Bnieuws 49/10 - Summer...Unlimited (2015/16)

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INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT

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Bnieuws Volume 49 Issue 10 05 July 2016 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl Editorial Team Daphne Bakker Nadine van den Berg Lotte Dijkstra Kseniya Otmakhova

SPEAK 20

Like Plankton

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Summer Attitude

CREATE

Editorial Advice Emily Parry Contributors Marco Galli Dick van Gameren Grijze Ei Jamal van Kastel Pim Pelt Michael Tjia Cover BK World

by Kseniya Otmakova, based on Dymaxion Map

by B. Fuller see also p. 03 Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken

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A View to Kill

18

Where Is the Sea?

22

KarTent

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Drijfveer

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The Motown Movement

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Creating Water

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UN-Habitat Winners

Next Deadline 02nd of August 12.00 Bnieuws Volume 50 Issue 01 September 2016 Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies © All rights reserved.

Although all content is treated with great care, errors may occur.

LEARN 06

Kas Oosterhuis

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Hyperbody: Here & Now

EXPLORE 12

Helping Hands

Editorial

SUMMER — UNLIMITED

At the age of 35 the recently deceased legend Mohamad Ali said: “Life is really short, so if you add up all your travelling, all your sleeping, your school, your entertainment, you probably have been doing nothing half of your life. In 30 more years, I’ll be 65.

We can’t do much at 65, your wife will tell you that. In those 30 years, I have to sleep 9 years. There will probably be 4 years of traveling in the next 30 years for me. Then there’s television and movies, together about 3 years of entertainment. So, out of 30 years, I might have about 16 years to be productive. This is how we can all break down our individual lives. So the coming 16 years I will do everything I can to help people.”

Any designer or inventor can tell that time is the limit that shows no mercy during the process of creation. We spend hours, days, weeks and now even weekends at the Faculty pulling all-nighters and drinking hundreds cups of coffee to complete our work.

Caught within the boundaries of our bustling BK City we almost forget what the real world out there looks like. Now that the academic year has ended, we are free to roam around for the next two months, giving us the chance to reconnect with the real world.

What will you do with two months’ time? Catch up on missed sleep, meet up with friends, detox from caffeine, recap on the past year and prepare for the upcoming one, contemplate on life, visit your home? At Bnieuws we believe in the importance of a broad horizon for all. In the previous issue we explored this broadening of horizons from a professional perspective. In this issue we aim to cross more conventional borders to see what’s beyond this building, this city and this country.

Starting off here at home, Bnieuws talked to Kas Oosterhuis who is leaving his position at Hyperbody at the end of this academic year. We also spoke with some guests at our Faculty, who were helping out graduating students at the Zuidserre, to get a fresh perspective on life at BK City.

Taking the first step outside the building, our contributor Michael Tjia spent a night in the Botel in Amsterdam. Meanwhile, in the north of the Netherlands, a group of students participated in the Oerol Festival. Further on you will see how diverse projects by BK students really can be. Follow us across the borders, from small projects in the Netherlands to bigger projects in the USA, Peru and Kenya.

Have fun exploring an unlimited summer!

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#Bnieuwd

Confererence / 17TH IPHS CONFERENCE During the 17th International Planning History Society Conference 500 planning historians from more than 50 different countries will discuss the topic of History – Urbanism – Resilience. In view of urgent challenges such as climate change and migration, this topic has gained new relevance.

The organisation offers free entry for students who want to help during the conference. Please contact info@iphs2016.org if you are interested.

Publication / ARGUS ANNUAL The fast paced nature of the studio system leaves much of the work produced by students unseen.

With their Annual, Argus aims to capture a collection of inspiring designs, ideas, and resources developed within the context of Master education of Architecture at the TU Delft. The 2015–2016 Annual will be on sale from September.

Argus / argus.cc / 09.16

IPHS / iphs2016.org / 17.07.16 - 21.07.16

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Exhibitions / ART ACADEMY GRADUATION FESTIVALS As BK City’s end-terms and P5’s are coming to an end, so are the deadlines of Holland’s next generation of artists. Their graduation works will be festively displayed during the various exhibitions hosted by their respective academies. Easily accessible from Delft are the HKU (until 03 July, Utrecht), Royal Academy of Art (01–07 July, The Hague), Gerrit Rietveld Academie (06–10 July, Rotterdam) and Willem de Kooning Academie (07–10 July, Rotterdam).

Various institutes / from late 06.16 - early 07.16

#Bnieuwd

Talkshow / ACCESS TO TOOLS An evening talkshow on architecture, technology, and network culture. Stadslab Rotterdam, WikiHouseNL, and Marc Koehler will reflect upon their relationship with users and clients in an era of digital network culture. Hosted in our own Oostserre—access is free.

Explore Lab 22 / 15.09.16 / 19:30

Discussion / REPORTING FROM THE FRONT For one day, la Biennale di Venezia will be celebrated in Rotterdam. Parallel sessions will be hosted at Hip Hop Huis, featuring a keynote lecture by Kunlé Adayemi. Later that evening, HNI will be the venue for discussion with the curators of the Austrian, German, and Dutch pavilions. See the websites for more details and registration.

Het Nieuwe Instituut & Creative Industries Fund NL / hni.nl & stimuleringsfonds.nl / 07.07.16

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Exhibition / PORTRAIT CORRIDOR UPDATE Attentive BK Citizens might have noticed the addition of two new faces amongst the permanent display of architect’s photographs. Portraits of the late Charles Correa and Zaha Hadid [see Bnieuws 08] have been added to the corridor of the east wing’s first floor, carefully furthering diversity in this congress of architects.

BK City / 01.Oost

Interview

KAS OOSTERHUIS Words Kseniya Otmakhova

Images Hyperbody

Professor Kas Oosterhuis, or, as he calls himself, the expert formerly known as an architect, steps down from his function as the head of Hyperbody with the end of the current academic year. However for him not much seems to change, since Hyperbody is not just a job, it is a passion. Crossing the borders between the rational and the emotional aspects of architecture how does Kas see the movement he established 16 years ago? Who will take over from him and where is Hyperbody heading towards in the coming months and years?

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What is Hyperbody (to you)?

It’s a start of a larger movement. Socially, the society rearranges itself all the time, technology reinvents itself all the time and that’s exactly where we want to work. The actual state of mind, in the actual condition. People sometimes think we don’t look at context, at history, but we do. Being aware of what happened in the past and from there, from the actual condition, developing the future vision. It’s the architecture of here and now. We design to produce. We’re very much hands on, we don’t talk about it, we do it. If you look at design and production strategies, we always say: ‘It’s only this component, at this location, at this moment in time’. We look into the components that buildings and environments are made of. These components can be anything: from building blocks in the context of the city to parts of the façade and furniture. Another thing we are working with is the state of the swarm. We are interested in the interaction between people and these dynamic systems.

Bálna, Budapest

Everything we do in Hyperbody I did in the practice before. Concepts like Trans-potrs and NSA Muscle were developed in my practice and brought later on into Hyperbody for further research. That was the real basis for further explorations. In practice I went much more in the direction of building larger buildings based on the same principles as swarmbehavior and component based intelligence, parametric design, etc. In Hyperbody I was more focused on adaptivity and interactivity.

What inspired you to establish Hyperbody?

The fact that I became interested in this direction to begin with has a lot to do with the social relations I have with artists and scientists. So many architecture offices earn their money by copy-pasting each other’s ideas. That’s where artists and scientists have a different attitude, they look from the inside. My wife is a visual artist and works in a completely different way than I did as an architect. I wanted to link together the emotional and the intuitive to the rational.

In 1994 we had an event, ‘Sculpture City’, where we declared that we can do sketches in 3D and that we can make interpretations of that into something that could be built. We said a building can be a sculpture and evoke emotional feelings and at the same time it can be a functional building. We believed that these

two qualities don’t have to be in conflict. That idea was the basis for the ‘Water Pavilion’. With that we initiated something completely different, without any serial repetition. We started thinking of architecture that’s based on transformations, processes, that’s based on a completely different paradigm. That later evolved into a component based idea, inspired by the swarm-behavior. The smallest components together are forming this sculptural and emotive body. That idea was so strong, that the ‘Water Pavilion’ went viral and eventually I got invited to teach here.

Why did you choose to establish Hyperbody within this specific faculty and not, for example, at TU Eindhoven?

I never thought of going to TU Eindhoven, because they are even more technology driven. This faculty was clearly more design oriented. Hyperbody doesn’t start with computation, it starts with emotion.

What is the role and the meaning of Hyperbody within this Faculty?

Hyperbody is one of the few Chairs at the Faculty that represents actuality in architecture. We belong to architecture and not so much to the technical department. From the outside people might think: ‘Oh so you work with computation, so you must be engineer-like architects.’ We are, but that’s not where we start from. We don’t do engineering to facilitate

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stimulate the collaboration really, they flatten the level. I see a tendency now where you study longer and make a reservation to go deeper into a subject during your PhD. I am very much in favor of collaboration between interdisciplinary experts. We also practice this within our studios. The students work in teams where everyone has his or her own specialization. I find that a very natural way of collaboration since people all have different interests, different qualities, and different ambitions.

other people’s ideas, we embed engineering in our own design pieces.

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The Venice Biennale by Rem Koolhaas [held in 2014, red.] was about so-called fundamentals, but then it was obvious that his thinking stopped after he left the AA. All the movements he described in education and practice ended somewhere in the 80’s. He completely ignored the actual state of mind. This huge gap I also see represented in the curriculum of the Bachelor. They’re behind some 20-30 years.

How did the attitude towards Hyperbody as a discipline develop over the years?

We gained a lot of international recognition. We’ve a strong feeling that here at the Faculty we’re tolerated and maybe even respected, but not so much appreciated as we’re appreciated internationally.

The amount of international students we have at Hyperbody is a sign of that, but our work and publications also means a lot for universities abroad, for them Hyperbody brought the change.

Maybe the new Master improvement plan [see Bnieuws 07, p. 14, red.] aimed at multidisciplinary education and more connection between tracks will bring a change?

I think with the change of the Master courses there are more generic things coming in. Which, I have to say, I regret, because many of these things don’t

What is the future of Hyperbody now that you will be leaving?

The coming five years I’ll remain in close relationship with Hyperbody and I’ll be focusing more on the relations with the universities abroad to strengthen Hyperbody’s international network.

Henriette Bier and Nimish Biloria will take the lead over the research and the education within Hyperbody.

Considering the trend of ‘Automation’ [see Bnieuws 09, p 16] the dean mentioned that designers need to take a leadership role in the discussion on robotics in our society. What does this trend mean to Hyperbody?

Well, that’s what I’ve been doing for 30 years already. This dean is much closer to what we do than his predecessors.

In Hyperbody a design starts with an ambition to reach a certain goal. You know that a certain technology is around and for each project you develop this technology further. One of the subjects, almost a paradigm we pursue is: ‘It’s only there when you need it’. Imagine a room where you don’t see anything, but if you would want to sit a chair appears and when you want it to become a kitchen it becomes one. This is the idea of multi-modality where the same space can be adapted to become another space with another function. I’m not interested in a robot that does things for me, but in the whole space as something that interacts with me.

Do you have any unrealized projects you still want to undertake?

Yes, of course we need to build this truly interactive multi-modal pavilion. That’s still a dream that has to be realized. We are now aiming to create an interactive stage for the upcoming GAME.SET. MATCH.-conference that will serve as a prototype for the multi-modal pavilion.

“HYPERBODY DOESN’T START WITH COMPUTATION, IT STARTS WITH EMOTION.”

Apart from Hyperbody what is important to you?

What we do in practice these days is working on open design systems on all levels from urban to interior. The intelligence of the whole process is already in the components. This leads to a new type of design process which is participatory and makes it possible to include and consider everyone as an expert. And that’s the future. How does that sound?

Any last words of advice?

Be open to the actual developments. Talk with completely different disciplines. Work with dancers.

GAME.SET.MATCH. CONFERENCE 2016 Hyperbody is organizing the Game.Set.Match conference that will be taking place in November 2016.

Here all the themes Hyperbody is working on, will be presented: ‘Next Generation Building’, ‘Robotic Building', and ‘S.M.A.R.T Environments’. Internationally renowned speakers – architects, designers, researches – will be addressing these themes. Next to that there will be an exhibition and a robotic action in the Oostserre.

More info on: gsm3.hyperbody.nl

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Update

HYPERBODY: HERE & NOW Words Kseniya Otmakhova

Images Hyperbody

Henriette Bier and Nimish Biloria will be taking over the lead from Kas Oosterhuis. They told Bnieuws about the most recent developments in research and education at Hyperbody.

Henriette Bier Associate Professor, Leader Robotic Building as Design-to-Robotic-Production and Operation

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We have two main research themes within Hyperbody that relate and inform the Master studios: Robotic Building and S.M.A.R.T. Environments. I lead the Robotic Building theme, aiming to integrate robotic devices into design and production processes as well as into the operation of buildings. Usually, research and education are strongly connected. The projects that the students are doing are linked with the research that we are conducting. The Robotic Building group has four active researchers.

Recently we received a grant, which enabled us to buy a robot and establish the first robotic lab at the Faculty where we are developing Design-to-Robotic-Production with researchers and students. This new development has been received international recognition and now we are invited to exhibit our work in Centre de Pompidou in March 2017. It is a good time for us to push these developments within the Faculty, because they currently take place all over the world. This is being reflected in the interest of the students as well: our student numbers grow while more and more international students come to us.

S.M.A.R.T. environment

Nimish Biloria Assistant Professor, Leader S.M.A.R.T. Environments I lead the S.M.A.R.T. Environments theme within Hyperbody. S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for Systems & Materials in Architectural Research and Technology. As a research umbrella, S.M.A.R.T. Environments interrogates the intricate relationship between information systems and associative material formations. This interrogation is carried out every semester as an active collaboration between dedicated Hyperbody researchers and our Masters students. Here we use cutting edge interdisciplinary design strategies and nonlinear computational processes. Performance Driven Architectures and Real-Time Interactive Environments, the two main research and design strands of S.M.A.R.T. Environments, are thus produced.

Such context aware environments embody sensing, thinking and acting as an intrinsic part of their make-up.

The produced designed environments are thus able to respond/adapt in real-time with People, Activity and Environmental Context based data. The focus on enhancing user comfort and awareness levels, while at the same time sustainably producing/channeling energy and optimally organizing materials. Theres is a growing interest in developing such intelligent environments with its core values embedded in human behavior and multi-performative nature of architectural space. hyperbody.nl

< Robotic building workshop

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Another view

HELPING HANDS Words Lotte Dijkstra

Images Michael Tjia

It is a rite of passage: graduating from the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment by passing your P5. With a mere six weeks between the P4 and P5, the final weeks of life as an architecture student are filled with the production of final materials. Another ritual comes in play: inviting family and friends to please, please lend a hand to help meet the deadline. Bnieuws talked to some of those helping hands to get a different perspective on life at our Faculty.

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Truus and Ariena, mother and aunt to Iris

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Simon, grandfather to Wouter

Truus and Ariena Mother and aunt to Iris

Simon Grandfather to Wouter

Truus: “And over there her father is helping as well!”

What is your work like here?

Simon: “We have a very clear division of tasks.

We have been working for three weeks now. Every day I take the train at 09.00, I am back home around 18.15. We work step by step, and I take pictures of all the in-between steps.”

Wouter: “So my grandmother knows what we have been doing during the day!”

What are your thoughts on working here?

Ariena: “It is a really busy workshop. But it is so nice to be able to experience it. Particularly the solidarity is admirable.”

And what do you think about the work you are doing?

Ariena: “Well, Iris is very precize with her work. That means we are, too!” [laughs] Truus: “I am currently working on a banister for the staircase. However, the element was too short, so I added an extra part that needs to be glued together.” [points at a very thin cardboard banister, hanging out of the half-finished model]

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What can you tell us about the project in your own words?

Truus: “It is a project in Slotermeer in Amsterdam.

It is a complex of buildings, with a column structure.”

Ariena: “The design is the same complex executed in a different way.”

Truus: “Elderly people will live on the top floors, while the ground floors will house young families.

A greenhouse will be added to connect the buildings and create a healthy, green space where young and older people can meet. Iris’ father actually used to live in one of the apartments.”

What can you tell us about the project in your own words?

Simon: “It is a very complicated project with many aspects. With every finished element it becomes more clear what it is all about. During the P5 the bigger picture will be visible for the first time.”

And what are you working on?

Simon: “I am focusing on the details. I have just finished carving the windows, I will stick them together at home. Larger elements stay here. I want to work as efficient as possible.”

What is it like, working together like this?

Wouter: “We are thinking about the project together.

Sometimes, when I want to finish something quickly, my grandfather stops me to think about it. It improves the products and the design.”

Simon: “It does not exist, ‘quick work’. That will always become sloppy work.”

How long have you been working here at the Zuidserre?

Truus: “We are helping Iris for one week and stay on a real nice camp site nearby in the mean time."

Ariena: “Two times Iris has given us a day off, so we could go for a walk and a canoe trip.”

What do you think about the Faculty?

Simon: “I had not been here before, but I think it is amazing to work here. You can feel the structure of the space. It is a lot nicer than working in a computer centre where everyone is always in a rush.”

Truus is a pedagogic staff member and also gives

Simon worked as an electrician and programmer, and

drawing classes at a community center. Ariena used to

built instruments. In his spare time he prepares insects as

be a supervisor for recreational activities. Nowadays she

an amateur taxidermologist.

works as a volunteer in a nature and environmental education. A few months ago they took part in a scientific research and it was confirmed they are identical twins.

Thanks to Machiel van Dorst − for the concept of this article.

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The Netherlands: Amsterdam

A VIEW TO KILL Words & Image Michael Tjia

“Surprise. You’ll get to spend a night at the Botel.” I did not yet know that this was a portmanteau of ‘boat’ and ‘hotel’, nor did I know that this floating three star hotel was a recipient of an AAP nomination earlier this year. I quickly learned that in addition to the cabins below deck, several ‘loft-letters’ are mounted atop, spelling out BOTEL in capitals. I got the chance to pick one to spend the night in.

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Anticipating the night to come, I found out that the Amstel Botel had been dragged to its current position in 2008. Finding anchorage on the north bank of the IJ-river, the budget hotel was demanded to live up to the dynamic and vibrant reputation of the ndsm-wharf.

This requirement was recently answered with five capital letters spelling out botel. Each letter encloses a themed hotel suite (designed by Richard Hutten, &Prast&Hooft, MMX Architecten, Jord den Hollander, and Moriko Kira) and have earned the Amstel Botel an aap nomination earlier this year. This Amsterdam equivalent of a Pritzker-prize will hopefully secure their moorage for the years to come.

On a drizzly evening, I get aboard a ferry behind Amsterdam Centraal. While navigating towards Noord, the red letters are already visible on the horizon, becoming exceedingly legible as we drift towards the ndsm-wharf. As we get closer, and the other hotel windows come into sight as well, the loft-letters seem much larger than anticipated.

I enter the ship, finding the lobby somewhere in the middle of its hull. Aside from the low ceilings, the interiors do not reveal that we are in fact on a boat. At the front desk, I am handed a key-card that allows the elevator to go to the otherwise inaccessible roof-deck.

Night has fallen and while walking around on the ship's deck, the loft-letter's large windows act as window displays. They show that the b's internal half-pipe also comes with a set of skateboards and that the o really does comes with the bdsm attributes I saw in published photographs. I find my way to the e's back. My keycard opens up a cornerless door, giving access to a blue interior. Different sofa's, a desk and a mini-bar are arranged in the e's rectangular floor-plan, wih a closed wet room in the corner.

Around it, a flight of metal stairs curls up and connects to the mezzanine. There, both the circular tub as well as the two electrically adjustable queen-size beds, are offered a view towards either a widescreen projection or a panoramic window. Tonight, the night-time IJ-riverscape and a James Bond film-collection are premiering together. The image of Sean Connery and Jill St. John, lying on a round perspex aquarium bed, does not seem inappropriate when projected in this suite's interior.

Curious to see the other letters' interiors? Visit archdaily.com/772780

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The Netherlands: Terschelling

WHERE IS THE SEA? Words & Images Forsea - Institute of Place Making

Ravaged by the sea and stung by jellyfish, the captain and crew of Foresea are back in Delft. Though the winds were rough, we returned in high spirits from Oerol 2016, the ten-day celebration of landscape and performance art on the island of Terschelling. In the vast expanse of this barrier island we built a temporary installation, to make the intangible subject of sea level rise visible for our visitors.

Our installation invited them to discover: where is the future level of the sea?

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For our project we drove 57 steel masts into the tidal range of the Wadden Sea. Their height reached six meters above the average sea level (NAP), giving our visitors a dramatic experience of the future sea level rise in the year 2200. A recent article in Nature (March 2016) explained how Antarctic ice is melting much faster than predicted. Consequently the sea level may rise as high as six meters by 2200, and even to eighteen meters by 2500.

Goal These lofty statistics can easily turn into throwaway sound-bites, disconnecting us as individuals from the issues at hand. Our architectonic installation visualized the problem in a more tangible form, while immersing the visitors in the potential future scenario. Our over-all aim was to bring more meaningful, lasting awareness to the subject.

Method Each mast held a deliberate extreme statement, designed to provoke discussion on the topic among the visitors. The statements concerned issues of responsibility, causes, and solutions.

Visitors were asked to rate how much they agreed or disagreed. Based on their answers, each visitor was given a piece of string to connect between two masts. The answer ‘fully agree’ would lead to the string being connected to the top, the answer ‘fully disagree’ to the middle of the mast. Thus our visitors created a reverse graph of the future sea level rise, based on their own behavior and opinions.

Meaning The harsh experience of being on the windy beach was the perfect backdrop for this alien experience. The structure also carved out an introspective place for discussions between us, the navigators of this new sea, and the visitors.

Overall an impressive 6000 people visited our project and contributed to our discussion. The sea of strings grew thicker each day, producing a large-scale interactive infographic. When

awareness and concern were low, the threads became a physical barrier for participants.

Placing your own thread low is easy, but it makes life harder for future visitors. Tackling sea level rise will require effort and new tools, represented by the effort it took to attach the threads to the top of the masts.

Conclusions We are now sorting through the data of the project. Intriguingly, conflicting answers are cropping up. The average Oerol visitor trusts that sea level rise can still be stopped. However, the majority also believes more climate refugees should be expected in the future. Does this mean people believe sea level rise can be stopped in the Netherlands, but not elsewhere? More research is needed to determine the answers to such conflicts.

It is not inevitable that the sea level will rise to six meters by 2200. It is a scenario that might happen if we carry on business as usual.

Through this project we staged a personal and spatial experience of this issue, connecting to our visitors and raising awareness among them.

The crew of Foresea consists out of architects, landscape architects, and urbanists: Frits van Loon and Michiel Pouderoijen (tutors), Jade Appleton, Jolien Boas, Leyang Chen, Filiz Coskun, Jean Pierre Droge, Nora Hartman, Sicco Jansen, Pien Kuijpers, Jaap Le, Annemette Scheltema, Lilian Tran, and Erika Wolters. www.iopm.nl

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Reactions or comments? Contact Het Grijze Ei: hetgrijzeei@gmail.com

The Netherlands

KARTENT Words Nadine van den Berg

Images KarTent

After countless weeks we survived another academic year. After living with permanent sleep deprivation and a coffee addiction, all we want to do is sleep, rest, relax... and have some fun. One way to broaden your horizon this summer is by exploring the possibilities of a cardboard tent.

A great way to have fun is by going to a festival close to home or faraway. You can let yourself loose in a place full of people, drinks, and music. And after such a great day you probably don’t want to go home (and honestly, you’ll probably be too tired (and drunk) to be able to do that). Instead of staying under a bridge, spending the night at the festival is probably a better idea.

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This is where the people from KarTent come into action. In a little over a year Jan Portheine, Wout Kommer and Bas Hacking made what started as Jan’s graduation project into a growing business. They acknowledged that many people left their tents after a festival ended, so they designed the KarTent: a tent made of carton, which is water-resistant and recycable.

If visiting a festival is what you were planning to do anyway this summer, it might be a cool experience to do something a little different, like sleeping in a KarTent. You won’t be limited to this little country, since you can get a KarTent at festivals in several other European countries, too! kartent.com

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Nederland: Almere

DRIJFVEER Tekst Lotte Dijkstra

Beeld Drijfveer

Iedere tien jaar wordt de wereldtuinbouwtentoonstelling georganiseerd op een andere locatie in Nederland: de Floriade. In 2022 zal deze plaatsvinden in Almere. In aanloop naar het evenement komen de eerste projecten al van de grond. Passend bij het motto ‘Go Greener’ is daar bijvoorbeeld het drijvende vergaderpaviljoen Drijfveer, ontworpen door Bouwkunde-alumnus Koen Kaljee en Noëlle Dorenbos. Wat is er zo bijzonder aan dit gebouw?

De Drijfveer is een flexibele vergaderlocatie, maar dan net even anders. Het gebouw drijft en is gebouwd op een tweedehands woonbootonderstel. De constructie bestaat uit lokaal gewonnen populierenhout, kromme acaciahouten dakbalken uit de Flevopolder, platen van agrarisch restmateriaal, en isolatie van hennep en wol. Tegelijkertijd is het drijvende gebouw voorzien van alle vergaderbehoeften: WIFI, tv-schermen, biologische catering, gratis parkeren en een centrale ligging in Nederland. Je boekt de ruimte online.

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Zo laat dit project zien hoe je op verschillende vlakken duurzaam kan ontwerpen: ook de locatie en het gebruik passen binnen het duurzame ontwerp. De ontwerpers laten daarmee zien dat je met passie en goede ideeën je projecten ook echt van de grond krijgt. Daarmee is het project een bron van inspiratie voor architecten in spe. drijfveer.net floriade.almere.nl

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Artifact

DE SCHADUWDOOS Door Dick van Gameren

Artefact, een prachtig maar weinig gebruikt woord. Bijzonder is dat het in verschillende disciplines compleet andere betekenissen kan hebben. Voor archeologen een door mensenhanden gemaakt voorwerp, voor fotografen een ongewenst bijverschijnsel, voor ons bouwkundigen simpelweg een andere aanduiding voor een bouwwerk. Wat ons onderwijs op de faculteit Bouwkunde van ander onderwijs onderscheidt is dat het centraal staande artefact, het gebouw, niet aanwezig is.

We kijken in de collegezaal gebiologeerd naar slechts beelden en modellen, als permanent bewijs van de juistheid van Plato’s vergelijking van de grot. We zien slechts schimmen, het gebouw zelf blijft verborgen. Hoe realistischer onze beelden, gemaakt met dagenlang rekenende computers, hoe meer het gemis van het artefact zelf voelbaar wordt.

In plaats van deze onmogelijke drang naar een perfecte imitatie van de werkelijkheid, zouden we meer moeten vertrouwen op verbeeldingskracht. Deze verbeelding kan opgeroepen worden door een andere soort artefacten, door objecten die we zelf op onze faculteit kunnen maken, kunnen bekijken en kunnen aanraken.

Ik ken geen artefacten die zozeer de verbeelding stimuleren als de shadow boxes van Joseph Cornell. In een klein kistje maakte hij collages van knipsels, kaarten, kleine objecten, alles zorgvuldig geselecteerd uit een enorm bij elkaar gespaard archief. Cornell wist met zijn schaduwdozen de beperkingen van ons bestaan in Plato’s grot op fantastische wijze naar zijn hand te zetten, en een onbegrensd universum te verbeelden waarin we het ‘echte’ object niet meer missen.

Voor de volgende Artifact wil ik Mick Morsink, medewerker Berlage, voordragen. < Joseph Cornell: A parrot for Juan Gris, 451x310x117 mm.

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USA: Detroit

THE MOTOWN MOVEMENT Words Nadine van den Berg

Image The Motown Movement

What will you do after you finish your Bachelor? Go straight to your Master, take a year off, or, perhaps, do your own thing? The latter appealed to three students of our faculty: Ronen Dan, Bob Hendrikx, and Dominik Lukkes. These three architecture students chased their dreams all the way to Detroit. Bnieuws spoke with them to see what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re up to.

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Ronen, Bob and Dominik decided to start their project in Detroit, a metropolitan city thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still recovering from a heavy setback, but is slowly putting itself back together and recovering its lost glory. A lot of space is available which could be used to rebuild this city. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also great potential in implementing modern but down to earth technologies that can be used by the local people.

Together with the locals they want to connect research, education, and the community in this project. By developing methods for transforming a traditional American suburban house into a self-sufficient home, sustainable housing will be accessible to everyone.

By renovating a 1924 house into a self-sufficient home on the second floor, with a place where the community can learn about sustainable methods on the first floor, these students took the opportunity to put what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve learned into practice.

By sharing their housing project they want to turn their initiative into their own movement, the Motown Movement. themotownmovement.com

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Peru: Tacna & Lima

CREATING WATER Words Lotte Dijkstra

Images Creating Water Foundation

Good buildings are useless without access to basic needs, like water. The Creating Water Foundation is aware of this problem and tackles it in Peru.

So-called ‘mist nets’ harvest water from the air. The collected water provides drinking water, water for cleaning and washing, and water for irrigation for small agricultural plots. Who is behind this innitiative and what is the next step?

The foundation was created in 2013, slowly expanding, testing the mist nets, and their agricultural functions. Now the foundation consists out of a Board of Directors, with BK-alumnus Guido Martin as its secretary, a solid body of volunteers, and a Supervisory Board, with, among others, BK-graduate student Dinçer Erçel. The foundation functions as an open platform: new ideas and initiatives are always welcome.

The Tacna Project The first project started in the driest desert on Earth: the Atacama desert in Peru.

Drinking water used to be delivered by truck, which is a large expense for the already poor population. The rapid nocturnal cooling down of the desert results in mist from the Great Ocean, allowing the possibility to harvest water from the air with the mist nets. The nets were installed with the help of the local people, who now maintain the project themselves. Organic agriculture was introduced: irrigation, improvement of the soil quality, and the choice for crops with a high chance of succesfull planting (see the images on the opposite page).

The Lima Project The effectiveness of the method has clearly been proven with the Tacna Project. The nets work, local people have access to clean, free water, the agricultural plots produce food and fruits. The next step is to introduce the same method in the slums of capital city Lima. It is an ambitious next step: the promise is to create clean, accessible, affordable drinking water and irrigation for agricultural plots for ten thousand poor families. With an expanded programme the Creating Water Foundation hopes to inspire others to take on the concept of mist nets and introduce them in other places, too. It is quite a promise to want to inspire people to improve their own lives.

Nevertheless, a promise worth making! creatingwater.nl

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Kenya: Naivasha

UN-HABITAT WINNERS Words Kseniya Otmakhova

Images Wahyu Pratomo

Alkmini Papaioannou, Lilla Szilagyi , Nikita Baliga, Wahyu Pratomo Hariyono and Wenchi Yang Urbanism students at our Faculty, won the UN-Habitat design competition for the town Naivasha. Better even, they travelled to the organisation’s headquarter Nairobi, Kenya to present their work together with the finalists from all over the world.

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The students explain: “It all started in January when we committed to join an urban design competition side by side with our own graduation projects. In between personal deadlines, sacrificed weekends and evenings, and several ups and downs, we came up with our urban design proposal: 'Rise. Raise. Rose : Diversifying Naivasha Local Economy Through Circularity'. From 700 participants, we got selected as The Best Proposal for Naivasha city and got invited to Nairobi, Kenya. It has been a great opportunity to be here and meet all the academicians, UN authorities, students and Kenyan goverment.”

Taking the local flower industry as starting point, their proposal Rise. Raise. Rose. illustrates a strategy that considers the Kenyan town’s economic development, environmental potentials as well as the locals’ social needs.

A video compilation of the trip can be found here: youtube.com/watch?v=41ObDHgl_0I

Speak

SUMMER ATTITUDE Words Pim Pelt

Last year during the summer holidays I went backpacking for the first time.

Bolivia and Peru were my destination. Besides visiting Machu Picchu I had no clear goal in mind. Therefore I decided to do some volunteering. Aside from my flights and the voluntary work I had no ties to anything whatsoever. The freedom within this framework allowed me to use the possibilities I found on my pathway, and exactly this provided me with a nice experience. The experience is sparked ideas about my own living situation, and how to achieve a more sustainable way of living.

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The trip turned out to be great. Traveling with just a few necessities gave me a certain degree of freedom I was not accustomed to in the Netherlands. Meeting new people with the same non-tied mindset gave me a certain degree of connectedness which I rarely experience in the Netherlands. Object driven life-goals and things like appointments and set curricula often prevent such a connectedness.

New Attitude When I returned home, my experiences abroad resulted in a certain degree of friction. Examples are the making of arrangements within a 09.00 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 17.00 setting (and being less enthusiastic for appointments after 17.00) or the strict time-table of the Dutch railway system (and getting annoyed when it was not as strict as claimed). This friction was solely caused by my new-found laissez-faire attitude. At least the first two months of the new academic year were less productive than I had planned them to be. I started to question the way of life in Delft, especially compared to the boundless way of life while travelling during the summer. Being boundless has a lot of advantages.

It gives the possibility to create more sustainable living conditions. Please let me shortly elaborate on this.

Attitude Issues The source of incentives in the Western world is our current system: capitalism. This system came with a lot of benefits over the past hundred years. Now we have arrived at a point where some â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;forgottenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; aspects become clear. While individualism is often the guideline, conjoint revenues seem to have more positive effects. Expatriation with problems related to migration and integration are common use.

Internationalisation has led to communal (international) trade, but did not lead to communal responsibility for trade effects. The balance between people, planet, and profit is under threat. The market points its finger at science, proclaiming data are false or incomplete. Scientists are fed up with governments for lacking attention. Governments push criticism away to the market, saying the market does not take its responsibility. Common people say they do not have any power at all. Everybody passes the buck in order to not get blamed for mistakes, now, in the past, and in the future.

Changing the Attitude I think a solution can be found when the entire system works together uncompromised. A covenant should be created, where all parties work together,

committed to provide solutions with an equivalent shared cost-profit rate within a cooperative international community. If a lot of contemporary currents come to positive heights, I think it is possible to tackle the problems of the 21st century.

But what can we do in our daily lives to reach this uncompromised global partnership?

The Local Solution Rem Koolhaas said, in an interview for the Architecture Biennale 2016, there should be an intelligent basis and understanding of the context in which you opereate. The tendency for interventions not unique for those places will come to a hold. I translate this as ‘The Local Solution’. Being responsible, or being aware, of the consequences caused by my daily routine on a global level gives me the incentive to deal with those consequences. This summer I will go backpacking again, this time in Greece, Turkey, and Romania. This means I will use the system optimally. I will eat and drink locally, I will sleep locally, I will spend money and pay tourist taxes locally. I will share my accommodation, I will travel by public transport, and I will have respect for the local culture and people. Although I do not earn money locally, and my flight will be polluting, I think this is somehow similar to, as Koolhaas said, respecting the local context.

possessions are in my backpack. From what I carry with me, I only really need my ability to proof my identity with the help of my passport. It is liberating in a way. It is like a period of fasting, and only then will you notice the abundance of food, drinks, and possessions available to you. Back home I will switch back to my life of obtaining possessions (a new iPhone!), wanting more luxury (can I have a vanilla soy-cream latte with whipped cream?), and the rest of those things that are attached to living in our Western system.

I will enjoy my holiday, having the freedom and boundlessness, and the feeling of locality. I will also enjoy coming back home, where all the comfortable pleasures manifest itself. Living a nomadic life will not fulfil my requirements of live, nor will living with all those luxuries and possessions provide solutions for global problems. The question remains: how can we integrate these two systems and ways of living? I will start by switching to a local way of living during the upcoming holiday, but keeping in mind that just going away does not solve the problems left back at home. I look forward to exploring this pathway towards a sustainable way of living.

Pim Pelt will start his MSc3 Public Building in September.

For reactions or comments, contact the editorial board: bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

Remaining Issues and Questions This is, however, a nomadic existence. All of my

NEXT YEAR: VOLUME 50

GOLD! That is the official status of Bnieuws as of issue 01, volume 50, 2016 - 2017. From a weekly magazine with exam schedules to an independent monthly periodical.

We’ll celebrate together next year!

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Bnieuws VOLUME 49 ISSUE 10