Chepos 62

CHEPOS built environment magazine

SMART SYSTEMS 62

CASE STUDY SMART CITIES | STATUES ON CAMPUS | INTERACTIVE INTERIORS MAR. 2019

SANTUÁRIO SÃO JOÃO PAULO II COURTESY OF CAIQUE NIEMEYER ARQUITETURA E DESIGN © VILLANOVAPAPA ICÔNE - HAMONIC+MASSON & ASSOCIÉS

The ultimate software from sketch to BIM Sketch, draw, and model in a fully integrated BIM workflow ‘Villanova Icône: an iconic BIM design in Vectorworks, read more on page 21’

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CHEPOS built environment magazine

Our society is perhaps best represented in images. We connect in an increasing amount through pictures and video’s. In our current individualized and narcissistic society, enabled by technology, this way of connecting is altering our perception of reality. Disguised as ‘sharing’, we upload spontaneous pictures of ourselves, carefully staged and edited to prove to the world and indeed ourselves, what a wonderful life we live. The importance of the individual is measured in likes, friends and followers; truth is measured in number of views.

Adapting reality by staging and editing is not

something new, but it has advanced in the era of the computer. Using a two-dimensional medium to represent and alter the three-dimensional world is an obvious choice, since it is relatively easy to stage and to edit afterwards.

To edit reality at an instance, however, is a whole other matter. Technological advancements now allow us to edit the visual reality in real time. Virtual and augmented reality are increasingly common, and the line between what is real and what is not becomes ever more blurred.

lucrative data-mines. The ethical aspects are, of course, discussed by our resident columnist Jacob Voorthuis.

These trends in society resonate in the built environment. Software is implemented in our everyday surroundings more and more. A road is no longer just a road, it is a source of data.

Systems use this data to communicate with each other, predict the future and act accordingly, often without the intervention of men.

Presented as ‘smart’, these systems are said to make our lives easier. But who has access to this data, who controls it and who benefits?

Before you flip the page and start reading this new edition of the Chepos, a last remark. The increasing influence of software changes our perceptions. Reality is no longer perceived closest to the truth as we understand it, we choose to interpret it in our own ways. In a mirage of photoshop and alternative facts, each has his or her own interpretation of what is real.

Using software, we can project these different interpretations onto our environment. In the future, the world we choose to see will be one covered in a veneer of ones and zeroes.

In this edition of the Chepos, our file theme revolves around these smart systems. From the large scale effects on entire cities, to the implications for building design. Are smart systems really the future, or is it just another trend, a marketing vocabulary to dive into

Naturally there is much more to explore in this edition of the Chepos. Read on and be bewildered by bio based buildings. Dive into the psychological aspects of the environment as well as student stress levels. Run around the campus to experience architecture in a different way and get a glimpse of the scattering of statues while you’re at it.

Have a great read!

Bart van Santen Editor-in-Chief

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34 NOW EDITORIAL NL NEWS CHEPOST IS THERE LIFE AFTER UNIVERSITY

Column by Maarten Willems A MUSHROOM PLAYGROUND STRESS DURING YOUR STUDIES

And how to shut up your brain INTERACTIVE INTERIORS WHAT HAPPENED TO CHURCH BUILDINGS

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1 4 6 9 10 12 14 16

FILE: SMART SYSTEMS

SMART 18

Hyped use of vocabulary or the genuine future DESIGN EXPRESS 20 CASE STUDY 22

Songdo, Masdar and Eindhoven THE IMPORTANCE OF IMAGE 24 SMARTNESS AND WISDOM 26

Column by Jacob Voorthuis TALKING ABOUT SMART 28

Interview Bauke de Vries

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THAT’S WHY

TOOLS

EDUCATION AS A DESSERT 30 ARCHITECTURE 32 THROUGH THE EYES OF A RUNNER THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE 34 STATUES ON CAMPUS 36

LASERCUTTING 40 PANTHEON\\

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INDEX 3

King back in a palace After 4 years of thorough renovation, King Willem-Alexander and his family moved back to Huis Ten Bosch in The Hague. The Rijksvastgoedbedrijf gave the order for a 35 million euros renovation back in 2014. Due to rusting pipes, leaking ceilings, woodworms and cracks in roofs and walls, the costs turned out a bit higher; 63.1 million euros.

Text: Joris van der Zwet

After Atlas, Team V moves on to Gemini and Laplace Even before Atlas has been officially opened on the 21st of March, Team V already presented their design for the renovation of both Gemini and Laplace. Together with Royal HaskoningDHV and DGMR, the consortium won the tender.

The Gemini building will be completely renovated to achieve the TUE’s ambitions on sustainability, technology, education and research. It will keep its function as home for the faculties of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering.

Laplace will be transformed into a university wide ‘Education Center’, including lecture halls and study working spots for students of all faculties. For both projects, the ambition is to strife for BREEAM excellent certificates.

A million houses in risk of sag One out of four houses built before 1970 have a high risk of sag, says the KCAF, the knowledge institute dealing with foundation problems. The drought of last years summer caused the groundwater level to reach new depths, which results in sag of clay and peat grounds. Especially houses built directly on soil therefore face the highest risk. Also houses founded on timber foundation poles face risk. They have to stay below groundwater level, otherwise they will rot.

The problems mainly arise in the western areas of the Netherlands, but also Groningen faces a the fast settlement of ground. However, the problem here mainly is the drilling of natural gas. Costs for an investigation on the state of the foundation and a possible restoration can be as high as 50.000 to 60.000 for average houses and 100.000 for big houses.

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Brainport Smart City District plans revealed To the west of Vinex neighborhood Brandevoort, Helmond, a new 1.500 house district will arise with the ambition to become the smartest neighborhood of the world. Ben van Berkel, UNStudios, recently presented his urban vision for the area: “Brainport Smart District is not a pre-determined fixed plan that is designed first and built afterwards; it is a responsible urban ambition, where design and construction will go hand in hand with a stepby-step development, guided by its users. The development will be characterized by the application of the latest technologies and knowledge, becoming a ‘living lab’”.

The project is closely related to the TU Eindhoven. It has been co-initiated by Dean Elphi Nelissen, and the studentteam CASA will built its house on the site.

“Bridge disaster narrowly avoided in 2016” According to professors Rob Nijsse and Ben Ale from TU Delft, the Netherlands just about avoided a national disaster with the Merwedebrug. The bridge, spanning the upper Merwede river at Gorinchem, was as close as 6 days away from reaching its ‘theoretical’ collapse. Engineers from Rijkswaterstaat were performing inspections, when they discovered the bad state of the connections in the 55 year old steel bridge.

This lead to the closing of the bridge for trucks weighing more than 3,5 tons, resulting in a daily loss of half a million euros for the transport sector for a period of 2 months.

However, it seems that the real risk was not that acute as rendered. Large safety factors are taken into account when calculating the lifespan. Furthermore, a sudden collapse, like the Morandi Bridge in Genoa is unlikely, as the Merwede bridge is fully constructed with steel, which would give a ‘warning’ by deflecting first.

Studentteam TU Delft presents Solar Decathlon 2019 prototype The Modular Office Renovation (MOR) student team from the TU Delft recently revealed the definitive prototype for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2019, which will take place in Hungary.

According to student Nienke Scheenaart, the design will bring together existing technology, and combine it in a sustainable and circular complex. After the competition, the prototype will be rebuilt on the TU Delft’s ‘living lab’.

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Images: 1. Paleis Huis Ten Bosch (photo: RVD, 2019) 2. Render Gemini (source: teamv.nl) 3. Verzakt huis (source: Hart van Nederland) 4. Render Brainport Smart District (source: UNStudio) 5. Merwedebridge (source: Hart van Nederland) 6. Render design (source: cobouw.nl)

Sources: 1. Na 4 jaar grondige renovatie woont de koning weer in een paleis. 2019. nrc.nl 2. Team V Architectuur maakt renovatie ontwerp Gemini en Laplace voor TU/e. 2019. teamv.nl 3. Gert Jan Rohmensen. Een miljoen huizen dreigen te verzakken, mede door droge zomer. 2019. Trouw. 4. Ronnie Weessies. Ben van Berkel: ‘Zo’n holistische aanpak heb ik nergens anders meegemaakt’. 2019. architectenweb.nl 5. Ad Tissink.“Nederland ontsnapte in 2016 ternauwernood aan ramp met Merwedebrug”. 2019. cobouw.nl 6.

Marije de Leeuw. Studententeam TU Delft 2019. cobouw.nl

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ChePOST KIM SINNIGE ERASMUS TRAINEE ARCHITECTURE 23 YEARS OLD

Friluftsliv in Arctic Norway I recently packed up my life and moved to an island in Arctic Norway called Vardø. This was because after completing my bachelor, in search of some direction and practical experience, I discovered a small architecture firm called Biotope. Biotope believes that architecture is a tool for the promotion and protection of nature and wildlife, and the firm’s unique approach and expertise seemed revolutionary to me. So naturally I emailed and called them until they agreed to let me join them in the Arctic for a 6-month Erasmus traineeship. I was eager to have an experience so drastically different from anything I had known before, because many of the best things I have learned have been the result of being outside of my comfort zone. This Chepost introduces some of the things that Arctic island life has taught me so far.

Having grown up in Malawi, the concept of “winter” is still relatively new to me. I did not see snow until the age of 19, and when I moved to the Netherlands, I thought it was far too cold and dark. Now I understand that I did not know what cold or darkness was. I arrived in Vardø during the polar night, and saw the sun a total of one time in my first four weeks here. Although the gulf stream keeps temperatures rather mild, shuffling to work in -17°C and blizzard conditions has proved to be less than pleasant, and I have discovered that snow moving at 70kmph is (unsurprisingly) not your friend, and can somehow assault you from all angles at once. I will never complain about Dutch weather again.

The island itself has an area of 3.7km2, a population of about 2000, two Thai restau-

rants, an ice cream truck, a comprehensive taxi service and one pub (quite the contrast from Stratumseind). People get around largely via car or kick sled, and it is not uncommon to see people skiing right through the “city” centre.

There is an annual snowball fight competition called Yukigassen which is taken very seriously, and hosts teams from Russia and Japan among others. There is also a relatively significant number of missing fingers, characteristic of a fishing town.

Next to this collection of unusual qualities, Vardø has a long and rich history. This includes some dark and unexpected chapters, each of which has left its mark. A fortress (complete with the island’s only, and much beloved tree) stands from 1306. A memorial by Peter Zumthor and Louise Bourgeois was erected

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to commemorate the 91 women executed for witchcraft in 1621. An elaborate bunker remains from the time of Nazi occupation during World War 2, and many abandoned houses sit decaying, after the collapse of the fishing industry and halving of the population since 1960. Those who remain are a hardy group of locals, with a sprinkling of some serendipitous foreigners.

Biotope is relatively new to Vardø, and is also leaving its mark on the island. New industry has bloomed in the way of nature tourism, and Biotope has been an essential part of making this happen. Birds and birding are at the heart of this, as well as a very special concept called friluftsliv.

I caught myself wondering “why doesn’t everyone just do this?” It turns out there are several reasons. With a population of just over 5 million, the area of land per person here is almost 30 times that in the Netherlands, and the country’s landscape is outrageously breath-taking and diverse. You might think the weather would be a deterrent, but they have a popular saying for that: “there is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing”, and they really believe it too. They will go outside in ridiculous weather conditions! On top of that, there are relatively few threats.

Friluftsliv is one of those untranslatable words, (like “gezellig” in Dutch) which describes a strongly Nordic philosophy of engaging with nature. The phrase was first used by Norwegian poet Henrik Ibsen in 1859. He referred to it in a sense of wholesome appreciation for the experience one has when communing with nature, and the value of its role in the development of one’s spiritual and physical being.

Since then it has become a widely used and quintessentially Norwegian word.

Since moving to Europe, I have lost an inherent jumpiness, and this has reached new levels in the Arctic. This is because I am for the first time in my life officially in a snake-free zone.

Life here is completely creepy-crawly free.

There are no baboon spiders in the bathroom, no puffadders in the garage, no monitor lizards in the bedroom, and most definitely no spitting cobras in the kitchen. There aren’t even any mosquitoes! Of course there are other threats, but the likelihood of running into an angry moose or brown bear here are near zero (and no, no polar bears). Consequently, the cold and the wind become the main elements of concern when designing for outdoor life.

Spending time outdoors is a large part of Norwegian culture, and always has been. Entitlement to the wilderness is even incorporated into national legislation, with the “right to roam” permitting access to most uncultivated land everywhere in the country. These cultural values have produced a large respect for nature, and unique architecture which mediates that connection between people and nature.

With an immense admiration for this concept,

This means architecture with a clear goal, designed with a very different mindset. The traditional sheltering solution to this outdoor lifestyle is called a gapahuk. This is usually a simple structure, made from local materials, with 3 walls and a roof, and place for a fire in front of it. Biotope takes this concept, as well as the traditional bird hide, and “architects” them. It focuses on creating welcoming, striking and most importantly functional gapahuks

and bird hides. Offering refuge from the brutal arctic wind, and place making.

I had naïvely expected designing these kinds of structures to be relatively easy to get into – and why not? It’s a small scale, outdoor timber structure. With no interior building physics, insulation or elaborate regulations to concern oneself with. I could not have been more wrong. Design parameters are drastically different, and the mindset towards designing just as well. I feel like I am learning to design all over again. Suddenly there is no man-made context. The ground is anything but flat, and most structures need to be lifted into place via helicopter. I expect that I will never feel worthy enough to design for a context of immaculate glaciers and epic fjords, (and I can’t help thinking that a Malawian gapahuk would probably just be a large mosquito net).

Although I am only a couple of months into my time here, I am already grateful to have taken advantage of that small window in life where freedom is at a maximum and responsibility is at a minimum. Coming to this remote and zany place is the adventure of a lifetime, and if I didn’t do it now, I probably never would have. There is a lot to learn from Vardø’s resilience, and Norway’s approach to outdoor life, and I’m looking forward to all the unexpected lessons in the months to come.

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Images: 1. Author portrait (photo: Tomek Dersu Aaron, 2017) 2. Biotope Kongsfjord wind shelter (photo: Tormod Amundsen, 2015) 3. Biotope Hasselnes wind shelter under aurora borealis (photo: Kim Sinnige, 2019)

Sources: 1. Dag T. Elgvin. “Henrik Ibsen’s use of ‘Friluftsliv’”.

North Trøndelag University College, 2009. norwegianjournaloffriluftsliv.com 2. visitvardo.com. 2019 3. “Arctic community looks to the light”. 2013. newsinenglish.no

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What are your career goals?

www.continu.nl

Maarten Willems As teacher and researcher in the unit of AUDE, Maarten Willems writes about relevant developments within the department of the Built Environment

Is there life after university?

Not even a decade ago many fresh alumni contacted me if I could somehow assist them in finding a proper job or even an (underpaid) internship position. I tried wherever I could by providing recommendation letters, email addresses of offices, tips and tricks for applications and portfolios. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Life after University was tough.

Not because those were bad students, quite contrary. No, it was because times were bad. It’s called crisis. Several years later things have changed for the better. I’m rarely consulted for assistance and that is a good sign indeed.

Architects and other professionals in the construction industry have redefined their realms.

Very recently I had a reunion with students who graduated over a year ago. It was heartwarming seeing them. Many had moved from Eindhoven, one was getting married soon, another one already got married and is expecting a baby in a couple of months. How times can change.

But most remarkable: they all have jobs. Respectable jobs, perhaps not extremely well paid yet, but they all have career perspectives. There’s two main reasons for this remarkable prosperity: 1. the economy has changed and 2. the profession itself has changed.

Architects and other professionals in the construction industry have redefined their realms. Because they needed to, or because they wanted to. They are no longer merely men dressed in black, wearing glasses and carrying around pencils and big sheets of paper. Architects are now also working as consultants in renewable energy or circularity, they develop virtual reality environments and are involved in more integral design domains such as graphic, interior or landscape design.

And the funny thing is; we still consider all that a part of ‘architecture’. As Daan Roosegaarde suggested a couple of years ago; we started to claim other realms. The definition of architecture is evolving. If there’s not enough employment in architecture, just stretch the definition. Problem solved.

It reminds me of the scheduling challenge our University was facing with the tsunami of freshmen, which seemed to make the introduction of evening lectures unavoidable. But neither students, nor teachers liked the idea of spending their evenings at University. So what happened? They shortened the breaks a bit and renamed the alleged hours ‘late afternoon’. Simply brilliant.

To answer the question in the title we can paraphrase Star Trek: “It’s life, but not as we know it.”

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Images: 1. Maarten Willems (source: tue.nl) 2. Graduation ceremony Built Environment (photo: Bart van Overbeeke, TU/e)

COLUMN 9

A few months ago, a group of us from the TU/e embarked on designing a pavilion made from fungi as part of our honours project. At first glance, the use of a biodegradable material for a temporary structure seemed ideal.

However, over the course of this project, we have grown to understand the more complex and, yet, valuable reasons for using this material in the built environment. Population growth and urbanisation are creating huge worldwide demand for building materials.

However, steel and concrete production is expensive, energy-intensive and uses finite natural resources such as sand and iron ore.

And with these problems at hand, the need for sustainable materials has emerged from the shadows to take its proper place in the built environment. One possible alternative to the current pallet of materials is the bio-based material called mycelium.

Text: Ananda Jaganathan In recent times, mycelium has gained recognition as a useful building material and has redefined the platform for innovative design.

Defined as the vegetative part of fungi, mycelium has the ability to grow on a wide range of organic substrates, from wood chips to agricultural waste. And in the process of growing, its intricate network of threads is transformed into a material that is comparatively waterproof and can uphold large stresses than its initial state.

In the biofabrication process, the properties of the mycelium structure can be fine-tuned by changing the conditions of growth, for example, humidity, temperature, pH, the species and substrate. The consequence of the following variations is differences in strength, porosity, texture, colour, the orientation of fibre, etc.

These tweeks in the growing process allow for endless possibilities to using mycelium. But the question that becomes more significant is do these variations also provide endless design opportunities? What are the limitations and their consequence?

Artist and co-founder of Mycoworks, Phil Ross, asserts that a mycelium brick can survive the east coast winter with no additional coating and contact to the ground. With only minor

swelling and shrinkage, the brick remains intact when it is completely dry again. In contrast, when the brick in contact with the ground it will decompose over a period of six weeks. Ross, however, does also argue that if the material is maintained properly it can have a lifespan of over twenty years. On one hand, this fungi has several properties that are favourable for architecture. More specifically, the mycelium tissue can trap more heat than fibreglass insulation, it is fireproof, nontoxic, and stronger pound for pound than concrete.

On the other hand, the disadvantages are also prevalent. The most prominent one them being its lack of resistance to water.

In this unbounded space we could experiment and document architectural oddities Long before mycelium was used in structures such as Hifi, designed by David Benjamin, and the pavilion in Kerala, India, its properties were honed as a packaging and insulation material.

Unlike their alternatives, plastic and styrofoam, mycelium byproducts are biologically compatible. By fitting into nature’s recycling system, the material is broken down without any pre-processing. Despite producing 165 million tons of waste annually, the built environment still lacks an adequate solution to manage the resulting waste. In architecture, often times we are immersed in creating something new that we forget about designing for the end of a building’s lifetime. We may think that architecture is timeless and everlasting but the

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harsh reality is that it is bound to be demolished.

In essence, mycelium not only has a practical use in construction, the undemanding decomposing process of bio-based matter, but also a poetic one that is associated with ephemerality. The very fact that mycelium architecture is short lived and leaves no man-made trace makes it more resilient than a brutalist building.

What can be understood is that the very flaw of mycelium can be used to our benefit. Buildings that tend to stand the test of time become progressively expensive to maintain. Shortlived materials propose an alternative solution whereby buildings are built for the present. As time progresses and the architecture regresses, the building is simply decomposed and replaced with another bio-based building, which meets the needs of the society of its time. In order to improve the durability of such materials measures such as coating the surface with a bio-based oil or using organic reinforcement can be taken.

Though these are small changes, they speak volumes about the importance of rethinking the design process when introducing new materials in the building of architecture.

Designing the pavilion As a result of the lack of architectural works using mycelium, research is potent in order to understand the mycelium. In our project, the lab which is a key element to carry out this research also became a playground for architects. In this unbounded spaces, we could experiment and document architectural oddities. One such idea for research is that of vaccumatic prestressed structures, a technique used in most food packaging.

Essentially, the idea is to place the mycelium in a bioplastic film from which air is removed before sealing, making the inside stiff. Emma Whitefield explores this idea in her 2012 artwork for the

Burning Man called Balloonwrap. In a short film, Whitefield illustrates how the Balloonwrap cloud, made from polythene and balloon filling, could be made into a rigid and flexible model that can span large gaps and can be molded to any form.

The mycelium pavilion can possibly also be made in a similar way when used in combination with vaccumatics. As shown in the Ballloonwrap project, the morphological characters are endless and as the structures can be freely reshaped. This characteristic provides a promising approach for the design of a temporary, adaptable load-bearing structure and thus a flexible and reconfigurable self-supporting formwork system. Imagine a pavilion that encourages participation during the construction. Mycelium vacuumised in bio-plastic bags are laid out on the ground and the visitors engage in the process of shaping it into a pavilion. Essentially, they build their own pavilions. . as

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Images: 1. Hy-fi building, designed by David Benjimin (photo: Kris Graves, 2014) 2.

Mycelium bricks (source: koreyrosenbaum. wordpress.com) 3. Process of using vaccumatics

Sources: 1.Thomas Vallas, Luc Courard, Using nature in architecture: Building a living house with mycelium and trees, 2017 2.Amy Frearson, Tree-shaped structure shows how mushroom roots could be used to create buildings, 2017 3. Emma Whitefield, Balloonwrap, 2014

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Stress during your studies And how to shut up your brain As the models of the multidisciplinary project have left plaza and everybody has gone on with their life, the personal aftermath is often only present underneath the surface. Every year, students suffer from the infamous and prestigious project. Still, many walk straight into their Final Project (BEP) afterward, giving many students severe burnout symptoms.

As it turns out, this is not only happening at the faculty of the Built Environment; studies show that students at universities throughout the country experience these problems. What causes this mental exhaustion and, more importantly, what can we do about it? Text: Martha Boekestein At the Hogeschool Windesheim, data was collected on the (psychological) well-being of over 3,000 students. The outcomes were no joke: not only do about 40 percent of these students suffer from (performance) anxiety, also over 80 percent deal with stress by selfmedicating; either with alcohol, drugs, or both.

Besides this, 25 percent of the students have burnout symptoms and a shocking 18 percent have a high suicide risk. Asking for help is not very popular, though: less than half of the students suffering from these serious problems is seeing a professional. Enormous waiting lists and lack of awareness seem to be the major causes of this ignorance.

What on earth causes these problems in the first place? According to researchers at Windesheim and the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the pressure to be perfect is a major cause. Not only getting good grades, but also extracurricular activities and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) seem to add extra pressure on the students. Through social media, students create the illusion that their life is perfect, maintaining the apparent need to be perfect in both your professional and personal life. Add

40 percent of the students suffer from (performance) anxiety a pinch of financial worries due to loans and a dash of living-on-your-own-for-the-first-time crises, et voilĂ : you have your average burned out student!

What now?

The minister of education, van Engelshoven, wants to reduce the mandatory amount of ECTS in the first year, but experts say much more is needed. The Studentenwelzijn network (the network of student well-being) says (better) guidance of the first year students is a necessity in order to help them get used to their new life. Further, they created a five-step plan in order to reduce this high amount of students with psychological problems:

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1. Creating awareness; to reduce the stigma around psychological issues 2. Creating a safe environment; to encourage students to ask for help if needed 3. Prevention and early detection; for instance by an annual screening 4. Professionalizing of teachers and mentors; helpful for the detection of symptoms 5. Offering help and psychological interventions; to reduce the threshold for asking for help Solving the problem The stigma around therapy is not really helping, nor are the enormous waiting lists for (cognitive) therapists. These factors form extra thresholds for students to ask for help, and it is very important that help is easily accessible. This also means that universities and hogescholen (universities of applied science) have to offer help by, for instance, professionalizing their staff, or by hiring extra therapists. Since this is probably not going to happen anytime soon, there are some simple tricks you could use to help improve your focus, memory and shut up your brain. There are several techniques, some more known than others.

Your mind as a muscle A very popular means to find more focus is mindfulness. Though this may sound very vague and hipster, it is nothing more than focusing on one activity at the time. If you really focus on what you are doing, and what you

are sensing during this activity (touch, smell, sound, taste, etc.), you are already training your thoughts to be more focused and less chaotic. Practicing mindfulness during the day can easily be done during simple tasks, like eating your lunch, brushing your teeth, shaving, and so on. For instance, eating a piece of chocolate in a mindful way will truly increase the amount of joy it gives!

Gratitude Many studies have shown that being (actively) grateful significantly improves your well-being, and gives you a more positive attitude towards life in general. Implementing gratefulness in your life can be done by starting a gratitude diary, I can tell from my own experience that this is very helpful for your general well-being. Also, it is very easy ánd you have a good excuse to buy a new notebook. Just start writing down 3-5 things you were grateful for on a given day, this can be anything, from a good cup of coffee in the morning to helpful feedback from a teacher. Studies show that people that write down their gratefulness every day, already have a more positive attitude towards life after a week, so it’s definitely worth a try!

Go with the flow Flow is a mental state in which you are in full focus, and things seem to go automatically.

You can

get in the flow by actively producing something – like writing, making a model, creating a new design, making music – or actively doing something – like working out or reading. With smartphones constantly lighting up with new messages, tweets, posts, emails, snaps, and whatever is new on social media, getting in the

You can get in the flow by actively producing something flow has been getting more difficult in these modern times. A big tip: turn off all notifications and buttons (the red icons that tell you how many messages you have to read) on your phone. When you experience flow more often, you will notice that you are not only being more productive, it will also help clear your mind and enhance the quality of your products.

Why so serious?

Finally, it is important to realize that you are learning, and learning means making mistakes; otherwise it’s not learning but knowing. This seems very obvious, but there are many perfectionists out there that still don’t seem to get it. It is important to try your best and get the best out of your life, but you should not ask for the impossible. Trying to do your bachelors, committees, honors, interns, and work at the same time may be a bit ambitious, so you might need to be more picky about your extracurriculars. Working on your resume and experience is important for your personal development, but if you end up burned out, you might have to start all over again and there is no fun in that.

Images: 1. Brain activity (drawing: Martha Boekestein) 1

Sources: 1. Factsheet Onderzoek Studieklimaat, gezondheid en studiesucces 2017. 2018 2. Network Studentenwelzijn. Actieplan studentenwelzijn 2018. 2018 3. Hoe oefenen in dankbaarheid ons gezonder, gelukkiger en socialer kan maken. 2017. decorrespondent. nl

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INTERACTIVE INTERIORS What makes a space interesting? What causes people to explore and wander around buildings? And how do you ensure a space that facilitates human behaviour in such a way that building and visitor interact with each other? I am sure that most of you have thought about this in some way or another and that you were not able to come up with a clear answer yourself. Architects have been concerned with these questions for a long time and they try to formulate theories that might answer these ever existing searches for knowledge. However, there is already a theory that explains this interaction to a large extent: the Theory of Affordances.

Amusingly, this theory has its roots in a whole other discipline: environmental psychology.

The problem is that this discipline is not yet applied in architectural practices. Text: Karim Jaspers

sense that they can afford lifting and carrying (suitcases, books, chairs etc.), while others are manipulable (clay, paper, liquids etc.). Other objects can be graspable, but to be graspable an object must have two opposite surfaces with a distance in between them that is smaller than the span of a hand. A simple cube of ten by ten centimetres is graspable, but one of thirty by thirty is not. The latter does not afford grasping. Now think about in how many ways you could use this Chepos you are reading: what purposes could it have?

The Theory of Affordances has been invented by the famous psychologist James J. Gibson in 1976. It is considered one of the base theories of environmental psychology and one that can be used in architecture, engineering design and many other fields. Some even argue that “the concept of Affordance is more fundamental to architecture than other often studied concepts, particularly that of form” Personally, I do not agree entirely with this statement as I think the sole appearance of a building can tell incredible stories (you know, a picture is worth a thousand words). However, it does show its potential and affordances do influence appearance. But what does this theory of affordance actually mean? Gibson formulates the theory as follows: “The affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill. ... I mean by it something that refers to both the environment and the animal in a way that no existing term does. It implies the complementarity of the animal and the environment”

To illustrate this still rather vague theory, Gibson gives some examples as well. Take for example a horizontal surface compared to a vertical one: the horizontal surface affords standing, walking and running. Gibson suggests that human beings unconsciously recognize an opportunity to stand on a horizontal surface when they see one. In a similar manner, a slope can afford walking, climbing, sliding or falling, depending on the angle and texture of the surface.

The same occurs with objects: each object affords a different action, a so-called ‘action setting’ of that object. Some are portable in the

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The chair above is part of the art collection called The Uncomfortable by Katerina Kamprani (if you want to feel even more uncomfortable, check out her other work as well). It is a good example of a bad action setting. When you observe this chair, you visualize yourself trying to sit on it and failing horribly, because this chair does not afford sitting. The same process happens with normal chairs, but then the thought is made unconsciously as the activity is nothing extraordinary or surprising.

What we know so far is that visible objects and surfaces have affordances, but what about spaces that are not visible, yet you know they are there. These intangible spaces do not have a visible contribution to affordances, still they can evoke exploration and curiosity. Not knowing what is behind a door can be more exciting than having a clear overview of the space. However, a space should not be hidden away or cast in shadows as this would diminish the sight too much. It would make a space feel threatening instead of inviting. As an architect, it is for that reason valuable to play around with this trade-off between hiding and revealing spaces. By creating opportunities for exploration, a building is no longer a passive

To illustrate this, a small-scale object will be analyzed using affordances and action settings.

I am sure you are all familiar with the K.O.E. statue in front of Vertigo. It is a clear example of how sculptures can influence the interaction with users. On how many surfaces of this statue is it possible to sit? And what about standing? Have you ever wanted to climb on top of it (or have you already done this)?

These are only a few of the large number of possibilities this simple statue can afford. Think of all the different actions settings and usages for this sculpture. The reason the KOE-statue has so many action settings is because all surfaces facilitate human behaviour. They are all made in the same scale as humans live in.

Those platforms that afford sitting are made just wide and high enough so it can resemble a chair. They even added backrests at some places to complete this action setting. This goes to show that knowing human behaviour and perception can facilitate the design process.

Sometimes a lack of attention in this subject can cause awkward situations: remember those wide, concrete panels at the entrance of Vertigo that are supposed to be ‘stairs’? I wonder what action settings were thought of when designing those surfaces. Maybe the architect expected that everyone would always be late and therefore everyone had to run all the time. Anyway, what these stairs are good at is to demonstrate that appearance is not supreme. In my opinion, affordances are of equal importance. Architects should design as if being a visitor themselves. They ought to create places - depending on their function of course - that afford exploration and curiosity to engage visitors with the very building they are visiting. Interactive interiors create interesting spaces. Who knows what might happen if more theories based on environmental psychology are applied in architecture?

Then how does this Theory of Affordances relate to architecture? Horizontal surfaces afford standing and walking, while stairs afford climbing. This means that whenever a person sees such a surface, he (un)consciously thinks about going there and trying out the action setting of this surface. Having one large horizontal surface affords mostly one movement, that of walking. A hanging platform supports walking, climbing towards it, hanging onto it, jumping off of it and on and on. When we are walking through a space, we do not merely observe it passively. Instead, the built environment actively primes us to prepare for action and formulate goals in preparation to act. With enough affordances in a space, it becomes interesting to us.

shelter for its occupants - it creates a playful interaction between building and visitor. It asks for being examined to understand the pattern behind it.

When we are walking through a space, we do not merely observe it passively.

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Images: 1. Uncomfortable Chair #2 (source: Katerina Kamprani) 2. The Uncomfortable Entrance (photo: Katerina Kamprani) Sources: 1. Parisa Akbari & Hassan Sattarisarbangholi. “Architectural Design Based on Environmental Psychology Perspectives”. The

Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communcation, 49(Special Ed), 2016, p.807-813. 2. Richard Buday. “Let’s Put Narrative Back into Architecture”. 2017. Commonedge.org 3. A. Coburn, O. Vartanian & A. Chatterjee. “Buildings, beauty, and the brain: A neuroscience of architectural experience”. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29(9), 2017, p.1521-1531. 4. Jen Jack Gieseking, William Mangold, Cindi Katz, Setha Low & Susan Saegert. The People, Place, and Space Reader. Abingdon: Routledge, 2014, p.5660. 5. Sarah Williams Goldhagen. Welcome to your World: How the Built Environment Shapes our Lives. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2017.

6. Jonathan R.A. Maier, Georges M. Fadel & Dina G. Battisto. “An affordance-based approach to architectural theory, design, and practice.”Design Studies, 30(4), 2009, p.393-414. 7. Natali Ricci.

The Psychological Impact of Architectural Design. 2018. Scholarship. claremont.edu 8. Charles Siegel. Architecture and Evolutionary Psychology. N.d. intbau.org

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church buildings ?

what happ - ened to 1000 years ago the church building was the epicenter of the community. On Sundays, many visited a building that was almost always in the middle of the town or village.

It is clear that the church building now attracts far less visitors. Even so little that over more than 400 churches in Brabant alone are “threatened with extinction”. From a financial point of view, the building is better to be demolished, because both the renovation costs as well as the maintenance costs are too high. In these unfortunate cases, the parishes are at their wit’s end, reaching out for help to the municipality (“will you please buy my building?!”) or to the government and in the latter case, ask for subsidies from the National Monument Service, in order to gather together some money. Text: Merel van Hooren

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Images: 1. Dominicanenkerk Maastricht (picture: Niels Dusseldorp) Sources: 1. Het kabinet wil de slopen van kerken helpen voorkomen. 2018, trouw.nl 2.

Kerkenvisies pilotgemeenten binnenkort van start. 2018, toekomstreligieuserfgoed.nl

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Profitable? Absolutely not. But the impact of a church is much greater than the number of walls in which it is located. It is the church where your niece is baptized, your mother is married and your grandfather has died. The church where each Christmas you just go to for the right Christmas feeling, maybe even with Easter to get a small sandwich in the form of a hare. A building with memories, of which it is so desperately clinging onto. “It would be a shame if hundreds of years ago people had done so much effort to build such a grotesque building and we - this generation - cannot keep it now?�1 Moreover, vacancy and eventually demolition is also beneficial to the community, than the re-use is often even cheaper. But to demolish the building or not is usually not the point of the discussion: it is the new function that antagonizes people.

The result is a hot-and-cold discussion in which feelings run high with both progressive and conservative parties. The situation around the financial picture behind the church has deteriorated and the church board is coming up with all possible solutions: they wait for donations from individuals, sell ground around the church (which is usually very central, so attractive) or make the church literally a smaller space. Example of all three previous options: The Holy Spirit Church in Oss. Unfortunately, these solutions are only temporary and more a reprieve than a lifesaver. What is leading in this situation? A well-considered transformation can offer an excellent outcome.

Unfortunately, transforming to a new function is the biggest point of discussion and often ends up there. If there is no change in the political debate, the ecclesiastical heritage is unfortunately lost.

That the discussion of church vacancy is set high on the national political agenda is a fact.

325 million euros were made available for maintenance, restoration and renovation of the total cultural heritage in the Netherlands. This includes the monasteries and churches that have been designated as a national monument. Central to the Chamber is that a church determines the cityscape and therefore should be preserved.

A few interesting examples are of course the Petruskerk in Vught, the Dominican church in Maastricht, the Giudici chapel in Schiedam, the Jopenkerk in Haarlem - the list is perhaps short, but promising. These churches have regained their place in the community, but with a new function. The search for a suitable destina-

The goal of a church vision? Gain insight in other parties interests.

tion does not have to be difficult, but simply requires customization.

Politics can be a connecting factor in this situation, who try to strive for a church vision for every municipality.2 The goal: to preserve religious heritage. This is drawn up under the guidance of process supervisors, who determine which parties will be involved: real estate developers, church owners, local residents etc. In summary, the point is that the parties do not surprise each other with ad hoc decisions or only look at it from their own narrow minded point of view. The parties sit around the table with each other and gain insight into each other’s interests. After that, joint choices are made and solutions are sought for the future course of the building in question.

The focus is on four points: cultural-historical value, maintenance state, financial situation and future expectations compared with the zoning plan. In this way municipalities are encouraged to think about the total church population per municipality. Important in these visions are also the church owners: they must provide clarity in advance about the future of the churches and what - in their eyes - can or can not. Of course, drawing up such a church vision is not always easy. Not all parties will see their preferred choice honored. Fortunately, consolation can be found that it includes an informed choice and it involves a larger whole of other churches. In this way, the firm discussion between owner, believers, local residents, the municipality and sometimes also heritage specialists can be stopped and a rational decision can be made based on trust.

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file:

Smart Systems

From case studies to an interview with Bauke de Vries; this 62nd edition of the Chepos about Smart Systems has it all. As the word “Smart� is quite the umbrella term, the file will start with a small introduction on the vocabulary. Further, the column of Jacob Voorthuis will discuss smartness and wisdom in architecture, the interview with Bauke de Vries will answer many questions on privacy, information systems, and China, and the file will end with an nice dessert filled with education. Curious yet? Have a look in this brand new file! Text: Martha Boekestein

Smart

Hyped use of vocabulary or the genuine future It is 2019, after one wakes up by the alarm on their smartphone, one asks its smartspeaker about today’s weather, one walks into their kitchen which is already heated by their smart thermostat, where the smart home system has already opened the curtains. A notification on your smartwatch lets you know that the road to work is very busy, so you’ll have to leave early to be on time. 20 years ago, this might have sounded like a movie scene from some kind of Sci-Fi movie, while it has become commonplace already in 2019. Text: Niels Dusseldorp Within the built environment the word “smart” is popping up more and more. With the use of smart mobility one motivates the expansion of roads surrounding Eindhoven to reduce traffic congestion, but ideally, it would solve the issue. One might ask them self, is smart really the future, or is it just a fancy term.

The term smart often is used to express the use of current day ICT developments and sensors in gathering data about the built environment, combining it with finance, planning and civilian input, using it to make strategic choices in further developments. It can be seen as a common term for a collection of implementations.

When this data package is used with regards to the city, it is deemed as “Smart City”. To make

It approaches a utopian system, where everything can be determined and solved based on data.

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sense of the actual term, we will have to take a look at the aim and use of the Smart City.

Within the Smart City one aims to improve livability, sustainability and accessibility, through the use of digitalisation, technical innovations and data analysis. In a Smart City both inhabitant, company and municipality contribute to gathering the data, resulting in a constantly updated package of information. This package, with the right interpretation, can be used to solve or prevent problems. It approaches a utopian system, where everything can be determined and solved based on data.

One can ask themselves if these problems are relevant for society, or if the problems are sought for, just for the sake of innovation or to shift the problem to someplace else. We never knew that we needed all of our current smart devices, like phones, watches or fridges, until we actually owned one. The expansion of roads surrounding Eindhoven will release some pressure on the congestion, but will also encourage more car use. In the case of Smart City one should prevent the Smart City from becoming a fixed concept, instead, it should be seen as a tool which optimally uses technical innovation and data to improve the city. Only then we’ll be able to state that the Smart City is not just a fancy term, it might just be the actual future.

Images: 1. New York Skyline (source: www. peakpx.com)

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THE COMPLEX MORPHOLOGY OF VILLANOVA ICÔNE In 2015, the architecture fi rm Hamonic+Masson & Associés won a competition to design the Villanova Icône project, an urban apartment building in France, for French property developer Nexity.

This award-winning fi rm was founded in 1997 and is expanding internationally. A leader in the European architecture scene, Hamonic+Masson works with public and private owners to create all types of projects, including housing, public equipment, business real estate, infrastructure, and more.

Their Villanova Icône building is located at the junction of three different urban settings just northwest of Paris in the town of Gennevilliers: the Agnettes sector, the Chandon-République ecodistrict, and the Calmette sector.

The design team was challenged to create a building with complex morphology. The project has many exterior balconies and terrace spaces, and using Vectorworks helped them manage the interior and exterior passages in detailed drawings. “The principle of layers allows us to easily change between interior, exterior, and isolated spaces,” said Gaëlle Hamonic, founding partner. “Vectorworks facilitates the conception and completion of complex

projects. It is effi cient and functions well with our architectural style and our concept development.”

A landscaped garden at the heart of the building’s ground fl oor blends in with the surroundings, an important factor in the design, as the building is located within an eco-friendly district. The ground level contains shops, porches, and hallways that add a richness to the pedestrian level, while the apartments are situated in a fanned-out array, giving the 17-story building a distinctive look while adding architectural richness to the façades.

The team of engineers, landscape designers, economists, and construction contractors have worked hard to ensure the success of the project. The building is currently under construction and will be fi nished in early 2020.

The Villanova Icône design is featured in the launch of Vectorworks 2019. Learn more about the exceptional quality and performance in the newest release of our software at vectorworks.nl.

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Case study Songdo, Masdar and Eindhoven What does the future of cities look like? A very big question with not one answer. Many architects, engineers, and inventors have had different ideas about how cities can be organized and what could be achieved. One of the solutions is the Smart City: convenient, organized and fluent. But why are we not building them if the Smart technology can make our lives easier? What exactly is hard about implementing these technologies into day-to-day lives? There is a certain utopia like idea of what we want to strive towards with Smart Cities, but is this really what we want to achieve? We examined three case studies that each implement Smart technologies in their own way. More importantly, we looked at the effects of them and compared the results. Text: Karim Jaspers and Henryk Gujda

Songdo - The Lonely Smart City Songdo is an International business district located thirty kilometers South of Seoul, South Korea. It is currently the biggest and most expensive private development project in the world, accumulating up to forty billion dollars in costs. The size of this development is huge and includes the currently tallest building in the country as well as replicas of New York City’s Central Park and Venice’s waterways. Remarkably, it has been completely built from scratch.

The city itself is designed in an environmentally friendly way with electric vehicle charging stations around the city. It has the biggest density of LEED-certified buildings in the world. It includes a sewage system that reduces the amount of drinkable water being wasted, and a pneumatic waste disposal system that sucks waste right out of homes and street garbage cans, automatically sorting it for recycling.

On top of that, Songdo incorporates a computer into every house, street and office, creating a WAN (Wide-Area Network) that enables a number of practical and convenient services.

For instance, it helps managing the traffic around the city by analyzing and managing the data. Additionally, it contains some home appliances with which you can stream the university lectures or call your neighbours. The houses are pleasant to live in and inhabitants can easily control anything from the temperature to lighting with a centralised panel or with their phone.

Although it had a title of being the smartest city, the 21st centuries showpiece of urban design created other problems. Inhabitants reported being alienated from their neighbours,

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as well as experiencing trouble finding the vibrant international community that has been loudly advertised. The city is underpopulated and has even been dubbed as ‘ghost town’.

Songdo is lacking cultural amenities and it is situated at a rather uncomfortable distance from Seoul. Lastly, overly high prices make the city almost exclusively for foreigners.

Masdar - The Green Ghost Town Masdar is a city in the United Arab Emirates, located 15km away from Abu Dhabi. It has been created as a hub for green tech companies and therefore carefully planned to be both a green and a smart city. It utilizes a smart grid electricity supply system that uses data to respond to the local power usage. The entire city is powered by close to 70 000 solar panels, with the goal of creating a self-sustaining, net-zero city.

In the context of the rich society of emirates it was possible to create a tremendously high end, well-planned and technology-intensive city with peculiar quirks and features specific for this development. The city is made completely car-free, making all the streets walkable alleys. Cars need to be left on the outskirts of the city, and then you can use a personal rapid transit system to get around.

On top of that, the city emerges in the middle of the desert, however, the climate on the streets is carefully maintained. This is done by placing the high buildings very close to each other to protect the street from direct sunlight. Additionally, there is a number of 45 meter high towers that serve only the purpose of sucking air in from above to create a cool breeze in the streets.

Utopian, net-zero city of Masdar did not really work out as planned But utopian, net-zero city of Masdar did not really work out as planned. Due to the financial crisis only 5% has been built and the completion date has been postponed from 2020 to 2030. According to Chris Wan, the design manager for Masdar City: “As of today, it’s not a net-zero future. It’s about 50%.” However, it can be seen as a revolutionary project with which new lessons could be learned. It is part of a process that gives insight into what the future could look like, although it is not the

Smart Systems final solution. The amenities are amazing and carry a very high standard.

Eindhoven - The Smart Society

Now that we have dealt with two very extreme projects, we will zoom in to a case study which is more familiar and close to us: Eindhoven.

Compared to Masdar and Songdo, Eindhoven does not sound or look like a Smart City at all. Most houses are cheap and there is no sign of any futuristic, Smart utopia. The only resemblance is the High Tech Campus and our beloved TU/e, that is very proud of their intelligent Atlas building.

But underneath this first, unattractive layer of the city center, a second layer opens up to a whole Smart City. Contrary to Masdar and Songdo, Eindhoven did not set unrealizable goals for themselves. They do not desire a perfect utopia or a novel way of accomplishing net-zero energy usage. Eindhoven uses Smart innovations to solve existing problems, nothing more. Hence, the municipality calls it a Smart Society rather than a Smart City. All technologies used in Eindhoven aim to contribute to the general well-being of its inhabitants and companies.

You might have heard about the Living Lab that conducts experiments on Stratumseind to resolve dangerous situations. Numerous cameras and microphones are installed that scan the area and detect the behaviour of late-night visitors. Visual and auditory data are combined together to form a map of the entire street on which the behaviour of crowds is visible.

This map is then used to analyse the effect of different adaptations on Stratumseind, such as using warmer colours or releasing the calming scent of oranges with smoke machines.

Other applications of the Smart Society can be found in mobility and air quality. The amount of cars are being registered by sensors. Then this data is being transferred to the traffic control systems to reduce traffic jams on the busy roads. The data is open to everyone and can be used by other individuals or companies. One example is AiREAS, a community of individuals, companies and the municipality cooperating to improve the air quality in Eindhoven. They combine their own air quality sensors with the open data of traffic control to study the exact effect of traffic on the air quality. This shows that the Big Data obtained by the municipality can be used by anyone who is interested in improving the well-being of citizens.

Big Data obtained by the municipality can be used by anyone who is interested

These case studies show a debate between two contrasting usages of Smart innovations. On the one hand, Smart technologies can be used to achieve a greater goal, such as the desired net-zero energy achievement of Masdar. On the other hand, they can merely be used as a tool to resolve existing problems, just as it is being used in Eindhoven. We know from these three case studies that the latter is more effective and realistic, but completely disregarding the huge possibilities of big data might be too rapid to claim. To successfully make a design based on big data, you would have to use a few, controlled parameters. In that way, the building process becomes organized and clear again. Parameters ought to be used to resolve

It should merely be used as a means to enhance the quality of life of inhabitants, not as a final goal existing problems, instead of creating new problems themselves. An interesting parallel could be made between this discussion and the one of parametric design, which also uses different input parameters as design strategy.

These criteria can be the amount of light, people, sound and so on. They are then used to create the perfect building that optimizes every parameter. However, this can be exaggerated - too many parameters develop an impractical complexity. A complexity for the sake of being complex, such as what happens in the famous buildings of Zaha Hadid. It should merely be used as a means to enhance the quality of life of inhabitants, not as a final goal. Although the aim of Masdar and Songdo was not the Smart technology itself, they did want to celebrate these technologies and develop a Smart City.

Nonetheless, it is great that municipalities, companies and individuals experiment with the Big Data and study all of its possible implementations. Perhaps a true Smart City can exist, but this should evolve over time and not be built from scratch.

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Images: 1. Masdar City Rendering (render: commons.wikimedia.org) 2. Eindhoven Piazza (photo: Ralf Roletschek)

Sources: 1. Chris White. “South Korea’s ‘Smart City’ Songdo: not quite smart enough?” March 25, 2018. Scmp.com 2. Linda Poon. “Sleepy in Songdo, Korea’s Smartest City”. June 22, 2018.

Citylab.com 3. Amanda Sawit. “Championship golf course secures Songdo IBD’s sustainable status”. December 16, 2015. Usgbc.org 4.

Suzanne Goldenberg. “Masdar’s zero-carbon dream could become world’s first green ghost town”. February 16, 2016. Theguardian. com 5. Masdar: a Mubadala company. “Masdar: deploying clean energy worldwide”. 2019. Masdar.ae 6. SmartwayZ. “Smart City Eindhoven: innovatieve technologieën, beter functionerende stad”.

Smart Mobility Stories, 10, 2018. 7. Bjorn Brinkman. “Stratumseind Eindhoven: hoger veiligheidsgevoel én leuker door Living Lab”.

March 13, 2018. Securitymanagement.nl 8. Patrick van den Brink.

“Veiligheidsverleiding”. November, 2016. Kenniswijzerzwerfafval.nl 9. GlowFM. “Hoe wordt Stratumseind veiliger gemaak?”. February 10, 2019. Glowfm.nl 10. AiREAS. “AiREAS”. 2014. Aireas.com

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The Importance of Image Architecture has a long history of striking images to present itself. The rise of the digital era and the virtual 3d models seems to push the importance of insta-worthy pictures of designs even higher on the agenda. Architecture, however, explores much more than just the visual. Is the balance off and do we attach too much value to the two-dimensional representation of our profession, or is the image the only proper medium to explore and communicate solutions to existing problems? Text: Bart van Santen

The evolution of image In order to create, an architect must go through a process of imagination. The very word imagination already gives some implication of the importance of images in the process of design. Creating an image in your mind or on paper is an important tool to test concepts and ideas in order to progress in the process.

Early on this meant drawing and building scale models to explore options. Collages were made by carefully cutting out images and pasting them together to research different design solutions. In the computer age, new ways of exploring and visualizing design options have arisen. The image output is increased dramatically and scale models are built increasingly in a virtual environment. The next step in design is the usage of virtual and augmented reality techniques; walking through an unbuilt building as the ultimate way of visually communicating the design to stakeholders.

The necessity of image Architects are trained to visualize spaces, structures and so on. Explaining ideas between architects can often be done non-visually

Architecture is consummated more through images than through any other medium because of that. However, to explain complex concepts to people who have not had the

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same training is difficult, and images can help clarifying things. To communicate your design to the client, having representative images is essential. Architecture is consummated more through images than through any other medium. People who see a picture of a building usually outnumber those that actually visit it by a large margin. Not just the architect uses images to communicate to the client, the client uses these images to communicate to third parties as well.

In a society with an increasing output of information and an increasing speed with which information is processed, people turn to pictures. Sayings like ‘a picture tells more than a thousand words’ are illustrative of this. Besides it being conceived of as more efficient, the decreasing concentration capabilities of contemporary society are better served by quick images than by lengthy and intricate jargonfilled descriptions. Not just in architecture but in all branches of society images are the go to medium. In selection processes the image plays a dominant role. Restaurants, for example, are chosen not just by rates and reviews, but by images as well. To stand out in a competitive field such as architecture, the architects are almost condemned to create images that give them the edge, stressing the importance of the images even further.

It is, however, not just architects trying to outsmart the competition with as fancy pictures as possible; architectural magazines and websites find themselves in a similar rat race. As a consequence, articles feature an increasing amount of pictures and a decreasing amount of text.

Smart Systems

The images used are often edited and technical drawings simplified to project not necessarily reality, but the agenda of the magazine.

the structural and physical elements of design are reduced to making the image possible, rather than being integrated in the process of creation.

The limitations of image The prime position of images to communicate and convince within architecture does stress the importance of the formal characteristics of buildings. Although humans process about 80% of all information through vision, experiencing a building or a space is about much more than what you see. Not just the formal, but also the physical aspects make or break a space. The feel of a rough surfaced concrete wall, the echoing (or lack thereof) of a large space, the smell of wood in a forest cabin are all important factors of a design that cannot be conveyed truthfully through images.

Good architecture is about solving complex social and spatial problems. This aspect of design does not always lend itself to be represented well by means of pictures. Buildings are created in a context and should respond to its surroundings. A picture, however, cannot show (all of) that context. Creating a building with imaging as the main driving force, can result in autonomous, interchangeable objects rather than buildings planted thoroughly in their surroundings.

The increased specialization within the field of architecture, and the increasing focus on imaging, stresses the role of architects as sculptors; being responsible mainly for the formal aspects of a design. The advancements in BIM software present enormous advantages in bringing together the fragmented disciplines that make up architecture. The emphasis on creating beautiful images, however, result in architects using virtual models mainly as a tool for producing pictures. The possibilities of getting quick feedback on how design decisions affect the building’s structural and physical characteristics are often used in a limited way.

As a result, the disciplines stay separated and

Conclusion The image has taken an important place in the communication of design throughout history. When society evolves into an increasing pictorial reality, contemporary architecture naturally follows. As the image becomes more

...the focus of architects often shift from problem solving towards aestheticization important, the focus of architects often shift from problem solving towards aestheticization.

Rather than combining all disciplines that make up architecture, software is used mainly to create images and, as a next step, the realization of these images. This in turn can lead to an architecture which is as flat as the striking images that lie at the core of its creation. To resolve this issue, it is important to reconsider the role of the image in the design process. To start treating the image as a tool for research and the exploration of design options. To communicate design ideas, the images should be aimed at clarification, not to impose. In other words, the image should be treated more as a tool, a means rather than an end.

Images: 1. Vodaphone headquarters Porto (source: Wikimedia) 2. Beijing Egg (source: Wikimedia) 3. Bridge Singapore (source: 7 8 Goodfreephotos.com) 4. Antwerp Port house 9 10 15 11 (source: Wikimedia) 5. Calgari Library (source: 12 13 Wikimedia) 6. Bodega MarquĂŠs de Riscal en 14 Elciego (source: Wikimedia) 7. Firmenzentrale (source: Wikimedia) 8. Lisboa Portugal (source: Wikimedia) 9. The MAAT (source: Wikimedia) 10. Singapore (source: Goodfreephotos) 11. Absolute Towers (source: Wikimedia) 12. Milwakee Art Museum (source: Wikimedia) 13. Leonardo Glass Cube (source: Wikimedia) 14. Holloway Road (source: Wikimedia) 15. Design House (source: Wikimedia) 2

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Jacob Voorthuis Jacob is a publicist, associate professor and lecturer, who professes enthusiastically about philosophy and architecture.

Smartness

Smartness is fashionable. And before you start thinking that I mean that in any way derogatively, let me assure you that I do not. For something to be fashionable means that people are turning their mind to it. That does admittedly mean that all sorts of minds are so turned: smart ones, not quite such smart ones, ones that bear a grudge against everything smart, simply because they enjoy bearing grudges, and so forth. It is this uncontrolled everybody-ness of the fashionable and all this muchdivided-attention-giving that might become a little overbearing; which is possibly why in some circles, being fashionable is not so fashionable.

A more satisfactory approach might be allowed to those who take care to filter that tsunami of scrambled attentiveness that comes with being fashionable. I tend to enjoy and pay attention to only certain contributions. For example, I enjoy the contributions of those who can explain well what I do not understand; who can excite me when I feel only blankness or ennui; and those who can take things a step further in the discussion because they see openings where others see only impenetrability.

The contributions I do not often enjoy are those that adulate and confabulate without critique or knowledge, or that just dismiss something out of hand because it is fashionable. And I particularly dislike those that see only doom and gloom, threat and horror and exude an over-cooked-cabbage-and-Brusselssprout-like atmosphere of general misery, narrow-mindedness and awfulness.

Smartness being so fashionable, has probably contributed to the fact that we have increasingly become immersed in an increasingly smart world: an internet of people-and-othercreatures, ideas and things, all of them driven by algorithms.

Why this brave new world is called smart, I gather (rather than say good, wise, beneficent, provident or mad), is that the smart world is driven by an intelligence that is only conscious by proxy. This expensive way of putting it disguises a simple idea: there are forces at work in this internet of everything that we call intelligent because of their adaptivity (after all that is what being intelligent means: being able to adapt to new conditions so as to accommodate yourself well) but they are not necessarily conscious in the same way we would call ourselves conscious

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as exhibited in our ability to enjoy a beer or think about where we are.

So, an algorithm driving the relationship between my phone, my HIFI and my bank account is smart but cannot be called conscious. It does what it does and it does so intelligently in that it can take account of certain specified variables to respond adequately. We are conscious beings within this internet of creatures, ideas and things, and so we try, as well as we can, to steer things in a direction that we feel is wise. And that is surely something we should be thankful for: “Thank goodness” I hear people saying: “smartness, remains firmly in the service of wise people who are fully conscious of what is happening and will prevent disaster and cataclysm happening….”

Smartness may know good means to good ends, but has not yet had time to learn of their long-term value.

Consciousness is difficult to define, but let’s just call it awareness, (whatever that means). The interesting thing about defining consciousness as awareness is that we soon come to realise that we are less different to the smart technologies than we might hope or think we are. In us, intelligence precedes consciousness. Our biological algorithms produce our awareness, not the other way around. Consciousness is a product of intelligence and not its cause and intelligence is, in turn, a consequence of pure mechanics and its logic. Our body does all sorts of intelligent things to keep us alive and well, many of which we are not aware and most of which we are only aware in a very special and rather narrow sense. There is much that goes on that we are not aware of. The result of this is that consciousness is, before it is anything else, a kind of corrective after-thefact mechanism: stuff happens, and our awareness considers it and sets out a strategy or tactic in order to cope with the threat or opportunity the situation presents. People with lots of experience of stuff happening can then make moves to anticipate what they expect will happen. That is useful.

Smart Systems

This brings me to the main thrust of this column, namely the relationship between smartness and wisdom. Smartness is unlike wisdom. Wisdom, as defined by the Great ethicist, and one of my all-time philosophical heroines, Philippa Foot, is ‘to know good means to good ends and to know their value’.

To be smart, according to the dictionary, is ‘to be clean, tidy and well-dressed’ or, informally, ‘to show a quick-witted intelligence’. I presume both those definitions played an integral role in the choice of the word smartness for our current fashion in technological interlinking and perhaps even accounts for its fashionableness. Smartness may know good means to good ends, but has not yet had time to learn of their long-term value.

Wisdom is certainly what we teach at our universities when we teach our students their responsibilities to society. Here the value of good means to good ends is determined by welldocumented experience of how people work well together and how people should try to relate to their environment. We also teach our students the means to achieve good ends and their value with respect to the considerable body of knowledge and experience we have built up about how to perform as professionals. In our discipline, that of the built environment, that means teaching students well-proven, wisdom-saturated ways of how to design all aspects of a good building and knowing what a good building should be like. So, wisdom has a great place in this university.

To explore the unknown you have to intend to explore it But, there is a problem: It appears to me that artists, scientists, philosophers, in fact all creative innovators, explore the world of possibilities smartly and without due concern for wisdom. The role of wisdom in the exploration of possibilities differs from the wisdom that guides the daily arrangements and routines of our domestic and professional lives. At the TU/e we are proud of the fact that innovation starts here…We teach our students and encourage our staff to be good explorers of the unknown. Now for the purposes of the exploration of the unknown, wisdom can only be taken so far.

If to be wise is to know good means to good ends and know their value, then in a fast-changing world of developing technologies that is in many ways impossible and it would seem that wisdom, when thought of as a restrictive and corrective thing that requires knowledge, even becomes a little uncomfortable when we are forced into territories where knowledge is markedly absent. One cannot be wise in the above definition, with regard to what one does not know.

The activity of design is premised on the exploration of the unknown. Without design there is no innovation. Design is intentional action. Which sort of implies that you should know what you are doing. And it is true that a designer does have to have a clear intention but that intention is to explore innovative possibilities about which we do not and cannot yet know everything. To explore the unknown you have to intend to explore it, and this means to intentionally throw yourself into an adventure of discovery. In design we may have a clear generic idea of the sort of thing we want and a vague idea of the price we are prepared to pay for it, but that is all. As such wisdom may be what we aspire to, and we may explore wisely to some extent by refraining from throwing ourselves into adventures we already know to be hopeless, but all a wise explorer knows is that he cannot be in possession of wisdom as defined above.

For the same reason philosophers make much of the fact that they themselves are not possessors of wisdom but lovers of wisdom: Philos Sophos. That is a crucial difference.

So we should be happy we are not making wise cities, but smart ones. And we should be happy we are exploring smartness, smartly. Smartness will not be tied down by wisdom so easily. As a wise explorer knows: there is no real exploration without real risk. At the same time a little voice within me keeps pestering me with the hope that while the smart set is indulging in dressing their quick-witted intelligence with wonderfully thought-provoking ideas about the future of our environment, they will make sure that all their brilliant innovations are brought within wisdom’s reach as quickly as possible. Preferably before the damage that all innovation that cannot be fully universalised without paying a price does, can no longer be undone. Amen.

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Images: 1. Jacob Voorthuis (source: Voorthuis Archive) 2. Plug-in City Archigram (source: metalocus.es)

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Talking about smart Interview with professor Bauke de Vries about smart, societal effect and his work on embedding Information Systems in the Built Environment.

Text: Joris van der Zwet

First things first, what is the definition of Smart?

I am a bit reserved when it comes to giving a hard definition to the word Smart, because I think people have the freedom to give their own definition. But for me, Smart is about the question: how do we embed new technology, which has its background in electrical engineering, in the Built Environment.

There are people who approach smart from a technological perspective, but for other people smart is way more about smart society and smart people. I count myself to the first group.

My perspective is that new technologies are coming our way, like quantum computers, 5G networks and photonics. I see it as my task to think about how we are going to give that a good place in the Built Environment. Other people say that is too much reasoned from a technology perspective, while it should be about the Quality of Life. They have a point.

Making a new chip or sensor is not a goal in itself, we do that to improve our quality of life.

How do we embed new technologies in the Built Environment Our faculty of the Built Environment is right in the middle. We have engineers, but also people with a social sciences background, like Theo Arentze who graduated in psychology in Groningen. Bridging the gap between the two sides really is a big opportunity for us, because in the end, every technology has to have a space somewhere in the Built Environment.

That is our profession.

The question posed by the more social side is a relevant one; Why do we need all those information systems?

Technology is being developed whether we like it or not. Nuclear energy was developed, whether we liked it or not. CRISPR-Cas is on its way, whether we like it or not. Those are technologies we can’t stop. Are all those technologies beneficial for us? I am not so sure. But we have to be ready for them, we have to take the initiative and not having it walk all over us.

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Take the issue of privacy. We are all complaining about Facebook, even I deleted the app from my phone, but we do not have an alternative. The development of Facebook has been completely out of our reach. It has come from America and trampled all over Europe.

Now we suddenly realize what is happening to our data when it’s already too late. We have to take more responsibility, and I believe we have to start developing an alternative which supports our norms and values. Because our culture is different than the American or Chinese culture. In Europe, we are a bit naïve when it comes to that.

How do you approach the privacy issue, when embedding information systems in the Built Environment?

In the Brainport Smart District project, we work together with the people who are going to live there, and we want to make them owner of their own data. Like an owners association, but then with data that they produce themselves.

We are asking the inhabitants, or cocreators we call them, what is acceptable for them and what data do they want to sell. And then we give the possibilities to do that. At the same time you need a minimum amount of data from those participants to function, which makes it quite a complicated process. This is what makes me enthusiastic. It has to do with what is possible in a technical sense, but also with how to organize it and what is acceptable by societal standards. That is difficult, because it changes rapidly.

Can you tell more about projects related to Smart?

A project we often mention is Strijp-S. We have been running an EU funded project there called Triangulum. We invested a lot of money to implement smart solutions. With smart solutions I mean lighting systems, which play a role on safety and security, sound sensors, put a fiber optic network in the ground, which connects everything with each other. Furthermore, smart offices have been designed where the internal climate can be adjusted via an app.

There is a heat storage. Oh, and not to forget smart parking! With an app that tells you on arrival how many vacant spots are left and where they are.

The real challenge however, is in the synergy of it all, the way the systems collaborate. What you want for example, is that when you arrive by car, that the vacant spot lights up and leads you there. There is definitely much more to be gained by connecting all those single smart systems together. I do think however, that we could have done a better job at that. Everyone is so busy with their own small innovation, that we sometimes forget the value of bringing it all together. But still, I think the Netherlands is leader on the terrain of integral planning. I might have some critique right now, but foreigners will see Strijp-S as the most integrated project. The problem I describe we had in Strijp-S, other cities have the same but on a way bigger scale.

Nobody builds a city from scratch, except the Chinese Why is it that Smart city projects can get so fragmented?

Nobody builds a city from scratch, except the Chinese. There are fascinating examples in China where they design complete cities from scratch and then build them in one go. When it is finished, they open the gates and busses of people get driven in. It’s a way of planning we can’t imagine. It’s an exotic example, but the same counts for smart technology there, you can implement it from scratch. In our cities, we apply the development of smart technologies in the urban plan of a city. We develop neighborhoods step by step according to that plan. Implementing smart technologies have to be taken in such a long term development.

So in theory, a smart city would work quite well in China?

Yes, however when I read about it, it is not so positive. People have nothing to say about it. Everything is implemented top down.

In Europe, we are better in the cocreation model. We have to have support from society, otherwise it doesn’t work and people will turn against it. That’s the reason developments go slower here, but I believe it is a more sustainable development.

Smart Systems

Curriculum Vitae

We have had difficult discussions about whether the Brainport Smart District was a good project to do, because that is about building a whole new neighborhood from scratch. But we hope that innovations that will take place here can be implemented in cities like Breda, Den Bosch and Eindhoven.

You mentioned China a couple of times now, how do things over there relate to the issue of privacy?

I have been in China many times. They have a social credit system which keeps track of offenses people commit. If it is one time, not a problem. But people are afraid that when it happens more, like 10 times, there is a risk that it will have influences on your chances of getting a new job, or a new place to live.

It is a Big-Brother-like system that scares us.

However, Chinese people see that completely different. Of course, one should not say bad stuff about Xi Jinping, but in general they talk very openly about it. They say the Communist Party has brought them a lot of wealth and prosperity. And it is true, if you look at the development that the country has made over the last 10 years, it’s phenomenal. Personally, I believe you should respect that. There are a lot of different ways to organize your society.

I believe we Europeans have been looking to long at the free market American model. Of course that has brought us a lot of prosperity, but you can see the tide is changing.

Europe should be stronger in developing their own model, however the attempts are still a bit weak. In America, the privacy problem is something very juridical, they try to settle everything in court.

Here in Europe, we are looking for a good balance, for support from the public. In Brainport Smart District for example, we sit together

with future habitants, we show them what is possible and then we ask them; what do you want? We try to find solutions that are in line with our norms and values. Those are abstract, philosophical discussions, which I believe our faculty can play an important role in. We are better capable of having that discussion, compared to someone who studied electrical engineering.

How should students develop themselves in order to become the architect, engineer or planner who can improve cities by applying technology?

Well, first of all we offer a lot of Smart Cities courses for which I think you should subscribe.

But more importantly, is that you have the will to work together with students from other disciplines. We do a good job at that inside our faculty, where we learn architects, building physical engineers etcetera to work together in multidisciplinary projects. That’s the heart of our faculty. But I think you should take that a step further, and work with students from other faculties like electrical engineering, or even chemistry.

If the people at chemistry discover a new way to store energy, than that system should get a place in the Built Environment. Will it be placed under a roof, or under the ground? You have to develop the interest to know what is going on around you, and then to learn about it. So go to those faculties and visit lectures about energy and mobility and participate in the discussions. You will see that they will value you for it, and that there are opportunities for you. That seems to be a perfect way to me, to prepare yourself for your future careers.

Although Bauke de Vries worked most his life in Eindhoven, he started his education in Delft.

One year before graduating as an architect, he decided that architecture was not his future, and moved to Eindhoven to graduate as a structural designer in 1985. During his graduation he started to learn how to program using ‘punchcards’. After graduating, de Vries worked at Witteveen en Bos to develop the first Computer Automated Design (CAD) software. All the concrete and steel he learned to calculate by hand, they wrote into a programs which they sold to companies.

Still regularly hanging around the Eindhoven University Library, he came across a job offer as the local coordinator of the mainframe, a mega computer the university used for calculations.

When later the Personal Computer (PC) was introduced, De Vries developed himself as the IT support of the faculty of the Built Environment, as nobody there really knew how to program. Researchers and designers frequently visited De Vries for IT advice and help with their work.

In 1996, he went on to get a PhD at both the Informatics and the Built Environment department with the title: “Communication in the building industry”. A field of work which later became known as Building Information Modelling (BIM), developed by a small group of people spread out all over the world, including De Vries. When the faculty became aware that it was going to be a big discipline, a research group was started called Information Systems in the Built Environment (ISBE), which he still leads today. Besides that, De Vries currently also is Scientific Director of the Smart Cities Program and Vice-Dean of the faculty of the Built Environment.

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Images: 1. Bauke de Vries (source: tue.nl) 2.

Brainport Smart District (source: UNStudio)

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Education as Dessert Let me introduce you to the culinary delight that is the soufflé. A soufflé is a wonderfully light dessert that is originally from France and even though it looks simple enough, it can be devilishly hard to make. The recipe (one of many) consists of almost twenty steps, most of which are very delicate and precise actions that require a lot of attention and care. The process begins with separating the eggs and ends with dusting with icing sugar. Let this process be analogous to the education system, especially regarding a new and important subject within our field, like Building Information Management/Modelling (BIM) and Smart Solutions. Students enter our beloved university and start as separated eggs, hoping they will one day be able to be dusted with icing sugar.

Text: Sander de Meij While BIM and Smart Solutions aren’t the only emerging topics the Built Environment has seen recently, they provide several opportunities.

BIM, for instance, has been able to reduce construction costs throughout the construction process, mainly through increased control during this process. This goes accompanied with enhanced communication and time saving. Next to that, the Smart City movement has been prevalent in the Built Environment for quite some time. The focus of these design solutions has always been on connected infrastructure, mostly consisting of hordes of sensors that create important data for parking meters, streetlights and even trash cans. This all sounds very promising as the search for efficiency (or more importantly, cost reduction) seems ever present in the mind of the industry.

So, how to prepare upcoming members of this industry for such practices?

The Built Environment master program Construction Management Engineering (CME) seems quite adapted to this request from the

working field. One of their tracks even has the appropriate name: Building Information Management. This includes courses like “Fundamentals of BIM”, “Smart Urban Environment” and “Parametric Design”.

According to the respective study guide, the course Smart Urban Environments has as a goal to provide students with “insights in current threats and opportunities in urban systems regarding energy, health, mobility and quality of life”. This sounds like a fitting match to the current developments. One should realize that these courses are only a very small sample of the master program CME, which is only one of five available master programs.

This makes clear that the offer within BIM and

Students enter our beloved university and start as separated eggs Smart City education is almost limitless in the master programs. However, one should start with separating the eggs before you whisk the egg whites. Therefore, the Built Environment also provides the students with a wonderful Bachelor education before entering the endless opportunities of the Master students. This brings forth the question: “how adapted is the Bachelor program to this?”

One might assume that the offer of the Bachelor within this subject reflects that of the Masters. This assumption, however, might prove to be a bit rash. There are three more prevalent courses within the Bachelor, the first of which is “Geographic Modelling of the Built Environment.” This course focuses on

geographic data and how to process that through computer-aided design and controlling the design process through Building Information Models.

The second of which is Project Smart Cities. The goal of this project is to map emerging urban trends which will be used to create scenarios in simulation software. And the last (but maybe least), is the very limited instruction given in the Media Instructions as part of the BAU studios.

Certainly, the topics of BIM and Smart Solutions are mentioned in other courses as well, however, the aforementioned courses are most prevalent and the most extensive. This raises the question: how well prepared are Bachelor students for the Masters with regards to BIM and Smart Solutions? Clearly, these topics are a vital aspect of the Built Environment of today and the Bachelor student should be a multidisciplinary educated student, as the vision goes: “the broad approach allows you to get to know all disciplines of the Built Environment and then specialize in your favorite discipline. You and your fellow students will learn about designing buildings, houses, offices, museums or even entire neighborhoods in a multidisciplinary way. You will be learning about engineering, design and the building process.”

Let us look at the soufflé again. To create this masterpiece, one has to go through many steps, all of which are equally important, but the order is vital. Before whisking the eggs, they should be separated and before serving, the dessert should be dusted in icing sugar. The same goes for education; if your goal is to educate all-round, multidisciplinary students you should educate them in a certain order. In this order, the Bachelor needs to be a proper foundation for (any) Master, also within the subject of BIM and Smart Solutions. At the moment there seems to be a significant mismatch and my advice would be: let’s start separating some eggs and fix the Bachelor.

Images: 1. Tabletop (source: Ericam Christensen) 2. Souffle (Source: The Spruce Eats)

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Sources: 1. Bryde, D. (2013) The project benefits of building information modelling (BIM). 2. Eadie, R. (2013) BIM implementation throughout the UK construction project lifecycle: An analysis.

3. Eggers, W.D. (2018) Forces of change: Smart Cities. 4. Eindhoven University of Technology (2019) Bachelor Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences.

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Architecture through the eyes of a runner One day I woke up in a friend’s house in Amsterdam. Everybody was sleeping and the house was quiet. I put on my trainers and left, making as little noise as possible. The moment I stepped on the sidewalks from the main door, I started breathing in the city, the canals and the houses around me.

I could feel the atmosphere and enjoy the architecture in every single detail: the trees on the street, the bike-sheds, the sloped houses. In one hour I was able to visit Dam Square, the central station, the red light district and other less-known attractions. Most of the city was still asleep, but there were some people on the streets: a mother with two children, two partners and some workers. I noticed that the workers were building a masonry wall, starting from the window frames and then adding bricks (such a Dutch method of constructing!). In just one hour I saw a lot of things that I wouldn’t be able to see from a car or any public mode of transport. Text: Linda del Rosso

Even if lazy people may not agree with me, I believe that running is one of the best ways to experience the architecture of a city. Almost everywhere I go, I bring with me my running shoes and enjoy the architecture around me while I’m jogging: for me, those two passions have always been strictly correlated. Running allows you to notice many aspects and details of a city in a short time.

Running allows you to notice many aspects of a city in a short time 32 THAT’S WHY

It doesn’t happen with other types of transport…

According to the author of the blog www. therunningarchitect.com:

Car: especially in big cities full of traffic you go too fast or you are too concentrated on driving.

“Designing a building is a unique challenge because an unlimited number of variables must be adequately addressed to assure success. The architect must rely upon experience and preparation because there is only one opportunity to do it right. The same is true with running. Runners only have one chance to compete in any given race: the successful runners are the better prepared runners.”

Bike: even if you go slower than by car, you always have to be careful to the traffic and the people around you.

Train: it is fast so you can’t enjoy details in the architecture around you.

Walking: going too slow, you are allowed to notice the details but you aren’t able to see the architecture of a city as a whole.

A lot of researche has already been done on the topic, and the results showe that running is very beneficial for the mindfulness, especially when done in new and beautiful places.

You don’t feel the pain if you are in stimulating and interesting surroundings, so that’s why many runners really enjoy to run surrounded by a beautiful architecture.

You don’t feel the pain if you are in interesting surroundings Another important point is also the safety of the runners, so more running paths should be made by the municipality, as contact with cars can be dangerous.

It’s common knowledge that runners like to run in green spaces with a lot of vegetation, while in the cities they like large roads, in order to not disturb cars and bikes.

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Images: 1. Running track (source: standard. co.uk) 2. Roof track Tiantai (source: archdaily.com) 3. People running (source: selsports.co.uk)

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The paths should not be made in concrete because in a long term a hard ground is damaging for the knees and there should be light also during the darker hours of the day (especially in the cold season). A road with those characteristics is the dream of a runner.

Running is becoming more and more a tendency and many groups were organized for architecture tours, such as in Copenhagen or Chicago. A the same time smart cities are developing very cool running paths, maybe also using the roof of skyscrapers and buildings to save space.

A good architect must be concerned about human wellbeing As a conclusion, a good architect must be concerned about and reflecting on human well-being, and sport is one of the most important thing that should be stimulated in a (smart) city.

Some tips for city running: 1. Wear safe and comfortable shoes 2. Eat a snack at least one hour before 3. Bring with you some money, cellphone, keys 4. Headphones not too loud, to hear traffic.

Maybe you can avoid them at all and listen to the sounds of the city.

5. Don’t run on concrete (asphalt or ground are preferred) 6. Choose your path before, to avoid unsafe places or getting lost.

7. Avoid too much traffic, or go in those roads only in the early morning, when there are not many cars 8. If you go when is dark, wear bright color clothing 9. Look around you! You can discover a lot of new things!

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The spirit of the age Exploring new parts and aspects of reality has always been part of human life. Living time has always meant to adapt certain habits to what is new and commonly shared by a society. Monkeys, precursors of hominids, playing with bones and rocks discovered new ways of catching food by using those as weapons to defend themselves. Early humans gave birth to first forms of communication and art by depicting figures on cave walls. The discovery of fire, cooked food, agriculture, language, have all been defined once as “adjustments” or “changes” made to people’s lives. The development that kept the entire society together is based on acceptance and welcoming of changes and differences. This process of renewal never stopped, but as a matter of fact, it kept on repeating its cycle throughout the history of human kind.

Text: Nicola Caporosa Symmetry, equilibrium, refinement and proportion were the guidelines of classical monumental sculptures and temples.

Imposingness, solidity, strength and stiffness, together with fullness, opulence and attention to details, transformed ancient beauty standards into the Romanesque and Gothic artistic branches.

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The introduction of further changes led humanity through Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo Classicism, Art Nouveau, Modernism and so on, reaching contemporary times without ever stopping.

The introduction of changes to our society is a consequence of growth and development of new interests, trends and tendencies that led humans through a long path of personal and moral evolution, allowing people to experiment with art and beauty and, consequently, allowing them to change. The dominant school of thought characterizing different epochs is referred to as “Genius seculi”, a latin expression meaning “spirit of the epoch”. This idiom, later on translated into “Zeitgeist”, proofs a strict link between society shared values and their projection into arts and architecture. In addition, according to A. Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the primacy of the Will, art plays a key role in the interpretation of reality itself. The philosopher states that art provides essential knowledge of the world’s objects in a way that is more profound than science or everyday experience.

Artistic exploration, then, results as a consequence of the questions and the answers people ask and give to themselves. The goal of any art is to depict the unconscious and the feelings of a society, translating into real works of art what the human perceives.

As an example, during the early ‘90s Theo Van Doesburg, Dutch painter, architect and writer, gave birth to the cultural movement known as “De Stijl”, characterized by the simplicity and dynamics of forms and lines with a clever use of colors.

“Unless I experience another evolution or backward glance, I feel the style I am most comfortable with is strictly geometric. It has taken two years of experimentation to finally find a resting place. I am there. I see the potential to keep me occupied with unlimited experiences within this realm of expression”.

Highly influenced by Mondrian and his growing fame, he defines his own work saying: assuming the arts as a process rather than a result, these words underline the dynamic part of any art, calling for experimentation and time.

Furthermore, the inner concerns of the painter, as well as those of the society that shared with him values and beliefs, finally found expression into a new abstract artistic exploration that influenced the entire cultural landscape.

These same theories brought Charles and Ray Eames to design a house in California in 1949 (20 years after the movement spread out in Europe) highly inspired by the drawings and paintings by Mondrian and Van Doesburg.

Similarly to their works, the structure of the building is really basic and the organization

ad arrangement ofspaces is clever and well planned. This tendency was redirecting architecture, as well as art, toward more simple and geometrical concepts, finding as its main representative, one of the most influential architects of all times: Le Corbusier.

His aim was to improve living conditions in big industrial cities of the 20th century by planning a total renewal in terms of urban planning, with the aim of creating a better society starting with housing.

He held the belief that a home is a “machine for living” that should be fully functional and industrial in its core design. As a modernist he played with colors and forms allowing a completely new way of experiencing buildings based on the feelings aroused through simplicity and geometry, managing to give to his structures a soul. He himself stated: “Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light and shade reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage”.

Art represented a big part in Le Corbusier design process, as a painter he realized several canvases and murals capturing the essence of light and colors, as he did with his architecture.

Once again art and personal belief influence human personal development using always different manners and forms.

The phases that brought contemporary society to have certain beliefs and values are part of an essential path that defines ourselves as human beings. Each and every part of our history was crucial to lead humanity to the contemporary conception of arts.

EVERY ART HAS BEEN CONTEMPORARY.

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Images: 1. Contra-construction project (source: moma.org) 2. The Eames House (source: flickr.com) Sources: 1. Wikipedia. (2019). Theo van Doesburg. wikipedia.org 2. Sledge. (2010). De Stijl. makingartinsecondlife.blogspot.com 3.

Wikipedia. (2018). Eames House. wikipedia. org 4. Artnet. (2019). Le Corbusier. artnet.com 5. M. Willey. (2009). Another view: Martin Willey on Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture. theguardian.com

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Take a deep breath and look around you...

The TU/e statues from a different point of view

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It’s Monday morning, 8.43, you’re rushing to arrive in time at the first lecture. You park your bike and while you’re walking to the Auditorium you look at your phone to check the room you have to go to.

It’s a sunny day and you’re surrounded by the green and the beautiful statues and buildings of the TU/e. But you are late, so you don’t really care. You Just take the shortest path to reach the lecture as soon as possible.

Text: Linda Del Rosso

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This is the description of a typical morning of a TU/e student, as many of you are. But did you ever take a break to walk around and have a look at all the statues around the University? Have you ever asked yourself the author or the meaning of one of those works of art?

Although almost nobody is aware of it, the TU/e Eindhoven has an Art Committee which has been working on the creative field since the University and some catalogues have been published online for the most curious people.

The following pictures and descriptions represent a selection of 10 statues that have been considered the most relevant for the University and more specifically for the Building Environment Faculty, selected from the more updated catalogue, called “Ensemble” (available online)

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A bit more about the TU/e Statues

Le Corbusier (1887 – 1965) ‘Object Mathematique’ Location: in front of Pavilion Designed by the famous French architect, it was part of the Philips pavilion in Brussels, 1958 at the World Exhibition. After the event the whole pavilion was dismantled and the ‘Object Mathematique’ was the only part which physically remained. In 1998 the foundation ‘Kunstlicht in de kunst’ (Artificial Light in Art) gave it on loan to the Eindhoven University of Technology.

Piet Killaars (1922-2015) - ‘Growth’ Location: pond between Matrix and Atlas building “I don’t feel the need to copy things. What interests me are matters like what drives things, what structures are contained within? The origin of plants and organic forms has always fascinated me. ‘Growth’ is a good example.”

The statue that he made especially for the Eindhoven University of Technology in 1968, was a turning point in his career. For the first time Killaars combined a concrete theme, a hand, and an abstract theme, growth. From the pond in front of the main building a hand reached out of the water, representing a growing substance.

August Ferdinand Möbius (1790-1868), Ing. Hans Kalkhoven. (1957) ‘Mens agitat molem’ Location: Entrance to TU/e campus from Kennedylaan The German mathematician and astronomer August Ferdinand Möbius designed this sculpture that was reproduced on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the TU/e foundation by the Philips company in 1986. It is characterized by a the two-dimensional, curving surface made from one single body of material and its theme was ‘From within to without’, represented perfectly by the ‘Ring’. The plaque “Mens agitat molem” was added by Katkhoven, head of the former Technical Department of Buildings of the university where the work of art was actually made. The caption indicates that mind triumphs over matter.

Wessel Couzijn (1912 -1984) ‘Flying’ Location: in front of Matrix building ‘Vliegend’ (‘Flying’ - 1961), also known as ‘Rising Africa’, is part of a series of bronze sculptures made during the sixties by Wessel Couzijn. Couzijn focused on the desire for freedom with aggression being a defensive demeanour: this is the reason why he chooses sharp shapes, abstraction, and plasticity to support this philosophy.

38 THAT’S WHY

Building the present, Creating the future

Innovative and sustainable

Would you like to know what it’s like to start your career with BAM? Check out our website and social media to read stories written by our young BAM colleagues and to learn more about your own possibilities:

BAM has the ambition of having a leading position in sustainability and innovation. Robotization, 3D-printing and drones offer new possibilities in the building process. And what is the effect of autonomous and automated driving on the infrastructure of the near future? The customer, the end user and the environment are central in every project, thats why we are always looking for a sustainable solution.

BAM innovates. You too?

www.bamcareers.com @WerkenbijBAM @WerkenbijBAM @WerkenbijBAM

Leading positions in the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Ireland and Germany.

Worldwide projects in more than 30 countries.

Active in all stages of the building process.

A family-style approach within our business units.

Internships

Young Professionals

▸ Internships

▸ BIM Engineer

▸ Graduation projects

▸ Technical Advisor ▸ Planner ▸ Tender Consultant ▸ Project Developer

BAM Graduate Programme

▸ Four assignments in two years

▸ Technical and Strategic ▸ Create your own programme

▸ Personal development

Young Engineers Programme

▸ BAM International ▸ Expat life ▸ Two-year-programme

(Laser)cutting Edge Model making is a vital part of the design proces and it might also be one of the most time consuming. Therefore, more and more students resort on the marvel of lasercutting to speed up their process. However, the search for the proper location to lasercut your model might be a difficult one as the options are numerous and the qualities of different lasercutting-shops differs starkly.

The following overview should be able to help you on your quest for the most suitable lasercutting-expert. It will provide you with information about materials, maximal dimensions, maximal thickness of the materials, available filetypes, distance to the university and (most importantly) the price.

Text: Sander de Meij

De Factorij Materials: You have to buy your materials at the Factorij; PVC and metals aren’t allowed nor available.

Max dimensions: 900x600mm Max thickness: 9mm for MDF, this differs for different materials however.

Price: You pay roughly 1,60 euros for every meter cut. This includes the material you will have to buy there.

Filetype: The machines can read either .ai-files, dxf-files, .plt-files, .dst-files or .bmp-files.

Distance from university: It is 15 minutes by bike to de Factorij, which is located at Hurksestraat 20-46.

FabLab Materials: You have to buy your materials at FabLab. You can choose between MDF or acrylic.

Max dimensions: 600x300mm.

Max thickness: 6mm for MDF, 4mm for acrylic.

Price: You pay 10 euros per hour, this is excluding the materials however.

Filetype: The machines can read either .ai-files, .dxf-files, .dwg-files, .svg-files, .eps-files, .jpg-files, .png-files.

Distance from university: It is 10 minutes by bike to Fablab, which is located at Frederiklaan 60a.

40 TOOLS

Broeinest Materials: You have to bring your own materials, however, PVC and metals aren’t permitted Max dimensions: 535x835mm.

Max thickness: 6 mm for MDF. Price: You pay per part of the day. This can be either from 9 o’clock in the morning until 1 in the afternoon, or from 1 in the afternoon until 5 in the afternoon. The price for such a timeslot is 35 euros.

Filetype: The machines can read either .ai-files or .dxf-files.

Distance from university: It is 10 minutes by bike to Broeinest, which is located at Torenallee 45.

Remarks: You have to operate the machines yourself, there is some supervision in case of urgent questions.

DigiFab Materials: You have to buy your materials at DigiFab; in deliberation with DigiFab (almost) every other material is possible.

Max dimensions: 600x300mm, 1250x900mm or 2500x1300mm, depending on the machine.

Max thickness: 12 for mm MDF, thicker materials are possible in delibaration with DigiFab. Price: You pay roughly 0,88 euros for every meter cut. This includes the material you can buy there.

Filetype: The machines can read either .ai-files, .dxf-files or .cdr-files.

Distance from university: It is 10 minutes by bike to DigiFab, which is located at Daalakkersweg 4.34.

2 4

1 3

Images: 1. Broeinest (source: Broeinest) 2. De Factorij (Source: PlugMake) 3. DigiFab (source: DigiFab Facebook) 4. Fablab (source: FabLab) Sources: 1. De Factorij “Lasercutting” 2. De Factorij “Material Table”3. DigiFab “Lasersnijden - Machines” 4. DigiFab “Lasersnijden - Materialen” 5. FabLab Brainport “Trotec Speedy 100r laser cutter”6.

FabLab Brainport “Recente projecten” 7. Broeinest “Eindhoven Lasersnijden”

TOOLS 41

In every Chepos an article is published from the Pantheon// and vice versa.

This opinion piece discusses technological developments, and the possible effects these have on life as we know it.

opinion

OVER THE EDGE Our world is constantly changing, especially in the fields of technology. Where only several decades ago a computer was the next new thing, or even more recently the internet, they are now both completely incorporated into our lives.

Almost everything we do is connected to a computer or the internet. In our everyday lives we use our smartphone to get in touch with others, order food, listen to music and to see what the weather will be like. These are just a few examples, but in practice it means that almost every aspect of our lives is connected to our smartphones, computers and other technology. How far are we going with this trend? Are we crossing boundaries with the way we connect everything to the cloud? Is our trust in technology going ‘over the edge’?

One of the newest trends in technology is the introduction of smart home systems. Smart home systems, also known as domotica, is the integration of technology and services. This means that all appliances at home are controlled and monitered via a Wi-Fi connection. The smart home system can control the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning of a house, it also allows you to control your lighting system or have it automatically controlled. The occupancy of a building can be monitered as well, for instance by using motion detectors or CO2 sensors.

Smart home systems are often also used as a security system, this includes for example remote surveillance using Wi-Fi and a central locking system that can be controlled via an app on your phone. Domotica can also be used to monitor certain values inside your home, like for instance the relative humidity or CO-levels. This is often combined with a moistening system or an alarm when the CO-levels are too high.

You can also connect your solar panels and see exactly how much energy you are generating per day.

Also less important things, like for instance making your ideal cup of coffee, can be controlled through an app. Domotica can help us with the efficiency of our homes.

In my opinion there are also downsides to this development. Reading about these smart home systems reminded me of a commercial from a insurance company from a few years back (google: commercial welkom - even apeldoorn bellen). In this commercial two thieves are trying to break into a smart home, owned by a tech millionaire. This tech millionaire is in the meantime giving a presentation

42

about his new app that controls everything in your house. You can probably already guess what happens... The thieves try to climb over the gate and the gate opens, they try to open the door and the door automatically opens, and so on. This illustrates my fears for this development. By connecting all your devices, your house or even your car to the internet, it makes you vulnerable to hackers that may not have the best of intentions.

Of course, there are ways to protect yourself from being hacked, but this is often expensive and there is no 100% guarantee. I am not saying that we should not further explore this development, because it does have a lot of positive effects as well. Just keep in mind that all these systems are vulnerable to certain dangers. So do not connect everything to the same system and think about what is important to monitor.

Is it really necessary to open your door with an app?

Do you really need to be able to make your ideal cup of coffee?

A step further is the invention of robots. This can take the form of a vacuum cleaner to a life-size robot that welcomes you when you enter the lobby of an hotel. A technology that is still in development and keeps introducing new appliances that can be used in our everyday lives. A technology that even replaces humans in certain jobs.

Smart Home System

JULIA KAPINGA

An interesting example of robotics was introduced quite recently: Moley, the first robotic kitchen. This new tech gadget is for people with little time and no interest in cooking. According to the makers is Moley a master chef that (eventually) can create any meal that you want. The prototype consists of two arms of which the hands move like they were really human.

To create this effect they have monitored a real chef cooking and used this data to recreate the motions for cooking certain types of meals. A real smart invention, especially useful for lazy or really busy people. If everything goes well, the first edition will be launched on the market later this year.

Ahead of this smart technology, is Artificial Intelligence (in short: AI). Artificial Intelligence is a device that can work and behave like a human being. There are computers that use AI to for instance analyze data or create a product. AI is often used in combination with robotics. An example of an intelligent robot is Sophia, a robot created by Hanson Robotics that is now an official citizen of Saudi Arabia. According to Sophia’s maker, dr. Hanson, is it of upmost importance that an AI robot contains the following three personality trades: creativity, empathy and compassion (Hanson Robotics Ltd., 2018). The idea is that Sophia will become the first robot that can be identified as an human being.

Robot Kitchen

But, what are the dangers of this development? We do not know exactly how smart Artificial Intelligence can be and what the impact of their actions will be.

What will happen if this technology falls into the hands of people that want to do harm. They could programm the AI’s to for instance kill every person that wears a red hat. Especially with the introduction of drones, which can be combined with AI as well, this can become a true scenario. And what if the AI wants to do good, but instead endangers something entirely different in the process.

These questions are related to ethics and therefore lots of research is conducted at the moment to see what the impacts of robotics and artificial intelligence are. In my opinion robotics and artificial intelligence should have a supporting role, instead of completely replacing our own human race. I think that Sophia is a nice development, but I really hope that we will not get sci-fi situation in which we live with and around robots.// SOURCES - Automation101. (2015). What is Home Automation? Retrieved from http://aa.net.nz/what-is-home-automation/ - Future of Life Institute. (2016). Benefits & Risks of Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved from https://futureoflife.org/ - Hanson Robotics Ltd.. (2017). Sophia. Retrieved from http://www. hansonrobotics.com/robot/sophia/ - Marr, B. (2018). The Key Definitions of Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/ - Moley Robotics. (2018). Moley - The world’s first robotic kitchen.

Retrieved from http://www.moley.com - Wikipedia. (2018). Home Automation. Retrieved from https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_automation

Artificial Intelligence

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Apr 09 - Apr 11

May 29

Building Holland

SERVICE Symposium

Building Holland is a 3-day innovation event for the construction- installation and real estate sector. This yearly returning event takes place in the RAI Amsterdam. With approx. 15.000 visitors and 250 stands from the 9th till the 11th of April, there is enough space to gain some knowledge, to enlarge your network or to see and experience innovative new products and concepts.

SERVICE has changed their way of publishing their magazine. They now moved to a digital platform with loose articles, of which they combine the best and publish them in one edition each year. To celebrate this edition’s release SERVICE is hosting a symposium with the theme ‘Transition’. This symposium will be held in Dutch.

Feb 09 - May 26

The Netherlands & Bauhaus - pioneers of a new world

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen goes big with this exposition about Bauhaus in the Netherlands. In 2019 it is 100 years ago that the Bauhaus movement was created. This revolutionary art and design school had its influence on artworks, furniture, ceramics, textiles, pictures and of course, architecture.

May 23 PLUGGED Festival

Plugged Festival was created by a group of students who wanted to share their love for live music and decided to organize a festival. By hanging “bands wanted” posters all over the university campus, they tried to get in touch with enthusiastic musicians. The first edition of the festival in 2013 turned out to be a great success, with many talented artists and an awesome audience. In the last few years, Plugged Festival has evolved into the major music event of the TU/e. With five years of experience, a strong concept of giving local bands a chance to play for a large audience and many partners within and outside of the local music scene, the Plugged Festival crew will try their best to make Plugged 2019 an absolute success!

May 31 STRP Biënnale 2019 STRP brings together art, technology and experimental pop culture, and connects them to a broad and engaged audience. With its interactive art, light art, robotics, performances, experimental music and films, lectures and workshops STRP offers a glimpse into the near and sometimes distant future of our technology-driven culture.

Apr 08 Stadsgesprek | De Ring On the 8th of April Architectuur Centrum Eindhoven will host a debate on one of the most important roads of Eindhoven: “The Ring’ this urban traffic artery connects all parts of our city. We will discuss this special piece of urban design with regards to a research conducted by the TU/e. This debate will be in Dutch.

Apr 24

ARCHICAD Workshop

Do you want to upgrade your 3D modelling skills? ARCHICAD might just be the program for you! Within this workshop, which also includes pizza and beers afterwards, you’ll be explained the basics of the software, how to make plans and how to 3D model! The software will be provided for free!

Agenda CHEOPS & Built Environment 44 AGENDA

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Colophon

For the next edition the theme of the colophon is: communist architecture. The final submitting date will be announced.

CHEOPS, Study Association of the Built Environment: Eindhoven University of Technology • Groene loper 6 Vertigo 1.15 • Mailbox 513 • 5600 MB Eindhoven • T 040-2473140 • info@cheops.cc • www.cheops.cc Chepos editorial board: Martha Boekestein (final editor and chairman), Nicola Caporaso, Niels Dusseldorp (board responsible), Henryk Gujda, Ananda Jaganathan, Karim Jaspers, Sander de Meij, Linda del Rosso, Bart van Santen (editor in chief), Joris van der Zwet Chepos is a publication of CHEOPS, Study

Association of the Built Environment. Content may be used for research and study purposes, if credited properly. Exceptions include copyrighted imagery; these may not be reproduced or published without specific consent by the original author.

Collaborations: Merel van Hooren, Kim Sinnige, Jacob Voorthuis, Maarten Willems, Study association Stylos Acknowledgements: Bauke de Vries Images: Cover (plan): Atlas, goudenpiramide.nl, edited by Karim Jaspers • Editorial: Digital World, source: wikimedia.org • Index: Uncomfortable Chair

#2, Katerina Kamprani • Index: Lasercut wood, daricelee.myportfolio.com • Index: Masdar Institute Camps, flickr.com • Index: Leap into the deep, topsimages.com • Index: Mycelium, commons. wikimedia.org • Index: Blue artpiece, pxhere.com • Index: The Thinker, commons.wikimedia.org • File pages 18-19: the campus by night, picture made by Karim Jaspers • Agenda: terraced houses by J.J.P. Oud, Flickr.com • Agenda: STRP Bienale, mestmag.nl Offset: Drukkerij Snep BV, Eindhoven, circulation: 1200 Chepos, built environment magazine:

ISSN: 1873-183X • chepos@cheops.cc www.chepos.nl • www.fb.com/CheposPage • www. issuu.com/chepos_cheops Advertisements & exploitation: Niels Dusseldorp: pr@cheops.cc Co-Main sponsor Chepos: CarrièreTools, BAM Want to be an editor? Want to share your opinion?

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