Digest

COLOFON

Bnieuws Volume 56 Issue 02 November 2022

Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

Editorial Team

Jonas Althuis Oliwia Jackowska Tuyen Le Saartje Nibbering Zuza Sliwinska Emilie Stecher

Contributors

Federico Ruiz Nathan Kramer Job Schroën Anouk Fontaine Jonathan Kaye María Novas Alessandro Rognoni Cover Editorial Team Printed by Druk. Tan Heck

© All rights reserved. Although all content is treated with great care, errors may occur.

Bnieuws.nl

CONTENTS

Federico Ruiz

Chicken is Truth 04 Dd

Nathan Kramer

Tuyen Le

Oliwia Jackowska

The Impact of Juicy, Crispy Fried Chicken on Architecture and the Built Environment 06 Ww Live, Laugh, Labor 08 Www Shit It Out for A Diploma 11 Ww

Emilie Stecher

When Neutrality Speaks 14 Ww Bouwpub in the Year 2030 16 Ww

Zuza Sliwinska

Zuza Sliwinska & Job Schroën

What Do You Care About? 18 Ww

Anouk Fontaine Jonathan Kaye

By Product, Reversibility, Tangible And Intangible Longevity 20 Wwwww

Editorial Team

Jonas Althuis

Boop It 24 Ww Cover Collage 27 Ww 108 Questions 28 Ww

María Novas

What are You Reading Right Now? Hunting Witches, Devaluing Housework 31 W Bkino - Do The Right Thing 32

Poster by Alessandro Rognoni

DIGEST

We digest bad news, to get over something and try to find our way around it. But we also digest information and knowledge. Especially in our academic environment we are being fed with new inputs on an almost hourly basis. Taking time to let the abundance of thoughts sink in and reflect is the basis of creating a new understanding of a certain subject and being able to formulate our own thoughts on it.

Illustrating the process of digesting, the cover captures the different stages of it. While the act of eating is sometimes gross, even grotesque, we feel satisfied afterwards. And while our stomach is doing its work, we are looking forward to excretion, finally letting go of our burdens. Why chicken? You will find the theme popping up more often within our issue.

In the first article Federico is taking us to the best chicken place in Bogotá, which can only be found by tasting its exceptionality (page 4). From there we go further North, into the United States, and together with Nathan we discover the history of KFC’s and what role architecture plays in their restaurants (page 6). From fast food we turn to fast fashion (ultra!) and the edition takes up speed as Tuyen dives with us into the incredible phenomena of Shein, the new and all records busting fashion brand. Have you ever wondered what their secret is… (page 8) But not only Shein shits out new designs every day – we do too! In her last article as an editor of Bnieuws Oliwia is painting a humorous yet very serious picture of our Faculty (page 11). While our editor Emilie is coming to terms with the history of Austrian neutrality she is inviting us to take a position and speak up if we disagree (page 14). So let's scream it out loud: what the f*uck is happening to bouwpub?

At times it may seem as if everything is a bit hard to swallow but when we look a bit deeper we can see beautiful projects emerging. Did you hear about the CARE workshop? If Shigeru Ban took all your attention that day, treat yourself with some thoughts about it (page 18). And what to do with old buildings? Anouk is inspiring us to rethink the structures that are already there and are only waiting to be reimagined by us (page 20) Jonathan is exploring different ways on how we could critique architecture, so that we may find out what good architecture really is (page 24). We end this issue with another of our dear editors leaving the team. Jonas is reflecting on his time at Bnieuws with 108 questions, one for every week he worked with us (page 28).

We hope you all enjoy this new issue of Bnieuws and it will give you a break from shitting out your projects by feeding you with some new thoughts to digest.

TO VISIT / IFFR 2023

International Film Festival Rotterdam 25th January until 5th February, 2023

The IFFR is back with it's 52nd edition! With this edition, IFFR looks at the work of inspiring filmmakers and creatives "whose remarkable careers haven't always been given the attention they deserve." The first few of these that have been announced include Hungarian filmmaker Judit Elek, Japanese animator Yuasa Masaaki, and American interdisciplinary artist Stanya Kahn.

For more info: iffr.com

TO READ / WAYS OF CURATING

by Hans Ulrich Obrist

Ways of Curating is a collection of insights from working in the art world, exploring the greatest exhibitions throughout history. The author andSwiss art curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, who has staged more than 250 shows across the world, is currently director at the Serpentine Galleries in London.

TO WATCH / HOLY SPIDER

Directed by Ali Abbasi

Based on a true story, Holy Spider follows a journalist that's trying to track down a serial killer targeting sex workers in the Iranian city of Mashhad. In the context of recent events, Holy Spider doesn't shy away from casting an unadorned and condemning look at patriarchal Iranian society in a powerful and gruesome way.

Premiered in Dutch cinemas on 10 November, 2022

TO LISTEN / RADIOLAB

Episode: Guts, 4 November 2022

Ever been curious about your guts? About where the food and drinks you consume go and what your body does with it? About the trillions of microscopic creatures inside you? This is the Radiolab episode for you! New York based podcast Radiolab covers everything from science, to history, to the personal stories of interesting people all across the world, doing so with exceptional investigative journalism and innovative sound design.

Available on all major podcast platforms

TO DO / VERMEER IN THE RIJKSMUSEUM

10th February 2023 until 4th June 2023

In the spring of 2023 you can get to know 17th century painter Johannes Vermeer in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Vermeer, who was born in and lived in Delft, is known for his intimate portrayals of every-day activities. While his work didn't come to be valued until the 19th century, it's nowadays praised for its masterly control of light and shadow. "Never have so many paintings by Johannes Vermeer been shown together."

More info: rijksmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/ exhibitions/vermeer

Don't forget to check out our WEBSITE bnieuws.nl You'll find all the old issues in the archive, for hours of reading pleasure! Follow us on INSTAGRAM for updates @bnieuws

CHICKEN IS TRUTH

Words and Images Federico Ruiz

The following is a true recount of an accidental romance between architecture and food.

There’s a corner of the Las cruces neighbourhood in Bogotá where a roasted chicken restaurant has been for longer than anyone can remember. Its fame is such that many unauthorised “copies” of it have surged across the city, making it necessary for the owners to write the following haiku-like warning in several parts of the façade:

“We inform our clients that we don’t have any branches; Don’t let yourself be fooled; We are the only point of sale in the country; Do not eat stories, Eat chicken”

Although the use of a façade to publicly condemn competitors is a matter worthy of a whole article in itself, it is not my goal here to go that way. Instead, I bring this up to emphasize the last sentence, which I translated as: “Do not eat stories, Eat chicken” (No coma cuento, coma pollo).

In this sentence, the term “comer cuento”, commonly used to denote a situation in which someone is being fooled, is used as an antonym of “chicken”, which therefore stands as the epitome of truth.

Perplexed by the analytical depth of such an innocent-looking text, I asked myself the other day: If within the walls of this restaurant chicken is truth, what is the digestible analogy of deception?

Well, to unravel this mystery, it should be first said that the restaurant’s fame is not so much derived from some unique flavour, but for the monstrous rations it serves. In fact, chickens are more like prehistoric behemoths, and side dishes are so big that a whole family can eat from one. Besides, there is an equally shameless attitude towards the look of plates, which are all brutally honest in their excess. For instance, the plate of rice and fries, the star of the side dishes, is served as a mountain-looking mass on top of a plate, a geological formation of carbohydrates and fats.

For some time, I assumed that this layout was just a practical result of needing to fit too much substance into too little space. But the other day I remembered a detail of the restaurant's premises that changed my perception on this matter: on one of the walls, there was a poster

with a print of one of Pieter Brueghel’s pictures of the Tower of Babel. The similarity to the plate of rice and fries was so striking, that the only possible logical conclusions were that 1) The dish’s form was an imitation of Brueghel’s Tower, thus becoming a food analogy of the Biblical megastructure; 2) The person who put that picture on the wall was the same that wrote the warning of the façade. By a

Federico Ruiz, a beloved former editor of Bnieuws, finished his Masters degree in Urbanism from the faculty in 2021, and is now residing in Bogotá.

transitive relation, rice and fries suddenly became an edible cautionary tale for all those who, blinded by the illusion of equalling God, will only find confusion and deceit.

So there, mediated by Biblical architecture, was my answer: if roasted chicken is truth, rice and fries can only be falsehood.

Pen Pal

THE IMPACT OF JUICY, CRISPY FRIED CHICKEN ON ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Words Nathan Kramer

September 9th, 1890; on what is now the exit to Henryville, Indiana from Interstate Highway 65, a man was born by the name of Harland David Sanders. The oldest of three, he became the head of the family at age five when his father passed away. His stepfather was an absolute nightmare of a person, so he dropped out of school at age twelve, roaming around the country and eventually began working. His adventures in entrepreneuring have mostly been unfortunate, to say the least. He got kicked out of his law practice after insulting a client, had a relatively successful boating company until he found out he didn’t like the business at all. He sold tires, lamps, life insurance, but couldn’t settle.

Yet, throughout all that, he had found one grand passion: cooking. In 1930, he set up a truck stop restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky and called it “Sanders Court and Café”, selling grilled hams, biscuits, gravy and fried chicken. His cooking was surprisingly inventive, eccentric at points: preparing coffee with raw eggs and pork chops with apples. He wasn’t messing around.

The Court and Café was a financial success for Sanders, but he was still plagued by the troubles that seemed to pop up at every stage in his working life. In November 1930, the Corbin location burned down, prompting Sanders to move to nearby Asheville. Five years later, he stopped a murder at a nearby truckstop, for which he was promoted to Kentucky Colonel for his brave acts. Yes, Harland would from now on go through life as ‘Colonel Sanders’.

The restaurant would continue to flourish and Sanders decided to branch out. In 1952, he opened his first ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’ restaurant in Utah, after the success of his first restaurant. Two venture capitalists bought out the company in 1964, turning it into an international powerhouse of fried food. And Sanders? He wasn't having it. Often, the Colonel would come down to an unsuspecting KFC franchise and lecture the fry cooks about how their cooking was an absolute disgrace. “The gravy tastes like wallpaper!” Sanders would often remark, before doubling down on his skirmish with the staff.

The Technocrats

With the restaurant’s new formula, the architecture of KFC began to shift as well. Today, walk into any KFC in any country, and you will be greeted by the same three photos of the colonel, a square with evenly spaced automated ordering machines, and an interior redder than the slaughterhouse the chickens came through.

This formulaic way of architecture has its roots in the technocratic way of designing embedded in the modernist style. Architecture was no longer to be an art form, but a science, focussed on an absolutely precisely measurable results; the most ‘scientifically rational’ way of designing was to be universal, a standard form which should be implemented everywhere, regardless of the identity of a place, let alone that of its users.

Closing notes

Even after the heyday of full-on modernist architecture, standardization still remains in some parts of the profession. Of course, the academic circles of the 1980s saw the development of critical regionalism and similar, user-centered approaches. Developers however, mostly saw mid-century modern and 5-over-1s as a way to generate short-term value, a junk food approach to the art of building. Through the bowels and out through the butthole of architecture, to not be looked at, used for, or lived in.

It’s time to put this idea to rest and focus on creating places that are not just pleasant to live, work, or reside in any which way. In order to develop a truly lasting place, one must consider the many different voices and preferences that are present during the building process. Only then will we be able to build something with wallpapers that don’t taste like gravy.

Nathan is pursuing a Master in the MBE track at the Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism and the Built Environment. He is still trying to become a vegetarian and has read the autobiography of Colonel Sanders twice.

Sanders, Harland. The Autobiography of the Original Celebrity Chef. Louisville, Kentucky: KFC Corporation, (originally written in 1966; 2012).

[editors note] Promotion at the expense of ... Nathan's article was written prior to the allegations levelled against KFC for their insensitivity to Kristallnacht. The fast-food chain received numerous criticisms after sending an app notice stating: "It's memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!"

Aside from the junk food approach to design, there are now additional reasons to question KFC's cultural and historical insensitivity. KFC Germany blamed the incident on automated bots, saying the notification was an “unplanned, insensitive and unacceptable message and for this we sincerely apologize.”

Eddy, Melissa. ‘’KFC Apologizes for Linking Chicken Promotion to Kristallnacht.’’ The New York Times (November 11, 2022)

From the editors

LIVE, LAUGH, LABOR

Words and Images Tuyen Le

The buying market now treats clothing just like single use plastic, you wear it once for a special event, then it retreats to the back of your closet, never to see daylight again. The new normal of the textile industry has become so disposable, that the idea of owning clothes in large quantities weighs into a person’s public value. The pandemic has altered the way we shop forever, we browse more online, and physical businesses are filing for bankruptcy. Welcome to the age of online shopping, where retail therapy is what everyone is gobbling up, and no one is able to stop…

Imagine you are at a conveyor belt restaurant, and in front of you is an endless train of food filled with delicious/eye-catching dishes. The urgency to make your plate tower higher and higher is undeniable, so you give in and grab those nice sushi rolls from the belt. Applying the same concept, the societal pressure of fitting into your surroundings and chasing the trends makes consumerism the endless conveyor belt of temptation, powered by microplastics and petroleum, operated by large oversea corporations, and run by overworked/underpaid sweatshop workers.

No matter which generation you are part of (Gen Z, Gen X, Millennial, etc.), you now have the ability to purchase things online. With that said, we see a repeated pattern of over-consumerism and the relentless culture of spending, but instead of physical stores, we now find ourselves on TikTok and Youtube. Amid this new era, a "star" was born, and its name is SHEIN (pronounced she-in), the ultra-fast fashion company. Even though the headquarters in China keep their identity entirely private, their marketing scheme has the whole buying generation in their hands. Have you ever come across an unpacking haul? If yes, then the algorithm has found you and is working hard to feed you inviting contents 1. And within the next 24 hours, your virtual shopping bag would be engorged with sales items, pushing their way into your life. Online retailers rely on patterns of

personalization, optimism and recommendation engine to curate a unique algorithm per potential customer. With a new way of diverging their money from physical stores and staffing them, companies like Shein can invest more in predicting and targeting people via sponsored ads and haul video recommendations. A mixture of Tiktok and fashion is the ultimate recipe for overconsumption and fuel the hell hole that is… capitalism. According to UK Channel 4's documentary, The Shein Machine, the founder of Shein was not a fashion designer at all. He is a tech mogul who saw the future of consumption through his expertise in the comfort of one's home and through a screen 2. With no physical locations, Shein is technically everywhere and accessible to anyone with a working smart device. Moreover, ultra-fast fashion thrives on real-time retail, where all items are posted on Shein only hours after it has gone viral through Tiktok. Within this decade, clothes and food became more and more similar, where supplies are endless, cheap, and ultra-fast. The epitome of ultra-fast fashion coincides with micro trends 3 This term gives away the unsustainable outcome of what this means. Within the scope of microtrend, the clothes you buy are no longer fashionable; they are part of the public pressure based on the fear of missing out (FOMO).

Around 2021, Shein hauls became viral on all platforms, marking the brand's position above all the "traditional" fast fashion brands like H&M and Zara. These videos are sponsored by Shein, hoping their chosen army of influencers can bring in more sales from the initial 300 EUR haul video they invested in. The content creators now become the modern-day sales staff, and compared to the 1930s when salesmen needed to go door-to-door to pitch the product, the Internet reversed the equation and had the buyers coming towards the salesman instead. With their addictive algorithm, Internet retailers target our human imperfections as a marketing tool. They are also experts in orchestrating artificial joys of overconsumption, with owning the most outfit as the key to happiness and spending. On TikTok, Youtube, and Instagram, influencers sell their personality, consumers pay for the look, and in the end, the environment suffers.

Shein reverse-engineers how fast fashion operates by not making their products but waiting for orders to come in before making them. Initially, this tactic might sound effective and produce less waste, however, accounting for the cost of being ultra-fast, the person paying is not us (the consumers) but the workers making these items. There have been various reports on Shein for their unregulated and uncontracted relationship with garment factories in China, with each employee working 75 hours weekly.

Moreover, they are paid per item of clothing they manage to make, thus, the actual cost that makes up for each item is fatigue, chemical exposure, and unbearable working conditions. Secrecy amongst the operation chain runs against the wellness of workers and profits off buyers, which ultimately runs in favor of the CEOs. The labor force of underpaid workers is the ones who spend the most for this industry, with their health, time, and life force. With that, we realize that in this chain, buyers consume clothes, and corporations consume their workers.

We encounter endless temptations the moment we wake up. The moving gears of capitalism feed the algorithms that work in our preference. As humans, our versatility helps us when we need to adapt and survive. Such an advantage turns us into malleable creatures deemed unpredictable by nature. However, at a certain point, e-commerce technology has taken over and decided which clothes we should wear to the movies we like and, ironically, who to hate and who to love. Microtrends subsidize the demands of ultra-fast retailers. As a result, our joyride expenditures are no longer controlled by us, but rather, they are controlled by the capitalistic venturing algorithm. There are no other ways to escape this "paradise" of consumerism, however, there is a way to co-exist. Your purchasing power is a significant deciding factor in ultra-fast fashion. In association with conscious consumerism, we might one day be able to sustain a life of more long-lasting items over short-lived ones. By creating your own identity, you automatically have an iron-clad immunity against the algorithmic prey of short-lived consumerism.

1. Unpacking hauls are part of a trend where people unbox and review a large amount of “stuff”. It is a wasteful trend with most items not fitting well into the person’s lifestyles, so they meet the unfortunate fate of the store-to-landfill cycle.

2. Channel 4, Inside the Shein Machine, 2022.

3. Mina Le, tiktok is kind of bad for fashion, 2021.

From the editors

SHIT IT OUT FOR A DIPLOMA

Words & Images Oliwia Jackowska

Last year has seen a record number of graduating students postponing the finish their of master degree's diploma at TU Delft Faculty of Architecture & the Built Environment. Each of us knows a few people who decided to take some extra time for a reason, or it may even be something that affects you personally.

We are indoctrinated to believe that the graduation project is one of three things: (a) our important moment that defines solely our own responsibility. The extension of studies, to no surprise, comes with the increased expenses of tuition fees, financial insecurity forcing students to pursue more intense part-time (or at times full-time!) work to support the rest of their studies, as well as prolonged exposure to academic stress, which is often the reason for the extension in the first place. So what, it is our

All of that is total nonsense. The lucky or “the most hard-working” graduates who receive highest honours work for an average of 2,700 euros a month or hang around jobless, while a socio-economic crisis is around the corner. Others, unprepared for the post-academic life, extend their time at the university, and try to find the of their graduation projects. This situation, of course, does not apply to every single student at the faculty, but with an all-time high of 1,549 students at the Bouwkunde Master’s programs, a big fraction of that population is chasing something they are, most likely, not able to achieve. And it is not their fault.

Architectural education is toxic, and hopefully by now we are all aware of the devil –glorification of late-night working, unattainable desire to please

November 2022 and the issue is becoming more serious. Exhausted from the changing lifestyles post-pandemic, often depressed, and overridden with new amounts of anxiety over global crises, students and staff struggle with the new challenges. The professors of some architectural studios, feeling that the pandemic lowered the quality of students’ efforts, put extreme expectations on the projects. This often leads to half of the class failing at the key moments of P2 or P4, a quarter of the class finishing with high 9s and

10s, redefining the idea of “excellence” and leaving students with beautiful projects, but lack of motivation or energy to continue any kind of education ever again. The remaining quarter of students who do “ok”, are those who either stay true to themselves, take care of their health, or must pursue extra work for financial support. Sometimes they do try to reach the expectations set out for them, but physically they are not able to; however that seems to be truer for those who fail, drop out or extend.

The Architecture graduation studios are often strictly defined by the capitalistic criteria for what it means to be a designer. This entails being effective enough at designing, while so convincing that you can sell any shit you put out with beautiful drawings and flowing narratives. Is this really the future that we, the new generation of architects, imagine for ourselves? Speaking for myself – I definitely do not. To my knowledge, Urbanism studios, as well as the Explore Lab offer a personal approach and focus on research which helps to make the projects balanced towards design, social exploration or thought experiment depending on the desires of the author. Exactly the contrast between the openness of my mentors towards the free approach in my own Urbanism Track graduation, and the constant underlying stress telling me that I am not doing enough or not designing yet, sparked some thoughts on the whole process. The strict rules of the Examination Board have put us in a stronghold, making many of us need to SOMETHING to even pass.

But what happened with the not failing to resolve a project with a design an outcome equally as valuable as a success in terms of scientific exploration? Are we not obtaining a Master of Science degree? There is rarely a possibility to test an architectural project empirically, and hence for it to contribute to building collective knowledge

Our faculty is the second-best in the world. Hence the promise of a high level of education and excellent student outputs. However, even here, or maybe especially here, the ground under the feet of young architects entering their professional life is unstable, as this faculty becomes a lone island floating around in nothingness, a space full of uncertainty, crisis, and definitely high expectations – going both ways.

My hypothesis here is that this idea of probably taking away the scientific value of our education. The projects need to be finished, they need to fit a certain mould, and as long as they LOOK fine, they are are a number of projects coming out every year that are truly redefining the design practice in the most creative ways, but this is only possible for a handful of students.

In the same way, TU Delft accepting more and more students every year means that it is between three and four hundred new graduates into the labour market. These hundreds of mostly Architects, with a few Urbanists, Landscape Architects, Building Technicians, Managers and Data Scientists are looking for jobs between Delft, Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam, competing between each other and graduates from other universities across the country. Many are forced to pursue temporary jobs, taking it with a breath of relief – when preparing coffee or delivering food you do not have to think about the your actions, there is no expectation of you just need to complete a simple task that carries no emotional load. The emotional load that you program into all of your design work.

Maybe it is time to design your own graduation. Your own path. Not perfect, but your own. And maybe we can unlearn these unhealthy practices, set a new axis for the next generation of architectural education.

Oliwia is our leaving editor, who *hopefully* will be gone from this faculty by February.

From the editors

WHEN NEUTRALITY SPEAKS

Words Emilie Stecher

We all experience situations where we feel like we should interfere, ending up regretting our inaction. How long can one continue to be neutral in situations that are obviously not okay? When is the time to stop swallowing down and start to speak up?

November 10, 2022. It’s a beautiful morning. The sun warms my skin as I’m drinking my cup of green tea; the trees are wearing their colorful autumn dresses; and a light wind is letting the leaves shimmer. But as I’m writing this, I cannot keep myself from thinking about the same day eighty-four years ago. How did the people back then look into this new day? How did they feel that morning as the sun was shining on their faces?

The night before, from the 9th to the 10th of November 1938, marked a turning point in history. It was the Kristallnacht – Crystal Night – during which the Nazis in Austria and Germany killed hundreds of Jews and destroyed synagogues and Jewish businesses. This is also where the name comes from – the Night of Broken Glass. On the morning of this very day, the first deportations to the concentration camps started, where mass exterminations, killing of women, men and children, followed. It was the night when all of the discrimination of the previous years became actions, when the "work" done to "prepare" society, all of the propaganda so far, bringing about a shift in perception of the very nature of Jews, took over and "allowed" for the violence against them to happen in this way. Sometimes this night is also seen as the start of the Holocaust, as it smoothed the way for worse things to come.

I’m Austrian. I grew up with this history. In school, we were learning about the Second World War, what

felt like every year. And although we know about all the horrors — we went for visits to the concentration camps, to exhibitions, watched movies and documentaries about Sophie Scholl or Schindler's list, read Anne Frank, and many more — often I got the feeling that as Austrians we are hiding behind Germany, making it seem as if we did not have a choice. As if there was no way we could have prevented the Nazis from entering Austria and become their ally.

This results now, from my point of view, in an inadequate accounting of the past because the process of coming to terms with it is just not happening. Or not enough. Austrians like to be victims. We like to not make choices of our own. We like to not be responsible. We like neutrality. It is part of our culture and part of our mentality. Rather to not do something than to do something wrong. But sometimes doing nothing is the worst one can do.

The remembrance of this night makes me wonder when there is the correct moment to act against something that is not right. When is the right time to stand up and fight for what you believe in? To not accept. To say no. Always is the right moment. Every time is the right time and we can always interfere. We shall take a stance, and we must speak up. Only then can we change the way Iran is treating its citizens, China its minorities or how nature is being exploited.

Nobel Peace Prize holder and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesels' words. >

WHAT DO YOU CARE ABOUT?

Words Zuza Sliwinska & Job Schroën

A few weeks ago, Bouwkunde, under the guidance of our EXTREME coordinatorJob Schroën, hosted a workshop by the CARE Shelter team. CARE is a global NGO working with communities under the pressure of humanitarian crises; be it the war zone in Ukraine, the earthquake and cholera outbreak in Haiti, or the recent hunger crisis in Eastern Africa… a context most of us are not used to working with. They focus specifically on fighting poverty and inequalities that put women and girls in a vulnerable position when faced with an emergency.

It’s cool to study architecture from different places. You can often find out how people live by looking at the floorplans of a local building. You can even tell if the building is from a hot or cold climate if you look carefully. Likewise, it can be really insightful to understand the considerations an architect needs to make. What do they find most important in their designs? Is it affordability, circularity, comfort, safety, or something else? How do they make decisions about their design? This idea that you can learn from the considerations of others was the reason to organise the event.

- Job Schroën

The complexity of implications resulting from destruction spans across so many levels that the ability to grasp them and respond promptly becomes a challenge on its own. While a basic roof over the head comes first on the priority list, privacy and dignity - mental comfort - is equally crucial. In that sense, listening to the local community is key.

SMALL THINGS MATTER.

The workshop started with an informative presentation about the importance of context, and small things - ones that often skip the attention of an outsider but ultimately determine the impact of the project. CARE brought an example of how a dedicated number of blankets provided in the shelter can dictate the dynamic inside the refuge and can lead to, or prevent potential abuse among distressed families. It becomes especially relevant, when it comes to female survivors placed among male, who are either strangers but often family members under the trauma of the events. Another example looks at traditional dwellings in Haiti, where the community's belief in spirits visiting homes translates into architecture. Each house has two front doors, allowing the spirits to enter and

< Typical Haitian house with two doors. (architecture.3ive.com)

each with a task to

a

During the workshop, participants were divided into groups,

propose

humanitarian approach based on given context. We came up with solutions for Haiti, Sint Maarten, Ukraine, Jordan, and more! (Marcel Bilow)

leave the premises freely. These cultural nuances need to be incorporated to make for an adequate, hence usable shelter and facilitate rebuilding of community!

While starchitects largely occupy the stage of humanitarian action, let's not forget the humble heroes like CARE. In an era when architecture can be seen as a destructive force facilitating urbanisation and consequent emissions, humanitarian architecture comes as a restorative power used in a meaningful way, and a fulfilling path for an architect.

Check out CARE here: https://www.care-international.org/

This workshop has opened my eyes to the realm of Humanitarian Architecture. I found this session very informative and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Having the opportunity to listen and hear the presentation first-hand produced greater insight into the importance of these roles and pushed me to consider this type of career for my future. It would be great to implement deeper and more open discussion between CARE and the students in the future.

-

Jonas (student/worshop participant)

Penpal

BY PRODUCT, REVERSIBILITY, TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE LONGEVITY

Words & Images Anouk Fontaine

During the 1980s, idealistic modernists believed architecture would redeem the world and be the solution to various socio-economic issues. But in our contemporary era, architects and contractors are increasingly faced with the topics of reuse or reconversion of buildings, essentially because of the deindustrialization trend. When confronted with this abundance of vacant or desolated constructions, we usually either demolish or transform. But the industrial era may only be a parenthesis during which conflicts off-balanced practices and made the process of tabula rasa mainstream, as the increase in edifice transformations and reconversions picks back up on the practice common in the past centuries. In this age of the urban scene, what does it mean for a building to have longevity? To persevere through time? And in which aspects should it be long-lasting?

An important topic of discussion throughout the modern architectural epoch was the question of the form following the function. The term coined by Louis Sullivan has been embraced or refuted over the years, with modernist architecture being the etiology of shape-embodied designs and having opened a new realm of technical stylistic possibilities. Is a building supposed to be designed in its shape to fit the one purpose it was commanded for? Or should it be inherently more polyvalent and can then adapt to many other programmatic futures? But what determines the so-called polyvalence?

Today we witness recurring instances of building transformations - where one program is morphed into an existing structure. Sometimes, only the facade or a remnant will be kept to convey some sort of emotion, a semblance of rooting or a sense of monumentality. What it shows really is the incredible possibilities of transformations despite the architect’s initial intent; and that because of their adaptability and resourcefulness, the people, users or inhabitants are the ones that solidify the building’s reality and future. Hence, it seems that any form could follow any function? So how does this influence the design process, with reversibility and future polyvalence in mind?

The process in itself inherently implies some assumptions and firm choices based on current ongoing realities. But the slower pace of the construction timeline is in a constant catch-up race with shifting ideas and paradigms. Does this mean that the design can follow only one function to its full extent and we should then rely on future users to modify their practices? Or should we opt for an impartial design that supposedly fits any program?

Materials, maintenance, climate exposure, and mostly socio-economical location influence a building’s longevity. These factors generate attractiveness, or lack thereof, and thus make the construction admissible for use or reconversion, as shown by the interchangeability between offices and housing in Haussmannian buildings in Paris. The spatiotemporal context is the first determinant of an estate’s lifespan. But it does fluctuate over time, for instance, in the case of Detroit, being greatly swayed by the eco-political trends. After culminating with the Ford industries, it reached a low point, with the city drained of its population and many buildings left vacant and neglected. However, in recent years, some inhabitants started turning the vacant structures into urban farms, hoping to overturn the economic and ecological situation. Even though the building sector is, to this day, industrial, meant to generate more revenue and follows a trend of demolishing and brand new constructions, many emerging practices revolve around the reemployment of elements or buildings and advocate for a palimpsest approach. The ongoing war in Ukraine has amplified these practices. Global inflation has also impacted the rates of primary resources and materials, making it more expensive to erect brand-new structures.

Despite the primal grasp that socio-economical value has over a construction’s durability, people’s ingenuity, resourcefulness and creativity are powerful tools. When faced with constraints, they peak, fuelling our thinking processes and shifting our frameworks. We can then differentiate the symbolisms embodied in a building from its physical structure to modify the practice completely. Transformation implies changes that do depend on the extent of the gap between the former and the upcoming programs: this is how we now see churches turned into event centres or clubs, factories turned into houses (Riccardo Boffil’s La Factoria) or museums (Tate Modern), housing becoming offices, train tracks as art fairs or promenades, and so forth… It follows the precedent set up in our past practices when the transformation was common, especially if confronted with a state of urgency, we have been able to completely overturn our practices and vision of a space or place to orient it to a whole new use: in the past, the roman arena of Arles was turned into a fortified city.

Does reversibility span on a spectrum/graph, and is influenced by the design, from which the impact on reversibility is influenced and regulated by socio-economic attractiveness? We see many options on how to design for longevity. Is it through a very symbolic shape with goals to impact the surroundings? Is it for it to be demountable? It is hard to determine what could be in several decades, especially with the rapid pace of social and technological evolutions. As previously mentioned, longevity and reversibility are essential questions that have resurfaced at the forefront of the stage of the architecture and construction sphere as we face growing challenges regarding urban sprawls, density and resource management. Many offices and architects focus their work on such topics: RAAAF unfolded the issues of vacant housing with Vacant NL, and Alejandro Aravena used the waste from the previous exhibition for the display at the 2016 Venice Biennale.

With these topics arise other questions revolving around the sense of collective memory, restoration, transformation, and heritage management. It is a vast topic that won’t be expanded on here, but one interesting observation is how today we tend to reveal the many stratifications in one building, let the different ages clash. One important new factor that will challenge this sector is the possibility of numerical restoration. With this technology, we can simultaneously transform an existing building and its use, while restoring its former state and practices digitally. It can also be applied for ruins or demolished monuments and can then be displayed at exhibitions.

Sometimes, the buildings are, however, still vacant.

And they might be, or not, in a dense or populated landscape. They deteriorate. Even then, however, they can showcase a form of passive longevity. Their lives play out as backdrops for artistic productions, our eyes and our individual and collective memories. They embody and convey monumentality in their physical presence and stand as remnants or witnesses of other times, for instance, the many brutalist concrete constructions that are dispersed in the eastern European landscape. That is one of the lines of approach of RAAAF offices in Amsterdam, as they focus on showing and claiming the reversibility of spaces: the Deltawerk: the construction no longer in use, is now a monumental sculpture and acts as a remnant of the Dutch past in the landscape. When designing or envisioning a construction, some might seek a perpetual impact, both physical and intangible, while some might design and use the resources with the intent of having the construction erode and disappear, for example, the Marte Marte offices’ rammed earth alpine constructions are designed to be.

If consumed by the landfill, different scenarios apply. Nature takes over, and it regenerates in a new ecosystem, where fauna, flora and materials adapt in a new form of symbiosis — depending on the nature and materials of the building.

Or, now, one sees in the actual form the by-product. It is then demolished, some parts reimplemented, and the rest will be wasted. Increasing durable approaches will recycle and use those elements. It then lives on in separate forms and places, not as a building but as elements and materials, in a final form of regeneration.

A building’s longevity then seems to be a matter of perspective and parameters detached from the design process. A construction’s impact and durability are not just about the durability of its materials and physical structure but also about its symbolism, monumentality and the dynamic of its users. To prevent material waste or extensive consumption, many practices advocate for the interweaving and layering of usages, times, materials and techniques: for a non-linear life cycle for a building.

Collage caption: Constructions and landfills Anouk is a master of Architecture student currently living in Paris.

Andreas Hild and Barbara Brinkmann, On Seeking and Rediscovering. The Mechanics of Architectural Design. (Berlin: Gebrüder Mann Verlag, 2021).

Erick de Lyon, Ronald & Erik Rietveld, David Habets, RAAAF, “Deltawerk,” 2018.

Hämmerle, Maria. “Masellahütte.” MarteMarte, accessed January 18, 2022.

Izenour, Steven; Scott Brown, Denise; Venturi, Robert, Learning from Las Vegas, Boston: MIT Press, 1972.

Kubler, George. “The History of Things” in The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970.

Nicholas Stanley-Price, Mansfield Kirby Talley, and Alessandra Vaccaro. Historical and Philosophical Issues on the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 1996).

Ronald & Erik Rietveld, Jurgen Bey, Joost Grootens, Saskia van Stein and Barbara Visser, RAAAF, “Vacant NL,” Venice Biennale, 2010.

Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They‘re Built, (Bloomington: Viking Press, 1994).

BOOP IT

Words and Images Jonathan Kaye

Architecture can be gluttonous, healthy, sustainable, and wasteful. It is ripe with contradictions and everyone has something of merit to say about it. There are implications about how this abstruse system is criticised and which select voices are heard. What can be learned from the potluck of our perspectives?

Critics view the world in a particular way. Their singular approach is the applied aggregate of life experience, technical education, and curated preference. This lends critical evaluation a fluid identity as objectivity and subjectivity are combined in dynamic measure. In application, this means designers’ work is typically grounded in assessable quality and function with their opinion operating as a stylistic garnish.

If you are reading this issue, you likely believe yourself to be a critic. As a collection of loosely guided student observations, our audience undoubtedly includes people looking for insight, perspective from contemporaries, or something to distract from the void.

But whether you are a contributor to Bnieuws, a student of Faculteit Bouwkunde, a professional, or a chance reader, all are critics. And in a world where everyone’s opinion can be dressed in presentable attire, it becomes difficult to divine charlatans from connoisseurs.

Yet, every charlatan has convinced someone they know best and every connoisseur has made an enemy through pretension. So why is their distinction important? Could it be that these varietous differences in taste are compelling because of, rather than despite, their distinctive

character? Perhaps having any viewpoint at all is the most important component of criticism.

When it comes to architecture, criticism is evidence of this digestive process. After we have been fed some particular combination of heritage, physics, and artistry, we digest and discuss what we have experienced. The criticism this process produces might persist separately from or be codependent with the ideas it critiques, but it must reflect the complex reality that everyone has the requisite education to contribute meaningful commentary. In seeking to cut through the noise and channel their perspective, architects have a tendency to be declarative. No matter their level of experience, this responsibility is adopted in written texts and everyday conversations. This solemn engagement with the state of architectural discourse introduces pithy observations like:

“That building is good.”

“Yikes.”

“I’ve seen better first-year projects.”

Depending on the author, these statements are often notably better reasoned, yet their central interrogation remains the same: How do we know if a design is good?

In order to answer this question myself, I employ a personal method called the “boop” test. Much as a child might select the plushest stuffed animal from a store or an animal lover might boop an adorable canine on the nose to convey affection, I convey similar treatment toward inanimate architecture.

To practise this method, I first experience a building or urban space with my senses and, if it is proven to be navigable, logical, exceptional, and enduring, I boop it. This can be done mentally, but I prefer to stand at a reasonable distance, reach out with my hand, visually squish the object, and sequester it in my mind. While this method is technically the result of an architectural canon, institutional pedagogies, and personal perception, it is also simply a fun, accessible way to interact with architecture.

If you find this method too personal, quirky, or qualitative, that is okay! The important concept is simply to understand we each have our own ways of approaching architecture and determining its value. After all, the discipline is complex and to muster a truly adequate response, we must:

1. Read the Menu (evaluate individual “ingredients”)

From considering the materials utilised and the quality of the individual assemblies, to the carbon footprint of each component, this can be a data-centric analysis.

2. Prepare the Dish (evaluate the “recipe”) This includes quantitative and qualitative analysis as we consider the architectural team and its oeuvre, involved engineers and contractors, the style of the building, and the cohesion of the overall structure, form, and function.

3. Eat the Meal (evaluate “plating” and “flavour”) This analysis requires interpretation of the architecture’s relationship to its context, its position in physical and societal space, as well as internal and external connections to facilitate user satisfaction.

As a symbol, buildings are polysemic — a representation with the capacity to have multiple meanings.

A New Recipe.

They are simultaneously metonymic, literal, abridged, and comprehensive. When we experience this complexity, our mental digestion considers its quantity and quality, becoming a barometer for instinct. This means every evaluation may not be rigorous, as reasoned positions can be supplanted by this gut feeling.

While we prefer to feed our preferences and have been trained with the technical knowledge to operate with excellence, we have also each lived long enough to recognize not every building is memorable. Between the distinctively sweet and odorous lie the simpler mundanity which sustain societal progress. The potential for improvement is great, but to exploit it designers must be aware of the voices around us. The public we serve have valuable experiences which inform the functions and forms which matter to their daily lives. It is therefore our responsibility to gather and package these critical ideas alongside our expertise to prepare an appetising, sustainable future.

Jonathan is an architecture student at Iowa State University (ISU) and student affiliate of the AIA. He is also a contributor to Iowa State College of Design’s architectural publication Datum.

College Students with Backpacks. Cartoon. iStock. November 19, 2022.

Mayer, E. 2011. “Gut Feelings: The Emerging Biology of Gut–Brain Communication.” Nat Rev Neurosci 12 (August): 453–466.

Tom Bonner. Chiba Golf Course by Morphosis. Photograph. Tom Bonner Photography. November 19, 2022.

VideoPlasty. Professor Scolding a Student. Cartoon. Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY-SA 4.0. November 19, 2022.

An Abridged Visualisation of an Invisible Digestive Process

From the editors

108 QUESTIONS

Words Jonas Althuis

All (good) things must come to an end, just like my time at Bnieuws. Here are 108 questions, one for every week I've worked for the magazine. Pick one and ponder.

1. Hi, how are you?

2. What is architecture?

3. What is not architecture?

4. What is good architecture?

5. Who’s qualified to judge good from bad?

6. What is urban planning?

7. What is not urban planning?

8. How many architects does it take to change a light bulb?

9. Why do we learn what we learn?

10. How do you teach design?

11. What do we know?

12. What don’t we know?

13. How do we know we know what we know? 14. What are the shortcomings of our education?

15. What happens to those for whom our education system doesn’t work?

16. Why don’t we learn from working professionals related to our profession, such as construction workers, during our studies?

17. What made online learning so unpleasant?

18. What’s your favourite course?

19. What’s your least favourite course?

20. Do we spend more or less hours throughout our studies than the 8,400 hours equal to the 300 ECTS of a Bachelor and Master degree?

21. How much of what we learn will we have forgotten by the time we’re done?

22. How much coffee is consumed at our faculty in a day?

23. Which coffee is your go-to from the machines?

24. How many coffees did you drink today?

25. Too many?

26. How big could you make the biggest PDF (in file size)?

27. How big could you make the biggest PDF (in format)?

28. How many litres of beer has the Bouwpub sold since it first opened?

29. How much money will the faculty spend on heating this winter?

30. Why is the food in the cafeteria so expensive?

31. How many kilometres are collectively walked in our faculty in a day? 32. Where were you 108 weeks ago? 33. Where might you be 108 weeks from now? 34. Where are you now? 35. Why are you now? 36. When is the deadline? 37. Describe yourself in one word? 38. How’s your digestion? 39. What are you having for dinner tonight? 40. Are you hungry? 41. How did you end up here? 42. What inspires you? 43. When did you feel inspired recently? 44. What did you enjoy learning recently? 45. What’s the most important piece of knowledge you possess?

46. Why don’t we ever visit the second page of Google? 47. Is social media dying? 48. Why do architects learn Illustrator but illustrators don’t learn architectural programs? 49. Why has no one created a procedural engine for programs like Illustrator or Photoshop?

50. How does Adobe get away with making their software so expensive?

51. Has anyone tried those Affinity apps as Adobe replacement?

52. Are they any good?

53. Why are we fine with subscription-based models for software and other services?

54. Why do we still need to save documents manually?

55. Why do computers crash?

56. Why did my file corrupt?

57. Archicad, Revit or Vectorworks?

58. What will architectural software look like in the future?

59. How much longer will a mouse and keyboard remain the best way to operate a computer?

60. What is the least amount of time you can write a 3000-word paper with properly cited sources?

61. What is the most amount of time you can spend on a 300-word project summary?

62. Why don’t we do more excursions?

63. Why do we use projects we’ve never visited in real life as references for our designs?

64. Why is the Orange Hall tribune so uncomfortable to sit on?

65. What’s your favourite building?

66. What’s your favourite public space?

67. What’s your favourite urban intervention?

68. What make these your favourites?

69. How many buildings does the average person visit in a lifetime?

70. How many buildings does the average architect visit in a lifetime?

71. What are your strengths?

72. What are your weaknesses?

73. What are you working on improving?

74. How will you know you’ve improved?

75. What do you dream of doing?

76. Which place do you dream of visiting?

77. Where would you be if you weren’t studying or working at our faculty currently?

78. What’s your biggest regret in the context of studying or working at the faculty?

79. What would you do differently if you could do the past five years over again?

80. How many square kilometres of double-pane glass are there in Europe?

81. How many bricks are there in all of the buildings in The Netherlands?

82. How many cubic metres of concrete are poured in the world every second?

83. How many windows are broken in the world every minute?

84. In how many different countries is my cloud data located?

85. What’s your favourite Bnieuws edition?

86. What’s your favourite Bnieuws article?

87. How much of a Bnieuws edition does the average Bnieuws reader read?

88. What’s a good theme for a future edition of Bnieuws?

89. Have you read my other articles?

90. Did you know Bnieuws has a website (Bnieuws. nl)?

91. What is the importance of media and publishing in the architectural field?

92. What is the value of an independent studentled magazine at our faculty?

93. Where do you get your information?

94. What do you think the faculty is missing or could improve on?

95. Did you know that architecture used to be an Olympic sport?

96. Are you excited for winter?

97. Which of the chairs in the faculty’s chair collection is the most comfortable?

98. Are expensive chairs more comfortable?

99. Quantity or quality?

100. How do you get yourself out of a creative block?

101. What is the state of equality in our field?

102. What should the role of architects and planners be in society?

103. How often do you reflect on the state of your life?

104. What are you thankful for?

105. In which ways are you privileged?

106. What is the meaning of life?

107. Why did I think it would be easy to think of 108 interesting and relevant questions?

108. What did you think of these questions?

HUNTING WITCHES, DEVALUING HOUSEWORK

Words María Novas

My mum is a housewife. Ama de casa in Spanish, something that could be literally translated as the “mistress of the house”. Once, at school, when filling in a form in which I had to write my parents’ ‘professions’, I asked her what I should write. Without giving it much thought, she told me to write “sus labores”, meaning something like “dedicated to her labours” or “her duties”. That is, to housework.

I didn’t think much about that subtle moment when I went to university, or when I became an architect. Or even when I started to do research. One day, when I was working on my PhD, I learnt about the work of Silvia Federici. Intrigued, I read her book Caliban and the Witch.

“Women […] signifies not just a hidden history that needs to be made visible; but a particular form of exploitation and, therefore, a unique perspective from which to reconsider the history of capitalist relations.” (2004:13)

Federici blew my mind. Throughout history, women’s unpaid work has been one of the pillars of capital accumulation, she argues. This was possible by repressing women’s resistances, including through witch hunts.

Since I read Caliban and the Witch, that moment when I wrote “sus labores” keeps haunting me. My mum probably still thinks that her work is ‘unimportant’, incomparable to any remunerated labour. As many Spanish women from her generation, her labour rights will never be granted, acknowledged, or recognized. Yet, she did work. She worked full-time and did over-time too. And she still does, even if ‘retired’. She is part of the invisible workforce of (mainly) women in this world that continue to dedicate their lives to care work every day. Whether paid, unpaid or underpaid. Whether in private or public spaces. Every single day. Even in times of war. Dedicating their lives to keeping people alive.

María Novas works as a lecturer and researcher at the Chair History of Architecture and Urban Planning at TU Delft. She is currently finishing her PhD at Universidad de Sevilla, Spain.

Silvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. Autonomedia, 2004

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LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

The Bnieuws team is always curious to hear from our readers, so please let us know what you think! Send your thoughts, reactions or questions to our email: bnieuws-BK@tudelft.nl

BECOME A PEN PAL!

We are always searching for new voices to join and contribute to Bnieuws. Whether your talents are in writing, drawing, photography, graphic design, or you’re filled with a range of skills, we would love to hear from you if you have any ideas for the faculty periodical.

If you would like to be on our contributors list, simply send an email with your ideas to: bnieuws-BK@tudelft.nl or sign up on our website: bnieuws.nl/contact

NEXT ISSUE: LETTING GO

As a new year surprises us yet again, and deadlines start piling up, we find ourselves re-evaluating old habits in yearly tradition of flaw-searching. The small things which, if only we could let go off, would allow us to become the best possible version of ourselves. We set huge milestones which, this time for sure, will turn our life upside down - for the better! But at that time of self-imposed pressure, maybe we should stop letting go of our old habits, and instead let go of the judgment altogether? Take a deep, affirming breath and see what comes next on the pages of the January edition.

Bnieuws 56/03 due January 2023.

Bnieuws