Het Achterhuis_Paul Kuipers

Page 1

Title

Achterhuis

Paul Kuipers

Domain Name

A PLACE TO HIDE FOR EDWARD SNOWDEN

Cover


Page 2-3

Projectbook

#graduationproject


Title

Achterhuis

Paul Kuipers Amsterdam February 2020

Domain Name

A PLACE TO HIDE FOR EDWARD SNOWDEN

0


Page 4-5

Blanc

#unknowncitizen


0

Protagonist

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” Edward Snowden

Quote


Page 6-7

Contents

#data

The Files

I Shorcut

8-9

Essay 01 II Prologue

14-15 18-19

III Router

40-41

Essay 02 IV The Code

48-49 50-51

-

01 Introduction 02 Summary

-

01 Verax 02 Manifesto 03 Terms & Associations 04 The Cloud 05 Collage 06 Glossary

-

01 From Hawaï to Amsterdam 02 Canal Belt 03 Conceal vs Reveal 04 Domain H268/K265

-

01 Typologies 02 Floorplan vs Cross-section 03 Enclosing vs Connecting 04 New 05 HRefs 06 Concept 07 Concept Casted 08 Concept Location

01 Introduction 02 Summary

01 Verax 02 Manifesto 03 Terms & Associations 04 The Cloud 05 Collage 06 Glossary 01 From Hawaï to Amsterdam 02 Canal Belt 03 Conceal vs Reveal 04 Domain H268/K265

01 Typologies 02 Floorplan vs Cross-section 03 Enclosing vs Connecting 04 New Achterhuis 05 HRefs 06 Concept 07 Concept Casted 08 Concept Location


0

Chapters

V Protocol -

01 02 03 04 05

Wall Studies Detail Studies Space Studies Loops & Rhombics Materials

-

01 02 03 04 05 06 07

Sliced Mass Testmodel Public Spaces Programming Final Model Model Location Sections

-

01 02 03 04 05

Garden Public Rooms Canal Portals House in the Front

-

01 02 03 04 05

Gateway Forum MySpace Deep Space The Wall

-

VI Framework -

I-X

68-69 01 02 03 04 05

Wall Studies Detail Studies Space Studies Loops & Rhombics Materials

01 02 03 04 05 06 07

Sliced Mass Testmodel Public Spaces Programming Final Model Model Location Sections

94-95

Essay 03 VII Interface

118-119 122-123

VIII Partitions

138-139

-

-

IX Browsing Essay 04 X Credits

01 to Garden 02 of Public Spaces 03 to Canal of the Portals 05 to the Front 01 02 03 04 05

Gateway Forum MySpace DeepSpace The Wall

159-159 178-179 182-183


Page 8-9

Blanc

#blacktransparency


I

Chapter

Shortcut

01 Introduction 02 Summary

01-02


Page 10-11

Text

Imagine, every time you visit a website, somebody is looking over your shoulder. Using, selling and reselling your personal data. This data-exploitation is a grave violation of our right to privacy. Since the revelations of the whistleblower Edward Snowden we know about the reality of mass-surveillance by our governments and the trillion dollar companies, in order to gain power and control. Which is of course a grave violation of our privacy. It forced him to flee his country to end up stateless in a total lockdown in Russia. Time and again we see that people who fight for openness have to encrypt themselves; running and hiding, or even worse, losing their citizenship and ending up in prison. For this graduationproject a house for Edward Snowden is designed in the centre of Amsterdam. It is a spatial manifesto to address the importance of privacy and transparency in our society. It is called Achterhuis because it is a reinterpretation of the typical Amsterdam typology ‘het achterhuis’ (secret annex), which u can find in the courtyards at the canal belt in the

#spatialmanifest


Shortcut

centre of Amsterdam. A perfect place to hide. However, the building is more than a house. By adding a public program it becomes manifest in the city; there is a newsroom, a theatre, a belvedere and on groundlevel a connecting corridor between two canalstreets. If you want to change reality, you have to imagine one first. To feed the imagination during the design process, digital terms are translated into architectural concepts. For example, we all know the importance of using encryption when we send a private mail or message, guaranteeing our privacy. Achterhuis is an encrypted building in which the private and public spaces come together in a labyrinthic order. The whimsical infrastructure of the world wide web inspires a labyrinthine spatiality that makes both closure and disclosure possible. It conceals and reveals at the same time.

01 Introduction

SPATIAL ENCRYPTION

I


Page 12-13

Models Analogue/Digital

#spatialencryption

<01>

<Research into spatial encryption> <Mass-Void study by casting models in plaster and concrete> <Scales by intuition>

<02>

<Concept> <The Wall of Rooms as a Labyrinth to stage appearance and disappearance> <Model 1:200>


I

Shortcut

<03>

<Location> <17th Century Canal Belt: Herengracht 268 to Keizersgracht 265> <Model 1:1000>

<04>

<Final Design> <Achterhuis as a public connection, from canal to canal> <Model 1:100>

02 Summary


Page 14-15

by Paul Kuipers

It has been 20 years since Rem Koolhaas published the text Generic City. He asks himself the question; what if cities develop as an airport and identity is exchanged for ‘blankness.’1 “It can produce a new identity every monday morning.”2 The metropolitan city must develop on the periphery in which public space is evacuated to the closed building blocks, which endlessly rehearse around the ‘urban voids’ of the atrium. The most comfortable place will be the hotel; maximum comfort for the city dweller who is constantly on the move. This movement takes place in the public space that actually only consists of streets, highways, stations and airports. Public space follows the rules and efficiency of an airport. Identity becomes anonymous and exchangeable. This uncomfortable and intriguing text can be read as a cynical prophecy or as a serious statement about urban development. Both the attractive and the repelling image that this text evokes was the reason to reconsider this text in the perspective of privacy and security.

#host#hosting


Intermezzo

Because ominous or sharply formulated, the text Generic City is remarkably topical when we see the urban developments of Amsterdam today. The city turns it’s center into a tourist theater and transforms the arsenal of real estate, for living and working, into hotels and airbnb’s. Complemented by a diverse range of facilities that should make visitors feel as comfortable as possible. It is reminiscent of the image of ‘the hotel’ sketched by Koolhaas as the most comfortable place, the escape hill on the public road.3 Amsterdam is becoming a host city. Generous in welcoming every player on the market, a characteristic that is inextricably linked to the peculiar identity of Amsterdam: it’s tolerance. Russell Shorto explains this tolerance in a beautiful way in his book Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City; it is rather based on pragmatism than on idealsm he argues. “Where trade is conducted, conflict is undesirable and too expensive.”4 So, Amsterdam rolls out the ‘Red Carpet’ for the visitor, and cleans the citystreets of unwanted elements.

Essay 01

FROM GENERIC TO GENEROUS CITY

0


Page 16-17

by Paul Kuipers

Amsterdam as a host, but who is actually welcomed? A large number of people no longer have room in the city that Koolhaas outlines. Since the public space only consists of infrastructure, this space is managed and controlled by cleaners and law enforcement. Disturbing elements are eliminated as much as possible, alike large mop wagons sweeping the airport during the night to process it’s visitors as efficiently as possible the next day. In the Generic City, no mention is made of criminals and uninvited guests such as asylum seekers and refugees. In this city there is no place for detention centers, AZC’s and Red Light districts. We do not come across a Refugee Church, we do not find homeless people, bohemians, camp residents, stateless persons, drug addicts, demonstrators, squatters or occupiers. The streets are kept clear for fast mobility; car, scooters and cyclists. The rules of the public space coincide with the traffic rules. Many elements from Constant’s New Babylon resonate in the text of Koolhaas.

#host#hosting


0

Intermezzo

Constant also sketches a (network) city that grows over the earth and more or less consists of a generic structure. In fact, this city only consists of infrastructure because the future person is constantly traveling as ‘homo ludens’. This nomadic life takes place in the public space of the utopian model. The big difference, however, is that the infrastructure of Constant is public space par excellence. Humans can fully surrender to the game since there has been a shift from a production system to a consumption system. Technological innovation is, just like with Koolhaas, an ideal, but Constant sees it as a liberation from the production system. The public space is the analogue place where social principles are formulated. The movement of the free person is opposed to the movement of the working person. The Marxist ideas in New Babylon are opposed to the harsh realism of the neo-liberal ideas of the Generic City.

1 Rem Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, Rotterdam, 1995, pag. 1248 2 Idem, pag. 1255 3 Lieven de Cauter, De Capsulaire Samenleving, Brussel, 2009 4 Russell Shorto, Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City, New York, 2013

Essay 01


Page 18-19

Blanc

#charging


II

Chapter

Prologue

01 Verax 02 Manifesto 03 Terms & Associations 04 The Cloud 05 Collage 06 Glossary

01-05


Page 20-21

Extreme Public versus Extreme Private

#hotel


Prologue

In May 2013, Edward Snowden left Hawaï for Hong Kong to leak thousands of classified documents about the US’s National Security Agency spy program. The former contractor for the CIA went by the alias Verax and contacted Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald and documentary-maker Laura Poitras. They agreed to meet the (till then) unknown american citizen who uncovered himself with a Rubik Cube in a shopping mall in Hong Kong. For two weeks, Snowden was holed up in a fancy hotel where he exposed his information about US’s mass surveillance. Subsequently the US government has charged Edward Snowden under the Espionage Act, the 1917 statute enacted to criminalize dissent against WW I. At that point he was the US’s most wanted fugitive. Continuing his escape he eventually found asylum in Russia. Consequently he became a puppet in the reviving cold war rhetorics. This architectural project adds a new chapter to the journey of Snowden by creating a house for him right in the centre of the society he had to escape.

02 Verax

FROM EDWARD SNOWDEN TO ARCHITECTURE

II


Page 22-23

Text

Because architecture is inevitably political for me, my graduation assignment has become a political message about the importance of transparency for democracy. Because Edward Snowden is the epitome of this importance, I have extracted terms from his narrative which I translated into architectural principles. Terms such as open versus closed, private versus public, digital versus analogue, closure versus disclosure. The final design has become a place where he knows himself protected both privately and publicly. The house and the public spaces are intertwined in a labyrinthine manner through a succession of back houses, corridors and rooms in the inner garden of a building block at the Amsterdam canals. It gives Achterhuis and the garden (as a place to hide) a new interpretation and shows that, within the limitations of a UNESCO monument, quite a bit is still possible. In order to turn a political narrative into an architectural narrative, I have started various studies regarding typology, design methodology and terminology.

#asyl#host


II

Prologue

02 Verax

Typological I looked into the hotel (the balance between private and collective), the pochÊ of palaces and castle walls, the seclusion of monasteries, defensive strongholds (bunkers and fortresses) and the mould-counter-mould of Nolli’s city map.

TRUTH

STATELESS

ASYL

HOPE

HERO

HOST

<edward snowden> <from refugee to host> <based on> <the barack obama hope poster is an image of barack obama designed by artist shepard fairey, which was widely described as iconic and came to represent his 2008 presidential campaign><wikipedia>


Page 24-25

Achterhuis:

#statement

I Achterhuis is a spatial manifesto to adress the importance of transparency; a fundamental digit of our democratic system.

II Achterhuis is a place for Edward Snowden who became stateless after his ‘act of transparency’. It is a shame that in western democracies nobody cares for whistleblowers like him.

V Achterhuis is much inspired by the map of Rome, by Giambattista Nolli where everything in the private is obscured, everything in the public extremely articulated.

VI Achterhuis aims to attack an legible organisation of spaces which would have been the most obvious choice when we think about transparency. It rather tries to confuse by introducing a mystery in the spatial order.

IX Achterhuis can never be a single shelter for the individual, who in the case of Snowden, serves a public debate. The paradox of revealing by hiding demands for a house with public rooms.

X Achterhuis both protects the individual and makes public connections possible.


II

Prologue

03 Manifesto

III Achterhuis is a place to hide for Edward Snowden in Amsterdam, according to Russel Shorto one of the most liberal and tolerant cities in the world.

IV Achterhuis obscures people who act in the name of transparency. The paradox of hiding and revealing is translated into an architectural mass-void study exploring how to encrypt space.

VII Achterhuis is a labyrinthic configuration of spaces. It refers to the strategic function of the Labyrinth to confuse, as well to it’s ability to entertain and reflect.

VIII Achterhuis reinterprets a classic typology in Amsterdam and re-enacts the courtyard at thcanal belt as a place to hide. It adds a new event to the city, a cryptical pass-through in the urban fabric.

XI Achterhuis functions as Firewall for Snowden, as a Server for public programs and as a Gateway for passersby.

XII Achterhuis is hosting a whistleblower who will become a host for public events in his private domain.


Page 26-27

01 Virtual vs Physical

02 Privacy vs Public

04 Security

05 Transparency

References

#extraction#abstraction

Snowden’s first visit to Amsterdam was in November 2016 on the occasion of the premiere of the movie Snowden by Oliver Stone. Appearing on Skype, in front of a full room, he answered questions from the public. In opposite to the virtual meeting this project will establish the possibility of a physical meeting.

Wherever Snowden is held up, he has to meet people in a secretive way. It is intrusive when Hollywood actor John Cusack and writer/activist Arundhati Roy meet him on his bed. It can be called an extreme example of a public situation.

In terms of security Snowden’s biggest problem is his status of being stateless. Without a passport he is not able to travel and makes it extremely difficult to be a part of our society. Think about getting healthcare, financial support, etc.

“I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn’t turn over, because harming people isn’t my goal. Transparency is.” Edward Snowden


II

01 Mystery of the Mass

02 Individual vs Collective

04 Labyrinthine

05 Mass vs Void

Prologue

04 Terms & Associations

The public debate about transparency issues, strongly demands a physical presence. In order to adress the paradox of closure versus disclosure, this project seeks an architectural form that provokes the modernistic notions about transparency. Instead of a clear spatial organisation, it takes the ‘wall of rooms’ as starting point in order to make it complex and confusing. It might be obvious to build a bunker as a private shelter for the threatened and stateless people between us. This project turns the notion on protection upside down. Connection functions as protection. As an indivudual in the collective, Snowden’s new home wil serve as an institute that will function as a Server in the community.

This project is not a profound research about juridical systems and diplomatic conditions. Neither is it a contribution to the ‘fetish of control’ by using advanced techniques like censors, gps and camera’s. It starts with the imagination first. The strategic function of a labyrinth to confuse the enemy is taken as a metaphor for the organisation of spaces.

I imagined a building like the Nolli map. One fabric within public functions are made visible. The ‘mass’ needed to create the ‘void’, in which public life gets a place. It contains secret spaces.


Page 28-29

References

#secret#private#public

Monument for Newton/ 1784/ Étienne-Louis Boullée

Villa Lante/Viterbo/ 16th century/ Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola

Caravanserail/Silk Road Iran

Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder/Amsterdam/ Hidden Church/16th century

Anne Frankhuis/ Amsterdam

Turun Sanomat Building/1927/ Turku/Finland/ Alvar Aalto

Willink House/ Herengracht 386/Painting/ Jurriaan Andriessen/1776

UNESCO Status 17th century canal Belt

As Found/ Grindr profile picture


II

Prologue

05 The Cloud

OCR/Encrypted code

Labyrinth/17th century Parc del Laberint d’Horta/ Barcelona

Maiden Castle/ Iron Age/800 BC–AD 43 Dorset/ UK

The 17th Century Belt/ 1662/ Daniel Stalpeart

Westbattery/1852 Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie

Anatomic Theatre/ Drawing/ 17th century/ University Leiden

Amsterdam/Book/2014 Russell Shorto

No place to hide/Book/2015 Glenn Greenwald

Citizenfour Documentary/2014 Laura Poitras


Page 30-31

The Leak

#belvedère


II

Prologue

06 Collage


Page 32-33

Text

From the digital language words are extracted to generate a ‘glossary’ that evokes analogies in architecture. The introduction of a vocabulary from outside the architectural profession stimulated the imagination during the design process.

#spatialencryption


II

Prologue

07 Glossary

<browser><= passerby> <browsing><= trace of cross-sections> <cache><= archive> <the code><= dna/concept of achterhuis> <client><= visitor><public events> <deep space><= basement><for activism> <domain name><= title of the project> <the feed><= newsroom big screen> <firewall><= room with a fireplace> <forum><= theatre/assembly> <framework><= final design><schemes/sections/models> <full-motion><= body exercise> <gateway><= public corridor> <hibernate><= bedroom snowden> <host><= edward snowden> <interface><= facade> <the leak><= panorama room/belvedère> <literary hactivism><= transforming an existing text> <moderator><= assistant><janitor><cook> <partitions><= rooms and spaces><impressions> <protocol><= design method> <router><= contextual><location> <server><= the building><wall of rooms> <sael><= dining room> <user><= guest><activist/journalist/whistleblower/friend>


Page 34-35

Keyword

Achterhuis is an encrypted building in which the private and public spaces come together in a labyrinthic order. It conceals and reveals at the same time.

#blacktransparency


I

Prologue

Spatial Encryption

07 Glossary


Page 36-37

Blanc

#contextual


III

Chapter

Router

01 From HawaĂŻ to Amsterdam 02 Canal Belt 03 Conceal vs Reveal 04 Domain H268/K265

01-04


Page 38-39

Un Worldmap/ Map of Amsterdam

#contextual

Hong Kong

Moscow Hawaï

Amsterdam

<from/to> <Elizabeth City, N.Carolina,USA> <Fort Meade, Maryland,USA> <Langley, Virginia,USA> <Geneve,Switzerland> <Tokyo,Japan> <Hawaï,USA> <Hong Kong> <Moscow,Russia> <Amsterdam,The Netherlands>


III

Router

01 From HawaĂŻ to Amsterdam

Central Station

Westerkerk

Dam square Keizersgracht/ Herengracht


Page 40-41

Exemplary Location

From the streets, the canalhouses in a row can be experienced as an ‘urban wall’, rather making a street than forming an enclosing building block. However, behind the houses at the street we find often a house in the back, facing the internal garden. The transition from street to garden in the crosssection shows an increasing degree of privacy. The house in the back can be seen as a secret annex, a perfect place to hide. The chosen location is used as an explemplary situation at the canal belt. Two plots, situated exactly opposite to each other, offer the opportunity to connect two canalhouses with each other.

#contextual


III

Router

02 Canal Belt

<mass> <closed building blocks> <void> <hidden gardens inside the block>

Mass

Void


Page 42-43

Typical Block/ Gardens/ Canal Belt

#contextual


III

Router

03 Conceal vs Reveal

Closed Block

<01> <walking around the mass> <02> <imagining the void>

Pass-through

<03> <deleting existing achterhuis herengracht/keizersgracht> <04> <making a pass-through in both houses>

Gardens disclosed

<05> <new achterhuis> <06> <achterhuis functions as a connection between herengracht keizersgracht> <07> <the gardens disclosed by a panorama room>


02

<01> <herengracht 268> <02> <keizersgracht 265>

Section

Gardenhouse

Het Achterhuis (house backside)

Tussenlid (in between)

Het Voorhuis (house frontside)

Page 44-45 #contextual


Het Voorhuis (house frontside)

Tussenlid (in between)

Het Achterhuis (house backside)

Gardenhouse

III Router 04 Domain H268/K265

01


Page 46-47

Adress

#contextual

01

02

<01> <herengracht 268> <02> <keizersgracht 265>


Router

Singel

Herengracht

Keizersgracht

Prinsengracht

III 04 Domain H268/K265


Page 48-49

by Paul Kuipers

Foucault describes one of the principles on which heterotopy is based as the ability to allow multiple spaces to coexist in a single location. He cites the cinema as an example, where in a room another room is evoked through projection on a film screen. As the oldest example of this principle, however, he takes the garden as the place that had multiple meanings. “The traditional garden of the Persians was a sacred space that was supposed to bring together, inside its rectangle four parts representing the four parts of the world, with a space still more sacred than the others that were like an umbilicus, the navel of the world at its center (the basin and water fountain were there); and all the vegetation of the garden was supposed to come together in this space, in this sort of microcosm.� The garden is a small part of the world while at the same time it absorbs the whole world. For Achterhuis this will be an important notion, considering the intention to think about the meaning of a collective space where different times and

#heterotopia


Intermezzo

democratic tastes come together. In that sense, the garden as a model, is a good metaphor for a world where everything comes together. Moreover Achterhuis will connect two canalstreets by a corridor that leads through the garden. Halfway the passerby can take the stairs to a panorama room that gives a view on the internal gardens. In that sense Achterhuis reveals what is hidden. This belvedère will be called The Leak.

Essay 02

THE GRADEN

0


Page 50-51

Private vs Public

#concept


IV

Chapter

The Code

01 Typology 02 Floorplan vs Cross Section 03 Enclosing vs Connecting 04 New Achterhuis 05 HRefs 06 Concept 07 Concept Casted 08 Concept Location

01-05


Page 52-53

References

Monasteries, caravanserails, castles, bunkers and fortifications are all examples of buildings that house a community. It is an enclosed and defensive typology, at the same time there is some interaction with its environment. A place to hide for Edward Snowden should have such qualities as well. It should protect the individual who serves a public debate. Therefore, the house must be both a protector and a connector.

01

#comumunal


IV

The Code

01 Typologies

02

03

<01> <durham cathedral><durham/uk> <02> <caravanserail><iran> <03> <Restormel castle><lostwithiel/uk> <04> <dover castle><dover/uk>

04


Page 54-55

Sketching with tape

#manual


IV

The Code

02 Floorplan vs Cross Section


Page 56-57

Sketching with tape

The monastery, caravanserail, castle, bunker and fortification are mostly build in a rural context, outside the city as autonomous buildings, meant to be defensive. To take this typology into the urban fabric of the 17th century canal belt it should be transformed in order to connect with it’s environment. Instead of an enclosing building it will become a connecting one.

K265

#conceptual


IV

The Code

03 Enclosing vs Connecting

H268


Page 58-59

Scheme

This new typology is projected over the existing situation. In the sequence of ‘house frontside-in between-house backside’ this project becomes a reintrepetation of the house in the back. Therefore the existing ‘houses in the back’ will be removed to make place for a new building. In order to turn a extreme private into a extreme public typology it breaks through the existing ‘house frontside’ to make an announcement on the streetside.

#section


IV

The Code

04 New Achterhuis


Page 60-61

References

Central Axe

<Href> <Garden Villa Lante> <Viterbo/1566> <Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola>

#garden#city#building


IV

The Code

05 HRefs

<Href> <Dover Castle> <Dover/UK/12th century>

Wall of Rooms

Public versus Private

<Href> <Nolli Map> <Map of Rome/1748> <Giambattista Nolli>


Page 62-63

Spatial order

#ministeck


IV

The Code

06 Concept

<Blue><= Public Connection> <Red><= Central Axe with Squares><public rooms> <Black><= Rooms & Spaces><private rooms>


Page 64-65

Model 1:200

#concrete


IV

The Code

07 Concept Casted


Page 66-67

Model 1:200

#contextual


IV

The Code

08 Concept Location


Page 68-69

Text

The mass-void theme is chosen to explore the spatial experience of ‘appearing and disappearing’. The associated design method of casting plaster and concrete models proved to be a good form for spatial investigating the opposites as physicalvirtual, private-public, and individual-collective. The models, often made intuitively, tell their own story but are also part of an ongoing story. Each model passes something on to the next. Research into terminology from the digital world has led to a ‘glossary’ that evokes analogies in architecture. The introduction of a vocabulary outside the architecture stimulates the imagination during the design process.

#designmethod


V

Chapter

Protocol

01 Wall Studies 02 Detail Studies 03 Space Studies 04 Loops & Rhombics 05 Materials

01-05


Page 70-71

Casted Models

#encrypting#manually


V

Protocol

01 Wall Studies


Page 72-73

Casted Models

#encrypting#manually


V

Protocol

01 Wall Studies


Page 74-75

Casted Models

#encrypting#manually


V

Protocol

02 Detail Studies


Page 76-77

Casted Models

#encrypting#manually


V

Protocol

03 Space Studies


Page 78-79

Casted Models

#encrypting#manually


V

Protocol

03 Space Studies


Page 80-81

Making Moulds

#encrypting#manually


V

Protocol

03 Space Studies


Page 82-83

CASP01/Plaster

#encrypting#manually


V

Protocol

03 Space Studies


Page 84-85

CASP05/Plaster

#encrypting#manually


V

Protocol

03 Space Studies


Page 86-87

CASP04/Marble Cast

#encrypting#manually


V

Protocol

03 Space Studies


Page 88-89

Apertures

#formfinding


V

Protocol

04 Loops & Rhombics


Page 90-91

Squares

#formfinding


V

Protocol

04 Loops & Rhombics


Page 92-93

Textures for photoshop impressions

#nature#labyrinthine


V

Protocol

05 Materials


Page 94-95

The Leak

#panoramaroom


VI

Chapter

Framework

01 Sliced Mass 02 Testmodel 03 Public Spaces 04 Programming 05 Final Model 06 Model Location 07 Sections

01-10


Page 96-97

From Analogue to Digital

The outcome of the intuitively and manually casted models, is a complex ordering of spaces that can’t be turned into a scale model made by hand. Subsequently the analogue models are translated into a digital 3d-model, that is sliced every 25cm, as input for lasercutting.

#3d-model


VI

Framework

01 Sliced Mass


Page 98-99

Model 1:100/ Cardboard

#lasercut


VI

Framework

02 Testmodel


Page 100-101

Cross-section Voorhuis/ Casted Facade Achterhuis

Het Voorhuis

The Feed

#scheme

Full-Motion

The Leak

<Het Voorhuis> <= The canalhouse on the frontside> <The Feed> <= Matrixwall for Newsfeed> <FullMotion> <= The Gym> <The Leak> <= Panoramic Room>


VI

Framework

Sael

Forum

03 Public Rooms

Het Voorhuis

Gateway

Deep Space

<Het Voorhuis> <= The canalhouse on the frontside> <Sael> <= Diningroom/Room with a view> <Forum> <= The Assembly/Theatre> <Gateway> <= Public connection between Heren-Keizersgracht> <Deep Space> <= Basement/Underground>


Page 102-103

Scheme of Users

#rubikcube

Y S

M

P

R

U

K

L

Q

V E

E

T

O

W

B

2

4

3

1

5

<1><host><=edward snowden> <2><client><=visitor> <3><guest><=activist/journalist/friend/family> <4><browser><=passerby> <5><moderator><=janitor/cook>


VI

K

Framework

H

F

I N

04 Programming

J

D

G

A B C

E X

<a><bedpeace> <b><entrance forum> <c><entrance moderator> <d><panic room> <e><gateway> <f><forum> <g><forum bar> <h><firewall> <i><bathroom> <j><sael> <k><sun deck> <l><skype room> <m><the leak> <n><firewall>

<o><goto deepspace> <p><niche> <q><full-motion> <r><visitors tube> <s><the feed> <t>garden escape> <u><goto guestrooms> <v><guest route> <w><storage> <x><kitchen> <y><roofterrace> <z><secret>


Page 104-105

Model 1:100

#achterhuis


VI

Framework

05 Final Model


Page 106-107

Model 1:100/ Section Southfacade

#cross-section


VI

Framework

05 Final Model


Page 108-109

Model Wall 02

Casted models (mostly) made by intuition are later in the process re-used and re-interpreted in order to define spatial qualities and or materialization. Model Wall 02 is the prototype for the windowframes of the public rooms. It generates a fragmented and labyrinthic view, both from the outside and the inside.

#window#forum


VI

Framework

05 Final Model


Page 110-111

Model 1:1000

#3dprint#lasercut


VI

Framework

06

Model Location


escape host

entrance moderator host

secret room host

lounge client

CrossSection Voorhuis/ Elevation Achterhuis

basement/watercellar

residence moderator

Page 112-113

#sketchup

the leak: panorama room host/users/clients/browsers


Framework

entrance cook/host

entrance clients

water cellar

gym host

eventspace clients

kitchen

representation/dining room

sleeping loft

residence cook

escape host

VI 07 Sections


Page 114-115

CrossSection Voorhuis/ CrossSection Achterhuis

#sketchup


VI

Framework

07 Sections


CrossSection Voorhuis/ CrossSection Achterhuis

the leak: panorama room/ public stairs

full-motion: the gym host/users

the feed: newsroom host/users

secret room host

entrance/antechambre users

secret room host

basement/watercellar

entrance moderator

lounge/sleeping room clients

entrance users

Page 116-117 #sketchup


walden room host

Framework

eventspace clients

entrance cook

escape room host

water cellar

storage

entrance cook

entrance disabled clients/users

elevator/stairs host/users

forum: the theatre host/users/clients

sael: dining room host/users

VI 07 Sections


Page 118-119

by Machiel Spaan

Achterhuis is a political message about freedom and democracy. The whistleblower, one of the defenders of openness and transparency - and the basis of every democracy - finds no protection in our current society. To address this fundamental right, Paul designed a house for Edward Snowden in Amsterdam at the heart of European democracy. After a long walk in and around Amsterdam, Paul finds the location for his design. A place where the building does not manifest itself as an ‘object’ but as an addition and annex to an existing spatial structure of the historic Amsterdam block. In the Unesco monument, super findable and on the map for the whole world. The designated location becomes the construction site for it’s spatial research and design. The existing buildings on the canal become part of the structure that, in addition to a house for Snowden, also contains a number of collective programs. An unobstructed passage in the building block, rooms for study, lectures and debate, views on the garden and a dinging room, the Sael. The design contributes to the public

#


Intermezzo

debate about dealing with heritage. Paul’s graduation is a political and a spatial manifesto. A design in which you can wander around to be constantly confronted with the freedom of movement, meeting and debate. A confrontation with the space and the limits of our democracy. And again and again the question; in which space does our democracy take place and who is in charge? This graduation project has a special and groundbreaking character. Graduating on a ‘political’ theme and making a statement about it from your designing profession is not easy. With his design (process), Paul has succeeded in making a clear spatial statement about the relationship between the digital world in which we live and the physical space in which we reside. Paul has even prepared his own ‘glossary’. The suggestive effect of this glossary is mind blowing, such as the ‘firewall’ that allows you to recognize a fireplace in many places in the building. Based on themes from the digital world, he questions architecture on multiple levels: city, building block, building,

Essay 03

GRADUATIONTEXT

0


Page 120-121

by Machiel Spaan

space and detail. This leads to surprising spatial, formal and material design proposals that are aptly presented and thus made transparent to the public. The presentation is excellent and overwhelming. More than a hundred models, drawings, sketches, organized in a staged exhibition with the aim of allowing the viewer to wander through his design. Each question is followed by a substantive narrative that shows that much has been considered and nothing has arisen naturally. Paul is the most important criticaster of himself. Time and again he wonders if what he makes, tells what he wants to hear. The result was an excellent graduation project honored with cum laude. With Achterhuis, Paul has succeeded in making all of us partakers of a number of dillemas of the world, permeated with the internet and its impact on our democracy. Themes that, as Paul shows, can also gain meaning in the architecture of the city and the space.

#


0

Intermezzo

After seeing Achterhuis, the view of ‘your’ democratic world changes forever. Machiel Spaan 2019

Essay

03


122-123

Blanc

#facades


VII

Chapter

Interface

01 Garden 02 Interface Public Rooms 03 Canals 04 Portals 05 House

01-05


Page 124-125

Elevation south

#sketchup


VII

Interface

01 Garden


Page 126-127

Masks

01

#facades#publicspaces


VII

Interface

02 Public Rooms

02

<01><north facade> <02><south facade>


Page 128-129

Impressions

02 Public Room: Forum & Sael

<space01> <the theatre> <space02> <private room> <space03> <semi-public bathroom> <space04> <semi-public roof terrace> <space05> <sael:dining room> <event> <snowden bathing> <a href> <edward snowden><stockphoto montage>


VII

Interface

02 Public Room: The Leak

<space01> <public panorama outdoor space> <space02> <private sun terrace> <event> <guest meeting passerby> <a href> <edward snowden><stockphoto montage> <a href> <karl marx><stockphoto montage> <a href> <lc4><le corbusier/1928>


Page 130-131

Impressions

02 Public Room: Full-Motion

<space01> <exercise space> <space02> <lounge niche> <event> <guests using the space> <a href> <anonymous people><stockphoto montage> <a href> <hou je kernkop><demonstratie tegen kernwaperns> <gerda van der veen/1978>


VII

Interface

<space newsroom> <matrixscreen-cascade> <event> <protesting on the roof/ discussion about the ‘sleepwet’ <a href> <de platte pet en/of de sterke arm><leo van der noort/1982> <a href> <matrix-actor keanu reeves> <stockphoto montage> <a href> <the pussy riots><riot days/ asphalt-festival düsseldorf 2018> <a href> <provo robert mulder/1966> <provo!media-fenomeen/niek pas>

02 Public Room: The Feed


Page 132-133

Model 1:100

01

#facade


VII

Interface

03 Canal

02

<01> <herengracht 268> <02> <keizersgracht 265>


Page 134-135

Model 1:100

03

#entrance


VII

Interface

04 Portals

04

<example> <keizersgracht 265> <03> <internal portal> <entrance Snowden/janitor> <04> <external portal> <entrance passersby/public>


Page 136-137

Model 1:100/ Facade detail/ Marble Cast

#concrete


VII

Interface

05 House in the Front/ H268

1 3

1

2

4

6 5

7

8 9

<1><stairs to sleeping loft><guests) <2><entrance home><cook> <3><view on canal><private bedroom><snowden> <4><turning door/counter for visitors> <5><view from corridor to dining room> <6><roomdivider> <7><tunnel to secret room> <8><entrance inside><cook> <9><entrance outside><cook> <10><stairs from dining room to kitchen>


Page 138-139

Blanc

#impressions


VIII

Chapter

Partitions

01 Gateway 02 Forum 03 MySpace 04 Deep Space 05 The Wall

01-05


Page 140-141

Floorplan Mass/Void

The Gateway is the connection from canal to canal. The entrance is open, the direction insecure and cryptic. It is not a street nor a narrow alley. There is no view on the end of the route, there is no control. Escaping is no option. There are spyholes, niches, viewpoints, many doors, stairs. There is water, reflection. There is the possibilty of contemplation, there is disorientation. It resembles the concept of a labyrinth.

#labyrinth


VIII

Partitions

01 Gateway


Page 142-143

Impressions

#activism


VIII

Partitions

01 Gateway

<space> <the corridor> <event> <demonstrating against mass surveillance> <a href> <ban the bomb march london/1960> <patrick lichfield> <a href> <warmoesstraat/2014> <leo van der noort> <a href> <a young male punker jumps up and smiles><stockphoto montage>


Page 144-145

Impressions

<space> <gateway> <event> <whistleblowers conversating in the corridor> <a href> <chelsea manning> <interviewed by filmmaker eugene jarecki/17-09-2017> <a href> <edward snowden><stockphoto montage> <a href> <daniel ellsberg><stockphoto montage>

#manning#snowden@ellsberg


VIII

Partitions

01 Gateway


Page 146-147

10

Floorplan

G

H

6

10 8 11

I

#groundlevel

7

9

F

J

<spaces> <a><antechambre> <b><diningroom> <c><secret room><host> <d><corridor> <e><pond> <f><restricted staircase> <g><antechambre><users><guests> <h><entrance elevator><users><guests> <i><antechambre><visitors/host> <j><entrance><moderator/visitors/host>


VIII

Partitions

01 Gateway

N

E 5

D

C 3

4

B

1

A

E

<portals> <01><public access> <02><entrance><cook> <03><delivery h268><basement> <04><entrance house><cook><entrance clients> <05><entrance elevator> <06><entrance panorama room> <07><portal snowden> <08><entrance moderator><entrance/visitors/host> <09><entrance users><guests> <10><delivery k265><basement> <11><entrance users><guests> <12><public access>

2


Page 148-149

Impressions

#skype


VIII

Partitions

02 Forum

<space> <the theatre> <event> <conference call with the usual suspects> <a href> <edward snowden><donald trump> <mark rutte><theresa may> <angela merkel> <emmanuel macron><vladimir putin><xi jinping><mark zuckerberg><stockphoto montage/> <a href> <snowden/by oliver stone/2014> <film still>


Page 150-151

Impressions

#fireplace#livingroom


VIII

<space> <firewall> <event> <livingroom edward snowden><fireplace>

Partitions

03 MySpace


Page 152-153

Impressions

#activism


VIII

Partitions

<deepspace> <the basement> <event> <silkscreening and other preparations for activism <a href> <edward snowden><photomotage based on experimental jetset’s t’shirtism> <a href> <silkscreen device><stockphoto montage> <a href> <surveillance><Weston-Super Mare/England/2012><zabou> <a href> <provo demonstration with empty banner><Amsterdam/1966> <a href> <rosa parks><webphoto>

04 Deep Space


Page 154-155

Impressions

#leaveamessage


VIII

Partitions

05 The Wall

<space> <the gateway> <event> <leaving a message> <cookie=> <small amount of data/ it’s purpose is to remember information about you/cookies are also used to store user preferences for a specific site issue> <a href> <lvijzelgracht/2018> <leo van der noort> <a href> <wailing wall/jerusalem/1985/> <patrick lichfield>


Page 156-157

Model 1:100

#corridor#pochĂŠ


VIII

Hacked text

05 The Wall

A gateway is a hardware device building that acts as a ‘gate’ between two networks streets. It may be a router, server or firewall that enables traffic people to flow in and out of the networ . A firewall is a more advanced type of gateway, which filters allows inbound and outbound data movement. Simultaneously it connects and protects each nodes citizen within the network society.


Page 158-159

Blanc

#cross-sections


IX

Chapter

01-08

Browsing

8 Scenes Tracing 105 metres

<subject> <cross-sections> <original scale> <1:200> <event> <walking 105 metres from herengracht 268 to keizersgracht 265>


Page 160-161

1:200/1:500

01 Elevation Herengracht


IX

Browsing

08 Elevation Keizersgracht 265

07 The Feed

06 Full-Motion

05 The Leak

04 Sael

03 Forum

02 Bedpeace 01 Elevation Herengracht 268

Scene 01-08


Page 162-163

1:200/1:50

...


IX

Browsing

02 Hibernate

<space> <bedroom edward snowden> <event> <bedpeace><john lennon and yoko ono on honeymoon> <amsterdam/hilton><eric koch/1969>


Page 164-165

1:200/1:75

...


IX

Browsing

03 Forum

<space> <the theatre> <event> <people getting a lesson about how to be an activist> <a href> <anonymous people><stockphoto montage> <a href> <lenin statue><memento park/ Budapest>


Page 166-167

1:200/1:75

...


IX

Browsing

04 Sael

<space> <dining room> <event01> <diner with homeless> <event02> <edward snowden bathing> <a href> <last dinner with homeless> <the passion/groningen/2014>


Page 168-169

1:200/1:75

...


IX

Browsing

05 The Leak

<space> <panorama room/><outside> <event> <guest meeting a passerby> <a href> <doug hayward and michael caine/1971> <patrick lichfield> <a href> <coming soon>


Page 170-171

1:200/1:100

...


IX

Browsing

06 Full-Motion

<space> <exercice space> <event> <swinging/yoga/boxing> <a href> <muhammed ali in gym training chicago><magnum photo’s/thomas hoepker/1966>


Page 172-173

1:200/1:100

...


IX

Browsing

<space> <screen-cascade along three storeys> <event01> <edward snowden on private stairs> <event02> <dutch pirate party preparing a press-conference> <a href> <edward snowden><stockphoto montage>

07 The Feed


Page 174-175

1:200

08 Elevation K265


IX

Browsing

The End


Page 176-177

CA SPACE 11/ Marble cast

#panoramaroom


0

Intermezzo

The Leak


Page 178-179

by Jonas Staal

The secret annex (Achterhuis) of Paul Kuipers; a speculative architectural project that radically interweaves notions such as ‘transparency’ and ‘protection’, resulting in a labyrinthine political morphology. Designed as an alternative whistleblower house for Edward Snowden, you could first of all consider his project as an architectural manifesto with spaces entitled like ‘Panicroom’,’Firewall,’ and ‘Forum.’ Digital terms become material here, and indicate the various positions that Snowden embodies: on the one hand the need for public debate, and on the other hand the need for privacy. This field of tension between public access and privacy extends through his project, perhaps most explicitly in the planned location of the building: with a monumental front on the canal, the building is extremely visible and Snowden’s presence transparent, but the many interconnected spaces behind the building façade, offer all kinds of shortcuts and escape routes at the same time.

#secretannex


Intermezzo

Through Achterhuis, Edward Snowden is here both hyper-public and hyperprivate. Kuipers therefore strives to do more than to depict a utilitarian building that would have the sole function of protecting a whistleblower. The building is almost a portrait or extension of the whistleblower himself. Even if Snowden were physically absent in the building, he is still present. In the hybrid ecology from Forum to Shortcut, his ideas become manifest and open to others; for those who also need protection from persecution, for those who have been inspired and politicized by Snowden’s work, and for those who still need to be convinced of the balancing act between privacy (of citizens) and openness (of the state), which make a meaningful democracy possible. For a speculative visitor of this speculative architecture, a Borgesian labyrinth unfolds. It is better not to enter Achterhuis according to a plan. One has to ‘surf’ there, as in the more utopian era of the internet, people thought about the role of the user who

Essay 04

MATERIAL TRANSLATION OF THE UTOPIAN INTERNET

0


Page 180-181

by Jonas Staal

is inspired and emancipated by infinite replicating seas of data. Men does not find a way in Achterhuis, but makes one, through potentially unexpected encounters and paths. As such, Achterhuis represents not only a place that can serve as protection for Snowden and his criticism of the surveillance state, but is also a resumption of the emancipatory horizon, that once characterized the idea of the internet. An ideal that Snowden is still an embodiment of. What defines this project ultimately? The building is like a portrait of Snowden, a place of protection for Snowden and a dissemination of his ideas. It is an ideological manifesto and a labyrinth, a material translation of the utopian internet, and a criticism of the control society. It is a forum and a hotel, a place of radical strollers and utopian surfers. The façade still shows landmarks of Amsterdam’s old glory, but in the cross-section it looks like a hyper constructivist artwork.

#secretannex


0

Intermezzo

Essay 04

All architecture is inevitably political, because it always makes a statement about what it means to live together, from the shape of the nuclear family to the organization of a common space. However, many buildings are rising without ever making a substantial statement about these issues. The work of Paul Kuipers is far from such a false neutrality. His committed speculative architecture is manifest and poetry combined, transparent and private, shamelessly idealistic and absolutely pragmatic. Jonas Staal 2019


Page 182-183

Blanc

#colophon


0

Chapter

Support

Thanks:

For the inspiring combination of friendship, humour, activism and conversations about our work. Tutors Marlies Boterman Ronald Rietveld Machiel Spaan Comrads & Collegues Annette Bos Younes Bouadi Meintje Delisse Anna Fink David Habets Herman Hake Frits Ham Onno Kamer Jan-Richard Kikkert Ira Koers Bouwko Landstra Cap Labeur Jarrik Ouburg Stephan Sliepenbeek Jonas Staal Herman Verkerk Maarten Vermeulen Paul Vlok Alko de Vries Michiel Zegers Material support Landstra & Ham OTH Riwi Color Stephan Sliepenbeek


Page 184

Banner

Edward Snowden, Permanent Record, London, 2019 E27,99

#hero


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