Architecture Portfolio Allard Meijer by Allard Meijer

_PORTFOLIO

ARCHITECTURE

SELECTED WORKS 2015-2021

ALLARD MEIJER_

My name is Allard Meijer. I graduated Cum Laude at the TU Delft in july 2021. I’m an optimist and realist who wants to create. I believe that architecture should be socially informed, taking into account the human and ecological realm, whilst creating an aesthetic that is grounded in the context. I think architecture is about achieving a livable place that integrates a complex context in a legible manner. I see circular architecture as a design challenge to be taken serious. Building with wood and reused materials can inform architecture in new ways and create new aesthetics. I gain great energy from the possibilities this allows and how it can add to a greater future. In my projects I have always varied my methods to broaden the scope of possibilities. Two formative years at the Filmacadamy in Amsterdam have inspired me to think in stories of places and people. The art of film taught me a variety of media through which also architecture can be envisioned. In this portfolio you can discover videos through QR codes. I find myself liking to work in teams with ambitious people who will push through to manifest their ideals in architecture and who have an optimistic gaze forward!

Curriculum Vitae

Allard Meijer a.d.n.meijer@live.nl (+31) 6 203 605 32 17/04/1995 E. du Perronlaan 52 2624NA, Delft

Education

Skills

2019 / 2021

Master Architecture Studio: Borders & Territories, TU Delft (NL)

2017 / 2018

Exchange semester Habitation studio, AARCH, Aarhus (DK)

2D software Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe Indesign Autocad

2015 / 2019

Bachelor Architecture TU Delft (NL)

2013 / 2015

Dutch Film Academy Visual Effects track, Amsterdam (NL)

2007 / 2013

VWO (pre-education) (Nature & Technology track), Dr. Nassau College, Assen (NL)

3D software Rhinoceros Grasshopper Revit Archicad Maya Sketch-up V-Ray Enscape

Work experience

Analogue Photography Model-making

2021

Collective Impromptu Co-founder

2018 / 2019

MVSA architects Architecture intern + extended work

2017 / 2018

VRP architecten Working student

2014

Editing commercial Zoo Bizar Editing + music, commercial small zoo

2013/2014

Two 48-hour film projects Production supervisor crew and cast

Film Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe After Effects Music and Audio Fruity Loops Studio Drums Languages Dutch (native) English (professional) Danish (basic) German (basic) French (basic)

1. Amplifying trajectories

Recycling and transit facilities, Mashhad, Iran 15

2. The void

Museum and congress centre in Athens, Greece 27

3. No-stop office

Theoretical research and film 31

4. Activating Le Moulin

Improvised buiding with reused materials, France 33

5. Wavy curtains

Mall of the Netherlands, Leidschehage 37

6. Samuel de Zeehofje Analytical models, Leiden

7. House and a Chair

Designing for a film character, Aarhus, Denmark

Amplifying Trajectories 2021 / Master graduation studio TU Delft: Borders and Territories Recycling and transit facilities in Mashhad, Iran

The marginal settlements in Iran’s second biggest city, Mashhad, are inhabited by 1 million people. Their precarious lives manifest themselves as a life on the go: a continuous search for work opportunities, food, water, and sanitation services. This brings forth a life of trajectories that is reminiscent of the life of the nomad. However, opposed to nomadic life, the life of the marginal settler is set within the boundaries and organizations of the city. The difficulties that are created by this paradox, are often tried to be countered by building more houses or community centres. This project brings forth a new paradigm

by designing for the life in transit: to not design a destination (e.g. a house), but ephemeral architecture for the trajectory. The project intents to improve the marginal state of Mashhad’s marginal settlements whilst focussing on life in transit. The project addresses trajectories and intersections and intents to embrace, enhance and take inspiration from the nomadic lifestyle. Its use is intended to be of democratic and public nature, ready to be taken over and adapted by the marginal settlers themselves.

Border conditions of the marginal settlements

The design consists of 1) a bridge including various social facilities for the marginal settlers, and 2) a plastic recycling factory. (see page 10,11) Combining recycling and social facilities, situated on an important trajectory intersection, approach the problem of the marginal settlements in an holistic sense. Marginal settlers move through the site and make use of the facilities, while the recycling system cleans the trajectories, offer jobs, make the project financially feasible (through the waste-coin) and ecologically sustainable by using the plastic products within the building itself. 3

Paper recycling hub Glass recycling hub

Dismantling plant (+ 1st sorting ) Plastic recycling hub Textile recycling hub

Metal recycling hub

Construction waste recycling hub

Urban integration & program

A B

C D E F

5 4

Recycling program

Entrance waste trucks

Dirty waste storage

Manual recycling

Machinal recycling

Plastic granules storage

Manufacturing wall

3 I

Trajectory + facilities A

Day-labourers pickup point

Doctors practice

H Lockers

C Restroom

Dish-washing station

I Intersection

D Bathhouse E Barber F Laundry

Bathhouse Section

10m

50m

Polycarbonate (60mm)

walls and roofs

Corten steel panels

levator

Copper

duct, drains and entrances

Steel scaffold structure

Model 1:50 washing station

In this model the tectonic qualities that relate to the infrastructures around, become apparent. The washing station hangs from the large columns and attaches to the flyover (left), as a parasite making use of what already exists. The structure consisting of modular scaffolding structures can easily be extended, replaced or taken down when its use changes. The ad hoc design supports the nomadic way of living on the borders of the marginal settlement.

Section: manufactoring wall

A spiralling staircase gives access to a platform that is hung from the structure. The platform gives the opportunity to reach hanging or tall objects or machines.” The openness of the building in a hot environment requires a roof that provides shading to the facade. The roof does not only prevent the building from becoming a greenhouse, but in combination with the columns and downspouts, it creates spaces underneath that relate to the human scale.

0,5m

2,5m

Waste separation + use of services combining waste and services with a local currency will make people separate their waste to be able to use the social services provided

the

Waste coin

Plastic recycling factory

Waste separation + use of services

Employmen

combining waste and services with a local currency will make people separate their waste to be able to use the social services provided

Mashhad’s current waste recycling system is failing with a recycling rate of 7,2%. The rest ends up in a large landfill or pollutes the environment. The new design of the recycling system incentivizes people to recycle their waste by introducting a ‘wastecoin’. By collecting waste and bringing it to a public bin, people receive waste coins that in return they can spend on the social facilities.

Waste coin

1. Unsorted dry solid waste

2. Bales with plastic waste

3. Sorted on plastic type

4. Granules

5. Recycled product

4. Re-use

5. Upcycled product

the sorting assembly li intensive and giv employment opp

Plastic waste comes in five steps. as shown on the left. The unsorted waste is processed and plastic is separated, pressed into plastic bales and transported to the plastic recycling factory. Within the factory the plastics are separated again in the different types of plastic manually and subsequently they are recycled back to small granules. These granules are the raw material to be melted into new plastic products

Arrival truck

Entrance waste trucks

Dirty waste storage

Manual recycling

Machinal recycling

Plastic granules storage

Dirty waste storage

Manufacturing corridor

A 14

The Void 2019 / MSc 1, TU Delft: Public Buildings Museum + Congress centre in Athens, Greece In collaboration with Jesse Verdoes Empty space is a critical element within cities, not just as a key part within the formal conception of architecture, but as a necessary condition to project through urban landscapes. Not only should we build buildings, but we should equally create spaces that protect the emptiness, to ensure that the mass does not consume all, but gives space for nothingness to exist. A loss of emptiness within cities leads to a loss of orientation, a sense of delirium: “In a city, what is small, vacant, open, constitutes a source of energy that allows us to regenerate, that protects us from the hegemony of the great one; in a city, in the place, - ‘no man’s land’– by the density of the surroundings from a perspective reveals a different light. ”

In this sense we are interpreting the stoa as a manifestation of the void.

Voids, like the Cèrdas and the Boulevards of Paris, all play important roles in urban planning. When these applications of the void are repeated on the city scale they give structure and organisation to the urban fabric, as a sequence of typical repeated elements. These voids are the opposite of static emptiness, they are filled with flow and movement, creating connections between important destinations or create calm, quiet and green residential spaces, isolated from traffic and transportation. These voids create spaces of interaction between public and private, a blurring of the boundary between programmed and unprogrammed, between full and empty.

This project combines the qualities of the ancient and modern stoa. Not only by creating unprogrammed space, spaces that inspire, but also by letting it interact with the surrounding building. Or better: to let the building interact with the void, charging the empty space, instead of imposing itself. In this sense, we are not creating a building, we are creating voids. The voids become performative spaces, stages for public use. The building’s facades shape a scenography, acting as a ‘backstage’ that serves what happens in the voids.

The stoa’s of Athens fall into this typology. They are the in-between spaces, bridging built masses, that give structure and flow to the city. 15

Looking back to the ancient stoa, we see quality in the unprogrammed space: a democratic place, open for interpretation. In the contemporary stoa of athens we saw a decrease of this particular quality. The stoa didn’t feel like a place where one could actually do anything. It has become more of a ‘serving space’, being part of the urban infrastructure and serving the building that surrounds it. We see in this, a sign of delirious athens: where mass takes over. We see potential in the close interaction between the built and the unbuilt.

Thus, in contrast to the delirium of Athens, we focus on the manifestation of the void. Reinterpreting the stoa as an empty space, framed by the building: a performative space for public use.

Urban integration and ground floorplan The design proposes to move the metro underground as it already does on the right side of the site. The new void that appears becomes a scenic route through the ruins and culminates at

25 m

the building. Not only does the building relate to the urban morphologies in the larger territory but also to its immediate surroundings where together they form four voids with each different characters.

Technopolis

Pireos park new entrance to green void

intimate void

Kermikos archeological centre

Dyplion gate

Church of Sain Athanasios

Debate infrastructure centre of green void

Big square - void

Temple of Hepaesius

Ancient agora of Athens

Debate - void

Stoa of Attalos

Monasteraki square entrance to green void

0 25 m

125 m

Void scenarios Four voids or four public spaces support a range of possible uses for locals, museum and tourists. Every void is worked out into three scenarios to show its changability while keeping unique characteristics of its place. The scenario variants were presented on boards with transparent paper on top to easily switch between scenarios and to demonstrate the performative nature of the voids.

protest

fashion show

water square

rainy day

tournament

workshops

1. Big square 2. Debate

Circularity Character of place and sustainable practice were combined in the materiality of the facade. Ceramics have a long historical meaning in Athens. The hollow bricks offer an aesthetic, while being reused, modular and able to be used for a wide variety of low-tech solutions as displayed below.

pv-panel

vegetation

gravel

The building bricks are stacked without the use of glue to ensure demountability and reusability.

patterns

ventilation-in

ventilation-out

artificial lighting

acoustic insulation

daylight

load-bearing

absence of mortar ensures re-usability

breeding place for birds

Model 1:200

No-stop Office 2020 / MSc 2, TU Delft: Complex Projects Theoretical project about labour and architecture In collaboration with Hanna Rudner This project is a theoretical understanding of trends within the field of labour seen from an architectural point of view. The work consists of a research book, manifesto, film and poster. Working conditions during the 2020 Coronavirus lock-down can be considered as a crystallization of a process which has reflected on wider trends of labour. We call this condition: No-Stop Office. No-Stop office epitomises the transition from the Fordist labour and its fixed, space of production of a factory to the Post-Fordist reality of immaterial labour and its distributed, non-indeterminate mode of production.

> Poster No-Stop Office is a multitude of different working instances, located on a vertical, abstract structure which spreads infinitely within the dense urban context of London. No-Stop Office is inhabited by a generation of precarious workers who live and work there. No-Stop Office becomes denser near IXP points because internet there is faster, and precarious workers are after reliable, fast connection. No-Stop Office is architecturally generic and super flexible. Every so often, the No-Stop Office condition is interrupted by Stop Office instances. These are made out of metal and stand out on the poster.

< Film No-Stop Office is super flexible. No-Stop Office is a minimal, portable work space which consists of a screen connected to the internet. The omnipresent internet infrastructure allows continuous communication. The geographical location is irrelevant as long as a worker can stay connected. During lockdown and the closure of offices, NoStop Office has been made reality for majority (88%) of world’s working population. “The spatial indeterminacy of a free space - a space emptied of obstruction and ready to accommodate any situation - is  a radical manifestation of how labour power - as the invisible dynamics of life - has been exploited by capitalism. If labour power is characterized by man’s ability to adapt to any situation, and therefore by the total unpredictability of man’s  actions and reactions, the only corresponding spatial for in such unstable conditions is space ready to use and occupy according to any foreseen and unforeseen situation.” - Pier Vittorio Aureli (2011), Labour and Architecture: Revisiting Cedric Price’s Potteries Thinkbelt.

https://vimeo. com/527265361

Activating Le Moulin 2021 / Saint-Jacques-de-Thouars, France As part of Collective Impromptu

A series of houses, sheds, barns and a mill with neither electricity, gas nor running water. The barns are filled to the brim with material. Old, but usefull. In this project we were asked to figure out an idea for this place for future creatives to use the space for working and performing. In 9 days with 9 graduates we inventorized the materials at hand and analized the site to create ideas for this place. After making the site ours, a design for a pavilion arose and was subsequently realized by reusing scrap materials from the barn.

In this improvisation exercise, we were constantly challenged by the limitations of material, uneven ground and the weather conditions of autumn. The pavilion opens up to each side, whilst the doors and windows give an enclosed feeling. This 12m2 object in the fields is designed to be very free in its use. It can easily be adapted and its programma is free.

Wavy Curtains 2019 / Interior installation in the Mall of The Netherlands, Leidschenhage Internship at MVSA Architects

During my internship I designed a full set of wavy curtains as an interior installation above an indoor food plaza. The curtains, made out of aluminium chain links, connect skylights and kiosks to define the large space underneath, to relate to the human scale and to guide light along the curtains. The curved curtains follow the design principles of the rest of the building, where visitors are guided by flowing shapes and patterns. The design was executed in Rhino and grasshopper and translated to revit for building purposes. Photos page 34: Jon Israeli, 2021

Samuel de Zeehofje 2020 / MSc 2, TU Delft: Analytical models In collaboration with Emiel van der Vlies and Amabel Chiarito

Analytical models, an elective course, was about analyzing one of the famous Dutch ‘hofjes’ (courtyards). Specifically, the course focussed on analysis via modelling. The result exists of three models that together tell the story of the Samuel de Zeehofje in Leiden.

> 1. In ‘World in a World’ we emphasize that the hofje is inside a city block. Once you’re in it you only experience the hofje, not what happens outside. For this reason we abstracted the surrounding buildings. Highlighted in red are the transitional spaces that you walk through on your way to your home. By engraving the plot lines of each building within the city block, the concrete represents an abstract volume, still outlining the context.

2. In ‘Street to Front Door’ we emphasize the transitional spaces on a larger scale, including sienna-red coloured elements on the route to the front door that still lingers in our head. The paving, which is carved out based on reality, is recessed by its surrounding buildings. Here we focus on our narrative by showing only the transitions, the pavement and important objects. The rest is made abstract. > 3. ‘Framing the Dichotomy’ presents the two perspectives, in which one could experience the atmosphere of the hofje; one side of this model shows the front hofje, while the other side the back

hofje. By rotating the model one can experience the different atmospheres of the two hofjes, and compare them quickly. In it, both architectural and experiential differences come to light. Each frame carries one layer of the scenery. These frames can be taken out to gain an understanding of what influence a single layer can have. The redmarked wood on the sides are handles to slide out frames to get a closer look. In the ‘Achterhof ’ the regents house is invasive, the garden more informal, windows smaller (including shutters) and less overview, whereas in the ‘Voorhof ’ the Regent house shows itself monumental, with a formal garden in front, emphasizing the symmetry.

Jack’s House and Chair 2017 / BSc 5, AARCH, Aarhus: Habitation Studio In collaboration with Troels Pederson The design brief was to design a house and chair for Jack Torrance, a film character in ‘The Shining’, by Stanley Kubrick. Jack, together with his wife and little boy, starts his new job as caretaker of an isolated hotel with a violent history. Soon, Jack looses his sanity towards his family and a horror story follows. In the film, Jack needs time alone to work on his new book, while simultaneously his character is very explosive and intimidating. For him, we designed a writers house and writers chair in which his character traits are imprinted and addressed. 39

https://vimeo. com/602560408

Jack’s chair Jack’s chair is as a throne for writing. The imposing backrest is much taller than Jack’s seated body. The chair is made from plywood with a few accents made from Beech wood. No screws nor bolts were used.

Jack’s House The writers house is minimal and fully focused on the writing process. The transition from forest to beach was chosen to give both privacy and openness at the same time. The writing room on the first floor is very prominent and faces the sea through a full glass facade.

1:200

The walls are cladded with big wooden panels. Inside, the forest is represented by the tall timber columns. The front door gives immediate access to the main space. The longitudinal space is directed to the sea. It frames the view vertically so that sea and sky become equal. Up the stairs the writing room with Jack’s chair can be found. Downstairs Jack has a space for contemplation. There is nothing but a bench and the view. Here the facade can open up so that fresh wind can come in, whilst Jack can still enjoy the enclosed feeling of the house.

Model 1:50 Top-right: sketch model 1:200 Axo drawing: facade meeting ground level

The rear facade facing the forest houses the timber storage and a chopping block, for Jack to let off steam and clear his mind. Inside the staircase element, all of Jacks secondary needs can be found: sleeping and washing. The bed is a small enclosed space with one window towards the sea where the sun will wake up Jack. Beneath the bed, a spacious bathroom provided with a walk-in shower, again, offering a view to the stunning Danish sea.