Architecture
Willem Jan Landman Urban Festival Landscape A permanent festival grounds located in the heart of the IJ waterway in Amsterdam In recent decades festivals have become a structural element in big cities, and usually these festivals are a temporary phenomenon in the city. My graduation project presents a design for ‘permanent’ festival grounds in Amsterdam at the tip of Java Island. This would give the city a permanent podium for festivals, and space for recreational activities in the heart of the city. The Urban Festival Landscape is both an architectural and a landscape design, and has the potential to form a distinctive addition to the cultural life of the city. The 30,000 m2 site consists of two podiums (2250 and 5000 visitors), an exhibition space, a bar, a restaurant, a dance club (1200 visitors) and accommodation for artists in residence (20 rooms). The outer ring of red concrete doubles in function as a landscape that local residents can walk along and around the whole year round at their leisure. This ring features a green boulevard, terraces, sports fields and a skate bowl. Inside the complex, the red concrete continues in a theatrical interior world where visitors are totally taken aback by the intimate spaciousness that contrasts with the space of the city. Owing to its bulky appearance, the building seems to become one with the water, and this adds another dimension to the building. Visitors can moor their boats easily, the water forms an extra grandstand, and from the building there is a wonderful view across the IJ and of the north and south banks of the city.
Graduation date 11 11 2010
Commission members Holger Gladys (mentor) Mels Crouwel Jord den Hollander
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Additional members for the examination Bart Bulter Rik van Dolderen