evaluation: design possibilities & questions

Today, Lijnbaan is a regular shopping street that people only visit to shop or pass through. Moreover, multinational brands now dominate the area and contribute less value than in the past. There is no compelling reason to travel to Lijnbaan. People travel to Roermond solely to visit its renowned brand outlet, similarly to how the city centre emptied in Roermond. We must reconsider what Lijnbaan is and what it ought to be. As a result, I developed a poetic approach to the mature Lijnbaan as the evolution of an interactive and intimate design scheme. Thus, I am able to utilise user experience to interact with the value of public space in a libertarian manner.

As evaluation, I ran an all-day ENVI-met simulation that produced significant results on the previous page. I was surprised by the outcome, which demonstrated that vegetation and surface materials play a significant role in the cooling of an area. In addition, these natural systems will produce a pleasant ecosystem for humans and animals.

To conclude my design, I will pose a follow-up question that reflects my thoughts after completing the scheme. What if a portion of the city, such as the central area (near the central station), became the city’s lobby gallery? The totem display device was just one example of how we can collage entire city potential in one place, therefore the visitor could engage more to the parts they interested in.

what if central area (close to central station) become a lobby gallery for entire city?

Display device

Gallery park

Connecting district area

Reflective question of how this program related to the city

Reflection

This project was started by creating a postcard. At that time, I still do not know what to do about Lijnbaan. Educated in architecture school, taught me lot of small scale, and this project requires me to zoom in and out through scales to create a sustainable urban environment, which have many consideration. As I have read about article posted in Brightspace about artist limitation in city design, I realised what to include in constructing space that have another value. Supported by examples Franscesca gave to me with poetic project, inspired me to define a design statement I never tried before. Of course, Rotterdam’s context of freedom experimental design also supporting my idea. Otherwise, I will lit a big fire in the middle of silence.

I need to go all the way back to 1962, when Rachel Carson exposed the dangers of using chemical pesticides in agriculture, to fully grasp the sustainability process at SUET. Researchers Rebecca Harrell Tickell and Josh Tickell present their findings in their upcoming documentary Kiss the Ground (2020), in which they argue that we could switch from exploitative farming to regenerative agriculture in order to improve soil quality and more responsibly rebalance carbon levels. Maibritt Pedersen Zari (2018) noted the importance of regenerative design in the field of design, arguing that it seeks to heal the degradation of the ecosystem through the management and attainment of optimal interactions between human and non-human life, and the delivery of beneficial outcomes. To do this, we must consider the built environment as a single interconnected ecosystem, where all parts influence and are affected by each other in a feedback loop, leading to a healthy metabolic balance.

Therefore, in order to attain sustainability goals in urban areas, input from every level of society is required. In my view, sustainable urban development entails incorporating elements of the natural ecosystem into the built environment and the social and economic interactions amongst its inhabitants. We are tasked with learning how a circular metabolic system operates in the design and implementation stages, as in nature there is no waste and all organic nutrients are used for new development both above and below ground. William McDonough (1992) developed a set of design principles for interacting with the natural world, including: insisting on the rights of humanity and nature; recognising interdependence; respecting the relationship between spirit and matter; assuming responsibility for the consequences of the design decision; creating safe objects of long-term value; eliminating the concept of waste; relying on natural energy flows; and comprehending the limitations of design.

To summarise in the Dutch context, I was inspired by many projects during the lecture session and firm visit that combined design and research to produce some design ideas. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn urbanism and see examples of what I have learned directly in the city context. I’d like to thank Franscesca and Abdullah for tutoring us, as well as all of my classmates in this year’s Urbanism class.

Notes

1. Crimson, 2004, ‘The Lijnbaan. Cultuurhistorische verkenning van het Lijnbaan ensemble” 2. Glaser, Meredith, 2012, The City at Eye Level: Lessons for Street Plinths, Eburon. 3. Nagtegaal, Tim, (2021), The survival and resurrection of a “Bakema-experiment” in an Amsterdam garden city. Docomomo 65.

Hooimeijer, Fransje & Maring, Linda. (2018). The significance of the subsurface in urban renewal. Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability.

Alexander C, Ishikawa S, Silverstein M (1977) A pattern language: towns, buildings, construction. Oxford University Press, New York.