| Vili Welroos | Stage 5 | S1 | Architecture | Academic Portfolio |

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Newcastle University Stage 5 ARC 8054 Master of Architecture

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Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง

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Welcome

Figure 1

Urban Fabric Workbooklet - a working methodology.

This Portfolio is a selection of highlights of the work. [ask for original bound A3 copy]

Please note that you are entering into the mind of an architecture student, full of information, curated, selective, although the process remains.

Proceed with caution.

Welcome Page

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Part 1

introduction

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Captions and Annotations in Italic Blue Page Key

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง

New Work

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Contents 04 05

Portfolio Key List of Contents

06-07 08-09

Part 1

10-13

Part 2

5.05 Charrette 2015

14-85

Part 3

5.1 Project 1 - Plan Rotterdam - Urban Fabric

14 16-17 18-19 20-23 24-27 28-29 30-33 34-37 38-41 42-53 54-69 58-69 70-79 80-83 84-85 86-89

A Critical Introduction ARB Criteria / a reflective map

Weekly break-down §1.0 - Brief Introduction - What Makes a City Vital? §1.1 - Research & Analyses - Brief Development §1.2 - Rotterdam - Site Analyses §2.0 - Symposium §2.1 - Symposium Film §2.2 - Vitalities §2.3 - Urban Fragment - The Square §2.4 - Building Fragment - City-Hall §3.0 - Urban Intervention §3.1 - City-Defining Forum §3.2 - Extensions §4.0 - Narratives [use, form, materiality] §5.0 - Emphatic Explorations §6.0 - List of References / Precedents

Part 4 Reflective Conclusion Appendix

90-91 92

- Work-booklet extracts [ask for original bound A3 copy] - Notebook extracts

back-cover

Figure 1

Urban Fabric Process-work

List of Contents divided into 4 clear Parts

Contents

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Part 1 5.0 Stage 5 / semester 1

Portfolio Introduction

Introduction

This introductory paragraph highlights the aims and objectives of this folio of work. While it is a curated selection of the work produced within the first semester of my M.Arch Part II course, it also attempts to set-out my critical position as a designer.

Through demonstrating my interests, current thoughts, what I have learned so far, and what motivates me as a designer, this exercise aims to be simultaneously generative and reflective for the sake of my future learning. This exercise highlights some new work completed after the final review, with the objective of demonstrating an improved consideration of the project, following a response to feedback.

Improved (or amended) work is highlighted with a red circle at the right bottom corner of the page, or image-frame, as indicated below. New work is highlighted with a filled red circle.

Captions are generally found at the left-hand corner of an image-frame, as demonstrated below.

Additionally this page shows how the portfolio can be read, along with the key on page 02.

Aims & Objectives

As a designer, I am passionate about existing urban conditions, how they were formed and how they continue to form through the development of the city, people and culture, through the means of the builtenvironment.

Figure 1

Reflective Urban Fabric Process-work pin-up reviewing work to date

eventually obtain a doctorate in the field of conservation and heritage’. I emphasised my will to focus on researching, teaching and practicing as an architect, in order to influence and contribute to the world we all live in. I would like to eventually combine these skills and expertise to design meaningful architecture, which respects, yet challenges our understanding of the past.

I strive to combat Tafuri’s view that architects have somehow become mere technicians in a construction industry.

This goal is based on my belief that any architecture work, like any heritage building or site, should be conceptualised as a process rather than as a revered object to be preserved. Therefore, I feel it is important to understand the present and the past to define a better future. In a sense, I guess I have become an idealist, if not a ‘utopian’ through this initial semester at Newcastle. I try to follow this interest also in the way I work as a student of architecture by continuously revising my previous work through a process of cumulative learning.

Therefore this folio of work should preferably be read as a continuum of work, along with my sketchbooks, Learning Journal and Work-booklet (both attached), and not simply as a glimpse of the most emphatic imagery produced. I have consciously separated the Portfolio and the Work-booklet, because of the level of curation involved - one is selective, the other productive.

Vili-valtteri Welroos

In the Professional Development Plan [PDP], I completed for the graduate certificate in architectural practice [gCap] course last year, I summarised my main goal as an architect as to ‘become a fully qualified and to

Portfolio Introduction

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / §

New Work

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new

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“The great cities of the future will contain civic centers, public places which, like the agora of Athens, the Roman Forum, and the medieval cathedral square, will form a community focus and popular concourse.” (Giedion, 1941)

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Critical Introduction

aiming to enhance or modify the way they are used or perceived within the urban fabric.

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Holistic approach to architecture

Research-intensive design process

A learning process

1 Lefebvre, H. ‘The Production of Space’ & ‘Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life’ (1991).

2 Giedion, S. ‘Space, Time and Architecture’ (1941).

3 Koolhaas, R. ‘Delirious New York’ (1978) & ‘S,M,L,XL’ (2005).

4 Alexander, C. ‘A Pattern Language’ 5 Tafuri, M. ‘Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development’ 6 Jameson, F. ‘Is Space Political’ 7 Rowe, C. & Koetter, F. ‘Collage City’ (1978).

8 Rykwert, J. ‘The Seduction of Place’ (2001).

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Leaving from a year-out in practice in London, I returned to university with enthusiasm and confidence, ready to stretch the boundaries of my architectural skills, knowledge and imagination. And now, having completed a semester of the M.Arch, I truly feel I have been constructively tested in my holistic architectural ambitions. I am always trying to consider a wide array of complex contexts, social, political, economic or intellectual, and their interrelationships.

Through working on the urban fabric project ‘what makes a city vital?’ I was introduced to this holistic view of architecture in more depth: the city as a sophisticated transformative puzzle.

Not only in terms of its physical embodiment in the urban environment we inhabit, but in what scholars, researchers and experts say about it. If anything, I have developed a critical database of knowledge through reading authors such as Lefebvre1, Giedion2, Koolhaas3, Kahn, van Eyck, Alexander4, Tafuri5, Jameson6, Rowe7, Rykwert8, to name a few. This has allowed me to start positioning myself within the spectrum of architectural thought. I feel it has certainly widened my perspective of the subject generally, but also allowed me to focus on my own specific interests within its framework. Helped by the Tools for Thinking module, it allowed me to enhance my previous knowledge and encouraged me to pursue research in the future.

The large-scale urban intervention project I set myself, from the common starting point of aspects that make a city vital, truly tested my abilities in architectural thought and design. The critical creative exploration of the city through design demonstrated in this portfolio hopefully highlights the challenge and rigorous learning so far. I used my initial personal approach and research on the topics of the brief to develop an idea. Through this process, I was able to use and learn a wide range of representational tools and techniques for understanding the unfamiliar context of Rotterdam, as part of a group (Figure 2).

The intervention I propose in the urban fabric project does exactly this: it tests a new method of thinking about the urban sphere of Rotterdam and its political, administrative centre, the Stadhuis (City-Hall) and its role in the community.

The intervention aims to create a public place and occasion of defiance for the people and, by doing so, to bring the political sphere of the city close to its citizen. A ‘City-Defining Forum’ takes the form of a civic square in front of the Rijksmonument building

by Henri Evers, built a century ago, a rare remnant of the pre-war era, in a city obsessed with its skyline and skywards expansion, fuelled by a booming, shifting shipping economy of the port. This leads to the streets of the centre to be either underpopulated or congested with traffic - perhaps the wrong kind of ‘culture of congestion’. Citizens in the centre become mere consumers that fuel this metropolitan desire to mimic the capital city of the world: Manhattan, New York. This is clearly seen in De Rotterdam, a new office-building with integrated residential units for the rich, with a view, at the Kop van Zuid, ‘Manhattan on the Maas’, by no other than he local star, Rem Koolhaas, famous for his treatise ‘Delirious New York’.

This project aims to critically shift the urban attitude of Rotterdam, its people, developers, designers and politicians into an urban form, which more closely resembles Rome, more human in scale and form.

Taking precedent from the typology of the square, or piazza, as a setting for city-life, its objective is to create a destination, but also simply a place to be, to stay, through occasion and place.

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City-Hall - a fragment

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A City-Defining Forum

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Shifting urban attitudes

The urban fabric that was separated by the 60 metre wide 20th century now-congested boulevards used for transporting goods to the ports, is knitted back together to form a place to lounge within the citycentre, a heart, similar to the Rockefeller Plaza in New York, yet more like the Campidoglio in Rome.

I specifically attempted to pursue and develop my interest in heritage architecture and interventions

Figure 2

1:1000 Suspended bluefoam model displayed at the Symposium

Critical Introduction

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ARB Criteria / a reflective map

GC1 Ability to create architectural designs that satisfy

both aesthetic and technical requirements.

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Adequate knowledge of the histories and theories

of architecture and the related arts, technologies and human sciences.

Graduate Attributes [Part 2]

.1 ability to generate complex design proposals showing understanding of current architectural issues, originality in the application of subject knowledge and, where appropriate, to test new hypotheses and speculations;

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.2 ability to evaluate and apply a comprehensive range of

visual, oral and written media to test, analyse, critically appraise and explain design proposals;

Figure 1

Learning Journal as part of the Work-booklet

The task of compiling all work into a booklet and reviewing it continuously highlights process, allows me to curate work into this portfolio and is an interesting reservoir of thoughts.

Adequate knowledge of urban design, planning

and the skills involved in the planning process.

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need to relate buildings and the spaces between them to human needs

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problem solving skills, professional judgment, and ability to take the initiative and make appropriate decisions in complex and unpredictable circumstances; and

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ability to identify individual learning needs and understand the personal responsibility required to prepare for qualification as an architect.

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Understanding of the profession of architecture

and the role of the architect in society, in particular in preparing briefs

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design.

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internal conditions of comfort and protection against the climate. .1 .2 .3

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The necessary design skills to meet building

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usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; requirements within the constraints imposed by cost factors and building regulations.

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ARB Criteria

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / §

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.4 critical understanding of how knowledge is advanced through research to produce clear, logically argued and original written work relating to architectural culture, theory and design;

.5 understanding of the context of the architect and the construction industry, including the architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in the processes of procurement and building production, and under legislation;

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that take account of social factors.

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.3 ability to evaluate materials, processes and techniques that apply to complex architectural designs and building construction, and to integrate these into practicable design proposals;

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Knowledge of the fine arts as an influence on the

quality of architectural design.

With regard to meeting the eleven General Criteria at Parts 1 and 2 above, the Part 2 will be awarded to students who have:

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Part 1

A Critical Introduction

ARB Criteria / a reflective map

Part 2

5.05 Charrette 2015

Part 3

5.1 Project 1 - Plan Rotterdam - Urban Fabric

What Makes a City Vital?

§1.0 - Brief Introduction - What Makes a City Vital?

§1.1 - Research & Analyses - Brief Development

§1.2 - Rotterdam - Site Analyses

§2.0 - Symposium

§2.1 - Symposium Film

§2.1 - Vitalities

§2.2 - Urban Fragment - The Square

§2.3 - Building Fragment - City-Hall

§3.0 - Urban Intervention - City-defining Forum

3.2 - Extensions

§4.0 - Narratives [use, form, materiality]

§5.0 - Emphatic Explorations

§6.0 - List of References / Precedents

Part 4

Reflective Conclusion

projected graph of criteria for Semester 2

ARB Criteria Reflective Map

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Part 2

Charrette

1.

Part 2 5.05 spectacle / material / resistance

charrette 2015

Studio 04

From Precarity to Permanence Charlotte Gregory, & Julia Heslop

The student will be invited to become a ‘Shadow Studio Member’, a working ‘resident’, for the week at The NewBridge Project, an artist-led community comprising over 80 artist studios, a contemporary art gallery and a bookshop in Newcastle city centre.

found objects etc., but there is no prescribed ‘output’ for this workshop, apart from using the sensibilities and artistic working practices of our artists to confront a problem - the future development of the east Pilgrim Street site. These new ‘visions’ of our organisation and of the future will help NewBridge to open up a new space of critique for our working practices and will be translated and taken out of the building and back to the university, acting as ‘NewBridge off site’.

In consideration of NewBridge’s working practices - how we interact, learn, work, collaborate within the organisation and with each other, coupled with the specific economic and political context in which the organisation came about and exists within, the Shadow Studio Member is invited to project ideas and possibilities about the future of our site at east Pilgrim Street and our organisation, which is currently being debated.

The Shadow Studio Member will be asked to be ‘present’ in our organisation in an everyday, almost ethnographic manner, to understand our own artistic ‘eco-system’, and observe our artists’ diverse processes of working and making.

Figure 1

Working in NewBridge for the week, students will then use these practices, these creative ways of working, thinking and conceptualising that they have observed, to envision the future of our organisation and site.

This could take the form of spatial interventions, performance, text, sound, video, use of

Collection of artistic artefacts/fragments

Introduction to Charrette Project [5.05]

Stage 5 / october 2015 / ARC 8054 / Charrette

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Day 1 - Immersion

Day 2 - Observation

Firstly, our group was introduced to the Charrette, the building and organisation we would be working with throughout the week: the NewBridge Project studios in the centre of Newcastle. This included a visit of the 5-storey building, which had been appropriated by artists in a variety of ways, to enable them to work in their idiosyncratic ways.

On the second day we attended a workshop with our preferred artist: Ben Houghton. This workshop included fabricating contact mics in order to listen to the sounds buildings and materials make on contact.

Furthermore, we recorded the sound of the iron fireescape, and added creative writing alongside it to create a metaphor...?

As a group of ‘shadow studio members’ we embarked on an initial visit of five different artists. The intention of this ethnographic ‘immersion’ was to observe their diverse working processes and choose one to base our own installation on.

His artistic interests were varied, but vaguely involved trying out novel ways of seeing the world, through sounds, film and collections. We liked this variety of processes as a distilled version of the collective of 80 artists of the NewBridge Project.

At the end of the long day, the groups had a conversation about the different working methodologies of the artists. This open debate allowed for interesting opinions about our ‘vision’ of the NewBridge Project site.

His methodology of working and looking at the world influenced our conversations about the brief and how to respond to it.

In essence, we developed an idea to represent the collective as an interactive representational installation.

Figure 2

Immersion into the work of the Artist.

Figure 3

Observation of artist at work Days 1 & 2 of Charrette - Immersion - Observation

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5.

Day 3 - Collection

The highlight of the third day was the collection of artefacts and fragments from the NewBridge project building to transport and translate them into our installation back in the Architecture School.

The objective of our installation had been to create an interface that reflects the artists’ chaos and translates this into order. From individuals they soon become a collective.

Day 4 - Collation

Thursday included the preparation and further definition of the strategy we wanted to employ for our installation. As a group we discussed our strategy further, clarified it and divided specific tasks between ourselves. This resulted in a decision to rationalise our initial idea and create a selection of fragments found within the building. This would serve as a sort of collection of meaningless objects.

Meaning would be brought to the selection through curation - creating order in chaos through spraying the objects in a consistent manner - blue, yellow, pink. ‘Colourless’ the objects lose part of their meaning and take on a comparative relationship with each other.

The recycled carpet tiles found on site serve as display platforms, work platforms. These contain the physical embodied memory and traces of what once existed in the process of making.

Figure 4

Working as part of a group to develop an exhibition piece idea through collective and curating.

Figure 5

Collation of art-work

Days 3 and 4 of Charrette - Collection - Collation

Stage 5 / october 2015 / ARC 8054 / Charrette

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6.

Day 5 - Exhibition

Exhibition Piece

On Friday we further curated the installation: we chose to display the selection of miscellaneous fragments in a 3x3 format on the ground with the traces pinned to the wall.

This exhibition piece reflects the methodologies used by our chosen artist - collection, organisation and an organised chaos. The idea behind the piece is to demonstrate that by working together the artists within the project might be capable to demonstrating to the general population that art can even be found in ordinary objects: it intends to bring out the artist in you.

The objects reflect rigour and organisation required in the exhibition/curation process, while the traces on the wall seem to be randomly organised demonstrating a chaotic past.

The imprints on the wall are the marks left by the process of making - the memories of the exhibition piece. No matter what happens with the world, it seems crucial that such memories are kept and glorified.

This contrasts with the organised selection of artefacts and fragments left behind in the NewBridge project building. The display becomes a sort of preserved toolkit of the artist, a pre-emptive archaeological selection: perhaps this is all that will be left? Nevertheless, the memories created within this piece will last a life-time.

Perhaps this exhibition piece reflects the inner workings of the NewBridge Project: it is after all a collection of artists, seemingly all different, but working towards similar goals.

Figure 6

Photograph of finalised â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;pieceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as displayed on Friday 9th of October 2015.

Charrette Exhibition

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§1.0

Part 3

Plan Rotterdam §1.0 §1.1 §1.2 §2.0 §2.1 §2.2 §2.3 §2.4 §3.0 §3.1 §3.2 §4.0 §5.0 §6.0

Work-booklet: a generative developmental tool

1.

Part 3 5.1 Stage 5 / semester 1

Plan Rotterdam

5.1 Plan Rotterdam

The ‘Plan Rotterdam’ project focuses on the urban fabric of Rotterdam: the infrastructures, buildings, spaces and objects of the city, the relations between them and the conditions they produce.

In summary, the project asks us to study an ‘urban fragment’ in its context, through a collective mapping and analysis of a site, the development of a critical approach towards it and the design of an urban intervention which responds to the issues of a specific brief - ‘what makes a city vital?’

What Makes a City Vital?

Tutor - Dr. Nathaniel Coleman Duration - ±10 weeks Phases - 4

1 [Site-Visit - Rotterdam]

Week 1 - Rotterdam Preparation

Week 2 - Site Visit to Rotterdam 2

[Rotterdam XS-XL] Week 3 - Return/Analyses Week 4 - Pre-Symposium group-work Week 5 - Symposium

3-4

[Plan/Intervene] Week 6 - Urban Intervention Week 7 - Plan/Definition Week 8 - Interim Review Week 9 - Intervention Development Week 10 - Final Review

Week 11 - Return to Rotterdam?

Week 12+ - Portfolio Compilation

Figure 1

Urban Fabric Processwork pin-up - reviewing work to date - a working methodology Weekly break-down of project

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / §1.0 - Brief Introduction

new

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2.1

Project Contents

Part 3 5.1 Project 1 - Plan Rotterdam - Urban Fabric

14

Project - Weekly break-down

16-17 18-19 20-23 24-27 28-29 30-33 34-37 38-41 42-53 54-69 58-69 70-79 80-83 84-85

§1.0 - Brief Introduction - What Makes a City Vital? §1.1 - Research & Analyses - Brief Development §1.2 - Rotterdam - Site Analyses §2.0 - Symposium §2.1 - Symposium Film §2.2 - Vitalities §2.3 - Urban Fragment - The Square §2.4 - Building Fragment - City-Hall §3.0 - Urban Intervention §3.1 - City-Defining Forum §3.2 - Extensions §4.0 - Narratives [use, form, materiality] §5.0 - Emphatic Explorations §6.0 - List of References / Precedents

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2.2

2.3

Figure 2

From Symposium to Final Review; Presentation Boards.

2.4

2.1 - Symposium Poster 2.2 - Tutorial 4 2.3 - Interim Review 2.4 - Final Presentation Board

5.1 Contents Page

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§1.0

§1.0 what makes a city vital?

Brief introduction

What Makes a City Vital?

This brief starts by proposing a research question: ‘What Makes a City Vital?’ and gives us as a series of readings and case-studies to start investigating it, namely the Rockefeller Center in New York as contrasted with DeRotterdam.

The aim of the brief is to investigate what makes a city vital, through deep analyses of the urban conditions of Rotterdam. The studio concentrates on the aspects of the city that make them vital but are non-commodifiable, related more to civic virtues and dreaming, than to exchange.

Through a series of readings, mappings exercises and explorations, the project shall produce a series of strategies for urbanising the centre of Rotterdam, De Rotterdam and the quarter it establishes.

The siting of the project is triangulated between three case-studies; the Centraal Station to the North, the Markthal to the East, and De Rotterdam to the South.

within the city and, finally, the tectonic, material world they inhabit. While the list is not exhaustive, it attempts to form a starting point to criticise and re-plan Rotterdam. ‘We are more interested in what type of city should be considered best.’ 1

As a group, we aimed to experience the rhythms of Rotterdam by visiting areas which could be considered ‘behind-the-scenes’. Subsequent analyses of our perceptions resulted in our personal speculative themes. An overall consensus is distilled in the construct of our Symposium presentation space: it could be considered as an incubator of what we collectively consider to be the vitalities of the city.

This is also visualised through a contrasting film of the rhythms we perceived as a group.

Our critical group site-model, which is viewed from below, purposefully avoids an abstract perspective from above. This aims to counteract the reproduction of conventional architectural modes of representation, which we believe is partly responsible for the alienation of society in the ‘metropolis’. 2

My personal understanding and experience of Rotterdam was ambiguous. On one hand it tries to reflect an imaginary vision of grandeur, of metropolis, through its multiple skyscrapers, but on the other, it is clearly lacking the populace to keep its urban spaces busy. This is clearly seen in the stark contrast between the small and large scale development of the city (Figure). Additionally, I felt that it was a city of open space, as opposed to a city of places.

My initial answer to the question of the brief tries to be holistic, through listing and analysing the various characteristics which make a city a city: people as inhabitants, the communities they form, the institutions that govern them, the traditions they develop, their collective histories and memories, the sense of place

Figure 1

Triangulation between case-studies

Project Introduction

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / §1.0 - Brief Introduction

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Alberti, L. ‘On the Art of Building in Ten Books’, Rykwert, Leach, Tavernor (trans.) (1998).

2 Coleman, N. ‘Lefebvre for Architects’ (2015).

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A starting point

De Rotterdam [OMA]

If DeRotterdam is seen as the future of the urbanism of Rotterdam, it is quite clearly a failure.

If anything, it is the opposite of urban; a vertical city divorced from the city - it is beyond a building: ‘an independent city-state at war with its neighbours’ 1

- it is not central - it is not a destination in itself - it not open, permeable - it lacks civic function

“It is a gleaming beacon of prosperity, a monument to Rotterdam’s rude economic health – built at a time when scores of such office blocks lie vacant across the city.”

“The entire thing is clad in a continuous surface of slender aluminium mullions from top to bottom, which shimmer like silvery corduroy, recalling New York skyscrapers of the 1960s. It could be the twin towers of the World Trade Center, resurrected in a Frankenstein muddle.”

But if DeRotterdam is NOT a desirable urbanism, what would be? Perhaps the Markthal or the Central Station?

While both of these are central, and destinations in themselves, they lack civic function and permeability.

1

Koolhaas, R. ‘Delirious New York’ (1978) p.89.

I highlight these criteria as crucial for an alternative urbanism in the centre of Rotterdam; centrality, destination, permeability, public.

Figure 2

A diagrammatic study of the three nodes forming the site - generating criteria for urban intervention.

Generative Case-Studies

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§1.1

1.

2.

§1.1 what makes a city vital?

Research & Analysis

On Rockefeller Center

“The great cities of the future will contain civic centers, public places which, like the agora of Athens, the Roman Forum, and the medieval cathedral square, will form a community focus and popular concourse.” 1

“... a great building complex presupposes not the single point of view of the Renaissance but the manysided approach of our own age.” 1

“The complex must be comprehended in terms of space and time analogous to what has been achieved in modern scientific research as well as in modern painting.”

“Obviously it can be objected that such a commercial composition does not constitute a civic center.

It is a private enterprise arising from private initiative and carries out as a private speculation...” 1

“What really needs to be changed is the entire structure of the city.” “What must change is not the Center but New York itself.” 1

“... Rockefeller Center will stand as a reminder that the structure of the city must be transformed not just in the interest of single individuals but in the interest of the community as a whole.” 1

Figure 1

Plan of Agora in Athens

the methods of human administration cease to be opposed to the developments in science and art which make men aware of undiscovered spheres.” 1

“...a group of thin slab near-skyscrapers was grouped into a complex that was to be, as journalists would say later, “a city within a city”;...” 2 (pp.210-211)

“To date is has established itself as the visible heart of New York, if there is such a thing.” 2 (p.211)

“The problem of New York was that its heart, or core, was a wandering one. Although it is now more or less fixed at Rockerfeller Center, this fixing is, as I have suggested, fairly recent.” 2 (p.212)

“The Rockefeller Center is the fulfillment of the promise of Manhattan. All paradoxes have been resolved.”3

In summary, the Rockefeller Center, and Plaza could be defined as a location, which combines a civic, public centre with permeability and a destination through function and occasion, developed through time.

“...there was a problem of massing together an even larger number of offices or apartments than before, these were, whenever possible, compressed into a single gigantic structure or into two isolated and exaggeratedly tall identical towers,...” 1

“The contemporary city, as the most visible symbol of human interrelations, can only be built when

Figure 2

Plan of Roman Forum

Reading Rockefeller Center

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / §1.1 - Research & Analysis

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Giedion, S. ‘Space, Time and Architecture (1978), pp. 845-856.

2 Rykwert, J. ‘The Seduction of Place’ (2000). pp.210-212.

3 Koolhaas, R. ‘Delirious New York’ (1978), p.207 1

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Figure 3

The various readings of the Rockefeller Center results in the key differentiation between the human scale and the ambitions of the skyscraper.

4.

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Figure 4

Of Place and of occasion life happens on the streets and squares of the cities.

Rockefeller Plaza - a place of occasion - â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the fulfilment of the promise of manhattanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Selection of Contrasting Case-studies about urbanism

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§1.2

1.

2. §1.2 plan Rotterdam

rotterdam Analyses

Curious Case of Rotterdam

“If you put the last 50 years of architecture in a blender, and spat it out in building-sized chunks across the skyline, you would probably end up with something that looked a bit like Rotterdam.”

where is the memory in Rotterdam?

“Architecture is the art which so disposes and adorns edifices raised by man, for whatsoever uses, that the sight of them may contribute to his mental health, power, and pleasure.” 3

Like in many other cities, life happens on the streets and on the ground level - the urban fabric.

Yet, as a result of the destruction of the city in the 1940 bombing by the Luftwaffe, the centre has sprawled with new development - especially high-rise and skyscraper typologies dwarfing the historic architecture of the city.

Rotterdam is set for the future - dynamic, interesting.

But does this dynamism and interest work for the inhabitants? Or is it just for show?

“And if indeed there be any profit in our knowledge of the past, or any joy in the thought of being remembered hereafter, which can give strenght to present exertion, or patience to present endurance, there are two duties respecting national architecture whose importance is is impossible to overrate: the first, to render architecture of the day, historical; and the second, to preserve, as the most previous of ingeritances, that of pas ages” 1

“It is in the first of these two directions that Memory may truly be said to be the Sixth Lamp of Architecture; for it is in becoming memorial or monumental that a true perfection is attained by civil and domestic buildings; and this partly as they are, with such a view, built in a more stable manner, and partly as their decorations are consequently animated by a metaphorical or historical meaning.”2

Figure 1

Rotterdam 1937

Figure 2

Rotterdam 1940 Developing a Brief through analysis, mapping, reading and experience.

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / §1.2 - Rotterdam Analyses

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1 Ruskin, J. ‘The Seven Lamps of Architecture’, (1886, p.178. - lamp of memory.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid. p.8. lamp of sacrifice.

3.

Figure 3

Selection of Images demonstrating the urban voids left behind by upwards development.

Rotterdam - 2015 - Examples of Public Places

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ยง1.2

Figure 1

A map of Rotterdam as a new-comer Experiential Mapping of Routes - my Rotterdam

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง1.2 - Rotterdam Analyses

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Figure 2

Contrasting Pre-war and new development in Rotterdam [Fire-line in Red]

Figure 3

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5.

6.

7.

Rotterdam - Day 01 -

Sequential Memory Mapping GSEducationalVersion

Identification of urban blocks

Figure 4

Clear urban zones created by large boulevards.

Figure 5

Extraction of Potential sites for urban intervention large openings in the fabric

Figure 6

Highlighting junctions of boulevards - forming urban nodes.

Figure 7

A map of Rotterdam as a new-comer Identifiying the urban elements of Centrum - analytic / generative mapping

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§2.0

1.

§2.0 plan Rotterdam

Symposium

DYNAMIC INTEREST

Figure 1

Through-exercise fragmenting painting of Rotterdam city-scene in the 19th century - identifying ingredients of city

This thought-exercise takes the form of a series of questions: what are the ingredients a vital city requires? And if those ingredients exist, how does one capture them? Can they even be captured? And what is the benefit? Since the city can be seen as the stage on which we play out our lives, people will want to inhabit cities which offer, what I would like to propose as, ‘Dynamic Interest’.

It consists of a dual meaning - a city should contain movement [activity], but also move us [meaning - history / value]. A city should be interesting, and work for the interest of its inhabitants.

This approach attempts to develop an attitude towards the urbanisation versus manhattanisation of Rotterdam. People are stuck between the human scale of the remnants of a pre-industrial city and the newly built monuments to capitalist consumerism driving the economy. What do people actually want? Or do they even care?

I therefore propose a Movement which highlights the dynamic interest the city: the opposite of a heritage-highlighting preservation-based body. The future of our cities depends on our social involvement with them! This movement is not merely a planning authority conditioning buildings though. It is more: it is a city-defining forum - where anyone is welcome.

The extraction of the ingredients of the city from a painting by Franciscus van Gulik attempts to highlight the characteristics that make a city vital: people as inhabitants, the communities they form, the institutions that govern them, the traditions they develop, their collective histories and memories, the sense of place within the city and, finally, the tectonic, material world they inhabit.

2.

Figure 2

Symposium Poster; extraction of the ingredients of the vital city [as presented 13.11.2015]

Symposium Proposal - Dynamic Interest - ‘a city-defining forum’

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / § 2.0 - Symposium

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‘City Defining Forum’ Extraction of the Ingredients of the City by Vili Welroos; Rotterdam Grot Markt by Franciscus Van Gulik (19th Century)

DYNAMIC INTEREST This thought-exercise takes the form of a series of questions: what are the ingredients a vital city requires? And if those ingredients exist, how does one capture them? Can they even be captured? And what is the benefit? Since the city can be seen as the stage on which we play out our lives, people will want to inhabit cities which offer, what I would like to propose as, ‘Dynamic Interest’.

It consists of a dual meaning - a city should contain movement, but also move us. A city should be interesting, and work for the interest of its inhabitants.

Symposium 13.11.2015

3.

Figure 3

Symposium Poster; extraction of the ingredients of the vital city

This approach attempts to develop an attitude towards the urbanisation versus manhattanisation of Rotterdam. People are stuck between the human scale of the remnants of a pre-industrial city and the newly built monuments to capitalist consumerism driving the economy. What do people actually want? Or do they even care?

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I therefore propose a Movement which highlights the dynamic interest

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ยง2.0

1.

Figure 1

Selection of Symposium exhibition installation and its construction as a group - a group generative installation.

Symposium Construction

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง 2.0 - Symposium

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Figure 2

As built exploded isometric of Symposium Exhibition Installation

Figure 3

3.

Intro Film

Dynamic Interest Vili Welroos

Ignorance is Bliss Becky Wise

Revealing the Spectacle Daniel Duffield

DeConstruct Mariya Lapteva

Transitional Architecture Gavin Wu

The Role of the People Deryan Teh

The Brochure Ulwin Beethan

The various individual ‘vitalities’ posters displayed on the Symposium Exhibition model (13.11.2015)

Figure 4

Details as built

Symposium 13.11.2015

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§2.1

§2.1 plan Rotterdam

rhythms

Film - ‘Rhythms of Rotterdam’

The Film produced for the Symposium Exhibition aimed to highlight the various contrasting rhythms of Rotterdam.

The methodology of making the film included combining various short glimpses with their recorded sounds overlapping.

This film aims to show various types of spaces in Rotterdam - transport, people, isolation, control, protest, community, individuals, performance, memory, history, modernity. The contrasts created give us as a group a good idea of the type of Rotterdam is, and what kind of city we wish it to become through our urban interventions.

The themes of the posters on page 27 closely relate to the rhythms of the film, as the selection of imagery and footage was done as group.

In a way, the film is intended to be an interpretation of Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis1 and works as a generative exercise. 2

Lefebvre, H. ‘Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life [1992] (2004).

2 Coleman, N. ‘Lefebvre for Architects’ (2015).

1

Figure 1

QR code for Film about the rhythms of Rotterdam

alternatively : https:// vimeo.com/145440024 Rotterdam Film

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / § 2.1 - Film - Rhythms

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Figure 2

Film showing rhythms of Rotterdam as perceived by us as a group in October 2015 Symposium Film ; extraction of key rhythms

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§2.2

§2.2 what makes a city vital?

tradition / values

Figure 1

The typology of the

Stair-step gable ‘trapgevel’ Is a characteristic feature of many brick buildings in the Netherlands, Belgium, and in Dutch colonial settlements.

1.

Tradition plays an important role in the sense of belonging, promotes interest and moves us.

The seven ingredients - Selected - Tradition/Values

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / § 2.2 - Selected Vitalities

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§2.1 what makes a city vital?

institution / control

Figure 2

From Left to Right: Laurentskerk (1525) Rotterdam Stadhuis (±1918) DeRotterdam (2013) Organised institutions which give order and rule the way communities of people are able to inhabit place are crucial to any city.

2.

“The city is the assembly of the institutions of man. In other words, the city is the place where the instition occurs to man.” (Kahn) This Figure aims to contrast the different institutional architectures of their respective times.

The seven ingredients - Selected - Institution/Control

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§2.2

§2.2 plan Rotterdam

History / memory

Figure 1

All cities have a collective history.

a. Mari Andriessen: ‘Memorial to the Fallen 1940-1945’ adjacent to the City-Hall - Stadhuisplein [Bouwhuis, 2001, p.122]

a.

b.

b. Zadkine’s Statue of Liberation of Rotterdam 1951 - Plein 1940

c “The ideal image of the city was envisaged by the Greeks in the form of a woman in repose. In contrast, Ossip Zadkine’s monumental statue of 1951, dedicated to the liberation of Rotterdam, appears dynamic.”

[Rosenau, 1959, p.183]

c. Statue of Erasmus

(1622) adjacent to the cathedral - Grotekerkplein

The seven ingredients - Selected - History / Memory

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / § 2.2 - Selected Vitalities

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7. Substance

6. Place 1. People

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City-Defining Forum

5. History

3. Community

2. Institution

4. Tradition

Figure

Bringing the extracted aspects of the city into a new location This research informed my choice of site and formal architectural typologies Ideological Diagram of Thesis Intention

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ยง2.3

City-Defining Forum

ยง2.3 city-defining Forum

urban fragment

Figure 1

Series of Chosen Sites for Urban interventions within site boundary - groupstrategy

Figure 2

Group-relationship diagram - series of strategies to re-urbanise Rotterdam.

1.

Group Series of Strategic Sites to re-urbanise Rotterdam

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง 2.3 - Urban Fragment - square

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2.

Kruisplein Schouwbourgsplein

Stadhuisplein Hofplein

Grotekerkplein

Binnerotte Nieuwmarkt

Grotmarkt

2.

Eendrachtplein

Binnewegplein

Beursplein

Plein 1940

Site Identification

What type of place could contain the required pre-requisites for such a City-Defining Movement?

I propose a study of squares in Rotterdam, in order to identify one which could become the host for the Forum. What could be more fine than a new civic square in Rotterdam, which is seemingly a city designed for movement. A destination is therefore required.

Paul Zucker defines the different types of squares that exist: closed, dominated, nuclear, grouped and amorphous. Sitte claims enclosure is the prerequisite of the formal square and therefore there only exist two types of square: deep and wide.

While the form of the square is important for the sense of enclosure it creates, the functions within are equally important. A site for civic function might therefore be located close to an important civic institution: a sort of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;shadow civic centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for people to congregate - what better place than in front of the CityHall?

The new square would stand in defiance of the City-hall, but in equilibrium with it.

The existing squares in Rotterdam are often under-used and feel empty - or are more amorphous in nature, rather than the pleasant enclosed squares of Rome. Often, however, they are a place of memory, with various statues present. With use, they become places of assembly and occasion.

Figure 2

Identification of the different squares present within the site boundary. plein translates as square in Dutch.

Site Identification - squares of Rotterdam

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ยง2.3

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Figure 1

Different Squares in Rome - function vs form

Extracting as a method of working a. Largo Argentina b. Piazza Navona c. Piazza Farnese d.Campo de Fiori Precedents - squares of Rome - Analysis of use, form, atmosphere

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Testing the creation of a sequence of urban squares to create urban interventions

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Highlighting an series of urban noders to create movement

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Diagrammatic Proposal of key places

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building fragment

Stadhuis - City Hall

The City Hall, along with the nearby Post Office were built when the waters of the Coolsingel were exchanged for a road and the red-light district was demolished.

In 1913 a limited entry competition among seven architects to design a city hall was won by the Neo-Renaissance submission by Henri Evers, who had in fact organised the competition in the first place!

The building consists of four wings four storeys high around a public court. The overall shape is a rectangle of 86x106 metres. Presiding over the City Hall is a 71 metre tall clock-tower in reinforced concrete above the main lobby.

The buildings exterior is dominated by sandstone elevations and tall pyramidal slate roofs.

During a refurbishment carried out between 2008 and 2010, many rooms were restored to their former glory.

For instance, the attics were transformed into meeting rooms and a restaurant by Merkx+Girod architects.

Figure 1

1:200 Detail model of External Envelope of the City-hall

Figure 2

City-Hall Plan - an institution that has lost its presence

Figure 3

Series of Images of the Stadhuis, as built and as proposed - a recently restored 1:50 model from 1914.

3.

Urban Fragment Study - Stadhuis - Rotterdam City-Hall

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Figure 4

Historic Images of Stadhuis before [left] and after [right] 1940

Figure 5

Location of City-Hall in relation to the city - 2015

Figure 6

Elevational collage of Rotterdam City Hall Stadhuis [Henri Evers, 1918]

6.

Urban Fragment Study

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Figure 1

Proposed ‘Movement’ urban sequence with a destination - the City-Hall Urban Fragment Study - Stadhuis - Rotterdam City-Hall

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Esquisse proposing an urban intervention

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2 1 3

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§3.0 City-defining forum

Urban Intervention

Urban Sequence - DeLijn

Three separate urban proposals form the urban sequence terminating at the City-defining Forum proposed in front of the City-Hall.

3. A new structure enhancing the enclosure of the Schouwbourgsplein and directing the view of pedestrians towards the axis of the City-hall and Citydefining Forum.

2. A structure highlighting the cross-road between the Korte Lijnbaan and the Lijnbaan. It serves as a portal towards the City-defining Forum.

1. The destination - the new civic square in front of the City-hall.

All of these are however also places to dwell in their own right.

a ‘City-defining Forum’ imbued with ‘Dynamic Interest’

Figure 1

Design intention Diagram

This urban intervention project is a social collective enterprise taking the form of a civic intervention within the city of Rotterdam - a ‘CityDefining Forum’. While its substance is spatial, it is more about place and occasion than space and time.

The programmatic framework of the place includes a platform for dialogue, a testing ground for civic ideas and a social, public archive, among other auxiliary functions.

The place and occasion are informed by a general masterplan for the re-vitalisation of the city, while the physical space it occupies aims to highlight each of the urban fragments of said masterplan. The Masterplan itself takes the form of a ‘series of strategies’ within Central Rotterdam. Together these strategies re-vitalise the urban realm through moments and the physical interventions part of it.

Forum

The Forum is the emphasis of the sequence its civic destination. Essentially it becomes a manifesto for making the city better - perhaps even ideal. The suggested site is directly adjacent to the Stadhuis [cityhall], the institution where decisions are traditionally made.

Due to practical reasons the platform is not a simple plane. It interacts and is eventually fully woven into its direct urban surroundings. Thereafter it performs the role of a social glue and aims to connect together some of the key ingredients of the city identified previously: people, community, history, memory, place, substance and institution.

By definition the ‘platform’ is not static - set in stone or immovable - it contains the framework for ‘Dynamic Interest’.

DeLijn - The Line Urban Intervention Introduction

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / § 3.0 - Urban intervention - movement

Of Place and Occasion

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Diagrammatic Masterplan DeLijn

a ‘City-defining Forum’ within ‘What Makes a City Vital?’

The way this physical intervention responds to the ‘What Makes a City Vital?’ brief is by taking it as a generative starting point in the three following ways.

Firstly, the project builds on the thematic framework discussed within the brief. Rockefeller Center as an emblem of a Civic Center forming a public place, a community focus and popular concourse.

De Rotterdam as a inherently confused image of an ambition to manhattanise Rotterdam.

Additionally the project considers the aspects, or ingredients, that make a city vital, through a reading and exploration of Rotterdam. These are categorised

and tested to see whether they truly are of importance and are not commodifiable. Taking a philosophical approach of various urban theories of the past and present, the project takes a stance towards urbanism, through testing, analysing and appraising options.

Secondly, the project aims to generate an urban scale that is more human through a possible alternative strategy as opposed to that of the global capitalist project that De Rotterdam seems to be the spear-head of. This is achieved through a generative team-work process to develop a variety of inter-linked briefs.

Finally, it establishes a critical position within a framework of various ‘platforms’ and its immediate urban context, especially regarding social encounter, presence and influence.

Figure 1

Diagrammatic Masteplan identifiying immediate context and key zones for intervention a. Stadhuis - city-hall b. Hofplein - major roundabout c. De Bijkorf

Initial Diagram of Proposed Movement

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Site plan 1:4000 Diagrammatic Site Plan of Urban Sequence

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1 Destination ‘City-Defining Forum’

2.

3a.

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Figure 2

Initial diagramming for creation of urban movement.

Figure 3

Series of generative diagrans for options for urban intervention a. a series of thresholds terminating in an enclosed square b. activity pockets creating a larger square with activities and smaller enclosures

3c.

c. A series of portals terminating in the square

Initial Diagrams of Proposed Movement & intervention

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Masterplan 1:10 000

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Rotterdam Longitudinal Section 1:4000

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2.

Site-location plan of Rotterdam - in relation to other ‘squares’

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Isometric Site location showing three case-studies in red.

Site-location axonometric in relation to the growing city-scape

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Contextual Site-plan / elevation - DeLijn - The Line

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1:1000 plan for proposed urban movement, showing scale of context.

- a generative drawing to highlight context and urban intervention within that context old new

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DeLijn - The Line [please note this graphic is diagrammatic and an initial concept

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Rotterdam Futures [work in progress]

Isometric showing Intention of Urban Movement - DeLijn - The Line

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Figure 1 old new

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1:500 Study-model

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1:500 Study-model - proposing a key view

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Concept of Line of bricks finishing at the fountain square of the City-defining Forum - with a central Luminaire [calling the population]

3.

Diagrammatic 1:500 study-model - DeLijn Concept

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Reference Aerial Diagram Plan

Figure 5

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Initial Diagrammatic Vignettes of Proposed Movement

Series of Vignettes of Urban sequence / movement terminating at the new City-Defining Forum, adjacent to the City-Hall [above: superseded - as in presentation]

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§3.1 city-defining Forum

City-defining Forum

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Sunday

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An Enclosed Civic Square

Wednesday

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“The public square is probably still the most important element in city design; it is the chief method by which a town or city is both decorated and given distinction. It is the natural setting for the most important civic and religious buildings, a place for fine sculpture, fountains and lighting and, above all else, a place where people meet and socialize. When such public places are designed according to some fairly basic principles and are imbuef with a sense of place, they take on an added stmbolic meaning. The most important physical quality of such spaces is enclosure. The methods of enclosure are many though the principles are few.”1

Weekly Market

Events

Catering

Cultural

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

The City-defining Forum enclosed square on the Coolsingel.

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Two extensions directly adjacent the towers of the City-Hall are proposed - these will contain various functions (activity pockets)2.

Learning

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The square is elevated from street-level, allowing the traffic to continue below it, but also creating a sense of civic presence, within a country which is known for being flat. Even a simple 4 metre elevation gives the new piazza a sense of importance - a destination.

A

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Its location at the Coolsingel gives it a central location, it becomes a hub for occasion.

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Moughtin, C. ‘Urban Design: Street and Square’ (2003) 2 Alexander, C. ‘A Pattern Language’ (1977)

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Possible Market Fountain Square

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Axonometric Diagram showing extensions on site

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Diagram showing sectional treatment of intervention

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Stadhuisplein

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Extensions

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Creating Enclosure - a pre-requisite for the civic square

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Key Developmental Sketches

Extensions

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Key Exploded axonometric City-defining Forum square + extension Exploded Axonometric

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Sectional Elevations 1:500 [South Extension - North Elevation] Section through Square.

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Figure 1

The Enclosed Square - the overriding quality of this spatial type is a sense of enclosure.

“The enclosure of space in this manner is the purest expression of a sense of place, the centre.” (Zucker) Render of North Extension to City-Hall - Cultural Centre

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Figure 1

Close-up of Entrance to North Extension - cultural centre The facade of this building consists of a dark brick mesh, creating a liminal space for seating.

The columns can also be utilised for displaying cultural artefacts/ outdoors or indoors Render of North Extension to City-Hall - Cultural Centre entrance

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Atmospheric Artist impression of the CityDefining Forum on performance day Render of South Extension to City-Hall - Including the Forum - showing possible inhabitation

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1. § 4.0 city-defining Forum

narratives

Populating the square

The City-Defining Forum is designed within a new civic square in Rotterdam, with several programmatic narratives, generating a complex set of rhythmic relationships for the site. These could be considered occasions that define the use and atmosphere of the site.

§4.1 The Weekly Market - Hosted in a permanent framework within the square, which can quickly be transformed into pop-up stalls. [storage is provided on-site].

- Aim of market is to sell products created within workshops in the cultural centre. All profits are considered donations that go into the running of the centre.

- A daily market is possible, but limited to 15m2 per stall and deliveries are only possible by small electric vehicle/bicycle.

§4.2 The Fortnightly Spectacle

dinner Figure 1

§4.3 The daily coffee, lunch or

§4.5 The mundane stroll-trough

- The outdoor area created between the two markets creates the perfect setting for a mundane stroll-through, a sit, a chat, or a quick coffee.

§4.6 The Resident Artist

- The square provides inhabitation for one resident artist.

- Organising event calendar, overseeing the square and taking part in workshops.

§4.7 The occasional conference

- These occasional conferences may take place in the range of spaces provided within the North or South Extensions to the Town Hall.

- The spaces provided can host seminars and other teaching occasions.

- The top floors provide an archive and computer cluster, which is available to members.

- Catering facilities exist within the north extension.

Axonometric View showing relationship of planned narratives and their spatial correlations Programmatic Narratives

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / § 4.0 - narratives

§4.4 The seasonal cultural day-out

- A permanent exhibition is hosted within the facility.

Artists can organise workshops within the various flexible workshop spaces in the cultural centre.

- Every two weeks, a spectacle of some sorts is organised by the resident artist. It can take place within one of the gallery spaces, the main cultural hub-space or the raked outdoor seating.

These include a bistro, a large cafe and a small cafe.

The small cafe works together with the bistro, providing a quick morning take-away coffee: it is independently run by volunteers and staff of the cultural centre.

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Figure 4

The Narratives

Figure 5

A programmatic schedule of narratives [see p.57 for reference] Narratives

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ยง4.1

1.

ยง 4.1 city-defining Forum

market

enhances the livelihood, and brings people to use the square. It attempts to create a more lively atmosphere in general.

ยง4.1 The Weekly Market

Form

Hosted in a permanent framework within the square, which can quickly be transformed into pop-up stalls. [storage for which is provided on-site].

Structure

A brick plinth is the more sturdy, large architectural element providing a sense of permanence for the market on site. Simple timber and aluminium stalls can be erected on site.

The physical structure of the market stalls attempts to find a balance between permanence and flexibility. Brick columns create an enclosure to which stalls can be accommodated. When present, these create a sense of hustle and bustle for the site. When not, they create an interesting architectural feature on site.

Access

Various types of stalls are possible, changing the atmosphere of each day in the square.

Materiality

A provision within the flexible stall structure is given to logos, and to various permutations of market stall units.

A daily market is possible, but limited to 15m2 per stall and deliveries are only possible by small electric vehicle/bicycle.

Function

The aim of market is to sell products created within workshops in the cultural centre. All profits are considered donations that go into the running of the centre.

Atmosphere

When the market is present on the square, it

Figure 1

Axonometric View of Inhabited Market Stall Programmatic Narratives - Market

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง 4.1 - narratives - Market

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Figure 2

2.

Exploded Axonometric showing potential build-up of Market on Permanent brick structure

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Exploded Axonometric showing potential build-up of Market on Permanent brick structure

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1.

2.

Figure 1

Axonometric Diagrams showing potential uses of permanent brick columns

Figure 2

Vignettes showing interior of the square

3.

Figure 3

Vignettes showing interior of the square

Vignettes of Market in its context

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง 4.1 - narratives - Market

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4.

Figure 4

Ezploded Axonometric Showing Tesselation of Markets and Brick-plinths [before and after] Exploded Axonometric showing potential build-up of Market on Permanent brick structure

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§4.2

1. § 4.2 city-defining Forum

spectacle / event

Atmosphere

§4.2. The Forum

Form

Stepped seating facing the City-Hall gives the perfect setting for spectacle, debate, or simply having a conversation with a friend.

Structure

The projected atmosphere for the outdoor amphitheater is that of lively debate or quiet contemplation. It is the destination of the urban movement proposed within the project.

The fountain square has central to it a powerful luminaire that beams light into the sky to call anyone interested - a presence without ‘substance’.

The structure of the seating is a concrete frame with various soft and hard textures to sit on.

While this is an outdoor amphitheater, and it becomes wet at times, a drainage solution has to be provided.

The debate is recorded and archived. The archive is used as a learning occasion for conferences, which can be debated on site.

Access

Access to the amphitheater is through a central portal. Two staircases provide access to the desired level of sitting or standing.

Materiality

Adjacent to the portal is a smaller enclosed ‘fountain square’.

The debate is fully public, anyone is welcome.

Soft and hard textures to sit on. While this is an outdoor amphitheater, and it becomes wet at times, a drainage solution has to be provided.

Function

While the main ambition of the forum is to host public politic debate, it creates the perfect backdrop for theatrical events, weddings, photo-shoots and to have your lunch.

Figure 1

Axonometric View looking at the Forum

Programmatic Narratives - Forum

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / § 4.2 - narratives - the forum

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2.

Figure 2

Axonometry of Forum in Context Exploded Axonometric showing occasions at the Square

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ยง4.3

1. ยง 4.3 city-defining Forum

Cultural day-out

displays, throughout the day and year. When a special new gallery opens, the central fountain square of the Civic Square beams light into the city sky.

ยง4.4 Cultural Centre

Form

This day-out takes place within the North and South extensions.

Structure

Steel-frame, clad in long black-brick panels.

Access

Fully Public 24 hours a day, the North Extension Ground Floor is securely manned by a receptionist and the Resident Artist. The Main Gallery is accessed by several steps (see page 67 for said steps and entrance)

The building becomes a public thoroughfare.

Function

Materiality

The exteriors are long-black brick clad with hints of colour.

The South Extension is a lighter bricks, dutchbond, with glazing where suitable. It follows a similar typology to the North Extension, yet it aims to be its opposite. Please see pages 62-63 for contrast between elevational treatments.

Page 80 contains a few atmospheric explorations of suggested materiality of the South Extension day-gallery (Figure 1, p.80)

The cultural artefacts displayed within the galleries will eventually be archived on the top floor of the South Extension ( Figures 3-4, p.81).

The two extensions provide various galleries which can host cultural events, exhibitions and presentations.

Atmosphere

The Main Hall of the North Extension displays any possible futures discussed at the Forum - and can hold various large scale events / artistic

Figure 1

Axonometric View looking the Main Hall Gallery of the North Extension

Programmatic Narratives - Rotterdam Cultural Centre

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง 4.3 - narratives - cultural

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2.

Figure 2

Central Display Space of the North Extension Central Display space - Rotterdam - ‘What will we make it?’

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ยง5.0

1.

Figure 1

Atmosphere within Public Day-gallery [south extension]

2.

Figure 2

Showing Atmosphere of Central Beam of Light at sunset - The event calling.

- sun-catcher seen in background.

Atmospheric Views

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง5.0 - Emphatic Explorations

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Figure 3

Within the Archival chamber of the top of floor of the south extension Forum decisions get stored here for anyone to see.

4.

Figure 4

Perspective View of Citydefining Forum Archival Spaces Archival Space - Futures & Pasts of Rotterdam [South Extension - Top Floor]

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ยง5.0

1.

Figure 1

Exploded Axonometric showing connection between new and existing Exploration of Detail between new and existing

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง 5.0 - Emphatic Explorations

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Figure 2

Axonometric Section showing connection between new and existing Details

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§6.0

5.1 city-defining Forum

Precedents / references

List of References Aureli, P. ‘The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture’ (2011).

Alexander, C. ‘A Pattern Language’ (1977).

Bachelard, G. ‘Poetics of Space’ (1992).

Calvino, I. ‘Invisible Cities’ (1997).

Coleman, N. ‘Lefebvre for architects’ (2015).

Coleman, N. ‘Utopias and Architecture’ (2005).

Corner, J. ‘Agency of Mapping’ (1999).

Frampton, K. ‘Studies in Tectonic Culture’ (1995).

Giedion, S. ‘Space, Time and Architecture’ (1978).

Harvey, D. ‘Spaces of Hope’ (2000).

Koolhaas, R. ‘Delirious New York: a retro-active manifesto for Manhattan’ (1978).

Koolhaas, R. ‘S, M, L, XL’ (1995).

Lefebvre, H. ‘Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life’ (2004).

Lefebvre, H. ‘The Production of Space’ (1991).

Lynch, K. ‘The Image of the City’ (1960).

Moughtin, C. ‘Urban Design - Street and Square’ (2003).

Moughtin, C. et al. ‘Urban Design - Method and Techniques’ (2003).

Norberg-Schulz, C. ‘Existence, Space and Architecture’ (1971).

Prasad, S. ‘Transformations’ (2007).

Rosenau, H. ‘The Ideal City’ (1959).

Rowe, C. & Koetter, F. ‘Collage City’ (1978).

Ruskin, J. ‘The Seven Lamps of Architecture’ (1886).

Rykwert, J. ‘The Seduction of Place’ (2000).

Sitte, C. ‘Der Stadte-Bau’ (1889).

Rasmussen, S.E. ‘Experiencing Architecture’ (1959).

Tafuri, M. ‘Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development’ [1994] (1976).

Van Eyck, A. ‘Works’ (1999).

Zucker, P. ‘Town and Square’ (1959).

Figure 1

List of References consulted

Precedents / References

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / § 6.0 - precedents / references

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Sequence of Squares in Rome

Roman Forum

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Museumquarter - Vienna

Campidoglio, Rome

Paley Park, New York, USA.

Monumento Sandro Pertini - Milano - Aldo Rossi

Chur, Zumthor

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Figure 2

Several Precedent investigations/observations completed as part of this project Architectural Precedents

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Part 4

conclusion

1.

Part 4 5.1 Stage 5 / semester 1

reflective Conclusion

Conclusion

I hope this folio of work has demonstrated my ability to produce an urban design project from a theoretical starting point, and stated my holistic approach towards architecture. (Figure 1) I also hope it shows my dedication to develop the various skills I have, in reading an existing context, responding to it, and creating a place for occasion.

(Figure 2)

Response to Feedback

The feedback of the Urban Fabric project states that I should prioritise three aspects of my work in this portfolio:

Figure 1

Selection of Process-work completed as part of the project - my feedback included trying to add this better into my final presentations

1. My rigorous process-work should be shown in the portfolio (and make it into presentations!).

In this folio I have attempted to curate and summarise my process, while showing glimpses of previous iterative tasks that influenced a graphic or design-decision.

2. I should indicate the atmosphere of the urban sequence and forum through its use, materiality and detail.

I feel that the short length of project did not really allow me to focus on these aspects for the ‘final’ review.

However, I hope I managed to convey some of the uses, materialities and details of the scheme.

3. I could achieve this indication through vignettes, scenarios and experiential drawings.

This feedback really enhanced my own understanding of the workings of the project; something to focus on in the future!!

Various new drawings showing the aspects afore-mentioned should hopefully illustrate the potential uses of the civic square. Additionally, I believe these types of drawings can be generative of design.

Something I hope to develop further, since I think architecture is never static, it is dynamic, rhythmic.

Something I have learned from reading Lefebvre this semester.

Through completing the urban fabric project in Rotterdam, I feel that I learned the importance of being holistic in my approach to a site, brief and project.

Page 09 maps my current progress against the ARB Graduate Criteria [GC] and Graduate Attributes [GA2] at Part 2 [Figure 7]. - In the ending of every section of the project, I try to highlight the criteria covered in the top right hand of the spread. This closely relates to some of the thoughts I have about my own learning demonstrated in Figures 3-6.

Projected Learning ‘Where do I go from here?’

While I feel that it was crucial for me to develop those aspects of design which are concerned with the wider aspects of the built environment I think it will be crucial for me to translate this learning into the physical detail of the designs.

I shall definitely focus on further explorations of programme and how the use of a building or place defines its form, and detail.

Reflective Conclusion

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / § Reflective Conclusion

Learning Outcomes

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‘City Defining Forum’ Extraction of the Ingredients of the City by Vili Welroos; Rotterdam Grot Markt by Franciscus Van Gulik (19th Century)

DYNAMIC INTEREST This thought-exercise takes the form of a series of questions: what are the ingredients a vital city requires? And if those ingredients exist, how does one capture them? Can they even be captured? And what is the benefit? Since the city can be seen as the stage on which we play out our lives, people will want to inhabit cities which offer, what I would like to propose as, ‘Dynamic Interest’.

It consists of a dual meaning - a city should contain movement, but also move us. A city should be interesting, and work for the interest of its inhabitants.

This approach attempts to develop an attitude towards the urbanisation versus manhattanisation of Rotterdam. People are stuck between the human scale of the remnants of a pre-industrial city and the newly built monuments to capitalist consumerism driving the economy. What do people actually want? Or do they even care?

I therefore propose a Movement which highlights the dynamic interest the city: the opposite of a heritage-highlighting preservation-based body. The future of our cities depends on our social involvement with them! This movement is not merely a planning authority conditioning buildings though. It is more: it is a city-defining forum - where anyone is welcome.

3.

4.

Figure 2

5.

From concept, to idea, to final representation - a working methodology [see next page]

6.

Figures 3-4

Developmental Diagram My aims in architecture .1 .2 .3

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Figure 5

Developing a ‘container’ of architectural work

Figure 6 projected graph of criteria for Semester 2

7.

Growing Personal Development Map

Figure 7

Mapping of Criteria Map - based on cumulation of criteria covered in portfolio [p.9]

Learning Diagrams

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§4.3

‘City Defining Forum’ Extraction of the Ingredients of the City by Vili Welroos; Rotterdam Grot Markt by Franciscus Van Gulik (19th Century)

DYNAMIC INTEREST

8a.

This thought-exercise takes the form of a series of questions: what are the ingredients a vital city requires? And if those ingredients exist, how does one capture them? Can they even be captured? And what is the benefit? Since the city can be seen as the stage on which we play out our lives, people will want to inhabit cities which offer, what I would like to propose as, ‘Dynamic Interest’.

It consists of a dual meaning - a city should contain movement, but also move us. A city should be interesting, and work for the interest of its inhabitants.

8b.

8c.

This approach attempts to develop an attitude towards the urbanisation versus manhattanisation of Rotterdam. People are stuck between the human scale of the remnants of a pre-industrial city and the newly built monuments to capitalist consumerism driving the economy. What do people actually want? Or do they even care?

I therefore propose a Movement which highlights the dynamic interest the city: the opposite of a heritage-highlighting preservation-based body. The future of our cities depends on our social involvement with them! This movement is not merely a planning authority conditioning buildings though. It is more: it is a city-defining forum - where anyone is welcome.

Furthermore I think it would be good for me to develop my interest in the existing urban and building fabric through better research and study of precedents. While I attempted this during this project, unfortunately I feel that I simply glimpsed the surface of what is possible through a rigorous study of precedent.

Perhaps I need to go to a place to draw out the interesting and important details of the spaces in question. I am increasingly starting to come to the conclusion that drawing is not merely a representational tool for architects to present spaces or buildings, but a method for drawing out the architecture of place from mere space. Therefore, I feel like talking about ‘finaldrawings’ is a fallacy that I aim to avoid. More than anything, drawing is a working methodology. [Figures 8-9] I feel like there is a lot I would learn if I observed the existing built environment ever closer; not only its physical form, but also the rhythms that are created within those spaces - drawing them on paper and film, in the four dimensions - space and time.

In reflection, I must agree, but I should add that I have learned during this semester that it is not only a personal process of learning, but a collective endeavour that I wish to be part of. The fact that it is a ‘life-style’, a community of sorts, truly fascinates me: the continuum of architectural thought, from Vitruvius, to Alberti, to LeCorbusier, to Koolhaas, and ‘some’ others in-between.

Therefore I would like to thank all those unnamed architects for their contributions to the builtenvironment, no matter how small, because I feel ‘it’ truly matters.

Vili-valtteri Welroos [12.01.2016]

“Everywhere there is interaction between a place, a time and an expenditure of energy, there is rhythm.” (Lefebvre)

Conclusion to conclusion

Figure 8

From concept, to idea, to final representation - a working methodology

a. p.25 b. p.41 c. p.41 d. p.41 e. p.39

I would like to conclude this reflective conclusion by looking back to my Part 1 graduating portfolio and the conclusion I made in it:

“In conclusion, I hope that I will have demonstrated, not only knowledge about architecture, a personal approach towards design as a continuous process of making. Finally, I am looking forward to the feedback and productive, constructive criticism I will certainly receive as part of a course which is much more than just ‘a course’. It is a life-style, and I just cannot get enough of it.”

e. pp.58-59 Reflective Conclusion

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / § Reflective Conclusion

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8e.

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9.

Figure 9

Emphatic Explorations - a route to enhance my designs?

Conclusive Graphics

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Figure 1

Key Developmental Drawings from sketchbook

Appedix - Key Sketchbook Scans

Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง Appendix 1 - Sketchbook

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Key Developmental Drawings from sketchbook Appedix - Key Sketchbook Scans

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Stage 5 / Autumn 2015 / ARC 8054 / Urban Fabric / ยง back-cover - Thank you

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