sjim van beijsterveldt architecture portfolio
sjim van beijsterveldt@gmail.com
Sjim van Beysterveldt
For
about me
me, architecture is a mental construct on how man understands and physically structures the surrounding it dwells in. As a designer my fascination is drawn to the threshold where the fictional process of the architect meets the factual conditions of the world. The vague border between designing and making which is continuously crossed when creating architecture. This portfolio shows a selection of academic works
designed during my masters and bachelor education. It isn’t so much a presentation as well a reflection on my development as a designer and the way I have started to understand architecture overtime. Having arrived at a crossroads I am looking for a new environment in which I can further elaborate on my development as a designer and be engaged in the creation of beautiful architecture.
curriculum vitae
education 2014-2016 Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft NL Masters degree in Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences. Grade 10, Cum Laude 2009-2013 Avans University of Applied Sciences, Academy of Building and Infrastructure, Tilburg NL Bachelors degree Architecture and Construction Engineering. Grade 10 2005-2009 Senior Secondary Vocational Education, Department of Building Technology, Tilburg NL
achievements 2016 RIBA Silver President’s Medals: Nomination 2016 Young Talent Association Award (YTAA): Nomination 2015 Argus Exhibition, Two Nominations 2013 Avans Hogeschool Thesis Award: First prize 2009 Uitblinker Award: Best of my year
skills Arkey ASD Autocad Rhinoceros Sketchup Pro Lumion 3D Vray Illustrator CC Photoshop CC Indesign CC Model making
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contents
works i
ad hoc conditions Adhocism as a modus operandi for architectural design Master thesis | Vilnius | Sep. 2015 - Jul. 2016
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a home for hikers The design of a modular hiking cabin in Iceland Design competition | Iceland | Aug. 2016
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ornamatics Fusing CAD and Craft, ornament and decoration Master project | Norway | Feb. 2015 - May. 2015
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the craft school CAD and Craft as cross fertilizer for Rotterdams Harbor area Master project | Rotterdam | Sep. 2014 - Feb 2015
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domvorm Articulating emptiness by adding Bachelor graduation project | Utrecht | Feb. 2013 - Jul. 2013
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ad hoc conditions Adhocism as a modus operandi for architectural design Master thesis | Vilnius | Sep. 2015 - Jul. 2016
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network of courtyards form the urban fabric of the historic centre of Vilnius. These courtyards accumulate urban sediment over time, as people themselves appropriate their environment in ad hoc manners. This particular phenomena was used to form the entry point for the beginning of an architectural design project. The phenomena of adhocism and bricolage were accessed intellectually to research their modus operandi and to appropriate this for a design process. The architecture of the odd-jobs man is much like mythmaking where one is restricted to use the parts at hand to explain or solve a particular problem. This thus became the most important aspect of the design process where always a thorough investigation of the part at hand was done before it was brought into orbit, or collision even, with another part to form a new narrative. These parts acted on multiple levels where they could be research topics such as urban context or cultural identity, but also how the program of the columbarium interacted with the form of the building which was designed beforehand. An important part of the project consisted out of trying to address and conceive a methodology which allows designers to reach beyond the existing, or in general applied, conventions within architectural design. Conventions created and stimulated by using assumptions such as typology and program as a preliminary framework of conditions. Practical adhocism requires paying perhaps undue attention to the parts as parts with consequent joints and connections.
As investigated, Adhocism allows designers to break with such preconceived conventions. For instead of harmonizing it allows for different parts which are at hand to collide with each other. And by doing so unforeseen synthesis might come into being. For the project this means that the process becomes just as important as the product. The process is used to establish a modus operandi within architecture that works on adhocist conditions. Meaning that the parts at hand, and the parts as parts are of utmost importance. A part can be either a material object, building fragment or even a design method or strategy. ‘’His first practical step is retrospective. He has to turn back to an already existent set of made up tools and materials, to consider or reconsider what it contains and finally and above all, to engage in a sort of dialogue with it and, before choosing between them, to index the possible answers which the whole set can offer to this problem. He interrogates all heterogeneous object of which his treasury (of ideas) is composed to discover what each of them could signify and so contribute to the definition of a set which has yet to be materialized but which will ultimately differ from the instrumental set only in the internal disposition of its parts’’. (Claude Lévi-Strauss on the bricoleur) The project is formed out of the ruins of memory where life and death, past and present start to appear simultaneously and the myth of Vilnius is created. The architect as the bricoleur, the buidling as the myth.
vilnius municipality
historic city centre
urban sediment
The historic city center of Vilnius is homogeneous in the way the urban
fabric is constituted out of blocks of courtyards in-between which streets, squares and parks are located. However once one enters the courtyards immediately a great contrast is displayed between the formal street and the informal conditions of the courtyards. The courtyards are an introvert
sediment in the way they as a spatial composition and programmatic organization tent to only be focused inward and ignore surrounding context. This way inside the courtyards front facades collide with the backsides of neighboring courtyards enhancing the contrasting sequence of different environments when one moves from courtyard to courtyard.
study area outskirts
reformation park
study to the layers of imprint, the way ‘things’ are connected within the courtyards
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maniacal drawings
order to become aware of the complexity and layering of the courtyards a mapping approach was conceived which would allow for as much detail as possible to be drawn in the so called ‘maniac drawings’. The drawing style was created by unfolding the courtyards from the framing by the roof downwards and so being creative in the way the x,y and z axes were constituting the axonometric perspective. By this way of drawing the enclosed qualities of the courtyard as well as the great level of detail could be explored as well as exhibited.
maniacal drawings of multiple courtyards
maniacal drawing
drawing at hand
The
playingfield
reflection analysis
transformation
reflection mapping
superimposing
by product as ‘‘design’’ drawing
folding layout at hand
reading between the lines
starting point a drawing taken form an analysis served as a preliminary design. Do the drawing had a certain meaning befrore, its relevance to the design process needed to be re-evaluated. To make the drawing workable it was transformed into a set of lines. This was done to make the drawing less suggestive in terms of form and shape. In order to let the lines inform the project, a certain act was linked to certain numbers of a dice. This act transformed the drawing into a playing field which manipulated the surface of a sheet of paper in being folded or cut. Because the drawing consisted out of diagonal and orthogonal orientated
lines, a division was made where the diagonals remained lines and the orthogonals marked surfaces which were to be cut out of the surface. In order to already introduce the location into this early and conceptual stage of design, its outlines where superimposed onto the lines and surfaces creating the outline of the shape. The surface was then to be folded and cut as the lines direct creating volumes which could be used as building masses. This way context was used in a less conventional but more abstract manner within the project and it formed literally the outline of the new building
folding model studies
folded result: the new design at hand
ad(d) hoc: collision of parts
up scaling and constructing
By
ad(d) hoc
having established a building volume it became the part at hand. Because it was only a shape or even a shell, the construction would become the second part that would be added. Instead of creating a tailor-made construction, a core was implemented into the center of the design. As with the theory of the junction the transition between one part and the other now became important. Because of the suggestion present
in a constructed scale model that the shell was falling away form the core, the design decision was made to hang the shell onto the core. This was tested in several models scale 1:50. The design now consisted out of three elements being a generic core, the amorphous shell and the space filled with cables in-between. The last later became became the space where the programme was ‘‘solved’’.
balancing the parts
Because
inward folding of the shell
testing by modelling
of the potential of combining the amorphous and generic elements several side-investigations were done into what would happen when the principle is reversed and the shell is folded inwards into the generic core, imploding the concept as it where. This would result in enlarging the core structure to eight by eight meters in which spaces
would be formed by cables which also supported the walls, stairs and floors. The puncture holes in the generic structure would be used to join the cables and beams necessary to create the construction supporting the shell structure. This research resulted in clarifying the potential of the process.
element study in-between space
preliminary design columbarium
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I reformation park II partially destroyed soviet monument III columbarium tower IV reformed church V ministry of foreign affairs
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The
reformation park
Reformation Park lies on the outskirts of the historic city centre was chosen for its historic and esthetical qualities. The park was erected in the 1980’s to remember Soviet Partisans which died during the Second World War. The rigidly designed park follows a strict northsouth orientation and consists out of modular concrete blocks which are stacked on top of each other. Nowadays the remembrance statues, being a reminder to soviet rule, are removed and the park is nominated to be torn down and restored into a park which is inspired on a cemetery which
was there before the Soviet park. However the present park possesses unique qualities which could be re-evaluated by adding new program to it in the form of the columbarium. The part at hand is again confronted with a new part and new potential arises. The one starts to influence the other. The core starts to become part of the rigid structure in contrast to the shell which starts to interact with the amorphous qualities of the surrounding trees in the park. The in-between space is used to harbor program such as a chapel, the columbarium and a dove cote.
‘‘...a thing’s place was no longer anything but a point in its movement, just as the stability of a thing was only its movement indefinitely slowed down. ’’ Michel Foucault
‘’Our epoch is one in which space takes for us the form of relations among sites.’’ Michel Foucault
Program,
the columbarium
in this project, was not used as a diagrammatic grid for a design to evolve on. Do it was conceived previous to the design process, it was only implemented when the main design was already well under way. This way the program became the alien part that was brought into collision with the original part, the design at hand at that time. Program to test the potential of the process. Already during the research semester, the choice was made to design a columbarium for the city of Vilnius. The way myth is often constituted, this resulted out of the combining multiple events and factors being present in the city and the design thematic: Bricolage
c.q. Adhocism. In search of the junction on other levels then solely the material and physical elements, Michel Foucault’ understanding of the term Heterotopia, presents a way of understanding program as a junction as well. Here it becomes a transition area, a collision where multiple dimensions are present at the same time. Multiple times in the museum for example. Also he argues how death and life are present simultaneously in places as the graveyard. Vilnius is a city which has been robbed of most of the traces of death within the city foremost by the obliteration of cemeteries during soviet rule. With the design of the columbarium death is juxtaposed to life and re-enters the city.
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soviet park I crypt entrance II double helix staircase III columbarium IV chapel V dove cote VI
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walking the procession by the double helix staircase, behind the coulisse, towards the balconies
crypt space with the entrance to the columbarium tower
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the procession
shown in the situation, the columbarium is located on the side of the square in the midst of the park. It stands a lonesome witness along the old procession axe, which during the Soviet era was used to commemorate the fallen by laying flowers on the steps of the monument. In the new design this axe is prolonged and deviated into a crypt allowing access to the tower. The crypt forms the transition point from the old park into the new monument. People follow the procession line upward with the double helix staircase to ultimately end on one of the columbaria balconies. However instead of taking the same route downwards the double helix effect allows a parallel path which ends on the other side of the crypt. A second staircase then allows people to exit the cemetery and entre the park on the north-south access.
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crypte entrance and exit ground floor level of the park I columbarium balcony II columbarium balcony III columbarium balcony IV columbarium balcony V columbarium balcony VI columbarium balcony VII remembrance space VIII dove cote IX roof
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cross sections inside the generic core
From
generic core
the moment the core was conceived of being the support for the amorphous shell it became clear that its design should be rational and sometimes even utilitarian. In one of the test model the idea arose that the cables holding up the shell structure should somehow become an aesthetic on the inside of the core. This way the inside space became a room behind the coulisse where everything is programmed so the front can function as a representational element. The core is rhythmically organized by the way the puncture form a grid along its wall surfaces. Here a more lose element comes at play, namely the cables from which hang the balconies and the shell. One moves through the core in a radial way being guided along the four walls with sometimes the oppertunity to step on one of the platforms to enter a balcony. The staircase is also a clearly added feature where by the way it is constructed it climbs up the tower towards the light coming trough the dove cote.
bottom up view of the implementation of the wooden double helix staircase inside the concrete core
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H1 shell detailing
V2 core - shell junction detailing
marble urn walls
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said the main program is located in the in-between space between the core and the mesh shell. Within this space marble slabs, being hold in position by steel cables seem to float in space. Onto these slabs balconies are attached which allow the visitors to enter the urn wall, being the marble slab. Although they seem to be monolithic, the urn wall is actually built up out of marble-glass composite plates mounted
marble columbarium balcony in the in-between space
on a steel frame. This way urns can be placed inside the wall. Because of the thinness of the marble light is able to shine trough from inside out. This way, during nighttime, the marble slabs light up contrasting the dark silhouette of the core. This way the urns insight also start to show their silhouette trough the marble and become part of the composition, of life again.
V1 urn shelf - balcony detailing 1 steel cable conductor Ø 50x5mm 2 steel cable Ø20mm 3 threaded end Ø10mm 4 2x fixture bolt 5 steel clamp 6 threaded end Ø10mm 7 steel fixture 8 fixture bolt 9 rotation point 10 fixture clamp-wall 11 empty puncture wall Ø 50mm 12 concrete wall sliding casted 300mm 13 steel spacer fixture 14 fixture bolt 15 steel rivet 16 2x fixture bolt 17 massive steel spacer Ø 45mm
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a home for hikers The design of a modular hiking cabin in Iceland Design competition | Iceland | Aug. 2016 in collaboration with Peter Canisius, Daan Hammink & Peter Mudde
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landscape of Iceland has a surreal beauty. Harsh nature, created by volcano’s and glaciers generates an experience particular for this country. In this vast landscape this ‘Beacon’ creates a place for comfort and safety after a long day of traveling. The design is based on the idea that it could be placed anywhere along the hiking paths running trough island. Therefore it should be applicable to stand on lava grounds, snowy glaciers or basalt rocks. This way a modular system was designed that can adapt to the number of hikers and the type of terrain it stands in. this has resulted in an iconic tower guiding the people over the plains. The idea of a beacon was translated into a hexagon-shaped tower. The form creates the sense of security and enclosure and represents the shape of basalt rock being typical for Iceland. With its
shape, the building focuses on its centre. This closely resembles the traditional hut where the fire was the central element of the space, creating the feeling of safety and community. In the design a 120 degrees shift of split-level floors creates one shared space while generating privacy and personal space as well. The circular movement through the building enables 360 degrees views of the surroundings and amplifies the experience of a tower overlooking the landscape. The tower forms an unexpected typology in the horizontal landscape that enhances the surreal and mythical feeling of the island. Having an exterior which is clear modern and has a futuristic look contrasting its surroundings, whilst having an interior that is warm, comfortable and gives the feeling of security.
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I all ground fundament system II bedstead/staircase III window/shelve IV steel facade cover
first floor: entrance, communal space and kitchen
living quarters module: the bedstead articulates private space for the hikers to retreat in
120ยบ
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I exception module II base as communal module III stacking and turning modules IV vertical flowing space V staircases as sleeping objects
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I washing and service module II communal module III sleeping modules IV solar roof module
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vertical campfire
The interior consists out of a gradually lifted and rotate number of floors. The way the floors overlap, it creates space for visitors to retrieve to. In-between the floors, stairs are positioned which also function as bedsteads. They are covered in felt and have curtains that allow more privacy. The bedsteads are approached from the site where the hikers have room to store their goods. The stairs are orientated towards the up going windows creating a 360 degree view of the area when one moves to the upper floor. The design is actual a circle around the campfire vertically extracted and organized into program. However it still emphasizes a community feeling and its exposure.
interior view: beds/staircases winding around communal space searching an exciting balance between public and private
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Ornamatics Fusing CAD and Craft, ornament and decoration Master project | Norway | Feb. 2015 - May. 2015
Knitting Ornament is an experimental research into the value of ornament
and decoration in the present day. After being outlawed during much of the 20th century, nowadays more and more decorative patterns and ornamental elements start to return in architecture. However, the condition of making has severely changed and standardization has sometimes become the basis for designing. Thereby it is much more likely for ornamental designs used in architecture to be made by CAD programs instead of handcraft. The design of the ‘Digitile’, as the ornamental element is called, focuses on this transition betweenc CAD and craft. The craft of knitting was chosen as a starting point for the development of the Digitile. Knitting can create elaborate patterns for textiles which can be used for clothing. Clothing, which is primarily used for protection against the outside climate also forms a layer of aesthetics on to the human body. It integrates climate, technical and constructive conditions into the first architecture beyond our skin. By keen observation and experiment, knitting as a technique was abstracted to a rhythmic process of repetition, in which by a small alternation subtle diversity was possible. when altering patterns with knitting, the technique remains the same, only its rhythm changes. This as a concept translates to the form of the Digitile. Its diamond like shape was specifically chosen because it could be easily changed in direction to form other patterns, like for example the window. The abstraction of knitting to rhythm was also used to translate a handcrafted model of cardboard and wire into a
rhythmic motion for a CNC milling device to follow. Conditions were set for the computer to follow but the end result couldn’t totally be determent because of the way of the process and digital translation. The two Digitiles were designed by the same process, one regular and the other to form the smooth corners floating around the enclosed space. The Digitiles are connected with steel rods and joints to form a curtain wall. This is articulated by the missing triangles near the ground floor and roof. It weaves the Digitiles into a textile which is strained between two concrete plates. Like with textile the backside is the result of the front. Because of the casting process the Digitiles are flat and more quiet on the back. It is the construction of steel rods that attracts the attention here like the seams do on the inside of a sweater. Trough these seams a glimpse of daylight will shine, illuminating the inside and articulating the lightness of the wall. The Digitiles together form the ‘Ornamentarium’. This Foley is imagined to stand in the midst of a Scandinavian forest covered in snow. Lonesome travelers can seek shelter from the fearsome weather within its walls. In the end, the process of making was a continuous interaction between CAD and craft. Handmade models where abstracted to digital lines which were to be followed by a computer after which the subtitle human hand lay the final touch. This interaction between CAD and craft can help us giving a place to ornament and decoration within present day architecture.
left: 1:50 model of the corner of the ornamentarium right: 1:5 model of the corner and connection of the digitiles
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fascination for knitting and textiles as ornament inspiration interest in the analogy of the second skin between building and clothing architectural example of facade surface as a textile or silk pattern first approach: sketching ideas and analyzing the potential of knitting first contours of a modular element allowing different patterns to be created first physical model investigating the relation between decoration and ornament sketch design where decoration flows out of the ornament of the edges of the tile digital translation of the wires into a 3-dimensional mesh made out of lines the digital lines form a format for a cnc-mill to follow with an open ended result excavation of the tile and creating a mould for the concrete casting the tile being cast in a silicon mould which can be used for mass-production the concrete tile coming out of its silicon and flexible contra mould multiple tiles which fit together by the crenellated edge allowing light to shine trough the process was repeated to create the corner tile having a total of two tiles the corners flows around the facade as flexible as textile does around a body by the way the tiles are connected to each other and the floors it projects light
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The Craft School CAD and Craft as cross fertilizer for Rotterdams Harbor area Master project | Rotterdam | Sept 2014 - Feb 2015
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craftsman and craft in general are not always fully respected in the Netherlands. Mostly is it seen as unfashionable, low educated and out of an bygone era. This project focuses on exactly that problem and is an investigation on how to look for ways to make an architectural design a manner of promoting craft and showing that it still is very relevant nowadays. This investigation is done by making a design for a craft school that includes a joinery as well as a carpentry section. The first being more occupied with the making of furniture, while the other is more into making large elements for the building industry. The new school will be situated in two existing warehouses in the Keilehaven in the city of Rotterdam. Two warehouses once facilitated an import/export company which was in the business of trading fruits and vegetables. The buildings were erected in the 1940’s an 50’s. Even do they where only built ten years apart, the spatial organization of the two buildings differs immensely. The spatial organization meant that the existing situation, and thus the general layout which needed to be worked with, consisted out of four parts, namely: a warehouse, office building, open strip of land to reach the docks and a second warehouse. The attitude towards the existing structures was to keep intact as much of the building as possible. This was done not because of the monumental value or outstanding beauty, but because of its contextual value for the specific location.
The type of warehouse with its practical organization of a dock entrance on the one side and a road entrance on the other, with a large storage space in the middle, subscribes exactly the purpose of the place, being the harbour, namely the transition of goods. The only additions that where made are the introduction of windows and the addition of a new entrance hall that connect the two buildings. The design of the new craft school should incorporate three themes which are thought to be important for the avocation of craft in the 21st century. First the design should make the building, being the craft school, function as a cross-fertilizer bringing together different people from the area but also make acquainted modern and traditional tools and techniques that woods craftsman use. Where the first point can be met by a programmatic approach, the building aesthetic should also function as a vehicle for the identity of the vocation. Traditional as well as modern wood crafts and techniques should be used and shown to create more appreciation for the vocation as a whole. The past two points should also imbed the school as a vivid part of the area and the city in the urban fabric, being the third and final ambition. The area will be turned into a ‘makers’ city, and the school, being the source of knowledge should be at the centre of this project. The project shows the development of how to approach historical but not monumental buildings and how they potentially can be used as a centre for a newly developed area
cross-fertilizer
The
1:20 model of the entrance atriums
building is designed as a cross-fertilizer in the broadest sense. Foremost it functions as a facilitator of knowledge and machinery for its surroundings in the Keilehaven. This means that other entrepreneurs can make use of the facilities of the school and even rent a space to exploit a private business. The warehouse with its large open space due to the large span beams, is a public interior. People are free to entre and it can function apart from the rest of the school. This allows week, weekend and evening education to be flexible in the use of the building. The cross-fertilization is stimulated by putting into contact the users of modern and traditional craft tools and techniques.
entrance in-between the original structure showing the relevance of the vocation inviting people in
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I the new and old building skin II rational constructions to create space III wood construction techniques as avocation IV old harbor becomes boulevard
north facade 1:400
south facade 1:400
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wood storage, fablab and general workshop east warehouse
I entrance atrium II general workshop III wood storage IV library V classrooms VI cantina VII fablab VIII startups IX practice classroom
fablab with oversight over general workshop
view from practice class room
fablab and general workshop
route from entrance with wood storage to the left
vehicle for identity
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existing buildings are left intact as much as possible because of their contextual value. This however does not mean that new additions should speak for them self or have no identity. The greatest intervention that is made, is the addition of the central hall which allows access from the fronts as well as the back of the building. The new hall or atrium consists out of a large roof which is supported by wooden beams. These beams are crafted especially for the design of the hall and are mounted on old concrete brackets which were actually meant for a future addition
of a new office in the original 1950’ design. This way the old and the new are combined to form a symbioses. The form of the wooden beams is transformed from being a logical span element to become a unruly identity maker. The transformation was done to play a game with the incoming light and the contours of the existing buildings, thus articulating them. This play between old and new is representational for the craft in the 21st century where it also has to deal with new techniques that shall replace the old.
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section A 1:400
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the new structure uses old concrete brackets on which they support
curtain wall horizontal section 1:10
1:2 curtain wall model
curtain wall section 1:10 1 wooden covered end bar 2 fixation screw 3 wooden ledge 4 double glazing 5 fixation bolt 6 aluminum adjusting profile 7 dilatation 8 laminated wooden beams 9 sanded down seam
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Domvorm Articulating emptiness by adding Bachelor graduation project | Utrecht | Feb. 2013 - Jul. 2013 in collaboration with Axel Geurts
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the year 1200 A.D. work had started at the current Gothic cathedral which was positioned in the middle of what once was the Roman Castellum. However, in 1674, still before its completion, the nave of the building collapsed during a hurricane because of the lack of buttresses. For over 150 years the ruins would remain untouched, striking a gap in the town centre. Over the years the location became a meeting point for criminals and outlawed social ‘’encounters’’. Only when plans were made for the construction of the current university in 1829 the ruins where finally cleared and the present day square was formed. These events that have helped create this irregular square, give it its unique character. The location however was never intended to be a town square and this is still clearly visible by the way the surroundings orientate them self’s towards the square. Because of this an indefinable surplus of space has formed in the middle of the city centre. The missing nave of the cathedral is still evident because of the separation of the bell tower and the actual church itself. Because of this the axis of the square and church collide with each other making it appear a bit out of order. The main goal that is formulated, is to make a subtle change in the urban planning of the square by means of an architectural gesture. This building should enclose a definable space for the square and at the same time re-unite the church with its tower. However, because of the historic significance of the site it may not become a historic forgery. It must form a dialog between past, present and future. The design is a subtle mass that is placed between the Dom-church and tower. The slim u-shape form looks like being build against the surface of the tower, square and church however holds at the same time a safe distance. By this manner of design it looks like it is floating inbetween the buildings and on the square surface. With the introduction of this new form the enormous space is separated in three logically
understandable places: being the reshaped square at the south side, the pit-like space underneath the new u-shape and a stretch of space on the north side being a bit wider then a regular street. Because of its location the u-shape re-unites the church with its tower in an optical and symbolic way. But at the same time the design stresses the curious urban environment, emphasizing the missing nave, the imported historic event that is the reason of existence for the current square. The main character of the square remains present and is maybe ever more present than before because of the articulated new form. Beneath the u-shape a pit is sunk into the ground reveling the historic building activities of 2000 years of civilization. The old fundaments of the collapsed nave reveal something of the former glory of the old church. The serene architectural environment of the pit makes history more present than ever before and for future generations to see. The layers of history are literally visible in the texture of the walls and in the form of a slightly crooked bridge that follows the exact same path as an old roman road called: ‘Via Praetoria’. The functional program of the building consists of public and semi-public spaces intervening in- and circling around each other. The main floor contains the entrée of a hotel and a large restaurant. By a stairs these floors are accessible via the pit lying directly beneath the main floor. The first floor is again transformed to a square-like environment with a kiosk and the entrée to a large spa that is situated in the east wing, directly opposite to the hotel that is located in the west wing. With the introduction of the architectural design the Dom square has become a much more logical and exciting urban environment with new facilities that will attract tourist and citizens to visit the site. Also it has become a physical history book highlighting the imported events that gave shape to the city of Utrecht and even the Netherlands as a whole.
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view on the excavation pit from underneath the dom tower with the u-shape flouting over the square.
the u-shape is covered in cork ribbons which serve aesthetical, acoustical and sustainable purposes
model studies into the historic development of the square and the way on how to intervene
dom square history
The
Dom square, located in the centre of the Dutch city of ‘Utrecht’, has a very rich and unique history. The first records of civiliza¬tion date back to the time of Christ. Back than Utrecht was a small Roman Castellum or fortress that served for the defense of the northern border of the empire. In those days it was called ‘Trajectum’, referring to the shallow passage in the river Rijn at which it was located. The river formed a natural border and served at the same time as an important trading route with the strong German tribes that where located in the east. The first decades of its existence the Castellum endured a hard time, being burned down and rebuilt multiple times because of hostilities with the native tribes who lived across the river. After the fall of the Roman Empire the town be¬came an important centre for Christianity in northern Europe. This was due to its geographical strategic location. During the middle ages a bishop was assigned to the Utrecht and it became an important city in the Holy Roman Empire, even facilitating a palace for deputies of and for the royal court. These historical fragments of time are excavated in the pit area and shown by the layering of the wall surface and the orientation of the stairs and walkways
-I pit in the dom square reveling old church structure
+I in-between space covering the pit: hotel foyer
view down in the excavation pit looking towards the stage area with rising in between a staircase the old world war monument
+II elevated square in-between spa and hotel towers
IV hotel room
IX hotel suite
interior of one of the hotel rooms in the west wing with views on the square and the tower
VI spa pool
X spa bathing
in-between elevation tower-shape
interior of the spa bathing area
section hotel wing
section spa wing and church elevation
overview of the building in-between the tower and the church and the re-organization of the dom square
kiosk on the elevated square with the ability to shut the facade and make the entrance invisible
detailing of the transformable facade which, when closed, articulates the form as a monolith