Graduation catalogue 2012-2013 webview

Amsterdam Academy of Architecture Graduation Projects 2012-2013 Architecture Urbanism Landscape Architecture 1

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Contents 24 Jurgen Bey, Making wishes

Architecture 26 Jarrik Ouburg, Posing questions

28 Adriaan Aarnoudse, The peninsula rediscovered 36 Gara Beukman, μαζί ‘mazi’ 44 Robert Bijl, FOA [C/M] 52 Txell Blanco Diaz, Vinex Market 60 Steven Broekhof, Bring me Back my Amsterdam 68 Avital Broide, The neighborhood for returning sons and daughters 76 Anne Dessing, Articulating the surroundings 84 Lard Joordens, Antonius. Together Better.

92 Graham Kolk, WoonLab 100 Andrew Page, Teatro Awasa 108 Femke Poppinga, Country Living in the City 116 Bas Schuit, Time for space 124 Immanuel Kwaku Sirron-Kakpor, Voltascapes: Re-thinking Modernity 132 Alena Ulasava, Incubator 2.0 140 Jesse Zweers, LabLoods

Landscape Architecture 148 Marieke Timmermans, Getting involved 150 Marit Janse, Salt crystals 158 Claire Laeremans, The necessity of ruins 166 Ramon Postma, Evening Glow 174 Marlies Rijken, Travelling through time 182 Patrick Ruijzenaars, Waterlands Woud 190 Philomene van der Vliet, Strings Attached 198 Pauline Wieringa, IJpark

Urbanism 206 Arjan Klok, Committed and progressive 208 Sebastian van Berkel, City Motion 216 Anneke Sluijter-Jacobsen, Goud Waard 224 Sanneke van Wijk, New Life 232 Aart Oxenaar, Jury report on Archiprix 2014 nominations Academy of Architecture 237 Master of Architecture – Urbanism – Landscape Architecture 23

Making wishes Jurgen Bey Visiting critic

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Firstly, I want to congratulate the students with being part of a new generation that will strengthen the world professionally, in a time that is so interesting. A time in which boundaries between disciplines blur. The city planner, the landscaper, architect, interior designer, product designer, graphic designer, the fashion designer can work on the same assignments. For the first time, it seems that every discipline can compete for the same projects, for issues that were previously exclusively answered by one specific single field of design.

How do we travel? Are we driven by the way the streets are laid or does our GPS determine where the road runs? And when we are on our way, do we hurry towards a bottleneck or set of traffic light and is it important how the landscape around us is organized? Are we mainly on the move or is the road also a place itself?

When we build houses, do we follow the architect’s thinking up to the last sill? Or is the building shell sufficient to further complete it to personal taste with the aid of Home Depots and DIY programs? The remaining space is filled in when walls and floors are finished. Supply and demand of the market is a determinant, the market with its good value for money.

Do we decide that building codes are too restrictive and result in uniformity? Why not rewrite them the laws so to reveal that building within a matrix yields a much more specific house? As long as you never grow taller than the trees and fill the spacing in between, the architecture can be devised while starting from the house itself.

And when making grand landscape plans for black coal areas, we might consider to seduce people to travel around in it. Like you would in a beautifully illustrated atlas, in a landscape full of little gems. No technocratic combat with immersive plans. Just starting and learning form a landscaper who’s drawn plans with a personal handwriting and competes with beautifully illustrated children’s books .

A church of concrete exchanges the Sunday rest for a roofless park where the light and rain have free reign. The building develops into contemporary architecture with aisles of a quality that can compete with the common stained- glass windows.

A salty Zeeland landscape doesn’t start from landscape development, but from cultural development of the trades and objects native to Zeeland. Like the Romanian mountains where developments remained the same since long and are now in the lead of the trend of slowing down and history that is alive. The landscape speaks the language of today, but doesn’t bow down to the mistakes of progress. The standstill serves as a kind of analogue ‘Apple Z’ that works the land.

An Incubator as architectural force, following the example of airports, is seeking an infrastructure and accommodate the meeting of people. How does such a house function and what does it look like?

A river is tamed with streams that are collectively owned, by leasing houses and opening the fringes of gardens up to the public, creates a new rugged bocage pastureland.

Amsterdam’s IJ waterfront is developed from the color red and floating pontoons, creating a string of floating objects.

A path of pink blossom across Amsterdam West strings all seemingly insignificant and almost invisible monuments together and unlocks the city by using greenery.

Using the metro to go to a newly developed forest. A forest that brings the water back to its standard level and where Amsterdam citizens scavenge the forest the ground above while being underground.

Fly ash presents Rotterdam’s sculpted architecture as a means to form a bond with the unwanted.

In short, there is a new generation on its way that embraces large-scale thinking while starting on a much smaller scale. Failure out of the question, because it is a matter of starting and doing with all the resources available. Their tools are the spoken word, illustration, building by hand, making technical drawings for the people who execute them, but also simply by making wishes. The context is the public domain and its collectivity. This is the answer to layer different programs on top of each other. To impose a Dutch cultural morality: ‘He who doesn’t honor the small is not worthy of the greater things’.

Travel back to your childhood without losing track of current times, to pursue the utopia of the kibbutz but in the form of a built campsite.

The informal part of meeting now defines the architecture that has been cut up into different structures.

The retirement home mixes with the library, so that oral history can shuffle along in between skypers and internet users, under the sky of a church from different times.

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Posing questions Jarrik Ouburg

Head of Architecture Department

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“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.”

- Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and the General Theory During their education at the Academy of Architecture, students are encouraged to define their personal profile as designers and adopt a position in architectural discourse. This is by definition inherent to the profession, since design in principle always involves making choices, and every choice is personal. For instance, students are free to choose which design projects they follow. As a result, they are implicitly responsible in part for the education they pursue. By taking this responsibility seriously, students have already taken an important step in the development from bachelors to masters level.

During the graduation project, the master dissertation of the academy, responsibility increases even further. Students can, in consultation with the head of the department, define their own graduation assignment and choose their own team of supervisors. That is both a luxury and a burden.

Whereas the standard teaching procedure is for the tutor to pose a question in the form of a design assignment, during the graduation process the first task of the student is to formulate the right question for himself or herself. What is my graduation subject? What is my attitude to it as an architect? What is my social role in the issue? Is that really relevant?

Each good project begins with a well-formulated question of course, and it is then up to the architect to offer a right answer. The architect often knows better than the client what question is actually put to him, and continually questioning the relevance of the question is one of the most important tasks of a critically operating architect. That certainly applies to this class of 2013 graduates, at a time when there appear to be no obvious answers to obvious questions.

What is striking about the class of 2013 is that almost all of them are good at asking the right question. How do I design housing for elderly people in which they themselves acquire a role in defining how they use the building? How can I reuse a large vacant office building in the heart of Amsterdam? How do I design a theatre that is more than just a performance venue? How do I transform an empty warehouse into a collective space for the city? How do I design an office building in which encounters between and collaboration among occupants underpin the scheme? How do I give a church a new purpose for and on behalf of a new generation? What are the possibilities for collective forms of housing in the city? How can I improve the quality of the environment in a Vinex district that is still undergoing development? How can I deploy waste storage to help shape the landscape?

How can I use local people and resources to find an alternative to developments imposed from above? How can a new generation shape the urban design and architecture of a kibbutz?

How can an empty church be adapted to form a public place of contemplation in the city? How can the qualities of a detached family house be incorporated into a collective residential building in the city? How can shopping and living strengthen each other in a city-centre building? How can I stimulate the development of a neighbourhood or park with individual dwellings?

What unites these questions is that they are not spectacular or compelling. Rather, they are very precise. The answers — the graduation projects by the students — are marked by that same precision. Precision at the scale of the intervention, at the level of the spatial tools deployed, and in the elaboration of the schemes. In this capacity to first of all pose the right questions and then offer the right answers, I see a new realism and a new enthusiasm among a new generation of architects.

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Architecture

Adriaan Aarnoudse The peninsula rediscovered A narrative landscape in the Rotterdam harbour

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Adriaan Aarnoudse

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Architecture

Adriaan Aarnoudse The Peninsula Rediscovered A Narrative Landscape in the Rotterdam Harbour

Located in the middle of Rotterdam harbour is a town called Rozenburg, built in the 1960s for port workers. The harbour’s present form is the result of excavating, dredging, raising, strengthening and endlessly digging and depositing sand in the mouth of the River Maas. In the harbour lies a big leftover tract of land, the peninsula of Rozenburg. The history of the peninsula is rooted in the expansion of the Rotterdam harbour and is a remnant of ‘De Beer’ nature area. Since the beginning, the various sites on the peninsula have been used for waste deposit and ground storage.

The peninsula is not very inviting to visitors because much of it is inaccessible, not clearly visible and difficult to experience. Consequently, many visitors go to the end and back without stopping.

This design deals with the whole peninsula of Rozenburg and features seven interventions in the landscape. Each intervention showcases a specific quality of the site, makes the location easier to access, see and experience, and encourages the visitor to experience more of the peninsula and its environment. The interventions originate in the morphology of the location and in the tectonics of the harbour landscape. The machine-formed landscape is solidified and fixed on every site.

Through the use of an innovative form of landfill, new programme will take shape and grow into the landscape. Landscape can become buildings and the buildings can become landscape.

Hazardous waste, most of it produced by burning garbage and stabilised by cement, is used to make the seven interventions. The waste is encapsulated at grain scale level, allowing it to be processed without significant aftercare. Usable spaces are formed by making walls, floors and ceilings of concrete based on fly-ash cement. Depositing occurs through layers in the ground made of sustainable landfill material of a hardened granulate of cement-stabilised hazardous waste. The cement used in the concrete for the interventions is coal fly-ash cement based on aluminium silicate as a replacement for portland cement, which is based on calcium oxide and calcium silicate. The cement used by the Romans was also based on aluminium silicate, just like this new geopolymer concrete.

The current method of landfill works like a ‘black box’ and needs infinite care. Sustainable landfill is also possible now. With new methods of landfill, an infinitely safe situation can arise within this generation. This is the outcome of a five-year research project with sustainable landfill by different companies and governmental organisations.

The project is best illustrated by the 18-metre-long installation of the peninsula (scale 1:500) with plaster models of the seven interventions and corresponding images in the background.

This installation is made from a woollen rug with hand-embroidered information such as roads, topography, vegetation and embankments. On the site of the interventions a steel pin protrudes from the rug with an enlarged plaster model of the planned intervention in geopolymer concrete. The waste deposits are left out of the models to show and explain the moulds as excavated structures in their purest form.

Graduation date 10 12 2012

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Commission members Gianni Cito (mentor) Bas Princen Marcel van der Lubbe

Additional members for the examination Klaas Kingma Jan-Richard Kikkert

Adriaan Aarnoudse

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Location of the seven interventions on the peninsula

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7 interventions: 1. viewing tower, 2. bird listening hide, 3. historic pathway, 4. picnic spots, 5. natural resources museum, 6. cafĂŠ and terrace, 7. open-air theatre

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viewing tower

bird-listening hide

historic pathway

picnic spot

open-air exhibition about the port

cafĂŠ with terrace overlooking the water

auditorium or open-air theatre

Architecture

Adriaan Aarnoudse

The bird-listening hide isolates the visitor from the bustling sounds of the port and gives a new stage to the birds.

Halfway along the peninsula a few picnic spots will be made for cyclists and motorists.

A sheltered place for a mobile snackbar or ‘cantina’ with a terrace on the water.

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Adriaan Aarnoudse

The 18 meter installation of the peninsula on scale 1:500 (made from a sheep wool rug with hand embroidered information) and the plaster models of the interventions.

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Architecture

Gara Beukman μαζί ‘mazi’

Collective Housing for the Elderly

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Gara Beukman

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Architecture

Gara Beukman μαζί ‘mazi’

Collective Housing for the Elderly

This project arose out of my concern with the way we allow seniors to live. Mazi means ‘together’.

The idea of allowing seniors to live together and help one another is universal. Mazi is a design for the centre of Athens, because the gap between the problem and the potential is so wide here.

The population of Greece is ageing rapidly in part because of the departure of young people. The current problem with housing for seniors will therefore increase. On top of that, care provided by family members is decreasing. This project shows that derelict premises can be used to create a new residential environment with strong social cohesion and a high spatial richness. Mazi breaks with the Greek tradition of replacing derelict structures with blocks of flats. It strengthens existing qualities and deploys them to improve the lives of seniors.

Stratonos, the chosen location, is a transitional area on the route of tourists to the Acropolis.

The block selected has been purchased by the Ministry of Culture. Plans have been drawn up to create office space inside the old homes. Because construction started without permission, local neighbours were able to stop the ministry. As a result, the block has stood empty for years.

For the design I studied the existing and former situations using measurements of buildings and old photographs from local residents. Old structures have been retained and restored. The new buildings are positioned to create shadow in the alleys and spaces. The outdoor space has been designed with as much care as the interior. Greek people live outside for much of the year. Seats are often positioned opposite the window of a house, encouraging encounters. A space of prayer and a shaded area where residents can come together is located in the rock wall.

A building block that has stood empty for years is now revived. Mazi gives seniors a place where they can live together. In Mazi the neighbourhood residents come together, and their laughter and chat bring life back to the neighbourhood. As tourists walk by during the day, local residents gather to play tawli in the shadow, or tend their vegetable gardens in the evening hours, or cool down on the roofs.

Graduation date 08 01 2013

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Commission members Ad Bogerman (mentor) Gianni Cito Ira Koers

Additional members for the examination Anne Holtrop Jeroen van Mechelen

Gara Beukman

New situation

Existing situation

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Gara Beukman

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Architecture

cypress wood

sardeloma stuc

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schist stone

Gara Beukman

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Architecture

Robert Bijl FOA [C/M]

Repurposing an Office Building

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Robert Bijl

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Architecture

Robert Bijl FOA [C/M ] Repurposing an Office Building

This project is about the former Fortis head office on Rokin in Amsterdam. It is a big, vacant office building from the 1980s in the centre of the city for which no purpose can be found.

On account of the size and the appearance of the building, many parties argue for its demolition, but I think it is too soon to argue for that. The building still has plenty of potential that should first be explored.

The creative sector and creative education are the perfect use for vacant commercial properties of this kind. Unlike business or residential buildings, they blend easily into their surroundings, relatively little rebuilding is required given that one can use the spaces in a much more versatile manner, and they can boost the neighbourhood. The start of a new chapter in gentrification.

Rokin, the city’s red carpet, is in need of a boost from the creative sector and from education.

The photography profession is currently undergoing rapid change owing to the crisis and the shift to digital photography.

Two institutes in the sector are the Photography Museum (FOAM) and the Photography Academy (FOAC). Two institutes that operate independently of each other and that could both do with a boost.

The FOAC can pull through these difficult times by collaborating with FOAM, becoming visible, and choosing a clear direction. FOAM can grow to become the biggest museum of photography in the Benelux, thus putting the profession of photography on the map.

In my graduation project I house both FOAM and FOAC in the former Fortis office building on Rokin, giving it a new lease of life.

The result is a new platform for photography that will strengthen FOAC, FOAM, photography in general, and also Rokin.

The aim of the project is to find and design a realistic purpose for the location.

Cornerstones of the project are the development of FOAC and FOAM and the reuse of existing office buildings in the city.

The design is based on the existing structure. The facades and total volume of the building have been adapted to harmonise better with the city and its function. It is divided into various volumes to blend with the surrounding plots. In addition, the volumes are shifted towards Rokin to improve the connection with Nes. Connections are also made with the metro that runs beneath Rokin.

By providing various types of exhibition and studio space, the building will enable FOAM and FOAC to grow. Public and semi-public exhibitions improve the position and visibility of the institutions in the city.

Graduation date 24 05 2013

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Commission members Jeroen van Mechelen (mentor) Micha de Haas Hans van Heeswijk

Additional members for the examination Jan-Richard Kikkert Joost Hovenier

Architecture

Groundfloor view/ Photography Museum/ Exit subway “Rokin”

Second floor view/ Photography Academy

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Architecture

Txell Blanco Diaz Vinex Market Back to the Present

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Txell Blanco Diaz

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Architecture

Txell Blanco Diaz Vinex Market Back to the Present

This graduation project stimulates the residential quality in a Vinex housing district that is still undergoing development.

This is a story about a Vinex district, an endless construction site. Planned in the 1980s for 80,000 people, it is still a long way from completion. Leidsche Rijn is the biggest urban development project ever in the Netherlands and, probably, the biggest such project.

Leidsche Rijn is now home to some 25,500. Because the project is still undergoing development, not a single party currently works on the living quality of the district. We find ourselves in a gap between the past and present. By means of a market, I try to create a better public environment and, thus, give today’s Vinex district an identity.

It is generally thought that Vinex districts possess no soul or identity, but is that true?

The current identity of Leidsche Rijn is that it is not yet finished, but it is precisely the missing pieces of the district that provide space for surprising initiatives and events.

The design of the Vinex market is based on interrupting the construction process of a typical Vinex terraced house at the moment the facade has not yet been erected. Since there is no facade, the space inside and all around is open and accessible.

Markets in the Netherlands are not permanent, but the squares on which they are held are. The shell of the terraced house makes it possible to hold the market temporarily in and around the building.

When there is no market, the building and the space remain open to the public. You can shelter from the rain inside the structures, and instead of a back garden you have a rear court. The decision not to complete the houses or erect the facade means one can add an extra functionality to the concrete shell.

But how do you start a new project in an area still undergoing development? For that, we go ‘back to the present’. In contrast to the current process of property development, I stuck close to the end user throughout the development process. That is why this graduation project takes into consideration today’s Vinex district. The Neighbourhood Market, the Photoshopper and other interventions in the public domain are important to gain a better understanding of Leidsche Rijn and were the reason to start immediately with the development of the market.

This project is continuing and updates are available at Vinexmarkt.wordpress.com.

Graduation date 21 03 2013

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Commission members Lada Hrsak (mentor) Jochem Heijmans Kamiel Klaasse

Additional members for the examination Asia Komarova Marco Redeman

Architecture

INTERVENTION 1: Where are my neighbours? First meeting place created from discarded building materials lying on the street. Sitting outside and watching how the neighbourhood changes...

INTERVENTION 2: Looking for people... the FOTOSHOPPER group photo. Pinhole cameras make photo shoots lasting 5 minutes. Second meeting place created.

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Architecture

Steven Broekhof Bring me Back my Amsterdam

The Poetics of Restructuring

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Steven Broekhof

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Architecture

Steven Broekhof Bring me Back my Amsterdam The Poetics of Restructuring

Cities are growing enormously, and so too is Amsterdam. Most of the new residents and new homes are accommodated on empty plots or in the suburbs. The tendency is for commercial functions to dominate the historic city centre. Commercial pressure pushes housing more and more to the edge of the city and, as a consequence, the dynamics of the historical city centre are determined by socalled spectators. In the process, the city centre loses its meaning for the people of Amsterdam.

The premise of this project is to design a strategy in which living and shopping can reinforce each other. In this approach, the historic city centre regains its function as a place for both spectators and participants and regains its position within the city fabric.

The location for the project is a warehouse in the very heart of medieval Amsterdam. The existing building was built in the 1970s and features a frame structure, a so-called pilotis plan, that provides a strong and flexible support that can be manipulated easily.

After extensive research into possible urban connections with the existing context, I defined five instruments that, taken together, ensure this building will become part of the urban fabric.

By strategically cutting and slicing the existing building structure, I create physical and visual connections (3) between the different users, retail facilities (1) and housing (2). Public, semi-public and private courts (4) strengthen identity and create destinations along these routes. The public courts contain through-views that highlight important city landmarks and support special functions (5) attached to these spaces.

Every house is positioned between a public and a private court, creating a formal and an informal side. Retail is wrapped in housing from the first floor, reconnecting housing to the street again.

Cutting and slicing means that the building can be used in different ways and functions as a three dimensional urban plan.

Graduation date 03 07 2013

Cum Laude

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Commission members Marcel van der Lubbe (mentor) Petar Zaklanovic Floris Alkemade

Additional members for the examination Madeleine Maaskant Herman Kerkdijk

Architecture

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Structure vision 2040 Municipality of Amsterdam Location: C&A-building Damrak

Spectators

solution today

mix

mutually reinforcing

Involvers

Existing frame structure (pilotis plan)

Matrix for cutting holes

Retail (1)

Housing (2)

Courts (4)

Collective roofgarden/-terrace

Public routes (3)

Privat routes (3)

Special program (5)

Altogether

Concept

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Steven Broekhof

Private Court ‘housing’ (section A)

Semi Public Court ‘playground’ (section B)

Section A

Section B

Public Court ‘citysquare’ (section A)

Private Court ‘kitchengarden’ (section B)

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Architecture

Scenes / dwellings / shopping / moments...

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Steven Broekhof

Impression from Nieuwendijk

Impression from Damrak

Nightimpression

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Architecture

Avital Broide The neighborhood for returning sons and daughters

proposal for a new way of living on kibbutz

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Avital Broide

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Architecture

Avital Broide The neighborhood for returning sons and daughters Proposal for new way of living on a kibbutz The kibbutz is perhaps the most radical experiment carried out in the twentieth century in terms of housing and community living. I belong to the third generation of this experiment.

I was born in Kfar menahem. When I was 6 weeks old I moved from my parents’ home into a home for children along with other babies. We lived and slept in this home, which was initially a kindergarten and later our classroom.

Despite how it may sound, we were happy children. We were surrounded by spacious lawns, a safe distance from any danger, with no worries or concerns. The members of the kibbutz loved and believed in their way of life, at least most of the time, and created a world for us that was filled with good and plenty. This was the kibbutz.

A change happened when I was in fourth grade. The kibbutz decided to switch to family sleeping arrangements. Literally overnight, all of the kibbutz children stopped sleeping in the children’s houses and began to sleep at home with their parents. This daring step taken by the members of the kibbutz threatened to destroy their basic, communal ideals and ideology.

The change was both social and ideological. A society that supported and believed in the value of equality had become a society based on individuality. The family became the primary focus of daily life, while the communal, cooperative and collective way of life slowly dwindled away.

Over a period of some fifteen years, the kibbutz underwent processes with far-reaching consequences. The primary results included the decision to establish residential areas for young sons and daughters who were born on the kibbutz, departed over the years, and wanted to return home to live and raise their new families on the kibbutz.

My project formulates the next stage in the urban evolution of the settlement. What kind of urban strategy suits the ideological changes that leave their mark on the kibbutz? A strategy that ensures both the preservation of collective memory and future development options based on the ideology of kibbutz planning perception. How can its nature be redefined through architecture?

The final product is a new model for housing and residential neighbourhoods on kibbutz. I introduce a new type of architectural and spatial structure, based on the values and qualities of historical space, but offering new residential solutions for the modern needs of the individual, without harming the unique kibbutz tapestry. This prototype can be applied to any other kibbutz.

Graduation date 15 11 2013

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Commission members Micha De Haas (mentor) Holger Gladys Zvi Efrat

Additional members for the examination Matthijs Bouw Madeleine Maaskant

Avital Broide

The Kibbutz as an extended house The kibbutz can be described as an extended house for an extended family. A house comprised of many different kinds of indoor and outdoor rooms, with different degrees of individuality and collectivism.

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Architecture

Anne Dessing Articulating the surroundings

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Anne Dessing

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Architecture

Anne Dessing Articulating the surroundings

This project is a study about how to realise special types of single-family housing in Amsterdam.

Urbanism in Tokyo was a major inspiration for this project. The choice of this theme arose out of a personal fascination and a social motivation.

Living in Tokyo I lived in Japan in 2009. During my time there I fell in love with the houses in the big cities. In Tokyo there are a lot more self-built houses than in Amsterdam, and because of the high prices the houses are often sculptural objects set on very small plots. There is a constant search for creative solutions to make the house a pleasant place. Furthermore, the individual wishes of a house’s occupants turn architecture into something beautiful.

It’s not just the houses in Tokyo that fascinate. The urbanism does too. The design of detached houses leaves enough space for a continuous process of transformation. It’s easy to replace the houses without destroying other structures. While the main structure of the city remains unaffected, the relationships between individual houses can change. They provide space for new forms of housing and new forms of social cohesion.

My observations of life in Tokyo formed an interesting starting point in finding new strategies to build houses in Amsterdam.

Living in Amsterdam Living in the city is increasingly popular, but it’s hard to find an affordable home. The municipality of Amsterdam would like to increase the density of the city, but there is not enough money because of the economic downturn. At the same time, developers refuse to take any risks. The houses that are developed now are mainly built by private developers. During my graduation year I tried to find new ways of planning, using Japanese planning as a reference, and taking my own wishes for a home into consideration.

I studied the tools the Japanese use to plan their city. A big difference between Tokyo and Amsterdam is land ownership. In Tokyo, families own their piece of land; in Amsterdam the municipality owns almost all the land. I’ve tried to discover what the effects of this difference are and tried to find a strategy in which the positive effects can help neighbourhoods in Amsterdam.

Designing houses The key to my project was to make the most of the will of people to live in Amsterdam. Because of the great demand for housing in the city, people are willing to make concessions in terms of standards. I found it interesting to use housing as a tool to give unpopular neighbourhoods a boost.

In the three chosen test locations I designed houses in places that were never seen as possible residential locations before. I designed a house for myself on a plot and, after analysing my design, I drew up a short list of strict rules that the design of the house needs to comply with. And then I tried to find a way to include all the other houses. I wanted to create a better environment with these rules and ‘plot maps’. In this way, I’ve created a win-win situation. More special homes, nicer neighbourhoods.

Graduation date 07 11 2012

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Commission members Anne Holtrop (mentor) Felix Claus Marieke Timmermans

Additional members for the examination Laurens Jan ten Kate Mariette Adriaanssen

Anne Dessing

Model of house on Zeeburgerpad

Model of house in Frankendael

Model of house in Rembrandt Park

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Architecture

Lard Joordens Antonius. Together Better.

Redevelopment of the Antonius Church by and for the next generation

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Lard Joordens

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Architecture

Lard Joordens Antonius. Together Better.

Redevelopment of the Antonius Church by and for the next generation

My roots lie in Venlo-Blerick, where I lived from my birth until I was 18. In the Catholic south it is almost inevitable that you come into contact with church traditions at an early age.

A visit to the church was, and is, an experience for me, not for religious reasons but spatial ones: the silence, the resonance of the tall space, the quality of light, the scent of incense. Churches possess a mysterious quality.

There is one particular church in Blerick that arouses more than the usual curiosity. It is the Antonius Church, designed by my grandfather Baan Titulaer in collaboration with Jozef Fanchamps. This church was built in 1960 to replace the pilgrim church blown up by the Germans during the war. The building is a typical example of a church from the post-war reconstruction period. A geometric nave of concrete, steel, brick and glass with a free-standing spire and an adjacent low-rise building. The church was a model for modern Christianity and fulfilled an important function as a meeting place in the neighbourhood. Owing to the strong decline in the number of church-goers, many church buildings are now threatened with abandonment. Finding a suitable use for a place considered holy

by Catholics is a challenge. The level of amenities in towns and villages in Limburg is high, which means that demolition is unfortunately often seen as the only solution. Big churches from the post-war reconstruction period are particularly threatened because they do not enjoy a protected status or a long history. That is also the case with the Antonius Church. This problem forms the background to my graduation project in which I breathe new life into the most important work of my grandfather.

I discovered a new purpose for the church in combination with housing for the elderly and new accommodation for the existing but poorly functioning library. This combined public-private function responds to the big demand for (care) housing for the rapidly growing elderly community in Limburg.

What’s more, the church retains its function as a place of gathering for the community. The purpose of weaving a public function with a residential function is to stimulate encounters between elderly people and the neighbourhood in order to combat the biggest problems that the elderly have to contend with: tedium and loneliness. The combined function makes it possible to give the library the character it deserves as an important social building. Connections between the two functions are facilitated, but not enforced, by a special route through the building. Because the building does not enjoy any protected status, there is freedom not only to transform the interior but also to open up the introvert end facades to the surroundings. The building is located at a point that links the recreational Maas corridor and the village centre of Blerick. Opening up the existing end facades and redesigning the church forecourt reconnects the building both spatially and functionally with the town centre, and Blerick once again faces the River Maas.

Analysis reveals that a geometric pattern - a symbolic reference to the Bible – forms the basis for the existing building. This invisible basis, which provided the starting point for the floor plan and facades of the church, is once again used as a design element and rendered visible through the building programme. Extending this underlying structure both spatially and structurally adds a new layer to the existing building. In this way, the design harmonises with the existing church and various generations merge to form a new entity. Together better.

Graduation date 26 02 2013

86

Commission members Marlies Boterman (mentor) Marnix van der Meer Oana Rades

Additional members for the examination Bart Bulter Peter Defesche

Architecture

Graham Kolk WoonLab

Collective Living in the City

92

Graham Kolk

93

Architecture

Graham Kolk WoonLab Collective Living in the City

What does a living environment look like when people join forces and help one another realise housing wishes or collective luxury that could not be achieved by individuals alone?

In this design I examine the added value of collective forms of housing in the city, in which the collective residential building is more than the sum of individual living units. The study focuses not so much on individual living units or on urban ensembles, but on the space in between them, the collective space. In my opinion, here lies the answer to many current questions concerning the issue of housing. The aim is that the living environment for both the city (the public domain) and the resident (the individual occupant) forms an added value.

The urban plan consists of four new blocks, which blend with the former tram depot (by means of industrial roof form and materials) and the 19th century building blocks (by means of plinth, body and roofscape). Between the new blocks, a rich and vibrant housing and living climate emerges, one that is translated into the neighbourhood square, the city garden, the residential street and the social courtyard.

In the elaboration of the residential block, emphasis is put on the additional programme elements and the public and semi-public spaces used sometimes by the public, sometimes by the housing collective and sometimes by the individual, and add value to living in the city.

It is precisely this play between group and individual that is a recurring theme in the design. The urban dimension of the outer side of the block expresses a group, a single entity, and only then the underlying programme. The inner side is very different. It is an introvert landscape of terraces that provides a human scale. This is where the individual resident can personalise the space around the block and give it colour through the niches. The transitions between house and city, or house and courtyard, are designed for each situation, and the transition between the two is very flexible, often literally, because sometimes this is wafer thin and sometimes stretched into a transitional zone where both the visitor and the local resident feel at home.

Graduation date 10 07 2013

94

Commission members Marcel van der Lubbe (mentor) DaniĂŤlle Huls Tom Jonker

Additional members for the examination MariĂŤtte Adriaanssen Florian Schrage

Graham Kolk

95

Architecture

Perspective showing integration in surrounding city context

Context

Existing situation

Decor of urban walls

Forming streets with building development

Making smaller blocks + relation with context

Accessibility and interaction

Ensemble, individuals make the ‘family’

Character of urban space

Articulation harmonises with existing blocks

Roof shape as intermediary

96

Graham Kolk

Urban plan

Collage, neighbourhood square

Collage, urban garden

Collage, residential street

Collage, social courtyard

97

Architecture

Andrew Page Teatro Awasa

The national theatre, Sentro Pro Arte (Centre for Art), is a venue for the performing arts. For decades this was the only theatre on Curaçao, where all forms of art and drama were held. No matter what the performance, it was a great experience for many Curaçao people. People donned their Sunday best to come here.

Sentro Pro Arte was forced to close its doors in 2002, unfortunately, owing to a lack of maintenance and poor management. The current government has recently acknowledged its readiness to invest in the dilapidated theatre which, it is worth mentioning, its located in a valley between an office park and a residential district. Besides the fact that the orchestra pit fills with water when it rains heavily (a problem that can be technically remedied), there is a major lack of public transport in the region.

This means that the current location is unsuitable for a theatre. In addition, other functions that could make the theatre profitable cannot be added because the location is unsuitable.

As a small island with a population of just 150,000, it is impossible to attract travelling shows that could fill the theatre seven days a week. In other words, without additional functions inside the building, it will have to rely fully on government support, thereby making the venue too vulnerable.

A solution would be to relocate the theatre to the city. This would allow it to accommodate other functions and thus remain financially sound. What’s more, the theatre adds an economic and social impulse to the city.

The new theatre is located in Otrobanda (one of the city districts of Willemstad), next to a square, which has proven its effectiveness since its construction in 2000. The building is the final piece of the last open wound of a wall destroyed in the big fire of 1969. The bustle in the alleys of Willemstad, so characteristic of the residential culture of the city, reappears fully in the building. These small alleys, which make the building accessible to the public, open onto a well-shaped square that forms a place of gathering. Bordering this well-shaded square and the narrow alleys is the commercial plinth, which increases the retail stock in the city. In addition, these spaces combine with the lettable office space and rehearsal space to generate regular income. The use of the theatre is increased by making the circulation and related spaces public, thereby also making the theatre easily accessible for everybody. As a result, the restaurant and bar can operate independently of theatre performances.

The alleys, which cut straight through the building, result in a division of the building that is typical of the fragmented urban structure of Curaçao. The building harmonises with adjacent buildings in terms of height and features a distinctive interpretation of the characteristic hip roof. The facade openings are similar in proportion to the fenestration of surrounding facades. And the various colours of the facades ensure that the structure blends with surrounding buildings, definitively completing the west facade of Brion Square after forty years.x

Graduation date 22 11 2013

102

Commission members Uri Gilad (mentor) Mathis Bout Rick Bruggink

Additional members for the examination Machiel Spaan Winfried van Zeeland

Architecture

Femke Poppinga Country Living in the City A House for Gijs

Gijs, 11 years old, moved at a young age from the centre of the city to a house with a garden outside the city. There are many others like Gijs, many other young families who leave the city for a house with a garden. Such families would like to stay living in the city, with work and school within biking distance. But there is no housing that can convince these families to remain in the city. What is more, the presence of families in the city is vital to the quality of life in the city. This project, therefore, is a search for a residential building in the city centre that offers an attractive urban alternative for a house with a garden outside the city.

The qualities of the free-standing house with a garden, which Gijs and his parents left the city for, provide the model for a collective residential building in the centre of the city.

Housing units, workspaces and outdoor spaces are stacked and rotated around an open, collective core. This arrangement weaves inside and outside space together throughout the entire building.

The private outdoor space connects each housing unit openly to the collective core, thereby creating a sense of community. Residents become neighbours again. Carefully designed sight lines and transitions from collective to private space ensure sufficient privacy. Each home enjoys views of the city, some of them beyond the garden, in three directions.

Graduation date 01 07 2013

110

Commission members Gus Tielens (mentor) Anouk Vogel Marcel van der Lubbe

Additional members for the examination Paul de Vroom Marc Reniers

Femke Poppinga

111

Femke Poppinga

115

Architecture

Bas Schuit Time for space A patio for the city

Heaven has come down and is all around us, in shards on earth Kees Fens: writer/critic, lived in the Chasséstraat and parishioner of the Chassé Church.

Life in inner cities is under more and more pressure because of the increase in density and because society focuses on the individual, growth and achievement. I started this graduation project with my personal experience, when I needed a place in the city where I could escape the everyday buzz.

Amsterdam West is an area where public space is used intensively. Wouldn’t it be great to have a place where you could literally take some distance?

In addition, the municipality of Amsterdam recognises a need for ‘urban oases’ that form buffers to surrounding noisy or active places. People can use these oases to wander, stare, think, catch a breath or recharge themselves. And today, because of the declining role of religion in society, people are increasingly searching for meaning in life. That is why, as Nietzsche stated in 1882, we need open spaces with arcades where we can ‘dwell in ourselves’.

I used the unoccupied Chassé Church to create such an urban oasis. This is a huge public building, an institute that gave context to life. Opening up its structure can give new meaning to this memory of religion and house a new sort of public space. By treating the building and its surroundings as a landscape, the occupant can now freely use the site with its lanes, fields and vistas. Three zones or ‘rings’ are introduced to structure the site and give more depth to how it is experienced. These rings create spaces, make routes and form boundaries, giving step-by-step guidance to the users away from the bustle of the city.

The first ring is the most public, one step away from the concrete jungle. One walks onto the gravel surface where there is space to meet beneath the sycamore trees, play jeu de boules under the chestnut trees, or remember the thoughts of Kees Fens at his monument. A few steps up from this field you stand between the arches of the buttresses of the old church, about to enter the patio garden. You can walk around, cross the main paths or walk the narrow paths to reach a bench in the middle of the plant beds. The new focal point in this patio is a linden tree, traditionally known as a protector of the community.

At the back a monumental staircase rises 4.5 metres up to the 7-metre-high concrete ring with its closed outer facade. Light plays a specific role in walking through the space between the old church walls and the concrete facade. It offers guidance by lighting up the corners, changing moods throughout the day, and lending character to the different places, which vary from a completely open view of the courtyard, to filtered views, to no view at all, making it one of the most secluded public spaces in town.

Graduation date 02 07 2013

118

Commission members Ad Bogerman (mentor) Ira Koers Bart Bulter

Additional members for the examination Florian Schrage Gianni Cito

Bas Schuit

119

Bas Schuit

Street view, showing open field, patio and concrete ring

Vista from balcony, literally taking some distance from the city

121

Architecture

Arcade walkway

Pool with light from above, a completely secluded public space

122

Bas Schuit

Personal space along the arcade with filtered view into patio

Greenery creates intimate spaces in patio

123

Architecture

Immanuel Kwaku Sirron-Kakpor Voltascapes: Re-thinking Modernity

Redevelopment proposal of Danyigba, a Volta Region New Town in Ghana

124

Immanuel Kwaku Sirron-Kakpor

125

Architecture

Immanuel Kwaku Sirron-Kakpor Voltascapes: Re-thinking Modernity Redevelopment proposal for Danyigba, a Volta Region New Town in Ghana

In the years shortly after Ghana gained independence in 1957, modernism was made instrumental in preparing the country for a promising future. To cater for rising energy consumption, a huge power dam reservoir was built by making use of a catchment area of the Volta River. Many villages in the area around the original river needed to be relocated to make this possible. An international team of planners and architects developed the blueprints for this major operation. A large percentage of these plans have been executed, although not always according to the original ideas. At the moment, approximately fifty years after the commencement of the Volta River Project, one can conclude that the foreseen development hasn’t reached the area or its inhabitants.

The plans implemented by the Volta River Authority (VRA) for the resettlements have failed, because they neglected the existing culture while modernist ideologies were imposed upon the community. Strict division between functions, a formal and rigid educational system, strict control of building that prescribed materials and types of houses: all of these were ingredients in a forceful development plan that lacked a link with the people it was developed for.

The redevelopment needs of Danyigba bring to the surface the successes and shortfalls of the original top-down plans. Rethinking Modernity aims to develop a bottom-up strategy at several scales for Danyigba, one of the cities of the resettlement programme. This strategy may lead to a meaningful perspective for the local community.

A master plan was designed and an urban axis developed, spanning between a community centre and a training institute. Additionally, attention was given to housing along the axis to illustrate how the strategy could be implemented here.

The redevelopment plan for Danyigba repairs these failures by implementing a model that goes beyond building and defines a new role for the architect. The redevelopment plan restructures the existing and weaves in new elements and impulses that may ultimately generate new forms of income, self-training, reconnection to the outside world and general development.

Education is a key driver of development in the proposal. Practical training for building, health care, car repair, beauty, fashion, etc. is intertwined with basic theoretical education on reading, writing, mathematics, etc.

The proposed buildings make innovative use of local materials and skills, and borrow from other professions, like boat building and weaving of fishing nets. The steps to the realisation of the buildings are planned through an educational workshop run by the architect, through which a local training group is introduced to harness new innovative building skills, resulting in the realisation of the first buildings. The builders will play a role in the next steps in the development plans, either communal or private. Design principles are based on local uses, materials and climate conditions and form a strong basis for the buildings, turning the architect into an enabler.

Graduation date 20 12 2012

Commission members Berend van der Lans (mentor) Janneke Bierman Chris Scheen External commissioners Joe Osae-Addo

126

Additional members for the examination Bart Bulter (chair) Tom Bergevoet

Architecture

Alena Ulasava Incubator 2.0

Building Typology for Start-Up Businesses

132

Alena Ulasava

133

Architecture

Alena Ulasava Incubator 2.0 Building Typology for Start-Up Businesses

R&D departments of multinational companies My graduation project is about the design of a building and a site where potential start-ups in the field of fundamental research are brought together with entrepreneurs and where this research can thus translate into products. What is essential is a building where these two groups meet, challenge and collaborate with each other, a building so badly lacking in the current Science Park in Amsterdam.

Translation into spatial design project The challenge lies in developing a spatial model that not only offers accommodation to existing start-up businesses but also facilitates the emergence of these businesses and allows for encounters between researchers, businesses and other stakeholders such as students and entrepreneurs. The new incubator model creates the conditions for the emergence of a ‘business ecology’ and new start-up firms, thanks to the combination of introvert and extravert working processes and groups of people.

Design principles A certain ‘critical mass’ is required for this initiative. I devised a concept for a generic entity made up of the building and related outdoor space – the ‘typological cluster’.

Urban context The Science Park lies in the northern half of Watergraafsmeer and consists of two parts: the area of research institutes (AMOLF, NIKHEF and CWI) and the area with university faculties (FNWI). Kruislaan is a central axis that extends from Watergraafsmeer Polder beneath the railway shunting yard through the site, splitting it into two parts.

To develop the area between the university building and the institutes and establish connections, two clusters of 32,500 m2 are needed according to my analysis. In my graduation project, these 65,000 m2 are interpreted as an urban design context that links these two parts of the Science Park. A large laboratory building and the new incubator are positioned on the university side. The new incubator is elaborated here.

Architecture The building admits all sorts of people and is alive 24 hours a day, in part because researchers stay late into the evening. The essence of the building is therefore to stimulate interaction between (introvert) researchers and entrepreneurs. All the primary functions such as laboratories and workspaces facilitate encounters, culture and public amenities.

Transparency as a theme for materials A building always has a skin that separates the indoor and outdoor climates, and for regulating admission (the entrance threshold view of activities taking place inside). That is why transparency is important in selecting materials for the building based on a low threshold and open character

Graduation date 04 06 2013

134

Commission members Laurens Jan ten Kate (mentor) Albert Herder Markus Appenzeller Dominic Papa

Additional members for the examination Madeleine Maaskant Rik van Dolderen

Alena Ulasava

Bird’s-eye view

View from south-east

135

Architecture

Jesse Zweers LabLoods

Reprogramming the vacant Lasloods into a big urban space and transforming from big into small spaces.

140

Jesse Zweers

141

Architecture

Jesse Zweers LabLoods Reprogramming the vacant Lasloods into a big urban space and transforming from big into small spaces.

The LasLoods is a project about the big scale and flexibility of urban interiors and about one building as a city. It is an experiment that transforms a vacant factory shed into a laboratory for urban life.

For this project I studied how to increase density of the western section of the IJ banks, and I looked at how the NDSM, and in particular the Lasloods, can contribute to this. The industrial and functional character of the NDSM area and the hard-surface site containing huge objects – an ensemble of four monumental warehouses – makes this area a unique urban context. That is why I drew up a new urban plan for the Lasloods with a Floor Space Index of 2.5 / 17,500 square metres of mixed cultural programme that still leaves half of the warehouse empty for events.

Connecting the warehouse to the outdoor space creates urban continuity that acquires a diagonal dimension inside the warehouse. A spatial change in scale gradually transforms a number of large spaces into a multitude of small spaces. The design is experimental in character and paradoxical.

Strong interventions that are subtly detailed make a clear and minimalist appearance of a complex programmatic and urban condition. The plan resulted in a hybrid building that investigates urbanity, context, scale, flexibility, interior and exterior through architecture.

Graduation date 28 03 2013

142

Commission members Tom Frantzen (mentor) Sander Lab Kamiel Klaassen

Additional members for the examination Bart Bulter Klaas Kingsma

Getting involved Marieke Timmermans Head of Landscape Architecture Department

148

‘The project illustrates the direction taken by landscape architecture at the Academy of Architecture: the landscape as a cultural project.

Players in the landscape are accorded roles, the poetry of the landscape forms an element in the design, and large complicated problems are reduced to easy-to-grasp strategies.’ (graduation committee of Marit Janse) By recognising, re-evaluing and reorganising existing qualities, this year’s graduating students find beautiful and convincing solutions that add new meaning to the landscape. The tendency noted by the committee is much in evidence.

The graduation projects deal with the sustainability of our cultural landscapes, with the innovation of urban green structures, and with the importance of economic value in nature development. The good thing about this shift in graduation focus is that the same subjects are sometimes tackled from opposing positions.

For example, opposite the strategy to maintain the cultural landscape of Maramures by Marlies Rijken, who comes up with small interventions to redevelop old landscape elements, there is the collapse of the functioning of the cultural landscape of Waterland, as viewed by Patrick Ruijzenaars, who totally transforms the open meadow landscape into one big forest. Two courageous projects, each of which questions current developments: Marlies by drawing up a strategy for preservation, even though drastic changes are already in evidence in the area; and Patrick by proposing fundamental changes, even though a conservative approach has had a stranglehold on the landscape for decades.

Urban green structures are also analysed from two opposing positions. Pauline Wieringa’s totally flexible and moveable system of small park components responds to existing qualities, while Philomene van der Vliet’s proposal anchors existing qualities by threading them together to form one big urban green structure.

Two extremely clever strategies that achieve a strong impact using limited means. Realistic and feasible, especially in the current climate.

Two different answers are offered to the question whether nature can represent

economic value. Increasing the value of nature by linking it to the local economy of Oosterschelde, as Marit Janse proposes, is countered by attracting new users who are interested in nature for their own reasons, which Ramon Postma proposes. These elegant approaches see nature development as a driving force behind area development.

Claire Laeremans recognises the value of forgotten elements of the industrial past in Flanders. Her plan is a strategy of re-evaluation to reverse the negative spiral in which the landscape finds itself. She presents her vision in a wonderfully poetic book that sweeps the reader along on a journey through a desolate region to discover how the ruins of former industry create an exceptionally coherent landscape. A landscape that, with just a few interventions, is ready to welcome new uses and where nature development, water retention and recreation find their place. Claire took on this assignment in a highly personal manner by living for a period in the area under study, allowing her to gain a fuller understanding of life in a forgotten region.

More students display similar personal commitment. Marlies convinces us that her landscape is a ‘cultural and historical treasure’ by telling the stories of people from the area, which she managed to capture by designing a puzzle that enabled her to build up a personal bond with the residents. Similarly, Marit also established a personal relationship with many people from the local business community in her Salt Crystal project. This enabled her to generate support for the intertidal nature of Oosterschelde. ‘The elaboration of the strategy is like the crystallisation process that occurs around a rope left in the sea. It has to start somewhere, and from there a beautiful result starts to take shape,’ writes Marit. She herself provides that start.

What strikes me, and what is a discernible tendency in the graduation projects, is that students do not sketch plans for the future like landscape architects. Instead, they choose to become involved as human beings in the strategies they propose for the future.

149

Landscape Architecture

Marit Janse Salt crystals

A strategy to preserve the rich nature of Oosterschelde

150

Marit Janse

151

Landscape Architecture

Marit Janse Salt crystals A strategy to preserve the rich nature of Oosterschelde

This project demonstrates a new way to protect nature in and around Oosterschelde by inextricably connecting it with our culture again. This is needed, because while our ecosystem moans and groans, current nature policy is so detached and technocratic that it is separating us further and further from the very thing we care about, nature, and biodiversity continues to decline. The Oosterschelde is the landscape of Marit Jansen’s youth, and that is why she has drawn up this rescue plan. She knows about the rush to reach the highest tide, the feeling of salt crystals left on the skin after swimming, the texture of the saline glasswort in your mouth, the memory of the red beaks of oyster catchers on the silver background, the saline water purified by mussels with each tide. The mission of this graduation plan is to preserve the rich nature of the Oosterschelde.

Attitude The cultural history of the landscape of Zeeland reveals that nature and economy balanced each other for centuries. It was only after the North Sea Flood of 1953 and the land consolidation and construction of the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier that ecological and landscape poverty emerged. Creating new nature or demolishing the barrier is not a solution, either socially or financially. What is now required is another attitude towards nature, a conscious and sensitive approach that is personal and not imposed upon us. Making the landscape tangible in the form of ceramics and woollen objects under the name Label Oosterschelde will encourage people to value Oosterschelde.

Salt crystals are a metaphor for searching for broad social consensus about the preservation of nature. It is precisely in places where conventional agriculture does not have any future that alliances and innovative crops such as the reintroduction of madder and shellfish farming on land have such potential. Both are exclusively linked to the culture of Zeeland, for it is only through a deeply rooted understanding of this culture that nature development can take place. This will lead to a sustainable economy, greater biodiversity and an attractive landscape.

The design consists of a series of small proposals around which a new attitude can mature and crystallise: the tidal bath tempts the tourist to enter the Oosterschelde, the line dyke revives history yet also ensures a microclimate for crops, and the water structure of saline ditches promotes the economic development of a romantic landscape full of sea asters. Each intervention contains a cultural, landscape and ecological component, made possible by new alliances of users.

Collaboration is essential for a sustainable and green future, and this project shows how we can create the conditions for life.

This design wants to bring about a change in thinking. How can we merge culture and nature again?

The development of Label Oosterschelde helps to sell the story of the Oosterschelde and find ambassadors to represent it. The mission does not stop with the graduation diploma. It continues with the further development of the products and ideas for Label Oosterschelde with designers and scientists, so that they can have meaning for everybody in the future.

Graduation date 04 04 2013 Cum laude

152

Commission members Maike van Stiphout (mentor) Martin Aarts Cees van der Veeken

Additional members for the examination Mirjam Koevoets Roel Wolters

Marit Janse

Clever use of the water system and waste streams results in a sustainable economy. The water and green structure of saline aster ditches forms an attractive landscape with a high level of biodiversity.

157

Landscape Architecture

Claire Laeremans The necessity of ruins A strategy for the shadow landscape of Le Centre

158

Claire Laeremans

159

Landscape Architecture

Claire Laeremans The necessity of ruins A strategy for the shadow landscape of Le Centre

The Necessity of Ruins proposes the transformation of the forgotten industrial landscape of Le Centre into a wonderful shadow landscape. A world that exists parallel to the drab reality of every day, with an identity shaped by surrealist landscapes, exceptional geological processes and Arcadian ruins. A landscape in which discovering, wandering, straying and finding surprise determine the emotions.

Le Centre is an old mining region in the south of Belgium, best known today for its negative and ironic connotations. Negative in the sense of unemployment, poverty, crime. Ironically on account of the hopelessly unsuccessful project for the biggest boat lift in the world at Strépy-Thieu. The area looks dreary, with the drab dominance of endless concrete roads and ribbon development that fragment the remaining landscape. At least, that is your first impression of the landscape.

The discovery and expedition Hidden behind that grey mist, however, lies a wonderful, forgotten landscape. A landscape of relics of the old industrial era, which the region has turned its back on after the decline of the coal-mining industry. The relics — canals, railways, factory sites with buildings, mines with mounds of waste — once formed a coherent network that operated as one huge machine powered by coal mined from the ground. Today that artificial machine has come to a standstill, and the relics lie abandoned and lacking any purpose. The desolation means that natural processes can once again conquer space and gradually transform it into an artificial landscape. An extraordinary interplay between natural artefacts and artificial nature emerges, and the presence of various layers of time become palpable.

A true expedition resulted in the tracing and mapping of the hidden relics of the site. The process of decline was then analysed.

Concept – interventions The transformation strategy starts with the smallest existing yet forgotten element of the landscape: the abandoned relics.

Unlike previous strategies of transformation of post-industrial areas such as the Ruhrgebiet, this project is not based on programming the landscape or searching for new economies from above.

Instead, the driving force is the intrinsic power of the relics themselves. Minimal, almost invisible interventions, together with a consistent treatment of the industrial relics, form a new network that elevates itself above the grey mist. A network that acquires a special ecological, tourist and social significance far beyond the region.

Ruins are the central focus. Through subtle landscape and architectural interventions, they engage with dimensions of time. Man is made aware not only of his temporary presence but only of the beauty and romance of decay.

Graduation date 15 03 2013

160

Commission members Jana Crepon (mentor) Ruut van Paridon Bruno de Meulder

Additional members for the examination Maaike van Stiphout Harm Veenenbos

Landscape Architecture

Le Centre in Belgium

The landscape as efficient machine for mining

The machine ground to a halt

The expedition surveyed, the remaining abandoned relics in the area

The vacant, derelict worker’s house is opened up and transformed into a local entrance gateway with a social function. The gateway provides access from the drab reality to the special shadow landscape within.

162

Claire Laeremans

Image caption

The landscape network

In the abandoned buildings, subtle interventions (such as removal of non-sustainable materials, design of access path) create conditions for the Arcadian ruin. This eventually grows into a special place in which various dimensions of time are legible and rare flora and fauna once again conquer the artificial situation.

163

Landscape Architecture

Existing situation of Anderlues industrial site

Image caption

Phase 01. Interventions: tidy up ruin (remove non-sustainable materials), provide access by means of subtly designed objects, plant solitary trees, realise water feature at waste mountain.

Phase 02 (after 100 years). The interventions carried out result in an orchestrated interplay between artificial relics and natural processes in which various dimensions of time find expression.

164

Claire Laeremans

165

Landscape Architecture

Ramon Postma Evening Glow On the eve of a renewed biocollective in the Moi! Marke.

Evening Glow symbolises the transition to a new way of thinking about nature. It centres on the renewed relation between man and nature. Like society, nature is dynamic and in constant development. The introduction of the renewed collective between man and nature shows that by making use of the ecosystem, we can liberate ourselves from thinking in terms of spatial separation.

Spatial separation has produced a planned landscape in which living, working, recreation, agriculture and even nature have all become separate planning tasks. The distance between people and nature is big, and nature no longer forms part of our daily lives. That is also true in the area between Veluwe and IJssel. While population will continue to grow until 2030, the average number of people per household will decline, resulting in an increase of 20,000 in the number of households.

Healthy ecological connections between Veluwe and IJsseldal are incomplete or absent. In the current debate, nature is even losing its claim on space and funding. At the same time, the increase in scale in agriculture continues and pressure on land is also getting heavier. Areas with high water levels are less suitable for large-scale agriculture, and they require a lot of fertilisation and drainage at the expense of biodiversity, which is also essential for agriculture. However, the crisis means that the production of space has practically come to a standstill, and the affordability of living and nature are under pressure. The crisis is therefore the perfect moment to do things differently, and especially more sustainably.

Inspired by the system of the old Marke, in which a high level of biodiversity existed within the collective, I introduce the biocollective of the Moi! The key elements are the ecosystem, biodiversity, people and homes, since they are becoming increasingly important in our lives. We are seeing an increase in working from home, self-employment, studios attached to homes, and seniors who live independently for longer. We can now live anywhere thanks to computerisation, digitalisation and domotics. Within the collective, the Moi! Marke offers space for individuality and thus closely reflects developments in the digital world (Facebook, Spotify, Greenwheels), where the focus is on usage rather than ownership.

The design of the Moi! Marke depicts a renewed collective between man and nature. The new form of living finds its place in the levelled creek valleys and wet hollows that by nature form ecological connections between Veluwe and IJssel. Creating living conditions on the basis of ecosystems increases biodiversity and strengthens the creation of a resilient and sustainable landscape. Dry areas provide space for sustainable agriculture, and the Moi! Marke creates opportunities for the recreational usage of the same land. New Marke residents are glad to use nature and learn to embrace it! Nature inspires, provides energy, purifies water and creates a fantastic environment for living, working and relaxing — in short for life! This renewed alliance develops over time on the basis of collective and organic growth. If in thirty years shrinkage occurs, we will still have a goodquality environment and biodiversity in the area between Veluwe and IJssel and thus a sustainable landscape!

Moi!.....the everyday greeting with which the people of north and east of the Netherlands greet one another and is derived from ‘een mooien morgen’ (Dutch for ‘A fine morning’).

Tomorrow all is different!

Graduation date 11 07 2013

168

Commission members Bruno Doedens (mentor) Miranda Reitsma Paul Achterberg

Additional members for the examination Mirjam Koevoet Rob van Leeuwen

Landscape Architecture

Detail design of fragment of Moi! Marke.

Design of the Moi! Marke.

Mounds oriented towards the sun.

Section of the mounds along the forest creek.

Spring along forest creak.

172

Logic of use of rainwater and sun on the mound.

Spatial principle of forest creek.

Lowland creek.

Watercourse.

Ramon Postma

A morning dip in the pure water of the swimming pond on the mound, thanks to the helophytes!

Early summer along the cart track with, in the distance, the valley of the lowland creek.

Late summer in the valley of the lowland creek.

Winter in the watershed where the biomass of the purification marshes and wooded terrain is harvested.

173

Landscape Architecture

Marlies Rijken Travelling through time Past, present and future

174

Marlies Rijken

175

Landscape Architecture

Marlies Rijken Travelling through time Past, present and future

Living with the landscape The old region of Maramures is an area in north-west Romania. The topic of my thesis is how to give an authentic landscape a sustainable future. Preservation through development is the method I applied in my strategy for a special jewel in Romania. Maramures is a particularly authentic, smallscale landscape. All development is based on geomorphology, which makes the landscape easy to read. People live in harmony with the landscape. However, the future of this landscape is insecure.

Farmers now work the land almost entirely manually with scythes, prongs and horse-drawn wooden carts. The youth want to help, but do not want to take over completely. If we don’t want to lose this authentic landscape, we need to come up with a strategy so that future generations can enjoy this jewel.

The two parts of Maramures Maramures is isolated between the Gutai and Maramures mountains and is part of the Carpathians.

The two rivers create a clear difference between the two areas. The Isa River is calm, quiet and wide, while the Viseu River is strong, wild and narrow, and influenced by bigger height differences.

This difference also translates into the way the land is used. On the western side there is a hilly agricultural and traditional landscape with a few developments. On the eastern side there is a mountainous area of wild nature and an economically developed area.

The train, used for the old ore mines and forestry, contributed significantly to the development. The two areas in Maramures are clearly visible in all aspects and formed the starting point for the thesis strategy.

Two valleys, two characters The aim of the new strategy is to create a legible landscape with a good relationship between the ribbon of houses and the surrounding landscape. The ultimate goal is to develop an interesting tourist destination.

Iza valley: authentic terraced landscape Inhabitants are the key players in the authentic terraced landscape of the Iza valley. Anyone can open his gate and make the landscape accessible to visitors. To relieve the busy river valley, a transition zone is created for large-scale developments such as meadows, forestry and recreation.

Viseu valley: rough mountain landscape In the rough Maramures Mountains, people have to take a step back to leave enough space for large-scale wilderness with grazers on the mountain pastures. Concentrated transfer points provide access to nature. The Viseu valley is well developed. This will be reinforced, and each group of houses will have at least one transfer point. The main connection of Maramures to the mountains is situated in this valley.

Using the existing qualities turns the area into a special tourist attraction.

Graduation date 25 06 2013

176

Commission members Hank van Tilborg (mentor) Ingrid Duchard Ivonne de Nood

Additional members for the examination Mirjam Koevoet Rik de Visser

Landscape Architecture

Patrick Ruijzenaars Waterlands Woud

A Real Forest for Amsterdammers

182

Patrick Ruijzenaars

183

Landscape Architecture

Patrick Ruijzenaars Waterlands Woud A Real Forest for Amsterdammers

Forests fascinate, appeal to the imagination, yet are also self-evident. You can lose yourself for hours on a journey of discovery among tall trunks full of mysticism. The scent of the forest floor and the light filtered by the roof of foliage overhead have a calming effect. Like slats that close the décor, the trunks envelop you in the forest world. What’s great about the forest is that you don’t have to have an opinion about it. You simply experience it.

Forest within the sphere of influence of the city But that forest experience is not self-evident. Even though forest is the most beloved place for spending our free time, very little forest can be found within the sphere of influence of the city. In the Randstad, where demand is highest, the availability is lowest. And newly planted forest often lies far from the urban demand, in places that offer least resistance and, consequently, are often difficult to access and enter.

Waterlands Woud brings a new forest within the sphere of influence of Amsterdam, making it a real asset for the people of Amsterdam. A large tract of unbroken forest, as close as possible to the city centre, it is easily accessible and makes use of the water network so that it can be experienced in a unique manner. A forest that is designed to enhance the sensation of being in it. A recreational landscape that serves the city.

Waterland Since peat reclamation started in around AD 1000, this landscape has served the city of Amsterdam. It has produced a cultural landscape of great historical value that features medieval allotments, old villages and wading birds.

The preservation of this cultural landscape has resulted in a severe drop in ground level owing to peat oxidation. Managing the water system has therefore become more complex, and will become even more complex in the future. Nature organisations manage much of this pastureland, but decreasing government involvement make it impossible to maintain them.

The forest The forest design strengthens the natural resilience of Waterland and, as a result, many of the problems in Waterland can be solved in an integral manner. The production of peat in the wet forest will increase again, as will the forest’s capacity to form a water buffer. In the process, Waterland forms a climate buffer that benefits flora and fauna, reduces CO2 emissions, and boosts recreational and economic opportunities in the area. In a matter of minutes, radial routes from the city centre take people by boat or bike deep into the forest, which changes gradually from a wooded parkland to deep woods. Close to the city the forest is varied, organised, recognisable and park-like.

Further away, the scale increases and you can wander through an extensive wood.

The historical water network of Waterland lies at the heart of unique types of forest that you can boat through. Innovative planting methods and the manipulation of microrelief ensure forests that offer an excellent sensation even at a young age.

Graduation date 12 12 2012

184

Commission members Berno Strootman (mentor) Karen de Groot Klaas Jan Wardenaar

Additional members for the examination Paul Achterberg Mirjam Koevoet

Patrick Ruijzenaars

185

Landscape Architecture

2000 BC – AD 1000 Extensive moorland area on Zuiderzee

1000-1200 I First reclamation projects for grain fields

1250-1600 I Trade and shipping flourish

1600-1900 I Dairy farming forms peat meadow landscape and reclaimed land

1900-2015 I Nature organisations preserve pastureland without any future perspective

2050 I Sustainable recreational forest landscape strengthens cohesion with the city

Existing forests lie far from urban areas

Historical water system: water offered the only way to access the landscape

2012: Waterland is poorly accessible by boat

Plan 2050: Water forms backbone of the landscape again

From the forest park into the woods: the closed character

A clear composed and zoned forest

Radial routes for rapid access deep into the forest

View of the marshy forest of mostly alder trees where church towers form landmarks in the woods

186

Patrick Ruijzenaars

Wandering through the Tupelo forest

The watery forest of alder trees and meadowy clearances on the weakest peatland of Waterland

Plankaart en bostypen van het Waterlands Woud Marshy terrain Meadowland and carr on the weakest peaty soil

Forest of oaks Clearly structured forest for housing

Tupelo forest distinctive and strong forest along the dieĂŤn

Marshy land with birch link between the dark forests

Marshy forest on the weakest peaty soil

Ash and alder Dense and clearly structured forest deep in the woods

Polder and Estate forest differentiation within the wet peat forest

Avenue of aspen trees recognisable scar in the landscape

187

Landscape Architecture

Existing situation: peat meadows

Intervention: formation of open moorland core I raising of water level + isolation of water system

t=2 I spontaneous birch forest in rainwater environment

t=10 I forest core closes + ditches turn to land + formation of bogland

t=60 I open moorland core with closed edge + only solitary trees in open space

Development of better experience in new ‘dry’ forests

t=60 I open moorland core with closed edge + only solitary trees in open space

View of the open central moorland core as link between darker forests

View of the elongated lakes typical of the Waterland region, where the sturdy Tupelo forest reaches right into the water

188

Landscape Architecture

Philomene van der Vliet Strings Attached

A Metropolitan Network Park Between Amsterdam and the Coast

190

Philomene van der Vliet

191

Landscape Architecture

Philomene van der Vliet Strings Attached A Metropolitan Network Park Between Amsterdam and the Coast

A trend seems to be discernible whereby metropolises around the world seek to boost their image by developing their green environment and green structures. The branding of cities by means of major park structures and landscape embellishment appears to be a new way of identifying the city with health, success and wellbeing. It enhances the appeal of the city.

Metropolitan network park Strings Attached is a design for a large park structure at the scale of the metropolitan region. It aims to improve the living environment of Amsterdam and ensure that the city rises up the ‘global liveability ranking lists’, making it a more attractive location for top international businesses, head offices and residents.

Amsterdam West already possesses the structure of a metropolitan park. It was initiated in the 1930s by Van Eesteren in the form of green wedges. On the western edge of Amsterdam, the polder landscape penetrates deep into city centre in spectacular fashion! However, this green wedge, called Brettenscheg, is difficult to access, privatised and therefore unknown. The Strings Attached project transforms this forgotten landscape into a metropolitan network park. Six new park ribbons provide access to the wedge and connect the city centre of Amsterdam with the coast. Every ribbon has its own colour and language and is designed as a continuous line. Together they break up the modernist organisation of our metropolitan region into zones for living, working and recreation.

The park ribbons reveal the rich history of this exceptional landscape to the west of Amsterdam like the layers of a palimpsest. Relics from the early middle ages, the city defence lines and the recent waste mountains are connected and made accessible and visible. They string together a sequence of small-scale public spaces, new waterways and green areas that increase in scale from the city centre outwards to become our big metropolitan landscape. The park ribbons want to grab city dwellers and transport them to the landscape, creating a tightknit structure comprising city and park.

Strings Attached is a call for better landscape connections between city centres and surrounding countryside to enhance the quality of life in our cities and generate support for our countryside among city dwellers.

Graduation date 30 10 2012

192

Commission members Sylvia Karres (mentor) Florian Boer Berno Strootman

Additional members for the examination Mirjam Koevoet Marc Nolden

Philomene van der Vliet

193

Landscape Architecture

Sloterdijk Railway Station fitted with a green profile and coloured by park ribbons.

Station forecourt with old IJdijkse lint and more than 20,000 newly planted trees.

Bikeway and track along Dijkring 14, connecting the centre of Amsterdam with the coastal zone.

196

Ribbon of old gardens along rubbish mounds in Nieuwmarktbuurt.

Philomene van der Vliet

Village of Sloterdijk and complex of allotment gardens accessed by ribbon of old gardens, Dijkring 14 and from dike along the IJ waterway.

New bridge connections as park ribbons between residential areas and the green wedge

Ribbon of old gardens provides access to the allotment gardens.

197

Landscape Architecture

Pauline Wieringa IJpark A Dynamic City Park

198

Pauline Wieringa

199

Landscape Architecture

Pauline Wieringa IJpark A Dynamic City Park

Since 2007 more than half the world’s population lives in urban areas. Cities are where the global economy manifests itself, where people come to seek their fortune. Pressure on the urban landscape has greatly increased in recent years. Green areas are disappearing, even though demand for urban greenery is actually rising. This is also illustrated by my study of Vitamin G. Greenery helps city dwellers stay lively and healthy, both mentally and physically.

The Vitamin G cry for help in Amsterdam is strongest in the centre, the area along the IJ. This area of the city boasts the smallest amount of public greenery per dwelling, the highest housing density, and a large portion of the dwellings are in the public rental sector. Around the IJ, people have by far the greatest need for the healthy effects of greenery in the city.

The culture and history of the city of Amsterdam are strongly related to the IJ estuary. Nonetheless, for centuries the city turned its back to the IJ, and the former estuary even cuts the city in two. The reason for creating the IJpark is to make the IJ the vitally important artery of the city again, and allow the city to grow along its banks.

The IJpark, a dynamic city park, boosts the increase in Vitamin G in those parts of Amsterdam that need it most. I studied Amsterdam city parks and riverside parks in other countries, filtered success formulas and applied them in my strategy to transform the IJ banks into a city park. The transformation into a city park is a five-part process.

The first step is to reorganise boating on the water, thereby creating good connections between the banks and the IJ itself. It frees public space for the IJpark and makes use of new and existing public attractions. The interaction between city and IJ is strengthened, attracting a mixture of tourists, watersporters, pleasure seekers, event visitors and city dwellers.

The second step is to create transverse connections and break down the barriers that separate the north and south banks from each other. The new transverse connections also ensure a more evenly distributed use of the banks, turning the city into a single entity again.

The third step is to create special places for people. Existing spots are upgraded to become green oases. In the design, the bare and severe banks are transformed into new, permanent, green stretches for people. In addition, new and dynamic spots are created by positioning flexible pontoons in less accessible places. These pontoons can develop into floating gardens, parks or even islands in the IJ. The system of pontoons is flexible and responds to the seasons and the needs of the moment.

The fourth step is to improve and create new lengthways connections that produce a large network of varied experiences on both banks. These lengthways connections are formed by ribbons of pontoons and banks planted with greenery.

Finally, new red eye-catchers ensure the visual cohesion of the IJpark.

This strategy illustrates the opportunities offered by the IJ by transforming it into an IJpark, a vibrant and dynamic city park that gradually connects the city with the IJ and makes it a single entity again.

Graduation date 30 10 2012

200

Commission members Bram Breedveld (mentor) Ben Kuiper Eric Frijters

Additional members for the examination Maike van Stiphout Sander Lap

Landscape Architecture

IJland park formation

IJland Sarphatipark

IJland beach formation

IJland vegetable garden formation

View of scene envisaged for lengthways connection

Sfeerbeeld geschakelde parkpontons

View of permanent destination: The Green Head

View of sports bay

204

View of school garden pontoons

Pauline Wieringa

Temporary destinations: concert formation

Temporary destinations: catwalk pontoons

Voorbeeld uitwerking strand ;dynamische verblijfs plek

View of IJland floating beach

205

Committed and progressive Arjan Klok

Head of Urbanism Department

206

Committed and dynamic perspectives On top of the widespread interest in the city at present, the significance and legitimacy of the profession of urbanist has never been as intensively discussed as it is now. That’s a strange and paradoxical situation, for the new generation of urbanists does not allow itself to be taken hostage by counterproductive discussions about whether to develop the city in a ‘bottom-up’, ‘top-down’, ‘spontaneous’ or ‘orchestrated’ manner. Instead, this generation signals numerous opportunities to improve the existing city and — in the conviction that urban design is a worthy pursuit that can even produce new values — makes constructive proposals to improve the environment in Dutch towns in a lasting way. It tackles difficult issues concerning city development with optimism.

Even so, one can detect a sharp undertone in these graduation projects. For these are somewhat stubborn projects that oppose ‘current’ or customary ‘municipal plans’ and, instead, come up with alternatives. According to the new generation of urbanists, much is wrong with the way small and mid-sized municipalities in particular view urban development. In the eyes of the graduating group, those plans and intentions lean too simplistically on the modernist dogma of separating functions and the primacy of traffic engineering. For many areas in these towns, specific local spatial qualities are subordinated, and the municipal proposals lack sufficient inventiveness and innovation.

The new generation certainly does not lack local commitment, as evidenced by the interest in small and mid-sized Dutch towns like Veghel, Rijswijk and Leiden. Within the projects, attention focuses not only on the more complex entirety of functional and spatial facets but also on local spatial qualities that determine the beauty, atmosphere and identity of particular places. Neglected or forgotten areas and spatial issues are tackled as serious subjects for study. In addition, the proposals consider the social relevance and power of collective space in terms of forging identity. Specific usage patterns are accorded a place, and are designed in such a way that coherent concepts of collectiveness emerge. These concepts enable towns to be more than a chance or generic constellation of functions, user groups, spaces and buildings. These concepts make the city what people expect and hope of it: an ideal collective environment with specific, identifiable characteristics.

Offensive against the dominance of the traffic engineer An interesting aspect of the proposals is that they challenge, in greater or lesser degrees, the discipline of traffic engineering. The new generation finds the proposals and achievements of the planning and traffic engineering disciplines, which have been dominant up to now, too simplistic, out of sync with today’s society, and not specific enough.

What’s more, in their view there is too much unintentional damage and too few positive effects with regard to user quality and residential quality in the city. In fact, many official proposals are deemed ‘not good enough’ in terms of traffic engineering when the situation on the ground is seriously examined. In the graduation projects the space occupied by the ‘traffic machine’ is reconsidered, and new, balanced and inventive design proposals are made that integrate traffic infrastructure in a more specific manner, creating a positive experience for both immediate users and surrounding districts.

The new generation of urbanists displays courage and determination in tackling the difficult aspects of city development.

They highlight fundamental choices and considerations concerning the planning of towns, they are critical of the treatment of local and specific spatial qualities and collective values, and they do not shirk socio-economic, functional and spatial complexity. The new generation appears to have taken leave of modernist dogmas of general spatial quality, separation of functions and the primacy of traffic engineering in town planning and urban design. They offer concrete design proposals to make generic situations more specific, to mix functions, and to remodel space occupied by traffic into a ‘space of experience’. They come up with positive scenarios to replace the negative associations of neglected areas in a constructive and inventive manner, and take seriously their responsibility for the quality of collective open space, including the space occupied by traffic. The profession of urbanism is practised here to its fullest extent. It is an attitude that commands respect!

207

Urbanism

Sebastian van Berkel City Motion

Urban design as a remedy for the spread of ‘bypass road virus’

208

Sebastian van Berkel

209

Urbanism

Sebastian van Berkel City Motion Urban design as a remedy for the spread of ‘bypass road virus’

The patient’s name is Veghel, a mid-size town in the south of the Netherlands. A virus known as ‘bypass road’ will soon infect the town. Due to the expected growth of traffic in Veghel, the national road authority, the Province of Noord-Brabant and the local municipality are forced to find a cure for this virus. Based on the logistics of traffic engineering, they propose the small solution of a new bypass road. This graduation project offers an urban design alternative for this everyday spatial phenomenon that is taking over the Netherlands and is presented on the national virus map.

The reason I consider bypass roads to form a rapidly spreading virus is because of their negative effects on the spatial environment and the people using it. Towns are turned inside out in terms of economic dynamics. Whereas economic development and interaction were historically concentrated near busy roads and intersections in the centre of town, bypass roads are pulling them outwards. Besides that, bypass roads disrupt the relationship of town to country and generate inevitably generic plot development between towns and bypass roads, mega-intersections and super-sized roundabouts lacking in human scale. The cumulative result is a generic sense of place with a loss of spatial orientation. Everything looks the same. But don’t take that for granted!

City Motion is an urban design and broad alternative for this virus that is going to affect Veghel (part of the place where I grew up). City Motion will solve the same traffic problem as a bypass road does, but it unlocks more spatial assets. Five steps and aspects should be taken in account: mobility motives, destinations, routes, experiences and place-making.

The first and most important step is to determine the biggest and most significant motives for mobility to emphasise the user’s perspective. Why are people driving to or through Veghel? In Veghel these motives are driving for a job (truck drivers, 25% of all traffic), driving to/from work (commuters; Veghel has more jobs than inhabitants) and driving as a pastime (leisure seeker, economic chance for Veghel). Each group has different expectations about its journey to/through Veghel in terms of experience, service, view, accessibility, liability, speed and so on. The mobility motives are translated into an ideal road profile using a toolbox with twelve elements (e.g. materials, addressing buildings, illumination, water drainage and plantation). In the following steps, the ideal roads are put in place by determining the most important destinations in Veghel for each of the three groups of users, preferably using existing infrastructure space. The route for truckers, for instance, will divert truck traffic towards the industrial zone, using a runway-like road profile on an existing road. Traffic numbers will immediately drop by 25% on the original route. The spatial asset is a unique and well-utilised environment for logistics businesses. The same is done for commuters and leisure seekers, with spatial assets based on their expectations. Further on, the sequence of experiences along the route and the places where various users meet are designed according to shared interests.

My proposal will solve the same traffic problem and has more benefits for a large group of stakeholders compared to the originally proposed bypass road: no demolition of property and nature (benefiting the public), better regional economic position (benefiting local businesses), and the design can be phased (benefiting the government). However, the most important effect will be that driving through Veghel will be a whole new and distinct local experience.

Graduation date 27 09 2012

210

Commission members Arjan Klok (mentor) Christiaan Kwantes Ingeborg Thoral

Additional members for the examination Kirsten van den Berg Jeroen de Willigen

Sebastian van Berkel

211

Urbanism

Legend for the truck driver

Legend for the leisure seeker

Background

Route designed with toolbox ideal

Route designed with toolbox ideal

Motorway with mixed motives

road for trucker - inside town

road for commuter - inside town

road for leisure seeker - inside town

Meadow-land

Route designed with toolbox ideal

Route designed with toolbox ideal

Route designed with toolbox ideal

Arable land

road for trucker - outside town

road for commuter - outside town

road for leisure seeker - outside town

Forest

Existing Logistic and industrial

Town centre / Regional service

Town centre

Canal (Zuid-Willemsvaart)

businesses

CHV-area (existing post-industrial

CHV-area (existing post-industrial

Stream (Aa)

Transformation towards logistic

transformation zone)

transformation zone)

One of the proposed alignments of

and industrial businesses possible

Transformation towards mixed-use

National heritage site

the bypass road

Consolidation mixed businesses

possible

Regional park / reserve (Groene Woud)

Mobility motives and town structure

212

Legend for the commuter

Route designed with toolbox ideal

Sebastian van Berkel

3,6

1,4

28,5

4

4

4

4

2

4

4

0,3

Road Train Inside town

Principle Reliability Efficiency

Time 24/7

Outside town

Addresses

Speed

Width

Logistic and industrial activities (i.e. loading docks)

50 km/h

20,6m (both directions)

-

70 km/h

20,8 (both directions

4

1,4

3,6

4

28,5 0,3

Hight 4,5 m

4

Surface Seamless concrete fibre mix

Marks Big and wide (like a runway), addresses and directions noted on the surface)

Illumination

Plantation

Bright (like a construction site)

None, work floor

Dark, self-sufficient with smart solar LED’s in road surface

To emphasize the route in the landscape like the adjacent canal, Poplar

Energy Thermal storage, heated in winter (reliable)

Heath Thermal storage, cooled in summer

Water

Cables / Pipes

Closed parallel gutter, centralized treatment

Service tunnel in the middle (reliable)

Open parallel gutter, works as crash barrier too, centralized treatment

None, self-sufficient

One of the three toolboxes

Time passing along the route

213

Urbanism

t=0

t=1

t=2

Time passing in years

214

Sebastian van Berkel

14:00

14:01

Time passing at the moment

14:02 215

Urbanism

Anneke Sluijter-Jacobsen Goud Waard The power of long lines in area development

216

Anneke Sluijter-Jacobsen

217

Urbanism

Anneke Sluijter-Jacobsen Goud Waard The power of long lines in area development

Goud Waard focuses on the transformation of an obsolete housing and employment district on the eastern side of Leiden city centre called De Waard. Leiden city authorities envisage the development of the office park in the area, with the construction of a ring road providing a development axis for new and existing business. The existing area of homes and businesses is developed separately, and the ring road is treated as an isolated traffic engineering project. With this plan, the potential and beauty of the area are insufficiently exploited, however, leading to the further isolation of the area from its surroundings. On account of the strategic location in the region, the proximity to the town centre, and the presence of four exceptional water lines, the entire area can be turned into an attractive city district. My objective, therefore, was to plan the redevelopment of De Waard on the strength of its existing qualities. In the process, the necessary line of infrastructure is deployed to achieve this ambition.

I developed a strategic framework to maximise the potential of the area. The ring road is integrated into this framework, connected to the neighbourhood and used for the redevelopment of all De Waard. The design is based on the four surrounding waterways, which together with the ring road form long lines through the area and anchor it to its context. The various identities of these long lines are exploited in the design to integrate them into the area at various scales as generators of redevelopment. In addition, my fascination for the power of long lines formed the backbone of the design.

The framework is a means of transforming De Waard into an attractive district structured around water, living and working. Emphasis is put on the water and the long lines in De Waard, expanding the urban area of Leiden and adding something unique. The design for this urban environment is also based on the power of the collective use of space in Scandinavian urbanism. To promote ‘shared city living’ in De Waard, I designed an urban design pattern in which the transition from public to private resulted in interesting gradations of collective space. The transition from long public lines to residential areas behind takes the form of a variety of public routes, semi-public courtyards and collective and private gardens.

A strategic programme of urban rules ensures, together with the framework, that the gradual transformation proceeds in harmony with this vision of collective urban living. Each smaller area within the larger site is subject to specific rules drawn up to determine strategy and speed of redevelopment based on existing qualities.

Over time, De Waard will develop into an attractive city district of Leiden with a unique identity based on the qualities of the area.

Graduation date 17 12 2012

218

Commission members Ad de Bont (mentor) Maike van Stiphout Jeroen Ruitenbeek

Additional members for the examination Ton Schaap RiĂŤtte Bosch

Urbanism

Sanneke van Wijk New life How work and life strengthen each other in Plaspoelpolder.

The number of vacant office buildings in the Netherlands is increasing dramatically. Many of the offices stay permanently empty. Even if the economy picks up again, not all office buildings can be rented, and the prospects for structural vacancy are not good. What’s more, the labour force is not growing any more, and the influence of new ways of working are becoming more and more visible every day.

One of the areas in the Netherlands that is overgrown with weeds and taped-up windows is Plaspoelpolder in Rijswijk. This area, situated next to the A4 motorway, has developed strongly since the 1950s. Today, the buildings look outdated and the site is losing out in the competition with better motorway locations, mainly because it does not have a clear profile. Furthermore, the high vacancy rate further harms the image of the area. The result is that even more companies decide to leave Rijswijk. Plaspoelpolder is caught in a vicious circle that must be interrupted.

The existing structure of Plaspoelpolder possesses qualities that can create an attractive residential environment. Constructing homes in Plaspoelpolder could offer an alternative to the housing plans of the municipality of Rijswijk. Do not start from scratch in a polder, but reuse the existing structure of this industrial area, enabling Rijswijk to make use of the city in a sustainable way. Plaspoelpolder contains sufficient space for living. Still, at the moment this space is mostly occupied by buildings.

The mixed nature of Plaspoelpolder can be strengthened by retaining strong businesses and supplementing them with dwellings that fit in terms of scale and size. New life will come to Plaspoelpolder and create synergy between new residents and existing businesses.

My graduation project includes a transformation strategy in which Plaspoelpolder transforms from a work location into a mixture of living and working. The framework builds on the qualities of the site and its surroundings. A clear hierarchy returns, the ‘green’ connection between the two parks is strengthened, and the park — located at the southern part of the A4 — is extended to Plaspoelpolder. At last the link is made between the fine structure of pre-war Rijswijk and the coarse scale of the post-war neighbourhoods.

Developments can take place within the framework. The mixed character and diversity in the type of businesses require a multifaceted approach. International companies such as Shell, the European Patent Office and the Beurs Haaglanden are encouraged to add public value to their monofunctional functions. In the heart of the area, where many offices are situated, buildings are redesignated or redeveloped and aim for an optimal mixture of dwellings and offices. Searching for combinations of homes and offices within every block is important there.

The inner world is characterised by many dynamic companies located there. Individuals or collectives will be able to buy a plot and do whatever they want with it. They could starting a new business or just live there freely. The goal is to find a form of collectivity in public space where residents can benefit from the small businesses and vice versa.

Graduation date 02 05 2013

226

Commission members Boris Hocks (mentor) Jaap van den Bout Marco Broekman

Additional members for the examination Huub Juurlink Karen van Vliet

Sanneke van Wijk

227

Archiprix 2014 nominations jury report Aart Oxenaar

Director Amsterdam Academy of Architecture

232

Archiprix is the annual prize for the best graduation work from the nine Dutch schools of architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture. Being nominated for the Archiprix – and winning of course – has proven to be an important step towards a successful career as a designer. Over the last ten years the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture has won eight first prizes and eleven second prizes and honorable mentions. Each year the academy is allowed four nominations out of a total of 28.

The jury this year consisted of the department heads – Marieke Timmermans (landscape architecture), Jarrik Ouburg (architecture), Arjan Klok (urbanism) – as well as visiting critic Jurgen Bey (director of the Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam) and Aart Oxenaar (director of the Academy and chairman of the jury). The selection is an open competition between projects in the fields of architecture, urban design and landscape architecture.

This year 25 graduation plans were entered for the competition: 16 in architecture, three in urbanism and six in landscape architecture.

In the first round, ten projects were selected on account of their exceptional theme, the clarity of their approach and/or the convincing power of the design.

These plans were made by, in alphabetical order: Adriaan Aarnoudse, Sebastian van Berkel, Txell Blanco Diaz, Anne Dessing, Marit Janse, Claire Laeremans, Ramon Postma, Patrick Ruizenaars, Bas Schuit, Philomene van der Vliet.

In the second round, the focus shifted to a closer examination of the relevance of the problem addressed, the level of research into the problem (‘proof of study’), the consistency in conduct and application of the research, the development of the plan at different scales, the individual character of the plan and its qualities as a design statement.

The following four projects were unanimously nominated for the Archiprix 2014 (in random order): Anne Dessing.‘Omgevingsarticulaties’ (Articulating the location).

This plan offers an alternative for the standard ways of developing the Dutch city. Instead of applying generic rules, the designer develops and tests new sets of location-specific rules.

Clients are thus offered more freedom to develop their own house – whilst at the same time week spots in the local urban plan are addressed.

Marit Janse. Salt Crystals. A strategy for the conservation of the rich nature of the Oosterschelde.

Thinking about nature from the perspective of culture is what makes this plan shed a new light on the profession of the landscape architect.

The problems of the delta we Dutch live in are addressed both from the water and the land side, introducing both relevant and surprising new uses that help to reactivate the whole area.

Claire Laeremans. The necessity of ruins.

A strategy for the shadow landscape of ‘Le Centre’, Belgium.

With a sharp analytical eye and a strong poetic sensibility, this plan succeeds in reactivating a forgotten and derelict landscape. It combines an in-depth understanding of its former and present structure with a clear eye for effective and realistic interventions that will help reveal the romantic, almost fairytale-like qualities of this former mine landscape. The step-by-step and bottom-up approach makes it a timely and realistic strategy.

Adriaan Aarnoudse. The peninsula rediscovered. A narrative landscape in the Rotterdam harbour.

This plan turns a persistent, muddy problem into productive new possibilities for building in the landscape. A forgotten element in the infrastructural landscape of the Rijnmond area is turned into a monumental public space with recreational qualities. An amazing model reveals the poetic potential of this design.

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Anne Dessing Articulating the location

Marit Janse Salt Crystals. A strategy for the conservation of the rich nature of the Oosterschelde.

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Claire Laeremans The necessity of ruins.

A strategy for the shadow landscape of ‘Le Centre’, Belgium.

Adriaan Aarnoudse The peninsula rediscovered.

A narrative landscape in the Rotterdam harbour.

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Master of Architecture / Urbanism / Landscape Architecture Amsterdam Academy of Architecture Architects, urban designers and landscape architects learn the profession at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture through an intensive combination of work and study.

They work in small, partly interdisciplinary groups and are supervised by a select group of practising fel­low professionals. There is a wide range of options within the programme so that students can put together their own trajectory and specialisation. With the inclusion of the course in Urbanism in 1957 and Landscape Architecture in 1972, the academy is the only architecture school in the Netherlands to bring together the three spatial design disciplines.

Some 350 guest tutors are involved in teaching every year. Each of them is a practising designer or a specific expert in his or her particular subject. The three heads of department also have design practices of their own in addition to their work for the academy. This structure yields an enormous dynamism and energy and ensures that the courses remain closely linked to the current state of the discipline.

The courses consist of projects, exercises and lectures. First-year and second-year students also engage in morphological studies. Students work on their own or in small groups. The design projects form the backbone of the cur­riculum.

On the basis of a specific design assignment, students develop knowledge, insight and skills.

The exercises are focused on training in those skills that are essential for recognising and solving design problems, such as analytical techniques, knowledge of the repertoire, the use of materials, text analysis, and writing. Many of the exercises are linked to the design projects.

The morphological studies concentrate on the making of spatial objects, with the emphasis on creative process and implementation. Students experiment with materials and media forms and gain experience in converting an idea into a creation.

During the periods between the terms there are workshops, study trips in the Netherlands and abroad, and other activities. This is also the preferred moment for international exchange projects. The academy regularly invites foreign students for the workshops and recruits wellknown designers from the Netherlands and further afield as tutors.

Graduates from the Academy of Architecture are entitled to the following titles: Master of Architecture (MArch), Master of Urbanism (MUrb), or Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA). The Master’s

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2012-2013 Graduation Projects features the work of students who earned their degree during the 2012-2013 academic year at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture.

The projects by the 25 Masters of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape Architecture are introduced by visiting critic Jurgen Bey.

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