Archis as Guide: Aldo van Eyck Playground Tour 2009 by Jonathan Hanahan

ARCHIS AS GUIDE Aldo van Eyck Playground Tour 2009 1

Jonathan Hanahan and Rory Hyde

In 2002, Volume’s predecessor Archis presented a ‘Psychogeographic Bicycle Tour of Aldo van Eyck’s Amsterdam Playgrounds’.1 Included were two numbered maps of the playground locations in 1976 and 2002, a list indicating their current status, and a series of before and after photos showing how they had stood up to the test of time and encroaching urban development. First designed by the 26 year-old Van Eyck in 1947 for the Department of Urban Development, the playgrounds from his hand – and those replicating it – are beautifully simple, inspired by the artistic likes of Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. Their minimalist forms, such as steel framed climbing domes, circular sand pits and horizontal bars of varying heights quickly spread throughout the city to form a familiar recurring element, and an important part of Amsterdam’s collective childhood memory. As this issue of Volume presents a comprehensive exploration of the guide, we thought we would test their credentials by re-revisiting these playgrounds with the magazine as our guide. Please join us on this journey. 35

BERTELMANPLEIN

VONDELPARK

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Bertelmanplein Unchanged Vondelpark Under renovation Jacob Obrechtplein Aldo sandpit remains; many new additions Hondecoeterstraat New playground; no Aldo elements remain Van Beuningenstraat Sarphatipark Intact with some new additions Kastanjeplein No longer there Van Boetselaerstraat Laagte Kadijk New playground; no Aldo elements remain Fredrik Hendrikplantsoen New playground; no Aldo elements remain Jonas Daniël Meyerplein Unchanged Westerpark Unchanged Herenmarkt Intact with some new additions

We decide to start at Bertelmanplein, the first play ground Aldo van Eyck designed. It sits in a network of residential streets, straddled between two main avenues and a canal. According to our guide, not much has changed since the previous tour. Seeking to replicate the iconic image of the pro ject we attempt to barter with a neighbor, asking to climb the stair of their apartment building to get the original vantage point. The mix of broken dialogue and the tenant’s concern with our peculiar interest in the playground lead us to abruptly abort the mission. At the time, the park is empty. Being our first destination, we take our time, discussing its character, but also letting our inner children run wild; playing in the sand pits and swinging from the climbing structure.

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After our fun, we head a few blocks to Vondelpark, assuming to find six immaculate examples of Van Eyck’s playgrounds. To our disappointment, only two are accessible. A few are under renovation, hidden behind a mess of construction fence and tilled earth – thankfully Van Eyck’s original elements seem to be left intact. Others have already undergone their renovation; a plaque on one of the structures pays homage to the original designer. We struggle to find the last one, and begin to question our guide, but we soon find it: a bent and contorted climbing structure lays overturned in the wake of a bulldozer’s path.

SAFFIERSTRAAT

Where before we stuck to the main roads, taking the quickest route and connecting the dots, now we meander the alleys and side streets, looking for where the playgrounds might once have been. We stumble upon two small parks, situated in the median of the residential Saffierstraat. Not on our planned agenda, we consult the guide for answers to our new discoveries and find that though recorded on the 1976 map, our 2002 version shows the playgrounds as demolished. Could this be their second coming? Is the space again taking a turn for the better? Only time will tell, we suppose.

An old guide is normally deemed to be useless and potentially misleading. As the city undergoes constant change, it is likely to lead us to sights that no longer exist or have been outstripped by more popular destina tions. Yet because of this, a guide from the past can also act as a record of what was once considered important. What is included in a guide reveals what is treasured by a city at a particular point in time. The authors of the original guide to Van Eyck’s playgrounds capture their widespread destruction between their highpoint in the 1970s, when upwards of 700 existed, to less than 20 when recorded in 2002. Similarly, our journey revealed a number of more recent casualties, with another 6 succumbing to the pressures of development and increasing land costs. The chang ing status of the playgrounds recorded in these maps reveal a city that continues to pursue private investment in lieu of public space. Appropriately included in the ‘Archis is Paranoid’ issue – bookended by an article on MVRDV’s Silodam that likens it to a gated community, and an interview with a building security consultant – these playgrounds are seen to be victims of more than just development pressures and increasing land values, but of an increas ingly pervasive sense of paranoia. The playgrounds – and the maps that record their existence – stand for a bygone era of civic responsibi lity and trust – where kids played outside freely, without their parents fearing for their safety – that has since regretfully passed us by. Yet this regret is arguably not shared by our contemporary ‘x-box generation’, for whom a sandpit may not be enough to hold their atten tion. As new generations take shape and social paranoia evolves, can we even expect the next psychogeo graphic tour to take us through physical space at all?

1 Liane Lefaivre, Marlies Boterman, Suzanne Loen and Merel Miedema, ‘A psychogeographical bicycle tour of Aldo van Eyck’s Amsterdam playgrounds’, Archis no.3, 2002, pp.129-135.

KASTANJEPLEIN

One park we make sure not to miss is Kastanjeplein. The opening image to our guide shows this as one of the finest examples of early 60s Van Eyck transforma tions. Situated on a portion of the community square, the proportions of the playground match that of the buildings surrounding it, large enough to accommodate all the children of the community but small enough to allow that community to watch over them as they play. When we arrive things seem different; looking more like the original image of a desolate street than the enhanced Van Eyck version. Recent infrastructure had removed the central thruway that once acted as an outermost edge to the playground. Now, far too vast to provide peace of mind for children’s guardians, the playground is no more.

HERENMARKT

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Situated just off the Haarlemmerstraat and one of the only remaining playgrounds within the cities outer ring, it is protected on three sides by homes. Children sitting atop the climbing structure are afforded a view of the nearby canal to watch the passing boats. The large sand pit is in great condition, littered with plastic shovels and pails.

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Colophon Volume 22

VOLUME Independent quarterly for architecture to go beyond itself editor-in-chief Arjen Oosterman contributing editors Ole Bouman, Rem Koolhaas, Mark Wigley feature editor Jeffrey Inaba editorial consultants Thomas Daniell, Bart Goldhoorn, Markus Miessen, Kai Vöckler VOLUME is a project by ARCHIS + AMO + C-Lab + … ARCHIS Lilet Breddels, Joos van den Dool, Christian Ernsten, Edwin Gardner, Jonathan Hanahan, Rory Hyde, Timothy Moore AMO Reinier de Graaf C-Lab Jeffrey Inaba, Benedict Clouette, Kate Meagher

Materialized by Irma Boom and Sonja Haller VOLUME’s protagonists are: ARCHIS, magazine for Architecture, City and Visual Culture and its predecessors since 1929. Archis – Publishers, Tools, Interventions – is an experimental think tank devoted to the process of real-time spatial and cultural reflexivity. www.archis.org AMO, a research and design studio that applies architectural thinking to disciplines beyond the borders of architecture and urbanism. AMO operates in tandem with its companion company the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. www.oma.eu C-Lab, The Columbia Laboratory for Architectural Broadcasting, is an experimental research unit devoted to the development of new forms of communication in architecture, set up as a semiautonomous think and action tank at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University. www.arch.columbia.edu/labs/c-lab

VOLUME is published by Stichting Archis, The Netherlands and printed by Die Keure, Belgium. English copy editing and translations Jonathan Hanahan, Timothy Moore Administrative coordination Valérie Blom, Jessica Braun Editorial office PO Box 14702, 1001 LE Amsterdam, The Netherlands, T: +31 (0)20 320 3926, F: +31 (0)20 320 3927, E: info@archis.org, W : www.archis.org Subscriptions Bruil & Van de Staaij, Postbus 75, 7940 AB Meppel, The Netherlands, T: +31 (0)522 261 303, F: +31 (0)522 257 827, E: volume@bruil.info, W: www.bruil.info/volume Subscription rates 4 issues, € 75 Netherlands, € 91 World, Student subscriptions rates, € 60 Netherlands, € 73 World, Prices excl. VAT Cancellations policy Cancellation of subscription to be confirmed in writing one month before the end of the subscription period. Subscriptions not cancelled on time will be automatically extended for one year. Back issues Back issues of VOLUME and forerunner Archis (NL and E) are still available through Bruil & van de Staaij Advertising marketing@archis.org, For rates and details see: www.volumeproject.org, under ‘info’ General distribution Idea Books, Nieuwe Herengracht 11, 1011 HR Amsterdam, The Netherlands, T: +31 (0)20 622 6154, F: +31 (0)20 620 9299, E: idea@ideabooks.nl, W: www.ideabooks.nl IPS Pressevertrieb GmbH, PO Box 1211, 53334 Meckenheim, Germany, T: +49 2225 8801 0, F: +49 2225 8801 199, E: lstulin@ips-pressevertrieb.de

Contributors Dr Sunny Bains is a scientist, journalist, and editor based at Imperial College London. http://www.sunnybains.com Ole Bouman is an architectural critic and Director of the Netherlands Architectural Institute (NAi), Rotterdam. Louisa Bufardeci is an artist whose work has been exhibited internationally. She was born in Melbourne and currently lives in Connecticut, USA. www.louisabufardeci.net Lucy Bullivant is an architecture curator, critic, author and advisor based in London. She is writing her next book, Masterplanning Futures, for Routledge. Thomas Daniell is an architect and writer based in Kyoto, Japan. He is currently an Associate Professor at Kyoto Seika University and a Visiting Fellow at the RMIT Spatial Information Architecture Lab. Jan van Grunsven is an artist with a background in conceptual art, focusing on public domain in particular. As such he is also active in art policy and art education. At present he works in the field of architecture and urbanism. Thomas Kilpper is an artist based in Berlin who works with socio-political themes. Michael Kubo is pursuing a Ph.D. in History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture at MIT. His research on publishing practices has been exhibited in Buffalo, where he was Reyner Banham Fellow for 2008–2009, and at pinkcomma gallery in Boston. Kate Rhodes is Editor of Artichoke magazine and Adjunct Curator, Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design. Anastassia Smirnova graduated in Scenography at the Moscow Art Theatre School. She worked as a stage designer for experimental theatres in Moscow and as a journalist/author for professional and popular press. In 2007-2008 she was an editor/designer at AMO/ OMA, Rotterdam. Currently, she writes fiction as well as essays on architecture/design for various magazines. Dr Naomi Stead is a research fellow in the School of Architecture at the University of Queensland. Her research interests include architectural criticism, architecture and fiction, and experimental cartography. Her Mapping Sydney is available at www.localconsumption.com The text links in all articles were conceived by Jonathan Hanahan based on the idea of Irma Boom and Sonja Haller

Volume 22: The guide is distributed with as special supplement: Beyroutes. A Guide to Beirut, by Studio Beirut (Amsterdam: Archis, 2009), 168p. ISBN 9789077966549 Corrections/Additions In Volume 21, the two captions on page 155 were reversed. Apologies to the author.

Disclaimer The editors of Volume have been careful to contact all copyright holders of the images used. If you claim ownership of any of the images presented here and have not been properly identified, please contact Volume and we will be happy to make a formal acknowledgement in a future issue.

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