Bnieuws 50/03 - Wall of Fame (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 03 15 November 2016 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl Editorial Team Nadine van den Berg Arjan Boonstra Ruiying Liu

SPEAK 12

The Original Mobile Home

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Study Goals

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Beter bed

Editorial Advice Emily Parry Contributors Marthe van Gils Jamal van Kastel Pierijn van der Putt Michael Tjia

CREATE PTO

Cover Fragment of Portrait LC

by Nadine van den Berg see also p.15 Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken Next Deadline 06th of December 12.00 Bnieuws Volume 50 Issue 04 13th December 2016 Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies Š All rights reserved.

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

Archiprix Selection

LEARN 06

The Geomatics Way

EXPLORE 15

Portrait Gallery

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Ax

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How to Win the Archiprix

Editorial

WALL OF FAME

We are proud to present to you our second Archiprix Special. In this Special Edition we devote attention to the nine selected graduation projects from our faculty for the Archiprix 2017. They are all inspiring and deserve a place in the spotlight, which is one of the reasons why we decided to have this special edition in the first place.

But is there a special tactic to win the Archiprix? Perhaps a secret formula (and not the one of the Krabby Patty) or a certain approach? Are there certain projects that appeal more to the jury than others? We will look into these points to make sure you have got your best chance at winning the competition.

All this talk about winning competitions and the possibilities and fame it comes with, makes you wonder what else you can accomplish to be remembered as an outstanding architect. Perhaps you have always fancied a big portrait of yourself with “Starchitect” written underneath it? If you have dreamed of seeing yourself hanging in the portrait gallery on the first floor, you might find yourself disappointed… Check out page 15 to see if you can fit all the criteria. But you may find out you have to wait quite a while…

Additionally, take a look at how the mastertrack Geomatics is doing via a series of interviews with staff and students. How does the field of Geomatics link to our designworld and what can we expect in the future?

And last but not least, how is the current trend of Mobile Homes influencing and changing our society? Slowly, but surely the opportunity to pack up your home and go somewhere else is changing our way of living.

We also put a bit of mystery in the cover. Can you figure out from which portrait the image comes from?

We hope you enjoy this one!

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#Bnieuwd

To do / DREAM OUT LOUD This exhibition explores social design by showcasing 26 playful and inventive solutions of various designers. It includes a contribution of someone of our own faculty - Pieter Stoutjesdijk.

Get to know / FSR The new FSR board has started this year with writing a new policy, setting up new key points, and attending their first meetings. Do not hesitate to come by at their office for questions or complaints.

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam / until 01.01.16

Room BG.Midden.140 / Every Wednesday during lunch

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Workshop / INTERPRETING ATMOSPHERE This one-day workshop, guided by Klaske Havik of the chair of Methods and Analysis, aims to grasp various atmospheres through two architectural means; text and object.

Lezing / THURSDAY NIGHT: IRMA BOOM Irma Boom is graďŹ sch ontwerper en richt zich voornamelijk op het maken van boeken. Ze werkt samen met architecten zoals Rem Koolhaas en vindt het van belang het gedrukte boek vitaal te houden.

Modelling Hall / 22.11.16

Het Nieuwe Instituut / 08.12.16

#Bnieuwd

Conference / BETWEEN PAPERS AND PIXELS What exactly is an architectural drawing today? In this conference the Jaap Bakema Study Centre will explore new developments in architectural drawing, specifically focused on the interplay between the media of paper and pixels.

Excursion / ARGUS GOES TO VENICE In November ARGUS takes a group of students to the Venice Biennale for a critical reflection.

The Berlage halls & The New Institute / 30.11.16 - 01.12.16

Venice Architecture Biennale / 23.11.16 - 27.11.16

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Book launch & workshop / COMPLEXITY THEORIES OF CITIES The platform Complexity, Cognition and the City will present the post-proceedings of the 2nd Delft Conference on Complexity with short talks by the editors (Juval Portugali and Egbert Stolk) and Ruiying Liu (MSc student), bridging onto the next conference theme; Emotion, Feelings, Consciousness and Imagination. For starters to the formal event is the workshop Models & Metaphors: Understanding Complexity, and drinks will be at 17:00.

BK Room C/ 18.11.16 / 14:00 - 15:45, 16:00 - 18:00

Learn

THE GEOMATICS WAY Words Ruiying Liu

Geomatics is a relatively small study programme in our faculty. Walking around in BK City, you have about 1-out-of-50 chance of encountering one of their students.

In A+BE, traditional designers tend to find their work fanciful, their techical rationale too advanced to even discuss about; but some criticise their positivist approach superficially falling short of qualitative insights. Is this a classic division between two cultures, or is it an opportunity to re-imagine design?

To find out what geomaticists really do and why they do it, Bnieuws interviewed Stefan van der Spek, the program director, and several other geomaticists in the making, in the hope of presenting the reader with a cross-disciplinary picture of the geomatics way.

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It’s difficult to explain directly what geomatics really is. There’s even no standard on whether they call themselves ‘geomatician’ (sounding like technician) or ‘geomaticist’ (evoking a flavour of believers). In the spirit of finding the underlying qualities, let us see this growing young discipline as a group of people converging from all backgrounds with shared interests, skillset and causes.

Imagine a regional planner struggling to find out the link between residential typology and energy consumption, where all the typology can be seen on Google Maps but all the energy survey data is in Excel sheets from CBS (Statistics Netherlands).

Recall the architect’s drudgery of modelling the complicated urban environment to produce a sun shading analysis. Or, google up John Snow and see how he cracked the problem of cholera sources in London by mapping the dynamic of the epidemic.

Geomatics Rule No.1: Location matters; data collection, processing, organisation and visualisation matter; and spatial patterns are telltale signs of of urban dynamics.

The City Is Our Laboratory Compared with urbanism & architecture’s framing metaphor, ‘the city is society’s artefact’, laboratory has some fundamental differences: while Artefact implies something filled with meanings and intentions, and idiosyncratic phenomena that are difficult to generalise or transfer, laboratory implies that most phenomena can be accurately recorded and correlated, and that every cycle of effort is aimed at output for repeated use (such as tools, models, theories, etc.).

What has made possible this different frame is technology—or as Stefan calls it—‘extra eyes and heads’. His study on cognitive aspects of urban movement 1 did not employ the routine cognitive map interview technique; instead, he made freemoving people his lab rats by tracking them with GPS devices. The satellite was his ‘eyes’ and the automatic data processing added to his brain power.

Rule No.2: the geomatics way is more than datacrunching tools and dazzling visualisation—it’s a way of seeing things.

Left: GPS tracking of people’s movement in Delft city centre (from the project Sensing the City: Delft from Above, 2013).

Right: Stefan’s own cognitive map produced during the interview without any reference.

(From left to right can be seen the transformation of unstructured data into a semantic network in the mind of a scientist-designer.)

Campus as Testing Ground Geomatics students spend their first year learning basic tools and at the end they are challenged to apply all they’ve learnt on a project set in real-world conditions—the Synthesis Project. Mind you this is not designers’ ideas combining, but a synthesis of a student’s knowledge and capabilities (a fine distinction reflected by Stefan’s /sɪnˈteɪsɪs/ pronunciation).

In the last Synthesis, three groups of students used the eduroam wifi log data to identify movement patterns on campus, to reflect occupancy of indoor facilities and to monitor user activities during irregular hours. The context of this theme is the push for ever smaller urban tracking scales and the overflowing data generated in daily life—on one hand, GPS requires extra equipment and cannot cover indoor areas; on the other hand, most people now carry devices connected to locatable wifi access points, generating tons of log data on the

server. To make the latter the solution to the former is where the geomaticist comes in.

In a way it is to turn wifi access points into tracking sensors. The basic principle is, assuming the link between wifi devices and users, to locate them with the log data connected to specific access points. From there on, various models and theories are used to derive different user dynamics over time, such as movement and duration of stay. The significance of the end product is two fold: the conclusion pertaining to the studied phenomena and a generalised system for repeatable or dynamic processing and visualisation—a programmed tool, in short.

But correlating a set of data to people’s movement and articulating it in an algorithm to get the pattern visible is just half the challenge. ‘The bigger challenge (of correlating data to human activities)’, says Stefan, ‘is

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Group 1 mapped movement patterns on two levels: the total amount of between-building movement distributed across time, and the amount and spatial distribution of movement in BK City.

Image by M. Bon, D. BalĂĄzs, M. Vermeer, S. Griffioen, X. den Duijn, and Y. Kang

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Group 2 mapped facility occupation across the campus, and developed an online dashboard with interactively maps showing occupation of each building on campus on different scales. It holds promise to help students find work space and for the management to improve the efficiency of their facilities.

Image by F. Bot, H. Braaksma, R. Braggaar, B. Ligtvoet, B. Staats

Group 3 explored how to identify and monitor anonymous users’ activities in a building based on user group categorisation. Left image shows time spent by four types users during regular and irregular hours.

The technology can be used for facility management and security solutions especially outside the regular opening hours.

Image by IJ.D.G. Groeneveld, R. Sulzer, E. Theocharous, M.S. Tryfona, O.T. Willems, Y. Xu

always identifying the limitation of your method.’

For example, the log data from the servers that report devices only refreshes at a 5-minute interval, during which time people could have moved from one end of BK City to the other, or in and out of the building without a bleep on the radar. Or, people could have different numbers of devices, leaving some on the table and walking around with others.

And the wifi connection goes beyond floors, making it difficult to pinpoint the number of people in a specific room.

So students were pushed hard to assess the accuracy of their results with on-site observations, and to come up with ways improve it with other information, such as lecture schedule and user group information. In other words, the data processing methods may not be applicable for other cases, but for the specific case of the TU Delft, it can provide valid conclusions.

Rule No.3: in geomatics you negotiate a wise path between the hard and the soft science to reach the right conclusion.

A Scientist’s Mind

“I JUST WANT TO SCIENTIFICALLY ASSESS THE TOOLS WE DEVELOP, BECAUSE THEY ARE THE FOUNDATION OF ALL OUR EFFORTS.”—ETHAN Ethan (officially Y. Kang) started with remote sensing in his bachelor before beginning a master in geomatics. Due to his ‘code slave’ existence, you barely find him in the day light. (‘Debugging is a heart-wrenching business.’) Catching him at the dinner table, the interview turned into three hours’ techno-philosophical main course.

Do you have any regret from the Synthesis Project?

None but one. I wish we had more space to push the technical boundaries further instead of being limited by the client (who provided the wifi data). Because of privacy concerns they wouldn’t help us link devices to users, so even if it would have been a great opportunity to try out ideas on differentiating user group patterns—such as students and staff—we couldn’t do it. It’s most frustrating when you have a clear hypothesis but can’t assess it in real-world conditions.

But student–staff stereotypes might not be the actual categories in behaviour pattern. If you reveal that the real social groups are not divided into these old stereotypes, wouldn’t it be more exciting?

[Laughing] That is your urbanist viewpoint. I just want to develop a tool that can sort people into categories accurately, regardless of the categories. If you see learning/defining new categories as pattern cognition, then there’s still the job of figuring out how to do pattern recognition, which is where scientists come in.

Come on... scientists are also needed in redefining categories. You can program self-organisation maps to sort out typomorphology of a whole city, or its social diversity, which is still being done by urbanists manually!

Yeah, I see your urgencies... But our urgency, as I see, is assessing the tools to consolidate the foundation of our conclusions; even if we cooperate on a project, my objectives will stay the same, which is to develop a system that can be put to broader use as a tool, and a tool comes with instructions of its accuracy and reliability.

And so on goes the conversation, ranging from unsupervised learning in pattern recognition to dimension reduction in urban complexity. At the end of it, although designers might feel disappointed for never having a geomaticist teammate for their studios, they can be comforted by the fact that all bases are (being) covered in the field of A+BE.

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Rationality for Design

“IN URBANISM I FELT I COULD BUILD A FRAMEWORK TO BASE MY DESIGNS ON, BUT STILL I MISSED A SENSE OF RATIONAL THINKING AND MATHEMATICAL APPLICATIONS.” —FANNY

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program and keeping up with the studio at the same time, but couldn’t achieve much. Now before I do my thesis, I just want to get my tools and skills ready.

What motivates you in your geomatics study?

JV: The knowledge I gain about the data we use in urbanism. Now I will hopefully be able to handle the raw data, analyse it, create useful maps and base my design on it... It doesn’t matter I don’t get any credits from the courses because I just want the knowledge.

Arguments for designs are often narratives, personal interpretations or a patchwork of information obtained from various sources. Eventually, those who miss the rational thinking end up elsewhere than design—such as Fanny Bot, who changed from urbanism to geomatics, and Jet ten Voorde, who’s taking geomatics courses without earning any credits towards her urbanism degree.

FB: I’ve always felt an affinity towards maps, and I love visualising data on a map. At first I was afraid I lack the necessary background, now I finished the first year and passed all of my courses, constantly motivated by a sense of accomplishment after figuring out yet another assignment that seemed difficult when I started.

What’s so attractive in geomatics to take you away from the graduation thesis?

JV: Since my q1 urbanism studio, I’ve always find GIS important and more useful (compared with other random methods). Back then, you could find maps with the information, but you can’t change their structures or extract the data; or you may have the data but you don’t know how to map out their spatial patterns. I tried to do something, learning the

Stefan, who also used to follow the urbanist path, observes that designers never measure the performance of their design, and they only notice when there’s a real trouble. ‘The (sensor and IoT) technology could change our design strategy, from only modelling it before construction, to also using it for evaluation afterwards and then apply the results in new design.’—Imagine how much easier life will be when we can argue about design quality rationally.

Design could be stressful guesswork; but Jet (in red) seems to have found her escape with rationality. Image provided by Jet.

Left: Stefan with his drone. Image by author.

Right: Flying the drone to make 3D map of the Solar Decathlon House. Image provided by Stefan.

A boundless horizon

“WE’RE LIKE SOME KIND OF SPIDER IN THE WEB, CONNECTING TO SO MANY FIELDS, EVOLVING AND DEVELOPING...”

—STEFAN Stefan van der Spek is Director of Geomatics. He is proud of the fact that people in his department come from all kinds of different backgrounds - architecture, urbanism, surveying, computer science, etc. They interpret the data from different perspectives and relate it to all kinds of social, academic aspects; they bring in exciting new technology and knowledge, and the influence of their work will extend to all their specialised areas.

What makes you proud of being a geomaticist?

I really like the developments in connecting things...

There is so much going on, and we’re like some kind of spider in the web, connecting to so many fields, evolving and developing. And there are so many dynamics in the built environment, which are really great to talk about with people. I can talk with you about tracking movement, with other people about sensing technologies, and then others about 3D modelling and simulation... We’re so connected to so many beautiful fields of profound developments.

In our field of intense competition, the geomatics way could teach us not just new technology but the often forgotten passion for knowledge and the courage to explore.

New perspectives on our disciplines are always needed to keep us refreshed and connected. If you

How did you change onto the geomatics track?

It’s a developing discipline closely connected to the field I was in. During my research, I started tracking people with GPS for urban design as a tool; and from there on, you just automatically end up in geomatics. In 2005 I picked up GIS, got involved in geomatics projects and then seven years later, I was working in the department—as director of the program. [Laugh]

have new ideas to share on disciplinary reflection, do let us know!

Notes: [1] The research by Stefan is Sensing the City: Delft from Above (2013).

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Speak

THE ORIGINAL MOBILE HOME Text & Illustration

Nadine van den Berg

You might have heard about it: the mobile home. This new trend seems to pop up all around the globe. But what is a mobile home exactly?

Basically, it’s a home that you can transport in an easy way around the world. It’s light in weight, easy to build up and take down (usually within hours or days), and often sustainable. It should also be adaptable to the different climates on this planet.

The reason why some people want such a way of living, is explainable in one word: freedom. The feeling of wandering around the world like nomads used to do. Not settling anywhere, but instead settling for a life on the road. This is a concept completely different from what our grandparents, who sometimes lived in the same place their grandparents lived in for generations, used to do.

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Instead of buying a house and settling in, a growing number of people do things a bit differently. I think it’s a good idea, a home that you can take with you wherever you like, crossing borders and cultures, meeting new people and interacting in a society completely different than the one you grew up in.

Slowly, the way of living is changing, like it always has throughout time—or are we getting back to the start?

After all, the original mobile home was invented by this little fellow.

“QUOTE NON PARUM LABOREM REM FUGA. UT AUT ARUMENIS EOS REMPERUM NOBITEM NESCIUNT.”

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BETER BED Het voetbalteam van mijn zoontje heeft een uitwedstrijd. Om brandstof te besparen en de natuur te redden wordt er gecarpoold. We stappen bij de coach aan boord en rijden richting Uden, naar de club die voorheen Udi ’19 heette maar nu Udi Beter Bed. Dit stukje gaat niet over hoe de commercie toeslaat in het jeugdvoetbal. Het gaat ook niet over rubberkorrels in het kunstgras. Mijn zoon, negen jaar oud, zegt dat hij ‘de resultaten van het onderzoek van de RIVM wil afwachten’ voordat hij weer op kunstgras gaat voetballen maar Udi Beter Bed heeft echt gras, dus dat speelt nu niet.

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Waar gaat het wél over? Dit: we zoeven over de weg in een werkelijk asociaal exclusieve auto en Mike, de coach, die achter het stuur zit, vertelt over de vluchteling die hij gisteren geholpen heeft met het regelen van een bed en een eettafel. Voor het appartement waarin hij tijdelijk woont -tot de gezinshereniging van volgende maand. Op die manier, met hand- en spandiensten en raad waar nodig, helpt coach Mike een aantal van deze nieuwe Nederlanders. Zijn vader geeft Nederlandse les en zijn vrouw geeft creatieve vakken.

Ik geef niks aan vluchtelingen. We hadden wel een keer geregeld dat er drie zouden komen eten (een lokaal initiatief) maar toen werd er bij ons een ziek en hebben we de boel afgeblazen. Zittend naast Mike, constateer ik tot mijn schaamte dat ik met die ene mislukte poging al maandenlang mijn geweten sus.

Mike is een harde werker. LTS, MTS, bedrijf begonnen, HTS er nog bij gedaan. Een aannemer, met een auto van 80.000 euro en een mooi huis aan een lommerrijke laan. Maar dus ook begaan met het lot van mensen die hij niet kent. Vanzelfsprekend, want ‘je zou zelf toch ook vertrekken als er bommen op je huis werden gegooid?’ Ik knik en wijs hem op het bordje Udi Beter Bed. We zijn er.

Pierijn van der Putt / Docent Architectuur

Interview

PORTRAIT GALLERY Text & Images Michael Tjia

Throughout the building, one can find countless collections of models, chairs and other artefacts. While most of them are clearly titled, one east-wing corridor features an arrangement of uncaptioned portraits. To find out more about these mysterious faces, Bnieuws took a stroll with Dick van Gameren: Professor, partner at Mecanoo, and part-time curator.

How did this collection come to be?

When we moved into this building, all departments were asked to come up with ideas to decorate the faculty. Something that says something about the department you are in. If we need to do something quickly, I thought, let’s start a portrait gallery featuring ‘heroes’ from the past.

How were they selected?

We asked all department staff for contributions. A criterion is that they are not allowed to be living architects, as that would result into difficult discussions. The ‘wall of fame’ next to the library which was realised in the same period caused quite a stir. Although people have asked “Why is … not included?”, this collection did not generate such fuss.

Suggestions are still very welcome. For additions, but also those for immediate removal.

So no living architects. Any other criteria?

Well, we do want a good-looking photograph. We looked into books and other publications in search of pictures with work visible, so when you do not recognize a face, you are still able to trace back who it is. We have some pictures of architects with models of their buildings or their own designed chairs, which you should be able to identify.

In the end though, there is no extensive research project behind the portraits. It’s just a nice collection of pictures that we find, with the idea that it can be changed from time to time. We have added a few of them over the years. For example Oscar Niemeyer who passed away a few years ago.

About that portrait. I heard it was already at hand and ready to hang.

We already had the portrait made. He had already passed a hundred years by then. But we only hung it once he deceased. Other recent additions include Zaha Hadid, Charles Correa and Lelé.

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Number of photographs

74

Black & white/ full colour images

68/9

Number of men/women portrayed

76/10

Number of Dutch nationals

29

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Do you have any favourites?

What I like most are the pictures of architects at work or posing with their work. I find the photo of Van den Broek and Bakema with the Civil Engineering model very nice. Or Frank Lloyd Wright holding the roof of the Guggenheim museum, as if it were a fruit bowl. I also think Lutyens has a beautiful photograph, with him sitting behind his drawing board and with a floor-plan of Liverpool Cathedral as a backdrop.

Any comments on our cover (Bnieuws 09, 2014) featuring dean Peter Russel?

I would prefer an image of him at work, but if this was the only one of him available, it would be fine.

Recently, a portrait of professor emeritus Lansdorp has been donated. Also, we have this nice bust of Granpré Molière, which survived the fire and is now

exhibited here as well. It used to be customary for portraits to be commissioned at the departure of a professor. In many TU faculty buildings, they still have portraits hanging of former professors and deans, but that tradition has disappeared here.

So what do you think of the results that show up when you enter your own name in Google Images?

[Laughs] Somehow, there’s this very old picture of me which always turns up, when we had just won the Europan competition. That was 25 years ago — I was quite a bit younger there.

We go through some of the statistics. Covering silly topics (’Only twenty wearing glasses? They must be taking them off for the picture.’) and more serious ones such as the gender imbalance.

Working on drawings

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With a maquette

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Wearing glasses (of which are dark acetate)

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Number of Pritzker laureates

8

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How would you explain the lack of women in this collection?

We have done our best to find women for the photographs. Let’s face it, it is quite difficult.

Nowadays it would be easier to find living women in architecture. The big exception was Margaret Staal-Kropholler: the Netherlands’ first woman architect. Not a lot of people are able to identify her, despite her special position.

In short, it is an idiosyncratic collection. I see these portraits as a conversation starter. On architects and their work.

To keep this conversation going, Bnieuws and Dick van Gameren invite you to send in your suggestions: Which architects are indispensable in this collection and should be added? Are there individuals who should be taken down?

Reach out to us at bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

Looking at the other portraits, Dick takes note of the photo’s of De Klerk and Kramer (‘As if they stepped out of a Western – cowboys, nineteenth century, the Wild West – but they’re the famous Amsterdam School architects’), Aldo van Eyck (‘I honestly do not know why he is holding those crabs or lobsters’) and Hendrik Wijdeveld (‘He turned 101 — it is possible to grow old’).

We thank Tessa Wijtman-Berkman for supplying an overview of the portrait collection.

Artifact

AX Artifact Machiel van Dorst

An artifact in itself doesn’t mean anything. The artifact comes to live because it is useful; one shares a history with it or because it appeals to our esthetical preferences. Hopefully it can do it all. Because of these relations, the description of an artifact may say more about its owner than about the artifact self‌ So this is my ax (the word itself is already beautiful). I am not known as a violent person, but this ax has it all; ergonomic quality, a simple, beautiful and efficient design, the atmosphere of a romantic outdoor live and the promise of some action.

45 years ago my father planted 10,000 trees. Over the years it was my hobby to restrain the woods. The trees were getting bigger and so did I. I got a chainsaw, yet this ax was always my favorite tool. It sounds paradoxical but due to my close relation with trees I became an environmentalist. The ax is the connecting tool as it is the most durable artifact of men; we use it for 1,5 million years. I also have an ax from the stone-age, fastened to a wooden handle. I got it from a man in the jungles of West-Papua; it is approximately the same thing.

Stone is replaced with steel, both their weight is 1.5 kg. Over the millennia the handle (or lever) is optimized to arm-length.

Not by coincidence, I have a garden with many trees and still I use this ax to split or cut wood on a Sunday afternoon. The thought of the sound of the ax hitting the wood already creates a moment of happiness.

For the next Artifact I like to nominate Luc Willekens.

< Image by Machiel van Dorst. Dimensions: 705 x 200 x 32 mm (lxbxh).

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FYI

HOW TO WIN THE ARCHIPRIX Words Arjan Boonstra

Images Ruiying Liu

‘Upcoming talent is often first presented by the Archiprix organisation’, the Archiprix website is clear. It stresses the high quality of the participants’ works and features lists of projects to gaze at. The highly coveted Archiprix will bring you eternal fame with all the benefits that go along with it. However, how does one win such price? How does one seduce the jury? To find out how to win the Archiprix, Bnieuws not only visited the exhibition to analyse this year’s plans, but also interviewed Frank Loer, organiser of the debate ‘How to win the Archiprix’ (2013), Jimmy Verhoeven, organisor of the 2012 pre-selection, and Milad Pallesh and Yuka Yoshida, winners of last year’s national Archiprix.

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From the 4th until the 26th of October, the twentynine best projects of our faculty were featured in an exhibition in the BK EXPO. From these projects, nine are chosen to represent the Delft University of Technology in the national selection. This number, based on the quantity of students, will join the twenty other plans to compete for the national Archiprix 2017.

Being in the Right Place However, our nominees unfortunately do not win that often. Most winners are from the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. Since they only send in four projects each year, it is remarkable they have won nine of the twenty prizes since 2010. The TU Delft, with nine projects each year, has won three prizes in this same period of time.

Maybe most important to winning the Archiprix, is studying at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture.

In the case you are studying at the Delft University of Technology and are not willing to switch universities, the right department/chair/studio is of great importance to increase your chances. Frank Loer: ‘Border Conditions & Territories is a research group with many successful projects, due to the fact they create spectacular designs.

The chair Architecture of the Interior is very distinctive and valuable, yet they barely pass the pre-selection. Not all great designers win prizes’. All studios have a different focus. Choosing a particular department can increase your chances to win dramatically.

An overview of the Archiprix pre-selecition exhibition, featured in the BK EXPO

Now if you really want that Archiprix, you might also consider spending a semester on a subject like transformation or some other trending theme. Giving buildings new purposes is trending. ‘Maybe you will be an amazing architect and learn a ton when designing a primary school in Groningen’, Frank says, ‘but depending on the jury's agenda that will or won't make you win’. Like the studio’s, you have to pick your courses wisely.

Zeitgeist To be noticed by the jury, as it happens, it’s important to fit in with the trends. 'They often choose projects that embody the Zeitgeist, was one of the conclusions during the debate How to win the Archiprix’, Frank says. ‘In that year, some of the trends were the third industrial revolution (CNC techniques, 3D printing, etc.) and hybrid buildings.

Many in the audience believed that if your plan was not consistent with this, your chances were considerably reduced’. Jimmy Verhoeven has similar experiences: ‘in the end, in my year, a lot of the

nominees of our faculty had a social theme integrated in their architecture'.

This seems to remain true for this year, with a lot of projects paying attention to transformation and renovation. Most of the nominated plans are designed to help the ones in need, for example: refugees, dementia patients, deprived communities in Africa, the inhabitants of Groningen and architects. If one theme had to be distilled however, it would be loving Architecture. Architecture stimulating love.

Presentation Techniques Once your theme is right, presentation techniques come into play. According to Jimmy, you have to have a poster that catches the eye of the jury by immediately showing the essence of the plan.

Simultaneously, it has to display the architectural qualities and depth of the plan for you to stand a chance. ‘A lot of the plans in my year were very detailed, but a jury who looks at this many plans has

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Elegant modelling is in fashion.

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to get the main message in a split second’, Jimmy says. ‘For the Archiprix presentation, I changed the presentation panels to make it very simple and clear’, Yuka Yoshida, third prize winner of last year adds.

‘My models supported the core message I wanted to convey and I kept all the research and the complicated stories in a book’.

The idea of a book that goes along with the presentation is widely picked up along the Delft nominees of this year as well. Most of them are so convincing in their purpose to show that research is done, with such a quantity of pages and such quality in lay-out that the contents might as well be a shopping list, to still blow anyone away.

Personal Touch A few years ago, the rise of digital techniques was in full swing. Now, ‘classic renderings’ are often replaced by hand drawings and or clay models. Also, in comparison to earlier editions, soft colours are

used a lot more. ‘The presentations are designed with care and a personal touch, the computer is less dominant than before’, the Archiprix website adds.

When asked for extra tips on how to win the Archiprix, shared first prize winner of last year, Milad Pallesh, argues that a project has to be complete. From the research till the details, everything has to be there. ‘The beauty of a plan is in its many layers’, he believes. Also, it is good to discuss your presentation with the participants from previous years', Yuka adds.

How seriously should we take the Archiprix?

Frank: ‘Well, for many it’s a yardstick in the Architecture scene. It’s all about getting your work out there and it looks nice on your resume. In fact, a nomination is already something you’d like to write down’. Yuka adds: ‘it helps me to have more credibility, especially when others introduce me as the landscape architect who won the third prize in Archiprix’. Milad adds that the Archiprix is the only

CHECKLIST TO WIN THE ARCHIPRIX • Studying at the Amsterdam

Rotterdam Academy of Architecture, 1

ArtEZ Academy of Architecture, 1

Eindhoven University of Technology, 2

• Academy of Architecture Amsterdam Academy of Architecture , 9

• Get in Border Condition & Territories research group

Delft University of Technology , 3

• Semester on transformation • Zeitgeist: help the ones in need • Simple Poster: displays essence and all layers of the plan

Wageningen University & Research, 4

• Not trying too hard

Statistics of winning institutes since 2010

platform where graduation projects get any serious attention. ‘Of course there are other ways to get this attention, but those ways are longer and harder.’ You don’t have to win to reach this audience. ‘a nominated plan almost gets the same amount of attention as a winning plan’.

After getting the price, in fact, not a lot happens to the winners. Yuka: ‘it has not directly influenced my life besides a few professional gatherings I have been invited to’. Milad: ‘I can imagine something being done to enlarge the network of the winners. Maybe in this way the Archiprix can have a bigger influence after winning’.

‘In my year, the debate around the Archiprix was organised by Thijs Asselbergs to discuss the performance of the Faculty and what it accomplishes.

Because, if right, the Archiprix pre-selection exhibition shows the Faculty’s best’, says Jimmy. ‘I think the Archiprix is a nice way to display

graduation work to the faculty and the outside world.

It’s also a good moment to think about what the Faculty is or should be, but it’s not much more important than that’.

Winning by Not Winning ‘When I still studied, I wanted to win the Archiprix as well, it seemed amazing to me’, Frank concludes the interview. ‘In retrospect, maybe that was something I shouldn’t have. It is better to concentrate on your interests and personal language.

A feeling of satisfaction is guaranteed by executing your fascinations. Don't be cool; not thinking about winning the Archiprix increases your chances winning it’. The stories of the winners agree, Milad did not expect to win and Yuka adds: ‘I did not think about it until I got nominated by my school’.

So, perhaps the best way to win it, is to not.

Who do you think will win? Have you got more tips or do you want to respond? Let us know!

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Explore Lab

FROM LANDSCAPE TO ROOFSCAPE Graduates Laura Strähle & Ellen Rouwendal

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Design & Build as an interdisciplinary challenge! The combination of design research and architectural composition triggered the project to grow beyond a theoretic level.

Next to the design for a prototypical pavilion structure for the rural communicabilities around Lake Victoria (East-Africa), the project focused on the realization phase following the graduation project. Hence the two co-working studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responsibility lay within the research of building techniques, cultural and construction patterns resulting in the reinterpretation of traditional patterns of inhabitation and the design for a community centre in Okana (Kenya). Next to it, managing the follow-up construction phase, acquisition of funding and having the final project leadership on site forms part of the challenge to explore the potential of a Design & Build-approach on an academic level.

Architecture & Dwelling

A BIGGER WALL Graduate Andrea Migotto

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The project proposes a new paradigmatic form of dwelling in order to challenge the contemporary urban development of Addis Ababa and to address the urgent necessities of the lower classes living in the slum areas of the city.

Inhabitable ‘frames’ are proposed as a prototypical urban form for dwelling, with the aim to bridge the scale between the metropolis and architecture, and challenge the current local praxis of housing production, based on a seemly unavoidable and irreversible process of land value exploitation.

At the urban level, the form of the frame tries to introduce, in the market-driven logics of development of central Addis a strategic idea for urban transformation and social cohabitation towards the idea of inclusive city and a formal definitions of its parts.

The building formal logic is composed of a relentless repetition of structural walls.

Adapting to the uses and to the ethos of „Ethiopian living standards”, the building act a simple backbone, to provide the reasonable minimum for a dignitious and simple life of its inhabitants.

Public Building

SUBTRACTIVE AFFINITIES Graduate Dirk van der Meij

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Istanbulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current building developments, too big to appropriate the hills, punctuate the landscape and reveal a hidden truth: the hill is more than a surface condition underneath the pavement, the beach!

When we take a close look at the beach, we can distil three types of creators: the kid, the dog and the tourist. The kid makes sandcastles, leaving behind a pit; the dog creates pits, leaving behind a heap of sand; the tourist creates a pit to seek shelter from the wind, the excavated sand surrounding the pit contributes to the goal of blocking the wind. Building is a process of subtraction and addition.

The project, the hotel of a glass research centre, is located on the edge of a quarry. The building reflects on the nature of building: building as collection of subtractions and additions and building as a linear process, glass being the irreversible product of sand.

Architecture & Dwelling

ALL FOR ONE, OR ONE FOR ALL? Graduate Shea McGibbon

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How to increase the density of an existing neighbourhood to provide twice as many dwellings as currently exist?

The Dutch Housing studio is concerned with how design responds to current and future needs of residents within the city. In the case of this specific project, a densification and transformation project for the Kattenburg Estate in Amsterdam, a more pertinent question to ask is â&#x20AC;&#x201C; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;If the density of the existing neighbourhood is doubled who will live in the area?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Beyond numbers how will the new and old residents integrate, despite their varied backgrounds?

State-provided mass housing across Europe is reaching the end of its useful life and requires investment to sustain inner city affordability. The political motivation for this has declined as societies move away from welfare-state provision to more neo-liberal, market-led models. The Netherlands is forecast to attract substantial foreign investment into its housing market, which has resulted in gentrification and the loss of affordability in cities like London.

This project, through the scenario of a community land trust and adaptation of existing buildings to provide opportunities for new and existing residents, reflects upon the socio-political condition and synthesizes multiple factors into a design proposal. As such it resonates beyond the site itself into a much larger discussion concerning urban renewal, gentrification and affordability.

Delta Interventions

IVALO RIVER SANDBANKS Graduate Laura Langridge

A 09

On the banks of the Ivalo River in Finland, 250 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, time is marked by a unique ritual of seasons. In the far North, summer and winter pass by in extremes, and the turns of the seasons bring forth both beauty and challenge. For the people of Ivalo, time, river and culture are intertwined. While the river represents nourishment, recreation and transport for the village, it equally and critically also represents risk. Seasonal floods threaten to overcome existing engineered barriers, and the villageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current building practices are ill-suited for flood exposure.

In response to this context, the project proposes a more passive architectural typology for the floodplain. Heavy stone and concrete bases temper the demands of water and ice, while light wood construction above addresses variations in daylight and the passage of time via weathering and renewal. This strategy is elaborated through a series of small buildings placed independently along sandbanks at the riverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge. The buildings are uniquely site specific, but as a family they suggest a robust and unified architectural approach for the river in tune with the needs of both the landscape and the culture.

Architectural Engineering

A HOME FOR THE DISPLACED Graduate Anneloes de Koff

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The project provides flexible housing for a fluctuating influx of asylum seekers and status holders and not only fulfils the different basic needs of its inhabitants, but also proposes a generic building system which can respond to this fluctuating influx. This system adapts to every new occupant and can be customized to family composition and cultural background by using digital fabrication. By seeing the AZC (Asylum Seekers Centre) more as a transitional phase in which a person has been separated from its former context but not been rooted to its new structure, the concept of liminality is being introduced. In order to comply with this concept, the dwellings should not only be adapted towards the cultural vernacular but also provide useful daytime activities.

By locating the AZC in the middle of the city of Amsterdam within the vacant Van Gendt Halls and introduce a public axis consisting of selling points, fab labs an repair cafĂŠs the inhabitants can sell their products and locals can buy them.

Explore Lab

THE ISOLATED LANDSCAPE AND THE MANMADE Graduate Aidan Conway

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This project aimed to develop an approach to design within the isolated landscape of the Mayo, Ireland. At the centre was the question of reconciling the manmade object and the isolated landscape; and to investigate the problem of reconciliation a conflict must be createdâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;namely countering this extreme form of nature with the pinnacle of culture and the manmade, the city. A deeper understanding of both was required; therefore the research focused on the landscape and the various methods of reading and interpreting it, along with a study of the city and its fundamental elements. This revealed the extremely disparate scales of landscape and object, whic was reconciled via a perceptual trick. An urban scenario is constructed of the formal reductions analysed in the study of the city, which obscured the landscape to construct an urban scene, in turn creating a formal reduction of the landscape itself. Each was forced to perform the functions as a haphazard simple volume in both the landscape and in the urban scenario constructed. Treading this line, the design sought to unify both.

Methods & Analysis

COOPERATIVE COMMONS Graduates Valentina Bencic & Yoana Yordanova

A 06

The project explores the notion of ‘the Commons’ within Bogota’s historic centre. The term ‘historic’ implies an inclusive method encompassing not only architecture, but also social practices, relations and rituals. Thorough investigation into these practices revealed the strengthening of the intangible memory is the key to start the organic process of creating the commons. This set up the centre of Bogota as a laboratory, allowing the interventions to interact with a highly complex context and push the limit of the physical environment to realise a new potential.

This project defines the Commons not as a place; that is not to say that it does not have a physical presence, but that it is guided by a series of actors performing through time.

Simply put, the Commons are created when different actors and their interests converge. In this way the project becomes the ultimate commons, dealing with the interests of various actors, the idea of time and the tension between the tangible and intangible memory.

Landscape Architecture

FRAME OF FRAMES Graduate Maria Alexandrescu

A 05

This project explores theories of framing of landscape through Bucharest, specifically the territory surrounding the Palace of the Parliament. As part of a large-scale urban regeneration project that began in 1986, construction was interrupted by the revolution in 1989 and subsequently never completed, resulting in a nearly-completed building surrounded by old city fabrics, late communist blocks, and disused, overgrown lots. Thus, the site problematic can be understood in part as an issue of scale: the Palace itself disrupts existing scales and introduces a vast, rigid frame that in-turn fixes the scale of the site. The concept of the frame provides a useful starting point to rethink not only the site in its relation to Bucharest in a critical, immanent, and open-ended way, but also a way to rethink the framing of a landscape architecture project in the continuous urban landscape across scales.

Archiprix

THE CHOSEN NINE

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Archiprix

EDITORIAL

You hold in your hand the second Archiprix Special of Bnieuws. We dedicate a big part of this issue to the nine selected graduation projects to honour them. After several days of discussions, the jury picked the nine best projects of the nominee selection from our faculty this autumn. It is no wonder they had a hard time deciding. Being nominated is an honour for the chosen graduates. Now they will compete in the Archiprix 2017 next year to find out who has the best project in the Netherlands.

It is interesting to think about what sets the Archiprix apart from other competitions.

Is there a certain strategy in winning this competition? Does the Archiprix focuses on certain topics or aesthetics? And how will your life change if you win it? Flip this issue to see page 17 of the regular Bnieuws.

But for now, we would very much like you to explore these nine nominated projects and the potential they have.

And you, dear reader, are always welcome to share your thoughts on this matter (or any other) with us and with BK City. Do not hesitate to send in your thoughts and opinions.

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Congratulations to all nominees!

Colofon

Bnieuws Volume 50 Issue 03 15 November 2016 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

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ARCHIPRIX The Chosen Nine

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Editorial Advice Emily Parry

Cooperative Commons

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Frame of Frames

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Editorial Team Nadine van den Berg Arjan Boonstra Ruiying Liu

Cover

by Bnieuws Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken Next Deadline 06th of December 12.00 Bnieuws Volume 50 Issue 04 13th December 2016 Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies

The Isolated Landscape and the Manmade

From Landscape to Roofscape

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A Bigger Wall

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Subtractive Affinities

11

All for One, or One for All?

10

Ivalo River Sandbanks

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A Home for the Displaced

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Š All rights reserved.

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

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ARCHIPRIX SELECTION OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT

SPECIAL