of Suzhou’s duplicates are located, is filled with building waste, rubbish and other pollution.5 And apart from the casual tourist taking a selfie, or newly weds posing for their wedding photos, Tianduchen is abandoned. Ironically, the photographic image may well be the ultimate postmodern embodiment. It is (literally) superficial and instantaneous, while simultaneously being a fragment of both history and the present. Similarly, the replica cities are hammered out of the farmlands and shimmer in all its glory, yet their interiors remain empty and their beauty hollow, quickly falling into decay. What is left is an architecture ripped from its cultural and historical value— reduced to a sheer object, an empty shell.

Last year, work on a life-size replica of the Titanic started in China’s Sichuan province.

Let’s hope this time the new development won’t sink as deep as its original.

Sources can be found on the online pages 36–37: lssuu.com/bnieuws

With its rich vernacular architecture and canals, Suzhou has acquired the nickname “Venice of the Orient”.

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Explore

ATTRACTIVE CITIES Words Nadine van den Berg

What is your favourite city? London, Prague, St. Petersburg, New York? Whatever your answer may be, take a second to think why you chose that particular city.

What made that city stand out from all the others? Perhaps it is the architecture that attracts you. Or the hospitable people that you met there. Or maybe you don’t know exactly why, and just enjoyed the overall experience of the place.

What makes a city capture your heart?

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We may not all agree to the very last point on what a beautiful city is, but we know a beautiful city when we see one. What exactly makes a city attractive? You could say that it depends on perspective and needs, and to a certain extend that is true. But there are some guidelines for it, because there really are cities around the world that nobody finds unattractive. Is it true that the more appealing ones tend to be old? That would be odd, considering that we are better at making things now than we were in the past. Throughout the years there have been different ideas about what makes a city great.

Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) was an urbanist and activist whose writings championed a fresh, community-based approach to city building. Her 1961 treatise “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” introduced ground-breaking ideas about how cities function, evolve and fail. Those ideas now seem to be common ground to generations of architects, planners, politicians and activists.1 Jacobs saw cities as integrated systems that had their own logic and dynamics which would change over time according to how they were used. She promoted higher density in cities, short blocks, local economies and mixed uses. As a firm believer in the importance

of local residents’ input on how their neighbourhoods develop, Jacobs encouraged people to familiarize themselves with the places where they live, work, and play.1 The well–ordered grid of a shiny metropolis was not for her; instead, Jacobs favoured a haphazard juxtaposition of everything—industry, leisure time, ethnicity—that insured the vibrancy of the city.2 That was back in the ’60s. Up to this date a lot of people have theorized about what makes a wellfunctioning city, including the “School of Life”.

Organized Complexity The School of Life is an educational company devoted to developing emotional intelligence. They address different issues; one of them is how to create successful cities. They listed six fundamental elements a city needs to get right.3 First of all a city needs organized complexity. A city should seek a balance between not being too chaotic, and not being too ordered. Human beings love symmetry, a sense of order and balance in design4, look at Paris for example. But too much order and regularity will look harsh and bleak. Endless rows of the same concrete building over and over again looks quite depressing. An example of a well-found balance between order and chaos is Java Island in Amsterdam.

There are strict regulations for the height and width of

Order is one of the reasons so many people love paris. Image by Daxis@Flickr

each building, but within this grid freedom is allowed.

This way an interesting place is created by organized complexity.

Besides that, when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in a city, there should be visible life around you. What are people up to? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fascinating to see the life of a city on display.

Nowadays we struggle with that. Office blocks look anonymous, you have no idea what the people inside are doing. Industrial places, often placed near highways, look dull and dead. People only go there for work, as there is nothing else to see or do.

Compactness is also something we should consider more. When people earn more money, they move out to bigger, more private houses. This results in large urban areas that are cold and boring, like in Phoenix, Arizona. Do we really want to be far away from other people? Or is it something we think we want? Tightly

packed cities with enough public places to meet, like Barcelona, also have advantages.5 And what about orientation and mystery? We are drawn to cosy little backstreets, to a bit of mystery. But small streets are a nightmare for big distance. Big streets give a sense of orientation where you are.

Again, a balance is what we should aim for.

Modern cities are about big skyscrapers, the taller the better, owned by large corporations. Do we need those enormous towers scattered across the city? Perhaps smaller scaled buildings would suffice just as much.

Last but not least, cities should try to have their own signature. While some things should be the same all around the world, like phones and bikes, cities should not look the same. Every society has different strengths and weaknesses. The history, culture and climate

result in different needs for a place. The uniformity of cities has become a problem. It makes a city slowly loose its character.

This is one approach to future cities. It has always been easy to identify past mistakes. It is altogether more difficult to prescribe better ways of approaching the problem of making urban areas more user– friendly. Steps to improve cities are already being taken, but we have to ask ourselves the question: “How do we want to live?” And that’s not an easy question to answer.

The sources for this article can be found on the online pages 36–37: issuu.com/bnieuws Narrow backstreet with balconies that are looming over this street in Cartagena, Colombia (left). Image by Katiebordner@Flickr A strict grid mixed with creativity is seen in Java Island, Amsterdam (under). Image by 24oranges@Flickr

Learn

THE INSTITUTE OF UTOPIANISM Words Lydia Giokari Images Carlijn Kingma

Last November Carlijn Kingma graduated from the Faculty with her project “The Institute of Utopianism” in the Explore Lab. This project aimed to point out the importance of utopian thinking in the past, present and future. Its aim is to provide the tools for creating new, valuable utopias for tomorrow. The project was also involved in the exhibition “Sketches”, in which the fascinating hand-drawings were displayed. Bnieuws spoke to Carlijn Kingma about the project and about the value of utopias today.

Your project deals with the theme of utopias. What motivated you?

My motivation was pure fascination. I always wanted to graduate on the theme of utopia because I love reading about it. Some of the very famous “stories” like The garden of Eden or Plato’s Republic, I knew even before starting my studies. They are beautiful stories on their own, so I started from there, from my desire to work with these stories in mind. My teachers were not really convinced at the beginning, because it is a dreamy and maybe cliché topic. They wanted to know if I would only read and draw about utopia.

Their question was “when are you going to make a building”. They were convinced during the process. At the end, I was very lucky because they truly gave me the freedom to do research and work in my own way.

From all the utopias you know from reading or from your graduation project, which one is the most appealing to you?

I believe that all utopian writings and projects are very beautiful in their time and context. I like for instance Design for Utopia by Charles Fourier, because his story is quite relevant in his time. Fourier questions his current social conditions and imagines a sort of utopian community, called the Phalansterio.

Through his “built institutions” he tries to resonate on how people could harmonize their social, cultural and material needs and life in general. Fourier believed that in his era, people focused too much on material needs. In my opinion, that is still relevant today.

Except for Fourier, I also like the classic Utopia by Thomas Moore and the New Babylon by Constant Nieuwenhuys, which is more of an art project than an architectural or philosophical one. I see around me that many students are using the New Babylon as a starting point in their projects because its images are so appealing. The whole theme of being displaced and in constant motion is very interesting. The New Babylon is a special utopia in many ways and gives a lot of food for thought.

You write in your thesis that “Utopianism is, amongst others, the art of storytelling”. What story did you want to tell? And how did it change along the way?

I think there are many ways to make a utopian project.

Fourier for example made blueprints to communicate his utopia. In these blueprints he determined every minute in every day for the community he described.

By reading utopian stories through history I tried to find the essential questions they posed. Questions about the meaning of value, freedom and equality

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A History of the Utopian Tradition.

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address topics, which are always relevant. These questions are the ingredients utopian projects always have. The generic pillars on which we can continue the utopian tradition also today. Then I wrote a story about how utopia always exists and grows in times of intellectual revolution like today, in which everything is unsettling mostly because of the Internet. Intellectual revolutions always start from universities, so I started to think about the way things are done in the academic environment. During my study at the Faculty I had the feeling that everything was so much based on methods, numbers and checklists that at the end there was actually no room for essential questions that utopias pose. Why can’t we make a project about what is the meaning of value? Sometimes it may prove to be more dangerous, because you can get easily lost and it takes much longer than a “traditional” project. I had the feeling that the rational system of the university was blocking utopianism in a way. So I ended up designing a “School of Utopianism”, as a critism of the current situation. In my “School of Utopianism”, I was teaching my own story about the history of utopia.

This is my attempt to show the importance of utopianism and how we can stimulate it in the education system.

So you think that utopianism is a tool to learn from?

Utopia is a tool to reflect on life. Society is always changing. When technological inventions like the steam engine, the book printing or the Internet appear, the whole order of society is affected. These are times for people to search for a new harmony. They should try to think how they want to live together and not see the new condition as a “technotopia”. People tend to forget that technology is just a tool, not a goal. Thomas Moore wrote the first utopia. It is about a story located in London, in a time when thieves were hanged in the market square. The main character of the story looks at them and thinks that it is the fault of the State that these men ended up hanged, because there is not enough providence for the poor. The story continues with the character moving to another place, the island of utopia. Here he comes across with another society where everything is better. Moore is actually writing his utopia to show how things can be done differently and how we can reach a better working society.

The word “utopia” derives from the Greek words ou (non) and topos (place). What process did you follow in order to design a non-place? And what is the meaning of the structure of your drawings?

At the beginning, I had no idea about the final products. It was more a process that changed along the way than a methodical approach. The drawings I made consisted of different worlds. The only things I knew while I drew and conceived these worlds were the ingredients that I would use, that derived from the study of the utopias throughout history. I started with making small sketches on A4 papers, then I immediately moved on a larger scale. It was a process in which while drawing you make the next step. The History of the Utopian Tradition took me six weeks to draw. I was absorbed by the story. The drawing went so slow that after a point I almost “talked” to the story.

The story unraveled itself while I was creating this “world”. So in the end you don’t conceive the whole image at once, it gradually develops.

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What is clear from the beginning is the structure of the image. In the History of the Utopian Tradition the structure was very clear for me because I conceived it as a timeline. Starting from bottom to top you can see all of history, from Plato up to the current situation.

Everything starts from the story you want to tell and then the structure derives from it. I am currently working on a drawing about the Babylonian Tower of Modernity. It is about our central belief that mechanical progress leads us to confusion of speech, like during the construction of the Tower of Babel. In this project, I had a strong iconic artistic reference to the Tower of Babel. During the first weeks, I researched all Towers of Babel I could find and all the different interpretations of the idea. Hand-in-hand I developed the values I wanted to visualize and I organized them: bottom, top, middle,left and right side of the drawing. At this moment I have only drawn some of the sides and I have no idea how the rest will look. It is a bit scary, but it is the process of making.

In the communication of utopian ideas through history drawings have a special meaning. For example, in the Moving City of Archigram everything is designed in full detail, while Superstudio uses more generic shapes

in their collages of the Endless Monument. You did everything, from really detailed to more generic. Why did you choose this way of representation?

I needed to translate all these things into structural details because this was the only way to make such a bizarre design. You cannot just make something weird without reasoning in detail. I actually started with rules, a system behind my images to organize the information. I began from the big stories and then narrowed it down to the set of rules and started making details for them. For example, I designed a network in which everything should be connected.

Therefore I made catalogues with details of nodes.

How can you connect things? How can you braid things strongly together? I made a structural handbook, a toolkit with all kinds of details and textures out of which I could make my designs. I needed a vocabulary to start putting things together.

Did you use to make hand-drawings or were you triggered to start working like this at the faculty?

The first time I did a drawing in a size as the ones in my graduation project, was in MSc 1. I love to draw and I don’t really like working on the computer. I had Fridjof van den Berg as a professor during my bachelor studies. He triggered all of his students to make a lot of sketches and use them as means of communication.

This was the starting point for doing the final drawings by hand.

Anything else you would like to share with the BK community?

During your graduation you have the perfect excuse to go into complete exhale. You can work on something that you really like or even develop a skill such as hand-drawing. Students should find their own fascination and work on it. It is very important to love the theme you will work on during your graduation, as you will be engaged to it for a whole year.

To know more about Carlijn Kingma’s work and exhibitions visit her site carlijnkingma.com

DOORZICHTIG Een tijd geleden was ik bij de opening van het nieuwe gemeentehuis van Heerhugowaard.

Bij die gelegenheid werd ook een boekje gepresenteerd over de architectuur van stad- en gemeentehuizen, waarvoor ik de tekst had geschreven. Mij was gevraagd om een korte presentatie te geven.

Aan de hand van tal van foto’s liet ik zien hoe dit gebouwtype een gedaanteverwisseling had doorgemaakt door de eeuwen heen, waarbij vooral de democratisering van de 20e eeuw zijn sporen had nagelaten. Tot ver in de vorige eeuw waren stad- en gemeentehuizen solide, gezag uitstralende, erg gesloten gebouwen. De nu verfoeide achterkamertjespolitiek kon er achter al die statige gevels welig tieren – geen hond die het zag. In recente jaren was dat anders geworden. Openheid en transparantie deden hun intrede. Oude, gesloten stadhuizen werden opengebroken en de nieuwe waren van begin af aan doorzichtig. Onveranderlijk was het door de architecten gebruikte argument dat ‘de transparantie symbool staat voor de openheid van het openbaar bestuur’.

In mijn lezinkje plaatste ik daar mijn vraagtekens bij. Kunnen zíen dat er een raadsvergadering plaatsvindt, betekent nog niet dat je er invloed op kunt uitoefenen. Men meende dat de democratie voldoende was gewaarborgd wanneer het woord ‘transparant’—dat een metafoor is als het over bestuur gaat—door architecten letterlijk werd vertaald naar glazen wanden.

Dat argument leek mij nogal doorzichtig. Als prangend tegenvoorbeeld liet ik het Casa del Fascio zien, van Giuseppe Terragni. Dit hoofdkwartier van de fascistische partij van Mussolini is een toonbeeld van helderheid en transparantie maar niettegenstaande deze architectonische openheid slingerde il Duce vanuit hier in talloze radioredevoeringen de ene na de andere fascistische en antidemocratische gekheid de ether in.

Na mijn vlammende betoog nam architect Hans van Heeswijk het woord. Onaangedaan roemde hij de glazen wand van de raadzaal van zijn gemeentehuis van Heerhugowaard als ‘symbool van de openheid van het openbaar bestuur’.

Pierijn van der Putt / Docent Architectuur

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Artefact

THE MUSHROOM

By Remon Rooij

An important object for a young male gymnast is the mushroom. The round shapes have certain aesthetic qualities to some extent, but the mushroom is in essence a very functional “thing”. The top on which the hands are placed, is both firm and soft. The top of the mushroom is rounded so that the wrist angle (hand– under arm angle) is larger than 90 degrees in order to avoid wrist injuries.

The mushroom is a methodical apparatus, on which young boys can (start to) learn to circle and thus get prepared for circling on the pommel horse, which they will compete on as junior and senior gymnasts. In Dutch circling is called “flanken” as you make circular swings from the back to the side, to the front, to the back via the other side. It takes a few months for 6–8years old talented gymnasts to learn to make 2 circles without stop. Young top talents (10­–12y) can make 100 circles in one set (that means: without stopping). The swinging makes the action of the movement. The body position goes from front support, via side support, back support, and (other) side support, back to front support, and the gymnast can start a new circle. And the circle is supposed to be done with a specific body shape: with a straight and fully extended body. The different body shapes, positions and actions­—on floor, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar—make male artistic gymnastics!

The mushroom has been in my life for more than thirty years now. To be honest, many different mushrooms have been in my life. As gymnast myself, but since 1990 predominantly as trainer/coach in male artistic gymnastics.

The mushroom is an important tool for teaching gymnastics. But the meaning of the mushroom for me goes way beyond the gym. It represents the importance to know and understand the value of methods and methodical steps in order to master skills and to achieve excellence. This helps me in developing, executing and evaluating the curriculum as a tool for learning. This helps me to discuss research and design approaches, and evaluation and reflection methods. And this also helps me to teach the academic field to which I am connected: spatial planning methods and techniques, including vision and strategy making.

I would like to pass the artefact baton to Rosanne van Bladeren from our international office.

< Dimensions: h= 480 mm, Ø= 600 mm

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Explore

CATWALK Words Pim Pelt

Do you know the feeling that when entering BK City there is a hidden feature behind the entrance? You probably know the BK Street, but do you know it can be rendered as a catwalk zone with only the red carpet itself missing? The street stretches from the West end to the East end of the building and connects all the departments and communities with all their own different expressions. Let us introduce you to the world of communication via clothing. This is a world with rules and without rules and therefore we write you this introduction to the many guidelines.

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The Street and Communities Like Shakespear once said: “all the world’s a stage”.

The stage called the BK Street is one where a lot of diversity is present. Of course the stereotypical built environment expressions can be found, like an architect wearing black, or someone from management wearing a suit. One sees cultural and religious expression, like a cap bought on holiday or a scarf draped around head and shoulders. Often when people enter the catwalk they just wear what they consider comfortable and appropriate. According to some style and fashion gurus most of the “groups” have rules how to dress, but let’s first have a closer look to whether people can be categorized in groups and then try to figure out what they are actually expressing.

Why People Group During winter it is sometimes very cold in the

Netherlands. A warm jumper with long trousers is then preferred. Besides this obvious reason for dressing up for the weather people dress up according to a group style. Within a society people often group according to likeminded. This can encompass lifestyle, politics and religion.1 Social grouping is called socialisation. It refers to “the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, values and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within their own society”.2 These specific norms and customs can be picked up in how members of the group are dressing. People use clothes to say I am part of a group and therefore dress to certain unwritten rules.

Subsequently, conforming to the norms within this specific group could provide some advantages. We can think of companionship because you can relate, it foresees in the need of security and people can get

status which generates power and control. The inverted is also true. When not dressed for the occasion people can deny you the advantages.3 Simply put, when people (want to) join a group they do this because how they feel or because of what they want.

Finding a Matching Group The question remains how future members find their matching group in order to be able to interpret something from their style. Sociologist David Goodhart divides groups into two: somewhere and anywhere people. Somewhere people have characteristics that cannot be controlled, like where you are born. Opposed to this assembly are anywhere people with “an acquired identity, based on achievements and choices.” Either you relate to people from your home place or the place you choose yourself to become part of. In general does this choice coincide with educational level. Who is going to study moves to the city and because of a good diploma earns good money where one can derive its self-image from it.1 In other words people relate their social group consciously or not. Very important when thinking in groups is that there are numerous gradations that can be made. The above standing would be just a general division. We need to state that it is very important to know that thinking in groups can be dangerous, because it can exclude.

Architects Wear Black One can say that people find a match in a group and clothing may be an expression of the group’s values and identity. The most visually obvious, but perhaps most difficult layer in communication through clothing is colour. When we look at some examples we can see that TU Delft even has appropriated its own colour

blue, employees of Espressobar Sterk wear nowadays a light blue shirt and at @Hok a sharp and bright pink can be spotted. Why do people use colour as part of their expression? Of course the colour of your clothes ought to match the colour of your eyes or hair colour, but in the given examples we can see that colour gives a strong expression of a proposed identity. Let’s go back to the rendered catwalk on the BK Street and have a closer look at a very known stereotype: architects wear black (as a profession). The last part of this sentence already gives a little hint. Colour can make a profession highly visible which enhances the group feeling.4 At the same time we need to be aware that colour can have a lot of (undesirable) connotations. With a quick research on the net we find various opinions that connotes with black like power, fear, mystery, strength, authority, elegance and formality.5 In the book Why do Architects wear black? We can maybe find the simplest explanation given by famous architects why “the profession” has adopted a certain colour: “the answers combined honest sighs of “no idea” with an explanation in terms of practical clothing, or with an indignant denial of “I never wear black””.6

An Embodied Idea Individual expression goes deeper than being part of group or a layer of colour. It is about communicating one’s personality. Characteristic or distinctive behaviour of a person is what represents its personality. Personality is part of one’s identity.7 When clothes should express personality, the inanimate fabric that clothes are should be provided with meaning. Semiotics, the study of meaning-making, explains to us that communication via clothes is part of

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non-verbal communication, which is communication that is not spoken or written but that represents a meaning. With no text to support them a consumer can still understand its meaning.8 When we talked about the process of socialisation we said it is about learning to understand the prevailing codes and then deciding which to apply at any given time. “A code is a system of words, letters, or signs used to represent a message in secret form, or a system of numbers, letters, or signals used to represent something in a shorter or more convenient form”.8 Clothing could then be seen as a codified message, a representation that is an expression of a norm of the group or the individual. The message communicated via one’s attire could be seen as an embodied idea.

Clothing can then even become a symbolic expression of one’s personality, or a group’s identity.

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A code represents a broad interpretative framework used by both addressers and their addressees to encode and decode the messages.9 When interpreting the code wrongly or unconsciously a wrong assumption can be made. The (unintentional) expression of certain ideas can offend or hurt people and may exclude one from a desired group and jeopardizing one’s interests.

Learning From the Industry In the fashion and style industry codes and icons are used for becoming a fashion/style icon or an icon in fashion is the highest attainable. One becomes part of the menswear or womenswear canon, a benchmark for a subsequent versions of their kind is created.10 The difference between style and fashion is like Yves Saint Laurent said: “fashion is ethereal, style is forever”.11 Womenswear is more a product of fashion, which can be defined as frequent change for its own sake.

Menswear, on the other hand is also a product of fashion, but this tends to be apparent only in the details. Men’s styles are variations on a recognizable, well-known theme, rather than a new score altogether.10 The general rule is that with style the

proportions are more important than the latest trend on the catwalk.11 However this is what the strict rules of the fashion and style industry prescribe.

Finding an Own Expression Once there were very clear unwritten rules to which laymen had to abide in the world of fashion and style.

In the sixties and seventies these rules were let go and individualism was the key word: the uniform was put aside. Role models however kept existent. But what is a role model? A role model is a person who stands out as an example for a certain group of people. The definition we adhere is there are icons within fashion, so called fashion icons about whom is said “they’ve really got style”: the person and clothing, often going hand in hand11. In the end what those so-called icons and role models do is matching their personality and identity very well with their clothes. The rules of a (sub) group a person considers itself in can be used as guidelines and then altered to personal preferences.

One can even play with the rules of what used to be part or the male of female code, as we see nowadays with transgender dressing.12 Make Your Own Box A preliminary conclusion to this introduction is that, no matter what group someone belongs to, for what reasons, we can divide people according to being conscious about how they dress: people are very aware of their own choices and they can be a role model, an embodiment of (their own) ideas. One is midconscious: these persons are slightly scripted by their environment but you choose this environment very well. Or people are unaware: this is perfectly fine. We would like to say: do according to what you want and like. Our recommendation is to not only step outside the box, but make your own box! Or as Jules Deelder once said when asked: “what would you do if you are in my shoes?”, “I’d buy new ones”.

Sources can be found on the online page 36–37: issuu/com/bnieuws

Student project

POST-WALL SCENARIOS Words Noortje Weenink

“I would build a great wall and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me. And I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

President Donald Trump’s famous words, spoken during his candidacy announcement speech in June 2015, still echo in our ears almost two years later. The firm claims of Mr. Donald Trump has left people wondering: who will pay for the wall, and what will be the consequences of its construction?

Trump’s “Great Wall” will supposedly be built on the border between Mexico and the United States of America, adding 1600 kilometres to the 1000 kilometres of fences that already exist between the two countries. The specifics are rather inaccurate: the wall is said to be 5 to 12 metres high, made from concrete and “other materials”, and it is to be “very beautiful”—at least on the American side. Most of all, it will be functioning as a border between the two countries. Trump: “A nation without borders is not a nation.

Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders, gets back its borders.” But the construction of the “huge” barricade will have a tremendous impact on the delicate local ecosystems. Not only will the Great Wall keep illegal immigrants out, it will also stop all animal land migration.

At the beginning of this year, Trump admitted that Congress—or rather the American tax payer—would foot the (very high) bill. Although the president claimed that the total cost of the wall will be around $12 billion, estimates from fact checkers and engineers seem to be universally higher, going up to as much as $40 billion. Trump defended himself on Twitter: “The dishonest media does not report that any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico later!” And seemingly he might be right: there are plenty of analyses to be found on the internet regarding how Mexico might or might not pay for the Great Wall.

Four students from our faculty took it upon themselves to go beyond the analyses of Trump’s hodgepodge by imagining future scenarios, providing that the wall would be built. They created a timeline with several alternative sequences of events, sketching both comforting and grim images of a post-wall North-America. By not commenting on the possible architecture and construction of the wall, the students go beyond the short-term opportunities and pitfalls, and contribute a valuable stance to the debate.

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2016A: Existing Border Condition, Water

2016B: Existing Border Condition, Desert

2020A: Governmental Failure

2020B: Grand Opening

2024A: Pop Culture Revenge

2028A: Wall as Infrastructure

2028C: Isolationism Strikes

2032A: USA-Mexico Border Museum

2116A: Americas United

2116B: Doomsday Scenario

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The following is the accompanying manifesto, written

by TU Delft students Kasia Piekarczyk, Adam Buśko, Gerardo Duarte and Jan Książek.

“On Early March 2017 the US Department of Homeland Security put out a formal request for proposals (RFP) for the border wall between Mexico and the USA. The approved bidders were asked to issue complete proposals, including budget. According to Federal Business Opportunities website the deadline happens to be today (March 24). The winners will be announced mid-April.

As graduate students from the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft we found ourselves in the midst of a debate about the “great, great wall”; the physical embodiment of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. For the past few months we had to forcibly enter an alternate dimension in which what seems inconceivable becomes a norm.

So far it seems that there is a lot of interest to capitalise on President Donald Trump’s plan. The proposal is vaguely described as the plan to “design and build of several prototype wall structures”. There has not been any serious consideration for public debate or consultation, instead there is a lot of misinformation and confusion. Even the bidders have to act promptly in order to meet the deadlines of what seems to be a hastily cobbled together competition.

The common reaction of many people would be to disregard this proposal as nonsense; in the same manner in which we fail to embrace opinions of people with whom we fundamentally disagree. In the end, there is a significant difference between announcing to build a wall, and actually proceeding. Nonetheless, one should not lose vigilance to what is really happening.

This particular situation is impossible for us to ignore, as it concerns our future profession. Architects often issue political statements without being asked to do so.

However, this time architects were invited to seemingly

innocent participation in the public procurement contest issued by the government. We will not question the morals of those who have decided to take part, but we want to point out the responsibility resulting from participation. Every attempt to participate in this competition as well as taking its assumptions literally and thoughtlessly sanctions the wall and silently erects it, piece by piece.

We are aware of the subtexts of the issued competition. The materiality of this barrier is merely but a symbol of a much greater issue which is not so easy to define. President Donald Trump managed to divide the entire world in the effort to physically seal off the border. For we will become architects in the “post-wall” world, were notion of borders is going to be redefined, we feel the urge to react. Being now a group of graduate students, we can only do what we do best: let our imagination run wild and speculate on the consequences of the unavoidable.

Architectural students quite often have to exercise the challenge of designing on a plane between fiction and reality and with our proposal we aim to do just that.

We used the debate around the border-wall as a fuel for speculation. We offer a series of scenarios that may happen, described, visualised and arranged in a timeline. We invite you to imagine your own critical response.

The first thing to do when participating in any competition is to deeply understand and revise the brief; the same is applicable to many life situations.

Many people are fixated on the wall itself, which obstructs them from looking beyond. With our speculation we want to raise the unvoiced yet questions about its long-term consequences. We hope you can use our method as a framework and opportunity to formulate your own position.”

The sources and complete timeline of “Post-Wall Scenarios” can be found at cargocollective.com/ katarzynapiekarczyk/Post-Wall-Scenarios.

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Create

NICHE FOR COLORS Words Yafim Simanovsky & Ruiying Liu

Arcolor.org is a database of architectural color palettes created by MSc 4 student Yafim Simanovsky and his friend Itamar Sharify. It is a website born out of a four-month interdisciplinary collaboration between an architect and a software engineer. It is made for the knowledge of architectural colors, and it is made for that knowledge to grow. Here Yafim shares with us the ideas that brought Arcolor into being.

I am a student in the master program, soon to graduate from the Explore Lab Studio. My friend Itamar Sharify is a software engineer from back home in Jerusalem, where he works with startups and web development.

The idea of Arcolor started with a reflection on the prominence of form versus color in architecture. Color gives a very distinct quality to a spatial setting and to an architectural work. We have all visited places like hospitals and museums in which the interior color certainly has a tremendous effect on our perception. Yet one rarely hears any formal discussion concerning the colors used in a project during academic sessions. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the colors of a building have as much effect as its form? Does this neglect stem not just from

the subjectivity of color interpretation and perception, but also from a lack of knowledge and references?

Shouldn’t we expand this knowledge into some applicable typology?

We felt that something could be done to increase the awareness and the involvement of students and professionals in a discussion concerning the colors being implemented in the built environment. So we embarked on the Arcolor project. As the architect on the team, I gathered many projects from the Internet while my friend built the database and the algorithms that analyze building images and present a summary of its main colors. Browsing the Arcolor collection, designers can explore the main and secondary colors of various buildings. We have built (and keep improving) a search engine to provide an easy and direct experience: it can filter results according to the color, the project year/location/title and the architect.

As much as we had fun learning about architectural colors, we enjoyed exploring the power of the data age and our long-distance, cross-disciplinary collaboration.

I have been playing around with website design in the last year as a part-time hobby. My intuition tells me that in order to be effective designers and architects, we need to get familiar with the digital and programming world. At some point I understood that to successfully build online resources of the highest quality, I would have to study programming in depth, but I didn’t have time for that in parallel with studying architecture. Nevertheless, learning the basics and understanding the terms is crucial to any collaboration.

In order to implement my idea, I need to join forces with someone who is fluent in the languages of programming. So I contacted my software engineer friend, Itamar Sharify. We worked together for four months and built Arcolor as a first attempt to merge digital experience with architectural data.

we have seen this trend in the past few years with the release of data like the residential designs by Alejandro Aravena, open databases of African vernacular architecture, architectural image catalogues by large institutions like Columbia University, and wonderful sources like the Collective Housing Atlas. All of these efforts and others contribute to making architectural data more accessible.

In part this is due to the collective realization that architecture has a large part to play in today’s global issues such as resource management, climate change, and social problems as a result of urbanization.

Architects realize that they cannot solve these issues without widespread and mutual collaboration across all fields. In this sense, each of those databases aims to address a weakness in the shared body of knowledge within the architectural profession.

In my opinion, one of the growing strengths of architects in recent years is the ability to comprehensively connect and manage interdisciplinary teams of professionals. It is also the case with the digital media. The Internet is our sphere of information sharing. If something is to be done to expand architectural knowledge, it is best by creating online architectural resources and giving access to everyone. And as architects we should be able to master, or at least, hold dialogues over software and hardware—which are swiftly becoming omnipresent.

The possibilities for collaboration are endless.

Hopefully many more students, designers and architects will try to would join forces with people in other niches, and leverage the virtual world to positively affect the physical one.

Colors will have a niche in architectural knowledge, and architects will find their niche in the ecological network of knowledge disciplines. These things should brighten up our work quite a bit, don’t you think?

Nowadays information sharing databases are becoming more and more common. In architecture,

(Information about the photos can be found on the online pages 36–37: issuu.com/bnieuws)

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Speak

IN MEMORIAM: HENK HOEKS Tekst Willemijn Wilms Floet

Zojuist heb ik thuis al mijn SUN/VanTilt-architectuurboeken uit de kast gepakt om stil te staan bij Henk Hoeks, die op 29 januari 2017 is overleden. Ik kwam tot veertig boeken en zevenenveertig afleveringen van OASE en OverHolland, wetende dat er nog een aantal op Bouwkunde ligt en er nog meer zijn. Drie van deze boeken heb ik als auteur samen met hem gemaakt en daarvoor moest ik veel in al die andere boeken studeren. Kortom, deze architectuurboekenuitgever legde een fundament voor het Nederlandse onderzoek, onderwijs en beroepsuitoefening in de architectuur en hij verzilverde resultaten.

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Emeritus hoogleraar architectuur Carel Weeber typeert het heel treffend in een SUNfolder uit 1993: ‘Ik vind dat de Nederlandse architectuur zeer gebaat is met de al jarenlang volgehouden inspanning van de SUN om het werk van architecten met literatuur aan te vullen. Mede hierdoor werd het Nederlandse ontwerp op een hoger abstractieniveau getild en het ambachtelijke karakter wellicht definitief omgezet in intellectuele arbeid. De impulsen van vertaalde auteurs [Tafuri, Rossi, Frampton, Tzonis, Castex c.s., Grassi, Monesteroli, Lampugnani] hebben hier in belangrijke mate aan bijgedragen. […] Dat architectuur naast kijken vooral schrijven en lezen is, wordt door de SUN opnieuw in haar architectuuredities duidelijk en mogelijk gemaakt.’

De banden tussen de Socialistiese Uitgeverij Nijmegen en de Faculteit Bouwkunde gaan terug tot begin jaren ’70 via de broers Boekraad, van wie de ene filosofie in Nijmegen en de andere Bouwkunde in Delft studeerde. Beiden waren actief in de studentenbeweging.

De zoektocht naar een intellectuele voedingsbodem in een roerige tijd van democratisering en politiek activisme verbond verwante geesten op Bouwkunde in Delft met het uitgeverscollectief in Nijmegen. Het contact groeide uit tot een lange, vriendschappelijke samenwerking en een omvangrijke boekenproductie (voor onderwijs en van onderzoeksresultaten), waarin Henk Hoeks de inhoudelijke spil was, naast Sjef van de Wiel als financiële man, Mayke van Dieten als rechterhand en Margreet Flink de productie en verspreiding onder haar hoede had. De SUN verhuisde in 2002 naar het kantoor van uitgeverij Boom in Amsterdam. Langzamerhand bereikten allen de VUTleeftijd en in 2008 nam ook Henk daar afscheid, waarna ze zich als zelfstandigen inzetten om boeken te blijven produceren, vooral samen met uitgeverij Vantilt in Nijmegen.

In de architectuurboeken van SUN wordt een brug geslagen tussen het architectonische denken (theorie/geschiedenis/kritiek) en het ontwerp. Dit snijvlak had de interesse van de

als filosoof opgeleide Henk Hoeks. Een vroeg voorbeeld is Architectuur en volkshuisvesting (Casciato) en Architectuur en kritiek (Barbieri, Boekraad) over de ontwikkeling van de moderne Nederlandse woningbouwarchitectuur. Op basis van tekeningen uit het archief van het NBD (voorloper van het NAi, nu Het Nieuwe Instituut) en met de oorspronkelijke ontwerpers aan het woord werd het werk geanalyseerd vanuit het contemporaine perspectief.

Voor het architectuuronderwijs op Bouwkunde vertaalde de SUN belangrijke geschiedenisboeken in het Nederlands (Tafuri, Frampton, Watkin). Daarnaast publiceerde ze onderwijsmateriaal dat hier op de faculteit werd ontwikkeld, waaronder het standaardwerk Honderd Jaar Nederlandse architectuur, 1901-2000, trends en hoogtepunten (Van Duin, Barbieri, van Wesemael, de Jong, Wilms Floet, ook vertaald in het Engels en Chinees), het theoretische Wat is architectuur? (Engel en Claessens) en de vierdelige serie Kern van de stedenbouw in het perspectief van de eenentwintigste eeuw (Meyer, Hoekstra, Westrik), Architectural Positions.

Architecture, Modernity and the Public Sphere (Avermaete, Havik, Teerds) en het tweetalige Kleur in de hedendaagse architectuur; projecten/essays/tijdlijn/ manifesten (Komossa, Rouw, Hillen).

Een aantal typologische plandocumentaties, een lange traditie binnen Bouwkunde, werd onder de hoede van Henk professioneel uitgewerkt en uitgegeven (Prast, Chlimintzas, Wilms Floet, van Zwol). Daarnaast werden promotiestudies omgewerkt naar publieksboeken (Komossa, de Mare, Hurx, Gramsbergen, Wilms Floet), werd een aantal historische studies (van Bergeijk), liber amicora (Risselada, Tupker) en een enkele monografie over architecten gepubliceerd (de Nijl, Soeters en van Eldonk).

De rationele benadering van architectuur, passend bij de academische wereld, staat in de SUN-boeken centraal. In de theoretische serie vormt de autonomie

van de architectuur de invalshoek. SUN was tussen 1990 en 2003 uitgever van OASE (de nummers 28-61) en aansluitend uitgever van OverHolland, onder redactie van Henk Engel, die de nauwste banden had met Henk Hoeks.

Henk Hoeks zocht auteurs in verschillende hoeken van onze faculteitmensen van architectuur, stedenbouw, landschap en ook vastgoed hadden met hem een goede band opgebouwd door de prettige samenwerking en enorme deskundigheid. Zijn eruditie zat samenwerking nooit in de weg. In tegendeel, Henk wist je zelfvertrouwen te geven, hij toonde een rotsvast vertrouwen. Hij liet het belang van jouw werk zien door het in een traditie te plaatsen, gaf zeer nauwgezette redactionele en taalkundige aanwijzingen en er waren altijd inspirerende gesprekken. Hij was immer op zoek naar diepere lagen, in het vak, de politiek, maar vertelde ook mooie anekdotes, bijvoorbeeld over de visstal van de familie Graat om de hoek en zijn ervaringen met alledaagse dingen.

Henk herinneren we ons als een bijzonder inspirerende persoonlijkheid, met zijn onvoorwaardelijk geloof in de inhoud. Hij was een onmisbare steunpilaar in de unieke ontwikkeling van onze eigen onderwijsmiddelen in samenhang met de onderzoeksresultaten die de faculteit Bouwkunde in de afgelopen decennia groot hebben gemaakt.

Onmetelijke dank voor dit alles! We kijken nog uit naar één boek waar Henk al lang mee bezig was, de geannoteerde vertaling van Leon Battista Alberti’s klassieke architectuurtraktaat De re aedificatoria.

Op 29 januari j.l. overleed te Nijmegen Henk Hoeks aan de gevolgen van een slepende longkwaal. Hij werd net geen zeventig jaar.

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Explore

FROM LEGACY TO LEGACY Words & Illustrations Ruiying Liu

In Bnieuws 50.01 we started a “cross-cultural search for A+BE metaphors” with the Chinese case, Wind and Water. Finally, it’s time to catch up on that topic.

This article is about the Dutch case of powerful, space-forming metaphors—the Green Heart. With the help of Prof. Andreas Faludi and Prof. Wil Zonneveld, we are able to reconstruct the intricate network of planning history, societal dynamics, and human cognition, and understand the role of metaphor in all this.

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“The Green Heart concept lives on in many ways. In the Dutch national form, and in the Dutch culture. These days people would still be proud to say they live in the Green Heart, close to nature,” Prof. Faludi says.

For half a century, the Green Heart planning concept played a central role shaping the Western Netherlands into the Randstad as we know it today. The curious thing is that the Dutch did not, strictly speaking, invent the concept. They found it in their backyard, just like people discovered the other side of the moon.

Consciousness Society wakes up to the environment it finds itself in, and tries to make sense of it and act about it.

When cognitive scientists talk about consciousness, they are interested in what underlies intent, the self, and the mental ability to go beyond immediate circumstances.1 That makes humans different from smart machines, and human society from natural swarms. Imagine an intelligent being encounters an object never defined to it before—it tries to sort it into its known categories, but finds none that fits perfectly. It refuses to give up and ignore this object, because it lives to think, and thinks to survive. So it picks an old category (A) that firstly describes the object and secondly it likes for this context (b), and makes a new

category (Ab) to contain this object. Thus the object is consigned to memory and knowledge, and the being has recorded its consciousness of the object (otherwise it has to “rediscover” it differently every time!).

The Green Heart was “discovered” this way. Long before it was named, the planning pioneer T. K. van Lohuizen, made a map in 1924 that clearly shows a ring-like urbanisation pattern2 to plea for planning at this unprecedented scale. But no plan came out of it. A decade later (legend has it), the KLM founder, Albert Plesman flew over the region and uttered the name that popped into his mind: a ring metropolis— Randstad!3 This, was important, because planning is acting with intent, and intent requires knowing. Now the region was known by a name. During the post-war period, the heyday of nation-level planning, planners held onto the Randstad pattern and, of course, the inner hollow that defines it. They referred to it as the green heart (without capitalisation). They said, unlike foreign cities, which control growth with green belts, the Western Netherlands is blessed with a green heart.

And the nation should build upon this historical heritage.4 —The society woke up to the ruimte it found itself in, made sense of it, and started to act about it.

It was a pretty neat idea: a half ring embracing a tender heart. The form was clear, the intention was clear (accompanied with an attractive vision), and so, the action was consistent. Before long, international scholars and planners became fascinated with the effectiveness of the Randstad–Greenheart concept.5 Of course, the green heart is not an extremely sophisticated metaphor if evaluated based on the pattern it describes. Perhaps a six-year-old could come up with it, looking at a map of grey and green. But remember, the function of one mind is easy, whereas a collective “mind” is chaos beyond imagination. A concept so unequivocally rising to salience and keeping the societal action consistent for decades, is nothing short of collective feats. Only geniuses or madmen would imagine to engineer another one.

Doctrine Doctrines are not about truth. They are about compliance and commitment of followers.

Prof. Faludi has been studying planning from a sociological perspective for decades, and the Green Heart was one of his primary cases for the dynamics of planning doctrines.6 The term “doctrine” raises interesting questions about the purpose of planning— Can you really implement a plan? How flexible is a plan for changes? To what extent are the changes still consistent with the plan?

When the founding fathers of Dutch national planning established the Randstad–Greenheart as a spatial strategy, it effectively coordinated different sectors’ developments and cross-level actions. As the pressure of growth rose, the contest between environmentalists and developers spread into the planning domain. So the Green Heart was portrayed into a powerful vision for open space preservation: imagine, if the well-being of the body depends on the heart, how can one argue for its destruction? The policy tightened the restriction on construction in and around the Heart in favour of agricultural land use. The doctrine was in full strength.

However, in the late ’80s oppositions and doubts emerged. The public was divided into three camps6: the fundamentalists (Hands off the Green Heart!), the pragmatists (An ounce less green is not the end of the world!), and the heretics (suggesting various ways to consume the Heart). But the real problem for planners was whether the Green Heart concept could actually address these different opinions. How do you manage such a vast area with clean-cut virtual borders and black-and-white restriction policies? While planners were savouring their green vision, local actors found all sorts of ways to bend the rules. Lörzing even remarked the Green Heart was downright detrimental to the planning practice.3 He then suggested replacement for it: archipelago—islands of different characters separated by linear development.

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1924, mapping urbanisation pattern2

PRECONSCIOUS STAGE

ca. 1935, “randstad” named by KLM founder A. Plesman3

’30S–’50S AWARENESS

The doctrine was challenged, but not yet beyond maintenance. On the other side of the debate, Faludi and Van der Valk suggested that, instead of throwing away the concept, it can be further developed to accommodate new needs, guiding development with concepts such as “chambers and veins”.7 32

But why all this effort to keep a disputed metaphor?

Firstly because despite the complaints, a united vision of national form is indispensable in regulating developments and preventing irreparable damage to the land. That’s the necessity of planning doctrines, especially in times of rapid development. It has less to do with absolute truth than the worse (unknown) alternatives. Secondly, if doctrines are necessary, discrediting them too frequently reduce their strength to lead followers. Or, the public may simply not follow the swift changes. Either way, some degree of continuity is needed with complex systems, and the art of metaphor maintenance is a wisdom for that.

Imagine a scenario where a doctrine is missing.

Professionals make a regional plan with numbers and lines precise to the coordinates. But plans are not laws, and the benefits in development is just too tempting.

You won’t go after people when they build half a metre out of lines—because there are too many. The rule defeats itself with its impractical precision. So

1958, “green heart” = the open central space/Hollands-Utrechtse weidegebied4

1966, Greenheart Metropolis5

’60S, ’70S PRESERVATIVE POLICY, AND GROWING INTERNATIONAL FAME

developers feel secured to negotiate a change of numbers here, a shift of lines there—and local governments don’t really see why not, given the benefits. Before long the plan is almost reconfigured.

So what’s the point of the plan? On the other hand, a metaphorical doctrine like the Green Heart, albeit without a scientific appearance, is conceptually binding. One can only tweak the shape so much without rendering the heart unrecognisable. Not to mention the emotional resonance in its narrative. By contrast, lines and numbers without backing concepts are almost nonsense for directing human actions.

Information Passing from hand to hand, the metaphor grows into a socially constructed compound.

“How is the Green Heart different from the metaphors we use to frame design problems or create solutions?”

Prof. Zonneveld is an expert in conceptualisation in spatial planning; and he posed this question for our reflection. We find that by comparison, the Green Heart is more for large-scale communication. Its countless information particles travel from person to person and group to group, expanding consciousness or conducting the doctrine. But for all this “performance”, how is it different from the rest?

1990, Borders designated by VINEX7

’80S, ’90S DOUBTS, OPPSITION

1995, Public debate on the concept6, 7,8

2004, A differentiated Green Heart3

MID-’90S ON, CALL FOR REALISTIC MEASURES, AND CONCEPT RENEWAL

Firstly, it’s a conceptual metaphor9 by which the thinker sees a map of grey and green in terms of everyday experience of urban stress and natural beauty. The concept “green” does not entail value judgement unless understood metaphorically in terms of these experiences. Secondly, to function as a tool of spatial planning, it contains morphological information. Its first official record refers to the ring–hollow complementary form. For this purpose, other metaphors could have also served—maybe horse-shoe metropolis? But there is a third concern: providing an affective argument for the preservation of the described forms. So, the beautiful heart wins.

The Green Heart isn’t one message of a single perspective, but different units working as a whole: The perceptual unit differentiates two opposing concepts. The morphological unit prescribes spatial structure, yet unjustified without the third unit. And the narrative unit alone cannot direct spatial decisions.

Metaphor engages a universal human capability, and it is an incredibly sophisticated information vehicle. The Green Heart weaved an invisible sphere, where individual actors were united into a collective by a shared understanding. Its complexity is the complexity of human intelligence rising up to the challenges of the built environment.

2000S DECLINE OF NATIONAL PLANNING

Legacy “The national level planning dramatically declined after we entered the 21st century, due to changed economic and political circumstances … This marks the demise of planning doctrines,” Faludi said. Now local municipalities are calling the shots, and some of them continue on the Green Heart path.10 The career of the Green Heart metaphor traces a curious loop of self-referencing. It started as a realisation of the urbanisation pattern in the national landscape—legacy of previous generations. It captured that new consciousness because as a metaphor, it bridges the unfamiliar to the familiar. It rose to the status of planning doctrine and imparted the RandstadGreenheart pattern on the national form. As a metaphor, it makes a good vessel for doctrines because it appeals to human nature. And what are we, but humans? It was a socially constructed information compound, binding actors by communication. At the end of its (national) career, it has left its own legacy in the national form and the culture, not to mention an array of studies on planning norms and theories. Who would have thought it for one little metaphor?

Sources can be found on the online pages 36–37: issuu.com/bnieuws

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Rogier & Tiemen

VISITÉ

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Michiel Riedijk (1964) is professor of the chair of Public Buildings since 2007 and principal of Neutelings Riedijk Architects in Rotterdam.

statements, highlighting the original presence. When traveling they go all out, a ski trip to Iztaccihuatl in Mexico seems to be on the agenda.

Mexico The house in Rotterdam, Michiel and his wife renovated themselves, is devoid of grand

Ever dreamt of moving? “Not yet, I prefer the city life, rather than riding a lawn-mower on the countryside”.

The Rules

PETER RUSSELL’S 10 RULES FOR LIFE Words Peter Russell

As a dean, I have had the privilege to give speeches to freshly graduated students, in Delft and elsewhere. Young people who are about to start their careers. In the end, these talks come down to a few nuggets of information.

I have paired these down to ten rules and will share them with you in Bnieuws over the coming months.

Rule #9: It is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

This rule seems obvious, but it does take something that is not easy to acquire. That is responsibility.

If you ask somebody for permission, you are indicating that you are not sure of yourself or the situation. When asking for permission, we are admitting that we need someone else to assume the responsibility for a decision. This is not always a bad thing as spreading risks is generally a good idea. On the other hand, if you are willing to lead, at some point you will not need anyone else’s approbation.

Then there is the issue of forgiveness. It is not guaranteed: that would-be permission. It is a risk that anyone deciding to do something without permission is undertaking the responsibility for their actions. This is not about breaking the law or flaunting rules. There are enough circumstances where there are not any laws or rules—you will have to trust your instinct, your gut and your intuition. Logic often does not play a role in the final decision.

However, experience shows that if we trust our instincts, we are often greeted with relief, that someone made a decision. We will make mistakes—all of us. That is how we learn.

Permission gets in the way of that process.

A quote from my Building Construction professor (Bob Benz) when I submitted my detail drawings as a 2m x 2m mural instead of the requested 4 DIN A2 sheets: “It’s okay to break the rules if you break them well”. Thanks, Bob. Rectification: In the previous issue we printed Rule #1. It should have been Rule #10.

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FYI

SOURCES Made In China pages 6–9

Catwalk pages 20–22

More information about the development of the Las Vegas Strip in: Al, S. (2017). The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream. Cambridge: MIT Press Ltd. 2 Silk, M., Manley, A. (2014). From Tower Bridge to Sydney Harbour: Welcome to China’s City of Clones. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jun/03/ from-tower-bridge-to-sydney-harbour-welcome-to-chinas-cityof-clones

1

Jane Jacobs Walk. (n.d.). Who was Jane Jacobs? Retrieved from www.janejacobswalk.org/about-jane-jacobs-walk/ meet-jane-jacobs/ 2 Weingarten, M. (2016). Jane Jacobs, the writer who changed the face of the modern city. Retrieved from www.

Thomas, C., Voor iedereen een partij, in De Groene Amsterdammer 2017, Pieter Elshout.

2 Socialization. 2017 [cited 20170415]; Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialization.

3 Why do people join groups? 2015 [cited 170426]; Retrieved from: http://llpengage.eu/en/home/trainingresources/module-2-engagement-intervention-strategies/2why-do-people-join-groups/.

4 Evelina, L.W., Ageline, M., Mariani, V., Uniforms and Perception of Professionalism. Advanced Science Letters, 2015. 21(4): p. 723-726.

5 Bourn, J. Color Meaning: Meaning of The Color Black.

Color Meaning Blog Series 2010 [cited 2017 170415]; Retrieved from: http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-ofthe-color-black/.

6 Kraft, S. Why Do Architects Wear Black? deconarch.com 2008 [cited 170415]; Retrieved from: http://www. deconarch.com/why-do-architects-wear-black/.

7 Veenbaas, W., Weisfelt, P., Persoonlijk Leiderschap. 2006,

theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/21/jane-jacobs-moderncity-biography-new-york-greenwich-village 3 The School of Life. (2015). How to Make an Attractive City. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Hy4QjmKzF1c 4 Mastroeni, T. (2014). Why Our Brains Love Symmetry in Design. Retrieved from www.freshome.com/2014/09/29/ why-our-brains-love-symmetry-in-design/ 5 Florida, R. (2012). Cities With Denser Cores Do Better.

Retrieved from www.citylab.com/work/2012/11/ cities-denser-cores-do-better/3911/

Soest: Uitgeverij Nelissen.

8 Code (semiotics). 2017 [cited 170426]; Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_(semiotics).

9 Eco, U., Semiotics and the Philoshophy of Language. 1986, Midland: First Midland Book Edition.

10 Sims, J., Icons of Men’s Style. 2014, London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd. 11 Kantelberg, A., Man op z’n best. 2016, Antwerpen: Uitgeverij podium.

12 Modderman, J., Kantelberg, A., Clowneske uniseks is de nieuwe norm. Volkskrant, 2017.

1

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Attractive Cities pages 10–12 1

Niche for colors pages 26–27

From Legacy to Legacy pages 30–33

The buildings in the photos, from left to right, are:

1

177 Social Housing in Vitoria by Matos-Castillo Arquitectos (source: www.archdaily.com/483060/177-social-housing-invitoria-matos-castillo-arquitectos) GSW Headquarters in Berlin by Sauerbruch Hutton (source: sharonboddy.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/ rethinking-the-role-of-buildings) Chuon Chuon Kim Kindergarten by KIENTRUC O (source: www.kientruco.com/projects/detail/chuon-chuonkim-kindergarten-38) Museum for Espace de l’Art Concret by Ricardo Bofill (source: www.gigon-guyer.ch/en/buildings/ museums/#g-1979) Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

by Tigerman McCurry (source: www.tigerman-mccurry. com/project/library-for-the-blind) All the cases above are also to be found in Arcolor.org database.

Damasio, A.R., The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. 1999: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

2 Van Lohuizen, T.K., Concentratie en decentralisatie; de bevolkingsbeweging in de stedelijke invloedssfeer HollandUtrecht 1869-1920, in Tijdschrift voor Ecanamische Geagrafie. 1925. p. 341 - 350.

3 Lörzing, H., Planning system and landscape: a Dutch example. Landscape Research, 2004. 29(4): p. 357-369.

4 Werkcommissie Westen des Lands, De Ontwikkeling van het Westen des Lands: Rapport The Hague: Staatsuitgeverij, 1958.

5 Burke, G.L., Greenheart metropolis : planning the Western Netherlands. 1966, London etc.: MacMillan.

6 Van der Valk, A. and A. Faludi, The Green Heart and the dynamics of doctrine. Netherlands Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 1997. 12(1): p. 57-75.

7 Faludi, A. and A. van der Valk, Planners come out for the Green Heart. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 1996. 87(5): p. 448-452.

8 Lörzing, H., It’s time to redefine the Green Heart.

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 1996.

87(5): p. 452-457.

9 Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson, Metaphors we live by. 2008: University of Chicago press.

10 Provincie Zuid-Holland (2016, December 20). Provincie Zuid-Holland ondertekent Groene Hart-bestuursakkoord.

Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://www.zuid-holland. nl/kaart/nieuws/@15322/bestuursakkoord-gh

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Bnieuws VOLUME 50 EDITION 07