A portfolio of five selected works from 2008 to 2015
Donald Eric van Ruiten Contact Rollekens 12 2322 Hoogstraten Belgium +32 (0)473 25 10 32 devanruiten@gmail.com www.devanruiten.com
About Donald was born in Breda, NL in 1990. Since his graduation in Architecture at the University of Antwerp, BE in 2014, he is working as an architectural intern at Maxwan architects & urbanists, the office of Rients Dijkstra and Hiroki Matsuura. Next to his daily job, he emerges himself in projects of his own both in architecture and design.
Preface
Dear reader, This portfolio provides a summary of my work from the past six years. It contains a selection of five academic projects that represents me both as a designer and as an architect. Through these I try to clarify my views on architecture. Both visually and textually an image is formed on the design attitude that I represent. Importantly, each work is approached in a way that clarifies its qualities in order to show a wide spectrum of skills. The projects are however not presented in a strict chronological sequence, but rather in such a way that a theoretical and critical image is shown of how I operate. Theory and critical thinking are also two themes that intrigue me most in architecture, which you will notice especially in my latest academic projects. The design of the portfolio is in itself a representation of my design attitude. I believe that on the medium of the drawing, image and text through which architecture is transferred there should also exist an attitude. I hope you will enjoy reading this portfolio. For more information, please visit my website www.devanruiten.com. Sincerely, Donald E. van Ruiten
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“Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity – I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only a euphemism for folly.” – Plato, The Republic. (380 BC).
Principles for good architecture
Donald E. van Ruiten Period Semester II/IV February – June 2014 Academic Open studio CK Master of Architecture University of Antwerp, BE Supervisor Christian Kieckens christian.kieckens@uantwerpen.be
1 Giorgio Grassi, The logical construction of architecture. (Nijmegen: SUN, 1997), 207-208.
Learning architecture is a lifelong process. Besides knowledge of technology, it is crucial to develop a certain attitude and an awareness of what one thinks and does. It ensures that we do not allow randomness or spontaneity in our work. To ensure a continuous awareness, I believe it is fundamental to capture that attitude. It creates order in mind and work. As a preliminary research for the master thesis project I pose myself the fundamental question of what good architecture actually is and compose the outcome in a set of basic principles. Architecture is always a reconstruction of existing architectural material. Thus, the formation of my opinion, a collection of existing opinions that I interpret and consider. Friedrich Nietzsche argues that true originality is not characterized by the discovery of the new, which is merely the result of coincidence and mindless fantasy, but by a changing view of the old and familiar, which therefore can be seen as new.1
“... an answer with examples and with authority is not at all an answer. Therefore, art is subject to movement and exposed to revolutions: if guided by examples and authority in the practice of art, one is like a blind guided by the blind and the helpless, not on the right path, but lost astray. What one needs are true and constant principles, derived from the essence of things. On the basis of these principles, Reason is able to draw the right conclusions on what to do and what not to do in architecture. Only then we will possess a reliable and safe guide to securely lead us to our goal.’’ – Francesco Milizia, Principii d’architettura civile. (1781). evaluation of new works. Thereby new work gets meaning, a meaning consistent with the terms of contemporary architecture and the tradition of the profession.2
№ 0 – Good architecture is clearly substantiated The intersection of the past and the present is where the creation of architecture happens. The built works around us, from all eras, are the signifiers of architecture. In these, its foundations are laid down, they form the definition of architecture. By tracing back its primary elements, constant principles, rules or parameters – not subjective to historical changes – could be discovered. These can shape a logical basis for designing and be used for the
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and Leon Battista Alberti have each, respectively in De Architectura and De Re Aedificatoria, recorded three principles determine the ‘objective, rational beauty’ of architecture. Vitruvius formulated it with ‘utilitas’ (functionality), ‘firmitas’ (solidity) and ‘venustas’ (beauty). Alberti with ‘commoditas’ (convenience), ‘necessitas’ (necessity) and ‘voluptas’ (pleasure). Although roughly similar, there
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2 Ibid., 179.
is a difference. While ‘venustas’ refers to the beauty of the form, ‘voluptas’ refers to the sensory experience of architecture. Expressed in the language of today, one gets ‘function’, ‘construction’, ‘form’ and ‘experience’. In my opinion all four have significance and therefore I intend to loose the famous triads to shape my own view on architecture.
Fig. 1 Coalescing a qualitative sense of space with the functions is a function which architecture has to fulfil as well. Central reading space of Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm Zentrum, Max Dudler, 2009, Berlin (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin).
3 Brett Steele, Architecture Words 5: Form, Function, Beauty = Gestalt. (London: AA Publications, 2010), 107. 4 Ibid., 108 - 109.
to transcend the functional by coalescing a qualitative sense of space with the functions. The architect has the ability to shape functions into space, to articulate space by functions.5 Here, efficiency, pragmatism and common sense are very crucial. Nowadays, it is often the case that architecture should be able to survive a program. This can also be seen as a function of architecture towards its user. If architecture thus fulfils all its functions, including its survival, it also contains a qualitative sense of space.
№ I – Good architecture is functional in all its aspects The term ‘function’ originates from mathematics and describes a correlation, a connection between a minimum of two things. Also in architecture the term refers to a connection between two or more things. When we talk about fulfilling a function, we talk about fulfilling it with appropriate means. It has in no way a limiting meaning, and thus is over-arching for the relationship of things with each other.3
№ II – Good architecture has a logical construction Traditionally, architecture is seen as the art of construction. However, it is not in an artistic way through which there has to be dealt with architecture and to merely give shape, but to achieve a harmony through good proportions and compositions.6 In that view, architecture is a superior form of construction because it accomplishes in a reasoned and logical way a harmonious fusion between function, form, construction and experience. Architecture is able to transcend the construction because it resides in the realm of symbolism, concept and idea.
First of all, the term refers to the connection between man and architecture. Herein, various kinds can be distinguished. For example, architecture will include a program that should be useful. Architecture also has a visual presence, so the connection is also an aesthetic one. This connection even exists in respect to other buildings and its surroundings. Furthermore, there are other functions, e.g. environmental, economical, social, etc., to be met. The more precise the definition, the more clearly the demands and the better the result.4
The construction should pursue clarity, order and balance. One must build on reason in order to legitimize the architecture.7 The choice of structure has an impact on both function and form, but function and form may determine the structure as well. The tectonic character should be expressed and an as pure and simple as possible geometry should be applied. A grid concerns working with reason, creates unity and serves as a quality mark for the sustainability of a building.8
The various functions generally represent specific (physical) conditions which the architect has to determine and to which he is bound. These conditions are mostly minimum requirements and when architecture fulfils only these conditions, it is merely utilitarian architecture. It is important to not only meet these requirements but
In the appearance there should be a distinction between load-bearing and room-dividing elements. Therefore also between structure and skin. These have a subtle
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5 Theodor Adorno, ‘‘Functionalisme vandaag,’’ in ‘Dat is architectuur’: sleutelteksten uit de twintigste eeuw, edited by Hilde Heynen et al. (Rotterdam: Uitgeverij 010, 2009), 369.
6 Hilde Heynen, ‘‘Architectuur en bouwen,’’ in ‘Dat is architectuur’: sleutelteksten uit de twintigste eeuw, edited by Hilde Heynen et al. (Rotterdam: Uitgeverij 010, 2009), 673.
7 Hilde Heynen et al., ‘‘Rationaliteit, rationalisering, rationalisme,’’ in ‘Dat is architectuur’: sleutelteksten uit de twintigste eeuw, edited by Hilde Heynen et al. (Rotterdam: Uitgeverij 010, 2009), 775. 8 Ibid. 7, 677 -678.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
relationship, a play of concealing and revealing. The construction must be represented in the skin while maintaining a distinction between the two. Important is the difference in materiality of both. In no way may they be confused with one another. Generally, one should act on rational grounds, in a logical and analytical way with the structure in terms of form and materiality. This leads to simplicity and clarity which will do good to both function, form and experience. № III – Good architecture has an honest and æsthetic form The task of the architect is not to invent forms. In architecture, one must solve problems of building, not problems of form. It should lack randomness.9 The architect needs to trace a truth through ‘facts’ in order to acquire a form that meets these facts. Facts refer to the conditions and rules set by program, context, history... Architecture is never without rules, it is its raison d’être. They create an order, a convention, so one is able to give shape in an orderly manner. Although invariable, the facts are considerable and interpretable. Herein lies the real freedom of architecture. A freedom that stems from restraint.10 The beauty of architecture does not come from artifice. The form should be a synthesis of the timeless and the contemporary. Architecture needs to be substantiated on memory, on tradition and on constant elements, but also on modern needs. It should cite or pursue ideals, not just blindly copy forms.11 That is what gives meaning and identity to architecture. It must remove itself from styles and pursue the constant.12 Through organizing and shaping the present facts on rational grounds,
Fig. 2 An English-language pangram – a phrase that contains all of the letters of the alphabet – commonly used to display font samples. It immediately shows the structure, form and experience of a typeface in a functional matter.
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Fig. 3 Allegorical engraving of the Vitruvian primitive hut, believed to be the first architectural structure erected by man. Frontispiece of Marc-Antoine Laugier, Essai sur l’architecture. 9 Ibid. 1, 210. 10 Ibid., 211. 11 Lieven De Cauter, ‘‘Modernisme als (anti)classicisme,’’ in ‘Dat is architectuur’: sleutelteksten uit de twintigste eeuw, edited by Hilde Heynen et al. (Rotterdam: Uitgeverij 010, 2009), 696 - 697. 12 Ibid. 3, 129.
13 Bob Van Reeth, ‘‘Good Architecture?,’’ Oase Journal 90 (2013): 119.
№ IV – Good architecture evokes a meaningful experience Between architecture and the human body, there is an elementary connection. The sensory experience is the most important benchmark for the success of architecture.16 An image or scale model can not evoke what a space can evoke and may only appeal in a certain extent to the professional. The real experience of space, material, and light is reserved for built architecture.
architecture can achieve a form that is conform to the truth, that is honest about its being and its content. Architecture shouldn’t be simple, but straightforward and refined, it should contain the essence of tradition but still maintain its own identity.13 Finally, the appearance of architecture in everyday life should fall to the background. A lot of contemporary architecture places itself in the spotlight. It is much more important to create architecture that silently blends in with people’s habits, without insisting itself. Order and repetition can provide architecture with normality and neutrality allowing the focus on its presence to largely fade.
Architecture is thus an extension of our perception and directly connected with the sensory experience. Of all art forms, only architecture can stimulate all the senses simultaneously. The experience of a building consists of different sensory experiences. These experience components are specific and articulated. What we experience is light, sound, colour, temperature, materials, textures, shapes... but even scale and proportions of space in relation to the body. We are able to approve or disapprove of something in a fraction of a second.17 Movement of the body and through time causes constant changes. Architecture thus becomes a string of constant stimulations of all our senses.
‘‘It then became clear to me that it was not the task of architecture to invent form. I tried to understand what the task was... The others said, ‘What we build is architecture’, but we weren’t satisfied with that answer... since we knew that it was a question of truth, we tried to find out what truth really was. We were very delighted to find a definition of truth by St. Thomas Aquinas: ‘Adequatio intellectus et rei’, or as a modern philosopher expresses it in the language of today: ‘Truth is the significance of fact’.’’ – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (quoted by Peter Carter in Architectural Design, March 1961).
Depending on the intentions of the architect, architecture provokes a particular experience. A design should incite to stimulate both the inner intellectual and outer sensory perception. It must delve into the sensory perception and at the same time convey a meaning.18 The underlying idea and the form should provide a framework for the experience that still gives enough room for the observer’s interpretation but providing sufficient guidance and persuasion in all that is visible. Architecture is only successful when it affects us and guides us to the places where we should go according to the architect.19
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16 Steven Holl, ‘‘Speaking through the silence of perceptual phenomena,’’ Oase Journal 90 (2013): 98 - 99.
17 Peter Zumthor, Atmospheres. (Basel: Birkhäusen, 2006), 13.
18 Elsbeth Ronner, ‘‘Wandering,’’ Oase Journal 90 (2013): 123.
19 Ibid. 16, 100.
Onofre & the architect
Donald E. van Ruiten Period Semester III/IV September 2013 – January 2014 Academic Open studio CK Master of Architecture University of Antwerp, BE Supervisor Christian Kieckens christian.kieckens@uantwerpen.be
1 Onofre Bouvila is the protagonist and central figure in the novel The City of Marvels, written by Eduardo Mendoza. 2 Leon Krier in 1980 proposed the Insula Tegeliensis for his design of the city centre of West Berlin as a reaction to the traditional closed perimeter block. Leon Krier. Rational architecture, 1978: The reconstruction of the European city. (Brussels: Archives d’architecture moderne, 1978), 168 - 169.
As a introductory exercise to the master thesis project, Christian Kieckens takes on the part of Onofre Bouvila1, a city dweller who during a period of three months asks five design questions bound by a storyboard. The design questions are given a critical interpretation and answer by myself, the architect. It is meant as an exercise about architectural thinking and as the prelude for the eventual design proposal for the thesis project. Four of the five design questions are summarized on the next pages because of their major relevance to the thesis project. They are presented in their original form as a dialogue. Each answer by the architect is substantiated both textually and visually. This way the discourse between Onofre and the architect is easy to follow. A metropolitan house Onofre Bouvila wants a permanent place to transfer his experiences. He asks the architect to help him in his quest for elementary and essential spaces and to generate some guidelines to shape a set of separate buildings.
by a ‘galleria’. This way, the block becomes generous and creates value for both the city and itself. The whole functions as if it were a ‘city within a city’. Mein Haus [Campanile] Onofre realises that a vertical dwelling, a tower, a ‘Hochhaus’ is the only possible way to build a manifesto. A vertical city dwelling, a present and inconspicuous house in the city. A house with the nessassary familiarity, useful but transferable and therefore sustainable. With a shape as a harness and gesture in its own language to the city. As historical architecture has always been in his opinion.
The architect thinks the ‘urban collage’ and tradition, together with the daily needs of urban life found in a city quarter – housing, work, education, leisure, culture – should serve as the basis for the design of a metropolitan house. A cluster of various ‘building types’ are brought together around a public courtyard.2 The boundary of the block and the unification of the buildings is emphasized
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Fig. 4 Conceptual illustration to support the design ‘guidelines’ written in the text for a metropolitan house.
The traditional city has ultimately given way to the ‘culture of congestion’ and has quickly mutated into a true metropolis. The sky is the only remaining form of nature, but unfortunately a permanent smog cloud ensures that even this remains hidden. The sun can barely provide the city of daylight. The ever so pleasant city now is a scary and dark place. One looks up longingly, in search of fresh air, time and space.3 Building vertically offers the only remaining freedom. The higher, the more one can remove oneself of the (inhabited) world and the closer one finds oneself to nature. The tower works its way through the smog, away from the drab metropolis into a sunlit sky. The resident has the opportunity to gradually escape the urban chaos within the same building, with views of the surrounding landscape changing as he climbs. At the top, one can finally find mental and physical isolation and explore new horizons. The vertical city dwelling is an architecture that enhances everyday life. A house that blends the needs of urban existence with the possibility to escape from it. A liberating gesture to the densely built city. A utopian solution to a dystopian situation.
3 ‘‘... the first Metropolitan paradox: the greater the distance from the earth – the more unnatural the location – the closer the communication with what remains of nature (i.e., light, air, views, etc.).’’ – Rem Koolhaas, ‘Life in the metropolis’ or ‘The culture of congestion’.
Fig. 5 Rendering of the vertical city dwelling above the smog clouds. Fig. 6 Axonometric section of the cube.
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Gestalt One of the most emblematic paintings speaking to Onofre’s imagination is undoubtedly The Tower of Babel by Pieter Breughel. The view on the road that is moving like a spiral toward the top to end there in a sublimation made Onofre wonder what would be going on in the innermost of the ‘tower’. Consequently, he poses the architect the question to search for the ultimate experience of a stairwell inside a cube with a side of 10 meters. Identity is obtained by a process of transformations of the cube-gestalt. He asks for a ‘model’ in both the theoretical and the pragmaticimaginative sense.
space, an atrium, trajectories move both on the outside and inside of the cube. The atrium is visible from the outside but only accessible by climbing and descending the staircase. Through the use of concrete, the weight of mass is emphasised and the cube becomes both a scale model of an architecture and a permanent sculpture in itself. Ambition & utopia The discourse with the architect did Onofre realise he was in search for something specific, which he wasn’t able to formulate until then. He wants the world, a new world, contained in his project without denying his own origins. Wasn’t the architect Onofre himself all along? Or was he merely a fictive person of his imagination? The architect, Onofre himself, decided to develop a new vision, a new city, something from today to turn into tomorrow what would not become yesterday. A kind of ultimate dream about the reality that is architecture: an urban piece, or a new city as a piece of architecture. A personal ambition, maybe an utopia. As a city full of marvels.
Fig. 7 The cube poured in concrete and put on a pedestal. It becomes both scale model and permanent sculpture.
4 Inspired by Max Bill’s Endless Ribbon sculptures that represent a Möbius strip – a mathematical surface with only one side and only one boundary component.
The architect’s origins lie in today’s traditional European city. But in his travels to Asia the architect saw, however, how the cities here have already surpassed the West with quite a lead in terms of size, height and density. Globalization and hyper-urbanization causes these facts to also become relevant in the near future for the European city.
In Pieter Breughel’s The Tower of Babel both void and mass express themselves in a spiral and both sublimate at the top. Mass and void could thus be interchangeable. A negative form, a spiral surrounding a central void may thus be formed. The top of the spiral is not the end point per se, but it may also be a starting point. Start and end are once again interchangeable and therefore equal. Subsequently, the idea of an ‘endless ribbon’ presents itself, without start or end.4
His quest finalises in the ambition to make an architecture in this global context: a metropolitan ‘house’ the size of a city block permitting more uses than only housing. A set of houses, a merger of architectures. A new world contained in a project which acts as a city within the city. A house the size of a small city and a city the size of a large house.
With these ideas a stairwell is created existing of multiple trajectories through mass and void. Surrounding a central
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Fig. 8 & 9 (following page) Hong Kong both by day and by sunset. Photos were taken on a trip in 2011. The city served as the main driver for the subject of the thesis project.
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The city within the city
The master thesis project takes place in the context of globalization and hyper-urbanization. It represents a metropolitan and vertical ‘house’ the size of a city block that also allows other uses next to living. A set of houses, a fusion of architectures. A new world contained in a project that functions as a city within a city. A house the size of a small city and a city the size of a large house. Being both theoretical and pragmatic, this project is an excellent illustration of how I work. It signifies the culmination of the knowledge gained throughout my academic career. The world is currently in an accelerated process of globalization. A heightened state of mobility and interconnectivity along with an excessive upscaling of international integration brings people, cultures and markets ever closer together. Society takes on a new form: a globalized society of cosmopolitan people. The city houses the essence of society. The current worldwide hyper-urbanization brings about an inevitable rise of hyper-dense and vertical mega-cities. Infrastructural nodes are the catalysts of urbanization, accompanied by the demise of the city center as the core of urban life. The city becomes therefore a polycentric area of autonomous enclaves – an archipelago of self-sufficient islands. Nowadays, architecture appears to be moving towards one of neutrality, uniformity and the indefinable. A search for the absolute zero point of architecture, the absence of style. For this new phase in architecture,
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Donald E. van Ruiten London, UK Period Semester IV/IV February – June 2014 Academic Open studio CK Master of Architecture University of Antwerp, BE Supervisor Christian Kieckens christian.kieckens@uantwerpen.be
Fig. 10 View of the south façade and terminus.
“London – its only identity a lack of clear identity – is perpetually becoming even less London, more open, less static.” – Rem Koolhaas, “Generic City,” in S, M, L, XL.
notions such as location, context and identity seem to be losing their meaning. The once specific and local becomes interchangeable and global. London is as the most prominent international city in Europe, also hit by a violent urbanization for which the city has deployed a future-oriented redevelopment in which the building of skyscrapers makes up an important part. The project is situated on the infrastructural hub of Waterloo Station. Situated nearby the South Bank, it is a very important traffic junction for the city and it belongs to one of the sites to be redeveloped. The city as an archipelago of autonomously functioning districts is the main driver of the project. The city within the city is both architecture and city. An architecture that includes the complexity of the city. A city on the scale of architecture. The project acts as autonomous as the city and its parts: all essential functions of urban life – traffic, live, work, learn and relax – are unified. The project develops itself vertically with the superposition of its elements and can be read as a continuation of hybrid/ mixed-use concepts and building typologies.
Fig. 11 Situation plan
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The towers on podium typology is seen as an important solution to the housing problem worldwide. A drawback, however, is that it often results in a singular circulation and a separation of public functions in the podium with private functions in mono-functional towers on top. This is contrary to the idea of a true city within the city. Therefore, to oppose this paradox, it is modified in terms of its horizontal and vertical components so improved links can be made both with the city and between functions. The outcome is a better mix of public and private along with an increased density and complexity.
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The city is a continuous mechanism that constantly transforms and evolves. The demolition of old for the realization of new is often not only inefficient and unsustainable, but also a stab in the back for the development pattern of the city. Waterloo Station is a structure that includes a zeitgeist and has a great significance as a gateway to and from the city. As a building that continues to meet future needs, it is preserved and integrated in the conception. A minimal perforation of the old is reached by separating the new from the old through the use of three rectangular columns. This way, existing daily traffic is disturbed as little as possible. Waterloo Station becomes thus an even more extensive junction of traffic through the addition of the vertical infrastructure.
“The terminal concourses are the ramblas and agoras of the future city, time-free zones where all the clocks of the world are displayed, an atlas of arrivals and destinations forever updating itself, where we briefly become true world citizens.” – J.G. Ballard, “Airports: The Cities of the Future,” in Blueprint. (1997).
Fig. 12 The station concourse
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Fig. 13 From top to bottom: theatre & sports, hotel & housing, forum: dwelling.
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Given the mix of functions, height, width and density, circulation inside is just as complex as in the urban context in which it is situated, using different scales of vertical and horizontal transportation. Through forums and blocks the functions are arranged. These forums are publicly accessible via the central core which acts as a vertical metro. This vertical metro only stops at the forums. The outer two cores contain local elevators to the specific function. Similar to the contemporary city, infrastructure becomes a device for establishing hierarchies, rhythms and thus sets a new way dwellers experience the urban space.
the synthesis of the timeless and contemporary. The conception seeks an architecture absent of style and freed from any excessiveness and inventions of form. The architecture is provided with a sense of normality and neutrality through the use of order and repetition. It is generic and universal, but obtained by the interpretation of specific and local elements. It represents the impact on society by globalization and internationalization. A true home for the cosmopolite.
The circulation cores are literally and figuratively the fundamental structural elements of the project. These, in turn, carry the structure of the blocks: a steel exoskeleton. This structural skin is made up of a body of columns and beams, which together form a rigid threedimensional vierendeel frame. The openings between the columns and beams are of varying sizes, dictated by the axial forces within the frame. A city is never infinitely big. The division into districts makes it clear where the city ends and the suburban begins. A city quarter acts as a city in itself and contains its own centre and border. The curtailment of growth results in a dense and efficient city. The boundary is a fundamental element for the functioning of the city. The city within the city has a clear limit – the square – which emphasizes the unification of the various blocks inside. In this way it sets an absolute limit which thus defines the actual shape of the vertical city. The city within the city represents an urban model that seeks to frame the city architecturally. Its form is
Fig. 14 Cross-section
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Fig. 15 Long-section
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New living environments
In the master studio Research by design, the task was to redevelop an area called Neerland in Antwerp as a new housing environment. In collaboration with Christiaan Rijnen a masterplan was designed in which then individually an apartment block. The open area Neerland in Wilrijk is located on the border between city and countryside. A transition is created between these two by making the site serve as a permeable filter. Nature penetrates the site through the southeast while the city penetrates it from the north. This way a relationship is created between the two, so in some places one dominates over the other and vice versa. In addition, through vistas a link between the two is established. The residential street is a central line in the masterplan that in terms of pavement branches itself in different ways to nature and city. The residential streets get light gray tinted concrete paving blocks, while in more private places the pavement has dark gray colored concrete paving blocks. In the southeast, the open space and buildings manifest themselves in the form of courtyard housing, with greenery as the dominant factor. Here, the houses are arrange as pavilions in the parkland. The arrangement allows for both open and intimate atmospheres. Towards the Neerlandweg the rowhousing typology is applied where buildings and open space have an equal presence. The rowhousing manifest itself from street and square
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Christiaan Rijnen & Donald E. van Ruiten Antwerp, BE Period Semester II/IV Research by design February – June 2013 Academic Master of Architecture University of Antwerp, BE Supervisor Geert Driesen geert.driesen@uantwerpen.be
Fig. 16 View of corner apartment block.
and next to private gardens to the rear, they include a central communal garden. By making use of vistas, a visual connection is made here to the parkland. Clusters of patio housing are situated between the apartment blocks. Here, buildings are the dominant factor, where greenery is more structured and enclosed and pavement is more present. The apartment blocks are fitted with enclosed or semi-enclosed communal gardens that focus to the park landscape to create vistas and to establish a connection with the surrounding building typologies. This, together with the creation of a qualitative street frontage along the Krijgslaan and Neerlandweg, provides the basis for their shape. The apartment blocks are structured according to a well-defined grid through which an intelligent frame is created. At ground level mainly commercial and collective programs occupy the public street-facing faรงades. Furthermore, dwellings are located along the residential streets within the site. By applying different modules, a wide variety of housing units is provided. The modules consist of one to three bedroom apartments, including a duplex unit, each with an outdoor space in the form of a balcony or roof terrace.. The structure provides the flexibility to implement the modules in different places and combinations. This possibility of different arrangements of the modules then allows the faรงade to not be monotonous. Furthermore, this is enhanced by applying different window types defined within the grid.
Fig. 17 Masterplan
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The two apartment blocks are designed according to the same idea to form a leitmotiv in the whole. Furthermore, they together form one large street frontage along the Krijgslaan.
Fig. 18 Ground floor & second floor plan
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“In architecture, there are two necessary ways of being true. It must be true according to the programme and true according to the methods of construction. To be true according to the programme is to fulfil exactly and simply the conditions imposed by need; to be true according to the methods of construction, is to employ the materials according to their qualities and properties ... purely artistic questions of symmetry and apparent form are only secondary conditions in de presence of our dominating principles.’’ – Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Entretiens sur l’architecture. (1863 - 72). Windows from floor to ceiling provide the apartments with plenty of daylight and as well minimize the boundary between the inside and the outside. By placing the windows of the private apartments deeper into the façade, the facade gets a more solid appearance. These windows visually indicate the housing program. With collective and commercial spaces the windows are set flush with the façade surface, clarifying the functions. The façade is clad with red brick, typical for the region as well as for Belgium as a country. The courtyard façade a natural stone plinth is used for a more friendly atmosphere and daylight reflection.
Fig. 19 Detail of the façade
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Perceptual space
Donald E. van Ruiten Mechelen, BE Period Semester III/IV October – December 2011 Academic Architecture & construction Bachelor of Architecture Artesis University College, BE Supervisor Hans Barbier hans.barbier@uantwerpen.be
In the third Bachelor studio Architecture & construction an emphasis was put on both construction and experience. The assignment consisted of the design of a number of spaces brought together by a spacial concept, both served and serving, using a timber construction.
The plot of the project is situated in Mechelen. It is mainly surrounded by private housing and bound by rear façades. A typical small urban canal to the front and historical workers’ dwellings to the back compliment the tranquil atmosphere of the environment. Traditionally, these historical workers’ dwellings were grouped around a street or square that could be closed off at night. The designed public building stands separate from the private buildings and therefore has an introvert character. A square in front of the workers’ dwellings and a clear threshold to the back are created. There is sought for a balance between interaction and anonymity, residents and visitors. The public nature of the building is made clear with the ‘open’ timber cladding. Four elements occurring in the environment of the building are each taken separate to create distinct and specific atmospheres. These are linked by spaces with a significantly closed atmosphere. The curiosity of the visitors is provoked by an arch in front of the building. The high narrow space between the arch and
Fig. 20 Scale model 1:50 of the building and its immediate surroundings.
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Fig. 21 & 22 Floor plan & long-section
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the building creates an enclosed experience. Following this, the first interior space has an open ambience that revolves around the greenery which is found in the surroundings of the building. In the following room, a layer of water covers the floor. This natural boundary refers to the urban canal in front of the building. It forces the visitor who is commanded by the linear circulation through the space. From the water one rises to the third space. A central raised square gives the visitor the choice to put oneself on a pedestal or to humbly walk around it. Through an airlock one reaches the final, acoustically isolated, room. Due to low lighting the sensation of sunlight is stimulated making the visitor aware of its importance.
Battens 50 x 50 mm Tile battens 21 x 40 mm Counter battens 20 x 30 mm Bitumen-coated fiberboard Columns 89 x 38 mm + insulation OSB3 panel 12 mm Air layer 50 mm OSB3 panel 12mm Columns 89 x 38 mm + insulation Vapor barrier Gyproc 12 mm Plywood finish 12 mm
Aerated concrete block
Finally, the visitor re-enters the outside environment. Due to the separate observation of all the occurring elements – greenery, water, locus and light – the urban surroundings will be experienced more consciously with a bigger emphasis on these natural elements.
Wooden flooring Cement screed 80 mm Vapor barrier Insulation 120 mm Vapor barrier Concrete slab 300 mm
Fig. 23 Construction detail of the acoustically insulated wall and floor
|0
| 100
| 300 mm
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“I think there is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity, in clarity, in efficiency. True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation. It’s about bringing order to complexity.” – Jonathan Ive, As Little Design as Possible. (2011).
Donald Eric van Ruiten A portfolio of five selected works from 2008 to 2015 Copyright © 2015 Donald Eric van Ruiten All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner. Rollekens 12 2322 Hoogstraten Belgium +32 (0)473 25 10 32 devanruiten@gmail.com www.devanruiten.com
Literature list Frampton, Kenneth. Modern architecture: a critical history. London: T&H, 1985. Grassi, Giorgio. ‘‘Een mening over het onderwijs en de voorwaarden van ons vak.’’ Oase Journal 28 (1990): 52 - 63. Grassi, Giorgio. The logical construction of architecture. Nijmegen: Uitgeverij SUN, 1997. Heynen, Hilde, André Loeckx, Lieven De Cauter, Karina Van Herck. ‘Dat is architectuur’: sleutelteksten uit de twintigste eeuw. Rotterdam: Uitgeverij 010, 2009. Holl, Steven. “Speaking through the silence of perceptual phenomena.’’ Oase Journal 90 (2013): 98 - 100.
Image list All images, unless otherwise credited, © Donald Eric van Ruiten. 5 Humboldt - Universität zu Berlin, “Führungen im Jacobund-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum,” HU-Berlin, www.hu-berlin.de/studium/ compass/fuehrungen/ub. 6 Artribune, “Marc Antoine Laugier, Frontespizio di Essai sur l’architecture, 1755,” Artribune, www.artribune.com/2013/06/ architettura-nuda-1-un-invitosulla-nudita/1-marc-antoinelaugier-frontespizio-di-essai-surlarchitecture-1755/.
Ibelings, Hans. Supermodernism: Architecture in the Age of Globalization. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2002. Koolhaas, Rem, Bruce Mau. S, M, L, XL. New York: Monacelli Press, 1998. Ronner, Elsbeth. “Wandering.’’ Oase Journal 90 (2013): 120 - 124. Steele, Brett. Architecture Words 5: Form, Function, Beauty = Gestalt. London: AA Publications, 2010. Van Reeth, Bob. ‘‘Good architecture?.’’ Oase Journal 90 (2013): 118 - 120. Zumthor, Peter. Atmospheres. Basel: Birkhäusen, 2006.
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