Bnieuws -Editor Lydia Giokari 2017-2018 by Lydia Giokari

Bnieuws Editor Lydia Giokari issuu.com/bnieuws Department of Architecture, TU Delft, The Netherlands 2017-2018

ABOUT Bnieuws is the Independent Periodical of the Faculty of Architecture of TU Delft (the Netherlands) which is published by the Faculty since 1966. During my involment as an editor from April 2017 to August 2018, I edited 9 issues and wrote a total of 15 articles while also being responsible for the column of Peter Russell -the Dean of the Faculty. This booklet consists mainly an overview of my arthrography. To find the complete collection of Bnieuws editions visit issuu.com/bnieuws.

INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT

Colofon

Bnieuws Volume 50 Issue 07 09 May 2017 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

CREATE 23

Post-wall Scenarios

Niche for Colors

Editorial Team Nadine van den Berg Lydia Giokari Ruiying Liu Noortje Weenink Editorial Advice Edo Beerda

LEARN 13

The Institute of Utopianism

Contributors Pim Pelt Cover Another Perspective by Lydia Giokari Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken Next Deadline 20th of May Bnieuws Volume 50 Issue 08 Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies Rectificatie Het artikel over de nieuwe regeling voor gastdocenten is, in tegenstelling tot wat genoemd staat, niet namens alle gastdocenten geschreven. © All rights reserved. Although all content is treated with great care, errors may occur.

EXPLORE 06

Made in China

Attractive Cities

Catwalk

From Legacy to Legacy

Visité

SPEAK 28

In Memoriam: Henk Hoeks

Peter Russell’s 10 Rules for Life

Learn

THE INSTITUTE OF UTOPIANISM Words Lydia Giokari Images Carlijn Kingma

Last November Carlijn Kingma graduated from the Faculty with her project “The Institute of Utopianism” in the Explore Lab. This project aimed to point out the importance of utopian thinking in the past, present and future. Its aim is to provide the tools for creating new, valuable utopias for tomorrow. The project was also involved in the exhibition “Sketches”, in which the fascinating hand-drawings were displayed. Bnieuws spoke to Carlijn Kingma about the project and about the value of utopias today.

Your project deals with the theme of utopias. What motivated you? My motivation was pure fascination. I always wanted to graduate on the theme of utopia because I love reading about it. Some of the very famous “stories” like The garden of Eden or Plato’s Republic, I knew even before starting my studies. They are beautiful stories on their own, so I started from there, from my desire to work with these stories in mind. My teachers were not really convinced at the beginning, because it is a dreamy and maybe cliché topic. They wanted to know if I would only read and draw about utopia. Their question was “when are you going to make a building”. They were convinced during the process. At the end, I was very lucky because they truly gave me the freedom to do research and work in my own way. From all the utopias you know from reading or from your graduation project, which one is the most appealing to you? I believe that all utopian writings and projects are very beautiful in their time and context. I like for instance Design for Utopia by Charles Fourier, because his story is quite relevant in his time. Fourier questions his current social conditions and imagines a sort of utopian community, called the Phalansterio.

Through his “built institutions” he tries to resonate on how people could harmonize their social, cultural and material needs and life in general. Fourier believed that in his era, people focused too much on material needs. In my opinion, that is still relevant today. Except for Fourier, I also like the classic Utopia by Thomas Moore and the New Babylon by Constant Nieuwenhuys, which is more of an art project than an architectural or philosophical one. I see around me that many students are using the New Babylon as a starting point in their projects because its images are so appealing. The whole theme of being displaced and in constant motion is very interesting. The New Babylon is a special utopia in many ways and gives a lot of food for thought. You write in your thesis that “Utopianism is, amongst others, the art of storytelling”. What story did you want to tell? And how did it change along the way? I think there are many ways to make a utopian project. Fourier for example made blueprints to communicate his utopia. In these blueprints he determined every minute in every day for the community he described. By reading utopian stories through history I tried to find the essential questions they posed. Questions about the meaning of value, freedom and equality

A History of the Utopian Tradition.

address topics, which are always relevant. These questions are the ingredients utopian projects always have. The generic pillars on which we can continue the utopian tradition also today. Then I wrote a story about how utopia always exists and grows in times of intellectual revolution like today, in which everything is unsettling mostly because of the Internet. Intellectual revolutions always start from universities, so I started to think about the way things are done in the academic environment. During my study at the Faculty I had the feeling that everything was so much based on methods, numbers and checklists that at the end there was actually no room for essential questions that utopias pose. Why can’t we make a project about what is the meaning of value? Sometimes it may prove to be more dangerous, because you can get easily lost and it takes much longer than a “traditional” project. I had the feeling that the rational system of the university was blocking utopianism in a way. So I ended up designing a “School of Utopianism”, as a critism of the current situation. In my “School of Utopianism”, I was teaching my own story about the history of utopia. This is my attempt to show the importance of utopianism and how we can stimulate it in the education system.

So you think that utopianism is a tool to learn from? Utopia is a tool to reflect on life. Society is always changing. When technological inventions like the steam engine, the book printing or the Internet appear, the whole order of society is affected. These are times for people to search for a new harmony. They should try to think how they want to live together and not see the new condition as a “technotopia”. People tend to forget that technology is just a tool, not a goal. Thomas Moore wrote the first utopia. It is about a story located in London, in a time when thieves were hanged in the market square. The main character of the story looks at them and thinks that it is the fault of the State that these men ended up hanged, because there is not enough providence for the poor. The story continues with the character moving to another place, the island of utopia. Here he comes across with another society where everything is better. Moore is actually writing his utopia to show how things can be done differently and how we can reach a better working society. The word “utopia” derives from the Greek words ou (non) and topos (place). What process did you follow in order to design a non-place? And what is the meaning of the structure of your drawings?

At the beginning, I had no idea about the final products. It was more a process that changed along the way than a methodical approach. The drawings I made consisted of different worlds. The only things I knew while I drew and conceived these worlds were the ingredients that I would use, that derived from the study of the utopias throughout history. I started with making small sketches on A4 papers, then I immediately moved on a larger scale. It was a process in which while drawing you make the next step. The History of the Utopian Tradition took me six weeks to draw. I was absorbed by the story. The drawing went so slow that after a point I almost “talked” to the story. The story unraveled itself while I was creating this “world”. So in the end you don’t conceive the whole image at once, it gradually develops.

What is clear from the beginning is the structure of the image. In the History of the Utopian Tradition the structure was very clear for me because I conceived it as a timeline. Starting from bottom to top you can see all of history, from Plato up to the current situation. Everything starts from the story you want to tell and then the structure derives from it. I am currently working on a drawing about the Babylonian Tower of Modernity. It is about our central belief that mechanical progress leads us to confusion of speech, like during the construction of the Tower of Babel. In this project, I had a strong iconic artistic reference to the Tower of Babel. During the first weeks, I researched all Towers of Babel I could find and all the different interpretations of the idea. Hand-in-hand I developed the values I wanted to visualize and I organized them: bottom, top, middle,left and right side of the drawing. At this moment I have only drawn some of the sides and I have no idea how the rest will look. It is a bit scary, but it is the process of making. In the communication of utopian ideas through history drawings have a special meaning. For example, in the Moving City of Archigram everything is designed in full detail, while Superstudio uses more generic shapes

in their collages of the Endless Monument. You did everything, from really detailed to more generic. Why did you choose this way of representation? I needed to translate all these things into structural details because this was the only way to make such a bizarre design. You cannot just make something weird without reasoning in detail. I actually started with rules, a system behind my images to organize the information. I began from the big stories and then narrowed it down to the set of rules and started making details for them. For example, I designed a network in which everything should be connected. Therefore I made catalogues with details of nodes. How can you connect things? How can you braid things strongly together? I made a structural handbook, a toolkit with all kinds of details and textures out of which I could make my designs. I needed a vocabulary to start putting things together. Did you use to make hand-drawings or were you triggered to start working like this at the faculty? The first time I did a drawing in a size as the ones in my graduation project, was in MSc 1. I love to draw and I don’t really like working on the computer. I had Fridjof van den Berg as a professor during my bachelor studies. He triggered all of his students to make a lot of sketches and use them as means of communication. This was the starting point for doing the final drawings by hand. Anything else you would like to share with the BK community? During your graduation you have the perfect excuse to go into complete exhale. You can work on something that you really like or even develop a skill such as hand-drawing. Students should find their own fascination and work on it. It is very important to love the theme you will work on during your graduation, as you will be engaged to it for a whole year. To know more about Carlijn Kingma’s work and exhibitions visit her site carlijnkingma.com

Bnieuws VOLUME 50 EDITION 07

INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT

Colofon

Editorial

Bnieuws Volume 50 Issue 08 06 June 2017

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME

Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

SPEAK

Editorial Team Nadine van den Berg Lydia Giokari Ruiying Liu Noortje Weenink

Peter Russell’s 10 Rules for Life

Where Have All the Names Gone

Editorial Advice Edo Beerda

In Memoriam: Herman Albers

Contributors Ola Gordowy Yafim Simanovsky Cover The Raft of Architecture by Ola Gordowy Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken

LEARN 06

Dawn of the Scavenger Age

Ghosts of Architecture

Make it Yourself

Next Deadline 20th of June Bnieuws Volume 50 Issue 09 Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies

EXPLORE 12

Artefact: Rosanne van Bladeren

Een ketting met een blad

Visité

“TU Shell”

CREATE 19

Sand and Form

“It’s been a long, a long time coming, But I know a change is gonna come, Oh, yes it will.” — Sam Cooke, 1964 It might not seem like it, but we currently live in a world that is better than ever. Global inequality, child mortality and extreme poverty have been decreasing for decades. Literacy and basic education have exploded. And since the postwar period, global violence has been at an ultimate low. But of course, we aren’t there yet. Throughout history, different cultures have been hoping for a better future. Our profession undeniably makes an impact on communities, cities, and the society. And we wouldn’t be human if weren’t to improve ourselves and the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson, and later Malcom X, said: “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” But one cannot solve all problems on one’s own; collaboration is vital. So, together, with (visiting) professors and students, and inspired by lectures, exhibitions and projects in our faculty, we take a peek into several future scenarios regarding production, design and collaboration in and of the built environment. An old African proverb proclaims that “it is the young trees that make up the forest”. So how will we create the forest presently, in order to enjoy it later? On the occasion of Beatriz Colomina’s lecture, Lydia writes about the position of women in architecture from Modernist times until today. Our most recent addition to the team, Yafim, sat down with Pieter Stoutjesdijk to talk about his Haïti Shelter project. Are digital fabrication and mass customization our future salvation? Ruiying asks the question “where have all the names gone?” and argues for a naming culture for the BK Community. Calcen shares with us his seaside projects, while our Dean speaks about his oyster lesson. Noortje ends with a critical note, questioning the feasibility of a sustainable future in a world where the oil industry has penetrated all layers of society, including that of the built environment and our education system. But there is always light at the end of the tunnel. The Quran (94:5) reads: “Behold, with every hardship comes ease.” And, perhaps, we can learn from Sam Cooke and aspire to a more optimistic view.

FYI fossil fuel divestment plan for our university to become independent of the fossil fuel industry. In a letter to the Operational Committee, the group has urged TU Delft to downsize fossil fuel-related studies and courses, to criticise their partnerships with corporations, and to formulate a comprehensive plan to make the campus energy-neutral and circular. On a smaller scale, the group has—so far unsuccessfully—started a petition for the university to switch from ING, the leading Dutch bank to invest in fossil fuels, to a more sustainable bank. Realistically, if we do not change the neoliberal culture we encounter, short-term profit will probably keep winning. We have seen time and time again that “changing a structure from the inside out”, especially regarding the combat with climate change, does not work.22 And indeed, it seems that our university values their friendship with the fossil fuel industry over the worries of students. Let this be a warning: if we continue this path, TU Delft’s slogan Challenging the Future might soon become the reality we wished we never dreamed of. This is the long version of this article. A shorter version can be found in the printed magazine. Sources are available at page 38.

NEXT MONTH 09 What have students of our faculty been up to the past year? What future did you imagine? Were there any visible trends in your projects? Similarities in visualisation, topics or goals? Explore and rethink your own works with us!

SOURCES Unforgetting Women Architects pages 18–21

Where Have All the Names Gone pages 26–27

Damnatio memoriae. (n.d.). Retrieved May 25, 2017 from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_memoriae 2,3 Colomina, B. Collaborations: The Private Life of Modern Architecture, in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 1999. 58(3). p. 462-471 4 Stratigakos, D. (2016, April). Unforgetting Women Architects: From the Pritzker. 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2017 from www.placesjournal.org/article/unforgettingwomen-architects-from-the-pritzker-to-wikipedia/ 5 More information about the event “Unforgetting Women Architects” in: https://collectie.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/en/activities/ unforgetting-women-architects 6 Blahut, C. (2017, February). Denise Scott Brown Wins Jane Drew Prize. Retrieved May 20, 2017 from www.architectmagazine.com/design/denise-scott-brownwins-jane-drew-prize_o

Carter, E. and J. Donald, Space and place: theories of identity and location. 1993: Lawrence & Wishart Ltd. 2 Tuan, Y.-F., Language and the making of place: A narrative-descriptive approach. Annals of the Association of American geographers, 1991. 81(4): p. 684-696. 3 Stadsarchief Rotterdam. Straatnamen Overzicht. Retrieved May 10, 2017, from http://www.stadsarchief. rotterdam.nl/straatnamen-overzicht 4 Kostanski, L., 15. Duel-Names: How toponyms (placenames) can represent hegemonic histories and alternative narratives1. Indigenous and Minority Placenames, 2014: p. 273. 5, 6 De stadsmuur van Delft en haar acht stadspoorten. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2017, from http://www.wikidelft. nl/index.php?title=De_stadsmuur_van_Delft_en_haar_ acht_stadspoorten

“TU Shell” pages 32–36 Hein, C. (2016). Analyzing the Palimpsestic Petroleumscape of Rotterdam. Retrieved May 17, 2017 from https://globalurbanhistory.com/2016/09/28/ analyzing-the-palimpsestic-petroleumscape-of-rotterdam/ 2 Trending Top Most (2017). Top 10 Largest Oil and Gas Companies in the World. Retrieved May 17, 2017 from http://www.trendingtopmost.com/worlds-popular-list-top-10/2017-2018-2019-2020-2021/business/ largest-oil-gas-companies-world-revenue-market-cap/ 3 Tilman, H. (2016). Oliedam belicht impact olie op architectuur. Retrieved May 20, 2017 from http:// www.dearchitect.nl/architectuur/blog/2016/8/ oliedam-belicht-impact-olie-op-architectuur-101108001 4 Hein, C. (2016). Port Cities: Nodes in the Global Petroleumscape between Sea and Land. Retrieved May 20, 2017 from http://technosphere-magazine. hkw.de/article1/a533bca0-08ba-11e7b921-a58643285390 5 Hüzeir, V. Fraser, G.K. (2017). A Pipeline of Ideas: How the Rotterdam School of Management facilitates climate change by collaborating with the fossil fuel industry. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Changerism. 6 Ficheroux, T. (2017). Decaan RSM: ‘Banden met Shell doorsnijden lost niets op. Integendeel.’ Retrieved May 20, 2017 from https://www. erasmusmagazine.nl/2017/05/24/decaan-rsm-banden-met-shell-doorsnijden-lost-niets-op-integendeel/ 7 Konter, P. (2012-13). Gezamenlijke technologie. Shell Venster (collection of articles from volumes 2012–2013). Retrieved May 22, 2017 from http:// content.yudu.com/A256xq/svtech2013/resources/7. htm 8 Webredactie M&C (2011). Shell and Delft University of Technology seal a preferred partnership agreement. Retrieved May 19, 2017 from http://www.citg.tudelft. nl/en/current/latest-news/article/detail/

da-van-de-tu-delft/33186 10 VOC-mentaliteit. (2017). Retrieved May 24, 2017, from https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOC-mentaliteit 11 Fortune (n.d.). Global 500. Retrieved May 24, 2017 from http://beta.fortune.com/global500/ 12 More information here: https://follow-this.org/en/ 13 Mommers, J. (2017). De pr-praatjes van Shell zijn een stuk groener dan de investeringen. Retrieved May 27, 2017 from https://decorrespondent.nl/6082/ de-pr-praatjes-van-shell-zijn-een-stuk-groener-dan-deinvesteringen/ 15 Antilliaans Dagblad (2015). Omvang asbest ISLA onbekend. Retrieved May 27, 2017 from http:// antilliaansdagblad.com/index.php/ nieuws-menu/11999-omvang-asbest-isla-onbekend 16 Gerritsen, J. (1996). Asfaltmeer treurig overblijfsel op Curaçao. Retrieved May 27, 2017 from https:// www.nrc.nl/nieuws/1996/03/19/asfaltmeer-treurig-overblijfsel-op-curacao-7303325-a82098 17 Amnesty International (2015). Nigeria: Hundreds of oil spills continue to blight Niger Delta. Retrieved May 26, 2017 from amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/03/ hundreds-of-oil-spills-continue-to-blight-niger-delta/ 18 Amnesty International (2017). UK: Shell ruling gives green light for corporations to profit from abuses overseas. Retrieved May 26, 2017 from https://www. amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/01/uk-shell-rulinggives-green-light-for-corporations-to-profit-from-abuses-overseas/ 19 Tickel, O. (2016). 53,000 Nigerian oil spill victims press new Shell lawsuits. Retrieved May 26, 2017 from http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_ round_up/2987329/53000_nigerian_oil_spill_victims_press_new_shell_lawsuits.html 20 Macalister, T. (2015). Shell abandons Alaska Arctic drilling. Retrieved May 26, 2017 from https://www. theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/28/shell-ceasesalaska-arctic-drilling-exploratory-well-oil-gas-disappoints 21 Vaughan, A. (2014). Fossil fuel divestment: a brief history. Retrieved May 17, 2017 from https://www.

shell-en-de-technische-universiteit-delft-tekenen-een-preferred-partnership-overeenkomst/ 9 Our colleagues at Delta explore the partnership more in depth at: http://delta.tudelft.nl/artikel/ bepaalt-de-fossiele-industrie-de-onderzoeksagen-

theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/08/ fossil-fuel-divestment-a-brief-history 22 Klein, N. (2014). This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Bnieuws VOLUME 50 EDITION 08

INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT

Colofon

Bnieuws Volume 51 Issue 01 05 September 2017 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl Editorial Team Nadine van den Berg Lydia Giokari Noortje Weenink Contributors Ola Gordowy

EXPLORE 08

Saint Petersburg

For the Love of Lanzarote

Inside Bnieuws

Cover Singer House SPB by Alex 'Florstein' Fedorov Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken Next Deadline 19th of September Bnieuws Volume 51 Issue 02 Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies © All rights reserved. Although all content is treated with great care, errors may occur.

SPEAK 06

#Challenge

Welcome to 2017/2018

SteeOwee 2017

Boxes

Exchange Students Welcome to BK City!

Visité

Peter Russell's 10 Rules for Life

Explore

INSIDE BNIEUWS Words Lydia Giokari

As an opening act for the new year which is now starting, the Editors of Bnieuws decided to introduce the periodical to the new incoming students who will read it for the first time, through the eyes of our former editor Ruiying Liu. Ruiying graduated last July and she has been an inspiring writer-reporter in Bnieuws for the past year.

Could you introduce Bnieuws in 10 words to the new incoming students BK tabloid, geek corner and the fine tradition of architectural verbosity. Where can someone find Bnieuws? Right in front of their eyes… or, for live representatives, in the west-end office of BK Street. What can someone find in Bnieuws? Thoughts of their fellow BK Citizens and the invisible eyes of their professors and the Dean. What was your favourite article that you wrote? ‘All About Lines’ in Bnieuws 06 of 2016-2017, where I successfully wrestl a very complex interview with a very complex mind into a cute little article. And ‘Pink a Place’ from the previous issue, where I found the joy of working with a group of interviewees. Why is the magazine important in your opinion for the students and the Faculty? Haha I’d rather not affirm that it’s important, otherwise it would be ‘self-important’ for me as an (ex-)editor, right? Actually, I rather hope it will be less ‘important’ and more unpredictable, serving as a channel to more significant things: growth of minds by exploration and stimulation. How did you decide to apply for working as an editor? At first, although I always liked writing, I had to work part-time and work on study. Until my best friend revealed to me that Bnieuws can combine both… I mean, the only exciting possibility about carrying dishes around is that they might fall like a landslide. But Bnieuws gives you the racing-to-deadline-with-a-horse-whip-on-your-back kind of excitement, and you get to wave your publications in an application and say this is the proof of the quality of my intellectual life during that time.

Do you have any special moment or memory to share from your time in Bnieuws? Unforgettable moments, of course. Countless production sessions—I don’t remember how many times exactly, but they form one moment, always the same, with the tips of your hair feeling on fire. Twice my interviewees stepped into the office with positive remarks. And once an absolutely brilliant student came into the office wanting to be part of the team (and she’s now our cartoonist). Is there anything you would like to change in Bnieuws? Yes. I’d like changes to happen more often! Changes, as in innovations. Good or bad, doesn’t matter. One of these times you’ll get it right. Bnieuws will never be ‘the best’ student-run magazine, ever. Because it’s built on shifting sand (frequent changing of hands), and it’s run by non-professionals. But it exists so that endless non-professionals can come in and have their ways innovating, astonishing or irritating serious professionals, and gain their own sense of accomplishment and personal growth. The readers who read these unconventional products will also find inspirations that exist nowhere else. So, we shouldn’t huddle around the legacy of predecessors and just pump text into templates. It’s not really about the layout, but the ideas. Do you have any plans for the upcoming year(s)? Has your experience at Bnieuws changed your idea of a future job? Yes and no. I do my best to catch any opportunity, but nothing is certain. Bnieuws experience definately has given me more courage to bear the uncertainties, because my time there has taught me about myself and the contribution I can make to my surroundings. What was your favourite part of the job? And the most challenging? To quote myself: “There’s nothing I like more than making good ideas even better. That’s why I like editing. There’s nothing more gratifying than plant the idea to write in someone, and seeing the text come true!” You can say I like pulling brilliant ideas out my own head, but that just gets a bit old after some time. Like Socrates’ idea of a philosopher’s role: midwife for others’ wisdom. Because my own wisdom is limited, but the wisdom of others is endless. What skills did you develop during your time as an editor? The most valuable one is the ability to rephrase the same message in several dozen ways. Compressing or blowing up the text by navigating the multi-dimensional space within concepts, syntax and figures of speech. What surprised you the most about being an editor at Bnieuws? I voluntarily overworked. What will you miss from being an Editor? The rapid cycles of idea publishing. (I know in the context of sustainability it’s not really healthy, but it’s just such a nice pace to stack up accomplishments and skills.)

Sharing memories

EXCHANGE STUDENTS WELCOME TO BK CITY! Words Lydia Giokari Images Students

The new academic year is about to start and probably your minds are full of questions and anxieties: What is going to happen? What you are going to face during your exchange in our faculty? Bnieuws asked some former exchange students to share their memories in order to provide some helpful tips and advices for the new incoming students. In their one-page reports they gave the titles that characterised best their memories. Let their experiences be a guide to BK City and exchange life.

Did you know? Our faculty has 70 exchange partner–Universities worlwide for the academic year 2018–2019. For the year 2016–2017 we received 117 exchange students, from which 20 for a full year and the others for a semester. For the current academic year we expect to receive approximately 120 exchange students.

MSC UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE | 6 MONTHS

absolutely everything, while it may seem daunting to be by yourself in a foreign country, staying in your comfort zone is not what you came here to do. Your time here will literally fly by, so treasure every second.

Describe your experience in the Netherlands / BK City in three words. Adventurous, eye-opening, exhilarating.

After your experience, would you do the exchange again? Absolutely! It was the best experience of my life.

What was the hardest thing to get used to in the Netherlands? What is the biggest difference with the faculty where you study? The hardest thing was to ride a bike everywhere and also being expected to go on long bike tours as part of class. The biggest difference with my faculty was that BK City building is better than ours. Apart from that during the courses a lot of collaboration was going on.

What will you miss from your life in the Netherlands /BK City? I miss all the friends I made, and the exchange lifestyle that was carefree and full of potential.

MY EXPERIENCE WAS:

UNFORGETTABLE student NANCY WANG

What do you wish you had known before coming here? I should have learnt to ride a bike earlier, and also not stressed about paperwork so much. When you are about to go on exchange, it can feel like you are being drowned in paperwork and forms (Have I got all my insurance sorted? How about my bank account?), but what I found was that a lot of things naturally get sorted once you get here and are greeted by the TU Delft staff. My advice for new exchange students would be: get out there and do

Share a picture which is related to your experience of your exchange and tell us why you picked it. The image below was not taken at BK City, however, most of the people in it studied there. This was one of my favourite nights on exchange. Our studio group decided to have a multi-cultural night where we each bought along a dish from our countries. I loved the diverse and open culture BK City fostered. In what way are you happy to be back home? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good to see my family again and be back in a familiar environment. But I will always remember those awesome days at Delft!

MY EXPERIENCE WAS:

GEZELLIG! student eduardo puertes espert

MSC UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE VALENCIA | 12 MONTHS

Describe your experience in the Netherlands / BK City in three words. Freedom, growth and joy. What was the hardest thing to get used to in the Netherlands? What is the biggest difference with the faculty where you study? The first semester for me was quite a challenge. After the first sunny weeks during the Introduction Programme, I experienced a big cultural shock due to the bad weather and the Dutch timetables. It took me a while to start enjoying the rainy days, the “kroketten”, the early dinners and, by now, I think I even miss them sometimes. Apart from the differences of installations and facilities, BK City offers an international environment that I couldn’t even imagine at my home university. What do you wish you had known before coming here? It would have been nice to know how necessary a Dutch bankcard was to buy almost everything in the Faculty. I would highly recommend getting one so you can buy candies and chocolates in the middle of the

afternoon when you are working in the studio and really craving them. Also, try to learn Dutch, you will end up liking it and even being able to use basic expressions in that lovely language. Last but not least: umbrellas are useless in the windy Delft and a good raincoat is indispensable. What will you miss from your life in the Netherlands /BK City? The lady in the canteen telling me “Eet smakelijk” at lunch time, having coffee breaks in the Espresso bar, my always-broken bike, kapsalons coming back home after a party, and the studio culture. Share a picture which is related to your experience of your exchange and tell us why you picked it. The studio space became a second home in Delft during my exchange. We were a multi-cultural family working there but also having lunch, dinner, eating birthday cakes, having beers and coffee, and sometimes even having naps in the comfortable studio chairs. But, what we did the most was giving advice and helping each other during the design process. I knew that if I asked for comments, I would get an honest and friendly feedback to improve my design and keep working on it. That’s exactly what is going on in the picture and what reflects the studio atmosphere.

MY EXPERIENCE WAS:

DEFINING student ALINA DA PORCIUNCULA PAIAS

miss them a lot already. I have also experienced trust and respect coming from several tutors, in a way I never did before, and I am sure I will miss that through these last semesters before I graduate.

MSC UNIVERSITY OF SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL | 12 MONTHS

Describe your experience in the Netherlands / BK City in three words. Safe, pleasant, enlightening.

What was the hardest thing to get used to in the Netherlands? What is the biggest difference with the faculty where you study? The hardest thing to get used to was probably the fact that due to the very multicultural character of the student body, you have to learn how to establish relationships through ways that were not only automatic idewhere when a light breaks it stays broken for the year. We have no coffee machines or printers, not enough tables and our chairs are definitely not Vitra. I sadly learned how, at the end, small things like those add up to making a much more pleasant and profitable school experience, much more efficient students and, at the end, much better work. What do you wish you had known before coming here? My biggest tip is to believe in yourself and in what you’re able to do. You will meet extremely talented people who have worked for the biggest offices and have studied in the best schools in Europe. It is easy to feel diminished and believe me, I felt that multiple times. But if you come from a place like I did, there’s no way to compare experiences. Trust in what you can do and value your personal history: you will find your place, tutors and friends that value your work. After your experience, would you do the exchange again? Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I consider coming back to the TU in the future. What will you miss from your life in the Netherlands /BK City? I have found people I genuinely love in BK and I

Share a picture which is related to your experience of your exchange and tell us why you picked it. I chose this photo of when I was in Portugal with two friends from my school in São Paulo. It is taken during a match we watched in the Braga stadium, the “Pedreira”. It is a design by Souto de Moura and I have always dreamed of visiting this place. To me, it is one of the most beautiful and complete pieces of Architecture ever built. Being able to visit it and see it filled with people, cheering under heavy rain and cold, made me elated. It was a moment of pure happiness. It was a long standing dream come true through immense serendipity: I would have never been able to afford visiting lovely Braga if I was not already in Europe. I will be forever grateful for this and I will keep this moment with me forever. In what way are you happy to be back home? I am happy to be back with my friends, listening to their stories and slowly discovering the ways in which they also changed while I was away. I also missed how São Paulo has some good cheap food! Sorry, Netherlands, but that’s really not your strong suit.

MY EXPERIENCE WAS:

GEZELLIG!

home in this beautiful country and I hope to one day come back and stay for even longer.

student claire bazeley

MSC UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA | 6 MONTHS

Describe your experience in the Netherlands / BK City in three words. Beautiful, bicycles and broodje. What was the hardest thing to get used to in the Netherlands? What is the biggest difference to the faculty where you study? When I arrived in the Netherlands, I thought I could ride a bike. I was not prepared for the bike traffic, and for being overtaken by an elderly man eating an ice cream. I was also not prepared for just how small it was. In my mind it was the size of New Zealand, where in reality it is smaller than Tasmania (although there is a lot more going on in the Netherlands). The Faculty, however, is much, much bigger than what I am used to. Also, I was overwhelmed with the options at TU Delft! I loved that you could choose a Chair each semester and engage fully in electives specific to that theme. However, I would say I missed the regionalist focus of my home university. There we are taught in depth about vernacular climatic response and sensitive design reactions to the environment, but less about technology. Almost no insulation. What do you wish you had known before coming here? I wish I had known about all of the paperwork! I always thought the Australian bureaucracy was formidable, but the Netherlands is really something else. Always be organised, be prepared to fill in a lot of forms, and if at all possible, be European. That would make the whole thing a lot easier. After your experience, would you do the exchange again? I am counting down the time until I finish my degree in Australia and can visit the Netherlands again. My time in Delft was a fantastic experience and I am so glad I decided to make the voyage. I found a new

What will you miss from your life in the Netherlands /BK City? I miss my bike. I miss the stroopwafels, the cheap (but awful) machine coffee and the deep fried food. I miss â&#x201A;Ź1 beer. I miss my new friends. I do not miss the extremely steep Dutch stair cases, and the lack of affordable sushi. Share a picture which is related to your experience of your exchange and tell us why you picked it. Although I really hated these stairs in BK city (how unfit they made me feel!), I love this photo from my last week in the Netherlands. This is from my final design review for my Heritage Architecture studio. By the end we were only 7 students and we spent almost every day leading up to this review in studio together, synchronising our coffee breaks, fantasising about Kaassoufflets and bolting to the Bouwpub at 4 p.m. on Thursdays. Here we are all pinning up in the stairwell, corridors and spare corners so we could keep our work up for everyone to discuss throughout the day. I enjoyed that we all had different ways of working, different experiences and interests. My time in the studios of BK City helped me test ideas in an environment where I knew I would always be challenged and supported and I could always trust my friends to speak their minds!

Bnieuws VOLUME 51 EDITION 01

INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT

Colofon

Bnieuws Volume 51 Issue 02 17 October 2017

EXPLORE

Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

A Place of Potential

Escape from BK City

Editorial Team Nadine van den Berg Matthew Cook Lydia Giokari Ada Jaśkowiec Kseniya Otmakhova

Where at BK ?

SPEAK

Contributors Ola Gordowy

BK 24/7?

Cover BK Tower by Matthew Cook

What about going on exchange?

Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken

The Missing Tools

Next Deadline 7th of November Bnieuws Volume 51 Issue 03

LEARN

(Un)Built Scenarios

CREATE 30

We have a New Urban Agenda, and here is what we can do.

Sharing memories

WHAT ABOUT GOING ON EXCHANGE? Words & Images Lydia Giokari & Students

In the last issue of Bnieuws, exchange students that visited our faculty last year shared their experiences with the BK Community in an attempt to give some helpful advice to the new exchange students that will spend their coming months in BK City. As a follow-up, Bnieuws approached students that went on exchange abroad last year to also share their memories in one-page reports, in which they gave the titles that best described their exchange.

MY EXPERIENCE WAS:

ADVENTUROUS student LYDIA DE VRIES

NORWAY, MSC TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF TRONDHEIM | 5 MONTHS

Describe your exchange experience in three words. Nature, koiene, informative.

Norway. I wish I had this mindset in the Netherlands, since there is so much to explore here as well.

What was the hardest thing to get used to in the country / faculty you went to? What is the biggest difference with BK? University started when it was still summer and the days were long with a lot of sunlight. During winter, days were shorter and in December we only had sunlight for a few hours. The winter in Trondheim with lots of snow was hard to get used to, but also a cool experience. The biggest difference with BK was the size of the university. Architecture did not have its own building and our faculty is way bigger.

What do you miss from the time you spent on your exchange? I already miss all the adventures and beautiful nature. From the place I stayed in Trondheim you could be out of the city within an hour, which was nice if you wanted to have a break from studying.

What do you wish you had known before going on exchange? I wish I had taken a Norwegian course. You can definitely survive with English, but Norwegian people appreciate it a lot if you just know some basic words. Also it was very good that I arranged a student apartment in advance.

Share a picture which is related to your experience of exchange and add a description about why you picked it. It was hard to just choose one picture, but this one is from a cabin/koiene trip at the beginning of November. In Trondheim you can find a lot of student societies. One of them rents out cabins, without electricity and running water. The one in the picture had also a sauna, but we had to chop our own wood for the fire. During this weekend I also did cross country skiing for the first time in my life. I loved these cabin trips with new friends in the nature, because it felt like as a short holiday in the semester.

In what way your experience change your scope? When I was on my exchange, I wanted to experience as much as possible of the culture and nature in

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I already miss all the adventures and beautiful natureâ&#x20AC;?

MY EXPERIENCE WAS:

JUGAAD student MARTINE HUIJSMANS

INDIA, AHMEDABAD, MSC CEPT UNIVERSITY | 6 MONTHS

Describe your exchange experience in three words. Quirky, adventurous, gregarious.

What was the hardest thing to get used to in the country / faculty you went to? What is the biggest difference with BK? CEPT is known for their hand drawn representation and tutors were not very accustomed to my mainly digital 3d working methods, however they gave me the freedom to work as I preferred. But this difference in method gave one of my biggest frustrations–the basic facilities on campus. Printing was only possible in one location–the copy shop, and the modeling workshop was not quite up to par with Fordian production space we have going on here at BK City. Overall, I had to adjust to a very non-Dutch level of patience in order to stay sane between the 13 hour train delays and endless bureaucratic processes. 22

What do you miss from the time you spent on your exchange? Mostly I miss the food and the spontaneity of life at CEPT. Not only did the campus have three in-house restaurants, but there was this huge road filled with street vendors. A bit different from the Sodexo setup we have here in Delft. Also, the faculty was open 24

hours per day. Next to the fact that you would work on your project in studio it was also a place for hanging out after classes. It was even a thing to have studio sleepovers when deadlines started to get heavy. Waking up from a good nap on your desk with your classmates asking if you’re up for chai and breakfast is probably one of my favorite memories of studio culture.

Share a picture which is related to your experience of exchange and add a description about why you picked it. Students organize activities almost every day ranging from sports to musical performances and movie nights. Also, all the major religious festivals are celebrated in traditional manner at campus, that were often outrageously entertaining. On this particular occasion, Krishna Jayanti, we celebrated the birth of Krishna, which goes a little something like this; (1) dig a huge hole in the middle of the school plaza (2) fill it with water which then turns into mud (3) chuck your fellow students into it (4) alternate the mud bath with loud music, dancing and lassi (5) finish it off by climbing one over another and form a human pyramid, allowing the top person to break the pot of yoghurt hanging high from a tree.

“Yes, I would go on exchange again! No ifs ands or buts about it”

MY EXPERIENCE WAS:

UNIQUE student YINAN NI

CHINA, BSC TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY IN BEIJING| 12 MONTHS

Describe your exchange experience in three words. Irreplaceable, unmissable, unrepeatable.

What was the hardest thing to get used to in the country / faculty you went to? What is the biggest difference with BK? I would say the hardest thing was to get used to the size of the university campus. Tsinghua has a campus that is so big as a small city. This is quite different from TU Delft, where we are always integrated into the actual city. But in Tsinghua, you could basically spend all your time on the campus without ever going out–if you would like. Also, Tsinghua university is quite open in the sense that it is very easy to follow courses from different faculties. For example, as an architecture student I also followed courses about terrorism, nutrition and psychology. What do you wish you had known before going on exchange? I wish I would have applied for OV-vergoeding–the Dutch government travel cost compensation!

would definitely advise other students to try Tsinghua university since it is a really special place with good education and a huge group of international students that will make you feel at ‘home’ right away. In what way are you happy to be back? Beijing is a very hectic city, so I am really happy to be back in the serene atmosphere of the Netherlands.

Share a picture which is related to your experience of exchange and add a description about why you picked it. In the picture you can see a very typical Chinese spring festival dinner, which I spent with both my family and the nicest fellow TU Delfter! I picked this photo because it is an activity that is really unique for China and it is a really nice way to feel at home while being in a far away place. When doing an exchange, I would recommend you to ‘say yes’ to as much local activities as possible and step out of your cultural comfort zone.

In what way did your experience change your scope? I got a better image of the Chinese academic mentality: hard-working students, making your parents proud, but also having fun by going out for dinner or secretly turning your dorm room into a hot-pot restaurant. What do you miss from the time you spent on your exchange? Hanging around with friends after dinner on a summer night, on one of the sports fields in front of the dorms. After your experience, would you do the exchange again and would you advise other students to try it? I would not do this exchange again, since all the people that I met would not be there anymore. But I “Say yes to as much local activities as possible”

MY EXPERIENCE WAS:

“Enjoy please the Japan beautifully scenery!!”

FICTITIOUS student ARJAN SCHONEVELD

JAPAN, TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | 10 MONTHS

Describe your exchange experience in three words. Reality makes no sense.

Why did you decided to stay abroad for 10 months? Although the exchange track is usually just one semester long; I had already set my eyes on doing two. Staying abroad for a mere half year would have been too short to my taste–especially in a country so different from my own. As such, I applied for an extension during my stay so that I could stay over 10 months.

What was the hardest thing to get used to in the country / faculty you went to? What is the biggest difference with BK? Upon entering the laboratory on my first day at 9:00am sharp, there was just one person present. He was asleep on the ground–wrapped in his sleeping bag. I had, of course, accidentally woken him up and then told him I would come back at a later point. What I didn’t tell him, however (but what I did tell myself), was that I vowed never to spend the night at the university. It is good to be devoted to your studies, but the university is not your prison. What do you miss from the time you spent on your exchange? A city like Tokyo has restaurants so numerous you can probably have breakfast, lunch and dinner at different locales every single day of your life; shops seemingly so tiny yet you can spend ages in them, looking for the right tea cup or Kit Kat flavor; countless ever-changing architectural expressions that help shape every plot, street and neighborhood into this dynamic and diverse metropolis. Rijswijk is dull. After your experience, would you do the exchange again? One professor I met mentioned that “every Japanese

person has a pet country”. Although this is largely and peculiarly true, it is not limited to the Japanese only. I suppose I also have something like a pet country to which I will return again and again. Japan hasn’t seen the last of me, nor should it of any of you. In what way are you happy to be back? Returning home from travelling can be a sad ordeal, yet it reminds us of a reality that is not infinite. Instead of feeling melancholic, we should consider it a renewed start in a familiar environment. For me, that means starting the last stages of my time in Delft, which will be a tough but satisfying ordeal. In what way did your experience changed your scope? Living in Tokyo warps a sense of time. People start working late in the morning until midnight, almost every single day. Convenience stores are open 24/7 while public facilities close in the middle of the afternoon. In the vastness of Tokyo it can take an hour to go somewhere for a meeting or drinks, but this doesn’t demotivate you to traverse this borderless metropolis.

Share a picture which is related to your experience of exchange and add a description about why you picked it. This image hung on a wall in the dormitory. Captioned “Enjoy please the Japan beautifully scenery!!”, it welcomed and reminded students of one of Japan’s many peculiarities. An amazing travel experience that everyone at the Faculty should know about? Let us know!

Bnieuws VOLUME 51 EDITION 02

INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT

Colofon

Bnieuws Volume 51 Issue 04 2 February 2018

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Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl

Time for Africa

Maarten van het Ketelhuis

Editorial Team Nadine van den Berg Matthew Cook Lydia Giokari Ada Jaśkowiec Kseniya Otmakhova

Visité

SPEAK

Contributor Małgorzata Wyszyńska Cover The Bank of England: A Dialectical Project by Loed Stolte Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken Next Deadline 20th of February Bnieuws Volume 51 Issue 05 Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies © All rights reserved. Although all content is treated with great care, errors may occur.

Right and Wrong

Poem From Valparaíso

In Memoriam

Deadline Fever

11 Anti-Stress Tips

Confessions of an Archiholic

Behind the Scenes

Peter Russell’s 10 Rules for Life

LEARN 08

Public Space in Africa

Urbanism Students for Africa

Speak

DEADLINE FEVER Words & Image Lydia Giokari

BK city is buzzing as the end of the semester is approaching. The roads of BK are full with its nervous citizens who run through the corridors and move towards the model hall, the print shop and the busy studios. The queues of sleepless students in the coffee machines and printers are representing the intensity of the period. The deadline fever has started for good and we should all remember to breath deeply and keep calm.

Unplugged from the world There are times when all of us work hard for a deadline, a presentation, or a project and it seems like time and space disappear and everything around us slows down. It is like nothing affects us, everything is frozen until work is done. We are inside BK City, working on a table in a busy studio room, with people around us–classmates or even friends–but nothing matters at that moment. There is only ourselves, a laptop, a mouse and a cup of hot coffee which we refill almost automatically from the coffee machine. And it is a pity. Maybe it is even shame, because there is more around us, in the room, in the floor, in BK City, in the world. Consciousness in BK life We as students, architects and citizens of the world should not unplug ourselves from our environment at any time. Architecture and future architects are not supposed to work like this. Architecture–or at least an attempt to define this multifarious profession–is not only the creation of space and beautiful representations of it–drawings or renders. It is a translation of culture, history, precedence or social issues into physical substance. An idea or even a solution can pop-up from the most irrelevant stimuli; a random conversation, a movie, an event flyer, a party poster or even a friends’ T-shirt stamp. This is the advantage that we, as individuals and also as a collectivity, can gain when we don’t close up to ourselves but co-exist and interact. Especially, living in BK City and participating in BK life–because to be honest we don’t work, we live in BK City–is so exciting because there is a wide diversity of people coming from all the parts of the globe, from different backgrounds and cultures and there is so much to share and argue on. Don’t forget to relax But apart from being students we are also young people with interests and anxieties independent from architecture and that is another very important part of our lives. We should not give up on the things we love to do and help us relax and recharge our batteries

because of our busy study programme. This is not healthy and doesn’t help us perform better in our studies. We should take time during the day to breath deeply, forget all the deadlines and clear up our minds. We should go running, go to yoga classes, have a beer with friends or even watch our favourite Netflix series without regrets, because we spare one or two hours from work. Think about your laptop battery, if you don’t charge it, would it supply energy to your laptop to open? These simple things that makes us relax, laugh and clear up our minds are essential parts of our everyday life in order to be able to stay healthy and balanced.

“YOUR MIND WILL ANSWER MOST QUESTIONS IF YOU LEARN TO RELAX AND WAIT FOR THE ANSWER” William S. Burroughs Simple things make a difference Even the most simple things like a talk with a friend while having a cup of coffee in the corridor will help you more than drinking the same cup of coffee while you zoom in and out in AutoCad frustrated. Especially in a faculty as BK City with all its diverse residents, we should all make an effort to meet each other in person and talk about all the things that occupy our minds, because it is more than probable that we all share common problems, anxieties, interests or desires. When you feel lost in the pile of things you need to do or the deadline you need to catch, remember to take a deep breath, keep calm and ask a friend next to you to just spare some some time and have a talk.

Speak

11 ANTI-STRESS TIPS Words Roberto Cavallo & Roberto Rocco

Images Lydia Giokari

Bnieuws asked Roberto Cavallo and Roberto Rocco to share some useful advice and tips with the BK students in order to prevent and reduce the stress and studying pressure that they face in periods with lots of deadlines and exams.

Roberto Cavallo as the Director of Education in BK and Associate Professor of Architecture at the Chair of Complex Projects, suggests some practical and stratigical steps that can help students to organise themselves during the semester and make it through the several presentations:

1. Start timely with your work. 2. Make a good plan of your study activities, if possible per day. Plan enough time to finalise your work. 3. Share your doubts and concerns with your mentor(s) and ask for feedback. 4. Enquire if you can look into previous results (content and marking), so you can have insight about examples but also expectations. 5. Exercise with your presentation by showing it to your fellow students and/or friends. Request their feedback.

Roberto Rocco with his personal experience as Assistant Professor at the Section of Spatial Planning and Strategy in BK provides general tips and advice from his spectrum as a teacher: 6. I always feel that students put much more pressure on themselves than teachers do.

This is good and bad at the same time. Having high aspirations can take you to high places, but not at the cost of your health or your happiness. De-compress and breath in and out. Think that this is a learning experience and we are all learning together. 7. If you feel the pressure is too high, talk to your friends and most importantly, talk to you teachers. My experience is that teachers at BK can be very accommodating and everybody wants you to succeed. Make agreements with your teachers. 8. Often, pressure comes from feeling you are not up to the task, or that you are not doing as well as your colleagues. Every person is different and maybe your learning needs are different too. Talk to your teachers and make agreements about the things you need to learn and realistic goals to achieve. 9. I say â&#x20AC;&#x153;realistic goalsâ&#x20AC;? because part of being young is the feeling that you can change the world. I really would like students to continue to believe that they can change the world, because they can! However, in order to do that, we must make realistic steps. Because students are often inexperienced in doing research and design, they often set the bar too high and want to solve all problems at the same time. This is not feasible. But knowing the limits of what you can do comes with practice. Pushing your boundaries is not a bad thing (just not too much). Again, talking to your teachers may help you set realistic goals. 10. Enjoy university life. These are some of the best years of your life! Enjoy your friends and teachers! Being more open about your feelings and having fun together is part of the university experience. 11. Diversity is wonderful! We are all different from each other and we have different needs and expectations. You need to communicate with others in order to understand how different they are and to let them understand that your needs, dreams and aspirations are different from theirs. Part of the joy of being a teacher is the opportunity to meet different characters, different personalities, and I really love when I see those personalities coming through.

Speak

BEHIND THE SCENES Words & Image Bnieuws editors

All the citizens of BK independently of their level of studies are experiencing almost the same amount of pressure during the busy periods of the semester, like the one we are having right now that the winter semester runs out. The editors of Bnieuws decided to share with you one of their off the record dialogues, related to their student life and how they face this period. Maybe between the lines you will find yourself having similar thoughts.

KO: Oh guys! P2 is approaching and I cannot stop procrastinating.

NB: I know what you mean. I also tend to procrastinate my big deadlines. I’ve read somewhere that a lot of procrastionators are actually perfectionists, and I really can find myself in that. My tendency to procrastinate comes from the mindset that I’d rather not do something than do something badly. And what happens when the deadlines come too close, is that I try to mend the damage by overachieving. Staying at BK till midnight, overdosing on coffee, taking too little breaks... all to perform better and achieve more success in the limited time that I have. I’m bound to develop an idée fixe on my project and it becomes hard to focus on anything else. KO: But also, you know, it is very hard for me to make decisions in time before all the things start to pile up. AJ: Oh tell me about it! I keep postponing making a decision to the moment when there is absolutely no more time. Usually, it seems to me that my decisions are not rushed, but really well thought-through. I feel I need that time in order to construct my thoughts, it is just the curriculum which is too dense! NB: Just think that the decision you make is not final. Instead of looking for the perfect solution, accept the fact

that making a decision is just the beginning of the process. Even if you decide early, it does not mean that it cannot be modified or improved. AJ: Oh I have to deliver a booklet for an elective I have and the deadline is also just around the corner. There is so little time left and I still have so much to do. I don’t even know where to start. LG: If there is too little time to finish everything, if I were you I might do the tasks that I find the most interesting and enjoyable. Because even if you won’t make it, you would have learnt something and had a good time doing the thing you love. You can always use it for the next time. Or maybe even the quality of the work you like to do and you are good at, will convince the tutors to give you a second chance to complete the missing parts. AJ: Oh I am not sure, I feel that it doesn’t matter where I will start. There is too little time to finish everything anyways. And if not everything is finished it will be a fail, so I might as well give up now and accept defeat. NB: Come on! You need to take a step back and prioritise. What are the most crucial elements to your project? And which are the minimum requirements you should meet to make your idea just clear enough? The first thing is to accept the fact that you need to sacrifice

on the amount and quality of what you need to present, and the things you permit yourself not doing. Also, accepting that you might fail, what aspects of the project do you want your tutors to give feedback on, so you will get the most valuable information out of this experience for the neaxt time? Selecting these aspects and defining the hierarchy between them will help you to be more efficient with the little time you have. If then you still fall short on hands, it’s time to ask someone else to help you. You should accept that the quality of work might not meet your personal standards. It might be not as good, but at least it’s there and you don’t need to worry about it.

the other way round. What you will be capable of doing is unpredictable! That’s why even if I start my day with a plan, I change it 10 times afterwards. My mother always asks me “So, how much time do you need to finish this task?” I never have an answer. I cant assess. Do study counsellors also ask that? Then I would be in trouble.

AJ: Pff, but still I will not make it.. I am not as advanced as the other students and probably this would have a domino effect to the other courses I need to pass and lose the semester.

NB: I find it helpful to make a study plan together with a group mate. This way you set deadlines not only for yourself, but for your friend as well. If you don’t make those deadlines, well, no big deal. But you do try to get the work done that you agreed on, so you don’t let the other person down. And it also helps to discuss your project with someone other than your teacher. Students themselves have lots of knowledge that’s extremely valuable in assessing what to do next in your project.

MC: I was almost certain I would fail my P4, the tutors insisted I did it, as a guideline of what to improve later, and then I passed. The most critical unhelpful tutor you will ever have is often the one in your own head! AJ: Oh guys, thank you for the talk and advice! I feel a bit better now. I will do my best and I will discuss it with a classmate of mine who is more familiar with the course and better able to judge my progress. LG: In case you need more advice, you can always have a talk with the student advisors. They can help you clear up your mind and give you advice. This could be also the case for you as well. If you feel that you don’t know how to start, meeting student counsellors could be helpful. They will help you calm down, prioritize and plan your tasks rationally. AJ: I am not convinced whether anyone can actually help you organise your work. Especially in architecture, you never know when you will stumble upon the discovery, or come up with something which will push your design further. There are days, when I cannot write a sentence, and the others, when I produce long paragraphs of text. Sometimes, I feel like drawing, not reading theory, and

MC: I agree about the student advisers, half an hour with them can make even the most impossible situation doable. They are also great at getting you to break down tasks, think about what is possible in the time and what is the most important.

LG: You will never know if you don’t give it a try. You saw that even talking about it with friends or classmates it takes some of the burden out of you. It is a matter of rationalizing the problem, put it on a logical basis and then try to find the most appropriate solution. You should not be afraid to talk about it, especially with people that they are familiar with ways that can assist you practically by giving you a hand how to schedule your deadlines or emotionally how to face the situation and act instead of letting your fear or uncertainty defeat you. KO: I agree, talking can ease the stress. I already feel better and more confident. It is funny that when sharing your anxieties with others you realise either that there are bigger and more real problems in life and that we all have the same study related fears and problems. MC: And trust me, when you get through all the pain, it feels great to be on the other side!

Bnieuws VOLUME 51 EDITION 04

INDEPENDENT Periodical of the faculty of architecture and the Built environment TU Delft

Colofon

Bnieuws Volume 51 Issue 05 19 March 2018 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl Editorial Team Nadine van den Berg Lydia Giokari Ada Jaśkowiec Kseniya Otmakhova

SPEAK 6

BK EXPO - Behind the Scenes

What Do You Think About the Exhibition Spaces at BK?

Intuition

FSR

Student Interviews

Contributors Małgorzata Wyszyńska Pierijn van der Putt

Spaces of Resistance

Cover Ada Jaśkowiec

Welcome to BK Expo Tower

Peter Russell’s 10 Rules for Life

Editorial Advice Board Robert Nottrot Pierijn van der Putt Marcello Soeleman Ivan Thung Linda van Keeken Next Deadline 7th of April 2018 Bnieuws Volume 51 Issue 06 Printed by Druk. Tan Heck 1.350 copies © All rights reserved. Although all content is treated with great care, errors may occur.

LEARN 18

Toekomst kiezen

Space Architecture

A Lab for the Senses

Explore 8

Map of Exhibition Spots

Narrative Mapping: Copenhagen

Artifact: Puntenslijper

Henco van de bieb

CREATE 12

Stylos Exposure

Speak

Exhibiting student work Words Lydia Giokari

Image ARGUS

The ARGUS EXPO & ANNUAL is one of the most important yearly publications and exhibitions at BK, since it showcases the most inspiring and ambitious projects from each academic year. Bnieuws spoke to Margot de Man, Tomiris Kupzhassarova and Onusa Charuwana, this and last year’s representatives of ARGUS EXPO Committee about their experience in organising such an event and their visions about the future.

Why do you believe it is important to exhibit students’ work? Margot & Tomiris: For us exhibiting students’ work is essential especially in such a huge faculty that has a lot of separated studios, because otherwise the students would rarely get to see what others are working on. The exhibitions give people the chance to see your fellow students’ projects and get inspired or help you make up your mind about what future studios you may want to join. Architecture students work really hard and are very passionate about their work so it is important for them to be able to showcase their projects and have something to be proud of. ARGUS tries their best to showcase students’ work but we only have limited resources and we are able to show only a small fraction of the projects done in this faculty.

our faculty. It is very important for students to realise that and get interested both in the Expo and the Annual –they can still buy their copy of last year’s edition.

How is it to organize the ARGUS Annual Expo? M & T: The planning and preparation of the Annual Expo takes a whole year. There is a new committee each year and they are one of the hardest working school committees, pulling this off with the contributions of selected students. Each year the Annual Expo gets a bit bigger and we are constantly trying to improve, expand and deepen our scope. We try not to limit ourselves to the Architecture Department, but also include projects from most Departments and Tracks. We think that it is a big success that ARGUS had brought back the Annual to

Are you happy with the BK Expo space? M & T: The BK Expo seems to be a rather weird location. It feels like an auxiliary space. It is located near the secondary entrance and in terms of the way it is laid out, it is more of a transitory space. It does not seem to be a space particularly designed to hold exhibitions especially when compared to some of the more characterful spaces of BK like the Orange Hall or the Model hall. In other words, the BK Expo does not hold as strong of a presence in the Faculty as the spaces mentionedabove. We believe that probably a more deliberate space could have enhanced the

Onusa: As Margot and Tomiris already mentioned, the team of the dedicated students is crucial to make the exhibition and publication happen every year. We have been grateful to have such dedicated teams throughout the years, but the commitment to such a year-long project is not an easy task, especially alongside studying such a demanding course as Architecture. It is a uniquely rewarding experience and as a team we learn many valuable lessons that school does not teach us, and I think more people could benefit from being involved.

representational value of exhibiting and sharing students’ works and research. On the other hand, it is close to all the fun parts of BK and it is always exciting to see how some exhibitions make the most of the space and transform it. O: After looking at the Expo in September 2017, we as the new Expo Committee discussed which were the things that went well and what could be improved within the following year. The space is great for its exposure to the public, with people coming to and from the Expresso Bar and the Bouwpub. However, we agree that the Expo space is a bit too small and its location as a passageway is problematic. As Margot and Tomiris mentioned, we have so many of amazing student works, and particularly models, that we could not display simply because of the limited space. This year, we are planning to do smaller expositions in more places around BK, although that means a lot of administrative work in asking for permissions to use different spaces. We feel that it is rather difficult to use spaces spontaneously in the building, leaving lots of spaces with great exhibiting potential empty. How can the way of displaying a project/work of art influence its reception? O: I realised it last year while visiting the Venice Biennale that indeed the way of displaying a project

can influence its reception. I was really impressed with a lot of exhibits and for instance, the ŠamaŠ exhibition in the Lebanese Pavilion, was very powerful not because of the objects themselves, but mainly the way they were exhibited and experienced in a large hangar. On the other hand, the Thailand Pavilion was inside a café, with exhibits located to the back, next to the open kitchen door! Personally, I found that the way it was arranged and its location weakened the meaning and message of the art. Speaking of the Expo, of course, we as students do not have the means and facilities of the Biennale, but I think the lesson learnt is that we need to be aware of the impact of the curation of the exhibition on the perception of work displayed. How do you imagine the future of architecture student exhibitions? Can you imagine an exhibition purely on screens or in VR? O: Yes, I can imagine that happening, but personally I feel that people especially in the Architecture field, would still be drawn to physical objects and drawings. I mean, ultimately, built architecture is felt physically. I agree that screens and VR are already enhancing a lot in architectural exhibitions and visualisations, but as complements rather than a substitute of physical objects. In the future this may change but, for me, the physical elements of exhibitions should not be forgotten.

If you are interested in joining the ARGUS Board/Committees for the next academic year, you can talk to the current Board/Committee during the “Interest Drinks” on the 20th of March at the Bouwpub or visit their website: argus.cc

Explore

a lab for the senses Words Lydia Giokari

Just a few meters away from the main entrance of BK, in the Science Center, a new BK facility has been launched: the SenseLab. The SenseLab is a laboratory where the facultyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s researchers are testing how they can create a better indoor environment for school classrooms, taking into account parameters such as smell, ventilation, temperature, light, colour and sound. Starting from February, 162 primary school children visited already the SenseLab to experience different indoor environments and give their opinions on how to improve their classrooms. Bnieuws spoke with the initiator of the SenseLab, Professor Philomena M. Bluyssen about these interesting on-going experiments.

How did the idea to create the SenseLab occur? Was it your intention to push the current Dutch regulations further regarding the indoor environment of classrooms? Indeed, one of the reasons I put up the SenseLab is the fact that the Dutch regulations for school indoor environment are very narrow and focus mainly on adults/teachers and not on children. In the studies of the past, the teachers gave their judgement by evaluating the students with their own criteria. However, the students have a different perception of their environment in terms of their preferences or priorities, and that is the point of the SenseLab; to test them and figure out their requirements and needs regarding their classrooms. Of course, the teachers also need a good working environment but the kids should be taken into account as well. Which are the most common complaints of the school children? Last year we visited 21 schools, 54 classrooms and questioned 1150 children (average 10 years old) which was an eye-opening experience for our research team. 87% of the pupils complained about noise, 63% about smells, 42% about sunlight and 35% about the

temperature (too cold or too warm). Moreover, when the students were asked to grade 10 things from 1 to 10, they gave the highest score (8.6) to hearing the teacher well and the runner-up was fresh air (7.9). Also, when asked to select between 6 items the ones they would rather improve in their classroom, most of them selected headphones (61%) and a ventilator on their desk to have better air quality (53%). What are the children asked when they visit the SenseLab classroom? During their visit the pupils are divided into groups: some of them take part in a workshop in the experience room (SenseLab classroom), while others are involved in experiments in one of the 4 test chambers. During the workshop, we open a discussion with them about what they believe is the biggest problem in their own classrooms. Then, we expose them to different combinations of indoor environmental factors; we change the lighting, introduce noise, and/or change the ventilation rate or alter the materials and colours of the walls and the floor. Afterwards, we try to stimulate them to come up with solutions of how they would change the things they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like in their own classrooms. The students

are asked to draw their ideal classroom environment imagining that they are researchers of 2040 with all the resources to invent or develop what they need. The results are very surprising and they vary from a detail of their desk to a complete house from where they could study. This point of view is interesting because it shows that some of these primary school children donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to be in the classroom anymore. How do the children respond to the SenseLab experiments? Do they enjoy the whole procedure? It is a very enjoyable field trip for them. They have fun designing their ideal environment, although of course every kid is different and not all of them are intrigued. Some of them are very interested especially in this design exercise and we think we already won some souls here to go to the TU in the future. Working with children is fascinating for us as well, because it includes a lot of â&#x20AC;&#x153;out of the boxâ&#x20AC;? thinking that especially kids are good at. As already mentioned, apart from the SenseLab classroom, they experience the 4 test chambers in which they learn more about their senses, how they work and also help us with tests. Through this procedure we get to know more about the individual factors that change their perception/ feeling of comfort in the classroom environment. Most of them admit that they really have fun in the chamber with the VR and the smell room because both are very interactive; it is a playground for them and that was our intention. When will the SenseLab open to BK students? The intention is for BK students to be able to try the test chambers of the SenseLab and learn more about the factors they need to take into account while designing a building and its indoor environment. Especially when VR technology is combined with other senses, such as heating/cooling or smell, the experience of a space is more realistic. This is what we attempt in the SenseLab and it could be the first step to activate students into this kind of research in their designs.You can learn so much by inserting the real experience of the space you design. We aim to open

the test chambers also for the public during weekends starting from mid-April. Do you think it is important for architecture students to be aware of the indoor environments in the buildings they design? Students should be convinced to take into account the end user and to do so you need to know how the indoor environment of your designs is perceived. They usually design beautiful buildings that are not always optimized for sound, air, thermal and lighting quality. It is not enough to simply draw a ventilation system in your design just to have it there, you need to know how the air is flowing and what you need to be able to let it flow; they need to integrate technology into their designs, and that is not easy. What would you advise BK students? I think it would be beneficial for them to follow at least one technical studio if possible in order to learn how to integrate different factors in their designs. By doing so, they will get more connected to the technical and practical parts of their buildings. Because most architects are very visual, the curriculum should try to introduce courses that you can experience and test what you learn instead of just reading regulations or following rules. That is the point of the SenseLab as well next to enriching the research by testing different solutions. You should test and experience a certain airflow to understand it. It may be ideal in terms of regulations, but it may be too noisy or not appropriate for the users. Finally, I would advice them not to forget that when they design an environment for certain users they should try to keep in mind the opinion and preferences of these users. You can find out more about the SenseLab and the on-going research online: tudelft.nl/en/2018/bk/first-school-class-tests-senselab/, tudelft.nl/en/2016/bk/senselab-a-playground-for-thesenses/, tudelft.nl/bk/onderzoek/ onderzoeksfaciliteiten/senselab/, vimeo. com/220927174.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE EXHIBITION SPACES AT BK? Images Lydia Giokari

Jasmijn Ooijevaar | BSc1

Actually there are numerous and it’s nice that the exhibitions change regularly so that you don’t get bored with them. I always pass by them and since I am a “freshwoman” here, they really inspire me. Would you go to BK Tower if it was an exhibition space? That would be a great idea because no one has ever been there. Sophia Chrysanthou | MSc2 Robotic Building Ken Yeum | MSc4 Heritage 28

I am quite satisfied with the exhibition spaces around BK. There are way more than in my previous Faculty. I usually go to the ones on the ground floor–the BK Expo, the Orange Hall and the corridors–but rarely to the ones on the 1st floor. I really like that the exhibitions are scattered around the building. How did you discover BK Expo? On my way to the toilet.

I think the Expo Space is nicely located because you pass through it on your way to the Bouwpub. I like it spatially but I feel that it could be organised in a nicer way, because sometimes the exhibitions are sloppy. It is a pity that we don’t have more space, for example for pinning up the final posters of our studios, so that you could walk around and see all the students’ work. Would you go to BK Tower if it was an exhibition space? Although it is too far away, I would definitely go there.

Karlijn Sholtens | Msc4 Delta Interventions

Talking about BK Expo, although it is a limited space it is beneficial that you really notice when an exhibition is taking place there. There is always a “warning” since you usually see when an exhibition is being prepared and built. Also, it is nice that if you take walks around the building, you encounter the different spots where student work is exhibited and you can see interesting things while you stroll around. Would you go to BK Tower if it was an exhibition space? Yes, definitely because I always wanted to visit the Tower.

Olav van der Doorm & Rolf Huijgen | MSc4 Robotic Building Britt Gubbels and Farnoosh Bazrafkan | Bridging program

We are new in BK, we just started three weeks ago, but we have already seen some exhibitions in the Orange Hall and they look really impressive. The only thing that we are afraid of at the moment is how we are going to do these kind of models in the future.

The expositions are quite fine and well-organized. You can encounter smaller or bigger ones and in different spots while walking around BK; in the Model Hall, the Orange Hall, the corridors or BK Expo. You need to have courage to organise one and it will take you some time to manage it. Would you go to BK Tower if it was an exhibition space? Definitely! It would be a nice way to escape from the standard workspaces and enjoy the view.

Luc Willekens | Tutor Architecture

I love the fact that the exhibitions are scattered around the building. Sometimes it is difficult to find them but usually they are in the public spaces that you pass when you go through the building to your own working space. This organisation is really nice because you end up seeing exhibitions that you probably wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go to otherwise. Passing by you can see inspiring images, drawings and models. Would you go to BK Tower if it was an exhibition space? I would prefer it to become something else, for example, a space for small studios more than an exhibition space. The tower is a separate room that you have to go to specifically, whereas all the exhibitions are integrated into the routing of the building. Therefore, I would instead shift other spaces around the routings into small exhibitions.

Efrain Fajardo | Msc4 Delta Interventions

I like that the exhibitions are scattered around BK. During the day, you always pass through the various exhibitions around the building. However, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like that it is really difficult to catch an agenda and keep track of all the exhibitions in time. Also, it would be nice if the exhibitions were more inclusive so that you could see different perspectives and approaches, not only some projects selected only by the tutors. Maybe giving the students the chance to choose their favourite student projects would be a good idea.

A Place of Potential

WELCOME TO the BK EXPO TOWER! Words & Image Lydia Giokari

The BK Tower is one of the most characteristic parts of our faculty, yet we have no access to it. In the October issue, Bnieuws took you inside the BK Tower in an attempt to unveil the mystery of this “untapped” place of potential. Taking a step further, the aim of this article is to propose a new use and reclaim the Tower as an alternative exhibition space for BK.

As architecture students, we spend most of our time designing proposals for all kinds of projects in real, future or imaginary contexts. We envision possible solutions for interiors, buildings, settlements or even urban spaces adding new qualities, reinterpreting current situations or speculating on future scenarios. It is in our nature to be enthusiastic about designing the built environment we live in or the future of how we would like it to be. So especially when we are talking about our faculty, the building that we live in every day, our own BK City, we know all its pros and cons, its potentials and dead-ends. 32

The BK Tower constitutes one of these places of potential not only because of its nature to stand out from a distance, but also because in its limits, it offers numerous opportunities for possible uses. BK has its famous anchor points like the Orange Hall, the Model Hall, the Espresso Bar and the Bouwpub and the Tower could definitely be one of these points of interest for guests as well as BK Citizens. Although on a first glance the interior space may not seem optimal for hosting exhibitions, this characteristic can also be perceived as a special feature that triggers new ways of organising/curating expositions in this unique location. The collage on the right showcases that the continuous gap along the floors that limits up the floor space can be used as a place to exhibit objects vertically while allowing the possibility to observe them from different positions, angles and perspectives. The polygonal interior walls provide extra space for pinning up posters or works of art. The numerous windows not only provide a magnificent view but also allow a lot of natural light in the Tower. It is really a pity not to benefit from this extraordinary space that BK is lucky to have. Bnieuws asked BK students about their opinion and they expressed their excitement to be able to visit the Tower and enjoy the view while looking to their fellow students’ work. The same positive reaction was received from the Chair of BK Expo Committee, Inge Pit, when asked if she could imagine the Tower becoming a part of the scattered exhibition spaces of BK. Dear reader, spread the word and let’s hope that we will accomplish to reclaim the Tower!

A first glimpse at the BK Expo Tower: A new place for exhibiting student work, take a break and enjoy the spectacular view. >

B 01

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Bnieuws Volume 52 Issue 01 08 October 2018 Contact Room BG.Midden.140 Julianalaan 134 2628 BL Delft bnieuws-bk@tudelft.nl Editorial Team Ada Jaśkowiec Lydia Giokari Kseniya Otmakhova Nadine van den Berg Elena Rossoni Jan Pruszynski Jack Oliver Petch Sam Eadington

BNIEUWS 04

#Bnieuwd

Cover - Why Yellow?

Beginnings: Welcome to the Netherlands

Obsessions / Inspirations

Jargon

Isle of Dogs

Abandoned

Contributors Thomas Dillon Peynado @ nlkrts

Costa del Sprawl Pavilion - Estudio ESSE

Cover Hand-drawn by the editors.

Interdisciplinary projects

Artefact

Dilemmas of an architecture Graduate

Venice: What to see

Venice: Greek Pavilion

Reflecting on the Past: Goodbye

New Team • New Bnieuws: Hello

Looking Forward

ISLE OF INSPIRATION Words Lydia Giokari

The summer break is the ideal time to catch up with all the things you could not find time for while studying. First on my list was to watch the movie ‘Isle of Dogs’, written, produced and directed by Wes Anderson. In this short article I will explore alternative ways of seeing the media we use as architects, inspired by Anderson’s latest feature length visual feast. The movie was a blast of emotions from beginning to end, but also a true revelation once the final credits had rolled and I started to find information and backstage images regarding its making process. Most striking were the similarities between the production of the movie and the scenes we find in our Model Hall .

Cinema in particular, and especially stop-motion animation, has a very close relation to the practice of

architecture, in the sense that they both use the same media; models that are built with great care and detail and brought to life via video or photographic techniques to create spatial narratives. During filming, approximately 240 different sets and 44 stages were created by the designers of the film and were used in order to convey the various sceneries of the narrative. The story is set approximately 20 years in the future, located in the fictional worlds of Megasaki City and Trash Island. Both of them are placed in the Japanese archipelago and the aesthetics of the film originate from Japanese culture. The film narrates the adventures of a12-year-old boy, Atari, in his quest to find and rescue his dog Spots after all Megasaki canines are deported to Trash Island, by Atari’s corrupt uncle, Mayor Kobayashi.

< The house of the mayor of Megasaki City designed and inspired by the now-demolished Imperial Hotel in Tokyo by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The beautiful images that Anderson brought to our screens have a strong bond with architecture as they take inspiration from the work of the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange and the metabolist architecture movement, but also a project designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Tokyo. This project is the now-demolished Imperial Hotel, which is used as the prototype for the mayor’s house in Megasaki City. However, apart from the precedents and architectural references that the set designers used in their creations, the procedure of making these models is very similar to what we see in BK City. This is especially true in some of the Chairs of the Architecture Track, for example Interiors, Buildings, Cities or Form & Modelling Studies where similar scale models are built to explore the qualities of space, its materiality and relation with light

and shadow. Simultaneously, by the means of video and photography, students visualise the essence of the spaces they design while also exploring new possibilities and details. Apart from the chairs mentioned above, there is also an independent course – MOOC by TU Delft called ‘Models in Architecture – Design through Physical & Digital Models’. So if you, dear reader, find yourself triggered by this article and interested in this kind of experimentation, it would be a great opportunity to get informed about the upcoming studios and courses of BK that can provide you with the chance to work in a similar way. You can find more about the MOOC online: onlinelearning.tudelft.nl/courses/models-in-architecturedesign-through-physical-and-digital-models/

The process of making the model of the house of the mayor of Megasaki City at Three Mills Studios in London.

Speak

DILEMMAS OF AN ARCHITECTURE GRADUATE (TO BE) Words Nadine van den Berg, Ada Jaśkowiec, Lydia Giokari, Kseniya Otmakhova Image Ada Jaśkowiec A while back, one of the graduating students contacted us regarding precarious work conditions in big architectural offices. Is it fair that once you’ve graduated you’re offered an intern position and are paid less than in a job which doesn’t require any academic education? Was it worth spending hundreds of euros on models, prints and fancy computers? Doesn’t architecture school education fit the requirements of the professional market? What can we as students, elements of the bigger system - do to improve our situation?

Discrepancy between business and university focus Aspiring architects get schooled thoroughly in the design process, history and technicalities of architecture. However, unlike for example future artists, architects do not get educated in the business side of architecture. Practice shows us that the most famous and successful architects are often as brilliant managers and businessmen as they are designers. Getting your design commissioned requires a lot of interpersonal skills, finding opportunities and combining contradictory viewpoints. However, let us try to look into what we have learned—we could use much of it already. According to Hans de Jonge, a TU Delft alumnus who is currently running his own company Oculus Film, the university teaches you how “to think on different levels of abstraction and scale, how to approach a problem, cut it down into manageable pieces, work on them and integrate them.” Critical thinking, analytical skills and the ability to solve problems acquired during our studies are invaluable assets, which are universally valued. Additionally, architecture encourages to develop multi-faceted interests, which broadens horizons and makes you

open for and aware of new possibilities. Ruben Bergambagt, also TU graduate, the founder of a Dutch-Chinese architectural office Superimpose, highly values that the University gave him the motivation “to push the boundaries of architecture, question conventions and find innovative solutions to existing and emerging problem statements”.Creative, innovative, how come we - architecture graduates are not the perfect employees? Ruben’s advice for future architects is to find a balance between conceptual thinking and the exploration of practical matters. There’s only one way to acquire that: take on an internship and find out how architecture practices run projects in real life. Often young people who just obtained their diploma have no understanding of how differently architectural ventures are run compared to what they have imagined based on how the university projects were structured. The problem is growing, since internships are not a part of formal education anymore. If you want to get a grasp of real life in an office, you still need to pay a tuition fee at the university while receiving almost symbolic salaries from the employer. It creates a challenging situation

in which it is problematic for young architects to fulfil the requirements set by the employers. Having not enough experience means that they have to agree to very low salaries, which subsequently encourages a significant part of them to pursue other careers where the entry threshold is not that high. Low efficiency, low salary, draining lifestyles We often ask ourselves why architects are not as well-paid as employees in other disciplines. According to some calculations, comparing the amount of working hours and the amount of work architects are commissioned, the calculated hourly

about the world of today, but the world of tomorrow, which in turn calls for knowledge of society, culture, politics, etc. In order to excel at this challenging task, both students and architects in the field of architecture endure draining lifestyles with lots of overwork However, nothing can ensure that such sacrifice will pay off. After a lot of sleepless nights, a different competitor might get the commission for the projects instead. Survival of the most adaptable Architects perceive themselves as generalists: designers, politicians, sociologists, psychologists, etc. at once, however, that is not a future-proof attitude.

65% OF PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN OF TODAY WILL END UP WORKING IN COMPLETELY NEW, NOT YET EXISTENT JOB TYPES. rate evens out to the one of a supermarket cashier. It all seems a lot of hard work with little reward, so why do we, as a community, put our mental and physical health at such a disadvantage? Sportsmen keep health their priority, and in most other professions, overnight and weekend hours get rewarded double the hourly rate. After all, our profession requires comprehensive conceptual, technical, interpersonal and business skills. However, it turns out that the construction industry is being outpaced by the general development ratio of the economy and brings back not enough revenue.

“In this world there’s a tendency to specialism,” – Hans reflects – “specialising in a particular field could improve the quality of the work delivered”. The understanding of a concept of job changes there’s no certainty of having one job for a lifetime. Quite the opposite, the fast pace of development will require workers to think of themselves as specialists, not employees. In order to be ready for that change and not lose the race in the future, we must now assess our strengths and weaknesses, which will eventually make us able to define what we should specialise in and how to make ourselves fit within a very complex process of creating architecture.

One of the problems of architecture, as formulated by Rem Koolhaas, is the fact it is not fast enough to keep up with the constantly developing and fast-paced world. “Architecture is a profession that takes an enormous amount of time. The least architectural effort takes at least four or five or six years, and that speed is really too slow for the revolutions that are taking place.”1 Architecture means months of designing on such a complex level that it results in a low capacity to react to swift changes.

The Guardian called the job market “the survival of the most adaptable”2, where the idea of a job for life ceases to exist. The worker of the future freelances, takes part-time jobs, manoeuvres between different employers and modes of employment. It requires constant rethinking of your preferences and redefining your professional status. According to the “Future of Jobs” report published by World Economic Forum in 2016, 65% of primary school children of today will end up working in completely new, not yet existent job types.3 Such changes come about with the necessity of clearly defining your strengths and skills and being highly aware of what you can offer to your potential employer.

What adds up to that is the long period of construction, which requires architects to think not

Tunnel vision Although in the first year of the Bachelors, everyone gets the warning that only a few freshmen will end up working as architects after graduation, the message individual tutors deliver in design studios goes the opposite way. It is often said architecture is a calling rather than a profession. Or a passion, which doesn’t allow another one to exist. You dedicate your life and being to architecture or you fail at it. It is, after all, not a hobby. So now you’ve made your choice for architecture, there’s no way back. Sounds like a deal with the devil?

input of any kind”. Hans, despite taking on a job that departs from the traditional professional trajectory, admits that his education as an architect has taught him to “structure thought and to be able to abstract”, which is a transferable and universal skill.

Especially at the beginning of your way, ending up being an architect seems to be the obvious option. You have a curriculum that you have to follow, which is a bit double-edged. On the one hand it gives you a sense of security; after all the stress you went through before deciding on your field of study, for the next few years you can just go along with the curriculum of your track. Those years fly past you faster than you expect, and suddenly you have to think again about questions like “why am I doing this?”, “what impact do I want to make in the world?”, “what do I want to spend the rest of my life doing?”

To find more about Hans’ and Ruben’s professional

Architecture education is beautiful, but it is just the beginning. If your ambitions remain within the field of architecture, be sure to balance concept and practice. When you dread the thought of working in an architecture office, you surely have tools to come up with an alternative.

paths visit http://oculusfilm.com/ and http://www. superimpose.nl/. If you want to tell your story, write to bnieuws-bk@tudelft. nl, we will be happy to share your contribution. Psychological test: if the tower is the first thing that you notice, sit back, relax and take a break from architecture.

It might seem that those who’ve chosen Master Track in Architecture already answered these questions and decided to pursue the track. Are you among these? Or maybe you already know your path will diverge? Have you ever questioned your choices and wondered about what would really make you happy? Future paths Ruben decided to run his own office, but he definitely sees the architecture graduate as someone who can excel at diverse professions. For him studying architecture is profitable to anyone “who is curious enough to investigate, creative enough to provide new solutions, critical enough to reflect on their own work and passionate enough to appreciate

> Prijevor Plateau (1600m) in Sutjeska National Park in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a starting point for several trails leading to the Bosnia’s highest peak, Maglic (2386 m).

Bnieuws INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT VOLUME 52 ISSUE 01

Lydia Giokari 2019