Restoring the Flow by David Villegas

R e s t o r i n g t h e f l o w S t r u g g l e

a n d

e m e r g e

Restoring the flow Rethinking the dikescape

June 2020

TU/e Technical University of Eindhoven Departmen fo the Built Environment

Abstract Dordrecht is a city founded on the water, in the beginning, the connection with the water was direct, water was seen as an economic asset. This brought both wealth and a constant struggle; citizens were aware of the benefits and burdens of coexisting with water. During the middle of the 18th century, the industrial revolution arrived in Dordrecht, this meant a change in the relationship of the city with water. Suddenly the connection with the water was exclusive to the new harbor area. The city grew using polders and dikes to gain terrain from the delta. This created a break from the water flow. People started to think of water as a threat, a wild animal that should be domesticated, the water wolf. The last big flood in the Netherlands happened in 1953, the watersnoodramp. It devastated almost half of the country leaving 1836 deaths. Dordrecht was at the center of the disaster area. Today, however, the loss of connection with the water creates a sense of blind trust, most of the citizens are not aware of the flood risk situation that Dordrecht faces. Located in a delta, with rising sea levels and heavier rains every year pouring down from the alps. Dordrecht could see a scenario like the Watersnoodramp soon. Furthermore the dikes not only kept the water out, but they also broke the dynamics of the city. Dordrecht became a broken city, every individual neighborhood isolated from the rest, confined to its polder. The goal of this project is finding a way of using the existing dike infrastructure to change the perspective of water that the inhabitant of Dordrecht have, with this in mind the following research question was developed:

How to take advantage of the residual space created by the dikescape in Dordrecht, using water as a catalyst for social interaction while developing a sense of awareness regarding the floodprone situation of the city? To answer this question a new urban landscape is proposed, a flowscape in the leftover space created by the dikes. The flowscape is proposed as an urban infrastructure to encourage active leisure amongst the inhabitants of Dordrecht, while at the same time reshaping their perception of water.

Fig. 1: Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Heracles and the Nemea Lion.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dig deeply. You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it.â&#x20AC;? Epictetus

Exotic enemies to sit in the feathers, To swing the tail big-heartedly over the sea, Is vain, if your lung, beaten to the tar, Inwardly perishes and you with heartache So sordid sigh and cough and discharge with whole chunks The decaying entrails too in the wave. What does it do with your claw to plump the whole of the East and the West, If you bite the heart of this cruel Waterwolf, Eager to triumph over you for a long time? O country Lion, wake up and wake up with one shout Al ‘t veen: the Kennemers and Rief of their lion. They close this animal with islands old gentlemen, Op d’ Amstellanders, to the reldyke, which you come to tease. The frost is flying with its windmill blades. The fast wind frost knows how to hunt the water wolf. In the sea, from where he came to nibble you, never tired. The peat farmer sits and wishes deez ‘to spout water hunt In the peat bog, he says:’ he cleans up! The country lion grazes on the hold And sucks his lungs healthy on the udders of the cows! This is how the land lion wins land. This way he purifies Gold from foam.

The book is organized according to verses from the poem “To the Lion of the Netherlands” from Joost van den Vondeln.

Table of contents

Restoring the flow

III The lion Rethinking the dikescape

Introduction 10

Playing for leisure

Struggle and emerge

Amsterdam playgorunds 78

I Exotic enemies

Floods in the age of global warming

Pale blue dot 22 Tuvalu 24 Venice 25 The Netherlands

Flood proner areas

The Dutch Delta

Affordances 86 1111 Lincoln road

Traces 100 The path 104 Site 1 106 Site 2 108 Site 3 110

II The waterwolf Towards a resilient delta

Spatial analysis

IV Gold from foam

Flowscape 118

Experiencing the tide

122

Golde age 44

A pause in the rain

140

Sint Elisabethsvloed

Embracing the river

160

Dikescape 46

Conclusion 176

Typologies 48

References 178

Visual/Spatial structure 50

Image credits 180

Antropological analysis

Cultivating resilience

Research question

Struggle and emerge In 1930 Sigmund Freud wrote Civilization and Its Discontent.1 In the first chapter of this book, Freud uses an analogy to explain what he calls, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;oceanic feelingâ&#x20AC;?, a feeling of an indissoluble bond, of being one with the external world as a whole. To understand this feeling, he then creates an analogy between cities and minds. He argued that cities and minds have a similar way of dealing with memory. It is possible to trace the different ages of a city in the built environment. Nevertheless, it is impossible to visualize the complete story of a city. In Rome for example, one can find the exact location of the Roma Quadrata, but what can be seen there today are only ruins of what once was there. It is impossible to visualize all the different historical layers of a city simply because it is physically impossible for two objects to occupy the same space. Trauma can have similar consequences in the mind. Normally the brain is capable of tracing every memory under the right conditions, regressions can make an adult remember memories of when he was a baby. After suffering some sort of trauma however, the mind may lose these connections thus becoming more like a city in which only ruins stand where there used to be buildings. Then it can be said that a city is a traumatic landscape. Freud wrote his book during a time of unrest, at the end of the second world war.

1. Freud, S. (2018).

Europe was destroyed, people had suffered a collective trauma. Today, we live n a different type of uncertainty, global warming has caused a series of events that affect the political, economical, and social order of the world as we know it. Mass migration, natural disasters, and wars over resources are a reality of our time. It has been said that resilience is the solution to this problem, but, what is resilience? and how can it be applied to the built environment? This essay will try to stretch Freudâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s analogy to explain the concept of resiliency and its implications in the built environment.

Fig. 2:, Coventry hit, 1940

There are already way too many definitions of Resiliency, this essay is not meant to give a new one, the aim is to clarify the concept. Seneca is perhaps one of the earliest philosophers to actively practice Resiliency. He was a wealthy man, nevertheless, he slept regularly on the floor of an outhouse, ate only stale bread, and drank lukewarm water. He was reminding himself that it wouldn’t ever be so bad to lose pretty much everything – so as to free himself of nagging worries of catastrophe. He was prepared for the worst. In cultivating resilience, it is necessary to discard the belief that it is better to avoid obstacles due to the stress they evoke. Psychologists are discovering that not all forms of stress are equal; some, in fact, are crucial components of a flourishing mind and body. Ancient Athens and Elizabethan England – were times infused with a “tragic sense of life”. As the 20th-century classicist Edith Hamilton noted, 2 they had a lucid awareness that human life is “bound up with evil and that injustice [is] of the nature of things.” Yet despite their proclivity to meditate on the evils of existence, these ages were also permeated with great productivity and a lust for life. It appears that in becoming aware and more accepting of the darker possibilities of life, we not only cultivate resilience but also become more fully alive.

on the crest of the wave, one must feel either tragically or joyously; one cannot feel tamely.” Translating this spirit of the age to the built environment we could find some similarities between the greatest periods of the human story and the greatest cities. Many cities are situated near large bodies of water because from time immemorial, that is where there has been sufficient energy, water, and food to maintain a large population. But it is precisely in those places that the growth of urban regions causes a lot of pressure on the amount of available arable land, vital green spaces, and clean drinking water.3 This situation creates a constant state of stress for the cities, almost every great city suffered periods of great scarcity, they all survived immense natural disasters, plagues, and invasions. Cities, just as the human mind are capable of adapting to periods of immense stress.

For as Edith Hamilton explained: “What these two periods had in common, two thousand years and more apart in time…may give us some hint of the nature of tragedy, for far from being periods of darkness and defeat each was a time when life was seen exalted, a time of thrilling unlimited and unfathomable possibilities. The world was a place of wonder; mankind was beauteous; life was lived on the crest of the wave. More than all, the poignant joy of heroism had stirred men’s hearts. Not stuff for tragedy, would you say? But 12

2. Protter, E., &amp; Hamilton, E. (1966). 3. Assen, S. V., Boomen, T. V., Frijters, E., Broekman, M., &amp; Camp, D. (2017).

Fig. 3: Christisan Wijers, Venice I, 2019

Fig. 4

Ancient Stoic philosopher Epictetus explained: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengthsâ&#x20AC;ŚDig deeply. You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it.â&#x20AC;?4 It can be said that resilience is a capacity that every human being possesses. As we stated before, mind is city, thus every city is inherently resilient, under the right circumstances every city will eventually show resiliency towards the problems it faces. During the middle of the 19th century, a series of events change the way we approach the difficulties of life. The 14

industrial revolution meant one of the biggest shifts in human life, all of the sudden individuals were moving out from the countryside into the cities.5 For personal life this meant a stronger focus in the individual, communities that had existed for thousands of years began to dissolve. This process continued until our days. From an individual point of view, the world became smaller. Today we move vast distances in search of new jobs, better education, or love. Many times, this constant movement means leaving our social network behind. We meet fewer people in person and we meet them less often than in the past. The industrial revolution changed cities as well, We live in a world increasingly designed by ourselves. We are part of a global metabolism, a continuous exchange of resources, water, energy, food, and so on. The boundaries between culture and

nature and between cities and ecological systems are fading. These rapid changes both in the built environment and in our personal life have a common factor, technology. After the industrial revolution technological advancements started to be exponential. We started to create computers that resemble us. We named computers after human cognitive capabilities. The first computer was called an electronic brain, the same adjectives are used to describe gadgets like smartphones, smartwatches, smart speakers. Social interactions are now based on likes and retweets. The public space of the cities is not anymore for social discourse, the interactions are happening elsewhere, in our devices. Technology became a tool to avoid the stress of life. Dubai has drinking water thanks to the huge desalinating facilities that are paid with the immense amount of money generated by the oil industry. Tokyo designed a huge underground rainwater storage system in order to prevent floodings. Mexico City pumps water from 300 kilometers away and 2000 meters uphill to satisfy the demand of its 23 million inhabitants. Venice is building a wall to stop the sea from entering the lagoon thus flooding vast parts of the city. These developments both in social life and in the built environment can be seen as a good thing at first, but we need to ask ourselves, are we shaping these technological advances or are they the ones shaping us? We became consumers of technology; we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand it anymore. As individuals we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand how Facebook, YouTube, Google or Twitter algorithms work, we just take them for granted. We leave the job to the programmers. As architects, we are not worried about understanding the complexity of the city, the influx of resources, and the output of waste. Where does a city really end? We are concerned about making a single

Fig. 4: Thomas Pollock Anshutz (1851 - 1912) The Ironworkersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Noontime, 1880

4. Epictetus, & Lebell, S. (2007). 5. Taylor, R. (1996).

building that is plugged into a network that we don’t care to understand. Sometimes, for example, the best solution is to not build anything at all, as French architecture office Lacaton & Vassal demonstrated in the mid-1990s after it had been commissioned to beautify the Place León Aucoc in Bordeaux. The firm’s research showed that the square was perfect. The architect’s advice was: do nothing, or rather, do nothing new, use the available budget for maintenance. They got their way and Lacaton & Vassal presents the design on its website marked “completed”.3 Technology is so present in every aspect of our everyday life that it is defining how we live. To explain this situation, we can use the analogy of the hammer “If the only tool you have is a hammer, then everything starts to look like a nail”. Technology has become the only tool that we have, we don’t think about the problems anymore we just google it, if Google doesn’t know it, how should we? “To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school…it is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.”6 Spatial design needs to solve additional challenges. Providing spaces for people to thrive in the city is not enough, it needs to provide a spatial answer to the question of how cities should adapt to the finite supplies of resources, materials, and energy and the constant threat of natural disasters. In other words, this requires a shift from an exclusively spatial approach to the development of spaces to an approach that pays more attention to their functioning inside a complex system.

3. Assen, S. V., Boomen, T. V., Frijters, E., Broekman, M., &amp; Camp, D. (2017). 6. Thoreau, H. D. (1935). .

Exotic enemies floods in the age of global warming

I E x o t i c e n e m i e s , to sit in the feathers, to swing the tail big-heartedly over the sea...

Pale Blue Dot

Tuvalu 24 Venice 25 The Netherlands

Flood prone areas

The Dutch Delta

Pale Blue Dot On February 14, 1990, the space probe Voyager 1 took a picture of planet earth. In this picture, the earth is shown as a dot that barely occupies .12 pixels of the whole frame. The great significance of the picture was explained by Carl Sagan “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives”. The picture was a strong reminder of the fragility of earth, a tiny dot surrounded by an infinite nothingness, a single complex system that is in a constant struggle for balance in order to support life, we have altered this balance. We live in the Anthropocene, the age in which climate and atmosphere are strongly influenced by human activity. This “Human Age” started approximately 8,000 years ago when humans started to use intense arable and cattle farming methods. Our activities are part of a global metabolism, a continuous exchange of resources, water, energy, food, biomass, a constant flow of cause and effect.1 The boundaries between culture and nature and between cities and ecological systems are fading. The paradox of humanity is that in our struggle to create better living opportunities, we also created the conditions that might bring an end to life as we know it.

1. Assen, S. V., Boomen, T. V., Frijters, E., Broekman, M., &amp; Camp, D. (2017)

Fig 1. Voyager 1, Pale Blue Dot, 1990 22

Fig 6. Sean Gallagher, Tuvalu, : Beneath the rising tide

Tuvalu “The sea is eating all the sand, before, the sand used to stretch out far, and when we swam we could see the seafloor and the coral. Now, it is cloudy all the time, and the coral is dead. Tuvalu is sinking.” says Leitu Frank, 32.2 Less than 26 sq km Tuvalu is the fourthsmallest nation in the world. Situated between Australia and Hawaii roughly 11,000 people live in Tuvalu, most of them on the island of Fongafale. Today, two of Tuvalu’s nine islands are on the verge of going under the sea. Most of the islands sit barely three meters above sea level, and at its narrowest point, Fongafale stretches just 20m across.

Due to its size and location, it is hard for people around the world to get a sense of the urgent situation in Tuvalu. The problem seems far away, it’s almost as if Tuvalua was on another planet. But there is another place that feels closer to home for everyone and it’s on it’s way to becoming the next Tuvalu.

2. Seas rise, hope sinks: Tuvalu’s vanishing islands – in pictures. (2019, May 27). 8. Robbins, N. (2019, December 10). Deep trouble: Can Venice hold back the tide? Retrieved June 16, 2020

Venice The inhabitants of Venice are used to aqua Alta, the yearly even of water flooding parts of the city. It occurs in autumn and winter when more precipitation is drained through the lagoon into the sea. In 1966 the record water level of 194 cm was reached. On November 12, 2019, Venice suffers the worst flood in the last 50 years. A 1.87 meters high tide flooded 85% of the city. The flood left two deaths and millions of euros in damage. The owner of a local bookshop said: “We were prepared for 160cm. We’ve done all that needed to be done for it, moved all the books to the higher shelves. We would have never thought this could happen. I am tired. This was my grandpa’s bookshop. I am tired of caring for it, under these conditions. The people that should have cared for us all this time, what have they been doing? 8

“They” refers to the government and the Mose system, an acronym for Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico (Experimental Electromechanical Module). Initially planned to be finished by 2011, a corruption scandal that broke in 2014 delayed the project drastically. The Venetian republic took care of its natural resources, keeping the lagoon from filling in through sedimentation and protecting its water quality. A drastic change in the relationship with the lagoon happened during the 19th and especially the 20th centuries, land reclamation took up a third of the lagoon – most of it rare natural habitat – to build an industrial port. Petrochemical plants at Marghera on the mainland opposite Venice caused the worst damage, millions of tonnes of toxic waste, including heavy metals and dioxins, were thrown into the lagoon for decades.

Fig. 7: Christisan Wijers, Venice II, 2019 25

Most of it remains in the mud under the surface. Lidia Fersuoch, president of the Venice branch of Italia Nostra, the oldest and largest environmental group in Italy, believes the issue will be forced by sealevel rise. “I hope that the sea-level rises will be such that the lagoon will finally be closed. It’s absurd to say this, but nothing else will achieve useful action.”8 Global warming is already out of control, Fersuoch added, which means that “in 50, or even 20 years, the lagoon will have to stay shut, and then how will it function? We need to think about that, about how to create the system, the engineering, ways to activate the tides artificially. It won’t be easy,” she said, adding that these questions should take precedence over Mose, “but I see no one talking about them.”

November 12 2019 200

100

0 cm

November 15 2019

Fig. 8: Christisan Wijers, Venice III, 2019

November 17 2019 November 4 1966

San Marco square floods

Venice flood level, November 2019 27

The Netherlands Distinguished around the globe for its engineering capabilities to “work” the water, the Netherlands has separated, drained and reclaimed land from water for centuries. Therefore comes the saying; “Drown or be Dutch”. These measures have created a distinctive dutch landscape. The landscape is the frontline of relationships between anthropogenic processes and the forces of nature. It is also a reminder of past errors and the need for future improvement. Until the past few decades, the measures taken to separate the land from water were mostly constructing utilitarian infrastructures that are strictly functional and work against the forces of nature. This approach is criticized and argued that the capacity of such utilitarian infrastructure does not allow the flexibility to adapt to the uncertainty of climate change. Over the past hundred years, the average temperature in the Netherlands has risen by 1.7 °C. The total quantity of precipitation has increased by approximately 20%, and the frequency of heavy rainfall has also greatly increased. The Netherlands is expected to face extreme weather conditions (drought, heavy storms, etc) in the near future. Structures such as dikes, dams, canals, and ditches are in a collision course with the processes of urbanization, increasing the conflict of spatial interests in the urban fabric. Are dikes capable of adapting to the new conditions created by climate change and an ever-expanding urban fabric?

Fig. 9: Rijkswaterstaat, afsluitdijk construction

Flood prone areas Over the centuries, the Netherlands has frequently been afflicted by flooding, from the rivers as well as the sea, in varying degrees of severity.9, Not all floods and breaches in the dike have been recorded or described. There have probably been far more incidents than are on record. Gale force winds from the northwest represent the biggest danger. The narrowness of the Straits of Dover pushes the turbulent seawater, driving it into the southwest delta, including Zeeland, the islands of South Holland, and the western part of North Brabant. When the current from the sea coincides with a spring tide, the water rises for far higher levels than normal, posing a potential threat to the sea dikes. High water is also a recurrent problem from the rivers. Were it not for the river dikes, increased levels of rainfall or meltwater would soon cause the rivers to overflow their banks and flood the surrounding land. The dikes prevent this, and they naturally have to sustain increased pressure at high water. In the past, this has often led to breaches in the dikes and flooding in the river region. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague, the three biggest cities in the country are all located in the flood-prone areas. This means that at any given point, a failure in the defense system could threaten the life of more than 1.5 million people

9. Pleijster, E., & Veeken, C. V. (2014).

Amsterdam 821,752 inhab.

The Hague

544,766 inhab.

Rotterdam

623,652 inhab.

Flood prone areas in the Netherlands.

The Dutch Delta The Netherlands is located in the lower reaches of the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt rivers. These rivers join the North Sea through the southwestern part of the country which shapes the unique landscapes of the Dutch southwestern delta.9 The region naturally experienced frequent flooding which made the landscape very dynamic through the processes of sedimentation and erosion. In the middle ages, the 9th century onwards, the landscape started to be systematically reclaimed and inhabited. This process of land reclamation has limited the dynamic ability of the delta landscape to adapt to the changing circumstances. In the Delta, land reclamation is mainly done in the fertile floodplains and peat bogs for agriculture. New land-reclamation can be done outside the dike once the land has been naturally accreted. Therefore the spatial structure is characterized by a large number of polders with the remnant of old dikes if the primary one is breached. This anthropogenic process has brought flourishing economic activities which, in turn, promote urban developments in the reclaimed landscape. The city of Dordrecht is one example of historic urban development around natural waterways.

9. Pleijster, E., & Veeken, C. V. (2014).

Ijssel Peek discharge 2015 340 m3/s

North Sea Sea level rise + 0.35m - + 0.85m

Dordrecht

Rhine Peek discharge 2100 22,000 m3/s Peek discharge 2050 19,000 m3/s Peek discharge 2015 14,000 m3/s Meuse Peek discharge 2015 2300 m3/s

Fig. 10: Closing the dike near Papendrecht during the North Sea Flood, 1953

The waterwolf t o w a r d s

r e s i l i e n t

d e l t a

II The

w a t e r w o l f , eager to triumph over you for a long time...

Spatial analysis

Golden age

Sint Elisabethflood

Dikescape 46 Typologies 48 Visual/Spatial structure

Antropological analysis

Cultivating resilience

Research question

Dordrecht spatial analysis Dordrecht landscape is part of the larger polder body of South Hollandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Grote Waard. After St. Elizabeth Flood in 1421, the city was forced to create the river channels and landscapes that surrounds modern day Dordrecht.9 Agricultural areas dominated the south east side of the island, alongside fresh water tidal nature areas of The Dortse Biesbosch. To the south east is the late 19th century manmade channel Nieuwe Merwede and beyond it, the Biesbosch national park. After St. Elizabeth Flood the people of Dordrecht, reclaim the land with embankments for agricultural purposes. From the 17th century until early 20th centrury, this process of land reclamation took place resulting in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s island of Dordrecht. Due to soil subsidence, the land within the embankments are lower than the river water outside.

9. Pleijster, E., & Veeken, C. V. (2014).

Dordrecht receives staples right.

Dordrecht Golden Age

1299

1379

Sint Elisabethsvloed 1421

Watersnoodramp

1953

2020

Breakingpoint

Golden age In 1220 Dordrecht received city rights in, and in 1299 it receives staple right. Staple right meant that merchant barges or ships needed to pay taxes and unload their goods at the port and display them for sell, often for a period of days. The combination of ideal location next to a crossing of rivers, and the staple right made the economy flourish. Dordrecht became one of the most important ports in Europe alongside Antwerp and Venice.10 From approximately 1350 to 1450 Dordrecht experiences their Golden Century.

10. Dijkman, J. (2011).

water as an asset 42

Fig. 11: Dort or dordrecht the dort packet boat,

Sint Elisabethsvloed. Dordrechtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s golden age stopped abrudly in 1421. St Elisabeth flood destroyed the city center and created an alternative water route. Ships could now bypass Dordrecht and its staple right. In 1457 a large part of the city centre burns down, this event marks the end of Dordrechtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s golden age.10 In the following centuries Dordrecht starts the process of land reclamation through polders. In the 19th century, Dordrecht character change is defined, it goes from rich trading city to poor industrial municipality.

10. Dijkman, J. (2011).

Fig. 12: Sint Elisabethsvloed 1421, Rijskmuseum

water as a threat 43

Dikescape Centuries of poldering created the distinctive landscape of the city. Older dikes are present on the landscape as massive gaps whitin the topography and are utilized as acces roads.11 Furthermore, infrastructure lines were also built on higher embankments crossing through the urban fabric. These network of dikes, roads and railways create a fractured city and limits the development within the existing space of the polders. The urban expasion of Dordrecht followed this pattern creating the Dikescape.

11. Meyer, H., Bobbink, I., & Nijhuis, S. (2010).

water as a division 44

Fig. 13: Watersnoodramp 1953

Zeedijk

E19

Provincialweg

Wantijdijk

NAP 0

Typologies Biking through the city made obvious a clear division of visual and spatial experience through the landscape, a fragmented urban fabric. This fragmentation is also reflected in the programatic uses which in turn create different spatial typologies for the different fragments of the city.

parks

commercial

housing

agriculture

Visual-spatial structure Moving through the landscape unfolds the clear thresholds that separates different neighbourhoods within the city. These thresholds can green urban periphery, dikes, or infrastructural lines such as highway and lane roads. Visual experience changes drastically from the city center, through the suburbs, towards the open polders, over the dike towards the river, and back. Each landscape seems to have their own character a total disconnections between them is obvious. The perception of water is less and less as we move away from the city center. Even in the areas next to the waterfronts The view towards the horizon is always limited due to the structures of the dikes that enclosed the landscape.

The complexity of the city is formed by the dikescape and its infrastructure. The dikescape gives a particular character to the city. Without the dikes, Dordrecht could not exist. It creates an â&#x20AC;&#x153; Island of Poldersâ&#x20AC;?. However, the dikescape also creates a fractured city. The dikesystem was overtaken by a road system and buildings were created on it. Therefore, barriers were formed. The dikescape created a fragmented urban fabric, conformed by segregated parts.

Dikescape 51

Broken city 52

The dikescape presents an opportunity to increase the absorption capacity of the city and connect the different polders. Along the dikes and the highways are various unused and unaccessible spaces. These spaces could be transformed into public space, adding some functions to the areas dominated by cars. The empty green spaces along the ring provide potential to densify. The dikescape should be reimagined as a tool to create a new character for Dordrecht. bringing back the flow of water, of people. of activities.

Antropoligcal analysis In the beggining people in Dordrecht maintained a close relationship with water. They were aware of the benefits and constrains that came with the waterflow. St. Elisabeth flood marks a shift in the relationship witin the citizens and water, all of the sudden water was seen as the enemy. Dordrecht economic activity shift from trade to agriculture. Peat extraction became the main activity for most of the working population of the city. During the 19th century, the industrial revolution meant a new change for the city. A breaking point happened, all of the sudden workers were given a fixed schedule in a factory. Furthermore the connection with the natural landscape of the city was lost. New technological advancements allowed for an agressive break between water and land. People in the city started to forget the struggle with the water, furthermore now they had free time in their hands, leisure became a new constant in everyday lives.12 But with this newfound freedom a crucial question arise for each citizen: that being, what are we free for? In other words, how are we going to use the time we have that is not devoted to the necessities of life? 12. Lyell, C. (1973)..

Dordrecht as a merchant port

Dordrecht Golden Age

St. Elisabeth flood

1299

1379

1421

Contruction of the train tracks, station and main bridge. 1865

Watersnoodramp 1953

2020

Industrial revolution

Leisure revolution

growing with the struggle

Breakingpoint

avoiding the struggle

Cultivating resilience Leisure is a relatively new concept. for most of human history, leisure was a rare luxury. Working from dawn to dusk was the norm for almost everyone up until a few hundred years ago. The English geologist Sir Charles Lyell12 wrote that in the 1840s America was a “country where all, whether rich or poor, were working from morning till night, without ever indulging in a holiday.”1 During the 19th century the arrival of the Industrial Revolution meant a rapid intensification of the division of labor, this, in turn, meant the rise of the “Leisure Revolution”. The regimented hours associated with industrial work gave people – for the first time in the modern era – scheduled free time. More than a century has passed since the beginning of the leisure revolution, and, perhaps more than at any point in the history of civilization, the average individual today is free from the daily struggle for survival. But from this newfound freedom, a crucial question arises: what are we free for? In other words, how are we going to use the time we have that is not devoted to the necessities of life? A world of Absolute Leisure might not be what we think. Is it paradise – the ultimate dream- or does it turn into a living hell? Is pure, unadulterated fun the ultimate nightmare, where lack of contrast leads to boredom, obesity, annoyance, lack of achievement... or simply nothing? Perhaps we are entering a scenario in which we all die in hedonism, like the decadent collapse of the Roman Empire. How far can we go before the desire for leisure morphs into leisurely despair? Few contemplate this question. Rather, as with many important questions regarding how to live, most people sink into conformity and implicitly assume their free time is best spent resting, relaxing, and passively consuming. As a result, such lives assume a common mold and follow a course analogous to the one described by the 20th-century philosopher Richard Taylor.13 “Most people are, in the most ordinary sense, very limited. They pass their time, day after day, in idle, passive pursuits, just looking at things – at games, television, whatever. Or they fill the hours talking, mostly about nothing of significance – of comings and goings, of who is doing what, of the weather, of things forgotten almost as soon as they are mentioned. They have no aspirations for themselves beyond getting through another day doing more or less what they did yesterday. They walk across the stage of life, leaving everything about as it was when they entered, achieving nothing, aspiring to nothing, having never a profound or even original thought…This is what is common, usual, typical, indeed normal. Relatively few rise above such a plodding existence.” It might be argued that there’s nothing wrong with “normal” existence. Life is already high paced and stressful, and with mental health problems on the rise, perhaps what is needed is more time spent resting and relaxing. The prolific 20th century English writer Colin Wilson14, however, disagreed with this sentiment.

12. Lyell, C. (1973).. 13. Taylor, R. (1996). 14. Wilson, C. (1979).

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As an adolescent, he struggled with depression, but he also had an astute mind and was intent on discovering the reason for his state of mind. He realizes that his depression was typically preceded by prolonged periods of passivity. When he did not occupy his days with interesting tasks, challenges, and problems to solve, he discovered that depressive moods would settle in his mind, and fog his perceptions. “Boredom, passivity, stagnation: these are the beginning of a mental illness, which propagates itself like the scum on a stagnant pond.” 14 Wilson’s research leaves to options waste leisure in idle pursuits or, strive to spend most of our free time creating, exploring, learning, doing – challenging our capacities and improving our talents. While the latter option entails perseverance, struggle, and the sacrifice of shortterm pleasures and comfort, the payoff – mental health and personal growth – is worth the effort. Architects, like everyone else, are becoming increasingly dependent on useless leisure paraphernalia as part of everyday spaces. The open-plan office for example. “Social pockets”15 are embedded in the design of may office buildings. These pockets are meant to encourage movement and change daily routines. This type of architecture, however, does not engage the user in any meaningful activity. This thesis aims to create a public space that engages the users into meaningful leisure. Spaces that direct activities and breed curiosity, this way rather than reflexively reaching for the remote, engaging in passive activities on the internet, or socializing about superficial subjects, people would be engaged in meaningful interactions like sporting, reading, socializing, or simply meditating.

Fig. 14: Gallen Kallela Symposion

Fig. 15: Georges Seurat - Bathers at AsniĂ¨res

14. Wilson, C. (1979). 15. Maas, W., & Sverdlov, A. (2016)

How far can we go before desire for leisure morphs into leisure despair?

archipielago of passivity 62

Dordrecht is a city with a broken urban fabric. Each polder is a pocket isolated from the rest of the city. The infrastructure build in order to protect the city from the water create a barrier not only for the waterflow but also for the activity flow. The life of the city is stagnate. Dordrecht became an archipielago of passivity..

water as a catalyst 64

The goal of the project is to find a way to use the existing dike infrastructure as a tool to connect the city instead of dividing it. Using the dikez to bring the water in instead of keeping it out and, seeing water as a catalyst for social interaction instead of as a threat.

How to take advantage from the residual space created by the dikescape in Dordrecht, using water as a catalyst for social interaction while developing a sense of awareness regarding the flood prone situation of the city?

Fig 16. Dike

The lion r e t h i n k i n g

t h e

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III Lion, wake up and wake up with one shout ...

Playing for leisure

Amsterdam playgrounds

Affordances

1111 Lincoln road

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Playing for leisure John Huizinga defined play as: “...a free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life as being ‘not serious,’ but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its proper boundaries of time and space” according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner.” Therefore, the aim is not to create a space for passive leisure but a space for play, play as explained by Huizinga, play as a creator of culture.15 The project is meant to challenge the users, take them out of their comfort zone, and stimulate creativity. Every aspect of the project will enhance the qualities of water specific to Dordrecht. Taking advantage of the flow to create a different spatial quality depending on the conditions of the river, the sea, and the rain. This constant change and novelty will attract people to spend time and interact with each other. Direct contact with the water will be the main challenge that people have to confront in the project. Water is not just a visual element, water is a dynamic element that shapes the project and reacts to the people. Each part of the project will give freedom for a spectrum of different activities to take place, there are no pre-defined typologies so it’s up to the users to decide how they want to use it. The design is not meant to create a bubble of protection from the elements, instead, its open spaces are always vulnerable to the changes in the weather, creating a sense of awareness of the surrounding.

The goal is to bring back the struggle and challenge to everyday life, but not a senseless struggle, the aim is to learn to be resilient by facing challenges in a casual way. Enabling the people of Dordrecht to discover their inner capacity to adapt to change and hardship. The project will teach resilience through challenge.

16. Huizinga, J. (2016).

How to take advantage from the residual space created by the dikescape in Dordrecht?

How to use water as a catalyst for social interaction?

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How to develope a sense of awareness regarding the flood prone situation of the city?

Understanding play as active leisure. Using Dordrecht water situation as a challenge. Bringing back the waterflow through the dikescape. Seeing water as a catalyst for social interaction.

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water as a social asset using the dikescape

Amsterdam playgrounds Aldo van Eyckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach to architecture was based upon creating places that fostered dialog and stimulated community life. Since the 16th century, play has been important in Dutch cultureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;several paintings from this century onwards have children playing as their main topic, and the historian Johan Huizinga celebrated play in his landmark book Homo Ludens. Hence, with his emphasis on play as a leisure activity, Aldo van Eyck playgrounds are a reference that stands upon a long ludic tradition. 17 Van Eyck designed a network of playgrounds in post-war Amsterdam. The city was torn by war and people needed a way to regain the identity of the city. The playgrounds are meant to bring communities together from the youngest to the oldest through play.

17. Lefaivre, L., Roode, I. D., & Fuchs, R. (2002).

Fig 17. Aldo van Eyck playground

Amsterdam network of playgrounds

Components A set of play elements were used and harmoniously combined in the design of the different playgrounds. The elements have clear geometrical shapes which gives them an aesthetical appeal. As Lefaivre and Tzonis17 put it, “looking at the configuration out of which the playgrounds are made, we are immediately struck by the predominance of clear geometrical shapes: circles, squares, and triangles”18 The play elements have no specific functions, it was up to the children’s imagination to decide how to use them. This created a constat state of curiosity. 17.Lefaivre, L., Roode, I. D., & Fuchs, R. (2002). 18. Withagen, R., & Caljouw, S. R. (2017).

matrix of playground components

Site Van Eyck playgrounds are placed in existing parks, squares, and other empty places in the city, taking into account the constraints that were provided by these places. Consequently, each playground was site-specific and unique. The playgrounds stich together the broken urban fabric of post - war Amsterdam.

network site + componets

playground

Fig 18. Abandoned plot

Fig 19. Amsterdam playground

Affordances In the 1960s and 1970s, the American psychologist James Gibson developed an ecological approach to psychology. This approach aimed to understand how animals, including humanbeings, perceive and act in their environment. This psychology started from the physicalist assumption that the environmen is meaningless, consisting solely of matter in motion. A central tenet of Gibson’s ecological approach is that the environment we live in does not consist of matter in motion in space; rather it consists of possibilities for action. He coined these possibilities affordances, and defined them as follows.

A stone for example, if of the right size and form, may work as a chair (an object) for the moment one sits on it. But when you stand up and leave, it becomes a thing again. The aim is to design in such a way, that an amount of matter, if of the right size and form, is transformed by life into architecture, but when left alone, it becomes a thing again. The more the primitive the forces that inform the form of architecture, the closer it gets to being resilient.

“The affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or for ill. The verb to afford is found in the dictionary; but the noun affordances is not. I have made it up.” For example, for a human-being a chair affords sitting, a floor affords walking upon, water affords drinking, and so on. There are two aspects of the affordance concept that need to be emphasized here. First, affordances exist by virtue of a relationship between the properties of the environment and the action capabilities of the animal. Whether a glass affords grasping with one hand depends on the size of the cup relative to the span and flexibility of the hand—a cup that might be graspable for an adult might not be graspable for a toddler. 18 These means that the most elemental shapes are the ones with higher affordances. By using simple shapes without a specific function, the design becomes resilient. It is adaptable. It’s up to the people to decide how they want to use the object and the space.

18. Withagen, R., & Caljouw, S. R. (2017). 19. A Thing not an Object. (n.d.). Retrieved June 18, 2020

a cube

a cube as a playground

a cube as a playing partner

a cube as a stage

a cube as a bench

1111 Lincoln Road Herzog & de Meuron A simple concept behing the building â&#x20AC;&#x153;The structure is the architectureâ&#x20AC;? The car park is an organism made up of a family of concrete slabs, deployed as floor plates, columns and ramps. The location and form of these elements result from a series of forces acting upon each other, a complex overlapping of site and building code requirements, combined with program choices and the aspiration to both integrate with Lincoln Road Mall and to formulate its beginning at the corner of Alton Road.20 The result of this elemental approach is a building with infinite possibilities... a parking lot, but also a perfomance centre, and a wedding venue and also a penthouse.

20. Cecilia, F. M., & Levene, R. (2002).

Fig 22. Lincoln 1111

Miami

Fig 21. Lincoln 1111

Traces Dordrecht was founded in water, it struggles for centuries to find the right balance between control and acceptance of the water flows that surround the city. This struggle is not visible in the modern city, the heritage of the city is lost in between the anonymity of the new infrastructure and housing developments. The materials chosen for the project must reflect the conditions that defined the growth of the city. Water, rain, and wind should leave a mark in the project, giving a sense of time but also making visible the importance of natural elements in the daily dynamics of the city. The traces in the material are meant to bring back pieces of memory that are missing in the traumatic landscape of the city. Rammed earth, concrete, and steel are the main elements used for the project. Earth will be slowly eroded by the water flows changing the spaces according to the seasons, tides, and rain. Concrete and steel will be the permanent elements in the design, showing the aging of the project through time. Dordrecht west harbor is the main gathering point for all the steel waste of the region. From here they are sent to recycling facilities in Belgium and Germany. There is also an important amount of sand and gravel available for construction. This would be the main source of materials for the project, making the construction process cheap and efficient.

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The path To restore the natural water flow, a connection between the two main waterfronts of the city is created. The path uses the existing infrastructure of the cities water defense system. Seeing the dikes as a threshold not as a barrier, using the space above the highway cross as a public square creating a gathering point for the community next to a highway, all of these principles are achieved using water as the main creator of space. Crabbehof, Sterrenburg, and Dubbledam are the most densely populated neighborhoods of the city. The new water flow will connect these tree communities passing through Wielwijkpark, the biggest public park in the city. The masterplan is meant to enhance the qualities of the city, which is not about creating something new but about taking advantage of what is already there. Three pauses in the flow are created. Each one of the spots has a different relationship to water. The project enhances the water flow in different ways. Each moment creates a different experience and each experience changes according to the water flow dynamic.

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1. Experience the tide / Wieldrecht Wieldrecht is the only residential area situated next to the Dordtsche Kil. Surrounded by dikes and oil tanks, nowhere else in the city is the disconnection created by the water defense infrastructure so strong. There is only one beacon of community in this area. The old ferry house functions as a restaurant, during the weeks at lunchtime, the place is full of workers from the area. During the weekends, however, it stays almost empty. the start(or the end) of the path is located beneath the old ferry house. The Zeedijk intervenes, a new connection with the water is created, thus allowing people to interact with the tide dynamics. The intervention tries to amplify the qualities of the places, it does not compete with the old ferry house, it complements it.

1. using the old ferry house as an anchor for the intervention

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2. A pause in the rain / Crabbehof and Sterrenburg Crabbehof and Sterrenburg are two of the most densely populated neighborhoods. It makes sense then to have two of the biggest public parks in the city in this area. However, the N3 highway divides these two communities. The project rethinks the space above the highway and creates an elevated garden and a public elevated square. Space will change according to the weather conditions. Rammed earth walls will fade away and create a new topography inside the building. Ramps are used not only to allow the pedestrian flow but also to guide the rain flow from the roof to the rivers.

1. creating a pedestrian path over the highway

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3. ramp to guide the rainflow

4.- an elevated square to catch the rain

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3. Embracing the river / Oudelandshoek Wantijdik is the end (or the start) of the journey. Oudelandshoek is located in one of the oldest polders in the city. This means that soil subsidence has a strong effect on the difference between the water level and the soil. The intervention creates a gap in the dike. At the end of the path, a small pier reaches towards the river creating a direct connection between land and water. The river flow is then used to create a distinctive atmosphere next to the highway. Normally the buffer area between the road and the houses is empty do to the noise and pollution. The project solves this problem using the tides to enhance the sound of water dripping from the wall instead of car engines.

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3. path to reach the waterfront

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IV This is how the lion wins land. This way he purifies Gold from foam.

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Conclusion. Dordrecht is a city born from the water. This is a fact that seems long forgotten. After centuries of fighting, the dutch genius manages to domesticate the rivers and the sea. But by controlling the water, a new threat came to the surface, this time a not so obvious one. Passivity might be just as dangerous as chaos, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just slower to act.

This project proposes a different approach to architectonical design, the architect is not the hand that defines every single detail of the project. Instead, the users, the need of the city, and the natural flows will reshape and enrich the space as time goes by.

The dikes not only restricted the water but also the activities, functions, and natural flows. Dordrecht has become a sterile city, the further away from the waterfront the fewer activities and dynamism, therefore less resilience. This thesis was an exercise in how architecture can create a balance between infrastructure, city, and natural flows to create a dynamic scenario. The dikes are intervened and their function is transformed, instead of being a barrier to divide water from land, they work as a threshold that allows direct interaction with the tides and the natural flow of water. The struggle against water is brought back into the city, but this time the struggle is used as a catalyst for activities, interaction, and curiosity. The project is meant to bring back water as an asset instead of as a threat. It raises the question, what would happen if we let the water in? This thesis explores a different point of view. A proposal for a possible future scenario. To grow to allow the natural flows of the water, instead of controlling and blocking them. We cannot keep fighting against nature and the consequences of climate change, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too late for that. We need to adapt and create solutions that respect the adjustments of the natural flows and enables change and adaptability for future generations.

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References 1. Freud, S. (2018). Civilization and its discontents. Scottsvalley, CA 2. Protter, E., & Hamilton, E. (1966). Edith Hamilton, the Greek way: A critical commentary. New York: American R.D.M. 3. Assen, S. V., Boomen, T. V., Frijters, E., Broekman, M., &amp; Camp, D. (2017). Urban challenges, resilient solutions: Design thinking for the future of urban regions. Amsterdam: TrancityxValiz. 4. Epictetus, & Lebell, S. (2007). The art of living: The classic manual on virtue, happiness, and effectiveness. New York: HarperOne. 5. Taylor, R. (1996). Restoring pride: The lost virtue of our age. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. 6. Thoreau, H. D. (1935). Walden. Tokyo: Kenkyusha. 7. Seas rise, hope sinks: Tuvaluâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vanishing islands â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in pictures. (2019, May 27). Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2019/may/27/ seas-rise-hope-sinks-tuvalu-vanishing-islands-in-pictures?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0dyZWVuTGlnaHQtMTkwNTMx 8. Robbins, N. (2019, December 10). Deep trouble: Can Venice hold back the tide? Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/10/venice-floods-sea-level-rise-mose-project 9. Pleijster, E., & Veeken, C. V. (2014). Dutch dikes. Rotterdam: Nai100. 10. Dijkman, J. (2011). Shaping medieval markets: The organisation of commodity markets in Holland, c. 1200-c. 1450. Leiden: Brill. 11. Meyer, H., Bobbink, I., & Nijhuis, S. (2010). Delta urbanism: The Netherlands. Chicago, IL: American Planning Association. 12. Lyell, C. (1973). The geological evidences of the antiquity of man: With an outline of glacial and post-tertiary geology and remarks on the origin of spieces ... New York: AMS Press. 13. Taylor, R. (1996). Restoring pride: The lost virtue of our age. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. 14. Wilson, C. (1979). New pathways in psychology: Maslow and the post-Freudian revolution. London: V. Gollancz. 15. Maas, W., & Sverdlov, A. (2016). Absolute leisure: Does leisure work? Rotterdam, Netherlands: Nai010. 16. Huizinga, J. (2016). Homo Ludens: A study of the play element in culture. Ranchos de Taos: Angelico Press. 143

17. Lefaivre, L., Roode, I. D., & Fuchs, R. (2002). Aldo van Eyck: The playgrounds and the city. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum. 18. Withagen, R., & Caljouw, S. R. (2017). Aldo van Eyckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Playgrounds: Aesthetics, Affordances, and Creativity. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01130 19. A Thing not an Object. (n.d.). Retrieved June 18, 2020, from http://www.primeirapedra.com/ en/projects/a-thing-not-an-object/ 20. Cecilia, F. M., & Levene, R. (2002). Herzog & de Meuron, 1998/2002: The nature of artifice = la naturaleza del artificio. Madrid: El Croquis Editorial.

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Image credits Fig 1. Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Heracles and the Nemea Lion. Fig 2. Hulton Archive (1940), Covenry Hit. Fig 3. Christian Wijers, Venice, 2019 Fig 4. Thomas Pollock Anshutz (1851 - 1912) The Ironworkers’ Noontime, 1880 Fig 5. Voyager 1, Pale Blue Dot, 1990 Fig 6. Sean Gallagher, Tuvalu, : Beneath the rising tide Fig 7. Christisan Wijers, Venice II, 2019 Fig 8. Christisan Wijers, Venice III, 2019 Fig 9. Rijkswaterstaat, afsluitdijk construction Fig 10. Closing the dike near Papendrecht during the North Sea Flood, 1953 Fig 11. Dort or dordrecht the dort packet boat, J.M.W. Turner 1818 Fig 12. Sint Elisabethsvloed 1421, Rijskmuseum Fig 13. Watersnoodramp 1953, retrieved from: https://www.uvw.nl/herdenking-watersnoo dramp-1953-2/ Fig 14. Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Symposion, 1894 Fig 15. Georges Seurat - Bathers at Asnières, 1884

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Fig 16. Dike, retrieved from: https://beeldbank.rws.nl/MediaObject/Details/De_dijk_tus sen_Kesteren_en_Opheusden_tijdens_extreem_hoogwater_van_de_Neder_ Rijn_312770 Fig 17. Aldo van Eyck playgorund, retrieved from: https://www.frontiersin.org/arti cles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01130/full Fig 18. Abandoned plote, retrieved from: https://archinect.com/news/article/150167729/risk- averse-design-what-would-aldo-van-eyck-think-of-playgrounds-today Fig 19. Amsterdam playground, Aldo van Eyck, circa 1960 Fig 20. Lincoln 1111, Herzog & de Meuron 2018 Fig 21. Lincoln 1111, Herzog & de Meuron retreived from: https://elcroquis.es/pro ducts/134-135-herzog_-de_meuron_1111-lincoln-road

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