Interview with Vincent de Rijk by Laura Frias & Hande Öğün 18

good that these are there, but they cannot visualize all information. Of course computer models can be less time consuming, but still I think the making of models and the drawing of models should be better balanced. You could argue that the resin model is fnally less necessary, at least as an information piece, that’s for me the reason that the quality of the model as an object is getting more important.

You have a background in industrial design.

How do you apply this knowledge to architectural models? And is the process of making the same with design furniture for instance? Yes, more or less but in an industrial design process I always start which techniques I will use and what kind of materials and how the product will be made fnally, by a machine or by hand? That’s a different approach from the architectural world. During my studies I tried out many materials, like ceramics and later on resin, to fnd the potential of these materials. When Koolhaas saw the products we were making out of resin he suggested that it could be used for models as well.

So it was basically his idea to see the potential of making models in volume instead of surfaces and to become a three-dimensional diagram of space. This is very useful especially for competitions: in one model you can show the view from inside as a section with an idea of what it looks like. Although the foor plans are quite abstract you can give an impression of the feeling of the senses. And fnally with colours in combination with other materials you can make a sort of diagram: what is more important or less, what is empty and what is full etc. So the model is quite sketchy but at the same time very sharp. I like this combination of sketchy ideas with sharpness of perfecting techniques and materials.

You are specialized in the casting of polyester for model making, are you also experimenting with other materials and new techniques? Not so much actually, because at some point you get your repertoire, let’s say (laugh). I am more into redefning what I know instead of learning new techniques. It is also sort of specialism that means that if you are good at it, you have to spend a lot of time to keep up the knowledge. Like the casting techniques is something I have always been doing but I can still refne more. You can compare it with a piano player and ask ‘why don’t you play another instrument?’ There’s too much to improve once you know you can do something better. That’s also the reason why you are never fnished to learn. So the basis of my work is the casting technique, especially resin, I used to do a lot of plaster and ceramics, but that is also casting. We started the model making for offces like OMA, but sometimes they ask us to make something special like a resin furniture, and that’s actually what we are doing now. It’s a challenge and it takes a lot of time for research and calculations because to make a model is completely different from a 1:1 piece furniture. The furniture cannot be produced industrially, because most of it is handwork. So it is very special.

Floating University is set up by raumlaborberlin at the site of the former Tempelhof Airport Berlin as a visionary and temporary inner city offshore laboratory for collective, experimental learning. The site is an almost forgotten place in the center of Berlin: an old concrete rainwater basin next to the airfeld with a landscape on the verge of disappearing. How can practices be adapted to the rapidly changing cities to keep the water affordable and abundant? These were one of the many questions raumIabor poses within their search to experiment with utopian water fantasies and re-envision an urban water infrastructure that invokes public participation.

From April 2018 onwards gradually The Floating University campus was build up at Tempelhof test site with temporary structures like a discursive kitchen, a bar as a protest generator, classrooms for workshops and a performative laboratory tower for experimental water fltrations systems. Besides the nurturing of plants, mushrooms, mussels etc. the water of this system is reused and separated in four different types for experimentations: rain water, basin water, grey water and black water.

Numerous universities and academies, INSIDE being one of them, were asked to participate in the Floating University campus to challenge the routines and habits of urban practices. In the 2nd semester the 1st years students prepared this workshop by a research on invisible systems in the city of The Hague, led by Gerjan Streng (design) and Anne Hoogewoning (theory). How are the residents of The Hague provided with energy, water, food and transportation modes? And how about the waste system? Complex systems are more vulnerable to deliberate and accidental corruption than we expect.

After this investigation the students continued their research at the site of Tempelhof. The students visited the site for the frst time in March when it was almost like a tabula rasa investigating temporary urban systems to rethink the city of the future, led by Junyuan Chen (fows). They returned in June for a two week workshop led by Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius (raumlaborberlin) when the area already functioned like a selforganized community. Within this lively community opening up to the public and professionals, the students presented their projects on corrupted systems and utopian models within the setting of a symbiotic Nation. How would a utopian society on the site look like and how are its inhabitants provided with energy, water, mobility, food and take care of waste?

The Floating University laboratory by raumlaborberlin is located in the centre of a pool and forms an arena around a foating stage; it swims if the water level rises after heavy rain. A structure of walkways across the pond ensures that all workshop spaces and facilities for the students working at the site and visitors are accessible despite weather circumstances. The rainwater detention pool thus functions as a living organism.