B
INDEPENDENT Periodical of the faculty of architecture and the Built environment TU Delft
05
Colofon
Bnieuws Volume 51 Issue 05 19 March 2018 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl Editorial Team Nadine van den Berg Lydia Giokari Ada Jaśkowiec Kseniya Otmakhova
SPEAK 6
BK EXPO - Behind the Scenes
10
What Do You Think About the Exhibition Spaces at BK?
26
Intuition
27
FSR
28
Student Interviews
Contributors Małgorzata Wyszyńska Pierijn van der Putt
30
Spaces of Resistance
Cover Ada Jaśkowiec
32
Welcome to BK Expo Tower
34
Peter Russell’s 10 Rules for Life
Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken Next Deadline 7th of April 2018 Bnieuws Volume 51 Issue 06 Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies © All rights reserved. Although all content is treated with great care, errors may occur.
LEARN 18
Toekomst kiezen
22
Space Architecture
24
A Lab for the Senses
Explore 8
Map of Exhibition Spots
14
Narrative Mapping: Copenhagen
16
Artifact: Puntenslijper
20
Henco van de bieb
CREATE 12
Stylos Exposure
Editorial
dare to dream big
It gives a lot of satisfaction to see your own work in an exhibition. After weeks and weeks of working on your design, you can show it to other people. Our faculty gives students the opportunity to exhibit their work. Scattered through the building you will find obvious and less obvious places where student works are on display for this community. We created a map for you with all the exhibition spots in our faculty. So if you are in dire need for a break and wouldn’t mind some extra inspiration, you can check out the exhibitions. And if you are preparing your own exhibition, this map might come in handy in choosing the right spot for your project. To understand BK's expo strategy, Bnieuws talked to people that organise and manage exhibitions at our faculty, i.e. BK Expo Committee and ARGUS Expo Committee. To find out more about what the people of BK City think about exhibitions in our faculty, see page 28. Our editor Lydia also made a proposal to use the BK Tower as an exhibition space on page 32. A place of potential, that is now hidden from view, could become the next exhibition spot and a unique addition to our faculty. We want to keep you updated with new initiatives which are going on right now. So is SenseLab busy with exploring internal comfort and making aware of the importance of this neglected aspect of architecture. The Super Nova lecture series last month discussed space architecture. It is an initiative to launch an interdisciplinary, interfaculty cooperative, which is aimed at developing the concept of life in space. We also decided to give voice to a BK student and highlight the importance of protest in our community and encourage you to try to understand as one of the elements of a democratic society, which our University is. Continuing our conversations with BK facility employees, we would like you to meet librarian Henco Huibregtsen. Find out more about who the librarian that you always pass by when you go to the library is. Nadine and Xenia talked to Henco about BK students, life as an librarian and library secrets. If you are currently doing your Bachelor, do not forget that the BK Master Event is around the corner. On 29th of March you will be able to orientate yourself on the different master tracks. Which one fits you best? Is it Urbanism, Building Technology, Landscape Architecture, Management in the Built Environment, Geomatics or Architecture? Or do you look outside of the Faculty to find a master elsewhere? It’s all possible. Think not only about what you want to do in ten or twenty years, but also today and tomorrow. And don’t forget, dare to dream big.
03
#Bnieuwd
Exhibition / Eindhovense School: A Forgotten Avant Garde This travelling exhibition explores the forefront of the Dutch architects of the 1980s group called ‘Eindhovense School’, by revisiting the architecture and analysing the intellectual framework of this forgotten avant-garde.
Design Contest / STYLOS SCALA This year Stylos and our faculty will organize a design competition for all the BK students. This is your chance to design the new stairs of BK Expo which will interact with the visitors and make a connection with the expositions. STYLOS / Deadline 11.05.18
BK Expo / 27.03 - 19.04.18
04
Mini-symposium / SPOOL: Criticising Practice – Practicing criticism This mini-symposium—and the parallel theme issue of the online journal “SPOOL Criticising Practice – Practicing criticism”—will enter into the discussion on the possibilities and impossibilities of criticism within the field of the design disciplines.
Event / Business at University BAU is the career event for bachelor and master students at the faculty of Architecture at the TU Delft. The goal of BAU is to make connections between students and companies. By participating in the events students can find out what they want to do after their studies or get into contact with future employers.
Room F / 27.03.18 / 17:00
Multiple locations in BK / 27 - 28.03.18 / 13:00
#Bnieuwd
Event / Mastervoorlichting Bouwkunde Deze voorlichting is bedoelt voor 1e, 2e en 3e jaars Bachelorsstudenten Bouwkunde. Op deze dag worden er, in het Nederlands, korte presentaties gegeven en wordt er uitgelegd welke rol jij later in het vakgebied inneemt als je kiest voor een bepaalde masterrichting.
Symposium / Design your business, design your future The symposium will present the results from the four-year research programme FuturA. During the symposium the future roles of architects will be discussed, as well as how entrepreneurship in the creative industry can be strengthened. Berlage zalen / 29.03.18 / 09:00 – 17:00
Oostserre / 29.03.18 / 16:00 – 19:30
05
To Do / Keukenhof The Keukenhof is the most beautiful spring park in the world! With more than seven million tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths, for eight weeks of every year this park is transformed into 32 hectares of floral fragrance and colour.
Symposium / Happy Senior Living The Jaap Bakema Study Centre in collaboration with TU Eindhoven and TU Delft is hosting an afternoon devoted to innovative living concepts for seniors. Among the speakers will be Floris Alkemade, Dick van Gameren and Ioulia Ossokina. The symposium will be conducted in Dutch.
Stationsweg 166A, Lisse / 22.03 – 13.05.18
Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam / 26.03.18 / 14:00 – 18:00
In conversation with
bk expo: behind the scenes Words Ada Jaśkowiec & Vita Teunissen
To understand the work of BK Expo, Bnieuws talked to Inge Pit, the Chair of the BK Expo Committee and Vita Teunissen, the member of BK Expo committee and coordinator of BK Expo spaces about the past, the present and the future of exhibitions at our faculty.
06
What’s been your favourite BK exhibition so far? Perhaps the most versatile of the exhibitions curated at BK is the yearly Faculty and the National Archiprix Exhibition, showcasing an immense width of incredible projects from graduates of all Dutch (landscape) architecture universities and academies. Completely different, but equally special, was The Global Petroleumscape exhibition. This exhibition on the impact of oil on the built environment used scaffolding and oil drums as a base for the objects on show. One of our favourite returning specials is the Magic of the Box exhibition, showcasing ‘kijkdoos’ – case studies made by all second-year bachelor students . Do you think we need more explicit incorporation of presentation skills into our education? It’s always good to see that an exhibition is integrated in education. Some studios and courses ask students to (co-)organise the resulting exhibition, encouraging the m to think about the presentation and comprehensibility of their work, like the exhibitions curated by The Berlage. Presenting your project in an exhibition makes you think of how to present your results in the most communicative, understandable way. Our professors take their students to Archiprix exhibition to show them how they can work on their own presentation and visuals. It’s amazing to see that there is so much inspiration everywhere. If we didn’t have all this, we would go about our presentations differently.
Are you happy with the exhibition space right now? When BK moved to its current building in 2008, a space for exhibitions was temporarily lost in the many necessities that the new location required. But four years ago, the importance of showcasing what is being made and discovered in a faculty like ours was once again recognised and the two floor space just behind the Oostserre was dedicated to this purpose exactly. It’s quite a challenging space to work with. It’s neither very high, nor exceptionally big. At its start, the BK Expo and its bright red carpet weren’t exactly well-equipped for their new purpose, but over the years, the space has been decked out with blinds, lights controllable with your iPad, exhibition panels, boxes and a secondary structure that can be used to hang panels and other material from the ceiling. Additionally, extra spaces – like the façade of the Oostserre and the circular platform in the Zuidserre – were included. Today, BK Expo provides four different spaces that suit a large variety of exhibitions. And, of course, we are always looking for more, as the amount of interesting exhibitions keeps growing. There was a big exhibition hall in the previous faculty. After the fire, there were also plans to build another greenhouse across the street just for exhibitions. Five glass houses were planned originally, but there was neither money nor necessity to do that. There are
no plans to build more exhibition spaces for the faculty. Instead, we want to use the existing space better, to have as many exhibitions in the Faculty as possible. Also with the advent of VR, it may turn out that extra space won’t be necessary anymore. Are you considering the tower? The students we asked (see pages 30-33) were enthusiastic about it, but the important factor was the mystery of the tower itself. Maybe if it was open full time people might lose interest, but how about making using it for special events? Why not, great idea. Moreover, every space with limits challenges creativity, so it could be very stimulating. One of the things that keeps coming up in the discussion is a sense of exclusivity of our faculty’s exhibitions. It is difficult to get the overview of the average work. It’s quite surprising to hear that actually. The one that’s on show now (Bucky Lab) shows the work of all the students who joined the course, and the same goes for the “kijkdozen” exhibition. Of course, there are exhibitions which are focused on the highest quality (Archiprix), but there are many exhibitions which offer an overview. And there’s a difference between a well-thought exhibition and a simple pin-up of student work and what impact it can have on its viewers. If somebody wanted to organise an exhibition, what should he or she do? When someone has an idea and/or the material for an exhibition, they get in touch with the BK Expo committee (via expo-bk@tudelft.nl), whose members are in charge of coordinating and managing the exhibition spaces at the Faculty. You need to fill in a short form indicating the dates, the location and give a short introduction of the exhibition. Then, the committee may either reject or accept your request, often suggesting possible improvements. We have material which you can use (boxes, panels) or you can arrange something yourself if you want to.
What are the most important criteria to assess the quality of an exhibition? One of the key elements that this committee focuses on when discussing incoming proposals is whether the exhibition is interesting for and comprehensible to all possible visitors and viewers. There is a difference between a final presentation and an exhibition: with the first, all who attend are likely to be somewhat familiar with the topic, while an exhibition has to speak for itself and be interesting to both in- and outsiders. A satisfactory exhibition has a good storyline, as well as different visuals. Can we choose any space? The access to spaces is democratic. We know them well, so we can always advise you. If you have mostly vertical stuff, use windows in the orange hall, with a large installation go for the model hall. Some of the exhibition spaces can be quite tricky, but it is always interesting to see curators making the most of them. Last year, the entire West staircase was decorated with recycled material, as part of an exhibition. What are you still improving? We are currently working on an online database where past exhibitions could be accessed, after they’ve been physically dismantled. Hopefully, this will provide a more extensive overview of what has been and what will be on display, and more inspiration for future curators to build on. In the BK Expo itself, there’s one final element that we would like to improve. The staircase leading to the mezzanine is somewhat impractically positioned and difficult to work with. Stylos Scala competition is aimed at improving this. To check the agenda and see the archive of previous exhibitions, visit www.tudelft.nl/bk/over-faculteit/ faciliteiten/bk-expo/
07
Explore
Expo at BK Words & Images Bnieuws
You’re finally there: after weeks of work you’ve finished your project. But when given the chance, where will you exhibit your design? There are the more obvious options like the Model Hall or the Orange Hall. But have you thought of exhibiting your work in other places? Take a look at the map here to find out about where you can place your project to shine. Or you can use it to find out new places where you can gain inspiration. Do you wish a spot around BK to host exhibitions? Send us your proposals via bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl. 08
09
Speak
Exhibiting student work Words Lydia Giokari
Image ARGUS
The ARGUS EXPO & ANNUAL is one of the most important yearly publications and exhibitions at BK, since it showcases the most inspiring and ambitious projects from each academic year. Bnieuws spoke to Margot de Man, Tomiris Kupzhassarova and Onusa Charuwana, this and last year’s representatives of ARGUS EXPO Committee about their experience in organising such an event and their visions about the future.
10
Why do you believe it is important to exhibit students’ work? Margot & Tomiris: For us exhibiting students’ work is essential especially in such a huge faculty that has a lot of separated studios, because otherwise the students would rarely get to see what others are working on. The exhibitions give people the chance to see your fellow students’ projects and get inspired or help you make up your mind about what future studios you may want to join. Architecture students work really hard and are very passionate about their work so it is important for them to be able to showcase their projects and have something to be proud of. ARGUS tries their best to showcase students’ work but we only have limited resources and we are able to show only a small fraction of the projects done in this faculty.
our faculty. It is very important for students to realise that and get interested both in the Expo and the Annual –they can still buy their copy of last year’s edition.
How is it to organize the ARGUS Annual Expo? M & T: The planning and preparation of the Annual Expo takes a whole year. There is a new committee each year and they are one of the hardest working school committees, pulling this off with the contributions of selected students. Each year the Annual Expo gets a bit bigger and we are constantly trying to improve, expand and deepen our scope. We try not to limit ourselves to the Architecture Department, but also include projects from most Departments and Tracks. We think that it is a big success that ARGUS had brought back the Annual to
Are you happy with the BK Expo space? M & T: The BK Expo seems to be a rather weird location. It feels like an auxiliary space. It is located near the secondary entrance and in terms of the way it is laid out, it is more of a transitory space. It does not seem to be a space particularly designed to hold exhibitions especially when compared to some of the more characterful spaces of BK like the Orange Hall or the Model hall. In other words, the BK Expo does not hold as strong of a presence in the Faculty as the spaces mentionedabove. We believe that probably a more deliberate space could have enhanced the
Onusa: As Margot and Tomiris already mentioned, the team of the dedicated students is crucial to make the exhibition and publication happen every year. We have been grateful to have such dedicated teams throughout the years, but the commitment to such a year-long project is not an easy task, especially alongside studying such a demanding course as Architecture. It is a uniquely rewarding experience and as a team we learn many valuable lessons that school does not teach us, and I think more people could benefit from being involved.
representational value of exhibiting and sharing students’ works and research. On the other hand, it is close to all the fun parts of BK and it is always exciting to see how some exhibitions make the most of the space and transform it. O: After looking at the Expo in September 2017, we as the new Expo Committee discussed which were the things that went well and what could be improved within the following year. The space is great for its exposure to the public, with people coming to and from the Expresso Bar and the Bouwpub. However, we agree that the Expo space is a bit too small and its location as a passageway is problematic. As Margot and Tomiris mentioned, we have so many of amazing student works, and particularly models, that we could not display simply because of the limited space. This year, we are planning to do smaller expositions in more places around BK, although that means a lot of administrative work in asking for permissions to use different spaces. We feel that it is rather difficult to use spaces spontaneously in the building, leaving lots of spaces with great exhibiting potential empty. How can the way of displaying a project/work of art influence its reception? O: I realised it last year while visiting the Venice Biennale that indeed the way of displaying a project
can influence its reception. I was really impressed with a lot of exhibits and for instance, the ŠamaŠ exhibition in the Lebanese Pavilion, was very powerful not because of the objects themselves, but mainly the way they were exhibited and experienced in a large hangar. On the other hand, the Thailand Pavilion was inside a café, with exhibits located to the back, next to the open kitchen door! Personally, I found that the way it was arranged and its location weakened the meaning and message of the art. Speaking of the Expo, of course, we as students do not have the means and facilities of the Biennale, but I think the lesson learnt is that we need to be aware of the impact of the curation of the exhibition on the perception of work displayed. How do you imagine the future of architecture student exhibitions? Can you imagine an exhibition purely on screens or in VR? O: Yes, I can imagine that happening, but personally I feel that people especially in the Architecture field, would still be drawn to physical objects and drawings. I mean, ultimately, built architecture is felt physically. I agree that screens and VR are already enhancing a lot in architectural exhibitions and visualisations, but as complements rather than a substitute of physical objects. In the future this may change but, for me, the physical elements of exhibitions should not be forgotten.
If you are interested in joining the ARGUS Board/Committees for the next academic year, you can talk to the current Board/Committee during the “Interest Drinks” on the 20th of March at the Bouwpub or visit their website: argus.cc
11
Create
Stylos exposure Words Lieke Voortman
Images Stylos
It’s not a secret that architecture students are “Jack of all trades”, especially when it comes to various kinds of creative activities ranging from painting to music-making or cooking. Nevertheless, until recently visitors of our faculty could only guess about it. Architecture study association Stylos created a place to showcase non-architectural creative work by the students of the faculty of Architecture and shared their story with Bnieuws.
12
The board of Stylos started this initiative in the beginning of this academic year. The idea emerged from seeing all these different students doing such amazing creative activities in their spare time, without almost nobody noticing this. We are a creative faculty with an immense amount of talent and every student expresses this in a different way. With the Stylos Exposure we want to expose this talent and show the creative abilities of our students. It also is a platform for students who do great work, but don’t know ways to expose it. Students can inspire and empower each other by showcasing their work. At the very beginning of this initiative, we actively searched for students wo would like to exhibit their work. It took a while for students to notice it, and for the name of Stylos Exposure to establish itself, but now it has settled in! We are contacted by many students who would like to expose their work and we are honoured to receive so much response. At the moment we are fully booked for three months in advance, which shows the enthusiasm for this project. The selection criteria for students to enter this project are very simple: as long as you are a student at our faculty and you do something creative you could have the chance of exposing your art! With so many positive reactions, we are looking into improving the concept and to expand it to a wider public. We just launched a new element of the Stylos Exposure where all the participants get to write an article on the blog “Get Inspired”, about the sources for their inspiration and how they started their creative endeavors. In the future we would like to improve the exhibition space, such as the green wall in the BK street. Any tips and tricks for improving the Stylos Exposure are more than welcome! If you would like to share your creative work with the faculty or if you know someone who would, please send us an email at info@stylos.nl! Visit our blog for more background about the exhibitions: www.stylos.nl/nl/get-inspired
The first three artists posing with their work at Stylos Exposure. From top: Jorren Verheessen, Emelie de Swart, Joren de Goede. >
13
Excursion
narrative mapping: copenhagen Words Wouter Pijnenburg
Images Jos Kenter, Killian Mol, Wouter Pijnenburg
This year’s ARGUS excursion took a group of students on a trip to Copenhagen: a pedestrian paradise. During their 5-day stay in November, they visited Danish architecture firms and took part in a workshop about “narrative mapping” organized by ARGUS and Leeke Reinders, where they mapped, drew, recorded and wrote about the city and its social life. The individual work was compiled to create five soft atlases of Copenhagen, which were exhibited in the model hall from the 26th of February until the 14th of March.
Walking in the City ‘The ordinary practitioners of the city live “down below,” below the thresholds at which the visibility begins. They walk - an elementary form of this experience of the city; they are walkers, Wandersmänner, whose bodies follow the thicks and thins of an urban “text” they write without being able to read it. These practitioners make use of spaces that cannot be seen; their knowledge of them is as blind as that of lovers in each other’s arms. The paths that correspond in this intertwining, unrecognized poems in which each body is an element signed by many others, elude legibility. It is as though the practices organizing a bustling city were characterized by their blindness. The networks of these moving, intersecting writings out of fragments of trajectories and alterations of spaces: in relation to representations, it remains daily and indefinitely other. Escaping the imaginary totalizations produced by the eye, the everyday has a certain strangeness that does not surface, or whose surface is only its upper limit, outlining itself against the visible. Within this ensemble, I shall try to locate the practices that are foreign to the “geometrical” or “geographical” space of visual, panoptic, or theoretical constructions. These practices of space refer to a specific form of operations (“ways of operating”), to “another spatiality” (an “anthropological,” poetic and mythic experience of space), and to an opaque and blind mobility characteristic of the bustling city. A migrational, or metaphorical, city thus slips into the clear text of the planned and readable city.’ Rediscovering narratives The paragraph above is an excerpt from the chapter “Walking in the City” by Michel de Certeau’s “The Practice of Everyday Life”. Although the book was written in 1980,
since then architects seem to have been less able to stay in touch with everyday life and the world “down below”. The streets need to be reclaimed, or in other words, the source of everyday life and the ensuing meaning-making process of mapping must be rediscovered. Whereas for centuries scientific elites and trained cartographers occupied the field, the digital revolution of the late 1980s and early 1990s have changed geographic space and consequently transferred mapping online; aerial photography, satellite imagery, interactive media maps and real-time visualizations. With an understanding of everyday life based on digital sources, the excursion set out to help students explore other fields and tools which would help them explore the “soft city” of everyday life through the so-called method of “narrative mapping”. A workshop in perceiving the world Narrative mapping to us meant the creation of knowledge beyond that which is readily available from digital maps. To observe the everyday life and give meaning to objects and events in the streetscape. This meant that in order to engage meaningfully in the act of narrative mapping, students had to develop a more aware and critical way of looking at the everydayness of things around us. This in return sounds like a lot to take in for an unprepared group of students. That’s why we decided to organize a number of lectures beforehand which touched upon some beautiful examples of the use of narrative, such as, Chris Ware’s “Building Stories”, Paul Auster’s “City of Glass” and Jan Rothuizen’s “The Soft Atlas of Amsterdam”. Secondly, Leeke Reinders organized a short exercise in narrative mapping the day we arrived in Copenhagen, which gave students the opportunity to try different techniques of exploration and sketching. It was clear that in order to get to a result, students had to decide beforehand what information to limit themselves to and set clear and achievable goals in the workshop. It made sense to have the students discover their own ways of mapping under the condition that the work was
confined to their specific areas in the city. Covering the whole city, as Jan Rothuizen explained, would have taken months. The drawings and works finally narrate these five urban assemblies in ways that highlight the specific multiplicity and plurivocality of both the area, and the students. Self-assessing the exhibition The exhibition in itself has become the logical consequence of the mapping exercise. Not as a way of quality control by ARGUS on the students involved, but as a way for them to consciously curate their own work and bring it back into the realms of architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture. Since the process of map making cannot be neutral, or objective, it quintessentially creates new knowledge instead of revealing what’s simply there. The mapping of everyday life therefore had to succeed by the communication of this specific “new” knowledge. What has proven to be interesting is how everyone involved seemed to somehow come up with their own way of depicting their work. There are differences between the way one describes an event, thing or certain people and crowds. The items in the exhibition ranged between simple drawings, written pieces, photographs of people, photographs of photographs, videos and models. The raw collection of their observations and fieldwork studies offers an interesting glimpse into soft city of Copenhagen: the everyday life and the way we see the city as we walk through it.
Artifact
puntenslijper Door Arjen Muijser pun·ten·slij·per (de; m; meervoud: puntenslijpers) 1instrument voor het aanscherpen van potloden Feilloos, betrouwbaar en zonder gebrek Slijpt en snijdt hij je punten efficiënt weer scherp Doeltreffend, goedkoop en geen hi-tec Terwijl jij draait doet hij snel en simpeltjes zijn werk
Ik kwam dit schattige puntenslijpertje onlangs tegen in een la in onze werkplaats. Hij lag daar tussen een paar gummen en een grote verzameling oude pennen. Een ogenschijnlijk triviaal ding. Maar niets is minder waar gebleken. Sommigen zullen liever werken met een timmermanspotlood. Anderen zweren misschien bij vulpotloden voor het fijne en precieze werk en hebben dan ook niets aan een puntenslijper als deze. En hoewel dat inderdaad ook prettige werktuigen kunnen zijn verkies ik het gewone potlood met puntenslijper boven zijn grote neef en kleine nicht. Het is wat mij betreft de onbetwiste alleskunner. Dik of dun, hard of zacht, scherp of stomp. Hij is het allemaal! Maar let wel, al die verschillende gedaantes niet zonder de slijper. En daar kwam dit gouden knaapje om de hoek kijken. Ik weet niet hoe lang hij er al lag en waar hij vandaan kwam, maar dienstbaar was hij me. Zo hielp hij mij talloze streepjes zetten. Van zo maar een snelle krabbel tot scherp en heel precies. Gewillig draaide hij de krullen van de potloden die ik hem voerde. Zonder mopperen spuwde hij ze uit. En zelfs een ronde staf van een meter lang die ik in een boormachine klemde, verslond hij moeiteloos.
<Goudgekleurd magnesium en staal 25x14x10 mm.
17
Master Special
Toekomst Kiezen Tekst Kseniya Otmakhova
Maar liefst 95% Bouwkunde bachelorstudenten vervolgen hun studie met een masteropleiding. De verscheidenheid aan programma’s maakt het er niet makkelijker op, alleen al op de faculteit Bouwkunde zijn er zeven mogelijkheden, met nog 35 andere masteropleidingen op de rest van de TU. Om de bouwkunde studenten beter te ondersteunen in deze belangrijke carrièrebeslissing, heeft de Faculteit het jaarlijkse Master Event vernieuwd. Deze Master Special werpt licht op de vernieuwingen in de mastervoorlichting en helpt bij het maken van de juiste keuze.
18
Waarom mag je als BSc student het Master Event dit jaar absoluut niet missen? Het Bouwkunde Master Event dat deze maand plaatsvindt, is compleet vernieuwd ten opzichte van de voorgaande jaren. Op 29 maart worden in de Osstserre alle masters en tracks gepresenteerd, en krijgen studenten de kans om in Q&A vorm direct het gesprek aan te gaan met de mastercoördinatoren onder begeleiding van Thijs Asselbergs. De focus verschuift hiermee van organisatorische details naar de inhoudelijke essentie van elke track. Master Event is specifiek gericht op alle bachelor studenten van onze faculteit en geeft toegang tot masterspecifieke vervolg voorlichtingen in april. Bovendien wordt er inhoudelijk een link gelegd tussen alle mastertracks en de bachelorvakken, zodat studenten kunnen refereren aan hun eigen ervaringen met een bepaald vakgebied. Op deze manier belooft de voorlichtingsdag interactiever en waardevoller te worden voor iedereen. Eerstejaars kunnen een reëel beeld vormen van de verschillende richtingen binnen Bouwkunde, tweedejaars kunnen nadenken hoe ze de minor en de master op elkaar af kunnen stemmen, en derdejaars krijgen de mogelijkheid om een goede vergelijking te maken tussen de verschillende mogelijkheden.
Hoe maak je de juiste keuze? Bouwkunde heeft een breed scala aan masteropleidingen. Daarnaast zijn er ook tal andere mogelijkheden zoals een master bij een andere faculteit of universiteit, een tussenjaar (in het buitenland) of het opdoen van werkervaring. Tegelijkertijd is de druk om ‘de juiste’ keuze te maken enorm groot. ‘Juist’ betekent in deze context vaak ‘succesvol’, maar de uitdaging zit in het ontwikkelen van een eigen recept voor succes. Een aantal belangrijke stappen hiervoor zijn: lange termijn doelen stellen, jezelf leren kennen, arbeidsmarkt en studiemogelijkheden verkennen. De masterkeuze is één van de momenten om bij jezelf na te gaan wat jouw drijfveren in het leven zijn en waar je graag naartoe wil in de toekomst. Hierin speelt motivatie een belangrijke rol. Motivatie kan van binnenuit komen, dan wordt het vaak passie genoemd. Je kan ook gemotiveerd worden door factoren van buitenaf, bijvoorbeeld wanneer je hard leert om een hoog cijfer te halen. Wetenschappers zijn het steeds meer met elkaar eens dat mensen er gelukkiger van worden als zij keuzes maken op basis van passie. Door op je grote droom te focussen, blijkt vaak dat de ‘details’ van het leven zich zelf er naar toe vormen. Daarom is het belangrijk om zelfkennis te vergaren, door te onderzoeken wat jouw sterke eigenschappen zijn en waar
Image courtesy: Frits Ahlefeldt
je groeimogelijkheden liggen. Je kunt dit zelf doen door terug te blikken op de afgelopen studiejaren en jezelf af te vragen: Welke ontwerpprojecten heb ik met het meeste plezier gedaan en waarom? Maar ook, waar wil ik de komende twee jaar meer over te weten komen? Praat met vrienden en familie over jouw interesses en doelen. Wil je dieper gaan, dan biedt het Career Centre verschillende workshops en tests aan om je interesses en competenties te ontdekken. Wanneer je goed weet wie je bent, wat je kan en wat je wil, dan is het tijd om te kijken welke toekomstmogelijkheden bij jou passen. Kijk hierin verder dan alleen de mastertrack of studio, onderzoek de carrièremogelijkheden na het afstuderen. Alle masteropleidingen op de Faculteit hebben verschillende raakvlakken met de gebouwde omgeving, aan jou de keus welke rol je in de toekomst wilt spelen. Jouw doel tijdens het Master Event is begrijpen of het beeld dat jij zelf hebt van een afstudeerrichting, overeen komt met het aanbod en of dit aanbod bij jou past. Het voordeel is dat je live met coördinatoren in gesprek kan gaan en persoonlijk advies kan krijgen. Durf daarom groot te dromen en stel gerichte vragen over hoe jouw ambitie binnen een bepaalde master past. Hak de knoop door — kies je master! Na al het onderzoek op persoonlijke en professionele fronten, komt het uiteindelijk aan op het maken van een keuze. Accepteer de onzekerheid. Zolang je weet waarvoor je het doet, kun je erop vertrouwen dat het allemaal niet voor niets is. Er zijn meerdere wegen die naar Rome leiden, en je master is een van de stappen in een groter geheel. Uit wetenschappelijk onderzoek (Dijksterhuis et al, 2007) blijkt dat complexe beslissingen beter gemaakt kunnen worden met het onbewuste, oftewel ‘op je gevoel’. Het onbewuste is namelijk veel beter in het verwerken van grote hoeveelheden informatie dan het bewuste denken. In de voorgaande stappen heb je alle informatie die nodig is, door het bewuste denken verzameld en geanalyseerd. Om nu het onderbewuste zijn werk te laten doen, moet je het vraagstuk even laten rusten en ‘er een nachtje over slapen’. Kom vervolgens terug bij de vraag en vertrouw op wat je gevoel jou zegt.
Master Events
Aanvullende hulp masterorientatie
29 maart: Mastervoorlichting Faculteit Bouwkunde
Workshops studie(her)keuze:
voor 1e, 2e, 3de jaars bachelor studenten
26 maart, 17 april en meerdere in mei en juli.
(registratie voor opvolg events).
Inschrijven via Career & Councelling Services op Brightspace.
April: Opvolg events per master/track. 04/04
MBE
Keuzegids 2017 Bachelors & Masters is gratis online
13/04
16:00 Landscape Architecture
beschikaar via de Brightspace van
16/04
15:30
Career & Councelling Services.
18/04
Building Technology Geomatics
19/04 Urbanism
Meer info over Bouwkunde masteropleidingen:
20/04 MADE
https://www.tudelft.nl/bk/studeren/masteropleidingen
23/04 - 04/05 Architecture Bedrijvendagen Kijk voor meer info and updates:
Hou het nieuws in de gaten en kom langs op de
www.tudelft.nl/bk/studeren/studeren-bij-bouwkunde/
bedrijvendagen georganiseerd door verschillende
voorlichting-aankomend-studenten
studie- en praktijkverenigingen van de Faculteit.
19
In gesprek met
henco van de bieb Tekst Nadine van den Berg & Kseniya Otmakhova
Beeld Kseniya Otmakhova
Voor het volgende interview in deze serie met faciliterende medewerkers in onze faculteit is Bnieuws een kijkje gaan nemen in de bibliotheek om kennis te maken met Henco Huibregtsen. Hoe komen Bouwkundestudenten over op een bibliothecaris? Wat geheim van de bibliotheek mogen we te weten komen? Bnieuws neemt je weer mee voor een kijkje achter de schermen.
20
Hoe ben je erop gekomen om in een bibliotheek te werken? Ooit zat ik op taekwondo en daar was een persoon die in de Centrale Bibliotheek werkte. En die zei van ‘er is een functie vrij in de bibliotheek’ en heb je zin om bij ons te komen werken? Dus eigenlijk ben ik door hem, door iemand van taekwondo, bij de bibliotheek terecht gekomen. Wat houd jouw werk hier op de bibliotheek onder andere in? Ik help studenten op weg als ze met een vraag zitten. Soms is het iemand die snel wil weten waar ze een boek of bepaalde info kunnen vinden. De ander neemt er iets meer de tijd voor. Mijn functie gaat binnenkort breder worden. Ik krijg nieuwe taken overgedragen zoals boekverzoeken beoordelen en de collectie cureren. Hoe lang werk je hier? Ja… [stilte]. In ieder geval meer dan 25 jaar. Wat vind je dan zo leuk aan het werken hier? De type mensen waar je mee omgaat. En het plezier dat je met hun beleeft in je omgeving. Dat heeft heel veel energie en voldoening gegeven. Zo raak ik wel eens aan de praat met studenten die hier komen. Dan vraag ik wel eens waar ze mee bezig zijn, omdat het voor mij ook best wel interessant is om te weten. Op die manier krijgen studenten ook input op de collectie, om die
beter te krijgen. Wat ik vroeger ook leuk vond, was dat ik even naar Waltman kon lopen om een boek mee te nemen voor de bibliotheek, maar dat kan niet meer door nieuwe regels. En ook dat als je later studenten tegenkomt wanneer ze afgestudeerd zijn. Op een gegeven moment kwam ik een oud-student van civiel tegen met twee kinderen. Met hem ben ik een bakje koffie gaan drinken. Noem één ding waarom iedereen ooit een keer als bibliothecaris gewerkt moet hebben. Om de menselijke kant te ervaren. Het mooie is dat je met mensen waar je mee te maken krijgt wat dieper mee in gesprek gaat. Dat helpt je groeien. En zeker als je naar ervaringen van jonge mensen luistert, dan is dat best wel leerzaam. Wat maakt deze Bouwkunde bibliotheek uniek? In verhouding tot de andere opleidingen is deze bibliotheek veel visueler ingesteld. Het feit dat je die boeken uit de kast kan trekken, naast je neer kan leggen en erdoorheen kan bladeren. Van wat je hier op de Faculteit meemaakt, lezen Bouwkunde studenten veel? Je hebt een percentage van studenten die dat belangrijk vind. Studenten begrijpen dat inspiratie opdoen een toegevoegde waarde heeft. Ik denk dat er in elke
opleiding een groep is die kiest om zijn of haar informatie uit de bibliotheek te halen, en een andere groep die kiest om alleen maar op het internet kijken Heeft de bibliotheek zoals die nu is nog een toekomst door de digitalisering? Ons systeem, onze cultuur, is heel erg ingesteld in boekhoudend denken. Men maakt keuzes op basis van geld en uitgaven. Met het oog naar de toekomst kijk je normaal gesproken eerst naar de gebruiker. Ze hebben ooit wel eens zo’n enquête uitgevoerd onder alle studenten. En daaruit kwam dat het grootste deel van de studenten liever op papier leest. Maar je wordt eigenlijk ook wel gedwongen om de digitale kant te ontwikkelen. Maar wat je nu dus hoort, is dat bij kinderen die op de basisschool met tablets werken, hun ogen erg achteruitgaan. Desalniettemin zal er in de toekomst misschien wel een andere techniek komen. Wie weet dat er met Augmented Reality of Virtual Reality op dit vlak nog iets mee gaat gebeuren. Denk je dat de digitalisering een bedreiging is voor de bibliotheek zoals wij die nu kennen? Als je kijkt naar de huidige situatie, dan zijn de papieren boeken weer in opmars. Ze worden weer massaal gekocht (ten minste, als ik het goed zeg). Als je iets gaat ontwikkelen, wat doet het met de mens? Zo zou de maatschappij in elkaar moeten steken. Leuk, goedkoop en snel hebben vaak het gevolg dat het ongezond is. Je
ogen gaan achteruit door digitaal lezen, wat later problemen oplevert. Zelf zou ik willen geloven in papier. Ik vind het prettig om een boek in mijn handen te hebben en het dan gewoon lekker zo te lezen. Wat is jouw favoriete boek? Ik lees boeken over de mens en het brein. En ook boeken van Naomi Klein. Zij schrijft over wat er achter de schermen in de politiek gebeurt. Is er een geheim van de bibliotheek dat we mogen weten? Toen de mensen deze balie gingen opbouwen met boeken riepen ze waarschuwend ‘afblijven’. Ik zei ‘nee, nee, ik zal er niet aankomen!’. Ik zag heel interessante boeken ertussen liggen, en in mijn hoofd had ik er wel een paar boeken uit willen halen om te lezen. Toen de balie klaar was, waren er nog wel een aantal boeken over, en deze heb ik naar de Centrale Bibliotheek gebracht. Wat is je favoriete bezigheid buiten de bibliotheek? Stijldansen. Het gaat niet alleen om het dansen, maar ook om de lol die je er hebt. Ooit dacht ik van ‘dansen? Ik weet het niet’. Vooral als je uit een vechtsport wereld komt. Ik dacht, dat is meer voor mietjes. Ik heb het maar geprobeerd en ik dans nog steeds.
21
Explore
spAce architecture Words Yufe Wong
Image Jeroen Wassing
“We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people.” - John F. Kennedy On the afternoon of 22nd February, BouT presented a symposium on Space Architecture, with a focus on the related sustainable innovations. It culminated in an exciting event, a fresh bond between faculties and most promisingly, a potential for new studies in TU Delft.
22
Background On the 20th July 1969, the Apollo 11 module landed, just seven years after the famous speech by JFK. It was an achievement that took the combined efforts of more than 400,000 engineers, scientists and technicians to put two men on the moon. For the hundreds of millions watching the event on TV, it must have been a powerful spark for new imagined futures. With an intense excitement, one would have asked: where would humanity be in half a century? Perhaps countries on the Moon, orbital cities in space and settlements on Mars? Disappointingly, half a century has almost passed and none of the above has been realised. The next half-century looks to be more promising, given recent developments. Symposium The topic of space architecture continues to pique the interest and passion of many students and experts, but as an industry the field has yet to blossom. For building technologists, space-related projects would be the ultimate design brief, as they combine virtually all the subtopics with a super-sustainable lens – façade design, lightweight structures, climate design, circularity, zero-energy design, parametrics – and simultaneously challenges each aspect to the extreme.
Outside of construction, there would be tremendous work involved in project management, product design and a wealth of other disciplines necessary to bring about permanent living beyond Earth. In September 2017 the decision to organize a space architecture symposium named Supernova was confirmed, with the help of Dr. Marcel Bilow, who agreed to be moderator. To our knowledge, this was the first symposium on the topic. An international line-up of speakers was assembled, composed of world-leading space architects, designers and consultants, including a former astronaut. In addition, an interfaculty panel of professors was present to open up a discussion at the end of each lecture. The intention was to do justice to the interdisciplinary nature that underpins the success of space missions, so panellists from the BK, IO, TPM and Aerospace were invited to offer their perspective. Respectively, they were Dr. Michela Turrin, Dr. Erik Tempelman, Dr. Angelo Vermeulen and Dr. Angelo Cervone. Future In the two months leading up to the event, it became clear many professors in the university outside of the Aerospace Faculty were very interested in teaching or researching topics related to living in space within
their own field. Product designers saw great benefit in the possible innovations in material science and circularity. The symposium revealed that there are many people in the TU Delft community who are very passionate about space. The TU Delft staff involved with Supernova is very supportive of the idea of education and research along this theme. BouT proposed setting up a taskforce to promote space architecture and research within the faculties of IO, BK and TPM. The benefits for society are potentially enormous, in terms of innovative progress that could inform challenges on Earth (laptops and solar PVs started out as space applications). Architects will one day be needed for Lunar and Martian projects, and TU Delft is in a good position to produce this soon-to-beneeded type of professional. What a coincidence that on the day of the Symposium, NASA released an article calling for universities to collaborate on a range of multidisciplinary projects relating to life in space! Possibilities of collaboration After two months of questioning for feasibility, we are happy to announce that there is good potential for a space education in further faculties in TU Delft. Below is a brief outline of the progress: • Many professors want to teach an (interdisciplinary) course or be a part of a research topic for a new kind of education relating to living-in-space • We have ‘ambassadors’ of teaching staff in the
faculties of TPM, IO and BK to promote the education, including The Dean of the BK, Peter Russell, who suggested setting up a taskforce to ensure clear goals of looking into courses to be introduced to the curriculum in the university are pursued and achieved. • The speakers of Supernova reaffirmed their interest in collaborating with TU Delft during the symposium. • External space research and industry organisations have expressed interest to collaborate with TU Delft. Call for student participation Finally, we need to understand how many students are interested in participating and to get that information, a survey was released on the 25th February. If there is enough interest among Bachelor Students, it will be influential for looking into a possible Minor course, whilst electives are an option for Master students. A questionnaire was released and shared on the Facebook event page. If you believe that we need interfaculty space education available at TU Delft (as an ECTS-worthy course), do fill it in. For now, we envision a multidisciplinary course, to foster the most innovative solutions. The survey will be concluded in a couple of weeks and if it looks promising, we will go from there! For more information, search “Supernova – A Space Architecture Symposium!” on Facebook.
23
Explore
a lab for the senses Words Lydia Giokari
Just a few meters away from the main entrance of BK, in the Science Center, a new BK facility has been launched: the SenseLab. The SenseLab is a laboratory where the facultyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s researchers are testing how they can create a better indoor environment for school classrooms, taking into account parameters such as smell, ventilation, temperature, light, colour and sound. Starting from February, 162 primary school children visited already the SenseLab to experience different indoor environments and give their opinions on how to improve their classrooms. Bnieuws spoke with the initiator of the SenseLab, Professor Philomena M. Bluyssen about these interesting on-going experiments.
24
How did the idea to create the SenseLab occur? Was it your intention to push the current Dutch regulations further regarding the indoor environment of classrooms? Indeed, one of the reasons I put up the SenseLab is the fact that the Dutch regulations for school indoor environment are very narrow and focus mainly on adults/teachers and not on children. In the studies of the past, the teachers gave their judgement by evaluating the students with their own criteria. However, the students have a different perception of their environment in terms of their preferences or priorities, and that is the point of the SenseLab; to test them and figure out their requirements and needs regarding their classrooms. Of course, the teachers also need a good working environment but the kids should be taken into account as well. Which are the most common complaints of the school children? Last year we visited 21 schools, 54 classrooms and questioned 1150 children (average 10 years old) which was an eye-opening experience for our research team. 87% of the pupils complained about noise, 63% about smells, 42% about sunlight and 35% about the
temperature (too cold or too warm). Moreover, when the students were asked to grade 10 things from 1 to 10, they gave the highest score (8.6) to hearing the teacher well and the runner-up was fresh air (7.9). Also, when asked to select between 6 items the ones they would rather improve in their classroom, most of them selected headphones (61%) and a ventilator on their desk to have better air quality (53%). What are the children asked when they visit the SenseLab classroom? During their visit the pupils are divided into groups: some of them take part in a workshop in the experience room (SenseLab classroom), while others are involved in experiments in one of the 4 test chambers. During the workshop, we open a discussion with them about what they believe is the biggest problem in their own classrooms. Then, we expose them to different combinations of indoor environmental factors; we change the lighting, introduce noise, and/or change the ventilation rate or alter the materials and colours of the walls and the floor. Afterwards, we try to stimulate them to come up with solutions of how they would change the things they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like in their own classrooms. The students
are asked to draw their ideal classroom environment imagining that they are researchers of 2040 with all the resources to invent or develop what they need. The results are very surprising and they vary from a detail of their desk to a complete house from where they could study. This point of view is interesting because it shows that some of these primary school children donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to be in the classroom anymore. How do the children respond to the SenseLab experiments? Do they enjoy the whole procedure? It is a very enjoyable field trip for them. They have fun designing their ideal environment, although of course every kid is different and not all of them are intrigued. Some of them are very interested especially in this design exercise and we think we already won some souls here to go to the TU in the future. Working with children is fascinating for us as well, because it includes a lot of â&#x20AC;&#x153;out of the boxâ&#x20AC;? thinking that especially kids are good at. As already mentioned, apart from the SenseLab classroom, they experience the 4 test chambers in which they learn more about their senses, how they work and also help us with tests. Through this procedure we get to know more about the individual factors that change their perception/ feeling of comfort in the classroom environment. Most of them admit that they really have fun in the chamber with the VR and the smell room because both are very interactive; it is a playground for them and that was our intention. When will the SenseLab open to BK students? The intention is for BK students to be able to try the test chambers of the SenseLab and learn more about the factors they need to take into account while designing a building and its indoor environment. Especially when VR technology is combined with other senses, such as heating/cooling or smell, the experience of a space is more realistic. This is what we attempt in the SenseLab and it could be the first step to activate students into this kind of research in their designs.You can learn so much by inserting the real experience of the space you design. We aim to open
the test chambers also for the public during weekends starting from mid-April. Do you think it is important for architecture students to be aware of the indoor environments in the buildings they design? Students should be convinced to take into account the end user and to do so you need to know how the indoor environment of your designs is perceived. They usually design beautiful buildings that are not always optimized for sound, air, thermal and lighting quality. It is not enough to simply draw a ventilation system in your design just to have it there, you need to know how the air is flowing and what you need to be able to let it flow; they need to integrate technology into their designs, and that is not easy. What would you advise BK students? I think it would be beneficial for them to follow at least one technical studio if possible in order to learn how to integrate different factors in their designs. By doing so, they will get more connected to the technical and practical parts of their buildings. Because most architects are very visual, the curriculum should try to introduce courses that you can experience and test what you learn instead of just reading regulations or following rules. That is the point of the SenseLab as well next to enriching the research by testing different solutions. You should test and experience a certain airflow to understand it. It may be ideal in terms of regulations, but it may be too noisy or not appropriate for the users. Finally, I would advice them not to forget that when they design an environment for certain users they should try to keep in mind the opinion and preferences of these users. You can find out more about the SenseLab and the on-going research online: tudelft.nl/en/2018/bk/first-school-class-tests-senselab/, tudelft.nl/en/2016/bk/senselab-a-playground-for-thesenses/, tudelft.nl/bk/onderzoek/ onderzoeksfaciliteiten/senselab/, vimeo. com/220927174.
25
intuition As I laid down there, with my arms pressed against my body, making myself as small as I possibly could, I felt exhilarated. My breathing was hurried, my heart was beating double the time and I felt as if I’d just escaped death. A giggle of excitement welled up in my throat, but I managed to stifle it. Looking up past the radiator, through the little bit of window that my position allowed me to look through, I could just see a fragment of the beautiful, blue, Monday morning sky. Given the precariousness of my situation, it is remarkable that I registered at all that it really was a gorgeous day.
26
The patch of blue sky also posed a threat. What if she pushed her head against the window? She would be able to see me. Then what would I do? Wave at her like an imbecile? What on earth had prompted me to slide out of my chair, crawl to the front of the living room and hide under the windowsill? I’d only seen a glimpse of her, from the corner of my eye: an older woman, short grey hair, beige jacket. Nothing noteworthy. Why did I hurtle myself to the floor? Fixing my gaze at the pipe of the radiator, I realised that it was exactly her unnoteworthiness that got me there: the lack of joy and frivolity, expressed through her dress and hairdo. She knocked on the door, then rang the bell. I smelled the wax we’d just put on. This was the minute of truth. She would either go to the window to look in or she would retreat, perhaps leaving behind a message of some kind. The mailbox creaked, then silence settled in again. She chose the latter option. When I finally got up, feeling both relieved and embarrassed, I picked up the folder and saw my intuition was right: Jehova’s Witnesses.
Pierijn van der Putt / Docent Architectuur
Open call
FSR MEMBERS 2018-2019 Words Marijn van Steen
Dear fellow students, The Faculty Student Council (Dutch: Facultaire Studentenraad) is looking for new members for the academic year 2018-2019. Would you like to take on a challenge where you can develop yourself and be of true meaning to your fellow students? Do you have great ideas about how to improve our faculty? Then you’re the one we’re looking for! To give you a better idea of what a year in the FSR is like, I –the chairman of the FSR 2017-2018– would like to inform you about our pursuits and ambitions. The FSR engages in a variety of cases, ranging from short-term problems (such as issues with a specific subject) to long-running operations (such as monitoring the quality of the Faculty’s education). To accomplish this, we have meetings with staff members, varying from the janitors to the Dean. The XXL opening hours and weekend openings during exam periods are initiatives of the FSR which already have been accomplished. We think this makes the programme better to follow without putting extra pressure on students. This year we are working on a few things that we think have been a problem for too long at our faculty. We are aiming to improve the Master enrolment, since the current system is causing a lot of stress and frustration among students. This is quite a complicated process and it’s challenging to find a solution that works for all parties. In our opinion, not only the enrolment itself, but also the information supply should be improved. We are working with a number of different parties, including Stylos, to achieve this.
Furthermore, we would like our faculty to be more sustainable. Not only the building, but the education should be future-proof too. For now, we are looking into more sustainable ways of garbage disposal. We believe that our faculty has to set an example and should be a frontrunner concerning sustainability. Besides these long-term ambitions, the FSR needs to react to acute problems as well. It is important to address these problems as quickly as possible. Often we talk directly to the course coordinator or in extreme cases to the Dean. Apart from these collective ambitions, each FSR member has their own ideals as well. Personally, I strive to make students more engaged in our BK-City community. Others meet their personal ambitions by organizing input lunches, having open office hours and checking the opinion of students through surveys. All of the above serves a main goal: creating and sustaining a learning environment where every student can get the most out of his/her education and be the best he/she can become. Do you have ideas or ideals you’d like to share? Please let us know! If you are interested in joining the FSR, please send your motivation to FSR-BK@ tudelft.nl before March 23rd. Still in doubt? Don’t hesitate to stop by our office in the BK ‘street’ next to @Hok for a cup of coffee or tea! Cheers!
27
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE EXHIBITION SPACES AT BK? Images Lydia Giokari
Jasmijn Ooijevaar | BSc1
Actually there are numerous and it’s nice that the exhibitions change regularly so that you don’t get bored with them. I always pass by them and since I am a “freshwoman” here, they really inspire me. Would you go to BK Tower if it was an exhibition space? That would be a great idea because no one has ever been there. Sophia Chrysanthou | MSc2 Robotic Building Ken Yeum | MSc4 Heritage 28
I am quite satisfied with the exhibition spaces around BK. There are way more than in my previous Faculty. I usually go to the ones on the ground floor–the BK Expo, the Orange Hall and the corridors–but rarely to the ones on the 1st floor. I really like that the exhibitions are scattered around the building. How did you discover BK Expo? On my way to the toilet.
I think the Expo Space is nicely located because you pass through it on your way to the Bouwpub. I like it spatially but I feel that it could be organised in a nicer way, because sometimes the exhibitions are sloppy. It is a pity that we don’t have more space, for example for pinning up the final posters of our studios, so that you could walk around and see all the students’ work. Would you go to BK Tower if it was an exhibition space? Although it is too far away, I would definitely go there.
Karlijn Sholtens | Msc4 Delta Interventions
Talking about BK Expo, although it is a limited space it is beneficial that you really notice when an exhibition is taking place there. There is always a “warning” since you usually see when an exhibition is being prepared and built. Also, it is nice that if you take walks around the building, you encounter the different spots where student work is exhibited and you can see interesting things while you stroll around. Would you go to BK Tower if it was an exhibition space? Yes, definitely because I always wanted to visit the Tower.
Olav van der Doorm & Rolf Huijgen | MSc4 Robotic Building Britt Gubbels and Farnoosh Bazrafkan | Bridging program
We are new in BK, we just started three weeks ago, but we have already seen some exhibitions in the Orange Hall and they look really impressive. The only thing that we are afraid of at the moment is how we are going to do these kind of models in the future.
The expositions are quite fine and well-organized. You can encounter smaller or bigger ones and in different spots while walking around BK; in the Model Hall, the Orange Hall, the corridors or BK Expo. You need to have courage to organise one and it will take you some time to manage it. Would you go to BK Tower if it was an exhibition space? Definitely! It would be a nice way to escape from the standard workspaces and enjoy the view.
Luc Willekens | Tutor Architecture
I love the fact that the exhibitions are scattered around the building. Sometimes it is difficult to find them but usually they are in the public spaces that you pass when you go through the building to your own working space. This organisation is really nice because you end up seeing exhibitions that you probably wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go to otherwise. Passing by you can see inspiring images, drawings and models. Would you go to BK Tower if it was an exhibition space? I would prefer it to become something else, for example, a space for small studios more than an exhibition space. The tower is a separate room that you have to go to specifically, whereas all the exhibitions are integrated into the routing of the building. Therefore, I would instead shift other spaces around the routings into small exhibitions.
Efrain Fajardo | Msc4 Delta Interventions
I like that the exhibitions are scattered around BK. During the day, you always pass through the various exhibitions around the building. However, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like that it is really difficult to catch an agenda and keep track of all the exhibitions in time. Also, it would be nice if the exhibitions were more inclusive so that you could see different perspectives and approaches, not only some projects selected only by the tutors. Maybe giving the students the chance to choose their favourite student projects would be a good idea.
29
Speak
spaces of resistancE Words Floortje van Sandick & Ada Jaśkowiec
Image Floortje van Sandick
We get taught that public space is the place par excellence where citizens can participate in public life and exercise their political rights. It is the place where people learn from each other. However, it is also a place of state exercised control, the negation of civil rights and conflict. This became visible when a group of people, including students, exercised their right to protest on the campus and the mechanisms of control and their spatial implications began operating. We need a platform, which we could use to talk about it and build this awareness.
30
floortje van sandick—On the 20th of February a mixed group of people - including myself and other students - organized by Stop the War on Migrants protested the participation of companies in the Delftse Bedrijvendagen, that actively engage in the weapon industry and fossil fuels, thereby endangering the lives of many people and actively profiting from an increasingly militarized EU border (weapons: Thales, Airbus, oil: Shell, BP). We congregated in front of the aula carrying protest signs and flags to make a peaceful, but clear statement that the weapon industry is not welcome in education.
The police treated the protest as an unwanted and possibly dangerous annoyance. Before the start, they already arrested one participant for not showing her ID and held her in custody for two days (illegally). The rest of us were urged into a temporarily created space, 50 meters from the actual entrance (again, illegally). This space was marked by a red and white ribbon, strung between a somehow conveniently located road sign, bus stop sign, and two flag poles that together formed a semi rectangle large enough to contain a crowd of people and far enough from the entrance as to obscure our message (see the image on the right). It is very probable that the spatial planner of the TU Delft never considered the value of these architectural
elements as containers and markers of protest space and enforcers of state control, but this is exactly what happened. Namely, if the protesters ventured beyond this ribbon, they would all have been arrested and detained for up to twelve hours. Such treat had to be taken seriously, since the police had already arrested one person and was present in such large numbers. Therefore, this completely arbitrary enclosed space suddenly had juridical power over the activists and these random street poles became enforcers of control. Altogether it was a frustrating and stressful experience. The police forced us to move, placed us together like cattle and formed a line around us, ready to intervene at any possible violation of their rules. It didn’t matter that this was not legal. It didn’t matter that officially they didn’t have the right to determine the place of the protest. All that matters, is that they had the tools (police vans, weapons, juridical protection, mass, public support, police cells) to control the situation, which created a significant inequality of power. It is a good reality check on the notion of public space as a place of democracy and emancipation within the Netherlands and specifically within our institution. The right to protest and speak out is something we still need to fight for, and as architects we can contribute. Design is not innocent.
ada jaśkowiec—In the light of recent events, an interesting topic for discussion emerges, which seems very necessary to touch upon within every community, but especially at the University – the place which teaches critical thinking and encourages to get off the beaten tracks. Our right to protest and to express disagreement in public space is a privilege. Paradoxically, the permission to protest is a development of our democratic society, which allows for the plurality of voices to be heard. In its very core protest serves as the last resort for people who do not get to express their opinions in an institutionalized way. The history of public space is a history of exclusions [1], where the excluded groups would subsequently be women, the poor, children, people of colour, immigrants, etc. It is protest, which paved their way to access public space on equal terms.
On the other hand, Dutch political culture is based on the idea of compromise and finding a middle ground, which sees conflict as something which needs to be avoided. Everyone appears politically correct even if he or she thinks differently. Protest, in this context, may be perceived as the greatest nightmare – since it inherently brings about the idea of contestation. Protest creates fear of social unrest and overturn. That would explain the measures taken against the protesters during the last events.
observing their deeds and reflecting upon them [3]. Society, in order to sustain its power, needs contestatory, pluralist public spaces, defined by Hannah Arendt as a “space of appearance”, where different people come together to act (praxis) and talk (lexis) [4]. James Jasper calls such spaces arenas - “the places where strategic action occurs” [5]. Universities have been such places for a long time, since they offer an exceptional mixture of energy of young people with knowledge they acquire. They are also a private ground, hence they fall outside municipal jurisdiction. We need to disenchant the idea of protest as a negative, destructive event. Quite the contrary, it is not something to be afraid of, but something to cherish. It may create agitation, but it also leads to fruitful, ground breaking discussions. The right to protest empowers individuals, but also builds up the respect to the institution, which allows its members to be active participants in the whole educational process. The sources for this article can be found on the online pages 36: issuu.com/bnieuws
assigned protest area police
2 x Flag pole
It is important to say that protest refers to much more than just the congregation of people shouting to express their disapproval of the current situation. Protest is our right, an inherent part of human activities. Its role is to critically assess the current state of affairs, express your opinions and take active part in the society. James Jasper, a sociologist of protest, sees it as “a fundamental part of human existence” [2], which has transformative power for the society. Protest has become an inherent part of public life. Jurgen Habermas’s definition of public sphere describes it as a mediatory ground between the state and the society, where the governed can control the governing, by
protester arrested protester previous protester location police van Bus stop
Road sign
move to new location protest sign element of protest area (street pole, sign,
TU AULA Hosting Delftse Bedrijvendagen incl: Weapon industry:Airbus, Thales Dirty Energy: Shell, BP, NRG, ExxonMobil, Engie
30 meter
31
A Place of Potential
WELCOME TO the BK EXPO TOWER! Words & Image Lydia Giokari
The BK Tower is one of the most characteristic parts of our faculty, yet we have no access to it. In the October issue, Bnieuws took you inside the BK Tower in an attempt to unveil the mystery of this “untapped” place of potential. Taking a step further, the aim of this article is to propose a new use and reclaim the Tower as an alternative exhibition space for BK.
As architecture students, we spend most of our time designing proposals for all kinds of projects in real, future or imaginary contexts. We envision possible solutions for interiors, buildings, settlements or even urban spaces adding new qualities, reinterpreting current situations or speculating on future scenarios. It is in our nature to be enthusiastic about designing the built environment we live in or the future of how we would like it to be. So especially when we are talking about our faculty, the building that we live in every day, our own BK City, we know all its pros and cons, its potentials and dead-ends. 32
The BK Tower constitutes one of these places of potential not only because of its nature to stand out from a distance, but also because in its limits, it offers numerous opportunities for possible uses. BK has its famous anchor points like the Orange Hall, the Model Hall, the Espresso Bar and the Bouwpub and the Tower could definitely be one of these points of interest for guests as well as BK Citizens. Although on a first glance the interior space may not seem optimal for hosting exhibitions, this characteristic can also be perceived as a special feature that triggers new ways of organising/curating expositions in this unique location. The collage on the right showcases that the continuous gap along the floors that limits up the floor space can be used as a place to exhibit objects vertically while allowing the possibility to observe them from different positions, angles and perspectives. The polygonal interior walls provide extra space for pinning up posters or works of art. The numerous windows not only provide a magnificent view but also allow a lot of natural light in the Tower. It is really a pity not to benefit from this extraordinary space that BK is lucky to have. Bnieuws asked BK students about their opinion and they expressed their excitement to be able to visit the Tower and enjoy the view while looking to their fellow students’ work. The same positive reaction was received from the Chair of BK Expo Committee, Inge Pit, when asked if she could imagine the Tower becoming a part of the scattered exhibition spaces of BK. Dear reader, spread the word and let’s hope that we will accomplish to reclaim the Tower!
A first glimpse at the BK Expo Tower: A new place for exhibiting student work, take a break and enjoy the spectacular view. >
The Rules
PETER RUSSELL’S 10 RULES FOR LIFE Words Peter Russell
As a dean, I have had the privilege to give speeches to freshly graduated students, in Delft and elsewhere. Young people who are about to start their careers. In the end, these talks come down to a few nuggets of information. I have pared these down to ten rules and will share them with you in Bnieuws over the coming months.
Rule #2: Talk to People. In saying, “talk to people”, it is not meant to go on talking endlessly about you and your ideas. It is primarily about asking questions and listening. In order to be a part of this society, we all need to communicate and communication means more often listening than talking. Ask what people think, ask how they are doing, ask what they are doing and how and why. You will learn from them. There are no stupid questions, just stupid mistakes because you didn’t ask a question. At some point, someone might ask you a question or two. Be concise in your answers – the questioner will be grateful. This doesn’t mean we cannot have long conversations, but make sure the other person has the time for that. In a meeting, refrain from adding something unless you are sure your point was not raised, (not just raised by someone else differently). As the comedian Karl Valentin once commented about meetings: “Everything has already been said, but not yet by everyone”. And when in doubt, use the phone or better yet, meet up in person. Emails, letters, messenger, WeChat, fax, teletext and Morse-code all strip away the subtle parts of multi-channelled human interaction. We lose too much of our message this way and then waste our time trying to sort out the misunderstandings caused by the wrong form of communication. If there’s an issue that needs to be cleared up, first call! And then shut up and get to work. At some point the talking needs to stop and the doing needs to be done. We all seem to have too much to do and not enough time to do it. In some ways, we are all in the same boat, but really, misery doesn’t love company; misery loves someone to help. So, if you see someone struggling, ask if you can help (if you can). And if someone asks you how you are doing – be concise, polite and thank the person for asking. If you need help, ask for it. Otherwise, refrain from describing your burdens. Raymond Carver put it plainly: “Don’t complain. Don’t explain”.
35
FYI
sources Spaces of Resistance pages 30-31 Crawford, M. (1995). ‘Contesting the Public Realm: Struggles over Public Space in Los Angeles’, Journal of Architectural Education, 49 (1), p. 5. 1
Jasper, J. M. (2014). Protest: A Cultural Introduction to Social Movements, Wiley, 2014, p. 21.
2
Habermas, J. et al. (1974). ‘The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article’, New German Critique (3), pp. 49-55. Available from: http://www.jstor.org/ stable/487737. Retrieved October 30, 2017. 3
Arendt, H. (1998). The Human Condition, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1998, p. 198 4
36
5
Jasper, op. cit., p. 21.