The [x] city e-publication MIARD by Piet Zwart Institute

[x]CITY

Making Interior Cities I n i t i a t i v e s

o n

t h e

I n t e r i o r

a s

C i t y

Piet Zwart Institute Master Interior Architecture & Retail Design [MIARD]

“My ideal city would be one long Main Street with no cross streets or side streets to jam up traffic. Just one long one-way street. With one tall vertical building where everybody lived…” Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Colophon MIARD Course Director Alex Suarez Coordinator Vanessa Tuitel Thematic Design Project Aynav Ziv Petar Zaklanovic Seminar: History and Theory Füsun Türetken Structure & Fabrication (1.0 & 2.0) Mauro Parravicini Lutz Mürau Research Methods Catherine Somzé Visualization & Communication Sander Boer Graphic Design Oana Tudose Cover Image Joanne Choueiri

Master of Interior Architecture & Retail Design MIARD Piet Zwart Institute Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University

Selected Designers

Albina Aleksiunaite Bo Baalman Marco Busani Joanne Choueiri Iulia Circei Giulia Cosenza Kleoniki Fotiadou Maddalena Gioglio Egle JacinaviÄ?iute Natalie Konopelski Devika Mirawitani Nathalia Martinez Saavedra ÂŠ 2014 MIARD

Kine Solberg

No part of this e-publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by no means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

Sina Steiner Bianca Yousef Egle Tuleikyte

Contents Foreword

A note on the unity of theory and practice in Interior Architecture

Introduction: [X] City

Site: Submarine Wharf

Context and Building

Building (A) City Workshop

Typology Investigation

Public Lectures

The Incubator

City Pulse

The Utopian Family Town

The (ONE MAN) City

The Playground City

YOUth Create City

The new H City

My City is My Home

Fashionspace

The Exchange City

The Meta City

The City of the Books

Heijplaat Hub

Transient City

104

Broadcast City

116

The Ex. Co. Ex. City

112

Final Presentations

122

MIARD

126

Image by Natalie Konopelski

Foreword Alex Suarez

“Sire, your mind has been wandering. This is precisely the city I was telling you about when you interrupted me.” “You know it? Where is it? What is its name?” “It has neither name nor place. I shall repeat the reason why I was describing it to you: From the number of imaginable cities we must exclude those whose elements are assembled without a connecting thread, an inner rule, a perspective, a discourse. With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspective deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” “I have neither desires nor fears,” the Khan declared, “and my dreams are composed either by my mind or by chance.” Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino, 1972, A Harvest Book

The incentive for this short-form e-publication is to cultivate a space – to share with you the design initiatives that were researched and developed by our students at the Piet Zwart Institute’s Master Interior Architecture & Retail Design [MIARD] programme during the Fall 2013 trimester, entitled [X]City: Making Interior Cities. This thematic design project was structured to include integrated history and theory, research methods, visualisation, and fabrication modules. The theme explored large-scale interiority, urbanism, and the re-use of a vacant industrial building in the Port of Rotterdam called the Submarine Wharf – originally a covered slipway for making submarines. The building and its location outside the city posed an array of challenges inherent to the repurposing of very large buildings in decentralised, industrial urban areas. The idea for [X]City began in early 2013 during work on our first thematic project and exhibition on the Port of Rotterdam, entitled Post-Port: Obsolete Typologies in the Port of Rotterdam. The theme Post-Port was the first MIARD study on the post-industrial futures of obsolete building types found in the Port. The Port is an expansive industrial region stretching over a 40-km long area, with non-operational buildings resulting from the relocation westwards toward the North Sea of Port activities, which once kept these areas thriving. The Port of Rotterdam Authority has short-term and long-term plans to ambitiously remap and reimage itself for the 21st Century (www.portofrotterdam. com). This first study began with two simple questions: The Port of Rotterdam is in a process of change; can the interior architect offer design strategies for the Port, as a means to activate a different point of view and scale in the area’s post-industrial development? Can MIARD students present design initiatives that address the current issues facing our city? Post-Port explored issues of redevelopment and urbanism facing an immense industrial zone – a risky endeavour for MIARD, with considerations and a scale beyond the norm for the interior practitioner. Several guests, including the Port of Rotterdam Authority’s Environmental Project Manager Marielle van Dijk, provided insight and feedback on the projects and future plans of the area (Port Lectures, 06.12.2012). MIARD designers presented a range of design possibilities by coupling their projects with larger urban and architectural development strategies currently planned for the area. The final projects tested a critical scalar approach to their inquiries and researched issues such as water management, food waste, mobility, re-contextualisation, squatting, isolation and extreme environments. A connective thread in the projects was an appropriation of tools beyond the expected practice of the interior, which elicited

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

7 questions about our own disciplinary placement, tools and history. A place that shares a similar arena with Thomas Kong’s text, Expanded Role of Interior Design Education, in which he argues for a more expansive pedagogical approach towards interior design education, as a means to advance the discipline and to critically participate and shape the emergent diversity of spaces (bigger, more public) in today’s cities (Thomas Kong, Studio Chronotope). As a consequence of this first inquiry, we planned to continue to look at the issues and test initiatives related to the Port. Further, we were curious to investigate the potential of large-scale interiority in an industrial context. Questions were raised, such as: What is the future of these industrial factories and warehouses? What types of programs would work to bring people to remote areas? Which factors increase human population and density in cities? What types of economies could thrive in these locations? Can highly specific micro-communities/cities be a source of revitalisation? And what if we use the remits of urbanism to make and populate the interior? How is the practice and knowledge of the interior altered, if it expands deeper in a multidisciplinary sphere? The theme for the [X]City project began to solidify; the endeavour would be multi-faceted, as a means to investigate the nuances, challenges and potential of large-scale interiority through the operatic lens of urbanism in a post-industrial context. [X]City was planned as an amalgamation of activities and sources to nurture the design process. Brendan Cormier, Managing Editor of Volume, contributed a text for the magazine’s Interiors issue, entitled ‘City Planning the Interior.’ We invited Brendan to give a talk at MIARD and to shed light on his perspective on the subject and on the need for city planning to include the interior. Other invited guests, Mecanoo Architects’ Nuno Fontarra and Neutelings Riedijk Architects’ Hilbrand Wanders, shared their perspective on large public interiors from both a local and an international perspective. Students collected countless references on urbanism, such as O.M. Ungers’ ubiquitous essay, ‘The City Within the City: Berlin as Green Archipelago,’ and Rem Koolhaas’ 1995 prophetic ‘S, M, L, XL’ in which he noted the rise of (and coined the term) ‘extra-large’ in architecture. The students also examined case studies such as the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, Cedric Price’s The Fun Palace, John Portman’s The Westin Bonaventure, as well as Hitchcock’s film Rear Window. They visited the Utrecht Library, designed by Wiel Arets and DUSArchitects, in order to gain insight into the work being done with additive manufacturing. The designers also surveyed the surrounding area of the Submarine Wharf, including the RDM (Research, Design & Manufacturing) Campus and Heijplaat

(a utopian-like residential factory village for local workers), and studied the planning and policies for Rotterdam in the near future. While hearing the designers talk about their ideas and research for their city, I was reminded of Italo Calvino’s fantastical story, in his book Invisible Cities. I was taken to a present-day conversation reminiscent of the one between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo – the designers as storytellers, telling tales about their city, its nuances, logics, visions and people. For example, Joanne Choueiri’s city ‘The Incubator’ is about Nico, a scientist, and his human incubation factory. Natalia Martinez Saavedra’s controversial brief for a one-man city offers a utopian plan to divide the earth’s land equally between all humans. Giulia Cosenza’s ‘The Playground City’ gives us a community oasis for children. Metropolis, ‘the machine as the heart of a city’ inspires Bianca Yousef’s ‘Transient City,’ a temporary hub with housing for local workers. Albina Aleksiunaite’s ‘The Utopian Family Town’ is designed for families as a retro-futuristic Expressionist utopia. Other proposals include Egle Jacinaviciute’s installation showing us Rotterdam as we’ve never seen it before – as a field of columns and surfaces that fluctuate using real-time data synced with the city’s traffic flows. Devika Mirawitani’s ‘The City of the Books’ is a cultural commentary on the need to preserve and distribute Rotterdam’s neglected physical books. ‘The Meta City’ by Iulia Circei questions the life-cycle of buildings and argues for more permeable methods for planning and using space. And Natalie Konopelski’s ‘My City Is My Home’ is reminiscent of the density, tactility, social flavour and informality of the medieval city – except that now it is perched on stilts. The selected projects exemplify, in some form, critical and visionary initiatives in the context of the interior as city.

References: Calvino, Italo, Invisible Cities, 1972, A Harvest Book Kong, Thomas, Expanded Role of Interior Design Education, Studio Chronotope Ungers, Oswald Mathias, The City Within the City: Berlin as Green Archipelago (1977) Visit and Lectures, World Port Center, Port of Rotterdam Authority headquarters, (06.12.2012). Speakers: Frans van Keulen, Public Relations; Marielle van Dijk, Envi-ronmental Project Manager; Port of Rotterdam Authority http://www.portofrotterdam.com/en/port/port-in-general/port-vision-2030

A note on the unity of theory and practice in Interior Architecture Füsun Türetken

“I never made a painting as a work of art, it’s all research.” Pablo Picasso

“Research has been, can be and will continue to be an important – perhaps the most important – nourishment for the practice and teaching of arts, crafts and design.” Christopher Frayling

Interior architecture balances in the interstice, the triangle between architecture, design and art. Having established its interspace, the question is: what is the body of knowledge of interior architecture? Considering that this space is created and defined by all three fields, one needs to add that it is a domain for practice, theory and research. At the Piet Zwart Institute’s Master of Interior Architecture & Retail Design (MIARD), modules for practice, theory and research are understood as integrated components that intertwine and inform each other. Theoretical ideas unfold into the design process, thus theory not only informs but is an integral part of any design process. At the same time, students at MIARD work according to a methodology of research through making.

One of these modules is the research seminar History and Theory, which is intended to serve as a contextual and theoretical backdrop to the design activity. It is also conceived as complementary to the design process, and meant to provide analytical tools and theoretical information for enhancing critical reflection towards the thematic project. The graduate course begins with a general overview of the history and theory of interior architecture, art and design, before focusing more specifically on various themes of the interior, with an emphasis on the socio-political and disciplinary specificities of these histories. Depending on each trimester’s specific theme, a series of design questions are explicitly analysed and discussed. The goals of the course are: to provide students with concepts useful to them in the development of their own talent; to be a source of inspiration, not only for the thematic design project – in this case, [X]City: Making Interior Cities – but also for the students’ future careers as designers; and to allow students to arrive at a critical and reflective position on a master level, which prepares them for research in this field. Thus it is crucial to raise awareness of existing contemporary theories and design methods of interior architecture, and also to enable students to use written theory as a tool for building up professional competence. It is one possible way of adding to the field of knowledge, of challenging paradigms of interior architecture, of debating and enabling critical and innovative design. Whereas theory, knowledge and practice in art and design are often discussed separately, a further aim of this course is to open a “third position” (Silvio Carta, 2013). Assuming that knowledge and practice are independent and autonomous entities, one would have to ask: what kind of knowledge can be relevant for design processes? The complementary question would be: what kind of knowledge can be created through practice and making?

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

Image by Iulia Circei, based on the essay “No Man’s Land” by Caroline Evans. Taken from the impromptu text-object assignment at MIARD’s History and Theory module.

The third position is “based on the idea that knowledge and practice of design are indiscernible aspects of the same human activity, one nested into the other” (Carta, 2013). Most ideas on this subject closely agree with Karl Marx’s famous dictum that practice without theory is blind, while theory without practice is sterile. We need theory-led practice, but also practice-led theory. Which leads us to another question: what is research in design? The notion of research in design or research through design originated in the United Kingdom in the 1990s. Various ways of conducting research were suggested, as were different categories that could grow from the practice of artists and designers. The basis for research is theory, whether the research is academic or practice-based. Interior architecture belongs in the domain of practice-based research – as do design, fine art and music. Ellen Klingenberg claims in her paper “Interior Architecture – a body of knowledge and a field for research” that “common to all of them are that their knowledge has been unspoken – it is tacit. And without words, it is hard to reflect consciously upon something. If tacit knowledge can be defined and spoken, we would have a better language for critical discussion and research.” (Klingenberg, 2009). This means that the body of knowledge produced in interior architecture through design processes is a knowledge that remains silent, unwritten and inscribed into the physicality of objects – nonetheless, it has the capacity to transcend its affective potential. It only needs a translator that can speak for the objects. However, compared to the natural sciences, interior architecture can be considered a new field with only a small body of research, and lacking a common ground of knowledge as a basis for debate. Building a research environment takes a long time. Klingenberg states that “theory is a tool for research, and research often starts with practice.” According to her, theory is the tool which will provide the designer new knowledge and understanding. Thus, the

philosopher Michael Polanyi in his book the “tacit dimension” depicts tacit knowledge as an iceberg – much like Freud’s depiction of the psyche, only 10% of the knowledge is visible, the rest remains hidden. In an essay dating back to 2003, Ken Friedman argued that “to reach from knowing to doing requires practice. To reach from doing to knowing requires the articulation and critical inquiry that leads a practitioner to reflective insight.” Not only is it important to acknowledge the entanglements of theory-oriented and practice-oriented modules in learning environments, it is also necessary to extend the argument with an additional aspect: that theory as well as making are forms of embodied experience of space and its (social) relations and realities, all of which are integral to an understanding of interior architecture. This demands a transdisciplinary teaching practice in order to enhance our critical understanding of the culture, space and environment we live in.

References: Carta, Silvio, “Knowing while Forming, an Experimental Nested Position of Knowledge in Design Practice”, 2013 See also: http://pzwart.wdka.nl/nl/courses/miard. MIARD website, last accessed January 2014 Frayling, Christopher, “Research in Art and Design, Royal College of Art Research Papers, Vol. 1 Number 1”, 1993/4 Jones, Stoke, Praxis 101: Remarks on Theory & Practice at EPIC 2012. http://epiconference.com/2012/fieldguide/praxis-101-remarks-on-theory-practice-atepic-2012, last accessed January 2014 Ellen S. Klingenberg, Interior Architecture – a Body of Knowledge and a Field for Research. Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Oslo, Norway. Paper presented at the RIDA seminar in Hong Kong 25.07.2009 Polyani, Michael, “The Tacit Dimension”, Chicago Press, 1966

Introduction: [X] City Petar Zaklanovic

Interior City Basics Technological advancements in building techniques, fuelled by a variety of factors – from harsh climate conditions to lucrative booming real-estate markets – have contributed to the ongoing realisation of an ever-growing collection of exceptionally large objects worldwide. From PATH, Toronto’s 28-km long network of pedestrian tunnels, to Dubai’s indoor ski resort, and from Chengdu’s 20-hectare Global Centre to a great number of shopping malls that simulate urban space. Such structures become visible and functional elements of the cities in which they are located. Overdoses of urbanity. They challenge their contexts programmatically, visually and functionally. They create opportunities, but also imbalances for the existing urban environments. Though essentially architectural objects, they achieve the complexity of urban districts. Architectural strategies are no longer adequate for dealing with this phenomenon. The focus shifts to relations and interactions among the different spatial and programmatic entities, and to the spatial logic and quality of the urban fabric they form within the built envelopes. Inner circulation spaces mimic the public realm. Urban design becomes the ultimate means for understanding and articulating such structures. Yet, all of this still takes place in interiors. For other reasons, and particularly in Western Europe, a similar urgency in understanding and articulating vast amounts of built indoor space is starting to emerge. Speculative urban development over the past few decades, combined with more natural and gradual urban transformations as well as a decrease in urbanisation and a plateau in key demographic trends, have left behind an abundance of vacant built structures. Often scattered, sometimes concentrated, truly resembling cities within cities, these spaces are now widely being discussed, and increasingly perceived as opportunities in urban development. There is thus a clear need for strategies and methods for their exploitation and integration into ambitious plans for urban renewal.

In order to reap the benefits and mitigate the obstacles, the design of such built structures naturally must go beyond conventional methods, combining applicable techniques with knowledge of all relevant disciplines. A hybrid of architecture, urban planning and interior design seems the inevitable course of action – yet this approach is rarely applied in practice. In the context of this pursuit, an analytical attitude toward these buildings’ environments is essential. A broader understanding of ambitions as well as spatial development visions and strategies becomes an essential component of any attempt to establish a sensible design framework. Harmonisation and integration of the interior urban structure with spatial, programmatic, infrastructural and temporal aspects of these visions are essential to the success of any proposal. What is the appropriate programme for complementing the existing context? Should it be a single function, or a mix of functions? Can we integrate residential uses? Social housing? How? What are the possible spatial organisational (urban) concepts and design strategies? How should the interior city connect and spatially relate to its surroundings? How should a proposed concept for the interior city fit into a broader spatial development framework? What would be its role? What value could it add? How should it influence the open space around it? What is its transformative power? Could it become an ultimate identity changer, catalysing a fundamental transformation of its surroundings? How to implement such a project? Who are the possible stakeholders in its development? What kind of marketing strategy is required? What kind of name would best describe it? Which burdens does it place on the existing urban infrastructure? What kind of example does it set? Can it be replicated? Interior City for all In the typical neo-liberal reality, any investment in a built structure is founded on a clear, though usually very complex business model: eventually there should be some kind of return on the investment.

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

This is, much more than in urban planning, the case in the realm of interior design where, regardless of their actual qualities, the spatial designs for specific programmatic propositions are seen and judged almost solely as a collateral to the financial success of the underlying business plans. In this situation, ensuring the public interest/value/programme, so essential to the ambition for conceptualisation of an interior CITY, becomes a fragile but a vitally important pursuit, since a city is not only about the maximisation of profit, but should be for everyone and about freedom of choice and interpretation. In the triangle formed between market-driven development, governmental regulations and relevant design disciplines, a number of different equilibriums can be established. They all result in specific spatial constellations, each with its own balance between the private and public realms. How can we realise a genuine CITY in the built indoor space – in a context which is, more than any other, defined and driven by cold-blooded economical factors which demonstrably neglect, and often directly oppose, public concerns? How can we find a place for the public programme, or even for the public(indoor) space? Can we create a space without any control? Open for interpretation? A real city? Unpredictable? Even dangerous? Challenging and inspiring? Can we ever design such a city? What is the role of a conscious act of design in the context of this pursuit? How can we remain realistic and avoid sliding into naivety? What are the viable implementation strategies which can balance on one hand the need for return on investment, and on the other hand the public aspects of the proposal? What are the possible spatial, investment, programmatic and materialisation/realisation concepts? How do we compensate for the costs of the public aspect? Parasitic structures? Squatting and anti-squatting? More than comfort While examining recent large-scale buildings worldwide – in a period which

arguably can be considered the end of urbanisation in the West – we also see a dramatic change of the paradigms within architecture and urban design. Building new structures is an increasingly obsolete pursuit. Further fuelled by the debate on sustainable development, the focus has shifted to the re-use of existing structures. This naturally means intervening in the interior. Interior architecture has long existed on the margins of spatial design, all too often perceived as the service provider at the end of the development chain. Decorative. Customer-friendly. Unaware of the context. Bouncing between two opposite ends, from being a slave of business concepts to being extremely personal. The final touch in expanding the control over the urban space. A cherry on the pie. From the perspective of an apparently irreversibly changing world, the typical strengths of interior architecture – flexibility, adaptability and relatively low investments – now acquire a critical dimension, since these same terms are used to describe the cities of the future. Perhaps one could argue that some of these new cities could emerge inside existing ones. Interior architecture has finally found a relevant context, upon which it can and must reflect critically. Possibly the stereotypes about interior architecture as a de-contextualised and inconsequential discipline could be overcome, and the discipline could be injected with a substantial dose of fundamental social relevance. Can we use this momentum to challenge the vulnerabilities of the discipline? To transform its characteristically intimate and personal character into a proactive attitude, capable of critically reflecting upon reality? The spotlight is now on interior design, to open up a new level of critical attitude towards urban space. Or, in the words of A. Oosterman: “Architecture has ‘always’ claimed to do more than accommodate function and programme, so now it’s interior architecture’s turn to provide more than comfort in the private space”. (A. Oosterman, Volume 33, fall 2012).

Site - Submarine Wharf Port of Rotterdam

The test ground for this project was the former Submarine Wharf, a building with an area of approximately 8,000 m2. The Wharf is located on the southern bank of the Maas River, in Heijplaat, a peninsula within the Port of Rotterdam, which also includes a garden suburb developed in the period between the two World Wars. The Port of Rotterdam has moved its activities further towards the sea, creating challenges for the built-up areas left behind. The loss of these areasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; main purpose and function is further complicated in this case by Heijplaatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s extremely isolated position within the city of Rotterdam. There is no substantial public transport connection between this area and the rest of the city; travelling to Heijplaat from the centre of Rotterdam takes as long as a trip to Amsterdam. In recent years, a variety of former port-related buildings on the site, which had been vacant for quite some time, have been reused as working, educational and office spaces. As a result, an interesting new community is now in the making. How can the Submarine Wharf contribute to this regeneration process? What type of programme might help provide the necessary influx of quality? Can we come up with the kind of strategies necessary for dealing with this isolated part of Rotterdam? Could the Wharf become the catalyst for turning the Heijplaat area into a unique urban neighbourhood?

Image by Bianca Yousef

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The pluralistic project for a city within the city is in this respect in antithesis to the current planning theory, which stems from a definition of the city as a single whole. This corresponds to the contemporary structure of society, which is developed more as a society of individuality with different demands, desires and conceptions. The project also involves an individualization of the city and therefore a moving away from typization and standardization. This should be applied on the one hand to all possible openings and on the other to the multiplicity that springs from them.â&#x20AC;? The City Within the City: Berlin as Green Archipelago by Oswald Mathias Ungers (1977), (with Rem Koolhaas, Peter Riemann, Hans Kolhoff and Arthur Ovaska)

The [x] City > Group Work > Trimester 1/4 2013

Context and Building Site analysis, Submarine Wharf, Rotterdam Port Possible parameters to analyze the building are its context: Spatial context understanding the immediate context: Heijplaat and the harbor relation to Rotterdam mapping adjacent centralities and character zones car accessibility public transport coverage and proximity of any other mass transport infrastructure current use and the comparative analysis of the so far performance Planning context main Rotterdamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ambitions in spatial development key plans for the area alternatives and key critical debates Building level documentation, pictures, plans and sections style and historical relevance contemporary identity structure and materialization 3D digital model of the building Conclusions programming/profiling opportunities in relation to the immediate context critical assessment to the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relation to Rotterdam critical view to the existing plans for the area potentials and limitations of the construction system

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

Spatial Context

Egle Tuleikyte > Bianca Yousef > Sina Steiner Kine Solberg > Devika Mirawitani Savvas Lazaridis > Povilas Raskevicius

Planning Context

Identity and Materialization

Maddalena Gioglio > Niki Fotiadou Egle JacinaviÄ?iute > Ilias Markolefas Nathalia Martinez Saavedra > Natalie Konopelski

Giulia Cosenza > Iulia Circei Marco Busani > Joanne Choueiri Albina Aleksiunaite > Bojoura Baalman

The [x] City > Group Work > Trimester 1/4 2013

Building (A) City

Introduction Workshop

This task will focus on two aspects: 1. The city of Rotterdam - how does the city work? 2. Mapping of the different layers in the city Each group will be asked to build one layer of Rotterdam. Centralities â&#x20AC;&#x201C; focus points Traffic Public transportation Water Atmospheres Green Culture notes Religion/belief system Densities Program distribution Emptiness / vacancies / city voids Landmarks Crime Education Each group will create a layer of Rotterdam on an A2 transperant sheet. The map can be in 2D or 3D and may be a collage of different materials and colors. The map should be in the same scale as the given map of Rotterdam. The end product will be a super position of all the maps together over each other.

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

The [x] City > Group Work > Trimester 1/4 2013

Typology Investigation Analysis of the typologies of large interior spaces, contemporary and historical* Possible parameters to analyze the buildings are shown below:

C r y s t a l P a l a c e > E g l e Tu l e i k y t e , B i a n c a Yo u s e f , S i n a S t e i n e r

Urban context: position in the city mapping adjacent cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s centralities, their program and size accessibility, proximity of any other mass transport infrastructure main city ambitions in spatial development key plans for the city and the immediate context main city ambitions in spatial development key plans for the city and the immediate context Program / building level mix of programs program distribution different events

Centre Pompidou > Giulia Cosenza > Iulia Circei

Functionality and Spatial organization / building level inner centralities/destinations inner circulation concept and large gathering places climate control, day light ownership orientation, signage

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

security logistics Interior Architecture / building level size, plans, sections style and architecture spatial structure fabrication systems materialization flexibility significant details artificial light furniture colors

Westin Bonaventure Hotel > Maddalena Gioglio > Niki Fotiadou

Kowloon Walled City > Marco Busani > Joanne Choueiri

The [x] City > Group Work > Trimester 1/4 2013

Typology Investigation

NDSM Werf Amsterdam > Kine Solberg > Devika Mirawitani

Canal city Hakata > Egle JacinaviÄ?iute > Ilias Markolefas

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

Va n N e l l e F a b r i e k > N a t h a l i a M a r t i n e z S a a v e d r a > N a t a l i e K o n o p e l s k i

UnitĂŠ dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Habitation > Savvas Lazaridis

> Povilas Raskevicius

Public Lectures Volume Magazine, Brendan Cormier

Mecanoo Architects, Nuno Fontarra

Title: “City Life Takes Place Inside”

Title: “Asian Experience: Exploring New Opportunities”

Brendan Cormier talked about his essay “City Planning the Interior”, published in Volume #34 – Interiors, and related projects. Brendan challenges the traditional notion of urbanism as existing only on the streets and in public spaces, presenting instead an expanded idea of urbanism that also takes into account the interior. Brendan is a Canadian editor and urban designer, based in Rotterdam. He is currently the managing editor of Volume, and contributes to the curatorial projects of Archis. The lecture took place in the context of the MIARD programme’s History and Theory module.

Working in Asia provides architects and designers with a completely new spectrum of challenges as well as major new opportunities, which when well used can produce rewarding results. The National Performing Arts Center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan takes advantage of the opportunities provided by the context and scale of the assignment in order to challenge the traditional definition of interior/exterior, and blurs the boundaries that separate architecture from nature. Nuno Fontarra, Associate Architect, Mecanoo. After graduating from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, he joined Mecanoo in 2002; since 2004 he has been responsible of some of Mecanoo’s most distinctive international projects. At Mecanoo, Nuno Fontarra has played a crucial role as lead architect of numerous award-winning cultural projects and competition entries, including La Llotja theatre and congress centre in Lleida, Spain (opened in 2010), the Palace of Justice in Córdoba, Spain (2006-2011), the Wei-Wu-Ying Centre for the Arts in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (under construction, opens in 2015), and the Shenzhen Museum Complex in China (2011-2014). Nuno has been a guest tutor at the MIARD programme. Besides teaching at the Piet Zwart Institute, he has also been lecturing and teaching at various institutions both in the Netherlands and abroad.

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

Neutelings Riedijk Architects, Hilbrand Wanders Title: “Public Interiors”

As part of our ongoing series of guest lectures, the Master of Interior Architecture & Retail Design programme is pleased to present a talk on public interiors and design strategies by key architect Hilbrand Wanders of the international award-winning agency Neutelings Riedijk Architects. Neutelings Riedijk Architects is specialised in cultural buildings, and has designed in the past ten years several museums, concert halls and libraries. Neutelings Riedijk’s designs for public buildings always strongly emphasise the urban presence, not only in the sculptural aspects or the treatment of the facade, but also in the development of the public character of the interior. In this lecture, Hilbrand Wanders will reveal the strategies that are used within the agency for developing this urban presence, based on examples from the MAS museum in Antwerp, the library and art school Rozet in Arnhem, and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum. NEUTELINGS RIEDIJK ARCHITECTS Neutelings Riedijk Architects was founded in 1987 by Willem Jan Neutelings and Michiel Riedijk. We offer a strong commitment to design excellence, realizing high quality architecture by developing powerful and innovative concepts into clear built form. Over the past twenty-five years Neutelings Riedijk Architects has established itself internationally as a leading practice

specializing in the design and realization of complex projects for public and cultural buildings, such as museums, theatres, concert halls, city halls and libraries. We have wide experience in balancing the complex functions and logistics of these projects within the urban contexts, to give them the iconic significance in the public realm that their clients desire. The work of Neutelings Riedijk Architects has gained worldwide appreciation through numerous publications in the international press. The office has received awards such as the Golden Pyramid, the BNA-Cube, The Belgian Building Award and the Rotterdam Maaskant Prize and has been shortlisted many times for the Mies van der Rohe Award. Its work has been selected for exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Venice, São Paulo, Beijing, Barcelona, Moscow and Prague, amongst others. Bio Hilbrand Wanders As a project leader at Neutelings Riedijk Architects Hilbrand Wanders has been working on a series of public building in The Netherlands and abroad. His current project is Het Spuiforum in The Hague, a cultural building in the heart of The Hague in which three stacked theatres and the Royal Conservatory are combined. He teaches and lectures at numerous architectural institutions.

Selected Projects

“This is the world of Nico. Nico is a scientist from Heijplaat. He became the inventor of the incubator. The incubator of human beings. This was in result of the escalation of events between two main forces; the village and the port.”

The Incubator Joanne Choueiri

The following work is a piece of science fiction. It is a projection, taking place in the future of Heijplaat, and comes as a social critique of the current state of affairs. It thus serves to highlight the present situation.

Authority and the municipality of Rotterdam – such as the building of new housing structures – meant that the population was becoming more diverse and more ‘foreign’ to the original population of the village.

This is the world of Nico. Nico is a scientist from Heijplaat. He is the inventor of the incubator: the incubator of human beings. This was the result of an escalation of events between two main forces, the village and the port.

“Also, there will soon be more new blood. How does that all relate? Maybe the environment will naturally select who may or may not want to live here, and that this bond will favour the people in the village.” (People of Heijplaat)

Historically, the village was built because of the port, with an important submarine wharf located at the edge of the village. Only people working in the port were allowed to live in the village. If they lost their jobs, they no longer belonged in the village. With the expansion of the port, and its relocation to another part of Rotterdam, city-ports such as Heijplaat were threatened with extinction. The submarine wharf was closed down, and slowly Heijplaaters started leaving the village. In an effort to help the village, the Port Authority proposed various scenarios for turning Heijplaat into another kind of village, one which would be attractive to new residents. The villagers thought differently. The changes brought about by the Port

Then the revolution took place. The villagers stood up against the outside forces and took matters into their own hands. They sought the help of Nico, a scientist, to create a factory/laboratory for the production of human beings. These humans would become model citizens of Heijplaat, living here and working in the port. The wharf, which was the reason the village was built, was the ideal location for Nico’s laboratory. Here Nico spent most of his time designing the factory, in abandoned submarine structures which would later become his residence and library. Gradually the scientist became aware of the world’s dystopias, which in turn led him to understand the great power that lay in his hands.

He moved into the wharf permanently, living on the top level of his huge laboratory, from where he could constantly monitor his world. The Heijplaaters would provide him with their DNA through a series of machines which brought the samples to the lower level of the laboratory. Here the embryos were formed and hung for 9 months, after which they were transported into the ageing cocoons surrounding the laboratory, where they remained for another 10 months before being given back to the villagers. Nico did this in absolute secrecy. No one was allowed to enter his workspace. He also implanted a chip in each embryo, giving him absolute power to monitor them even after they had left his laboratory. Nico built a series of spaces isolating him more and more from the village, such as a sky observatory station and a locked memory room where he stored all his belongings relating to Heijplaat. Nico remained in his submarine, behind the walls of the wharf. Meanwhile, the wish of the Heijplaaters was achieved. Nico and his laboratory had became a part of their everyday lives. The town was full of healthy young people, all of them interested in nothing but the port... The village was saved, but at what cost?

The Incubator > Joanne Choueiri > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

The Incubator > Joanne Choueiri > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

“City Pulse is a long-term indoor installation which reflects the daily flow of Rotterdam’s city motion by using a real time data to investigate and visualize constant changes in the city environment.”

City Pulse Egle Jacinavičiute

Today’s cities produce massive amounts of data, yet their residents have very little access or ability to understand this ever-increasing amount of information about the place they inhabit and share with others. Still, there has been an increasing interest in recent years toward the opening up and reusing of data for public needs. The global tendency seems to suggest that city dwellers are no longer content to be mere consumers of the built environment – they want to be producers, creators, thinkers and hackers. Making data accessible and easily understandable allows anyone to use it, in ways that can benefit not only urban developers, but more importantly the lives of citizens. The intent for this project was to show the city as an organism, capable of variation, growth and decline, rather than an assembly of fixed parts. By revealing the pulse of the city, this project aims to show how technology can help individuals to make more informed decisions about the environment. My project ‘City Pulse’ is a long-term indoor installation, which reflects the daily flow of Rotterdam’s

motion by using real-time data to investigate and visualise constant changes within the city. The interior space becomes an installation in itself, where everyone is invited to join, see and feel the real-time pulse of the city. The idea is to reveal processes of daily urban dynamics in a very sensual way. The project will invite visitors to observe and visually enjoy the installation, but also to feel and analyse an experience in its own way. By transforming the city’s data into an emotional and visual experience, this installation stimulates an awareness of our living environment and provides a better understanding of the city’s dynamics. The installation ‘City Pulse’ uses Rotterdam’s traffic data as an open source. In order to visualise the liveliness of the city, I chose to use traffic as a metaphor for the circulation of blood in the human body – the most essential element which makes the heart beat and keeps a body alive. The activity of pedestrians, bikes, cars, ships, planes and trains is translated into an interior space using digital technologies. The inner structure is constantly changing according to the data received. The body of the installation

is an amorphous structure that can grow or shrink, creating different volumes and interior spaces. Converting the collected data into the 3D experience provides a chance for Rotterdam’s residents and visitors to draw personal or collective conclusions as to what needs to be done in order to keep the city lively and functional. This also provides a newfound sense of ownership of the city, and creates possibilities for developing new relationships across local communities.

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

City Pulse > Egle JacinaviÄ?iute > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

City Pulse > Egle JacinaviÄ?iute> Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

“The new Garden Village Interior City will be built taking utopian garden village qualities and translating them to a Contemporary Social Town.”

The Utopian Family Town Albina Aleksiunaite

“A Map of the World that does not include UTOPIA is not worth even glancing at.” -Lewis Mumford (1992) The general aim of this project is to create an ‘Interior City’ within a former submarine wharf building located in the South of Rotterdam: the RDM Campus (originally ‘Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij’ or Rotterdam Dry Dock Company; the acronym now stands for Research, Design & Manufacturing). After careful investigation, I came up with a large-scale social housing project, rethinking future design possibilities and strategies. The initial idea evolved from the discovery of an existing state of social separation in the immediate area of the RDM Campus. This was the starting point, which led me to formulate a design strategy based on new forms of habitation, interior complexity and ideal future living environments. To start with, I would like to discuss my critical insight regarding the project’s location, the RDM Campus. The RDM Campus and its neighbourhood are suffering from the presence of a ‘wall’ separating two communities, or in other words, two cities. The first community is Heijplaat: a village district, built according to utopian modernist ideas as a ‘garden village’, an ideal city for industrial workers. The second ‘city’ is the RDM Campus: a former working place for these same workers, but now occupied by ‘outsiders’, the area’s current inhabitants. These pioneering newcomers have transformed the

abandoned factories into a headquarters for technical science, research and education. Such economic changes have created a social separation, a dividing ‘wall’ between these two communities, the locals and the newcomers. I therefore decided to investigate how this ‘wall’ could be demolished: how the border between the two communities could be eliminated, allowing them to communicate and interact. What must be done in order to end the current spatial and social separation? My answer and intention would be to introduce the characteristics of the utopian Heijplaat ‘garden village’ into the RDM Campus, establishing a new modern ‘garden village interior city’. This way, the Heijplaat community would mix with the newcomers, and the two societies would gradually merge over time. The dividing social ‘wall’ would disappear. The first intervening ‘interior city’ would be established in an appointed submarine wharf building; later, when the population reaches a peak, another intervening city could be established in another empty submarine wharf building. Through this strategy, the whole area would gradually become one organism. In my proposal, the new ‘garden village interior city’ would be built by borrowing utopian ‘garden village’ qualities and translating these into a ‘contemporary social town’ called ‘The Utopian Family Town’. To make this possible, I have investigated the actual characteristics of historical ‘garden cities’. The garden city of Heijplaat was built as a civic experiment, an utopian reality. In 1913, RDM

director M.G. de Gelder commissioned the architect Herman A.J. Baanders to design a ‘beautiful’ factory village. De Gelder’s primary intention was to design a village with decent housing for ‘good’ employees and their families. But he was also concerned with safety: the village should be a very safe one, with safe streets where children could play. Moreover, these streets should also provide a good social learning environment. De Gelder wanted his workers to develop into upstanding citizens and good family guardians. Youth educational institutions were very much a part of this equation. Additionally, De Gelder wanted families to make use of the village’s collective facilities: social sharing and interaction between families was one of the tenets of communitarian living. Finally, the garden city was seen as a healthy and self-sustainable living environment. Baanders clearly fulfilled his mission, designing a pleasant and elegant factory village which has gloriously withstood the test of time. To summarise, all these qualities as well as De Gelder’s ideology definitely constitute a valuable philosophy which could be applied for building a social village today. ‘The Utopian Family Town’ is based on this idea, rethinking all these qualities and translating them into an ideal living environment for today. It also aims to stand out as a future ‘interior city’. Here, the Utopia becomes a reality of new forms of human habitation, and the assay for a real urban future.

The Utopian Family Town > Albina Aleksiunaite > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

The Utopian Family Town > Albina Aleksiunaite > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

“The One Man City experiments with an utopic idea of dividing earth’s land equally between all humans. As a result of this division, each of us would get approximately one hectare of fertile land to sustain and create our own living space.”

The (ONE MAN) City Nathalia Martinez Saavedra

The idea for this project is to enable a discussion on the issues of density and land ownership in today’s overpopulated cities. The One Man City experiments with the utopian notion of dividing the earth’s land equally between all humans. According to this hypothetical division, each of us would have approximately one hectare of fertile land in which to sustain ourselves and create our own living space. This project unfolds possible scenarios for this onehectare interior space inhabited by just one person. The Submarine Wharf in Rotterdam seems a suitable place for this experiment: not only considering its large footprint and its peculiar location between the main city and the industrial port, but also taking into account the fact that it is located in one of the densest countries in the world – which, ironically, is now facing a large vacancy problem caused by real-estate driven development. The project raises questions about the verticalisation of the city, the stacking of living spaces,

contemporary community life, and a growing society whose members are becoming more self-sufficient and individualistic, and thus more solitary. Through the study of various references and different typologies of urban design, this project intends to present a simplified version of a city, by taking only its main components in order to create a metaphor of the city. Urban land, water, and rural land are the main elements of this city, occupying in different proportions the whole of the space. Considering that the One Man City is experienced in isolation, silence, contemplation and autonomous survival, all aspects involving social relations and community exchanges are excluded here. The isolated member of this city is empowered by the experience of owning such a space and being the only one responsible for the land owned. This land is designed to provide for its owner’s basic needs.

The experience of inhabiting your equal share of Earth’s land allows for a mirrored and ironic reflection on the densification of cities. Therefore this playful yet political approach can enable the evolution of a social transformation, as a part of a new urban system based on equality, self-responsibility and aspects of sustainability, integrating individuals as the main protagonists of their own microcosm within the city.

The (ONE MAN) City > Nathalia Martinez Saavedra > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

The (ONE MAN) City > Nathalia Martinez Saavedra > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

“All of the community is addressed, with a focus on children as the projects operates as an extension of the educational processes that take place in the schools within the city.”

The Playground City Giulia Cosenza

The project ‘Playground City’ reveals the existing situation in Heijplaat, by creating a recreational space for the community of businesses currently operating at the RDM (Research, Design & Manufacturing) Campus. The project addresses the entire community, with a focus on children since the project operates as an extension of the educational processes that take place in the city’s schools. The result is a hybrid of play and work, a workshop space that reinterprets and stages the main vision behind these businesses: technology and innovation, the merging of nature and built environment, inside and outside. The project has a broader social meaning for Rotterdam, as it investigates a new typology of educational and entertainment space which takes into consideration the lack of funding for high-quality public recreational spaces for kids, creating a hybrid structure between public and private organisation. ‘Playground City’ is based on a simple statement: we can appropriate the space when it is open to our imagination. The act of playing is free, non-hierarchic and open to any experience and

discovery. It becomes a strategy for shifting from machine to human, similar to the shift from an industrial society to an information society. Aldo van Eyck recognised in transitional spaces a potential to re-activate an entire city. ‘Playground City’ investigates the idea of in-between space as a place of experience: a play zone for social interaction and changing activities. My project creates a narrative through design, which responds to children’s understanding and their imaginative way of thinking, while sharing the knowledge of technology promoted by the RDM businesses in an educational and entertaining way. ‘Playground City’ blends the inside and the outside into an interior landscape which makes visible the immaterial heritage of the Submarine Wharf. A central empty space or ‘void’ is carved out from the ‘volume’ of the Wharf, resembling the simplified outline of a submarine that seems to have reappeared in the space. This shifts one’s impression from presence to absence, making visible the immaterial memory of a space which was once a factory for producing

submarines. To re-create the feeling of living in a submarine, a sequence of spaces, progressing from more open to more closed and claustrophobic, is created through a system of smaller voids intersecting with the main one. The result is a surprising and complex space, to discover and to explore.

The Playground City > Giulia Cosenza > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

The Playground City > Giulia Cosenza > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

“YOUth Create is a learning space, an interactive museum, aworkshop, a place where children can undertake a path towards new knowledge.”

YOUth Create City Marco Busani

Children are increasingly influenced by everyday technology. Overuse of this technology has dramatic repercussions on children’s behaviour; these effects increase with every hour spent in front of a computer or television screen. According to surveys, the main reason for this technological over-consumption is boredom; consequently, and despite the fact that it is so widespread, technology cannot be seen as a means of education, since children’s attitudes towards it are based on total passivity. Using technology as an integral part of the discovering process requires instead a learning-by-doing approach, which is precisely what my project proposes: YOUth Create is a learning space, an interactive museum, a workshop, a place where children can embark on a path towards new knowledge. It also represents a process that children do not have to face alone: the involvement of their parents in the educational journey is crucial. Parents’ attitudes inspire and influence children’s behaviour, since they are their principal role models, as well as their first teachers and part of their learning environment.

Within YOUth Create, knowledge is represented by a sinuously shaped ribbon that runs through the old shipyard, taking kids and parents on a linear path, and creating technological surfaces that allow the users of the space to interact with the space itself, thus promoting active participation in technology. All surfaces within the space – walls, floors and ceilings – can be used. The first section of the path is the interactive museum, a space where people can take the first steps and become familiar with the basic approach: here technology and manual skills exist side-by-side, and their functions are complementary. Using technological materials, kids and parents together discover something that they can put into practice using their hands by means of ‘working platforms’. Kids and parents alike are made to understand that technological and manual elements, which at first seemed separate and different, can in fact be made to interact, thus leading to new knowledge. The interactive process leads to a series of workshops where kids and parents can create their own projects more autonomously by making use of the potential of combining ‘craft’ with ‘tech’.

The linearity of the path is interrupted by meeting points which have the appearance of public city squares: these are places of socialisation, where parents and kids of all ages can meet. From these squares one can catch a glimpse, through breaches in the two walls dividing the Submarine Wharf, of what is going on in the following stages of the process, thus generating curiosity among the visitors. The project’s importance is based on the fact that children represent our future. It is exactly for this reason that YOUth Create aims to operate in the way that children think and behave, in order to positively influence their future.

YOUth Create City > Marco Busani > Trimester 1/4 2013

+ INTERACTIVE MUSEUM

+ WORKSHOPS

INTERCONNECTIONS

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

storage material

sleeping area

exhibition workshop area

food workshop

restaurant

auditorium workshop

working stations

workshop square

interactive museum

workshop

storage material

working stations

workshop

storage material

storage toilet material

toilet

interactive museum + workshop

working stations

interactive museum

workshop

square

storage workshop material

food court

square

toilet workshop

working stations

toilet

interactive museum

square

tickets

lockers + guardrobe

interactive museum

working stations interactive museum

working stations

YOUth Create City > Marco Busani > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

“The new H city is an innovative and sustainable housing plan that is implemented in the submarine wharf, what will become a landmark to attract people to Heijplaat.”

The new H City Bo Baalman

The New H City is an innovative and sustainable housing plan, to be implemented in the Submarine Wharf, and which will become a landmark for attracting people to Heijplaat. The housing plan is based on an existing plan in Heijplaat, first formulated in 2011. In that same year the old houses were demolished, but now there is nothing new being built, since the housing corporations cannot find enough potential new citizens interested in living here. This means that there will be an empty plot for a longer period of time, something we see happening quite often in the Netherlands. So now there is an empty plot as well as a vacant Submarine Wharf, all of which wouldn’t be necessary if the plan could be implemented inside the building. This is what the New H City is: a way to implement the same plan differently, while meeting almost the same specifications. Together with Heijplaat, this city will become a pilot project for making Rotterdam carbon neutral by 2025, meaning that housing in the New H City must be built in an innovative and sustainable way. The houses have a variety of characteristics, facades, functions and

placements, providing for architectural variety as well as diversity of population. The types of houses are: ‘green with playground’, ‘harbour’, and ‘simple with home office’; these types will be linked to historical facades from Heijplaat, thus providing the New H City with a pleasant atmosphere. The houses are placed on different levels, leaving the ground floor available for other functions such as a community space with areas for gardening, barbeque spots, a playground and a park with benches. Some of these benches are located on the riverside, with a great view of the Maas river. The houses can be seen from outside the building, as some of them protrude through the facade of the Submarine Wharf, making the building a landmark, in line with Rotterdam’s tradition of experimental architecture. The New H City will be eye-catching from a distance, attracting curious visitors and prospective residents interested in living in a distinctive carbon-neutral house in a small community. The New H City shows how a vacant building can be repurposed, in a way that is also suitable for other vacant buildings in Rotterdam or the Netherlands:

with a lower density of population, an increased sense of community, and greener surroundings than most city housing. Since this is a different way of building and repurposing, it will provide universities and other stakeholders with an opportunity to research this way of living, and how this can be implemented in cities such as Rotterdam.

The new H City > Bo Baalman > Trimester 1/4 2013

Reconstruction Bathtub factory - Ulft - Holland

The New Village

PROBLEM

OPPORTUNITY

Submarine wharf

family houses appartments family houses appartments family houses appartments day care community centre playground/park

Program Garden

54 houses

Park

1 day care

Playground/Park

1 community centre

Optional extra garden

21, 3 floor houses

Building

23, 2 floor houses

Pedestrian path

10, 1 floor houses

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

The new H City > Bo Baalman > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

“Jane Jacobs already argued in „Death and Life of Great American Cities“ that when “Densities are too low, or too high, […] they frustrate city diversity instead of abetting it”(1961, pg. 208).”

My City is my Home Natalie Konopelski

With ‘My City Is My Home’ I am rethinking strategies for residential design, from the macro to the micro scale. By interpreting the urban, public and private spaces in a new way, I wish to create a higher density and physical interconnectivity throughout the city, and thus to build an urban landscape of coexistence. Following the logic in which public space, interactive units with shared facilities, and the interior space are all related, I wish to promote community and interaction as well as individuality, identity and intimacy. In this case, my design strategy is to approach the city from a personal and subjective point of view. Over the course of time, the cities I have lived in all became my home. Having moved only recently, I once again ‘found’ a new home in Rotterdam. Thus, I am claiming that my home is the city. Cities are complex and layered organisms, and by analysing them I extracted three basic structures: 1. A city consists of houses, including my own home; 2. A city consists of the spaces ‘in between’; and 3. A city is defined by layers of privacy, which work in two directions: from the outside to the centre, and from the ground upward. Let us take a closer look at the third structure. When we walk through the city, we wander from exterior public spaces (park, street) to interior public spaces (store, office). Similarly, when we move within a house – even though a house is a private space – we walk from public rooms on the ground floor (living room) up towards increasingly private spaces in the bathroom and bedroom. Therefore privacy increases in two directions, horizontally and vertically. While similarities in structures of privacy become evident through this analysis of the city and the house, there is still one big difference: the scale. As one of the basic elements of a city (and of my argument) is that ‘a city consists of houses’, I should probably say instead that ‘a city consists of big houses’. Due to

the high density within a city, the cityscape often is dominated by high-rise typologies. These typologies serve the need of shelter for many inhabitants, but at the same time neglect the human scale. Thus, coming to Rotterdam I found myself in an anonymous, disconnected and alienating environment, an urban space of high-rise buildings. But let me describe Rotterdam some more: the city has wide, spacious streets and a relatively low density of population. The main streets are mainly programmed for singular use, where interaction and communication happen on a mostly accidental and superficial level. Jane Jacobs already argued in Death and Life of Great American Cities that when “Densities are too low, or too high, […] they frustrate city diversity instead of abetting it” (1961, pg. 208). Still in both cases – in high and low-density cities – there are certain coincidences of close physical contact. This contact however takes place in a context of distant social relation and causes further loneliness (Wirth, 1938, pg.1). But what if such coincidences of close physical contact in a low-density city like Rotterdam would instead lead to a closer degree of social relation? Is this even desirable? By living in a city “[…] the individual gains a certain degree of emancipation or freedom from the personal and emotional controls of intimate groups” (Wirth, 1938, pg.12). The questions ‘How dense can a city get without losing one’s privacy?’ and ‘How can I keep my individual identity and simultaneously maintain the connection with the city and environment?’ led to my concept of a new housing typology for the Submarine Wharf in Rotterdam. In a broader perspective, this proposal suggests an optional re-use of empty warehouses. Within the Submarine Wharf, we are dealing with a city-scale interior. The smallest ‘city’ in the world has 30 inhabitants. Based on an analysis of the Submarine Wharf’s dimensions, and placing standard family houses inside the building, the Wharf could become a home for 296 families,

a number which is larger than the population of the world’s smallest city. Consequently, I am claiming to take my home – the city – to the Submarine Wharf. My city consists of urban, communal and private space, but interpreted in a new way, resulting in a mix of structures of privacy within a city and a house. My city becomes a framework for stimulating interaction among people, and is organised into three levels: 1. ‘The Street’ as public living room; 2. ‘The House’ as semi-public leisure room; and 3. ‘The Rooftop’ as private bedroom and bathroom. The compression of public spaces into a single open space on the ‘Street’ level, and their relation to the interactive enclosed units on the ‘House’ level, allow for increased communication and interaction. “The compression illuminates each of the patterns, sheds light on its meaning; and also illuminates our lives, as we understand a little more about the connections of our inner needs” (Alexander, 1977, pg.44). Finally, the ‘Rooftop’ level caters to the citizens’ need for privacy and identity. In order to promote a sense of identity, individuals are provided with a framework in which to apply their personal aesthetics and needs to the architecture. This private and individual space is reduced to a bedroom and bathroom only, which results in a higher degree of physical interactivity throughout the interior city. By creating this mix of high density, high physical interaction and individual units, I am challenging the assumption that face-to-face contact in a city remains “impersonal, superficial, transitory and segmental” (Wirth, 1938, pg. 12). By giving the city a roof and creating a city within a house, I am claiming that in this project, the human scale is not only considered but also addressed, and a home is created. Accordingly, I believe that a feeling of community can arise, and that communication and interaction may occur without losing the need for privacy and identity.

My City is my Home > Natalie Konopelski > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

My City is my Home > Natalie Konopelski > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

“The so called “dead malls” or out-dated factories are just two examples for this development.”

Fashionspace Sina Steiner

We live in an age in which everything keeps changing faster and faster. In fashion, these changes can be seen in each new collection. One season rolls into another with frightening speed. But the changes are not limited to the time periods and their collections; they can also be found in trends such as colours, patterns, fabrics or themes which influence the designs. Another aspect of these changes in fashion is the variation of the piece of clothing itself. Every fashion item, particularly clothing, changes with the movements of the person wearing that item – reacting and adapting to the person’s specific movements. But it also changes in its perception by others. Different people create a different look by combining certain pieces differently. In architecture, we are facing similar changes. Many abandoned buildings and sites simply remain empty. Once they no longer fulfil their initial purpose, they become useless and are left to rest eternally in a kind of mummified condition. Today’s society moves very fast; the pace of change is dictated by trendy consumerism as well as technological progress. ‘Dead malls’ and obsolete factories are but

two examples of this development. Nowadays, we as designers are charged with the task of blowing new life into these abandoned sites, in order to revive and reuse them. My project ‘Fashionspace’ focuses on these changes. In my concept, a site which was once a submarine shipyard will be retrofitted into a headquarters for a well-established ‘haute couture’ fashion brand. The choice of location symbolises the brand’s cutting-edge market position. The site will undergo transformations far beyond the mere change of function. The contrast between the rusty industrial atmosphere of the old shipyard and the clean design of my interiors visualises these changes in materials and represents the new function. My design concept is based on the design method of stacking and shifting. Four boxes of various sizes are placed in the middle of the building. The size of each box is determined by its position within the building. The boxes are placed at irregular angles to create exciting and unexpected spaces in between, the terraces. As a result of this stacking and

shifting, there is an overlapping area at the intersection of the boxes. This intersection is transformed into an atrium, which also includes the circulation area between the four levels. The atrium also symbolises the open-minded aspect of the design. Not only the atrium but also the bright boxes with their glass facades and brightly coloured materials are spaces that create an open-minded atmosphere. Each box serves a specific purpose for the headquarters. The ground level features an exhibition of the brand’s history as well as the upcoming collection. The headquarters generally serve as the brand’s flagship office: a semi-public space, open only to business partners and customers. A small auditorium, conference rooms and offices are located on the second level. The third level provides space for more offices as well as a design studio. On the top level, a lounge area and a restaurant invite both employees and guests to socialise. The Fashionspace reflects the brand’s culture and conveys its image as an open-minded and innovative brand.

Fashionspace > Sina Steiner > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

Fashionspace > Sina Steiner > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

“The exchange city is the Knowledge led Institute of the New Hanseatic League, a place that gathers and connects a cluster of North European port cities that share cultural and economic peculiarities.”

The Exchange City Maddalena Gioglio

The Exchange City is the Knowledge-Led Institute of the New Hanseatic League, a place that brings together and connects a cluster of Northern European port cities which share a number of cultural and economic peculiarities. This project was inspired by the Hanseatic League, a historical agreement between several port cities in Northern Europe for protecting economic interests and diplomatic privileges within towns and countries and along the trade routes. This historical reference is translated into a project that establishes a family of cities, bound by the cultural and economic links that continue to exist between them. The aim is to establish a logical and coherent network of cities that spans beyond national and regional plans. Hence the Exchange City opens a discussion for a further collective development which avoids the ‘levelling out’ approach of EU cities in promoting and projecting their development opportunities and resources. The Port of Rotterdam plays a leading role in this project, by exemplifying the major impact of European city-ports, thus inviting discussion and initiating cooperation in different fields, with a focus on the revitalisation of old manufacturing techniques which

once represented an important resource for the Hanseatic cities, but which have now been forgotten or reinterpreted in a nostalgic way. The revitalisation plan is translated into the Hanseatic Institute of Advanced Manufacturing, based on the research and exchange of this ‘forgotten’ knowledge. On one hand the goal of the Exchange City is to establish Rotterdam as a landmark among other European cities, acknowledging its position as a positive interpretation of urban space and mutation. On the other hand the programme of the Exchange City offers a potential for regeneration of Rotterdam’s urban areas, such as Heijplaat, by providing its inhabitants with a space for social and economic encounters, therefore allowing them to re-emerge from isolation. The aim is to establish a new level of interaction between Heijplaat and the city: a geography of living and trade, a density and intensity based on the relationship between the two; an island which is not an enclave, but a city within the city. The archetype of the exedra is reinterpreted in order to unfold spaces from the empty wharfs. This architectural form makes it possible to read the history of the architecture, the practicalities of ‘stuff’, through a guided ‘path’ that opens up new unexpected ac-

tivities. The dock metaphorically maintains its old function: it indicates a destination, a free zone for exchange. The space is organised according to a design strategy that provides a coherent structure within a generic grid which allows for adjustments over time. Common spaces arise from re-invented archetypes of squares and cloisters, while more clearly defined areas provide a location for various activities (training, meeting, workshops, conferences, accommodations). The various programmes are not scattered across the space, but placed according to the logic of the exedra, leaving room for spontaneous activities. All this is established through collisions / intersections of spatial elements, floating worlds and attractive terminals. The Exchange City in the Submarine Wharf provides a spectacle space, where the community of Hanseatic cities is transformed into an exciting hybrid. An interior-architectural artefact that merges the utilitarian (Heijplaat’s manufacturing identity) with the visionary (Rotterdam as a city of landmarks).

The Exchange City > Maddalena Gioglio > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

The Exchange City > Maddalena Gioglio > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

The Meta City

“I started to think of the lifecycle of a building and why do we always choose to plan for a permanent program and not for a temporary one. This is why the concept of my thematic project is strongly linked to the opposing relationship between temporary and permanency.”

Iulia Circei

The ongoing development of the Port of Rotterdam (the infrastructure is moving further from the city and closer to the sea) leaves us with many unoccupied industrial sites and buildings. One of these is the Submarine Wharf, an industrial monument located in the shipyard neighbourhood of Heijplaat. What can be done to preserve these sites, and which type of strategy should we adopt? What actually needs to be done? Is a permanent intervention really necessary? Might temporary interventions be more appropriate? Could we perhaps rent some kind of facility and introduce it in a vacant space for a limited period of time? In order to answer these questions, I started thinking about the life-cycle of a building, and why we always choose to plan for a permanent programme rather than a temporary one. This is why the concept of my thematic project is strongly linked to the opposition between the temporary and the permanent. Also, in a broader context, current economic developments and the ongoing real-estate situation are adding more empty buildings to an already long list of vacancies, resulting in an increased demand for

alternative, adaptive strategies made possible by temporary uses. My response to this vacancy situation is to offer a different concept of architectural intervention, and to overlap this time gap with a new form of the city: the ‘temporary city’. The time factor implies dealing with impermanent structures. Therefore, the Meta City will be able to transform itself, adjusting its transitory structure to different spatial and functional conditions. In this case, the structure must be mobile, lightweight and easy to assemble. The system I have developed is based on a fixed grid which allows multiple combinations of elements resulting in flexible solutions. The dimensions of the grid vary from small to large, and the various combinations form a variety of patterns.

The Meta City > Iulia Circei > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

The Meta City > Iulia Circei > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

steel column H section 200x200 mm iron ribbon 40x135x5 mm steel connector meta structure 40x40x40 mm steel hollow strap 40x40 mm steel beam H section 200x200 mm

steel hollow strap 40x40 mm steel column H section 200x200mm steel connector meta structure 40x40x40 mm steel hollow strap 40x40 mm steel corner connector40x60x40 mm steel column H section 200x200 mm steel connector meta structure 40x40x40 mm steel diagonal element Ø 10 mm steel corner connector40x60x40 mm iron ribbon 40x135x5 mm steel beam H section 200x200 mm steel steel connector meta structure 40x40x40 mmdiagonal element Ø 10 mm iron ribbon 40x135x5 mm steel beam H section 200x200 mm steel hollow strap 40x40 mm steel beam H section 200x200 mm iron ribbon 40x135x5 mm

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Details of the meta structure connecting to bolted, end plates welded to column Scale 1/5 Details of the meta structure connecting to bolted, end plates welded to column steel beam H section 200x200 mm steel beam H section 200x200 mm steel column H section 200x200 mm steel column H section 200x200 mm

Detail of the meta structure connecting to bolted, end plates welded to column Scale 1/50 steel beam H section 200x200 mm steel column H section 200x200 mm

steel hollow strap 40x40 mm steel connector meta structure 40x40x40 mm steel corner connector40x60x40 mm steel diagonal element Ø 10 mm steel beam H section 200x200 mm iron ribbon 40x135x5 mm

D1 Scale Details 1/5 of the meta structure connecting to bolted, end plates welded to column steel beam H section 200x200 mm steel column H section 200x200 mm

steel hollow strap 40x40 mm steel hollow strap 40x40 mm steel column H section 200x200mm steel connector steel connector meta structure 40x40x40 mm meta structure 40x40x40 mm steel corner connector40x60x40steel mm corner connector40x60x40 mm steel diagonal element Ø 10 mm steel diagonal element Ø 10 mm steel beam H section 200x200steel mm beam H section 200x200 mm iron ribbon 40x135x5 mm iron ribbon 40x135x5 mm

steel hollow strap 40x40 mm steel column H section 200x200mm steel connector meta structure 40x40x40 mm steel corner connector40x60x40 mm steel diagonal element Ø 10 mm steel beam H section 200x200 mm iron ribbon 40x135x5 mm

Scale 1/5

Detail of the meta structure connecting to bolted, end plates welded to column steel beam H section 200x200 mm steel column H section 200x200 mm

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“Let’s breathe a new life into these abandon artifacts, not just for the community and the books but also for The Submarine Wharf by infusing inspiration to the space and let them define their own cosmos.”

The City of Books Devika Mirawitani

What once shared as a secret, now has to be revealed The Submarine Wharf in Rotterdam has been invisibly struggling for some time now, and is somehow attempting to reclaim its former prominence. From the place where everything inside is kept as a secret, now the time has come to disclose it all, and to infuse the space with a more accommodating atmosphere. Here is the future of the library: more than just a public space, but also part of an infrastructure that links it to other sites throughout the city – a hub for the books as well as the community; the library of tomorrow. In 2013, we are living in an era in which technology is seemingly paramount, where development and innovation in one sector can lead to the destruction of another; printed media is a case in point. This is exactly what is happening here in Rotterdam – social change brings about cultural change, in this case the library culture. The books are silently rotting away, while the government’s response to this situation is somehow effective for the city, yet fails to uphold the vitality of the community, and of the books themselves. This has led to a state of abandonment. Something similar happened in the south of Rotter-

dam, specifically on the edge of the famous Port of Rotterdam, in an area under development called the RDM (Research, Design and Manufacturing) Campus. In contrast with its surroundings, this old factory building is unaffected by the present situation, even though its glorious past can still be recognised in its physical structure. This is the Submarine Wharf, previously a facility for building submarines, but now just a massive building slowly decaying. If architecture reflects on how and why humans inhabit the cosmos, then a building like this is in fact an absence, since it is left without any function. Therefore, let us breathe new life into this abandoned artefact, not only for the community and the books, but also for the Submarine Wharf itself, by infusing inspiration into the space and allowing the community and the books to define their own cosmos. The idea is to store the abandoned books inside the factory, preserving them in one large gathering space which can later be used as a warehouse for books. Books as citizens; therefore the building will have to function as a machine, in order to conform to a specific pattern in the space, which in turn will be

reflected in the architecture. This mechanical harshness will need to be balanced with a more peaceful, human-centred approach, which is why we will invite other citizens. And so the building will be divided into an area for book storage, and another area serving the citizens of Rotterdam as a community centre. The division between the two main areas is also an important element: it is a place where books and people can have their own dialogue – a reading space – the library. On one hand architecture as automata, on the other hand passive thinking machine; both in one site, the embodiment of a perfect synergy between the two.

The City of Books > Devika Mirawitani > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

The City of Books > Devika Mirawitani > Trimester 1/4 2013

Piet Zwart Institute > Master Interior Architecture and Retail Design > MIARD

“Heijplaat Hub responds to the growing suburbs of the village and the troubled rental market by coming up with a space that would allow both big and small companies to lower the risk of their operations.”

Heijplaat Hub Kine Solberg

The Heijplaat Hub is a multidisciplinary office building, designed mainly to accommodate manufacturing companies. It is a cheaper, more flexible way of organising office rental in today’s market, with shared facilities and a focus on new innovations and inter-company collaborations. The Hub targets companies that are looking for both short-term and long-term tenancy in a fully equipped work environment. This programme is a response to the current situation in the Heijplaat village as well as the surrounding areas of Rotterdam. The village is currently expanding by building a ‘new village’; however, there is a shortage of new inhabitants coming to Heijplaat, due to a lack of new jobs, a failing infrastructure, and limited facilities in the village area. The Hub also addresses an urgent situation in Rotterdam’s commercial rentals. Renting an office these days is a major investment for any company, involving often high monthly rents and deposits normally required for long-term lease contracts with the owner of the land or building. Heijplaat Hub responds to the needs of the growing suburbs of the village, as well as the troubled rental market, by offering a space that allows both big and

small companies to lower the risk of their operations, and providing basic services (offices, secretaries, canteen, meeting rooms, presentation halls, workshops for production, and exhibition space). Also, the Hub provides these companies with flexible working spaces that enable them to easily grow and shrink, by simply rearranging their rent contract instead of having to move to another location. The design of the space itself is based on an evenly distributed grid of thick columns – the wharf’s existing load-bearing structure. The cells of the grid, each measuring 5.5 x 5.5 metres, can be separated by movable slabs and walls, creating offices of various sizes which can later expand and contract to best suit the requirements of the companies using the space. This grid is mainly located in the two larger wharfs, whereas the smallest wharf uses a free floor plan for accommodating the main shared facilities such as sales areas, reception, canteen and auditorium. The Heijplaat Hub will also add value to the community through the flexibility of the space; although the main use of the wharf is the rental of commercial space, the unoccupied areas are made available to the Heijplaat village and the general

public of Rotterdam. These areas can be seen as a sort of public plaza, where the villagers, the companies, and the general public of Rotterdam can organise large gatherings such as markets, exhibitions, indoor parks, gyms etc. Thus, the Hub and its companies benefit by promoting themselves and their work, while the people of Heijplaat gain a new public arena with a new sense of flexibility and an industrial atmosphere.

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“In the film Metropolis, Fritz Lang envisions a bleak city where the 10 hour shift never ends and workers have become anonymous. It is vital that the workers never stop operating the Heart Machine as destroying it will devastate their city. The machine is the heart of Metropolis.”

Transient City Bianca Yousef

Transient: ‘passing through or by a place with only a brief stay.’ In the film Metropolis, Fritz Lang envisions a bleak city where the ten-hour shift never ends and workers have become anonymous. It is essential that the workers never stop operating the Heart Machine, as destroying it would devastate their city. The machine is indeed the heart of Metropolis. Like the Heart Machine, Rotterdam’s port is crucial to the survival of the city. However, over the years the port has drifted west, further and further away from the city, taking the workers with it. Long and tedious commutes are discouraged, in order to preserve the environment as well as the workers’ patience. With only 15,000 of the port’s 75,000 workers living in Rotterdam, the majority of these workers have become detached from the vibrant city. The hidden and the visible elements of the Submarine Wharf become important. The building is observed differently through framed views. Like a submarine’s periscope, the frame concentrates the analysis.

Developing the idea of Hotel at Work, an existing temporary accommodation within the port, as well as the concept of the traditional working men’s club, leads to the creation of the Transient City. Here Rotterdam’s port workers have a city of their own, where they can ‘unplug’ from their everyday working life. Besides private accommodations, the Transient City also includes recreational spaces to encourage the development of a social community. The integration of port workers and external industry professionals facilitates the mixing of ideas as well as personal development. Boundaries become blurred as the new spaces for the port workers and the public overlap. Movable screens acting as walls are arranged randomly throughout the space. These screens become a series of frames within the building. As these screens move, the framed view moves with them. Four different types of screens are used in order to control the views: fixed screens, screens within the hotel units that can be moved manually, and automatic vertical and horizontal screens.

Like sliding doors, these screens are affected by the movement of people; the city becomes interactive, and the act of transitioning through the space becomes important.

Bianca Yousef > Transient City > Trimester 1/4 2013

PRIVATE

PUBLIC

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COMMUNAL

CONFERENCE ROOMS

CAFETERIA

LOUNGE

LIBRARY

GYM

HOTEL

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INTEGRATION

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“For his sound installation “Ballads” he denoted that “Sound recalls memories from the submarine litany of the whale sound, as a sign of life and activity”. Consequently, the Submarine Wharf is a heritage for the city: “the space is not a white cube but something that has lived.” Sarkis Zabunyan

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Broadcast City Kleoniki Fotiadou

One way to understand a multilayered city is through sound. If we cannot see a city, then we can hear it. While making a recording of sounds during an urban walk through Rotterdam, I noticed various sources which formed the city’s identity: mechanisms and materials, nature, weather conditions, citizens with different cultural backgrounds, and the alterations of language and voice. Subsequently, I researched various projects and initiatives concerning the urban soundscape of Rotterdam. I realised that there is a growing interest in this subject, in terms of digital works as well as indoor and outdoor installations. This interest is usually expressed through sound walks, websites with sounds of the city, sound-artworks, audio maps and sound photography. Regarding the identity of the project’s site, the former Submarine Wharf has a strong relation with sound. In the past it has been a venue for sound artists such as Sarkis Zabunyan. For his sound installation ‘Ballads’ he noted that “Sound recalls memories from the submarine litany of the whale sound, as a sign of life and activity.” Consequently, the Submarine Wharf is a piece of urban heritage: “The space is not a white cube but something that has lived.” In general, the Submarine Wharf is part of a larger system, which is a symbol of cultural power, since future plans for the space include various

cultural events such as music performances, film screenings and exhibitions. Therefore, people are the strongest layer forming the sound of the city. Rotterdam’s community, its activity, the ‘voice’ of the people, all these are what makes the city unique. Therefore my project ‘Broadcast City’ aims to reflect the following ideas: •An interactive platform for the city of Rotterdam, where people can find information or express any ideas about the experience of sound, music or soundscapes. •An innovative form of urban leisure, and a venue for new artists. •A dynamic lab for art and sound. •A witness to the sound generated by the citizens of Rotterdam. The connection with the city of Rotterdam is sound. Specifically, people could broadcast their experiences from the city in another territory, the ‘Broadcast City’ platform, where they could exchange soundscape recordings, or produce new sound data based on their own ideas by transferring elements of their personality and culture. The project’s specific programme takes into account new technologies for the distribution of sound information as well as interaction design. Specifically, one widespread new trend for broadcasting audio files is the podcast. This digital

medium consists of an episodic series of audio, video or PDF files, downloaded by subscribers through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device. One interesting point about the podcast is the fact that producers are consumers, while consumers become producers, all engaging in conversations with each other. The podcast proposes the idea that no one owns the technology: it is available for free. One can listen, create content, or both. Another interesting inspiration was Sonic Interaction Design, the study and exploitation of sound as one of the main channels for conveying information and meaning as well as aesthetic and emotional qualities in interactive contexts. The project’s main functions include: open exhibition areas, an audio-visual archive, audio editing labs, stages for performances related to group sound, and a radio station. The open exhibition will host projects related to sound art. As far as the audiovisual archive is concerned, proposed categories include: audio heritage of the city of Rotterdam; a contemporary archive related to sound artists, designers, and performers; and an interactive experimental archive created by visitors in this project’s sound labs. Finally, the audio editing labs involve various methods of recording and mixing sound, as well as writing, composition, and innovative digital technologies for producing sound.

Broadcast City > Kleoniki Fotiadou> Trimester 1/4 2013

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ground floor

1rst floor

2nd floor

3rd floor

circulation

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“A dynamic system of multifunctional platforms working as one mechanism has been proposed for the Submarine Wharf.”

The Ex . Co . Ex . City Egle Tuleikyte

A strategy begins with a research of the area surrounding the given location – in this case the Submarine Wharf. The building is located in the Port of Rotterdam, outside the Heijplaat village, in the neighbourhood of the RDM (Research, Design and Manufacturing) Campus. What was once a deserted shipyard has been transformed into a campus which includes the Innovation Dock: a bridge between knowledge and business. The RDM focuses on sustainable innovations, which are crucial for Rotterdam’s economy. The Innovation Dock provides a platform for innovative enterprises, by offering workshop spaces for product development in the fields of building, mobility, product design, maintenance and maritime technology. More than thirty businesses are now using the space. Although they all share a common focus on sustainability, the work relations and encounters continue to be fragmented and separated. After visiting the site, it became clear to me that not only are the participants isolated from one another, the Innovation Dock is also isolated from the public. And yet, the need for collaboration was

clearly stated by the users: most of the businesses readily admit that the only way to survive is by working together and increasing their visibility. However, all previous attempts to bring people together have failed. Also, many facilities are located in one space, from administrative work to manufacturing and storage. Therefore, my conclusion was that there is a need to build a synergetic community space inside the structure of the RDM Campus. The goal of my project is to use an existing vacant structure, in this case the Submarine Wharf, as an extrusion of the corporate Innovation Dock. Creating a space focusing specifically on collaboration would allow more fluid organisational cooperation as well as increased transparency to the public. Mixing commercial and public functions in the building would be profitable not only to the RDM Campus, but also to the community of Heijplaat and the city of Rotterdam. Therefore, my proposal for the Submarine Wharf is a dynamic system of multifunctional platforms working as one integrated mechanism. Implementing a system of units for each business,

with the functions of office, representation, collaboration, exposition and meeting, would result in a new network-based workspace. One of the most important aspects of the design in this case is a series of vertical and horizontal connections between the platforms. These connections would invite random interactions in neutral environments. Exploring the vertical connections between the platforms would also make it possible to use the building in a more efficient way. Thus the ground level could be used as a public space, allowing for a deeper connection between the organisation and the community. This project would make it possible to focus on manufacturing in the current commercial Innovation Dock building, while directing the functions of cooperation, exploration and exposition toward the new branch. The orientation and planning of the space should also help to bring together the surrounding community. Thus, RDM could be experienced, and could function, as one organic unit, providing a strong foundation for any future developments.

The Ex . Co . Ex . City > Egle Tuleikyte > Trimester 1/4 2013

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The [x] City > Trimester 1/4 2013

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Final Presentations

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123 Guest Critics Lutz M端rau Mauro Parravicini Gerrit Schilder Edward Schuurman Alex Suarez F端sun T端retken Petar Zaklanovic Aynav Ziv Other Guests Mar Garcia Javier Inigo

Image by Albina Aleksiunaite

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Master Interior Architecture & Retail Design MIARD

Programme Description MIARD situates itself firmly in applied-research, critical reflection and the professional field of interior architecture. It operates from the point of view that an educational master’s program must be adaptable to a variety of external forces and should resist institutional idleness.

informs and advances the discipline and it’s meaning through critical and meticulous analysis of the role of the interior and its conditions in contemporary society, and furthermore he or she needs to understands the scope and potential of the interior’s role in a larger social, political and historical context. Programme Structure

We aim to foster graduates who are experts in the field of interiors and to excel as designers. A designer whose practice can modify to cultural, technological and industry changes and set precedents for new and innovative methods of operating. We work with the reality that the profession of the interior architect is a young practice, historically framed between the disciplines of architecture and product/furniture design. As our discipline matures, the programme plan is to contribute to its emerging identity as a relevant and necessary profession with its own theoretical, historical and research policies. We stay involved and contribute to the professional field by working with noted and award-winning international staff and guest tutors. The program participates at national and international design events, conferences, competitions, and we host an active public lecture series throughout the academic year. Current students’ and alumni’s work have been presented at international design and architecture platforms, such as Milan Design Week, Dutch Design Week, Sunlab, TENTLondon, and their design projects have received extensive international press recognition with publications in Domus, Frame, Dezeen, and Designboom, among others. Consequently, the interior architect needs to be someone who shapes,

The curriculum employs a modular and flexible structure, where each class is designed to support each other. It is full-time and structured over two years, which are divided equally in six trimesters of 12 weeks. The total course consists of 120 ECTS earned credits and the course is taught in English. Underlying the master program is a structure that combines critical analysis, experimentation and practical making. The program employs a core design research/making methodology of actively studying and making explicit the design process and creating dialectic between different forms of thinking (as¬sociative/intuitive and analytical). Embracing three modes of creative activity: the intuitive, the practical and tvhe collective to generate new creative pro¬cesses for the ‘making’ and the sorting, editing, and re-structuring of material in relation to an idea and larger context. Three core educational threads (Design, Research and Industry) are interrelated for thematic synthesis and provide the basic structure for trimesters one through four. During the last two trimesters (5&6), students work independently on their graduation project and written report with graduation tutors. The final graduation projects are presented at a public graduation exhibition. At MIARD the diploma offered is Master Interior Architecture.

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Design-Research Methodology A basic principle of the MIARD program is ‘design originality’ through an applied research methodology. The design-research methodology in our programme is the individual and/or collective pursuit to gather, develop and offer ‘unique knowledge and solutions’ about a subject or field of study in a body of work. We view it as a twofold process that is integrated and reciprocal as vehicles for exploration and realization. A. The investigation, collection and editorial gathering of relevant data B. The application, testing and making of that data i.e. designing Making further defines the MIARD design approach. It is rooted in the position that interior architecture is about making places in the ‘materialphysical world’ and that interiors and all their constituents play a significant role in forming the identity and logics of the built environment. We investigate making as a ‘bottom-up’ approach to the creative process and material innovation. This approach allows students to acquire a diversity of necessary, advanced and inventive skills as designers.

Retail Lab The Retail Design specialisation is a newly re-imagined and devised programme component that is intrinsic to the course. It offers students a unique 30% concentration in contemporary retail design from a ‘design-research’ perspective in a boarder interior architecture framework.

The global retail landscape is facing unprecedented social and economic shifts. The Internet coupled with the recent global recession has generated unimagined and radical cultural changes to the traditional ways people once shopped. Retailers are having to look for new sustainable forms, as a result, putting into question the basic role and necessity of the physical retail space. What then, is the future of the retail experience? What new typologies will emerge that serve our changing societal needs? The specialisation is focused on “the future of the retail experience” from the perspective of the individual and the social-collective experience, relationship and use of a product(s), its identity and space. Our aim is to provide students a critical platform to research, experiment and craft ‘spaces, experiences and novel modes’ that expand beyond the normative parameters of today’s trade industry to offer innovative and uncharted economies. Structure: The structure is organised as a series of industry inspired modules and thematic design projects that are integrated throughout the two-year masters structure. Our tutors are highly regarded retail specialists at the top of their field offering students intensive training, skills and real-world industry knowledge and experience. Our modules and workshops cover relevant subjects such as: Crafting Space & Experience / Identity, Concept & Strategy / Con¬sumer & Product / Communication & Visualisation / History & Theories. Links: http://pzwart.wdka.nl/nl/courses/miard/ https://www.facebook.com/PZIMIARD

ÂŠ 2014 MIARD No part of this e-publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by no means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

Master of Interior Architecture & Retail Design MIARD Piet Zwart Institute Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University

Acknowledgements MIARD would like to thank all of the tutors who worked together to plan and craft this thematic design project, as well as, the guests and lecturers who stopped by to shed light on the subject. A special thanks to Alumna Oana Tudose for remaining patient while working on the layout and graphics of this e-pub and for helping with the launch at Post--Office. Once again, the Port keeps inspiring us to look at this unique area in the city with a critical and visionary perspective. Congratulations to all the 1st and 2nd year designers at MIARD in developing their distinctive point of view on the interior as city during this short, yet intensive twelve-week project.

For future questions about this digital - short or about MIARD, please contact us at: E-mail: pzwart-info@hr.nl Telephone +31 (0)10 794 4716 Postal address Piet Zwart Institute Master Interior Architecture & Retail Design P.O. Box 1272 3000 BG Rotterdam The Netherlands

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Making Interior Cities I n i t i a t i v e s

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Piet Zwart Institute Master Interior Architecture & Retail Design [MIARD]

http://pzwart.wdka.nl/nl/courses/miard/