City Atlas of Beverwijk

Stained-glass BEVERWIJK

Minshi Zhang 5488877 AR1U090 R&D Studio : Analysis and Design Urban Form Tutor : Suzana Milinovic Date : October 26, 2021

PREFACE Patches fit together, like stained-glass, to form cities.

When I first set foot on this land, Beverwijk showed me its diversity and contrast, which coexisted with peaceful daily life. With industrial development and the famous Bazzar as its backbone, the scene of daily life today is isolated from industry and markets. It is surrounded by natural dunes, forests and farmland, which can't be perceived in the city. People of different ages, backgrounds, and cultures can be seen everywhere.

What made Beverwijk different everywhere? And what bound them together tightly as a city? This Atlas will tell the story of how the 'Stained-glass' was made, which is composed by different kinds, shapes, layers of patches.

A series of maps will be used to analyze different urban elements, including urban texture, space composition and so on, so as to gain an understanding of 3 different topics of Urbanized Landscapes, the Form of the City and the Open City. Different scales will be used, and the past, the present and also the future potential of the city will be analysed to lead a view into how the 'Stained-glass' can be made more colorful and unbreakable.

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CONTENT

Preface …… 2 Chapter I. City As Patchwork …… 5 Landscape over time …… 6 Patchwork in the area ……8 Chapter II. Mind The Gaps …… 11 Boundaries and borders …… 12 Existing boundaries …… 12 Perceivable borders …… 14 Chapter III. The Colorful City …… 17 Daily life …… 18 Open space …… 20 Urban space morphology …… 22 Chapter IV. Find The Connectors …… 25 Accessibility …… 26 Enhance existing publicness …… 28 Future potential …… 30 Reflection …… 31 Reference …… 31

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CHAPTER I

CITY AS PATCHWORK

Picking out proper colorful glasses is the first step to make a stained-glsss. Therefore, it is essential to have a good understanding on each pieces.

How did Beverwijk develop through out the time and form a patchwork step by step? What are the differences between these pieces? In this chapter you will read the historical story of Beverwijk, and gain the first impression on the coexistence and contrast in this land, of different landscapes, functions, viewing...

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Landscape Over Time Natural landscape divided urban space

Beverwijk

Beverwijk, a city belongs to the Ijmond area, has developed a lot in its natural landscape through out a thousand year. Since it was built near the water, its cityscape was also affected by the old tidal system.

In 800AD, there was once a river flowed into the Ijmond area from inner sea. Over hundreds of years, the river widened and formed the Wijker Meer, where the Beverwijk built nearby. Sediment deposits eventually blocked the Wijker Meer in 1850s. After that, the North Sea Canal was finally dug from the inner sea to the outer sea, which brought flourish back to Beverwijk, and the Ijmond area was splited into two parts ...

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Patches spreaded differently Before 1940s, Beverwijk has expanded continuously outwards from the centre of Breestraat, and successive patches could be clearly seen.

After the industry came in, which brought a huge amount of population, urban space began to spread in the form of independent fragments.

≈900AD Beverwijk was established.

≈1300AD Beverwijk was func�oned as Catholic town a place of pilgrimage for the Saint Agatha.

≈1900AD Beverwijk began to sprawl by the fun�on of religious educa�on, including schools, dormitories, etc. So the buildings was built around the Breestraat and closely connected to each other.

before 1900s

1940s - 1960s

1900s - 1920s

1960s - 2000s

1920s - 1940s

a�er 2000s

≈1950AD The industry began to built here, which led to rapidly increasing number of inhabitants.

More and more mordern residen�al buildings were built.

≈1970AD The first shop in ‘Woonboulevard’ opened and De Bazaar quickly developed through out the �me, forming the most famous marke�ng place for Beverwijk.

≈1990AD An expansion plan was made for an occupa�on of 100,000 inhabitants by merging the city with Heemskerk. Beverwijk then started to expand more towards north.

Nowdays What’s the future of Beverwijk?

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Patchwork In The Area Natural, urbanized and cultural landscapes Beverwijk consists of different types of landscape: natural, urbanized and cultural landscape, appear interchangeably from west to east in here.

Natural landscape, consisted of water, dunes, and forest, has surrounded the other landscapes. Urbanized landscape is those built environment where human beings live the daily life. And here, the cultural landscape could be the impressive industrial area.

These landscapes can be distincted clearly, forming a faschinating and unique view of the city. They fit together like pieces of jigsaw puzzle, which can be regarded as patchwork of landscape.

Week 2 Portrait - Collage

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Different dominant functions From the point of view of the main use function of the buildings, it can be found that the same type of function tends to gather together, rather than evenly dispersed in the urban space.

Commerce was still mainly concentrated in the Breestraat, which was closely surrounded by residential functions.

Industrial areas were located away from residential areas.

Obviously, the whole Beverwijk was a combination of patches of different functional zones.

Func�on Industry Sport Commercial Residen�al

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CHAPTER II

MIND THE GAPS

Cutting the edge of each glasses, in preparation for putting them together. There should be a smart logic for forming these glass seams.

So where are these 'seams' of Beverwijk? What are they made of? Within the urban area, there are boundaries that define and limit the outer shape of the whole 'stained-glass', as well as borders between those different 'glasses' that allow you to distinguish between the pieces easily.

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Existing Boundaries

Boundaries and Borders

Looking at the area from west to east, there are clear lines between different landscapes. Physical "walls" appear here, preventing the expansion of built environment and also forming the boundaries.

Definitions Boundary is a limit of a territory, which can identify different part of land. A boundary in urban area can block its development or stop movement of flows.

Further analysis of morphology indicates that the buildings form a distinct cluster pattern. Transportation infrastructure and green space are the limits that divide these groups. Therefore, railways, highways, and even green Spaces may form boundaries of urban space.

Border is the place where different zones meet and exchange things actively. A border will not always be visible or touchable, but it is perceivable in certain way.

Existing boundaries between landscapes

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Morphology basic map

Buildings

Main infrastructure

Secondary infrastructure

Green space

Existing boundaries in urban area 13

Perceivable Borders Borders of people Beverwijk is a collection of different people. As Beverwijk is a religious city, immigrants with different backgrounds gather here.

In terms of demographics, Beverwijk is facing the problem of an ageing population. At the same time, a higher birth rate means more young people. So the intersection of the elderly and the youth in the city becomes a kind of psychological perception border.

Borders of space Walking in the city, buildings of different ages can be clearly distinguished due to their different architectural styles and urban texture. As people move between neighborhoods, they can obviously feel the spatial transformation.

More non-western immigrant More western immigrant The elderly community The youth community

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Perceivable contrasts between buildings of different years

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Little Catholic town Built up near the meer, Step by step, Growing into a city with steelwork.

People gathered around And settled down here, Part by part, Collaging the blank as patchwork.

Local Dutch met those From Moroccan, Turkish and also Western.

More and more, Aging communities long for linkwork.

Open spaces are chosen For sitting, meeting or even gardening.

Again and again, Existing borders cohere an unbreakable glasswork.

Week 6 Portrait - Poem 16

CHAPTER III

THE COLORFUL CITY

Depicting smooth curves and firing for stained color, which can help the glasses look more beautiful.

What are those stained colors of Beverwijk? How did they form? A city can accommodate a variety of life. It is the interaction between people and space that makes the color of life more vivid. And different people, activities and spaces have different characteristics, just as different glass pieces have their own unique colors.

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Daily Life Activities for all people Beverwijk has different activities every day for different age groups. Most of the activities only happen in one age group independently, so there is a gap between different groups of people.

These different activities take place in different types of functional facilities. The spaces in which everyday life takes place can be grouped into five categories, including commercial area, health care center, sport center, educational area, and cultural area.

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Distribution of activity The functional facilities which accomodate different activities have different spatial distribution, reflecting the distribution of the population to a certain extent.

Commercial area

Commercial and cultural area can accommodate all activities of all people, so they are widely and evenly distributed. Health care centers mainly serve the elderly, so they are concentrated and evenly distributed within the city. The sport and educational area serve younger people. It is located in the peripheral area of the city, which also shows the distribution of young population.

Cultural area

Network analysis of different functions

Health care center

Sport center

Cultural Commercial Health care center Sport center Educa�onal Educational area 19

Open Space Gradients of publicness

Recognition of patterns

Public Spaces include all roads and landscapes which people can reach. Private space refers to the internal space of the building and those personal courtyards enclosed by the buildings. Semiprivate space locates between these spaces that residents in the same community can share its private publicness. In general, it can be seen that different parts of the built environment have different gradients of publicness.

By distinguishing different urban textures, it can be roughly classified into 5 kinds of patterns. They have different hierarchy of public space.

Through the analysis of block form, road grade, public space distribution, parking space, a preliminary cognition of urban form can be formed.

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Urban Space Morphology Urban configuration typology The urban form of Beverwijk can be summarized and extracted six types of typology. They are widely distributed in the city, mainly for residential function.

The different configurational types are interlaced with each other, just like a stained-glass.

Type A, B and C are the three types with no public space open to the outside of the block, and their privacy is extremely high. While blocks of type D, E and F all enclose certain public space which is accessible to all. Among them, public space in type D and E are enclosed by buildings, while public space of F type runs through the block in a linear manner.

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Street configuration typology A certain spatial logic can also be found in the street space between different blocks.

By extracting 8 sections, it can be found that the priority of vehicles and nonvehicles is not the same. In addition, the front garden, green space and roadside parking, as 3 kinds of auxiliary space of streets, also have different composition.

CONFIGURATIONAL TYPES A – non-vehicle only (with green space) B – equal C – equal (with front garden & green space) D – equal (with roadside parking & green space) E – vehicle dominant (with roadside parking & green space) F – vehicle dominant (with rodeside parking & front garden)

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CHAPTER IV

FIND THE CONNECTORS

Bending and cutting the steel bars to inlay different pieces, which allows them to be tightly combined together and work as a complete stained-glass.

What connects the colorful patches in Beverwijk?

Did they work well and still have the potential to make cities better? Whether flowing or gathering, different types of public spaces can provide places for the placement of human activities and functions.

Therefore, the space between different patches can be strengthened to accelerate the flows and make themselves become the connectors of patchwork.

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Space syntax analysis

Accessibility

The value of Choice can show the potential of a street of attracting people to go through it.

Transportation network Transit roads, including highway and province roads, located on the outskirts of the city, which form a high accessibility inside and outside.

The accessibility inside the city, however, is only strong in a vertical direction. The connection from south-west to north-east is broken since those secondary roads are not connected to each other directly.

As the analysis show, the accessibility of streets are different between walking and driving scale. High potential streets are extracted seperately to show possible networks of walking and driving. So it is possible to reprofile the roads or create new connection to enhance the original accessibility, which will benefit Beverwijk a lot for its future.

Abstract network To Heemskerk

To Wijk aan Zee

A22

A9

N

Highway

500m

Province road Arterial road 500m

Secondary road

To Velson 26

Choice of walking scale

High

Low

Choice of driving scale

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0

250m

500m

1000m

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Non-vehicle route

Enhance existing publicness Routes Here are the results of my experiments on enhancing the connection by using spatial syntax tools to verify them, including existing non-vehicle route and vehicle route systems.

Vehicle route

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Open spaces The route systems can strengthen the movement of flows, including people and activities, so as to enhance the connection between different patches.

There are different types of open space in local communities. Some are hidden within the blocks, invisible to outsiders. Part of them are located on the route, at the junction of different communities, where outsiders and locals can meet and interact with each other. Those are the places where should be strengthen its publicness so as to create connectors for different 'patches'.

Abstract network

Space hide inside blocks 500m

N

Space perceivable outside Non-vehecle route Vehicel route

500m 29

Future Potential Connector Of Patches Strengthen the publicity of external open space, and make it become the initiators of connector.

Interaction between different patches takes place here first.

Due to the convergence of movement, a network of connector will be further formed, which can benefit the whole staiend-glass, and make it more colorful and unbreakable.

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REFLECTION

REFERENCE

This project gives me, as a foreign student, the opportunity to have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of a European city for the first time, including its history, culture, humanities and all other aspects. What makes me feel the most different is the course setting of this studio - there is no assignment for our tasks at all! But it allowed me to think and look at cities on my own view, and I was able to keep thinking about the difference between European and Asian cities, which was an unprecedented experience.

Although there was no assignment, the setting of the three progressive themes, including Urbanized Landscape, the Form of City and the Open City, is enough to guide and inspire me to find a clue to analyze the city. What's more, I think the simultaneous development of studio and theory courses benefit me a lot. It helps me acquire and supplement knowledge in time, and enables me to build a knowledge system for understanding cities simultaneously.

Also, for me, making portrait was an unprecedented attempt. Using objects of different types and materials to abstractly express my views on the city... well, I was very struggling but also enjoyable with it. This session was fun and gave me a break while I was buried by loads of maps.

I want to give special thanks to my tutor Suzana Milinovic, who was always so enthusiastic in encouraging my ideas and guiding me to understand the city in a more appropriate way. And a lot of thanks to my crew, especially Elena Grimbacher and Joost van Driesum.

They shared a lot of valuable information and experiences with me, and were always willing to help me with my questions. Exploring cities with people from different backgrounds and sharing unique personal perspectives is one of my favorite learning experiences.

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Books and Articles ·L. van den Burg, (2003), Urban Analysis Guidebook: typomorphology. Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology.· ·Waldheim, C. (2016). Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory. Autonomy, indeterminacy & selforganisation. Princeton University Press. ·David Grahame Shane. The Fragmented Metropolis. In: McGrath, B. (2013). Urban Design Ecologies. Chichester, West Sussex : Wiley. ·Pisano, C. (2018). The Patchwork Metropolis: Between Patches, Fragments and Situations. In: Viganò P., Cavalieri C., Barcelloni Corte M. (eds) The Horizontal Metropolis Between Urbanism and Urbanization. Springer, Cham. ·Hillier, B., (1996). Space is the Machine: A Configurational Theory of Architecture. Cambridge University Press. ·Richard V. Francaviglia, Colin Rowe, Fred Koetter, (1979). Collage City. The Antioch Review. ·P. Vos, J. de Koning, R. van Eerden, (2015).

Landscape history of the Oer-IJ tidal system, NoordHolland. Cambridge University Press.

Websites and Media ·https://allecijfers.nl/ ·https://www.topotijdreis.nl/ ·https://www.google.nl/maps ·https://earth.google.com/web/ ·https://www.pdok.nl/viewer/ ·http://www.weetmeer.nl/buurt/Beverwijk/0375 ·https://www.nationaalgeoregister.nl/geonetwork/ srv/dut/catalog.search#/home ·https://www.beverwijk.nl/about-beverwijk-andwijk-aan-zee ·Vedio: How was it made? Stained glass window. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5NOrG888CI

Cherish those gaps between the stained-glass Since they are the ones that connect the pieces