B 55/01
Colofon Bnieuws Volume 55 Issue 01 October 2021 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl
CONTENTS 04
The Formal Basis of Post-modern Joke Design (of Design Jokes)
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Phallic Architecture
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Olympic Architects
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Perks of Dating an Architect
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Designer's Wardrobe
Cover Editorial Team
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The Marble Arch Joke
Printed by Druk. Tan Heck
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When did we get so Serious as Architects?
© All rights reserved. Although all content is treated with great care, errors may occur.
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Unsophisticated Sophistication
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Collective trauma: War and Humour in Cinema
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Artefact: The Bnieuws Archive
Editorial Team Inez Margaux Spaargaren Robert van Overveld Oliwia Jackowska Jonas Althuis Alessandro Rognoni Contributors Edgars Jane Berend
Bnieuws.nl
32 BKino
Editorial
HUMOUR Let's start this issue with Frank Lloyd Wright. Why Frank? Because he appeared to be an architect with two lives; one who he created and one he lived. But the truth is also that his appreciation of architecture was outshone only by his preference for himself. In a way that can be understandable, given he is one of the best-known architects in American history..! Nevertheless, you can find humour in the way he translated his thoughts in documentaries or books. So if you’re not very confident, as Frank Lloyd Wright about your design decisions, you can probably use some of Frank Lloyd Wright's "insightful" comments. Whatever comes your way, Frank might make it easier to deal with… When you are disgusted by something and don't want to say it directly… There is nothing more uncommon than common sense. - Frank Lloyd Wright. When you're talking with someone who doubts your architectural understanding... Why, I just shake buildings out of my sleeves. – Frank Lloyd Wright. When the only thing you have built was present for a second… Regard it as just a desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral. – F.L. Wright. When you are graduating from architecture… The retrospect of university years is mostly dull pain. – Frank Lloyd Wright I hope that Frank has set you in the mood for this issue. We tried to unveil the dark side but also the light side in HUMOUR. We will take you into the confidence of criticising, some international humour, stereotypes, war of humour and more. But very important even though architects seem to others very rigid and straightforward. We know that we have a lot of fun, right? Think about all those memes, quotes and specially made Instagram accounts dedicated to the failures of architecture. Not to forget, the days are becoming more and more 'normal'. We hope that HUMOUR gives that extra sparkle during a long day at the faculty. Share your reads with others and gather at the faculty now that you're able to again. Come out of your shell, even though it may feel a little uncomfortable. Try to find that humour in daily activities in the BK City, because we all know that most of your student life will take place here, so make the best of it! The year has just begun; for some, it's very new, for others familiar, but new faces for all. Good luck this year!
#Bnieuwd
To do / COMPETITION - WOMAN’S PAVILION 2021 Women are more visible today than ever. It's not a question anymore that they are constantly developing the economy and made a lot of progress in change all around the world. So it's time that we build a space for change! Participants are to design a Women’s Community Pavilion optimized for 75 users engaging multifunctional spaces for women of all age groups using Architecture as a medium of change. Registration Deadline: 15.12.2021, 11:59 PM Submission Deadline: 22.12.2021, 11:59 PM
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To do / The Architecture of Staged Realities Within the framework of The Architecture of a Wonderful World, the New Institute and curator Saskia van Stein have invited various designers, artists, scientists and other authors to reflect on the contemporary significance of Walt Disney's legacy, drawing on their own (embodied) knowledge or (lived) experience. 05.09.2021 – 27.03.2022 Opening hours: Tuesday — Sunday 10.00 — 17.00 Het Nieuwe Instituut, Museumpark 25, Rotterdam
To read / UNBUILT: RADICAL VISIONS OF A FUTURE THAT NEVER ARRIVED Unbuilt tells the stories of the plans, drawings and proposals that emerged during the 20th century in an unparalleled era of optimism in architecture. Once we had an article of our former editor Aimee Baars. It was about what if the world's most well-known buildings weren’t build. What if these buildings in high optimism where build? Think of works from Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid. You'll all find it in this book. Author: Christopher Beanland Publisher: Batsford Publication year: 2021
#Bnieuwd To watch / BKINO BKino is intended as an informal event (a cinema and, therefore, not a cine-forum) aiming at recreating a culture of participation and studentship within the faculty, now that things are opening up to, almost, a pre-pandemic state of affairs. The proposed films follow neither a particular theme nor a specific style. The only recurrent aspect of the program is to have films that are ‘set in places’, with a clear intention to narrate not simply the protagonist’s tale, but also the story of their settings, whether real or fictional. This approach follows a belief that people interested in the built environment, when watching films collectively, will enjoy talking with each other about space and place, and how the film camera, as a narrative tool, relates to them in distinctive ways. See the full sized poster in all it's glory on page 32!
To do / Open Call: Minimal Shelter Space O³LE Competition is looking for individual shelter solutions for evacuation centres in Japan proposals. Record-breaking rainfall and subsequent flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, heatwaves, and forest fires, humanity is experiencing devastating natural disasters with no signs of easing. Organizers: AHA / Alliance for Humanitarian Architecture Submission Deadline: 10.12.2021 11:30 PM
To listen / de Architect Podcast The theme of the podcast is Built Hospitality. How do you ensure that you make buildings for everyone? And what tools do you use to do so? These questions and more are addressed in the four episodes of the podcast 'Merel and Tracy talk on', each on a different scale: urban planning, architecture, interior and a bonus episode about the entrance of a building. Listen on Spotify or deArchitect.nl
Latest / BNIEUWS.NL Don't forget to check out our website. You'll find all the old issues in the archive, for hours and hours of reading pleasure! And follow us on INSTAGRAM for updates! @bnieuws on Instagram / bnieuws.nl
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From the editors
THE FORMAL BASIS OF POST-MODERN JOKE DESIGN (OF DESIGN JOKES) Words Editorial Team
Joke design is a historical, multidisciplinary, and interstitial practice As such, it is (a priori) embedded in our understanding of the world as a joke. In the coming text, our objective will be to structurally delineate a universal understanding of joke design. Although, this will not be a definition per se (Foucault, M. 1973), but rather a definition in itself (Benjamin, W. 1922).
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First of all, we ought to make a distinction between joke design and design joke. A design joke takes into account the subject of design in its own specificity. Contrarily, but not oppositely, joke design is the “set of methodologies” dealing with the construction of the joke in its generic manner. To sum up, joke design is generic in its specificity, while a design joke is specific in its generality. Hence, if one wishes to joke design a good design joke, one must pertain to certain rules: (1)A design joke should always relate to the socio-economic-political context in which it is set. Without an attentive consideration of the socio-economic-political context, the joke will not be funny, as every joke is in itself a socio-economic-political construct. (2) When designing a joke, one has to take into careful account the set of scales on which the joke is dependent. It should always refer to the human scale of the protagonist of the joke. In the instance in which the joke’s protagonist is set in a cafe’, the joke should relate back to the scale of the cafe’, and, again, to the scale of the city. Nevertheless, ultimately the joke should refer back to the scale of the joke itself. (3) A design joke should represent an all-encompassing taxonomy, like the one suggested by Patrik Schumacher, condensing everything in the “tectonics”. To sum up again, once we have taken into consideration the different ways in which the different contexts and contents of a design joke are differently understood by different communities, we can now conclude that the practice joke design is actually, by its own definition, ahistorical and mono-disciplinary. Still, though, very interstitial.
(Premise: It is general opinion in southern Spain that Basques are brutally big and strong)
A BASQUE ENTERS A SHOP WITH AN ELECTRIC CHAINSAW: - HEY, YOU TOLD ME THAT THIS CHAINSAW THAT I BOUGHT CUT DOWN A HUNDRED TREES AN HOUR. I'VE TRIED IT, AND IT CUTS FIFTY AT MOST. - WELL, DON'T WORRY, NOW WE TEST IT ... THE CLERK STARTS THE CHAINSAW, AND UPON HEARING IT THE BASQUE SAYS: - WAIT, WHAT’S THAT NOISE? Pablo. Granada. Spain
A MAN ENTERS A COFFEE. SPLASH. Alessandro. Milan. Italy.
JOHNNY IS ASKED BY HIS MUM TO BUY SOME HAM. WHEN HE GOES TO THE SHOP, HE SPENDS ALL THE MONEY ON SWEETS. THEN HE REMEMBERS HIS MUM WILL BE VERY MAD IF HE DOES NOT BRING THE HAM. SO, HE GOES TO THE BATHROOM AND CUTS OFF ONE OF HIS BUTTCHEEKS, AND HIS MUM COOKS IT FOR DINNER. NEXT WEEK, JOHNNY’S MUM, IMPRESSED BY THE QUALITY OF THE HAM, ASKS HER SON TO GO AGAIN AND BUY THE SAME HAM FOR DINNER. JOHNNY REPEATS THE SITUATION AND HAS TO CUT OFF THE OTHER BUTTCHEEK. LATER THAT MONTH JOHNNY NEEDS TO GO TO THE DOCTOR AND IS ASKED TO TAKE OFF HIS TROUSERS. THE DOCTOR ASKS: “JOHNNY, WHERE IS YOUR BUTT?” TO WHICH THE BOY REPLIES: “MUM ATE IT…”. Oliwia. Olsztyn. Poland
A TOURIST LOOKING FOR THE LONG-AWAITED VIENNA PHILHARMONIC CONCERT: "EXCUSE ME! HOW DO I GET TO THE PHILHARMONIC?" THE PASSER-BY'S ANSWER: "PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!" Sebastian. Munich. Germany
SANTA AND BANTA MET ON A VILLAGE ROAD. SANTA WAS CARRYING A LARGE GUNNY BAG OVER HIS SHOULDER. ‘OYE, SANTA,’ HAILED BANTA, ‘WHAT IS IN THE BAG?’ ‘MURGIYAN – CHICKENS,’ CAME THE REPLY. ‘IF I GUESS HOW MANY, CAN I HAVE ONE?’ ASKED BANTA ‘YOU CAN HAVE BOTH OF THEM.’ ‘OK,’ SAID BANTA, ‘FIVE.’ Vineet. New Dehli. India
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Pen pal
PHALLIC ARCHITECTURE Words Berend
Deep down we are all pubescent little children. Or in any case, I probably am. I pretend that when I look at a building I check for the right proportions, materials and concept. But somewhere in this very serious process of evaluating a piece of architecture my brain makes one final check: does this building resemble genitals in any way? Often it does. Am I just a degenerate or have stumbled on a common motif in architecture?
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Intentional phallic architecture: House of Pleasure by Ledoux.
Luckily a large number of people seem to have come to similar observations. Bernard Hulsman, an architectural critic offers an explanation for them. ‘Under the influence of Freudians, who have the tendency to see a phallus in everything that is longer than it is wide, skyscrapers get called erections of capital.’ Apparently Freud himself once compared the acquisition of wealth to building a monument to your penis. But I am not sure if I can personally blame Freud for this one though. Sydney Opera House
Surprisingly the matter even has its own Wikipedia article, titled: Phallic Architecture. Wikipedia informs me that intentional phallic architecture was very common in cultures like those of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Cultures whose architecture had quite the influence on the present day. And indeed, Wikipedia agrees with me, there are many examples of modern architecture that can be interpreted as phallic. Wikipedia also tells me that in art and architecture in general verticality is seen as a symbol of masculinity, horizontality as more feminine. Here we get to the problem of our age-old tradition of phallic architecture. Sociologists and feminists have pointed out that large skyscrapers can be seen as symbols of male domination. Towers could unintentionally or subconsciously have these connotations that we do not want to perpetuate. In the future it is perhaps better to avoid the phallic skyscraper.
30 St Mary Axe Tower by Foster + Partners
Maybe architects from now on should take better care to avoid a possible comparison to penises. Norman Foster, you know what you did. Calling it the gherkin won’t help. BIG should maybe change their websites URL, even though I think the www.big.dk is very fitting for them. Lastly we have to pay our respect to the one modern example of a building resembling a vagina that I know. A Dezeen commentator called it a: ‘vagina in a sea of penises.’ Zaha Hadid’s Al-Wakrah stadium in Qatar offers a well needed alternative to the phallic architecture that so very common in the region. Unfortunately Hadid did not appreciate the comparison. But the mind will see what it sees, maybe it will changes with age. Al-Wakrah Stadiu
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Pen Pal
OLYMPIC ARCHITECTS Words and Images Edgars Jane
From 1912 - 1948 Architecture was officially an Olympic Discipline. There is a lineage of Olympic Champions in Architecture, and that is a fact.
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The attendees of the 1931 Society of Beaux-Arts Architects ball have finally found a venue of matching grandeur
IN TOKYO, after seventy two year absence, it is finally happening again; never to be lost again; the forgotten competition has been reinstated. People, dressed in voluminous shapes of cathedrals and glass towers, are arriving exuberantly into the moonlit stage of the arena. The scale of the venue is shamelessly matched by the grandeur of the dress-up; amidst the 68’000 empty seats of the audience an eerie echo of a populistic tale about the foundation of the modern Olympic Games is being broadcasted—it had started with a dream. Free Trade of Future The Olympiad (Olympic Games) is the most prominent global sports event, recurring every 4 years, traces of whose existence stretch back to some 3000 year old documentation, when practiced by the Greeks as an athletic competition. Subsequently appropriated by the Romans as games: more of an entertainment rather than a contest, only to be eventually abolished altogether by themselves as an unwarranted festival of paganism. More currently, the man who is credited for midwifing this western tradition into modernity is the ‘Thomas Edison of the Olympiad’: Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Having been inspired and indebted to uncredited scholars of ancient Greece, his personal romanticism led him to be interested in athletic competitions and the pedagogical potential of sports. Coubertin was looking to introduce a new era in international sport by inviting “us export our oarsmen, our runners, our fencers into other lands. That is the true ‘Free Trade’ of the future; and the day it is introduced into Europe the cause of Peace will have received a new and strong ally.” In totality, he imagined marrying the athletic with the aesthetic—to be educated in both body and mind; compete in sport rather than war. Subsequently, in 1896, an International Olympic Committee was established with him as the president of the IOC; yet the marriage of the two was still to be orchestrated. Having waited until the newly introduced format of Olympic Games is stable enough, in front of a select audience of about 60 ‘shot-callers’ in Paris, he declared that “we are to
reunite in the bonds of legitimate wedlock a long-divorced couple—Muscle and Mind” and recapture the complete essence of the Ancient Olympic Games. Confident that it will be “a milestone in advancing public awareness of art as a whole”, Coubertin was convinced that art was as much part of the Olympic ideal as athletics, as he once wrote: “Deprived of the aura of the art contests, Olympic games are only world championships.” He continued explaining that “in the high times of Olympia, the fine arts were combined harmoniously with the Olympic Games to create their glory. This is to become reality once again.” So, he proposed the following: a “Pentathlon of the Muses”: architecture, music, literature, sculpture and painting.1 Unanimously, all 60 members were seduced and approval was granted on the spot. The first event which was to host the Art Olympiad was 1912 Stockholm, but the collective approval of such intention did not extend far from the cabinet of the Paris meeting; the scepticism of many outweighed the optimism of the few.2 In September 1911, guidelines for entering the competition were published: all works presented had to be original (not published before the competition) and directly inspired by the idea of sport; size didn’t matter, except for sculptors. In 1928 Olympic Games, in Amsterdam, it was also allowed, for the first time, to sell the works; a decision that would be one of the main cornerstones for closure of the Games. And finally, at the opening ceremony of 1936 Olympic Art competition, Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels reminded his audience that each work entered in the competition was required to have been created within the last four years, which then “enables us to derive from the Exhibition an estimate of international conditions.” This is the Olympic Art ‘package’ of rules. Amateurism Dilemma After the Second World War a new President of the IOC took over, American Avery Brundage. His
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priority was establishing the Olympics as a purely amateur sport event as “he wanted the Olympics to be completely pure, not to be swayed by the weight of money.” That was the end of the Art Olympiad. Since the inherent nature of an artist is to sell their work, Brundage did not want the Olympic medal to be used as a commercial value raising validation for the artists: an ad of quality. Alas, the Games were over, the diminish of the ‘Pentathlon of the Muses’ took place in 1948. 151 medals were striked from the Olympic record, and were not counted towards the overall medals of each country. Following the Olympics of 52’ an art festival and exhibition was held in parallel with the games—a replacement ‘tradition’ that is being maintained up until nowadays. The Pentathlon of the Muses had become a Trade Show for the Masses (Cultural Olympiad); the force of reality had caught up with the impotency of the initial dream. The last phrase echoes over the seats of the arena, concluding: “but then, it all changed in Tokyo”. 10
The Competitions It is the first day of the revamped Art Olympiad, the architectural athletes enter the arena; first up: platform diving, doubles. The TV commentator starts describing: “we cannot and do not see all the work and the team effort that has been put in prior to this moment of performance”, effortlessly referencing Ruskin in an Olympic twist of his well known truisms about sacrifice and architecture. As both arrive at the edge of the platform, the Olympic veterans take the extra step to get into their seats; the panel discussion can begin: “ready, set, go”. Each ‘iconoclastic dive’ of presentation is judged by the amount of splash of entrée and the form of execution. In a reverse methodology of evaluation, here, the synchronisation and uniformity is unwelcome: splash is golden. “Architecture is a hazardous mix of omnipotence and im..”; “Impossible, I give up”, declares the contestant sensing the impossibility of recovering from the mega-splash. “Slam dunk!” the commentator misplaces his enthusiasm, and the first gold medal is
One of the judged elements of the dive - amount of splash
won. As one switches the channel, the archery is about to begin. Superseded only by weightlifting, it is one of the more complex, yet lesser compelling disciplines to watch. Each additional weight, representing the distance within the project, adds in an exponential progression; no matter what the athlete does. It is a battle with the time and not the weight. The only safety mechanism against breaking one’s body is the ever present aim of the archer, also known as the ‘manager’s arrow’. This phenomenon is globally known as the bimmer’s syndrome, and their ultimate reward, more than often, is not the precious metals but the eternal glory of the office. On the neighbouring field there is another dualdiscipline exhibit, the two ‘R’s’: H and P. Historically it was established that despite having their own letters, they both are bound to shooting. While fundamentally both are using the same weapon, it is the target that differentiates the performances. The ‘P’ likes to place her own target, fixed. Here the process of shooting is disguised as
of the frame of the table. As the matches progressed further, the voracity and techniques of the players had reached illegible levels of performance. Unanimously the judges decided to award all, as there can be no victors in a war of ghosts.”
uncertainty, despite the performance always being 100%. ‘I wonder how’ is asked on much fewer occasions than ‘I wonder when’. In opposition, the challenge of hitting a moving mark, floating in a field of uncertainty, lies in the inherent unpredictability of the target. In both cases one is clear: the success is inherently linked to the performance of both barrels of the shotgun. After all, both shooters are officially bound to share the same weapon; the process of cleaning becomes as important as that of firing. The first day of the Games is rounded off by the award ceremony of table tennis players. Unexpectedly, it seems that the number of medallists is exactly the same as the number of contestants. Instead of the iconic three step stage, all of the players are standing on a fragile elongated bench, all covered with black satin gowns. The voice from the television explains: “Due to the fact that Tokyo 2020 introduced academic table tennis as a substitute to the traditional version, the jury could not decide the scores of the games, as each twisted and spun hit of each player seemed to never leave the white borders
In Between the live translations educational segments are broadcast, explaining the different formats of participation; a lingering legacy of Coubertainian call for the pedagogical potential of sports. Fundamentally, one can enter into Individual or Team competitions. Due to the limited time of the segment, only a few examples are presented, starting with images of a team of synchronised swimmers, all rotating flawlessly with their feet above water, submersed in a field of bureaucratic confusion: “fascinating, how such beauty of coordination is achieved based purely on the precision of practice, rather than an active communication between the swimmers”. The segment then advances into a short clip exposing highlights from the recent triathlon of the ‘emerging offices’. Despite the disciplinary difference with its classical counterpart, the architectural triathletes train to achieve exactly the same physique: endurance, strength and speed. The only difference being that in the classical triathlon the athletes compete for the fastest overall time, registered at the crossing of the final finish line; whereas the ‘officers’ finish line is bound to the laws of the ‘observer effect’, which dictates that the act of observation changes the measured results. In other words, one is never ready to cross the finish line, as the very act of seeing yourself crossing the white stripe repositions it to an unknown location. Just Don’t Do It & keep running! The channel is back at the light covered field of performance. The frame of the screen zooms into the starting position of the 10 km marathon run. Instead of the usual individual run, this one is being run in clusters of irregular numbers. Instead of finishing first, the goal here is to finish; a feat that is not made easier by the obligatory inclusion of badminton as the disciplinary requirement of
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‘internian excellence’. This is the evolutionary arena of the table tennis players, who, if succeeded, will be advanced way beyond the temporal celebration of survival. The starting shot is fired at 9:00am and the race begins; some start late; at this stage there is no false start. Besides running the distance, the balancing of the unpredictable shuttlecock within your immediate cluster asks for an active collaboration between the body and mind: the first proper Olympian challenge. The genius of this run lies in its inherent narrative of wisdom: the shape of the badminton ‘birdie’ is extremely aerodynamically stable; the challenge is generated not through the given attributes but through the form of their application. For those who survive the run, there is no award ceremony where you are given the medal. The victors claim their medal in silence. They have already found it during the run. The bronze medallists consummate the race only to discover that the finish line is no different from the start line, and that the bronze is no different from silver. This is a race of silent victors, for whom gold is not a state of race but a state of mind. The Ceremony Looking around the moonlit stage of the arena, some acute questions arose: “Is this a disillusion of a colossal scale? Or is there actually an audience beyond the apparent vacancy of the stadiums? Is it ultimately about the building and its performance, or rather about the convincing of its creator that she can perform as good as her architecture? The costumes of the architectural athletes are more than simply volumes; it is a declaration of their Olympic capabilities, unless I am mistaken and the resurrected Olympiad was intended to be a competition based not on merit but rather on self-celebration. Amateurs, just as much as celebrated personas, are all welcome. But welcome only if willing to interlock their frames in a wedlock of Olympic competition. There is a fear, after all, and it is justified: the competition reveals the incapability of a single leader to produce an output that is produced by the ‘machinery’ of an office. Should the
Iconoclastic performances in an Olympic Wedlock
leader be able to do all? A modern renaissance artist, or just an efficient delegator of responsibilities?” As this line of questioning was over, the small group of remotely recognisable people stood up from their seats and left each to their own directions: “see you in 4”. The ceremony was over. The goal of the revamped Art Olympiad had all intention to reinvigorate Baron’s Olympian outlook of Body—Mind. The definitions might have changed over a century, but the fundamental stays constant: it is about balancing both. In that sense, the event was a spectacular success. The Games had revealed the extent of architecture’s dependency on their own athletes, which injected some well needed controversy into the event. This time the organisers will safeguard the modern ‘Pentathlon of the Muses’ by utilising the controversy of competition as the guideline to keep the Olympic ideals and definitions ever changing. Relieved, the president closes this year’s Games with final words of encouragement: “Education must not simply teach work — it must teach life”.3 The pedagogical potential of sports: after all, it had all started with a dream.
The article is heavily indebted to the most complete investigation of The Forgotten Olympic Art Competitions by Richard Stanton, Published in 2000 by Victoria: Trafford Publishing. 1 Only during the first three appearances it stayed like this. Afterwards the competition branched out in hope to increase participation. See scheme at the end of the article. 2 Applications were low and only 33 artists entered the Stockholm Games, of which only 5 were given gold medals and one silver. 3 W.E.B.D. Du Bois, Fisk University, 1888
PERKS OF DATING AN ARCHITECT?
Words Inez Margaux Spaargaren
Hey you! Probably you are reading this because you are dating an architect, or maybe about to...! But more than likely, you are searching for one or you are just curious. If you belong to the first group, already dating, then you can consider this article as a reminder of how lucky you should be to be dating someone with these unique talents and characteristics.
To be honest, I never dated an architect although I am one (very rare*), and I will probably not date one in a short time, but to answer the question properly I asked my friend Google. According to Google, at least 10 pages answer the question "What are the perks of dating an architect?" of which sites also answer the question with the dont's. Fun fact, the question is asked just as often as the questions: perks of dating a doctor, older woman, younger guy and an over thinker... You can decide for yourself whether that means cheerful, negative or nothing. *An interactive infographic published by Bloomberg told me out of the information of 3,5 million households that architects are most likely to marry within their profession.
Architects are unique; you could certainly say that. Architects are often described as a mix of creative and tech with characteristics such as a dreamer, perfectionist, solutionoriented, and excellent social skills. For many, these personal characteristics sound like a unique set of characteristics that the opposite sex tends to find very attractive.
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But what's the point of dating an architect? This is what I found out with the help of Google: You have your own tour guide on holiday! “Your boyfriend/girlfriend knows all the beautiful places and sights by heart. When it was built, how it was made and what the next attraction is. So if you are both architects, the trip is going to be intense!” A significant advantage is that if you are not good at doing laundry, your boyfriend/ girlfriend’s is straightforward. “Biggest tip: use detergent for black or dark clothes, they will be pleased!” Essential to mention, you have fresh and tasty coffee every morning. “The greatest addiction of an architect, really. I think at least 99.9% of all architects love a cup of coffee. If you are not a coffee lover, I think it is convenient to get some good coffee at home.”
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If something does not turn out as you would like, architects have invented the art of patience, after years of patiently waiting for renders, 3d models, and computer crashes. “They know how to help you in the most stressful situations. But don't you dare disturb them when they have a deadline; you better hold your breath. When you’re an architect too, you can try to help! (success is not guaranteed)”
Not to mention they have excellent Photoshop skills. “So you might think, what could I use that for besides photos? Well, changing numbers and letters are done in 5 minutes. Who knows, you might use it once in a while; a mistake is easily made.” Not to forget. An enormous collection of pens, pencils, fine liners, notebooks, rulers and office supplies. “Need something? Name it, and they have it. And don't get me wrong, be careful, but these are not just any pens. One of these pens can cost up to 8 euros. Yes, really.” Architects are good at staying awake and do not need to sleep very much in order to function. They most likely learned this during their studies or job. When deadline stress increases, the hours will not stay 9 to 5. “I could imagine that this is a great advantage when you have children - those sleepless nights suddenly become a lot easier.”
They are computer nerds. From the latest hard drive to the newest version of Rhino. “Whether you should use Mac or Windows? They can answer it with ease. It's handy, a new keyboard? They'll figure out which one is best in no time.”
Sounds like a dream, doesn't it? But… There is something you need to know. The moment they started architecture school, their hearts were already taken. Their love is their profession, and that passion goes so far that designing a building often takes priority over their dating life. And as an addition to the dating part, you may find that you suddenly have some extra architecture friends for free. Would you instead find someone who is not an architect? After this article, I don't think so... PS. If you think these things don't comprehend to your architect. Take in mind that I just described the stereotype ;).
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Many jokes play off of stereotypes. One such stereotype is that of the architect that only wears black clothing and takes themselves very seriously. It’s true, architects like this exist, but a short walk around our faculty proves that there is a colourful variety of clothes that we designers wear. “Designer Wardrobe”, an illustration by Jonas Althuis.
From the Editors
THE MARBLE ARCH JOKE Words Alessandro Rognoni
Recently built in London, the MVRDV designed Marble Arch Hill is just the latest case of ‘pavilion for the pavilion’s sake’. But while the premise of an artificial hill might be worth a laugh, the project also raises questions on whether it still makes sense to build temporary structures as vehicles for social (and commercial) aggregation.
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Despite the lifting of travel restrictions in the UK, these days not many of us in Delft have had the chance to stroll around Hyde Park in London. However, like anyone keeping up with the architectural press, I have recently been meticulously told, by writers of literally every single British paper, about the experience of encountering one of the most controversial architectural installations in years: the Marble Arch Hill. Now, because of our editorial inexperience and our lack of self-confidence, we at Bnieuws are usually very timid when it comes to criticising architecture, a profession in which we’ve all have very little professional involvement. Because of this, I personally felt very liberated when I found out about the Marble Arch Hill, a building so clearly dreadful that it was offered to me on a silver plate for a comfortable intellectual massacre. Readers that were also recently in touch with the British press will know how the pavilion managed to attract criticism from every possible disciplinary angle [1]. With that said, a few things are there to discuss... I will avoid a meticulous explanation of the failure of the pavilion’s construction, something that can be easily found through a quick Google search. The pavilion, an artificial hill situated between Marble Arch and Hyde Park’s speaker’s corner (once the temple of democratic debate and, funnily enough, public criticism towards authority), was advertised by MVRDV as a lush, dense and ‘realistic’ ridge.
Instead, on opening day the building looked more similar to low-res, triangulated blob, so clearly appalling to be eventually closed after just two days, to allow for further refinement What instead deserves even more criticism is the premise of the project itself. Proposed by Westminster Council as a sort of ‘public magnet’. Aiming at attracting people back to shopping in the adjacent Oxford Street (the most important shopping street in the capital), this is just another example of public money (6 million pounds, to be precise) spent on an eye-catching but ephemeral object, directly serving the right to consume-andshare, rather than the right to genuine commercial public space. “Build a hill and they will come” stated The Guardian last month. To be precise, it looks more like ‘build an image of a hill, and people will come’, with renders of the lush urban mountain travelling around the internet long before construction, in an attempt to build excitement around the installation. The public’s harsh judgment on the project has, in fact, resulted from a misalignment of its look with their expectations. The fact that the top of the hill is not publicly accessible, but requiring a ticket up to 8£, made things even worse. “What a joke!”, I imagine many of the Londoners saying when approaching this unrefined object, after having booked in advance. A joke, for sure. But is it at least an intentional one?
Winy Maas defended the project by affirming how it serves to “prompt a discussion” on urban forestation, by making a statement through its stark contrast with the found condition of the site, which exists as an intense traffic archipelago around the arch, dating back to the 1960s. And, as we all know, a certain provocative and context-revealing approach to buildings is very much part of Dutch architectural thinking in the last few decades. While some have
directly described early MVRDV work as humorous, it is clear that any attempt to explicitly expose the complexity of a neoliberal society requires a degree of irony. The idea of sarcasm as a tool to unmask ambiguity was indeed promoted by Rem Koolhaas since his early cinematic attempts (under the influence, in his view, of writer Willem Hermans’s), before becoming an integral part of his architectural agenda.
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An impression of how Marble Arch Hill will look. Credit: MVRDV
The Marble Arch Mound in central London just after opening. Credit: Sky News
OMA and Cecil Balmond's Serpentine pavillion in 2006 MVRDV's Hannover EXPO pavillion in 2000
However, despite its double-dealing ambition, the sarcastic building was always at the service of its commissioner, namely any party wishing for hyper consumer-space. Complicit shall we say? Maybe, but, to me, more similar to a joker at the service of the monarch, making a monkey of their chief while being well aware of the tipping point at which his head would be cut off.
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Now, given the fact that architectural sarcasm can be achieved either through some “context-fucking” opposition (in OMA’s case, with all its consequences) or self-reference (Po-Mo for instance, both old and new, either Dutch or foreign), the typology of the pavilion results as a particularly significant subject of discussion. As in the case of MVRDV’s Hannover Expo pavilion, it’s a typology that often offered us certain exaggeration of architectural language and disregard for tradition, so to create a degree of tension around the specific argument that the pavilion itself wishes to suggest. Needless to say, when dealing with its potential humor, its relevance stems from its temporality. In fact, specific humor is generally appreciated as long as it is temporary. After a while, the same joke will always stop being funny. The same happens with the temporary pavilion, which allows for the architect to avoid being the kind of petulant child that doesn’t drop their joke. Actually, the idea of the urban and commercial pavilion as a temporary ‘moment of fun’ or a ‘quick laugh’ is very much part of a way of thinking about the urban experience in an abstract sense. This was,
at least, the idea behind radical projects such as Archigram’s Instant City, where, in the case of Peter Cook’s proposal, imaginary sets of mobile infrastructures allowed a british village to “become a city for a week” by bringing urban-pop-everything (including certain ‘metropolitan’ humor) to those villagers considered illiterate about the wonders of the city. According to Cook, the project was an analogy to the idea for which “everybody can be famous for five minutes”, one that is very much current to social-media fame, which also operates on how humor is a valuable asset in exchange for attention. The Instant City reveals to us a specific relationship between commerce (particularly the economic value of the image) and the temporal aspects of a pavilion as an experience rather than a building. But while the project existed in itself as a set of images, the way Marble Arch Hill goes to “prompt” discussions is through the actual handling of material, a “recycled” green which is nonetheless unnaturally mobilised, and the spending of a significant amount of public money that could be used to create actual forestation. The pavilion, proposed in such way, might not even make any more sense as a building, especially in a time where the very significance of construction and material consumption is being increasingly reconsidered. In this circumstance, the only thing that is prompted might be a questioning on whether the laugh is really worth the joke.
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Peter Cook (Archigram), Instant City Visits Bournemouth, 1968
[1] When mentioning criticism from the press, this article refers to articles from The Guardian (UK), The Times (UK), Dezeen (UK), The Architects Journal(UK), La Repubblica (ITA), The New York Times (US), Financial Times (UK), The Irish Times (IE) and Sky News (UK).
When did we get so serious as architects?
I decided to find answers
Could it be the black clothing? Was modernism to blame, again? In the end, I luckily found the answer 22
It had been the new Millenium all along
But, what are we going to do with this knowledge? Do we keep running in the same direction? No! Let's change! I do wonder if we are getting better at "change" the more we try changing things But that's a question for another time. (ABSTRACT DRAWING OF A FIREWORK DURING A SPECIFIC EVENT)
This short expressive piece was written by Robert van Overveld.
From the editors
UNSOPHISTICATED SOPHISTICATION Words Jonas Althuis
About ten years ago, at the dawn of my pubescence, there was one pastime you could often find me and my peers doing. It wasn't trying to charm girls. It certainly wasn't sporting. It wasn't even gaming (though I did plenty of that too). It was spending time on the internet, and it was glorious.
The internet was exciting, there was always new things to discover. In those days, it felt endless and grand, but not in the omnipresent and immeasurable way that it does today. You had a handful of websites that you knew, perhaps they were in your bookmarks, or you knew their URLs by heart. Sometimes a friend would stumble upon a cool new website and share it with everybody. A new discovery. A new location on the World Wide Web that you could visit; all you had to do was type in the URL and you would be transported to an entirely new place, as if you had just gotten on a plane to a country you were visiting for the first time. If the website was any good, you could spend hours, days or sometimes even months coming back to visit it. Despite frequenting different websites over the years, there was one thing in particular that was always there. Present throughout my days. One thing to which the majority of my time on the internet went: looking at memes. nostalgia noun a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past Memes are a phenomenon that I perhaps take for granted, but which we all have a shared experience of. I've seen them so much over the years that I've spent on the internet that they feel self-evident; inherent to the world that I live in. So much so that I assume everybody knows what I mean when I say the word 'meme'. If, like me, you were born in the late 90s or later, then you probably do. At the very least, you have seen one before, willingly or unwillingly. If that's not the case, let me try to explain it to you. In its simplest and most common form, it's an image accompanied by some text that together tell a joke or communicate something humorous. It's a format that has by now been perfected, yet paradoxically is always changing. Memes evolve in such a way that every new iteration is different enough to be interesting yet familiar enough to be understood. meme noun an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations
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So what do you do with a meme? Do you look at it? Do you laugh at it? Do you interact with it? Any, all, or none of the above I would say. They're shared on probably all internet content platforms, you can do with them what you want. You can look at them to amuse yourself. You can send them to a friend. You can comment to interact with other people that looked at it, share your opinions. You can even make your own memes and share them with the world. savoury adjective morally wholesome or acceptable
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It’s easy to disregard memes as cringe-worthy or unfunny. They often are. But memes also have some fascinating qualities. Not any specific meme; memes as a whole, as a phenomenon. For one, they can be extremely specific and contextual. If you don’t have the right prior knowledge that belongs to a certain niche or group on the internet, you’re definitely not going to understand a meme that comes from there. On the internet, there exist subcultures within subcultures within subcultures, so things get incomprehensible pretty quickly. Besides that, the pace at which they appear, evolve and then go out of fashion is astounding. Something happens on the internet; a popular artist brings out a new music video, a politician does something ridiculous, you name it and minutes later there's a meme of it somewhere. Memes, by nature, are ephemeral, they exist for only a short moment of time. They're a snapshot of something that happened in the world and of how people felt about it. This is determined by popular vote; consensus by number of likes or upvotes. The most popular meme is the one that most people end up seeing, in turn keeping you up to date on what a majority of people are thinking and feeling. Yet as we grow accustomed to a certain format, we grow bored of it, we yearn for something new, something novel, a new level of complexity, a different take on the same joke, a new joke altogether. Because of this memes are ever-changing; a continuous dialogue between thousands if not millions of anonymous strangers on the internet. microcosm noun a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristics of something much larger For the most part, memes are still just memes; funny pictures on the internet that are created and shared to make people laugh. There's even several meme pages related to the TU Delft and its various faculties. These pages share memes that are related to the university and comment on the study-climate of the different faculties through humour. Looking a bit broader, there's a number of different meme pages on Instagram that create architecture related memes. If you're curious, check out @form_follows_memes, @dank.lloyd.wright, @oh.em.ayy or simply @architecture.memes to get started. These pages have follower numbers in the tens of thousands; nothing crazy, but certainly not little.
intangible adjective unable to be touched; not having physical presence In recent years, it seems that these pages, and many others like it, have changed. Where many of them started simply as pages intended to share funny and relatable memes they've now taken on an important societal role. In the field of architecture for example, some of these pages comment on topics such as fair pay for internships, healthy workloads and stress levels during studies, decolonising architecture, increasing diversity and equality in the field, and much more. They criticise architects and institutions, exposing failures and injustices they have caused throughout the world. With fairly big audiences, these pages are bringing important topics into the spotlight; topics that are usually taboo. The beauty of this is that it's all done through the same simple format of the meme; usually no more than a simple image with accompanying text. It's a format the condenses information and makes it easy to understand by using existing imagery that is familiar to many people. The owner of the '@dank.lloyd.wright' page has even mentioned explicitly that they see the meme format as having multiple layers; on a superficial level it's a "quick and dirty" piece of comedy, but often a deeper meaning is contained within; the memes can "trojan horse theory, history and critique into our brain." ambiguity noun the quality of being open to more than one interpretation If you had told me 10 years ago that the simple, humorous pictures I was looking at on the internet would go on to not only become the language of the internet, but would more importantly become a meaningful way of raising awareness about important topics around the world, I probably would have said 'yeah, right' and then continued scrolling. Yet here we are. change noun an act or process through which something becomes different
For further reading, Domus has an article about memes and their new meaning(s). You can find it by searching for its title 'Memes or it didn't happen.'
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From the editors
COLLECTIVE TRAUMA - WAR AND HUMOUR Words Oliwia Jackowska
It was April 4th 1960. The realm of the Polish cinematic art scene became divided in how to represent the nation’s painful recent history. In the aftermath of unmeasurable destruction and hardship as Poland became Europe’s battlefield, the filmmakers faced challenges in preserving the memory of suffering and reflecting the moods of their society.
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A still from Bad Luck (Polish: “Zezowate szczescie”), 1960. Jan Piszczyk in Struga.
Just fifteen years after the end of World War II, and at the time of the current socialistic regime, Andrzej Munk and Jerzy Stefan Stawinski made a first film that comically presented the Polish martyred history. It was the main character who made this film so hilarious. Clumsy, unsuccessfully conformist, but most of all unlucky Jan Piszczek goes through different periods of his life, which spread through the 1930s, the war period and the post-war aftermath. Thrown into situations he did not ask for, he is a complete mess and failure, nothing goes as he would like to. Critics were polarised by either praising this new approach to writing history or found the production to be disrespectful. The film was criticised for presenting “a hero of our tragic history, but at the same time a villain ridiculing that same history”, while on the other hand it was praised for its realistic approach to every day people.
Dark humour and using a joke as a release of painful emotion has been explored in popular culture and academia for quite some time. Many well-known (American) comedians have been dealing with their traumatic past, like Pete Davidson, or struggled with exclusion and bullying in their childhood, like Sarah Silverman or Dave Chapelle. Their satirical approach often served as a coping mechanism to these experiences. Making jokes about trauma has always been a delicate issue, as there are many undefined boundaries when dealing with personal traumatic experiences. However, the definition and treatment of trauma changes in the context of collective memory, as it is shared and therefore less defined and personal. This shared experience gives nations, cities, ethnic minorities, genders or even families a new identity of which the sentiment is only fully understood within these groups. Humour in these situations provides a release, something that is shared collectively and gives this identity a new, lighter layer of understanding. It also opens up this hermetic sentiment to be understood by the “outsiders”. Andrzej Munk’s film Bad Luck ("Zezowate Szczescie") was praised for its referential nature when it comes to the classics of Charlie Chaplin’s slapstick comedies. The grand-master’s influence on the cinematic field is undeniable. Chaplin often provided this humorous release much needed in the period of silent cinema ravaged by conflict, hunger and poverty. However, what made his approach to comedy special is that humour is often self-referential and he did not try to create a new reality, where the
A still from The Gold Rush, 1925. Chaplin's boot as a meal.
trauma ceases to exist. The 1925 silent movie The Gold Rush talked about a period that has seen many lives lost, and was very real to the people who watched it. The iconic sequence of Chaplin preparing and eating his own boot is funny and ridiculous, as it juxtaposes the absurdity of the character’s exaggerated table manners with the tragic desperation of hunger. Arguably, the most quintessential film ever made by Chaplin is The Great Dictator released in 1940, right in the midst of the ongoing global war. This film’s satirical portrayal of Adolf Hitler aimed to ridicule the reasoning, sanity and real influence of this small man. Its seemingly light-hearted storyline culminated in the emotional and poignant speech of Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin’s parody character of Adolf Hitler), where he realises his shortcomings and asserts he does not wish to rule or conquer anyone. Hynkel ultimately wants peace on Earth, as for him the unity of humans is the most important value. Chaplin’s film addressed the ongoing horror of the real war, as he ridiculed the figure that was most feared in the world at the time, and urged the people responsible for the conflicts to come to their senses. The collective memory of trauma is not always catalysed directly by a human factor. Many nations and communities share their memories of destruction and loss in the events of natural disasters, unexplained events. However, the theme of war and conflict always involves a human error that can be ridiculed, a misunderstanding or just
A still from The Great Dictator, 1940. Hynkel's speech.
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A still from How I Unleashed World War II, 1969. Franek Dolas and a Nazi officer.
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A still from Night of Truth, 2004
conflicts to distant regions and communities, there is generally abstract ideals that people end up still an ongoing idealogical war that occupies the sacrificing everything for. This seems to be the territory of Europe and America. The issue of reason why the only satirical art, films or writings bombings and ISIS terrorist attacks, and the about collective trauma revolve around war, aftermath of 9/11 was addressed beautifully through political, social, ideological or economic conflict. humour in the 2010 British film titled Four Lions. Already in 1905, Freud talked about the cathartic function of a joke. Nonetheless, portraying traumatic The film protagonists are five British Muslim men, historical events in a funny way has always been a who are plotting a bombing, but cannot agree about delicate issue. The emotional confusion linked with what the target should be. Omar is deeply critical of war comedies can be understood as offensive Western society, but his cousin Waj is dim-witted, (usually when executed badly), but also it allows the convert Barry is bad-tempered, and Faisal is naïve, artists to be more realistic in commemorating the while later recruited Hassan does not seem to events. Following the controversial success of Bad understand the weight of the situation. We find all of them involved in terrorist activity, and it is irrelevant Luck, the first part of How I Unleashed World War how they got into it and why. II (Polish: “Jak rozpętałem drugą wojnę światową”) was released in “HUMOUR HEIGHTENS OUR Their clumsy and uncalculated actions result in accidental 1969. The comically unfolding SENSE OF SURVIVAL, AND assassination of Osama bin events convince the main PRESERVES OUR SANITY.” Laden, discussions about blowing character Franciszek Dolas in up the pharmacy chain Boots and making believing that his thoughtless actions are the sole compilations of silly “bloopers” of their threatening reason for the outbreak of the war. Dolas, being recordings. Here, the protagonists are villains, but inherently a good person, tries to rehabilitate his they are also clueless and this makes the viewer root mistakes and when escaping the Gestapo, he is for them to survive. Riz Ahmed, the lead in the thrown around by fate into different war situations movie, said in the interview that at first when seeing in Yugoslavia, Mediterranean region, Africa and the proposed the script he was reluctant to play then back to Poland. This film was released long another “brown terrorist”, but what convinced him enough after the war and provided a witty Polish about the importance of the project was the film’s soldier character for it to become iconic. The film is objective to humanize the characters in post 2005 renowned for one of the funniest scenes in Polish London bombings reality. The ridicule, the tragic cinema, where asked for his name by Nazi soldiers, story set in the British suburbs, the compassion for Dolas cleverly replies: “Grzegorz the characters and the institutional racism all create Brzęczyszczykiewicz, born in a story that is compelling, funny and most of all, Chrząszczyżewoszyce”. incredibly relevant. It rewrites history and loosens up the rigid perspective of the suffering. Even though it seems that nowadays all “Western” nations live in relative peace, exporting their
A still from Four Lions, 2010. Faisal is testing crows' skills as bombers.
These films show that dark humour, even collective, is a very personal issue, it depends on the nation, the severity and reasons for the conflict. But in all cases, the humour providing playful accounts of the past and of identities, softens the blow of the horrendous events of which the portrayed group can be either a victim or a perpetrator. Eyal Zandberg wrote in his text, Ketchup is the Auschwitz of Tomatoes, that the Holocaust being satirically portrayed in history was an “evolutionary development: from the use of humour to criticise Holocaust remembrance to the use of Holocaust memory to create humorous effects”. This is exactly how Charlie Chaplin used humour to ridicule and criticise the politics of his time that were causing the conflict to spread around the globe and resulted in the deaths of countless people and cities. Then, these destroyed cities and communities affected by the aftermath, used the history of their tragedy to create humorous effects and commemorate their suffering. This also makes the phenomenon of war and its satire universal and understandable by everybody. Fanta Régina Nacro, a director of the 2004 Burkina Faso film Night of Truth (French: "La Nuit de la Verité") took that concept of universal war as the starting point. Watching from afar the horrors of the Yugoslavian war, she created a story about the fragility of peace, set in a fictional West-African
country. Even though the comedic element exists in the story through the character of the village idiot, the humour does not play a central role as in the other mentioned films. Nacro argues that the universality of war comes from the suffering of loss and uncertainty of tomorrow, and she proved that a person or a nation does not need to live through a war to understand it. This article opens a discussion about collective trauma in different cultures and communities. Apart from the films that were made by generations still affected directly by the aftermath of their wars, there are also modern humorous portrayals of the Holocaust, such as widely acclaimed Jojo Rabbit. Its impulse to bring history as a modern cautionary tale, rather than commemorating the events of the past, gives yet another perspective. However, this English-language-centric distribution of media, and consequently film, creates an imbalance in understanding of the other perspectives in this matter. More or less satirical approaches to war in their regions such as the 1996 Croatian film How the War Started on My Island or the 2008 Afghan Opium War get lost in the dominated “Western” perspective. What are artistic expressions in your region that cope with trauma satirically and with the use of humour?
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Artefact
THE BNIEUWS ARCHIVE Words Editorial Team
This is not our usual 'Artefact'. Where last year, these pages were dedicated to beloved objects of the BK City staff members, the editorial team wants to approach it somewhat differently this year. We aim to examine the artefacts of architecture and planning in the broader world that surrounds our faculty. As inauguration of this concept, we examine fragments from old editions of Bnieuws that date back to the 60s, 70s and 80s. These old editions, stored at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, are a fantastic insight into the world that our faculty used to be. The hand drawn comics and illustrations from these historic editions were used to create the cover of this edition.
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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
NEXT ISSUE: CHEAP Cheap thrills. Cheap and cheerful. Cheap at the price. Do it on the cheap. Cheap and nasty. Dirt cheap. Talk is cheap. Cheap shot. Cheapish. One word. Many combinations. Many implications. What is cheap? Bnieuws 55/02 due December 2021.
Bnieuws INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT VOLUME 55 ISSUE 01
