Bnieuws 54/03 - Digital Space (2020/21)

B 54/03

Colofon CONTENTS Bnieuws Volume 54 Issue 03 December 2020 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl Editorial Team Christopher Clarkson Federico Ruiz Inez Margaux Spaargaren Robert van Overveld Oliwia Jackowska Jonas Althuis Contributors Bruno de Andrade Matthew Cook Marco Fusco Jack Pilkington Nadine van den Berg Iman Ramshini Amina Chouaïri Szymon Smyk Joep Merx Bo Kuiper Martin Sitorus Amber Leeuwenberg Cover Editorial team Printed by Druk. Tan Heck © All rights reserved.

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

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What if Vitruvius played Minecraft? First notes on gaming architecture as experimental design

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Xiao talks tech

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Living in safe mode: In conversation with Theo Deutinger

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Space syntax as urban design tool

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Thinking the unthinkable

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I would rather…

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The history of human-computer interaction

26 Typology.exe 29

Four paragraphs and an incipit on my last six months as a BK student

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On renders

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The daily digital life

35

A public digital space at home

37

Pritzker prize for escher: revisited

41

Nature as a museum

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Artefact: Vitra .04

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Digital symbology

Editorial

DIGITAL SPACE Unsurprisingly, pandemic became the word of the year for 2020, along with quarantine, social distancing, flatten the curve and defund the police being the most searched phrases on the web. An imposed global house arrest, introduced to protect public health, meant that most people’s lives were happening in the digital space, from home. It is safe to say that the current prominent role of technology in our lives is a continuation of already existing trends. However, the past months emboldened the reality in which you can start a revolution from your chair or a comfy sofa at home.

We follow Amina Chouairi (p. 29), this year’s best graduate, who was making her attempt to improve the world from her student room in Delft, while in the article “A public digital space at home,” we explore the boundaries of privacy in the never-ending sequences of video calls (p. 09).

Apart from this very pertinent, yet controversial connectivity given by the digital technologies, the understanding of the term digital space is vast and diverse. From a technical perspective, it refers to everything that is displayed in the screen or in the background of a digital device. The history of the Human-Computer Interaction (p. 24) goes back to the beginnings of understanding how a Man can control and interact with the Machine. All this while asking a question of what the future can hold, and how the digital environments can surround us without being noticed. However, we are already surrounded by emerging visions for the built environment, where the standing physical cities and imagined future urban landscapes exist parallel to each other. The article “On Renders” (p. 31) questions the culture surrounding realistic renders with ‘perfect environments,’ and the pressure that designers face to “sell” their designs, in spite of the representation’s misrepresentation of reality. On the other hand, Theo Deutinger in his interview (p. 12), says that “to understand [spaceship Earth] we largely rely on artificial intelligence.” He argues that technology saves lives by gathering data on events such as earthquakes or global warming.

But how does digital technology and its new realities relate to architecture, and particularly architectural education? By asking a playful question “What if Vitruvius played Minecraft?”(p. 04), Bruno de Andrade challenges the unchanged methods and theories in teachings of architectural history, which ignore the new cyber layer over the city and a shifting digital culture.

This question of the digital space has also become especially significant for us, as the editors of Bnieuws. That’s why with this issue, we’re thrilled to announce the upcoming launch of the Bnieuws website. With the QR code placed on the front cover you can catch a glimpse of what is to come.

We are excited to introduce you to this extended issue of Bnieuws – Digital Space.

The editorial team

#Bnieuwd

To do / Kengo Kuma Lecture Series The Kengo Kuma Lab at the University of Tokyo launches its autumn public lecture series programme, which focuses on nature.

The series, which is made up of three lectures, aims to investigate nature from multiple perspectives and reconsider our living environments and values. Speakers include Berlin-based art collective Plastique Fantastique, architecture studio NaJa & deOstos Studio and artist Akihiko Taniguchi.

01.12.2020 - 15.15.2020 Location: Delivered via Zoom Wednesdays Virtual: http://www.ut-iaep.net/

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To do / Contemporary Istanbul Contemporary Istanbul is the leading annual art fair in Turkey, situated at the meeting point of Europe and Asia in one of the great cities of the world. Contemporary Istanbul takes place each September and offers a platform for the city’s thriving art scene, growing art market and collector base, as well as an access point to the best contemporary art from the wider region.

21.12.2020 -06.01.2021 Location: Istanbul, Turkey Virtual: http:/www.contemporaryistanbul.com

To see / Exhibiton Mid-Century Modern This exhibition presents the work of a group of radical young architects, designers, photographers, and artists who redefined the concept of youth and the established order of post-war Britain.

15.07.2020 - 09.01.2021 Location: Edinburgh, UK Virtual: https://dovecotstudios.com/exhibitions/mid-centurymodern-art-design-from-conran-to-quant/

#Bnieuwd To do / Workshop Indesign Join the free InDesign workshop on December 4! The workshop is in collaboration with Athena studies and a preview of the Adobe course offered by Athena in January. So do you want to master all the basics of InDesign? And hear from an experienced Bouwko what a portfolio should really look like? Then you can join this event of Stylos.

04.12.20 13:00-14:00 Virtual: https://www.stylos.nl/nl/

To read / Making Architecture Through Being Human Architecture can seem complicated, mysterious or even ill-defined, especially to a student being introduced to architectural ideas for the first time. One way to approach architecture is simply as the design of human environments.

When we consider architecture in this way, there is a good place to start – ourselves.

The cognitive approach to these design ideas allows a designer to understand the greater context and application when aligned with their own purpose or intentions.

To listen / INDESEM.21 pre-event INDESEM (International Design Seminar) will be hosting an online lecture and panel discussion about Big Data within the built environment.

The first pre-event will be moderated by Kees Kaan!

See you at 9 december online!

09.12.20 Virtual: https://indesem.nl

Latest / INSTAGRAM Don’t forget that our voice is also yours, so send us or tag us with anything you’d like to share with our followers. Feel free to contact us via instagram or facebook! @bnieuws on Instagram / search Bnieuws on Facebook.

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Pen pal

WHAT IF VITRUVIUS PLAYED MINECRAFT? FIRST NOTES ON GAMING ARCHITECTURE AS EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Words Bruno de Andrade

We all know that Vitruvius’ (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE) treatise “De Architectura”1, divided in 10 books, is still a guide for building projects. According to him the successful architect and engineer should have theoretical and practical knowledge based on a wider comprehension of sciences and arts. Buildings should always contain three aspects: beauty (venustas), stability (firmitas), and usefulness (utilitas). I wonder what Vitruvius would say about the contemporary city, concerning the new digital dimension being hybridized with it, and how we are teaching architecture.

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“Since I notice that the uneducated rather than the educated gain favour, I have decided not to compete with the pushiness of ignoramuses, but rather to demonstrate the great value of our discipline by publishing this body of instructions”.

(De Architectura, Bk. 3 Introduction) Minecraft is a block-building game. In such game, the complexity of architecture and the built environment is reduced to a 1m³ block logic.

Remember when all of your problems seemed easy to solve with Lego bricks? Think about a digital Lego. There you have the Minecraft sandbox game, released in 2011 by Swedish game publisher Mojang and now the highest-selling game of all time with over 200 million copies sold worldwide. Mine + craft puts players in a virtual landscape where they can explore and create structures out of cubes with different materials. The “Games Monitor: The Netherlands 1028”2 reports that the Dutch video game industry is a fast-growing industry, which is becoming more mature and competitive. Dutch consumers are the most active online gaming market in Europe. By the end of 2018 the Dutch game industry consisted of 575 companies and 3,850 jobs.

A significant part lies in developing educational

games according to Lenting (2019)3. Overall, there was a total turnover of approximately € 225-300 million in 2018.

Recently the GeocraftNL4 project modelled the whole Netherlands in Minecraft and invited young people to detail their own streets and houses, and Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Education and is modelling TU Delft Campus5 for virtual exploration and meetings. Minecraft now has an educational version for schools and universities, which allows teachers worldwide to use range of different gaming environments in their classrooms. A couple of weeks ago, on November 11th, I conducted a Values-based design Minecraft workshop using the gaming model of the City of Florence6 for Bachelor7 students to reach a consensus and redesign the church and museum of Orsanmichele in a role-playing dynamic (Fig. 1 and 2). The values and attributes matrix are based on Pereira Roders and Tarrafa Silva8 and Veldpaus and Pereira Roders9. A student gave a feedback by email: “I really enjoyed the workshop this afternoon. Something completely different than all 'usual' Bouwkunde things, but very useful! Thank you for that”.

Fig. 1. Attributes: Tangible/ Asset/ Building Element, Urban Element and Natural Element – Green roof, Reinwater collecting system and Glass structures. Values: Ecological, Social, Economic, and Scientific. Intervention by Naomi van Knobelsdorff and colleagues representing developers/ futurists stakeholders

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Fig. 2. Attributes: Tangible/ Asset / Urban and Natural element & Intangible/ Societal/ Use - The new urban situation connecting the plinth to the sidewalk, including plants, flowers and benches and a car-free street. Values: Threefold - Historical, Social, and Ecological Local meeting point referring to a historic function and reduction of urban heat island effect. Intervention by Fabian Schwegman and Florian Holtbernd.

Gaming is an experimental method to foster creativity and intuition in design thinking process.

Gaming is also an inclusive platform that brings together stakeholders into the process of design and decision-making10. Moreover, this is what students from the master graduation studio “Heritage4All” are doing in three different locations in the city of Delft: Gele Scheikunde, Kabelfabriek and Prinsenhof. They are being prepared to co-facilitate Minecraft workshops in the first week of December 2020 with real stakeholders facing real architectural and urban heritage problems (Fig. 3 and 4).

“Archimedes ecstatically jumped out of the bath without a moment's delay and rushed off home, stark naked, announcing at the top of his voice that he had found what he was looking for, since as he ran along, he shouted repeatedly in Greek 'Heureka, heureka'”.

(Bk. 9 Introduction)

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But wait, let’s rewind. There is still a challenge right there. Even today we are still using Nolli’s figureground drawings, Lynch’s five elements of imageability and Cullen’s sequential scenes to analyse the city and its transformations. There’s nothing wrong with this, however, there is another layer to the city that seems to have not yet arrived into the way we teach architecture – the cybercity, cyberspace and cyberculture (Lemos, 200411 and 200512; Bell, 200913, Levy, 200114), and a cyberheritage? We ‘check in’ our special places using Foursquare, we measure distances and routings in Google Maps to get there, we post and geo-locate our favourite buildings and public spaces on Instagram, we share it on Facebook and Twitter, we show our new ways of moving (and dancing) around the city on TikTok, we play multiplayer online games with people from all over the world, and we play geo-games such as Pokémon GO, Harry Potter or Ingress on our mobile phones to augment our reality with virtual fictional architectures. How are those being translated in architectural and urban analysis?

Fig. 3. Values-based Design workshop on Minecraft. Heritage & Architecture graduation studio Heritage4All. Students Diana Ugnat, Mick Bloemendal and Pien Tol.

Fig. 5 –Students of the Minor Heritage & Design in the in the Netherlands Open Air Museum in Arnhem. Peter Pápai, Eltjo Ockeloen, Lutsia Kors and Sophia Tasseron, from felt to right.

“Ropes are tightened up in the same way by means of hand-spikes and windlasses until they sound the same. In this way, by keeping the device taut with wedges, the catapults are 'tuned' to the proper pitch by musical testing”.

(Bk. 10, Ch. 12.2) Interestingly, Cultural Geography has been including discussions of the impacts of cyberspace on ideas about community, identity, and the public sphere. A new transdisciplinary research agenda has grown up around cyberculture studies with a particular interest in digital ethnography15 and material-culture analyses. What about the fate of cities? Studies in this field (Bell, 200916) have been proving that new technologies will not lead to the death of cities but are boosting sustainability. Besides Cultural Geography, Landscape Architecture has been experimenting with GIS, for instance through Geodesign (Steinitz, 201217) using spatial layering logic of classics such as Ian McHarg’s “Design with Nature” (1969) and Richard Neutra’s “Survival through Design” (1954).

“The ancient architects, taking their lead from nature, designed the tiers of seats in theatres on the basis of their investigations into the rising of the voice, and tried, with the help of the mathematician's principles and musical theory, to devise ways in which any voice uttered onstage would arrive more clearly and pleasantly at the ears of the spectators”.

(Bk. V, Ch. 4.8) What about the field of Architecture? It seems like we still teach the same theories, methods and tools as 50 years ago although we are living in the era of digital revolution. In particular, how are we innovating means and methods of teaching and researching heritage? Are we considering and further developing the concept of Digital Heritage18?

Recently one bright group of students wrote a song as a critique of current museum exhibitions and tourism in Delft that seem to be reducing the

Fig. 6. The Vitruvian Minecraft man. https://br.pinterest.com/ pin/134545107592142301/.

complexity of Delft’s heritage into an image.

Another equally bright group created a geo-game concept for people to discover the hidden heritage of Delft using their mobile phones. This group went to Sofia's Smuggling: Cross-Border Hunt game testing event which connected eight museums in the Netherlands and Germany, and ended up stealing the show when they shared our method of gaming architecture19.

“There is a spring on the island of Cea and those who unwisely drink from it lose their minds; an epigram is inscribed there which says that a drink from the spring is delightful but that whoever drinks from it will end up with the brain of a stone”.

(Bk. 8, Ch. 3.22) Such examples, and the previous ones discussed, are part of my tenure-track career plan (2020-2026) for education and research on developing the concept of Historic/Heritage Games and applying it for Heritage Planning and Management. I’m developing heritage gaming architecture as experimental design,

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whichrelies relieson ontwo twoparts: parts:varying varyingdesign, design, and and which assessingitsitsimpacts. impacts.By Bythe theway, way,Heritage Heritage Futures Futures assessing (sustainableuse useofofbuilt builtheritage, heritage,including including (sustainable preservation,conservation conservationand andheritage heritage preservation, management)isisone oneofofthe thesix sixBK’s BK’sresearch research themes themes management) forthe theupcoming upcomingyears. years.Hence, Hence,we wecannot cannot predict predict for heritagefutures, futures,but butwe wecan canco-create co-createthem… them… with with heritage games! games!

Endnotes

“Consequently, since such a wide discipline should “Consequently, since such a wide discipline should be enriched, and overflow with many different kinds be enriched, and overflow with many different kinds of expertise, I do not think that people can justifiably of expertise, I do not think that people can justifiably profess themselves architects at the drop of a hat”. profess themselves architects at the drop of a hat”.

(Bk. 1, Ch. 1.11) (Bk. 1, Ch. 1.11)

6 https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/the-city-of-florence-italy

If Vitruvius played Minecraft he probably would say If Vitruvius played Minecraft he probably would say what he already said before (Fig. 4). Architects what he already said before (Fig. 6). Architects should develop a range and depth of knowledge and should develop a range and depth of knowledge and skills that are needed to face complex problems and skills that are needed to face complex problems and exercise their profession. We live in the digital era, exercise their profession. We live in the digital era, new languages such as gaming are spoken by new languages such as gaming are spoken by millions of youngsters around the world. Until when millions youngsters around Until can we of deny that? Until whenthe areworld. we going to when can we deny that?

Until when are we going to underestimate gaming technologies in training new underestimate architects? gaming technologies in training new architects?

Bruno de Andrade was recently appointed as an Bruno de Andrade recentlyand appointed as anat BK. Assistant Professorwas in Heritage Values chair

Assistant Professor in Heritage and Values chair at BK.

1 Vitruvius. Morris Hicky Morgan. (1914) Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. London: Humphrey Milford. Oxford University Press.

2 https://www.dutchgamegarden.nl/project/games-monitor/ 3 Lenting, T. (2019), Gamegeschiedenis van Nederland 1978-2018. Karel van Mander Academy: Arnhem.

4 https://geocraft.nl/ 5 https://www.tudelft.nl/en/education/information-and-experience/ tu-delft-campus-in-minecraft/

7 Minor Heritage & Design – Architecture and Reuse module. Heritage & Architecture section, Heritage & Values chair. https://www.tudelft.nl/en/ architecture-and-the-built-environment/study/minors-and-electives/ heritage-design/.

8 Tarrafa, A. S., & Pereira Roders, A. (2012). Cultural heritage management and heritage (impact) assessments. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the Joint CIB W070, W092 & TG72 International Conference on Facilities Management, Procurement Systems and Public Private Partnership, 23-25 January 2012, Cape Town, South Africa.

9 Veldpaus, L., & Pereira Roders, A. R. (2013). Historic urban landscapes : an assessment framework part II. In Proceedings of the sustainable architecture for a renewable future (PLEA 2013), 10-12 september 2013 (pp. 1-5). PLEA - Technische Universität München. https://research.tue.nl/en/publications/ historic-urban-landscapes-an-assessment-framework-part-ii.

10 de Andrade, B. A., Sena, Í. S. d., & Moura, A. C. M. (2016). Tirolcraft: The quest of children to playing the role of planners at a heritage protected town. In I. M. e. al. (Ed.), Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection. EuroMed 2016 (Vol. 10058, pp.

825-835). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

11 Lemos, A. (2004). Cibercidade: as cidades na cibercultura. Editora E-papers.

12 Lemos, A. (2005). Ciberurbe: a cidade na sociedade da informação.

E-papers.

13 Bell, D. (2009). Cyberspace/Cyberculture. In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (pp. 468–472). http://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0080449104.00937-8.

14 Lévy, P. (2001). Cyberculture. Translated by Robert Bononno.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

15 Ardévol, E., & Gómez-Cruz, E. (2013). Digital Ethnography and Media Practices. In The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies (pp. 498–518). http://doi.org/10.1002/9781444361506.wbiems193.

16 Bell, D. (2009). Cyberspace/Cyberculture. In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (pp. 468–472). http://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0080449104.00937-8.

17 Steinitz, C. (2012). A Framework for Geodesign: Changing Geography by Design. Redlands, CA: ESRI Press.

18 https://en.unesco.org/themes/information-preservation/digital-heritage.

19 Cross-border video game for and by the border region https://www. omroepgelderland.nl/nieuws/2467690/Grensoverschrijdend-videospel-voor-endoor-de-grensregio.

'Pokémon GO-like' game should attract young people to Gelderland museums: 'This makes a visit more attractive' https://www.gelderlander.nl/arnhem/ pokemon-go-achtige-game-moet-jongeren-naar-gelderse-musea-trekken-dit-maakteen-bezoek-aantrekkelijker~a6c8d015/.

BK Report

XIAO TALKS TECH Words Federico Ruiz

I have known Xiaoyoue Shi for several months. His elaborate metaphors, accurate timing and confusing speech -conditions I want to believe we share- make him one of the most peculiar characters I have come to know during my BK days.

Having the right person and lacking a decent idea for this article, I decided to work in a reverse order: instead of defining an interesting theme and then finding an interviewee, I decided to talk with an interesting man about anything and then elaborate on that. In this occasion, and for the sake of coherency, we discussed technology and the intricacies of digital space.

Xiaoyoue’s order is horizontal. In his studio, a profusion of surfaces for sitting and lying have reduced the space for moving to the bare minimum: he has two chairs, two tables, a small orange sofa and a very decent bed. In between all of them, a black carpet with white stripes hides the floor underneath. We are meeting at night, sitting at the dining table where many bottles, some empty, some full, stand next to a bright-blue pack of Nanjing cigarettes. A red dragon printed on the box shines under the dim light of a lamp.

“I asked a friend to bring them from China.”

The conversation begins by recalling how, months ago, he stopped sketching on paper and switched to his iPad. “I should admit that it is very convenient,” he says while navigating through drawings and notes with the movement of one finger. Despite this, for his thesis he decided to switch back to paper. “[With paper] it is a process: I record all my thoughts and feelings […] All my ideas. And with the time changing, more and more ideas and pages are used. But for the screen it is like this [he locks the screen], and then you open it, and it's always the same.”

It is strange to have the ability to turn off the things one is working on. In the digital space, the action of our hands, which used to be recorded in matter, is now saved as information. While holding a digital stylus and a dark plastic pen in his hands, Xiaoyoue notes how this transformation also has an impact on the tools we use.

“It is about how you feel the tool. How you use the tool. This is a tool when you do it on the tablet [holding the digital pen]. This is a tool when you draw on paper [now he holds the pen]. They are not the same: you can feel that.”

While the first one is smooth, the other one offers resistance. Resistance of touch, of course, but also of experience: with paper, accidents can happen, things can break, colours can vary unexpectedly. A conflict that is lost in the convenient and predictable world of Silicon Valley. For Xiaoyoue, there is no craftsmanship in the realm of the digital.

“For a craftsman is about the materials.”

The place that things have as reminders of our experience has also changed. While most “analogue” objects can become part of the material archive of

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our lives, reminding us of other times and spaces, computing devices very rarely do this.

“I like the paper book, I like to hold it, and also sometimes you can smell it. And when I go back to China, they will have a new place in a new room.

Always with me. It is a recording of my career or something like that. Of my life. But with the tablet, when it is broken, it is broken. And maybe in two years I will have a new one.”

In fact, for an iPad to be useful it must remain updated and solid. Somehow, its digital flexibility is guaranteed by a fixed material consistency. A tablet is inert: it should only stimulate our senses when commanded. It should not have a sound of its own, a special temperature or a smell.

“Unless you never wash your hands.”

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Neither should it have noticeable traces from its fabrication process: in case it does, they will be mere manufacturing defects. Therefore, we are unable to know which hands touched these objects before ours. In contrast, Xiaoyue discusses printed books: the bad smell of the 5-part Peter Zumthor collection, and the notes you can find in old specimens.

“One time, I was reading this Chinese novel [borrowed from a library]. And, I don’t know if it was a guy or a girl, wrote down his or her feelings.

Sometimes, some notes are very stupid, but only that time I did agree with the feeling, and I could feel that in this world someone would have the same feeling as me. And if I had the opportunity, I would really appreciate to know her or him.”

For Xiaoyue, metadata is, perhaps, the closer digital equivalent to that anonymous annotation: with it, it is possible to know who created a file, who edited it and in which program. I tell him no one would be as excited about knowing that a file was edited in Photoshop as he was with the note in the book.

[He laughs] Now, we take a detour for discussing videogames.

Until not so long ago, Xiaoyue could play online videogames non-stop for two weeks, twelve hours a day. I, an ignorant in these things, ask him about the reasons why it is easier to focus in videogames than in our architectural tasks. Short matches and the gratification of getting points when winning are good reasons, he says, but also the fact that you can get to know all the rules of the game in a short period of time.

“I know everything about this game, because it is just a game. Although it is very complex, [it is] not so complex as architecture. Architecture is also like a game, but it is a bigger one. A more complex one.”

Of course, there is something alluring in this simplicity. That is why the promise of an easier life is the subtext of any pitch in the world of technology and informatics. While I write this, I remember Steve Jobs presenting the first iPhone’s screen as the solution for the inconvenience of having to use the small keys of the Blackberry. Such irrelevancies build empires these days. It is not strange, then, to see people willing to dedicate their lives to this smaller, simpler world.

“More and more young people, they choose to ignore the bigger game, and they prefer the smaller one. In the small one, just like you said, it’s easier to get the excitement.”

At this point the topic seems exhausted, so Xiaoyue decides to make use of one cryptic metaphor. He tells me about the story of a man who has lost his son and sits next to his body for an entire night, without crying. Morning comes, and the jacket of the son, which is hanging outside the house, is hit by a ray of sunshine while the wind moves it. Only then, the father cries.

“His father resisted the death body for the whole night, but he could not resist something that evoked [his son].”

Confused, I ask Xiaoyue about the meaning of the tale. He answers that while the physical world can be very evocative, the digital realm is still very literal.

“I would say that that is why we want to build a relationship with a material world. If we have a digital device, we will never have such feelings. The digital stuff will never evoke something for our feelings.”

The conversation progresses. We discuss the dangers and implications of machines that are capable of transmitting feelings. Then, a digital apocalypse where people must choose if they want to live in the digital world of simplicity or the complex world of things.

“As long as you are a human being, you will like it [the physical world]. It is in your genes. The craftsman is part of our DNA.”

Guided by my chronic pessimism, I tell him about the possibility of future generations that ignore the physical world, not out of bad faith but as a product of ignorance. I tell him that is when our generation will really be old and outdated.

“What you think is very horrible.”

And so we kept talking, but I will not extend this account furthermore. There are things that should remain unsaid for the sake of mystery and brevity, and also out of respect for the reader who has arrived at this point after spending precious minutes reading the humble thoughts of two students.

Neither will I offer a poetic conclusion, as those do not belong to the world of friendly conversation.

“I would say, we talked about lots of things and we didn’t get a conclusion or an organized structure.

We just talked about what we worry about. I guess you and me, we are the same person, right?”

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Xiaoyue is a second year MSc student at BK. You can follow him on Instagram @xiaoyue404.

The Berlage x Bnieuws

LIVING IN SAFE MODE: IN CONVERSATION WITH THEO DEUTINGER Words Marco Fusco and Matthew Cook

In early November, Theo Deutinger led The Berlage Design Master Class, entitled "Living in Safe Mode: A Quest for the Essential." The premise of the master class was to identify the basic needs of a single person—housing, food, clothing, transportation, health, and education—in order to define a self-induced "safe mode" for humans. An exhibition of the results, entitled “Safe New World,” is currently on display in the Department of Architecture. Prior to this intensive fortnight, we had the opportunity to speak with Theo Deutinger. Overlooking the Alps, covered with the first snow of the year, he reflected upon his most recent work including the acclaimed Handbook of Tyranny and more recent Ultimate Atlas: Logbook of Spaceship Earth.

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Marco Fusco: Your drawings are of great influence to us students, why is it so important for you to convert broader and complex ideas into such a simple manner, and who do you consider the audience of your work?

Theo Deutinger: Drawing allows me to understand the things around us, the world, society, and the cities we are living in. I can only comprehend these often abstract things through drawings. When I'm able to draw something, I have the feeling that I am able to understand it, and somehow own the knowledge. When I can hold a drawing in my hands, I have managed to physically understand the ideas behind it. As architects, we have developed tools to simplify cities radically, and by simplifying, understanding it. For example, the Nolli plan reduces a city to public space and non-public space. By taking things away you get to know more, and that's a weird contradiction, which I really like.

It’s almost like excavating something, layer by layer by layer.

Matthew Cook: The brief for your forthcoming design master class at the Berlage focuses on visualizing a “safe mode” for human life in order to speculate on its spatial implications from the scale of the home to the city, country, and eventually across the globe. What do you see as an architecture of no growth?

No growth sounds very boring, as if we have nothing to do. We always need to work on something. Houses need to be replaced every generation, if we build these with materials which are 100% reusable, this would allow us to always build and always rebuild. We use materials like wood, or other materials that we can endlessly reuse and change the design. There are models that continuously allow us to build, and pretend we are

Final Event of The Berlage Design Master Class led by Theo Deutinger

growing, whilst we don’t. If everyone would have the same lifestyle we have, the planet would be already gone. We can be very lucky that there are so many poor people on the planet still. This sounds very cynical, but we haven’t yet developed a lifestyle for everybody to follow. That's the problem, also for architecture.

MF: Your "Handbook of Tyranny" is on my bookshelf next to Neufert, I noticed the format is exactly the same, like the good and the bad side, was this intentional?

The working title of the book was for a long time “Neufert of Terror.” The starting point was clearly the Neufert, and that’s why the A4 size was important. It’s kind of the dark Neufert, the language in the book is very much alike. I like playing with how we have learned to look at the world. For architects it’s a standardization, a handbook, but it should not be like that, so that’s its twist.

MF: Where does your interest in dealing with “non-happy” spaces of oppression come from?

By hearing of tragedies at the borders of Europe, by reading how walls get built between the US and Mexico, there is an urge to understand. Drawing helps to get a grip on what you read in the news. At the same time, it helps to understand what our profession is hiding. Most of the phenomena in the Handbook of Tyranny are designed by engineers, architects, and planners. We should feel responsible and aware of that. The world is not just made of nice and beautiful renderings of buildings.

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MC: Are there any technologies or architectures that you can see emerging that could be applied positively or could have a wider positive use?

Hundred years ago, or let’s say in the Second World War, all kinds of materials were invented which changed architecture: reinforced concrete, steel, plywood. Today we live in electronic times, characterized by enormous inventions like the smartphone. Unfortunately, these applications, sensors, and so on, don’t materialize so much in architecture. But these influences are still extreme, maybe more on how we use architecture than how we build it.

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MC: In the Ultimate Atlas you seem to combine this post-corporeal existence with a digital intelligence that we might move on to. Is there an architecture for this future?

There is already quite some artificial intelligence around, but its very difficult to make the leap from this theory to architectural space. The Ultimate Atlas focuses more about the inhabitants of spaceship Earth, and how we behave within this large piece of architecture. To understand this spaceship, we largely rely on artificial intelligence. For example, it’s sensors that warn us for earthquakes, not our own intelligence. Also global warming is largely based on data gathering and comparison. We don’t smell CO2, we can’t see it, but rely on devices to measure it. That’s what I’m fascinated by and that’s what the Ultimate Atlas is about.

MF: What is a space that touches you positively? And what is a space that frightens you?

A physical space you mean? Last February, I was in Chicago at the IIT campus. There’s Mies, and there’s the OMA building, the combination of both was very touching. What frightens me is how architecture is depicted in films.

Whenever there’s a villain, there’s modern architecture. Like James Bond, it’s all slick glass and steel. More and more modern architecture is the background of the dark side of the planet. Maybe it’s even true? Insurance companies, banks, that’s a bit frightening. If our field would become the backdrop of all that’s bad on this planet, that would be very sad, because I have a different idea of architecture

Pen Pal

SPACE SYNTAX AS URBAN DESIGN TOOL Words Jack Pilkington

The following text is an adaptation of a resarch paper, written by Jack for AC1 on the topic of space syntax in urban design. For the sake of brevity, it is published below in a shorter, reader friendly format.

Introduction Urban environments, as the basis of our perception of space, have an undeniably significant impact on human behaviour. The ground is literally the basis upon which land animals establish their behaviour. A method of analysing space that incorporates this behaviour could therefore be beneficial to urban design. Space syntax, developed by Bill Hillier at University College London, does this, and has been applied in urban studies since the 1980s. It unites science and intuition in the modelling of urban environments and can be used to enhance the planning and design of cities.

What is Space Syntax?

Space syntax is used to measure relationships in an urban environment. The two primary measures are: ‘to movement potential’ between street segments and ‘through movement potential’ of street segments with respect to each other. Computer technology has enabled the application of space syntax in large urban environments as computer models can be produced quickly with a high degree of accuracy. The models produced can represent not only the inherently complex relations within a street but also how streets in a city interrelate with one another. With this, comparison can be made between spatial configurations and societal activities such as pedestrian flow, crime distribution, and land use patterns as the information can be overlayed onto the axial map model typical of space syntax.

Two fundamental elements in human movement are illustrated here: firstly, the selection of a destination (Figure 1), and secondly, the selection of a route (Figure 2). Space syntax illustrates the patterns of potential movement and action in the environment through lines. These lines join one action to another and one space to another. The lines are not merely a representation of space but an intrinsic part of our being. The configuration of space syntax models with coordinated colour makes complex data comprehensible for not only scientists but designers, politicians and residents too.

Space Syntax Applied There is a vast amount of information that can be learnt through the application of space

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syntax. Recent developments have enabled a technical multi-scaled analysis of axial maps upon which functional data such as land uses can be layered. The following examples show how space syntax can be used to illustrate changes in an environment’s social fabric through a history of urban morphology, and how this logic can also be applied to the evaluation of future urban design proposals.

Cities and towns do not function independently, they are deeply integrated into the network of the surroundings. Figure 3 & 4 show two traditional English market towns, Oxted and Uckfield. Market towns are particularly dependent on their hinterlands and therefore can clearly illustrate the interconnected effects of urban morphology. The cases of Oxted and Uckfield illustrate the social effects of environmental changes.

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Oxted (Figure 3) is a historic market town situated between Kent and Surrey, which has a long history as a route of pilgrimage between the east and west. As Figure 3 illustrates, the high street coloured in red reflects the town’s relationship to the historically typical east or west bound traffic through the town. The addition of a north-south rail line to the east rotated the axis of the town 90 degrees, which had an interesting effect on the fabric of the town. The east-west A25 (main road) remains the most integrated route. Despite this, the western end of the old high street became severed as shown in circle 1 of figure 3. The new high street, located by the station (circle 2) is relatively secluded from the rest of the town. As a result, Oxted has become less harmonious within itself, demonstrating urban change that didn’t account for existing relationships in the environment.

On the contrary, Uckfield, situated on the A22 north-south road between London and Lewis, incorporated the station at one end of the high street. This addition of the station was better integrated with the existing environmental relationships of the town, as the road and rail are complimentary. The high street remains an integral part of the town and regional fabric despite the nearby presence of a bypassing ring road. complementary. Oxted and Uckfield demonstrate a difference in response to change, and highlight the interconnectivity of our networks, showing that change can have not only local but regional influences.

Another interesting historical analysis to consider is the effect of the Berlin Wall on the city network of Berlin. When space syntax analysis is applied here, the effects are clear to see. As typical with most models in space syntax, red represents a highly connected street and blue a relatively unconnected street. After the wall is built, separating east and west, many roads lose their connecting function entirely.

In 2006, an evidence-based development strategy and design guideline developed with space syntax was adopted by the municipality of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The proposal aimed to rebalance the growth of the city through the integration of social, cultural, economic, and environmental aspects. For Jeddah to prosper from the social diversity of

Fig 1. Space syntax integration pattern of Greater London

Fig 2. Space syntax choice pattern of Greater London

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Fig 4. Global axial line integration map of Uckfield

Fig 5. Berlin in 1940, before the wall

Fig 6. Berlin in 1989, with the wall separating east and west

Fig 7. Citywide grid analysis, Jeddah

Fig 8. Local urban grid analysis, Jeddah

its population, it was essential to form an inclusive society for which manipulation of an urban environment’s spatial structure is an imperative mechanism. The versatility of space syntax enables spatial analysis models to be configured with additional layers of information. With such composite models, more specific issues can be addressed, which would not be possible with spatial analysis alone.

When space syntax analysis is applied to Jeddah, a clearer understanding of the city can be derived. Figure 8 shows distinct areas, such as the historic centre and other unplanned settlements, while Figure 7 shows a different pattern. The distinct urban areas highlighted in Figure 8 are further isolated by a super grid network which functions as the dominant traffic system. Through space syntax, extremely complex data can be deciphered and processed quickly, enabling a faster and more effective targeted response from design teams. Since 2006, the Jeddah strategic planning framework developed largely with space syntax has improved Jeddah as a city and continues to have a significant role in the city’s development.

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Conclusion Space syntax is also limited in some ways. Hillier’s ideas and the teachings of space syntax are certainly not contested here nor are they proposed to be new. Hillier’s work, in many cases, explores similar directions to Ildefons Cerdá’s ‘general theory’ of urbanity from the 19th century. Both are based upon the synergy of streets, buildings, and people.

Spatial structure alone, however, cannot fully summarise or determine the characteristics of urbanity. Therefore, it is important to consider space syntax as a means of, rather than a replacement for urban analysis.

By 2050, the global population is predicted to rise to 9.7 billion people, 68% of whom will live in cities. Therefore, it is paramount that urban environments are developed appropriately. Science and technology in design and planning remain underutilised.

Through an evidence-based approach to spatial analysis, space syntax, when applied judiciously, can offer a holistic perspective in evaluating future urban design proposals.

Hopefully, this can lead to the design of cities that function well for their citizens by being sustainable, healthy and pleasant to live in.

Pen Pal

THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE Words & images Nadine van den Berg

Even though storytelling is implicit in urban planning and design proposals, stories can be used explicitly as research and design methodology. Urban planners and designers, as future-oriented storytellers, can use the valuable skill of storytelling as part of their design thinking, research by design, and creation of persuasive plans.

My MSc Urbanism thesis is about stimulating climate and flood resilience in hurricane-prone Houston, Texas. To bridge the gap between research and design, I use visual storytelling as a research method, applying three scenarios on site to come to a design. Using scenarios to determine the potential of a place allows us to think outside of the box, and by creating stories in this fictional space it becomes possible to explore various choices that lead to different effects. I studied these effects before deciding which elements I would like to apply in my own design. I developed three scenarios: a dystopian, a restorative and a utopian scenario.

Accompanying the visual stories (on the next page), here are some fragments of the textual narrative:

1) DYSTOPIA. “When parents dare to take their children out onto the street, you will occasionally hear a child ask with sympathetic curiosity what happened to the river. ‘There is no planet B’ activists write on the wall, still fighting for a healthier earth.

Yet water already flows into the tunnel, flooding the words ‘I don’t believe in climate change’. The road is blocked so frequently, that traffic signs have to warn drivers that the road ends in water. Completely drenched in this water, lies a child’s teddy bear, representing the trauma that such a future brings…”

2) RESTORATIVE. “Nature in the city is encouraged, but only in confined places, trapped. Despite

improvements, nature is not accessible to all. Still, the future is not all bleak. Some highways came down. Of course, there was some disquiet: ‘Typical government, pushing into the lives of regular people.’ In order to change old habits, you need to change mindsets first. Made up from different patches, the city becomes a collage where humans have created carefully constructed parks along the river, presenting themselves to nature, but also their power over it…”

3) UTOPIA. “The wetland grasses gently flow in the rhythm of the stream. The river is wide and muddy, so people stroll on wooden structures along the water. The surrounding trees whisper their age-old tune. A great egret with its long legs firmly planted in the stream is hunting for its prey. Monarch butterflies with their familiar orange and black veins attract cheerful smiles. The city has created something crucial; and this allows a stronger than ever connectedness between humans and nature…”

In essence, this method of applying visual storytelling techniques is a part of design research in which we are able to project new futures. On the one hand, we discover the potentials and limitations that are fundamental to the location, and on the other it allows us to envision how the boundaries of reality can be stretched, challenged and provoked. After all, old ways will not open new doors.

Curious about the full project? See instagram.com/drawing.the.unthinkable

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Pen Pal

I WOULD RATHER… Words Iman Ramshini

The gaming industry is considered to be one of the most exciting industries in tech because of its importance to culture, entertainment and technological progression. Parallel to the fast advancement of technology, the gaming industry has also experienced tremendous developments in the past decades. The improvements are not merely concerning the resolution at which the game plays; detailed features are continuously introduced to push the gaming experience closer and closer to reality. Thanks to the massive development of the gaming industry, several game genres appeared in the market. Life simulation gaming is one of these genres which centres around the concept of living or controlling one or more artificial lives. In practice, the opportunity of creating and designing of lives is granted to the gamers in this genre. However, how would the gamer react to this artificial empowerment of being the designer of lives?

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The sims is a game in the genre of life simulation. In this game, you can create a character and enter a digital world which is a fully simulated version of reality including even the smallest details. You have the opportunity to have different body shapes or have various facial features. After entering this self-created world, you can have any occupation and

do several social activities. In other words, you are the designer of your artificial world on several levels, with the ability to manipulate elements such as time and place to provide your needs including hunger, hygiene, social, etc. The extensions of this genre of the game have direct effects on day to day life.

[07:00 AM] It’s time to wake up. [07:17 AM] Taking a shower, fast forward. [07:35 AM] Having breakfast.

[07:58 AM] Going to work.

Each individual faces various ups and downs during their existence which defines the narrative of their life. Of course, in reality, we can't choose our facial features or emotional traits. Furthermore, we are unable to control the outcomes of our daily decisions, considering the free will of other human beings is unavoidable. This is different in the Sims.

In addition to these, manipulating time is another

feature in The sims which is farfetched from reality; a contrast-line between reality and its simulation, hidden behind all the decorative features of the gameplay. The idea of being the designer of your artificial world and experiencing it is such a top-seller idea for younger players that it covers all of the potentially destructive effects.

Double fast forward. [04:30 PM] Back from work, ‘which needs of mine are red? Ah… Social!’

The destructive effects emerge when the joy derived from the artificial, designed world exceeds the joy gained from reality. In such a situation, the player begins to prefer resolving the needs of artificial characters instead of resolving personal needs in reality. This matter does not exclusively apply to The Sims or gaming sector in general. Social media also

reflects the same destructive impacts. The social satisfaction harvested from social media exceeds the satisfaction of face-to-face communication. As a result, users prefer to waste more time using their phones for socialising rather than socialising in person.

Clicking on the phone icon in the corner. ‘Who do I want to chat with?’,

The opportunity of artificial empowerment has to be defined in a way that outlines the main purpose of it.

Having the opportunity of being a creator of your life can be an inspiring platform for enhancing designing skills. During the forced online lifestyle which we are all facing at the time, the gaming industry is a highly

valued sector for people to experience a simulated version of real life. Young users however need to be able to distinguish the hidden contrast-line between artificial life and reality. If the user is aware of these contrast lines before playing the game, the risk of the possible destructive effects can be reduced.

Fast forward. [05:00 PM] ‘All needs are green again. What a relief’.

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All and all, we are living within a generation full of technological developments in different fields. As an individual member of the gigantic groups of technology users, the idea of dissolving in this artificial world is always present. I think it would be wise to understand these simulated realities from a broader perspective; look beyond the borders of the

screen, and try to see the potential effects that these virtual realities have on our actual realities. Imagine yourself as a human being without any experience of reality, having lived your whole life in a simulation.

Would you choose to leave that simulation? Or would you rather...

From the editors

FUTURE?

Virtual and Augm

THE HISTORY OF HUMAN HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION THE HISTORY OF HUMAN HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION Words and graphics Oliwia Jackowska

1940

As We Might Think

Virtual Reality attempts to fully virtual environment, while Augm integrate the virtual environme ment. Since the 1940s, each inv barriers between human and m lead us to a complete simulatio Could we be able to "skip in-an at will?

1940 “ As We Might Think Consider a future device … in”which an individual

“ “

A general view of the ENIAC, the world's first all electronic numerical integrator and computer.

Interaction is done via switches and cables.

stores all his books, records, and communications, 1943 and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted ENIAC with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged Comp intimate supplement to his memory.

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ENIAC

Light Pen

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A general view of the ENIAC, the world's first all electronic numerical integrator and computer.

Interaction is done via switches and cables.

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1943

1955

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Consider a future device … in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.

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“

At the time of the inventio had already been explorin increase their capability t dozen years. The mechanical devic discs on the bott

A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's cathode-ray tube (CRT) display. It allows the user to point to displayed objects or draw on the screen in a similar way to a touchscreen but with greater positional accuracy.

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1955

Light Pen

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A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's cathode-ray tube (CRT) display. It allows the user to point to displayed objects or draw on the screen in a similar way to a touchscreen but with greater positional accuracy.

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FUTURE? Virtual and Augmented Reality

VR

Virtual Reality attempts to fully integrate a human into a virtual environment, while Augmented Reality tries to integrate the virtual environment within our natural environment. Since the 1940s, each invention aims to break down the barriers between human and machine. Can this eventually lead us to a complete simulation of our natural environment?

Could we be able to "skip in-and-out" of these environments at will?

AR

“

1982

touchpad By 1982, Apollo desktop computers were equipped with a touchpad on the right side of the keyboard. Introduced a year later, in 1983, the first battery powered clamshell laptop, the Gavilan SC included a touchpad, which was mounted above its keyboard.

”

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1964

“

Computer Mouse

At the time of the invention of the mouse, Douglas Engelbart had already been exploring possible ways for people to increase their capability to solve complex problems for almost a dozen years. The original mouse (...) was a simple mechanical device with two perpendicularly mounted discs on the bottom.

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1963

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Sketchpad The Sketchpad (...) system contains input, output, and computation programs that enable it to interpret information drawn directly on a computer display. It has been used to draw electrical, mechanical, scientific, mathematical and animated drawings.

”

From the editors

TYPOLOGY.EXE Words & Images Christopher Clarkson

When considering typologies of the built environment, a few spring to mind: The church, the house, the library, the graveyard… these all together provide for a diverse experience when departing the home. Different typologies carry not only diverse formal characteristics but they house specific experiences unique to their formal qualities.

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What one does in the church is different from what one does in a strip club, for example; as such certain functions are typology-specific. But into our physical environment we have introduced these brilliant and kind of magical objects which go by names such as “computers” or, “cell phones,” which have become so integral in our lives that entire buildings are dedicated to their retail, or to keeping them in a cooled environment to keep them functioning, think of server buildings for example. These machines which occupy volume of our physical space contain within them a whole other world, a digital space.

It has happened to myself many times where I’ve missed a bus stop because I wasn’t aware of my physical surroundings so much as I was of your digital ones – notifications, likes, comments, hearts, stories… Such a reduction of your physical awareness could be compared to a kind of daydream, present physically but mentally on what might as well have been mars. You don’t remember the journey because you didn’t experience it, so where were you? From a user experience standpoint, you were within the digital realm as opposed to a physical one.

The Digital Space could be described as what you see within the borders of such a device, the screen.

Within this digital space there are programmes which have specific functions, and specific (2D) formal language which lets you understand that you are in fact interacting with your online banking app and not, for example, a dating app.

When most of our time is spent inside of a house, digital typologies have come to replace physical spatial typologies, enabling us to perform the typology-specific functions without leaving our home. Suddenly, the things that you do in your home are no longer different from what you would do in a university, bank, church, or concert venue because all of these functions have been collected into one physical location via the digital space. The distinction of physical typologies becomes as a result, almost redundant.

Of particular interest to me of these digital typologies is the the video calling platform. When lockdown began not only did I quickly learn the name of Zoom, but it also became a critical part of my daily existence, where in one week I could be

Sounds quite similar no? Where the double click is akin to opening the door and stepping into a building, different apps and programmes could be dubbed as digital typologies. I consider these virtual environments just as important as a part of our daily experience, not because they function independently of our physical environment but because they (almost always) influence our experience of the real.

spending 40 hours in it. For those 40 hours of my life, where was I? And where were the nine other people in the call with me? It would be useful to consider where this digital space finds itself in relation to the physical space with a tree diagram of typologies.

This tree diagram defines an essential question which the opening paragraphs pose: where do these digital typologies find themselves in relation to other spatial typologies? It seems apparent that the digital space finds itself firmly within the physical space.

But we could also consider it as something completely detached from reality, detaching you from any experience of the physical environment and providing you with some other, non-tangible environment.

In answering the question of if Digital space finds itself within physical space or outside thereof it must now be asked where the user is as a result. There seem to be three possibilities. If we look at Venn Diagram 1 you are within the physical space as a collection of disconnected individuals (black icons), and simultaneously together within the digital space as artificial copies (red icons). But because the digital space is defined as within the physical, it follows that you’re somehow in two physical places at the same time within a singular physical realm.

The second option as shown in Venn Diagram 2 poses the notion that the digital space actually interacts in a 1:1 relation to reality with perfect overlap, which would mean that each person in the meeting isn’t in two distinct places at the same time, but rather you are in 3 places each, appearing simultaneously in each other’s bedrooms, lounges, or studies.

Alternatively, if we look at Venn Diagram 3 you could see 3 people within the physical space in black, and the digital duplicates of the same 3 people within a non-physical space in red, but the question

becomes what is the container of these two spaces, and similarly, is it possible to be in both the physical, and non-physical space at the same time?

If we assume that your sense of place is reliant on your awareness of the environment, meaning you understand where you are based on information you’re gathering from external experience, then perhaps while in the digital space, you are no longer within the physical space and vice versa. This means that in the model of Venn 3 you would essentially teleport with your two group mates into the digital space to be collected, while you become unaware of, and thus removed from, your immediate physical environment… This also seems farfetched, but perhaps the most accurate from a phenomenological perspective; it doesn’t feel like you’re in 3 physical rooms at the same time, it also doesn’t feel like you have 2 additional people within your small studio; but it does (vaguely) feel like you’re collected with 2 others in a space which does not exist in reality.

Perhaps these analyses are a bit absurd as they try to assess a digital world with physical models – like trying to depict the fourth dimension in the third.

Perhaps we need a new method of analysis which can better incorporate this digital space into the real.

In any case it is clear that when discussing typologies of digital space there are problems in our understanding – perhaps when virtual reality takes over the mass market we will see a more architectural approach to the digital environments in which we meet, but it seems worth considering today as opposed to tomorrow.

Diagrams on the next page >

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BUILDINGS SKY CARS SPACE

SCULPTURES DIGITAL SPACE:

WATER OBJECTS

LAMP-POSTS

INFRASTRUCTURE

GARBAGE BINS

ZOOM

LAND

URBAN

NATURE

THUISBEZORGD

PRIVATE SPACE

CALCULATORS

WHATSAPP

PUBLIC SPACE

LAPTOPS

SKYPE

COMPUTERS

CELL PHONES

Tree Diagram

Phy sica lS pa ce

Phy sica lS pa ce

e ac

pace ital S Dig

Dig ita lS p

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Venn Diagram 1

Venn Diagram 2

Digi tal Sp ac e

Phy sica lS pa ce

Venn Diagram 3

Pen pal

FOUR PARAGRAPHS AND AN INCIPIT ON MY LAST SIX MONTHS AS A BK STUDENT Words and images Amina Chouairi

On the 2nd of July 2020, I graduated (online) with my ten-months-long research-bydesign project in Landscape Architecture, “The Operating Venetian Lagoon: The Agency of Barene.”

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A great way to remember not to be plunged into an eternal present

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The great(est) opportunity.

Despite the uniqueness of this event, especially defined by the impossibility of my family and friends to reach me to celebrate together, many bright sides have come up. I have been able to share this moment with many more people than I could have ever imagined; for example, welcoming both those with whom I had not the degree of intimacy to invite in person and those who probably could not have come due to personal reasons. Not only was everybody able to join my final presentation, but I also got in touch with professors and researchers that were almost not contactable in normal circumstances (due to meetings, conferences, various physical commitments, etc.). All of a sudden, I found everyone reachable online for real, reading and answering emails in record time, something never seen before. Even sitting from my comfortable desk chair, I knocked down and overtook many walls, working out for availability and cooperation.

A new routine.

The hardest struggle was to build a new procession of gestures, rituals that could help me tolerate that unknown present that was waiting for me. I was missing things I never thought I would miss: that usual spot I occupied in the Landscape studio, facing the corridor with the window on my right side, seeing everyone and everything passing by; the chitchats, “Hey how’re you doing?” a question that nobody seemed to have never answered me; waiting in line at the Espresso bar to get that extremely expensive and always disappointing espresso. I was looking for habits to make part of a new routine as much as I was looking for signs that time was effectively passing. Sometimes, around three or four in the morning, I would sneak out of my room in the complete quietness of the house to go out to the backyard. There, I would hear the morning birds, looking around in search for other lit up windows, like mine. In that place around me, I was simply looking for signs of a common ground.

The space surrounding: “a room with a view”.

The obligation and necessity of being digital put me in communication even more with the physical room I have occupied for one year, in Foulkeslaan 82, Delft. A strong sense of possession started to grow in me while living there, especially because there was no alternative. For me, that room became an independent and self-sufficient nine square-meter space, a sort of studio/apartment, in which I did not suffer the coexistence of both living and working at the same time. In these months, from around February to July, I experienced work, production, design but also fatigue and sometimes despair as a solitary act of deep introspection and isolation. That is why, symbolically, I am proud of having graduated from my room, considering the peculiar relation I have developed with this space and myself, exactly there where the entire thesis workload has been conceived, thought of and rethought of, discussed and developed.

What if.

Often, I have wondered how this thesis, these successes, this very life of mine would have been if these last few months had been normal. Of course, I have not been able to find an answer to this question simply because there isn’t one. On the contrary, what I have understood is that we need to review our parameters of normality as soon as possible and be really resilient, as the true meaning of the word suggests: we need to embrace the capacity of living matter to repair itself after damage or shock, but above all the capacity of an entire community to return to its initial state after having been subjected to a disturbance that has modified that same state.

And this is what I hope for BK (which I had to leave for the moment), a faculty that I am sure will come back to be filled with those noisy, brilliant, enthusiastic and creative minds that have always distinguished it.

Amina was recently named BK's Best graduate of 2020.

She wrote this piece after an invitation from the editorial team.

From the editors

ON RENDERS Words Jonas Althuis

As technology advances and our computers continue to get smarter and faster, the rendered world and the real world seem to be converging, slowly merging to become one and the same. It can be genuinely difficult to tell a rendered image from a photograph sometimes. And yet, I think there’s a growing disparity between the rendered world and the real world. Not in visual quality, but in contents.

If you’re not familiar, a render is a digitally created visualization of a design concept, be it architecture, product design or otherwise. In the world of architecture, renders are used to realistically show what a design for a building, urban space or landscape may look like. The main distinction from ordinary architectural drawings being that renders show a three-dimensional impression of this design.

In essence, a render should ‘sell’ the design to the audience.

So here are my concerns: why are most of the renders we see always in sunny weather, with skies bright and blue; colours saturated? Why are there palm trees shown in a cold climate and exotic jungle flowers in barren urban squares? Why are all of the buildings and cars so clean and sterile? Most importantly, why are all of the people depicted wildly attractive, or smiling intensely, or both? I like to call these ‘sunshine and rainbows’ renders, and I think they are representative of the bigger issues of diversity and honesty in the modern architectural field. A digital skeleton in the closet, so to speak. I see these renders often, and it’s certainly not just us students, the big architectural offices are guilty of producing them too.

Constant sunny weather and bright blue skies aren’t harmful, you might think, and to an extent you’d be

correct. But ask yourself this: what kind of world are you showing in your render? Are sunny weather, attractive people, and tropical plants supposed to make your design better? Why are we so averse to showing realistic depictions of human beings as we really are? As consumers of renders ourselves, why do we not question the renders we come across when they do not depict an honest and realistic world?

Perhaps we’ve all experienced the implicit dilemma that arises when making a render: you have to realistically depict your design ideas and you want to give the right impression. If you leave it empty, devoid of natural elements or people, it’s going to be a barren, apocalyptic scene. If you leave it too abstract or artistic, it’s not going to show your design realistically. If you decide to fill it with life; people occupying the spaces, trees, cars, wildlife; you now have to construct a life-like scene around your design. That is a precarious task. What kind of people should you depict? By showing who you think might occupy your building or public space, you will invariably leave people out. It feels like you can only do wrong, so you play it safe and put in the smiling, attractive, able-bodied, heterosexual people that you know won’t stand out or be questioned.

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Practical limitations & time constraints can also play a role during competitions or the final week leading up to a design presentation. Certain visual material is just easier to find for use in your render than other material, and when time is of the essence, you don’t want to spend hours looking for usable images of specific types of people on Google. It’s an enormous task create a convincing render, and usually it’s difficult enough to create something that resembles what you want your design to be, let alone accurately depicting the people that will inhabit it.

This culture of architects, students and teachers being hyper-focused on renders seems to be some kind of self-reinforcing downward spiral, where it’s an unspoken social pressure to have a nice-looking render on your presentation poster, or your design is not worthy. It’s exactly this pressure that drives

students to create monotonous & similar looking renders without fully considering the world that is being represented and the people that are being misrepresented. These are then seen by other students, and the cycle continues. I’m guilty of this myself.

Looking at the architectural world, there does seem to be a shift towards more honest renders. New technologies, better software and an ever-growing online collection of visual imagery make this possible and more attainable for all of us students. But we too have our role to play. So, here is my plea: let’s be more open about renders. Let’s talk about them more and let’s think about them more. Let’s represent a realistic world with realistic and diverse people in it. Let’s reflect about the renders we make: if they’re here to stay, let's make them wonderful.

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Rendered versus real: The Vessel, designed by Heatherwick Studio. From https://www.archdaily.com/942700/renders-vs-reality-projectsfrom-renowned-architects-before-and-after

For further reading on this topic, I recommend this article Daniel Innes on drawingmatter.org. It’s a great read, with an interesting take on the representation of people and diversity in architectural drawings, I highly recommend it.

The article also has some good resources for getting started with representing a broader diversity of people and can be found at https://drawingmatter.org/drawing-people/.

From the editors

THE DAILY DIGITAL LIFE Words Robert van Overveld

About four months ago, I stopped checking my phone directly after waking up.

Not that my sleep was bad, but I’ve started to dislike the behaviour. It still feels like a small victory every time I resist the temptation. On average, people spend one-seventh of their time on their phone. Combined with laptop and television use, this results in eight and a half hours of screen time a day on average in the Netherlands. For architecture and urbanism students, this is likely even longer.

It’s quite a hassle to keep your digital life balanced.

Often, you find yourself using your devices longer and more frequently than you intended. Maybe you feel conflicted about it, maybe you have accepted it, but it undoubtedly has an impact on your life. So, what are the consequences of living in our modern digital world? It probably varies greatly between people. But, let’s take a look at some existing theories nevertheless.

something is “wrong” with their brain? Some might even start to take medication, whereas they might just have an average amount of concentration capacity?

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Attention We seem to change the way we retrieve, store and value information. Mainly due to the ever-increasing amount, accessibility and attractiveness. Many people are incredibly flexible and fast in dealing with this new digital reality. This skill can come with a cost however. Many adolescents are nowadays less capable of critical, deep thinking and concentrating for a long time1. The brain needs time to transform information from short-term to long-term memory, but due to the constant stream of impulses, it isn’t given a lot of time to do this.

I wonder if this explains why so many people think they have concentration problems these days. Could it be that part of this group is just a victim of the previously described development? And as a result, misinterpreting the whole situation in thinking that

Energy You probably heard it before; you communicate 55% with your body, 38% through tone of voice and only 7% via spoken word. Talking via zoom, therefore, means that you’re partially missing body language and possibly some tone in voice as well. The

1 Adolescent brain and the natural allure of digital media. (2020). Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 22(2), 127–133. https://doi. org/10.31887/dcns.2020.22.2/jgiedd

above-mentioned percentages change, which explains your fatigue after every zoom-meeting —a phenomenon which most of you probably experience. You depend more on words to understand each other.

However, this theory leaves me in doubt, since zoom is essentially the same as calling someone, which doesn’t tire me too much, personally. Could it be that that zoom makes you think that it is similar to meeting someone in real life? With the result that you’re focused on the elements previously described (body, tone of voice and word), but are saddled continuously with incomplete information? So that your brain needs to make over-hours to understand all these pieces of information?

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Emotion Let’s talk porn, a phenomenon more accessible than ever before. I think the difference between porn and having intimate sex with someone (you love) is, in some areas, similar to the difference between digital media use and talking to someone in real life. The similarity is that they both have a body-mind problem. Watching porn is a great satisfaction to the mind for many people, but the body remains relatively inactivated. Similar to scrolling through Instagram, which is mostly an experience for the mind as well. Surely, you could argue that it is therefore influencing your body, but the energy felt during real-time events is undoubtedly stronger.

This can be negative energy as well. If you’re often rejected by women or men, or if you struggle with social acceptance, then the digital world is a pleasant alternative. Perhaps not as valuable, but it is better than nothing. Nevertheless, there is a danger in that, since it is likely that the digital world becomes a safe haven.

The more time you spend in isolation on your devices, the less time you spend with other people.

And, although we are social creatures, being social and emotionally connected to other humans is a skill, which will decline if not maintained regularly3.

Being human and connecting to yourself is a skill, and, just the same, won’t evolve if you don’t put yourself out in the open.

For me, it comes down to this; choosing for the digital safe haven is accessible and pleasant at times, but has low returns in the long run. Confronting yourself with the real world is complex and ambiguous, but finding your place in yourself and the world is where the real gold can be found.

Note my choice of words of, “at times” in the first sentence of the previous paragraph. There are situations imaginable where the digital world is the better option. Some moments in your life can be so overwhelming that the distraction, which the digital world brings, is your best call. Nevertheless, if you can find some space to face reality, I think you always should; armed with patience, curiosity, and surrender as your best tools.

The Good Side The total sum of the above-described themes is perhaps not as cheerful as most articles about our digital world. Most of us probably agree that the time in which we live can be exciting and, yes, thinking about the possibilities of virtual and augmented reality can be out-of-this-world cool.

Besides, I have laughed so many times using my phone, and there are more fascinating documentaries out there then I will ever be able to see. So, where does that leave us?

Maybe it leaves us right back at the beginning; with moments where we become conscious of our behaviour. Not changing anything, just noticing.

Slowly developing a healthy relationship with the millions of impulses we face every day.

2 Nadler, R. (2020). Understanding “Zoom fatigue”: Theorizing spatial dynamics as third skins in computer-mediated communication.

Computers and Composition, 58, 102613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2020.102613 3 Segrin, C., & Givertz, M. (2003). Methods of social skills training and development. In J. O. Greene & B. R. Burleson (Eds.), Handbook of communication and social interaction skills (p. 135–176). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

From the editors

A PUBLIC DIGITAL SPACE AT HOME Words & Images Inez Margaux Spaargaren

How are private and public spaces organized and designed in the modern information society? Have you ever thought about this? Now, you might...

Video communication is a tool that takes place in two separate rooms; this way of communication is used more and more. Everywhere, spaces that were once wholly private are now being becoming more public through this video communication development.

The basic idea of a home is shelter and a safe environment for a family. Whether it's raining, storms, hail or the sun shining, it's the place to retreat to. Home has had this meaning for humankind since agricultural society. However, with the change of technology, lifestyle, work and social life throughout history, the home has changed physically. It went from a public place in society (archaic time) to a place for privacy (industrial time), where each family lives on its own. Now in the 21st century, also called the information society, the concept of home is still developing.

At the moment, the home is seen as a private place, but it is beginning to look like the traditional boundaries of the home are changing, making the home more public than it used to be. This social change is further deepened by the current epidemic, in which the use of video communication has become indispensable. Dwellings are being expanded by giving them multiple activities, and spaces have various meanings. New activities enabled by technology, are taking place in today's home, such as video education, video work, yoga classes, shopping, etc., using technology.

Home is starting to play a more central role in people's lives. With new forms of working and living, more time is spent at home, made possible by new technologies.

If I were to describe my current situation, my home is poorly equipped for video communication. During my video education, I often hear or see people poorly, usually because of the current acoustics and lighting conditions in my room. But also my current environment sometimes does not have access to the internet or power for my equipment. For successful integration of video communication in a home, I would change it’s technical and architectural design criteria, taking the developments in home working and home education into account.

ICT and other information technologies are developing exponentially, and looking at today's technologies, ICT already seems to integrate into our daily lives. Many homes make room for devices such as TVs, laptops, monitors, game consoles, etc. These new technologies are all connected to the internet and home network. They influence our social behaviour; the systems in a home are being revised and will probably lead to a new design and understanding of home in the 21st century.

In our current situation, it would be ideal to be able to separate the domestic space in question into a public digital space and an offline private space. The

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development of video communication is leading to the disappearance of offline private spaces. To take an example; in the situation of the telephone, private space was still possible as only audio is shared. Now that there is video communication, a new kind of space is being introduced, which could resemble a public digital space, (a space where everyone can see and hear each other in a used to be private space).

The home is not a simple place to design. For architects, a home can be designed differently for each family. For every home there are different activities, efficiency etc., this is determined by the traditions, but also ethical and moral values of a house. To introduce a public digital space in the new home, new design steps are needed in the field of architecture.

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Different spots designed with perfect light and acoustics, where no interference exists, a glare of sunlight or a disturbing background. These places could also be integrated into everyday spaces, think of the living room, the flexibility and ease of use of video communication could be significantly increased by these public digital design interventions.

More focused on privacy, the everyday spaces should not be interrupted by the public digital spaces.

Separate rooms are formed in home, the size of a closet, where a physical barrier separates the public digital spaces from your private home.

It won't take long before this becomes a topic of conversation in architecture. I assume a long-awaited necessity for the digital future. So start thinking about it!

As a designer of this new home, the characteristics of offline private space and public digital spaces could be taken into account. This new dimension is the beginning of the unique character of the home of the 21st century. Have you already given thought to this new character?

todays - mixture of public digital and private space in home

tomorrows - chosen public digital spots enhanced with private space in home

future - a designed public digital space in home

Spotlight

PRITZKER PRIZE FOR ESCHER: REVISITED Words Szymon Smyk

While it might now seem like a lifetime, it was not even two years ago when I sat down to write what would become my contribution to the first issue of the newly started students’ magazine INVOLVED. The article was set to investigate the potential benefits architecture can reap from the rapidly developing virtual reality technology in the near future. And while I am happy to look back at the article and see the scenarios I imagined becoming reality, it is humbling to see how severely I underestimated the speed of progress. My predictions, accurate as they might end up, did not account for two factors that changed the VR scene in 2020 – a global pandemic and the resurgence of two separate cult classics

Factor 1: stay at home…

The alarmingly quick spread of COVID-19 and the following string of never-ending lockdowns, confusing government guidance and the overwhelming pressure on health and public services unearthed a never-ending list of ugly truths we usually like to ignore.

One of these realisations was just how much our personal space has decreased, closed in around us. With our lives being increasingly more ‘lived out’– eating out, going out – the property market found a way to sell and rent us increasingly smaller apartments for increasingly larger prices. For many of us, our homes became not much more than bedrooms from which we venture out in the morning only to come back to at night.

However, even when stay-at-home orders cut us from the space where we perform most of our everyday lives, the other major space where we outsourced our personal space stayed open – and thrived – the virtual space. Our inability to leave our homes which have become unable to satisfy any but our most basic needs emphasised how virtual space has seamlessly filled many gaps in our experience. It connects us to others, lets us stay informed through constantly updated news feeds, brings us entertainment from around the world. And yet, surprisingly for a species used to explore the 3D nature of reality to the fullest, our virtual spaces are disappointingly two-dimensional, still bearing more resemblance to the newspaper page than a lived-in room.

Interestingly, the precedent to creating dream worlds that could not be fulfilled in material space far exceeds the period of rapid growth of the virtual - from the many examples on the masterplan level, such as Le Corbusier’s plan for Paris and Will Aesop’s masterplan for Barnsely, Bradford and Croydon to the singular pieces like Etienne-Louis Boulle’s cenotaph for Issac Newton, Peter Eisenman’s House X and most of John

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Hejduk’s experimental work. While our colloquial understanding of architecture does not reach far beyond ‘a building’, there is depth to architectural theory and the understanding it has for a set of relationships between observing and dwelling, shape and volume, positive and negative space. There is no reason why these ideas should not be used to enhance our understanding of the virtual, to allow it to move from the rigidity of the video games to fuller, better systems that can allow for a multitude of different human interactions.

Factor 2: … and play some games It could be argued that there is already a strong demand for virtual spaces where we could lead our virtual lives. While COVID-19 put almost all industries into precarious positions, one of the markets that benefited from the pandemic was that of video games (and accompanying hardware). And while there were many games that took the world by storm in 2020, there were two that are holding the answers as to how the future virtual spaces could look and feel like.

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The first game worth analysing is, by some metric, barely a game. With a very limited gameplay and no clear end-goal, the newest Animal Crossing instalment seems unlikely to have become one of the biggest sensations of 2020. However, somewhere between repetitions of menial tasks, calming music, cartoonish animal neighbours and the ability to slowly improve your home island with handcrafted goods hid a very calming and relaxing formula. It is likely that the game would not have seen such a massive success, however, if not one crucial part of the interactions it allows: the ability to visit the home islands of your real-life (human) friends. While there is only a modicum of meaningful interactions to be had with your hosts, the game nevertheless offers an opportunity to visit your friends in their virtual living rooms - an experience especially rewarding when the real-world home visits were highly discouraged due to the ongoing pandemic. This opportunity is likely one of the factors of the success of the game, which temporarily caused massive shortages of its home console, Nintendo Switch.

The other game worth mentioning in the context of emerging VR technology is the new title from VALVE’s renowned franchise Half-Life. Like previous titles in the series, Half-Life: Alyx uses its first-person shooter tropes to test a new, innovative technology – as the first mainstream title to be experienced through a VR headset. The announcement of the game, together with a presentation of the impressive capabilities of a VR setup, prompted massive shortages of many leading headset brands and opened the conversations about the potential of the VR technology.

While the accomplishments of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Half-Life: Alyx offer different perspectives on the future of VR, it is worth noting that they are still video games, part of an often formulaic and always profit-oriented industry. Nevertheless, the modes of interaction and new technologies they are heralding can be realised in a wider

concept and for purposes other than just entertainment in order to explore their full potential.

Outcome: social club/art gallery/conference While many video game environments are certainly impressive, they are tailored to provide a particular type of experience. The rare exceptions are the so-called ‘sandbox games – ones that define only the most basic set of rules (not unlike rules of nature in the material world); otherwise, they let the players roam free. This allows for using them for more than just gaming, as was the case with UN-Habitat’s Block by Block initiative.

Block by Block uses Minecraft to enable people in Palestine to design their own prototype public spaces. As a result, people who otherwise would not be able to participate in the design process now can take a more active role. There is one more interesting aspect of this initiative - as the spaces are being designed on the multiplayer server, the process of designing itself becomes a simulation of public life. The server becomes something more than just a design tool, it becomes a virtual plaza in its own right, a place where people come to enjoy their free time, share their ideas and take part in social activities.

Even more creative freedom comes from designing an environment from scratch to serve one’s needs. And while there are some architects that still prefer to work with a pen and a sheet of paper, recently-graduated architects are expected to master a variety of 3D design tools – from simpler ones, like SketchUp, to ones that already have a depth of information, like Revit. Is it too much of a reach to suggest that the emergence of virtual reality architecture will push some architects to master game engines like Unreal Engine, Unity or Source 2 in order to bring their designs to life?

We have already seen an emergence of virtual art galleries and tourist attractions well before the pandemic started – allowing visitors to experience the artworks without the prohibitive price tag connected to travelling to see them in person, to visit usually overcrowded places like Venice or Dubrovnik, or to even walk through places currently renovated (Notre Dame), long lost (Ancient Rome) or never realised (imagine the potential to visit all of the failed Sydney Opera House competition submissions!). Used in this way, VR can be both an educational and an egalitarian tool, allowing more people access to more works of culture than has ever been possible before. Everyone could access works of art, culture and architecture - historically a privilege of the few ablebodied and affluent enough.

And it could be a great alternative to global conferences. As most of the conferences in 2020 were either cancelled or delegated to low-quality Zoom calls, an architecture conference, Punto de Inflexión, took place in the virtual venue designed by the team of architects. Freed from the rigorous laws of nature, the virtual rooms presented a mix of

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utilitarian patterns and dreamlike logic, allowing the participants to wander around the extravagant rooms as they take this new reality in.

While benefits of such systems – for once, allowing for such a conference during an unprecedented pandemic without compromising on quality (not to mention the reduced carbon footprint which might make these solutions tempting even after we are finally allowed to meet other people again) – are easy to recognise, there is a depth to potential design ideas that is just waiting to be explored.

Outcome: new architecture This is like exploring a new, alien world – with a new set of rules to follow, as the only restraints to the design are the limitations of the hardware used to create and experience it. Gone are things like gravity, strength of materials dictating maximum spans, energy efficiency – that is, unless an architect chooses to include them. Here comes a possibility to experience not only Venice, but also every one of its facets captured by Italo Calvino in Invisible Cities. Additionally, and possibly even more importantly, gone are the restraints put on by geometry itself. No longer does the architecture have to follow Euclidean geometry or even be confined to three-dimensional spaces.

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One of the interpretations of the impossible staircases, logic-defying waterfalls and magic mirrors that M.C. Escher brought to life is that they were an expression of mourning of the divide between the richness of human imagination and the restrictive nature of reality. Thanks to virtual reality, this gap might soon become just a bit narrower as we go for a stroll through the House of Stairs to meet for a chat with friends we are not able to see in the material world.

With this article we are delighted to announce our new collaboration with INVOLVED Magazine, an independent platform based in the UK centred around creating a place in which students and the newly graduated gain a voice.

This is a part of a longer term project, in which Bnieuws hopes to further establish international connections of other faculty magazines around the world. If you know any architectural magazines run by faculties in your home country please contact us at bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

Pen pal

NATURE AS A MUSEUM Words & Images Bo Kuiper, Joep Merx, Martin Sitorus

As humans, we tend to believe that our idea of nature is clearly defined. Especially in times of climate change, this should be questioned to stimulate new points of view. We have always used the term nature as a projection of our personal beliefs.

Therefore, the term has a variety of interpretations, such as being an antipode to the city, an aesthetic ideal, an ecological phenomenon, or a source of natural resources. Whether we like it or not, every discussion about nature is heavily influenced by these ideological ways of understanding. Conscious of this, we try to interact critically with these ideologies, therefore making our project just as paradoxical as nature itself.

Comparable to nature, our idea of what a museum is has changed over time and keeps changing to this day. Many topics that can be found in Museology appear similarly in discussions on nature. Seeing nature as a museum could therefore be a way to mirror our ideas, changing our perception of nature and showing it in a new light. Our goal is to increase the chance of finding suitable solutions by expanding the discussion about nature through this alternative way of thinking. We believe that this can impact the thinking of experts as much as the general public, which increases our chances of surviving the current crisis.

‘Research’, ‘Preservation’, ‘Presentation’ and ‘Collection’. The latter invests further in the functional composition of the different areas that have been described before.

In this project we use the museum as an analogy for nature, showing where thought patterns from the museum can help protect and transform nature. To further explain our concept, we use a complex collection of comparisons between the museum and nature, in the form of collages. These comparisons are ordered around the functions of a traditional museum. The first two, ‘Anthropocene’ and ‘Environs and Museum’, form an introduction to the situation and the spatial order of the proposal. Each of the four other collages is centered around one of the core functions of the traditional museum:

Bo, Joep and Martin are 3rd year Bachelor's students

By communicating our idea through collages, we can visualize the ideological fragmentation of the project. At the same time, the collage makes it possible to include a big number of existing thoughts, that went into the creation of the works we reused. The associations and aesthetics that come hand in hand with these images are another important carrier of information.

who participated in the "Reimagining Museums for Climate Action" competition in the summer of 2020. For more information scan the following QR code or go to https://studioisoptera.com/

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es. This

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is on growth, economic growth in particular,

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- The Guardian

be devastated by the end of this century.”

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solve this problem we need a new type of thinking.”

grossly neglecting environmental sustainability. To

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dispersed across the planet by nuclear bomb tests.

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Today

Anthropocene

42 “Nature is indifferent to the

Yesterday

- Bryan Furnass

be devastated by the end of this century.”

a large number of species, including our own, will

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survival of the human species”

- The Guardi

dispersed across the planet by nuclear bomb test

likely to be defined by the radioactive elemen

The new epoch should begin about 1950 and w

Tomorrow

“AI is being developed that can find and target weeds in a field

The Leftovers are spaces that humanity has made uninhabitable. Often these spaces are recaptured by nature within a short amount of time.

Leftovers

- Zeche Zollverein

- Michel Foucault

- Sydney Young, Harvard International Review

Coking Plant, a wild and unparalleled natural environment

The Leftovers are spaces that humanity has made uninhabitable. Often these spaces are recaptured by nature within a short amount of time.

Leftovers

- Mosa Meat

96% less water.”

production will use up to 99% less land, and

- Michel Foucault

education of the general public.

- Mosa Meat

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“The coelacanth was thought to have gone extinct

- Crop Trust

supply.”

insurance policy for the world’

Exhibition

- National Geographic

fits into the evolution of land animals.

1938 ignited a debate about how this fish

with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Its discovery in

The Exhibition is the part of the museum that is dedicated to the entertainment and education of the general public.

Arc

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- Genesis

pleasing to the eyes and good for food.”

Lord God made to grow out of the ground every tree that is

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Archive

The Archive is a place reserved for experts who do research and preserve objects and artifacts.

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for farmers to pollute the surrounding ecosystem.”

with the appropriate amount of herbicide, eliminating the need

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- Zeche Zollverein “It is projected that cultured meat

has emerged in the open spaces of the industrial wasteland.”

Coking Plant, a wild and unparalleled natural environment

“Following the closure of the Zollverein Coal Mine and

- Sydney Young, Harvard International Review

for farmers to pollute the surrounding ecosystem.”

with the appropriate amount of herbicide, eliminating the need

Factory

The Factory is a place that supplies human life. It is “These are oppositions that we regard as simple givens, for example necessary, but not good. Making it as small as possible is the between private space and public space, between cultural space logical solution.

This means thatand only efficiency counts as an argument inand thisthat area. useful space, between the space of leisure of work.”

The Factory is a place that supplies human life. It is necessary, but not good. Making it as small as possible is the logical solution. This means that only efficiency counts as an argument in this area.

Factory

Environs and Museum Environs and Museum

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tury.”

g our own, will

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- The Guardian

clear bomb tests.

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out 1950 and was

- Adlai Stevenson

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- Charles Darwin

second could undo all the global warming - Stephen Salter

damage we’ve done to the world up till now”

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- Stephen Salter

damage we’ve done to the world up till now”

second could undo all the global warming

“Spraying about 10 cubic metres of salt per

- Target Malaria

precisely cut and therefore disrupt specific gene sequences.

To reduce the number of female mosquitoes, our researchers can

“We plan to tackle malaria at the source: the malaria mosquitoes.

Conservation Research

- Mauritshuis

daily basis, which is carried out in the conservation studio.”

with conservation, restoration and technical research on a

from elsewhere are studied and analyzed.

“The museum’s in-house team of conservators are engaged - Natural History Museum

objects, primarily from the collections themselves, but also

Research on reconstruction

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“The crust of the earth is a vast museum.”

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- Natural History Museum

from elsewhere are studied and analyzed.

objects, primarily from the collections themselves, but also

Conservation Research

“Nature is indifferent to the

survival of the human species”

- Charles Darwin

“The crust of the earth is a vast museum.”

Tomorrow

Research

44

Research for imitation

- Mauritshuis

precisely cut and therefo

To reduce the number of femal

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with conservation, restoration from the natural world”and technical research daily basis, which is carried out in the conservation s - Michael Dickinson

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re engaged

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from the natural world”

humans often draw guidance and inspiration

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Education

at the source: the malaria mosquitoes.

“Ignite curiosity in science and maths through more than 50 hands-on exhibits female mosquitoes, our researchers can and immersive experiences. Wonderlab encourages students to be curious, to erefore disrupt specific gene sequences. look closely at details and to be creative—skills that are invaluable to scientists.”

ion studio.”

earch on a

- Jason Farago, It’s Time to Take Down our the Mona Lisa that those which even the to refresh memories

- Jason Farago, It’s Time to Take Down the Mona Lisa

that would detract from its - Brian O’Doherty, Inside the w

that would detract from its own evaluation of itself.”

- Brian O’Doherty, Inside the white cube

Presentation Forms

“The ideal gallery subtracts with the fact that it is “art.”

“The ideal gallery subtracts from the artwork all cues that interfere

- Jason Farago, It’s Time to Take Down the Mona Lisa

anti-art who has turned the museum inside out.”

tourism and digital narcissism, a black hole of

famous, she has become, in this age of mass

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- André Malraux, Museum without Walls - Annette Scheersoi

greatest of museums could bring together.” experienced first-hand. ”

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Fetish

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- Science Museum London

look closely at details and to be creative—skills that are invaluable to scientists.”

and immersive experiences. Wonderlab encourages students to be curious, to

“Ignite curiosity in science and maths through more than 50 hands-on exhibits

- André Malraux, Museum without Walls

greatest of museums could bring together.”

“We however have far more great works available

narcissism, a black hole of anti-art who has turned the museum inside out.”

narcissism, a black hole of anti-art who has turned the

museum inside out.”

“Content in the 20th century to be merely famous, she has become, in this age of mass tourism and digital

“Content in the 20th century to be merely famous, she

Leisure

Presentation

has become, in this age of mass tourism and digital

Leisure

Presentation

45

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Artefact

VITRA .04 Words Amber Leeuwenburgh

‘Artefact’ is a recurring two-page spread, which features a beloved object presented by one of the BK City staff members. Every month, the ‘Artefact’ contributorship is passed on someone new. This months’ artefact is from Amber Leeuwenburgh, who is the Faculty Secretary.*

At the beginning of this year, we ended up in a lockdown - suddenly we were working from home. Colleagues temporarily took office chairs, screens and docking stations home, but I refused. Where to put that? An office chair in the living room? I'd rather sit at the dining table with my laptop.

I am a long-time admirer of Maarten van Severen, long before the old BK building burned down and the Julianalaan was crammed with his .04 chairs as the basis for all studio spaces, along with other Vitra furniture. When I discovered Van Severens U-Line lamp, with its beautifully sleek shape, that became my biggest obsession. It was never "necessary enough" to purchase it, but it is still saved as a search query on Marktplaats.

In September, I was struck down by lumbago; two full weeks of unbearable back pain.

Heavily drugged and unable to do anything but lie on one side in bed. Was it related to a poorly equipped workplace? Could be.

I was (and am) not yet ready for an ergonomic office chair. Reluctantly I brought the .04 chair into the house on loan from BK where, sadly, there are hundreds unused in the studios. Now I'm temporarily working on it princely. And I look at it lovingly when I sit at the other end of the room on the sofa.

I still covet Van Severen's leather lounge chair that he designed for Pastoe in 2004, a year before his death. In my opinion, it is his most beautiful design. It is simple yet refined, and very inviting, but unfortunately too pricey for the budget of a family with a young child and thus lots of other priorities. The .04 chair seems the right place to sit at this moment. It will soon have to be returned to its rightful owner, so I started saving to add one permanently to my repertoire.

*The printed version of this article misspelled Ms. Leeuwenburgh last name as Leeuwenberg and misidentified the author as Jorge Mejía Hernandez (from previous issue) in the introduction.

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From the editors

DIGITAL SYMBOLOGY Jonas Althuis

Shown below are a variety of symbols from the digital world, from internet browsing to smartphone apps. Which symbols do you recognise?

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Answers (from left to right, top to bottom): Windows settings, play/pause, Instagram, USB, power button, standard cursor, airplane mode, wi-fi, save, laughing emoji, text alignment, Mac command, attach paperclip, undo/redo, bluetooth, select cursor, battery, print, Whatsapp, reply-all, Windows folder.

BECOME A PEN PAL! We are always searching for new voices to join and contribute to Bnieuws. Whether your talents are in writing, drawing, photography, graphic design, or you’re filled with a range of skills, we would love to hear from you if you have any ideas for the faculty periodical. If you would like to be on our contributors list, simply send an email with your ideas to bnieuws-BK@tudelft.nl

NEXT ISSUE: TABOO Taboo you, taboo me, taboo everybody.

Some things are better left unsaid, but that’s better for who exactly? Since expressing yourself is healthy, we will talk about taboos in the next edition. That can be casual ones, in architecture, worldly, whatever feels best.

More and more conversations are beginning to idle, we believe it is better to stay in conversation. So, let’s do that!

Bnieuws 54/04 due February 2021.

Bnieuws INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT VOLUME 54 ISSUE 03