P5b 20120629 panels gert jan wisse

GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBOURS

year 4

Gert-Jan Wisse landscape architecture

GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBOURS “Good fences make good neighbours” puts the neighborhood of “Kruidenwijk” in Almere in the perspective of the changing society of today and tomorrow.

Being built in the “Golden Age” of the Dutch building activity makes Almere the ultimate example of a suburb. Efficiently layed-out, aiming on introvert oriented families with kids; a home with a garden and a car in front. This clearly shows in the way people live between the strictly bordered plots of the urban set-up. The border between the garden and the neighbors’ garden gets heavily defended by tall boardings and hedges. Once these borders start to decay, the DIY spirit of the suburban resident shows, and the boardings and fences get repaired, often in highly inventive ways. With “Good fences make good neighbors” these borders are put to the test by overthrowing the rules they are based upon. The zoning-plan gets changed, building permits are a thing of the past and new possibilities of exchanging, annexating or sharing space are created. Always based on agreements among the neighbors.

In this way a flexible landscape is created which starts at the backdoor, and which is able to change

the political landscape of Almere Kruidenwijk borders of ownership

GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBOURS. Gert-Jan Wisse. Academy of Architecture Amsterdam

the physical landscape of Almere Kruidenwijk fences - boardings - hedges

and adept to the ambitions and demands of a changing family composition.

The nextdoor neighbor takes the opportunity to upgrade his hobby to a business by renting out your unused storage space. The neighbor on the other side occupies the communal lawn next to his garden for growing his ultra local and delicious green beans. The women down the street splits her property and rents half out to a young family in the attic, and the businessman next to that shares his garden with the extended family next door.

The composition of the neighborhood changes continiously and with that the needs and demands of its residents. By binding the force of nature in fast growing hedgerows, an ultra flexible division tool is created wich is able to move with the perception of space of the people on both sides. A green maze of hedges, gardens and thriving entrepeneurship provides a new focus on locality in times of economic uncertainty. The division between people becomes the subject of negotiation and the garden becomes the facade of a new local society.

Almere Kruidenwijk a new mental landscape

plot

expanding

contracting

1 expantion

2 expantion and annexing

3 contraction / shed occupation

4 building and annexing

5 enclosing / merging

6 detaching and shifting

Tuinkruidenhof 2020 exploration of shifting boundaries

GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBOURS. Gert-Jan Wisse. Academy of Architecture Amsterdam

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growing

Craetegus monogyna

tangling

Rosa canina

expanding

Cornus mas

the vegetal Using the flexible forces of nature, ever so resilient borders can be created that grow, set, mature, change shape, get moved, get shaped, get cut and move by them selves over time. By reinventing ancient hedging typologies, the hedge can once more create the physical appearance of our landscape.

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climbing

Lonicera japonica

growing

Craetegus monogyna

cutting

Carpinus betulus

tangling

Rosa canina

weaving

Salix alba

expanding

Cornus mas

merging

Acer campestre

climbing

Lonicera japonica

shaping

Juglans regia

cutting

Carpinus betulus

walking

Salix matsudana

weaving

Salix alba

year 1

merging

GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBOURS. Gert-Jan Wisse. Academy of Architecture Amsterdam

Acer campestre

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year 4