pantheon// biannual publication of d.b.s.g. stylos / issue 2 / volume 25
DETAIL
detail (n.) /diË?.teÉŞl-/ (n.) 1: extended treatment of or attention to particular items 2: a part of a whole: such as A: a small and subordinate part B: a part considered or requiring to be considered separately from the whole C: the small elements that collectively constitute a work of art D: photography : the small elements of an image corresponding to those of the subject 3: selection of a person or group for a particular task
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biannual publication of study association Stylos faculty of Architecture, TU Delft colophon volume 25, issue 2, SEPTEMBER 2020 1.500 prints Stylos members and friends of the Stylos Foundation receive the pantheon// editorial office BG.midden.110 Julianalaan 132-134 2628 BL Delft pantheon@stylos.nl
The Delftsch Bouwkundig Studenten Gezelschap Stylos was founded in 1894 to look after the study and student interests at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at the Delft University of Technology.
advertisements 30 | Design Expess 31 | Vanschagen publisher Quantes, Den Haag
chairman: secretary: treasurer: education bachelor: education master: external affairs: events and initiatives:
cover Bart Claver Melle Haak
QQ (qualitate qua) Roos te Velde editors Isa Heeling Bart Claver Melle Haak Merel Huizen
board 126 Lenneke Slangen Valerie Heesakkers Roos te Velde Lisa Kappers Sem van den Eijnde Thijs Reitsma Yael von Mengden
contact D.B.S.G. Stylos Julianalaan 132-134 2628 BL Delft
Eva Zandbergen Liz Hoogeveen Tamar Henquet Raf van Oosterhout
info@stylos.nl +31 (0)15 2783697 www.stylos.nl
DETAIL// 08
CHAIRMAN’S NOTE
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NICK COES
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DETAIL
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@IRIS VAN DER HEIDE
ONDER ÉÉN DAK LIZ HOOGEVEEN & RAF VAN OOSTERHOUT
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DETAIL VS ABSTRACTION TAMAR HENQUET
RAF VAN OOSTERHOUT
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SUM LIZ HOOGEVEEN
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MIDNIGHT CONVERSATIONS ISA HEELING
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STUDIO DRIFT
CHEPOS: ZAHA HADID
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SHOPCLAS AS SOULCRAFT TAMAR HENQUET
LIANNE WILLEKERS
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK
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CHILDISH DREAMS
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CONCR3DE TAMAR HENQUET
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BIOMIMETIC DESIGN MEREL HUIZEN
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HET GAAT NIET OM DETAIL MELLE HAAK
HUMANS OF QUARANTINE RAF VAN OOSTERHOUT
EVA ZANDBERGEN
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GET INSPRIED BART CLAVER
BART CLAVER
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ARCHITECTURE IN 5 SECONDS RAF VAN OOSTERHOUT
WANT TO FEATURE IN THE NEXT pantheon//? ARE YOU AN ASPIRING WRITER, MAD LAY-OUTER OR JUST IN NEED OF A CREATIVE OUTLET, COME BY STYLOS OR MAIL US AT pantheon@stylos.nl
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COMMITTEE
membership Stylos €10,- per year account number 296475
2019/2020
Stylos Foundation The pantheon// is funded by the Stylos Foundation.
ROOS TE VELDE QQ
The Stylos Foundation fulfills a flywheel function to stimulate student initiatives at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Enivronment at the Delft University of Technology. The board of the Stylos Foundation offers financial and substantive support to these projects. As a friend of the Stylos Foundation you will be informed on these projects by receiving the B-nieuws every two weeks and two publications of the pantheon//. We ask a donation of €90,- per year as a company and €45,- per year as an individual (recently graduated friends of the Foundation will pay €10,- the first two years).
ISA HEELING CHAIRMAN
account number 1673413 disclaimer All photos are (c) the property of their respective owners. We are a non-profit organisation and we thank you for the use of these pictures.
Illustration: Bart Claver & Melle Haak
EDITORIAL
RAF VAN OOSTERHOUT EDITOR
BY BART CLAVER This issue of pantheon// we zoom in and look at the details of everything. As students of the faculty of Architecture and the Build Environment we know all about details. Where the thermal insulation should be to prevent cold from coming in, where the waterproof layer is or how exactly should beams of wood be placed on a framing system. But details are much more than that. One detail does not make a building but if you put it all together is does. As the meaning on the previous page says: “the small elements that collectively constitute a work of art.”
kitchen, the only really brightly lit room in the house.”
A good designer thinks about the smallest details, not only on a technical level, but also special and even emotional. The smallest details can leave the biggest marks on a person, as Peter Zumthor said in Thinking Architecture:
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“There was a time when I experienced architecture without thinking about it. Sometimes I can almost feel a particular door handle in my hand, a piece of metal shaped like the back of a spoon. I used to take hold of it when I went into my aunt’s garden. That door handle still seems to me like a special sign of entry into a world of different moods and smells. I remember the sound of the gravel under my feet, the soft gleam of the waxed oak staircase, I can hear the heavy front door closing behind me as I walk along the dark corridor and enter the
BART CLAVER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Architects like Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright did not only design buildings but also the furniture within those buildings. Making sure that not only every detail in the building was accounted for but also everything within. Mies van der Rohe designed the famous Barcelona chair for his 1929 expo pavilion. Thinking about every detail from the technical connections and the kind of leather on the chairs. It became know as one of the most beautiful detailed buildings of the 20th century and is widely considered a work of art.
MELLE HAAK EDITOR
MEREL HUIZEN EDITOR
EVA ZANDBERGEN EDITOR
TAMAR HENQUET EDITOR
LIZ HOOGEVEEN EDITOR
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CHAIRMAN’S NOTE DETAIL, fascinating yet challenging. Architecture needs detail to be fascinating, but designing in detail is challenging. But detail is not something that is only fascinating in architecture. Detail is something we all work with, as a student, a committee member, a board and an association. Making detailed schedules for your study week, painting your new student room, redesigning your committee-event and so on. A new academic year, new students, a new board and new committee members, starting under new circumstances. Circumstances that are fascinating yet challenging, bringing new opportunities. The ‘new normal’ is a situation we cannot ignore, not as an association, but also not as a student, a committee member or a new board. The new circumstances make us rethink what is really important. What do you stand for? What is your goal? What do you want to improve or explore? What inspires you and what brings you joy? As a new board, we are asking these questions to ourselves as well. What does Stylos stand for? What is the goal of Stylos? How do we want Stylos to improve or what should Stylos explore? New circumstances ask for a different approach to start off the year. With about 700 students coming in, how can we introduce them to other students, Stylos, our faculty and the city of Delft? We are sure we want to organise a range of events to introduce you to the fascinating environment Stylos is a part of. We want you to be part of this community, since we are here for you. That is our goal: to be there for you! To help you find out what you stand for, find your goal and help you to improve, explore and broaden yourself. To inspire you to achieve (even more) fascinating goals, but also to make you laugh. Are you joining us in this journey? Because without you, our association, our fascinating events, our initiatives and our tours will not exist.
Let us know what you need, what you want to improve or explore! Stylos should be flexible and adapting in these changing and unpredictable times. This might mean the cancellation of events that do not fit in the ‘new normal’, but this also means there is room for new initiatives, whether these can be organized offline or online. Offline might seem more ideal, but an online environment can have the same (or in some cases even more) potential. Online is gaining more and more influence in our everyday lives, and being part of the online environment is more important than ever, also for our association. That is why we focus on expanding our online presence, but we are, of course, also looking for ways to meet you offline in the ‘new normal’ environment, because meeting you inspires us and brings us joy, even though we can’t plan this in detail. See you soon! Nick Coes Board 127 of D.B.S.G. Stylos
THE DETAILS ARE NOT DETAILS CHARLES & RAY EAMES Source: vitra.com
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@IRIS VAN DER HEIDE ‘Seeing half a wall means wondering what the other half would look like.’ Iris van der Heide studied at our faculty from 2012 to 2019. She now works as Junior Architect for TenW Architecten Adviseurs in The Hague. We talked with Iris about her eye for detail, the importance of context and her time at BIG in New York.
While scrolling through the webpages on my laptop I do not quite believe what I’m seeing. Iris’ personal website is stylish and her CV is very impressive for a 25-year-old. During her seven years at TU Delft she went on an exchange to Aarhus and followed a Master studio in Chicago. After internships at TenW Architecten Adviseurs and PKW she worked eight months for Bjarke Ingels Group in New York. Besides these architecture related activities Iris also made time to organize BKBeats 2016 and was a competitive rower at D.S.R.V. Laga for five years. I always thought that I was living a busy life, but I am not so sure of it now. What is the driving force of this woman and how do all these experiences affect her in her short career? During your Minor at the School of Architecture in Aarhus (Denmark) you made a design called ‘Navitas Folly, light and shadow machine’. It’s an installation for the university building Navitas. The machine plays with light and shadow. The project fascinated me because of its apparent simplicity combined with some constructive and technological delights. Please tell me something more about this project. ‘The faculty in Aarhus is very art orientated. I did a wide range of projects during my time there, from making my own pinhole camera to creating models that floated in the air by helium filled balloons. The machine in the Navitas building was one of the bigger projects I did there.
We had to design a folly, an element without a straightforward function. The site we chose was the atrium of the architecture engineering faculty of the university. The building was very new with steel railings and trusses. Together with the sun and the glass these elements created amazing shadow patterns. We decided to add an extra layer by catching shadow and light in an installation. We designed triangular panels consisting of three different materials: fabric, glass and opaque plastic. Each material would add a different effect to the existing shadows and the light. A mechanism would move the panels according to the amount of light that they captured. The result would be a breathing machine that changes the way people look at the building and changes its own appearance as well.’ What’s your most valuable memory of working for BIG in New York? ‘The best thing about BIG are the people and the ambiance. The whole firm screams architecture and everybody is very creative. The long working hours are therefore easy to deal with. Working towards a deadline, means having dinner at the office with your colleagues and these colleagues are super fun. It almost felt like life at BK City. It’s also a close community. During this whole Corona affair they’re offering to help me with my current job. Moreover they gave me a lot of confidence. Project teams consists of ten people or so. This way, the designing process functions like a small firm and you can take as much initiative as you want.’
RAF VAN OOSTERHOUT BART CLAVER
Iris van der Heide
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On your website you say: ‘I want to surprise people, make them aware of details that were never seen before, let people think about spaces in a new way.’ How do you make people aware of these details? ‘As an architect you can frame the vison of people. This is possible by creating a literal frame like a window or by stressing a certain element. Take for example Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In his Barcelona Pavilion he puts a statue at the end of a space in the light so it gets the full attention of a visitor. Or look at the works of James Turrell who creates installations which frame the sky to emphasize the peculiar look of clouds sliding over a blue background. In my graduation project, I chose a transformation method to let the inhabitants and visitors focus on what’s already there. Most architects either build a new building or renovate an old building to give it the same function as before. In my project, Transformation by Ruination, I let the building ruinate, like ruins of castles in France. I gave the building site back to nature, let it take the upper hand. In that way the origins of a place become visible and the imagination gets tickled. Seeing half a wall means wondering what the other half would look like. The project lets people see that decay and destruction are necessary complements to creation and construction.
Top lef/left: ‘Navitas’ Folly
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I always keep in mind that we architects add something to an existing situation. When an architect starts all over again and doesn’t mind the historical context, it almost always results in a bad design. A simple example about the importance of context I like to use is urban farming in New York City. Cultivating cauliflower in a Latino neighbourhood will probably result in the fact that people won’t use this small urban farm, because the cauliflower is a vegetable that is not in their diet. If you plant some sweet potato instead, the field might turn into a success. This shows the importance of looking at the context before making a design. Architecture is all about finding the right seed to plant.’ Is there a balance between the big picture and eye for detail and how do you keep this balance? ‘For me the concept is the starting and leading point of a design. After that I think about shape and then detailing comes into play Shape and detail interact with each other so shape can change till late in the design phase. The Bachelor in Delft consists of a lot of different courses and there isn’t much time to reflect on your design and let shape and detail interact. Longer design courses would definitely lead to better thought of products.’ What are your goals for the upcoming years? ‘First I would like to stay at TenW for a while. I’m learning a lot about management and although it’s not my favorite part of the job, this really helps me in becoming a better architect. Making technical details is also not my biggest talent, so that’s something which I’m working on very hard. Mies van der Rohe inspires me to make subtle details which add a lot of quality to a design. On the long-term I may return to BIG, work for another bigger firm or even start my own firm with friends. Before I do that however, I want to be able to call myself a skilled architect in all its disciplines.’ After thanking Iris for her inspiring stories and ending our videocall I think about the things she said about developing her weaker points. Now her impressive CV makes sense to me. Curiousness and an open attitude are the drive behind this young architect. Never satisfied with the skills she’s got, always searching for new challenges and most importantly not being ashamed of her shortcomings. Get out of your comfort zone and embrace the unknown. Just eat that cauliflower although you might be used to sweet potato.//
Right: Transformation by Ruination
‘Architecture is all about finding the right seed to plant.’
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Midnight Conversations I am in love with everything the world has got to offer me The way the wind swiftly moves through branches of trees On a chilly autumn day Creating artworks on forest floors for all to see I enjoy those little things which don’t really seem like much at first The way waves softly crash on beaches During a breezy summer night Singing quiet melodies for all who want to hear And a million other tiny happenings Too much to recall them all The way that sunlight shimmers and breaks through canopy Birds chirping, indicating the start of spring Sometimes we forget that time will pass But moments like these are everlasting The joy they bring The love we find along the way It will leave its mark until the end of days
// Isa
Heeling
ISA HEELING MEREL HUIZEN
The Monarch of the Glen, Sir Edwin Landseer (ca. 1851). Scottish National Gallery.
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chepos
LIANNE WILLEKERS KARIM JASPERS
ZAHA HADID
Zaha Hadid was one of the most famous architects of our time and was probably the most famous female architect ever. Her daring designs faced criticism at first, but now they have become an inspiration for many aspiring architects. Not many architects could do what she did, as each design was as innovative as the last. Her architectural style has always been very hard to describe accurately. She was not tied down by one, but instead took inspiration from many different styles. Even though her style is hard to define, it is immediately clear when a design is hers. Her impact on the world of architecture was great, but how great was it truly? And how did the world move on after her death in 2016?
Her life Zaha Hadid was born in Iraq and her inspiration and love for architecture was sparked when she visited the Sumerian cities, in southern Iraq. There, she saw the site of one of the world’s oldest civilizations and was inspired by how everything naturally flowed together, as she described it. She started studying mathematics in Beirut, Lebanon, after she finished school. She later described these years as the happiest years of her life. Only after
the rise of dictator Saddam Hussein did her family leave Iraq, and she moved to London. There, she enrolled in the Architectural Association School of Architecture, where it became clear very early on that architectural design came naturally to her. One of her teachers was famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who she said ‘ignited her ambitions’ and ‘taught her to trust her strangest intuitions’. After she had earned her degree she started working at his office, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, which was every bit as ambitious as she was. After working there for several years, she started her own London-based firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, together with her partner, Patrik Schumacher. Her unrealized plans and drawings drew much attention from the architectural community. She was praised for having new ideas and became a leader in theoretical design. Notebooks filled with ideas were published in magazines, but her designs remained unrealized. Only after a couple years, her first project was realized, the Vitra Fire Station, and it gained her international acclaim. For years she worked on ambitious projects, which ultimately got her the Pritzker Prize. She was the first and thus far only woman to ever earn the prize that is often described as architecture’s Nobel prize. Zaha Hadid was an innovator and helped shape the architectural world into what it is today. When she died, she left behind unfinished projects and a mark on the architectural world.
Inspiration and works A large part of her inspiration came from Russian avant-garde art. Tatlin, Lissitzky and especially
Chepos is the independent architecture magazine of study association Cheops of the Technical University Eindhoven. For every edition, Chepos and pantheon// publish one of each other’s articles.
Malevich, after whom she named her graduation project, influenced her work greatly. A result of her interest in Malevich in particular, led her to adopt a design tool that helped her create her greatest design: painting. Painting helped her see different perspectives as she was developing her designs. Malevich’s paintings gave her new ideas about how space could be distorted in such a way that it did not lose continuity. Using these paintings led to the idea of layering drawings over each other in order to create interesting shapes and views, that could later be literally translated into building designs. These paintings were a large part o f her time at
Zaha Hadid was an innovator and helped shape the architectural world into what it is today. architecture school, but also served as a large influence for her designs in her professional career. Her first major project, was the Vitra Fire Station. This is a fire station located on a corporate campus located in Germany. The composition of elements in the project is unconventional, with jagged edges and geometric forms that are not often seen. Fellow architects praised the project, while the firefighters who actually had to use the building were very critical and eventually moved out. This project marked the start of her reputation as an architect
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HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTER of unconventional ways, and one who paid no attention to critics who called her works impractical. Many great projects were made after this. These include an opera house in Guangzhou, China, for which she used nature as a large inspiration. She compared the building to ‘pebbles in a stream smoothed by erosion’. This unique shape reminds you of the relation between architecture and nature, and the way that the two are connected. Another brilliant piece of architecture was completed in 2013. The Heydar Aliyev Center in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, was designed as a cultural center with fluid lines and motions made to connect the building to the surrounding square. It is simply an excellent, original piece of architecture, that stands in stark contrast with the rest of the city. Her extravagant ideas and concepts became a reality, and with it she became one of the most famous
architects of all time. Proof of her fame and renown came when she won multiple awards for her work, especially the Pritzker prize. She was one of the few architects to ever win this prestigious prize.
Parametricism Of course, this all could not have been accomplished if it was not for her architecture firm, and her partner Patrik Schumacher. He played an instrumental role in her designs and even created the term parametricism to accurately describe the way they used a computer-based approach to their designs. Explaining what parametricism really entails and why it is so important that these two architects popularized the term, is not easy. The simplest way is to say that parametric design uses a system of variables to produce a certain geometric shape, which can be made
into any possible shape, as long as the variables allow it. This way of designing obviously allows architects to come up with outrageous shapes, and was therefore a revolutionary approach in architecture. Schumacher even argues that it will become known as the next great style after modernism. Parametricism is an entirely new style in and of itself, but will be different than other great architectural styles, in a way that is very remarkable. Mainstream architectural styles today are nothing more than modernism with a slight twist, according to Schumacher. Parametricism is completely new, with daring projects popping up all around the globe, many of them created by Zaha Hadid Architects. Their projects have proved that parametricism as a style is not just a distant dream, but it is a style that works and a style that is liked and appreciated by architecture lovers. These architects made this new architectural style big and have had, without a doubt, an enormous influence on the architectural community. To say that they invented this style is not correct, as there are many cases of architects using variables to determine the shape of a future building, but they did in fact popularize it immensely. Perhaps this is the reason why many people always say Zaha Hadid’s buildings cannot be categorized in one particular style. It is because she made her own.
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Images: 1. Black Square and Red Square (source: wikiart.org, edit: Karim Jaspers) 2. Vitra Fire Station (source: flickr.com, edit: Karim Jaspers 3. Heydar Aliyev Center (source: commons.wikimedia.org, edit: Karim Jaspers)
Sources: 1. Michael Kimmelman. “Zaha Hadid, Groundbreaking Architect, Dies at 65”. March 31, 2016. Nytimes.com 2. Unknown. “Zaha Hadid receives Royal Gold Medal”. February 4, 2016. Architecture.com 3. Patrik Schumacher. “Patrik Schumacher on Parametricism – ‘Let the style wars begin’”. May 6, 2010. Architectsjournal.co.uk
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BART CLAVER BART CLAVER
New York, New York New York through a 40mm lens
When starting work on this issue, the idea was to photograph people interacting with architecture around the faculty of Architecture and the Build Environment, the TU Delft Campus and the city itself. But with the TU Delft closing in March and the lockdown there never was a opportunity for this. So now stuck at my parents’ house I decided to dive into my archive of negatives and lock myself into my darkroom.
For this article, I have chosen four photographs from my 2018 trip to New York just after I graduated high school. Along with me I brought my trusty Olympus OM-20 and a single 40mm lens. With a city as vast and dynamic as New York and the 6 days I wouldn’t have time to switch between multiple lenses anyway; it was to be a race against the clock to see as much as possible. After a couple of long days in the darkroom over the last month or so I chose these 4 photo’s, not because they were the best, but because they were so quintessential New York.//
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WORDS EVA ZANDBERGEN EVA ZANDBERGEN MEREL HUIZEN LAYOUT
CHILDISH DREAMS II think think II was was about about six six years years old old when when II realised realised II wanted wanted to Well, II did to be be an an interior interior designer. designer. Well, did not not know know the the specific specific terms terms of of course, course, but but II was was certain certain of of one one thing: thing: II loved loved dreaming dreaming about about the the inside inside of of buildings buildings and and all all the the colours colours of of the the furniture, furniture, walls, walls, ceilings ceilings and and floors floors coming coming together together into into one one unified unified peace. peace. My My imagination imagination was was limitless limitless and and reached reached all all the the outer outer parts parts of of my my brain. brain. My My teacher teacher always always told told me me she she was was astounded astounded by by my my work, work, and and by by work work she she meant meant the the multiple multiple bundles bundles of of different different colours all coming together into one colourful colours all coming together into one colourful blob. blob. II mean, do not kid yourself, I was six, what did you expect? mean, do not kid yourself, I was six, what did you expect? But, But, II was was special, special, she she said. said. Special Special comes comes in in all all kinds kinds of of forms forms and and II was was the the kind kind that that knew knew how how to to combine combine colours colours and and people. people. When When creating creating something, something, there there always are multiple factors striving together always are multiple factors striving together to to make make one one whole. whole. This This whole whole can can only only be be achieved achieved ifif all all factors factors have have been been taken taken into into account. account. II was was great great at at that. that. II knew knew people people and and II knew knew colours colours and and therefore therefore knew knew how how to to create create and and combine combine colours colours to to the the specific specific needs needs of of aa person. person. This This skill skill gave gave me me aa nudge nudge into into my my future, future, helping me towards a career as an interior designer. Today, I am 28 years old. I am sitting at my desk, my hands wrapped around my head, digging through my hair, trying to find my inner child again. Trying to re-interact with that young colourful person full of outgoing ideas. I have a deadline coming up in four weeks where I have to show my ideas for the interior of a new theatre. This project demands more than only combining the right colours with the right furniture, which is why I come together twice a week with experts on the field of sound. A theatre needs to own up to certain qualifications when it comes to sound. You can bring out the best soundwaves by shaping an area into a specific form that optimizes its sound quality, which is also achieved by using unique sound absorbing materials in furniture, on the floor, on walls or in ceilings. This is where I come in. I try to mix science and colour to make the most beautiful pieces that match the spaces surrounding it.
Sadly, I have momentarily lost all faith in my capabilities and cannot seem to find my inner child. The colours in my head are now smushed into one big blob. Not the colourful one I created when I was six, but a grayish pallet in which all the different colours fade away into one. In my last meeting I showed the crew my ideas, going from the colour scheme I thought of to what kind of carpet I thought was best for the floors to which sound absorbing art pieces should hang from the ceiling. Each item had its own elegance to it and they were all fit to the best sound absorption qualities and colour combination. They, together with the in- and outside of the building would become one beautiful piece of art. Then came the arrow that went directly through my chest. They loved every single idea, but it was all too expensive. I was told I needed to change a few of my ideas and they gave a couple examples of what they had in mind. I looked at it and said: “No, you can’t, by changing these things all the different pieces won’t fit together anymore.”The combination of what they had in mind and the pieces I thought of did not go well together at all, not the shapes nor the colours accentuated each other the right way. The problem was that our deadline was right around the corner and that a decision soon had to be made. “Give me one week! I will try to find something else. Otherwise it won’t be one perfect piece, but an ununified bunch of colours and shapes placed together.” I told them that, but here I am, sitting all alone at my desk out of ideas. The fact remains that the most interesting and beautiful pieces always have the highest price tags on them. I have searched and searched for something in the same colour scheme, but can’t find anything remotely similar. I stand up and go for a walk. I really have to clear my mind.
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I live in London right next to the M&M store, one of the best places in the city. The store is filled with colours, bright and tasteful ones. Taking my walk, my eyes soon meet up with the huge M&M logo. As I get pulled into the store I am hit by an explosion of colours. I look around, a little bit of drool slowly leaving my face, and take it all in. The colours are arranged in a smart way, attracting the eye of the customer.
Something hits me. I see that the green M&M ’s are stationed next to the red and the orange next to the blue. This is interesting, when arranging a colour scheme I always look for colours that are similar to one another, but here they do quite the opposite. They are bold, and it works.
My mind cleared and a new idea came up. Art isn’t made by being careful, it is most interesting when having a bold stroke. A week had passed and my crew was patiently waiting in the meeting room. When walking into the room I could see that their faces were filled with doubt. But, I knew I had the perfect idea and after my speech they would feel the same. “Boldness” I told them. //
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TAMAR HENQUET BART CLAVER
CONCR3DE We all know success stories about people who have started companies in their dorm rooms (Facebook), or garages (Microsoft, Disney, Amazon). But what is the bouwko equivalent of these Silicon Valley hotbeds? A conversation with Eric Geboers, TU Delft built environment graduate, suggests that it might be the former Rotterdam Makers Space.
Together with Matteo Baldassari, Geboers founded Concr3de, a 3D printing company that focuses on highend details and finishes. The two met while working on separate projects in the Makers Space: “Matteo was mostly working with robots, making molds; very much the hyper body mentality. I had graduated with a project on salt and was making chairs out of it.” The two found each other in a shared interest for robotics and materials and their belief that a lot more could be done with 3D printing than was the case at the time: “We thought we could develop materials that would make better use of the technique”. Starting with a simple business plan they were able to collect a starting capital and buy a second-hand printer. Currently, 3D printing in the built environment is used for large-scale concrete elements, or as Geboers refers to it: “large sausage printers”. The entrepreneur points out that although interesting, they are difficult to exploit: “You compete with prefab, which can make things much quicker and more precise”. For new techniques it might also be more beneficial to work with customers who are willing to invest and experiment. “Most people who buy a house don’t want to experiment with it. They just want something that works”. After the initial tests, it quickly turned out that one of the main limitations of the technique was the printer itself. So in an attempt to reinvent the proverbial wheel, the duo decided to develop their own printer from scratch. Participating in green tech accelerators, they got the required funds and started hiring fellow engineers. “It’s surprising how far you get with googling. But to develop this kind of machines, you need engineers”.
Their efforts resulted in a successful business focusing on the sale of their printers and verified materials. Their printers can be classified in two segments: printers for production and printers for research. The latter of which is predominantly sold to research groups who want to develop their own materials, like ceramics, biomaterials, etc. “We also help people with it. If they want to develop a material with certain characteristics, we consult them.” Five years down the line and the partners managed to break even, whilst realising some interesting projects along the way; “I thought is was so cool to work together with Zaha Hadid. It’s the kind of company you look up to as a student, that now approaches you for advice”. Apart from Zaha Hadid, they also collaborated with a research group from Harvard to reconstruct some details from the destroyed Palmyra heritage site. “With the help of the original curator, who was later also executed by IS, they managed to replicate a part of the city in Rhino and we ended up printing the parts”. Although not their main market, Geboers is most enthusiastic about the technique’s architectonic freedom. It enables you to make any shape and offers new possibilities to make connections: “We’re used to thinking in planes. The technique allows you to think in a completely different way, which is difficult, but also super interesting”. Unfortunately, at the moment the technique’s architectural significance is limited by the printer’s size.
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However, this might change in the future: “I can’t say much about it yet, but we are planning on making a really big printer”. This larger printer is expected to have the same accuracy as their currents printers, which means that on a scale of a few metres it could make details of 0,2 millimetres, which greatly increases the printer’s field of application.
A seemingly bright future for Concr3de, however Geboers’ vision for the technique is more humbling. In a previous interview with Pantheon, Paul de Ruiter, lecturer at our faculty and head of operations of LAMA (Laboratory for Additive Manufacturing in Architecture), claimed that 3D printing was going to take over the world. Geboers responds: “Take over? No, I don’t think so. A 3D printer is just a tool, like a hammer or a saw, and like a hammer it is not suitable for each job. As the technique becomes cheaper and faster, people will opt for it more often, but never 100% of the cases. I wonder if even 10% of the cases”. “You also don’t say a hammer will take over the world?” - “Exactly”.//
All photographs come from Instragram @concr3de
MEREL HUIZEN MEREL HUIZEN
Biomimetic Design Lecturer of the Wellington School of Architecture, classifies these approaches towards biomimetic design in three levels.
Biomimicry, or ‘bio-imitating’ design, is a growing interest in the architectural world. Not only because Mother Nature can be a direct source of inspiration, but also for the sustainability of nature’s architecture.
Form
The building looks like the organism.
The first level is the organism level, which mimics a specific organism. This can be viewed from different perspectives, which are form, material, construction, Process Functiongo for the process and function. The same perspectives two other levels, the behaviour level and the ecosystem level as shown in the diagram below.
In fact, Mother Nature is far ahead of us when it comes to the optimisation of her designs. She has been Construction evolvingMaterial and adjusting herself since the beginning of life. This process of improvement lasting billions of years has eventually resulted in thoroughly developed and efficient architecture. The building is The building is
The building The building Whenin in athe creativity crisis, this diagram can help you find works functions like the inspiration and challenges you to try a new approach same way as the organism in a towards designing. So, if you ever feel uninspired or individual larger context. you feel like your creativity is letting you down? Try organism.
made from the made in the Nature’s designs, which cansame be animals, plants same or similar way as the or any other organism, could be very educational for material as the organism. contemporary designers. Through analysis, designers organism.
Biomimetic Design
The building looks like it was made by the organism.
made from the
SOURCES
TheZari, building The building M. P. (2007). Biomimetic approaches to architectural design for increased SB07 NZ Sustainable works in thesustainability. Thefunctions in the Building Conference (pp. 1-10). same way as the way that it Nature Aldersey-Williams, H. Towardssame biomimetic architecture. Mater 3, 277–279 (2004). environment of https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1119. would if made by the organism. the organism. 1
made in the
However, this can be done same with many same materials wayapproaches. the Maibritt Pedersen Zari (2007), organism Deputy Headwould and Senior the organism
Form
Behaviour
Organism
The building is made from The building similar materials looks like the the ecosystem is organism. made of.
Ecosystem
2
have built it.
builds with.
The building looks like an ecosystem the organism would live in.
biomimicry! //
could find out how and why a specific design of nature has evolved into the way we know it. Once the origin of certain characteristics is clear, one could try to implement The building is The building is this in their own creations.
Material
The building is assembled in the The building is the same way as made from the environment of same or similar the organism. material as the
Construction
Process
Function
The building The building is works in the able to function in The building The way building same isway asThe thebuilding the same the made in the works in the functions like the ecosystem environment of same way as the same way as the organism in a would. larger context. the organism. organism. individual
organism.
organism.
The building looks like it was made by the organism.
The building is made from the same materials the organism builds with.
The building is made in the same way the organism would have built it.
The building works in the same way as the environment of the organism.
The building functions in the same way that it would if made by the organism.
The building looks like an ecosystem the organism would live in.
The building is made from similar materials the ecosystem is made of.
The building is assembled in the same way as the environment of the organism.
The building works in the same way as the environment of the organism.
The building is able to function in the same way the ecosystem would.
Diagram ‘A Framework for the Application of Biomimicry’ (Zari, 2007), adapted. 1
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MELLE HAAK BART CLAVER
Het is eind april, wanneer ik dit artikel schrijf. De straten zijn nog leeg, de publieke gebouwen gesloten: iedereen heeft zich verplicht teruggetrokken in zijn eigen huis. Bijna elke vorm van samenzijn is verboden: Ik loop niet meer door de overvolle straten die ik zo goed ken, drink geen koffie meer met mensen die ik toevallig tegenkom in de bibliotheek, studeer niet meer in een faculteitsgebouw waarin het voelt alsof je een heel klein beetje samenwerkt met iedereen die er rondloopt en ook mijn biertjes drink ik niet meer in mijn favoriete café van de stad. Waar ‘thuis’ voor deze crisis een bejubelde plek was, ontdek ik nu hoe geïsoleerd het thuisbestaan kan zijn. En hoeveel meer ‘je ergens thuis voelen’ inhoudt, dan dat ene plekje waar je woont. Misschien omdat we nooit echt zijn geconfronteerd met ‘je niet thuis voelen’. De meeste van ons hebben het voorrecht om altijd onderdeel te zijn van een land, een stad en een cultuur: een gedeelde identiteit. De gedeelde identiteit die in een stad verstopt zit is nu in één klap verdwenen, ‘thuis’ is nu zonder de pleinen, de parken, de straten en het café en zonder de mensen met wie je die deelt. Het ‘thuis’ is ineens: alleen in een huis, het maakt voor mij de maatschappelijke waarde van architectuur nog voelbaarder.
Toch voel ik naast het fysiek gemis, ook de kracht van de situatie. We worden even teruggeworpen op de basis en eraan herinnerd dat die basis zo slecht nog niet is. Waar het een maand geleden soms kon voelen alsof ik geleefd werd van de ene verplichting naar de andere, voelt het op dit moment voor mij ineens alsof ik het roer stevig in handen heb. Nu het meeste om me heen is weggevallen, mag ik zelf bepalen hoe ik mijn uren besteed. Ik leef een paar weken intensief samen met het gezin waarin ik opgroeide, daarna een paar weken met mijn huisgenoten in Delft. Ik realiseer me hoe dierbaar die familiebanden en vriendschappen zijn, ook de vrienden die ik niet fysiek zie, voelen dichterbij dan ooit. Ik leef vlak rond mijn huis, herwaardeer de schoonheid van mijn eigen straat en krijg vriendelijke blikken van vreemden die hetzelfde lijken te voelen. Ik besluit de tijd die ik heb te gebruiken om een film te maken. Een film over deze tijd, om te bedenken wat deze tijd ons eigenlijk vertelt. Om vanuit het perspectief van een stad die stilstaat, te reflecteren op de ruimte. Geven de lege straten en pleinen ons nieuwe inzichten, is het een moment waarop we de kansen van de toekomst kunnen benoemen?
Ik ga via Zoom met vier architecten in gesprek, één van hen is Herman Hertzberger. Na hem een kwartier aan de lijn instructies gegeven te hebben lukt het om met elkaar in verbinding te komen. Hij slaakt een kreet van opluchting, wanneer ik op zijn computerscherm verschijn. Volgens Hertzberger legt de crisis de grens bloot van een menselijke verslaving aan groei: “We realiseren ons nu pas dat meer niet altijd werkt.” Met een glimlach op zijn gezicht geeft de achtentachtigjarige Herman Hertzberger toe, dat hij de stad nu ziet zoals hij er altijd van heeft gedroomd. Met trots laat hij me een zelfgemaakte foto zien van een gezin die aan een opklaptafel op hun eigen stoep aan het eten is. Als één van de vele voorbeelden vertelt Hertzberger: “Je ziet dat de mensen de straat gaan gebruiken.” Wanneer ik mijn eigen wandeling door Delft maak, zie ik hetzelfde. Nu we verplicht moeten afkicken van die verslaving aan groei, lijkt de stad ineens weer echt van de bewoners: economie en infrastructuur zijn naar de achtergrond gedrongen. De auto’s en trams snijden de pleinen en straten voor even niet aan stukken. De openbare ruimte is een verblijfsplek zonder consumptie. Mensen leven vlakbij hun huis en racen niet van de ene naar de andere plek. De ruimte die overblijft, is ruimte voor de mensen om in te leven.
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‘Het gaat niet om het gebouw zelf, het gaat om wat het bevatten kan.’
De plotselinge schoonheid lijkt velen van ons een beetje te overvallen. We wisten misschien ergens diep van binnen wel dat we liever wat meer rust namen, toch hebben we een virus nodig om dat te beseffen. We hebben een virus nodig om daar letterlijk de ruimte voor te krijgen in de stad. Onze steden worden ingericht op groei; de drijfveer van een stad is geld, meer en groter en dat dan zo snel mogelijk. Nu ben ik niet te naïef om toe te geven dat het lastig is om dit soort systemen te veranderen. Toch hebben we als architecten de taak om te denken in idealen, die idealen te verbeelden. Om beleidsmakers de verbeelde toekomst te kunnen aanreiken. “Je moet goed brood maken, geen taartjes”, roept Hertzberger met een glimlach wanneer ik hem vraag naar zijn idealen. We moeten op zoek naar nieuwe structuren, die sociale verbindingen nog beter maken. Nu ik erover nadenk zit er veel waarheid in die simpele vergelijking. We willen als architecten soms dolgraag taarten in de etalage zetten, grote theaters en imposante torens om je vingers bij af te likken, we gaan daarin misschien soms voorbij aan het bakken van brood. De opgave voor de architectuur ligt niet in details: niet in het aantal ramen of het soort baksteen. “Het gaat niet om het gebouw zelf, het gaat om wat het bevatten kan”, concludeert Herman. Terwijl ik zit opgesloten tussen de vier muren van mijn studentenkamertje, wordt dat voor mij meer dan ooit voelbaar. We verlangen naar ruimte waar we ons mee kunnen identificeren, plekken met een eigen karakter. Plekken die voelen als thuis en dienen als verlengde daarvan. Architect Jan de Jong omschreef een goed ontwerp ooit als architectuur die geen ruimte inneemt, maar juist ruimte laat ontstaan. Architectuur is een zoektocht naar het laten ontstaan van prettige ruimte. De oneindige mogelijkheden aan materialen en technieken leiden ons soms af van die taak. Maar in de kern ben je altijd bezig met het maken van ruimte.
Hertzberger houdt een afbeelding voor de camera van de galerij die hij ontwierp voor het studentencomplex op de Weesperstraat, “een veel bredere galerij dan de gebruikelijke 1 meter 15”. Herman wijst op de foto een groep bewoners aan die in de galerij aan het eten is, “de mensen gebruiken de straat”. Herman constateert met genoegen, dat zijn architectuur eigenlijk steeds actueler wordt: “Het ‘binnen gevoel’ van straten, het huiselijke gevoel van straten, wordt weer belangrijk.” De uitdaging voor architecten, is om opnieuw na te denken over de ruimte van de stad. Je bouwt als architect altijd in een bestaande context, binnen de bedachte structuur draag je een steentje bij aan de richting waarvan je denkt dat het de goede is. Toch herinnert de crisis ons er opnieuw aan, dat we als ontwerpers de kansen moeten blijven zien van een leeg papier. Een papier waarop alles nog kan ontstaan. Een tekening die ontstaat vanuit de basis: de stad in tijden van corona als laboratorium van dat nulpunt, de mensen in en rondom hun huis. Een leeg papier waarop het gaat om basisbehoeften van mensen, de strepen van je potlood, de structuren van de toekomst. Denkend vanuit die basis zijn er veel kansen. De stad is continu aan het innoveren en wordt steeds complexer. Gebouwen worden steeds hoger en groter. Het openbaar vervoer moet beter en sneller, want we moeten grotere afstanden overbruggen. Gebouwen moeten slimmer en technischer, er zijn meer installaties nodig voor een duurzame toekomst. Innovatie in een stad is goed, maar als we nou beginnen bij het begin: op ons leeg papier. Als we ons afvragen waarom we die afstanden in de eerste plaats eigenlijk willen overbruggen en waarom we de installaties ook alweer nodig hebben. Je blijven afvragen waarom we de dingen doen zoals we ze doen, lijkt een uitgangspunt voor het maken van goed brood. We zullen ons op die manier moeten bezighouden met de ruimte van de stad.
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Volgens Herman Hertzberger moeten we op zoek naar een hogere dichtheid van wonen: “Juist sociale cohesie ontstaat natuurlijk sterker, wanneer je in een grotere dichtheid zit”. De oplossing om te verdichten zit volgens Hertzberger absoluut niet in het bouwen van hoge torens: “Moet je je voorstellen dat je met een gezin op de 79e verdieping zit, dan kun je echt geen kant uit.” Hertzberger wijst me erop dat ook de afstanden tussen torens vaak zo groot is, dat het weinig invloed heeft op de dichtheid. Nathalie de Vries, medeoprichter van bureau MVRDV, drukt me in een later gesprek op het hart dat we niet moeten stoppen met het maken van hoge torens. “De opgave is, om ook in hoge gebouwen collectieve buitenruimtes te maken: benut de daken, maak collectieve lagen.” Volgens Nathalie bieden de torens ook ruimtelijke kansen: “Al die mensen die in grote gebouwen wonen, hoeven niet allemaal in hun autootje of in een trein de stad in te gaan.” Het is een oplossing voor de ruimte die volgens Nathalie voor een veel te groot deel in beslag wordt genomen door de auto.
Er is niet één formule voor het bakken van goed brood. Het zijn niet dezelfde ingrediënten die steeds werken voor een plek. Goed brood is je bezighouden met het laten ontstaan van ruimte, in elke situatie. Verblijfsplekken waar mensen zich prettig in voelen. De coronacrisis herinnert ons aan de belangrijke rol die we als architecten hebben om die plekken te ontwerpen. Om nieuwe structuren te bedenken waarin mensen met elkaar samenleven. Hertzberger drukt me op het hart dat ik in een generatie zit, die de dingen weer helemaal fris zal moeten bekijken: “Je zal je moeten afvragen, wat is de zin van architectuur en wat kan ik ermee? Je zit precies op het goeie moment om te kijken of je, ja ik durf het bijna niet te zeggen.., maar een nieuwe wereld tegemoet kan gaan.” Een nieuwe wereld. Die natuurlijk straks weer door raast, we zoomen allemaal weer in op onze eigen taken en vallen waarschijnlijk voor een groot deel terug in oude patronen. Toch moeten we het gevoel van deze tijd goed bewaren. Om te zien hoeveel moois er kan ontstaan vanuit eenvoud.//
Werken bij Vanschagen Architecten We hebben inspirerend en leerzaam werk voor studenten die bij ons willen komen werken of een stage lopen. Mocht je interesse hebben mail dan naar: kw@vanschagenarchitecten.nl Bellen kan ook: 010 413 65 98 VANSCHAGEN ARCHITECTEN Zomerhofstraat 86 3032 CM Rotterdam www.vanschagenarchitecten.nl
YOUR AD HERE? CONTACT US PANTHEON@STYLOS.NL
RAF VAN OOSTERHOUT & LIZ HOOGEVEEN BART CLAVER
ONDER ÉÉN DAK Een dak boven je hoofd biedt beschutting en zekerheid. Het is een van de eerste levensbehoeften van de mens en het dak is daarom een essentieel element van een gebouw. Normaal gesproken overkoepelt een dak de private ruimte, maar wat gebeurt er als het dak wordt doorgetrokken boven de publieke ruimte? We zoomen in op het veelzijdige Brazilië en ontdekken dat dit principe meer dan eens voorkomt. Zowel bij het Rio Art Museum in Rio de Janeiro als bij de vernacular architecture van het Amazonegebied. We storten ons op beide en onderzoeken de gedachte achter deze imposante daken. Het artikel begint bij de eerste kennismaking met het Rio Art Museum tijdens de Grote Reis van 2019 en wordt vervolgens afgewisseld met flitsen van de werkzaamheden aan de zogehete Maloca, een bouwwerk uit het Amazonegebied.
We kunnen niet naar binnen. Een agent vertelt ons met wilde handgebaren dat de stroom is uitgevallen en het museum vandaag niet meer toegankelijk zal zijn. Mijn opgespaarde aandacht richt zich dan maar op de buitenkant van het Rio Art Museum. Links zie ik een modern gebouw met veel glas en witte elementen. De transparantie en lichtvoetigheid betrekken de omliggende publieke ruimte bij het gebouw. Enkele meters daarnaast staat een architectonische tegenhanger van gelijke grootte. Een blok monumentale massa met classicistische ornamenten torent boven me uit en zet me met beide benen terug op de grijze stoeptegels. De koloniale architectuur uit het begin van de 20ste eeuw werpt me in sferen van vervlogen tijden. Het getik van paardenhoeven dringt zich op in mijn achterhoofd. Zo’n 4000 kilometer verderop weerklinkt het slaan van palen in de regenwouden van het Amazonegebied. Boomstammen en riet worden verbonden en beklommen. Palmbladeren worden verweven aan latten die de basis van het bouwwerk
vormen. Er is meer materiaal nodig. Men zoekt in de omgeving en draagt het naar de locatie.
‘Vet dak.’ De opmerking van reisgenoot Philip trekt me terug in het heden. Ik volg zijn wijzende vinger en zie nu wat me net nog niet opviel. Boven de ruimte tussen de twee tegenpolen is een golvend oppervlak te zien. Ik doe een paar stappen naar achteren en met elke stap zie ik meer van het witte kleed, dat met behulp van dunne pilaren boven delen van de twee gebouwen zweeft. Het dak verbindt de twee gebouwen met elkaar; het moderne met het monumentale, het heden met het verleden. De schoonheid zit hem niet zozeer in de vorm, die wanhopig de golven in de nabijgelegen Baai van Guanabara probeert na te bootsen, als wel in de symboliek. Oud en nieuw krijgen een dak boven hun hoofd, worden gedomesticeerd en tegelijkertijd beschermd tegen gepolariseerde kritieken over goed of fout, het één of het ander. Het dak als de armen van de sussende moeder waarin de ruziënde broer en zus tot stilte worden gemaand, vrede sluiten en hun onvoorwaardelijke liefde aan de buitenwereld laten zien. Waar bij het Rio Art Museum de geschiedenis en toekomst worden samengebracht, komen bij de Maloca ook twee aspecten bij elkaar. Het verzamelde materiaal wordt verwerkt tot een groots bouwwerk van wel 50 meter lang. Men klimt steeds hoger de boomstammen in terwijl aanwijzingen door het regenwoud echoën. De basis is op dit moment al gelegd; vier centrale palen torenen boven de andere uit. Over enkele maanden zullen de mensen hier feestvieren en activiteiten houden. Op dit moment hebben de bouwers echter andere dingen aan hun hoofd. Het bouwwerk moet namelijk op tijd klaar zijn zodat optimaal gebruik kan worden gemaakt van het invallende zonlicht. Er zullen verschillende rituelen plaatsvinden, die met de tijd van het jaar verschuiven van
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het noorden naar het zuiden. Elke keer moet de zon precies dat deel van het bouwwerk belichten waar het ritueel wordt gehouden. Zo wordt het bouwwerk niet alleen gebruikt voor feestelijke activiteiten, maar ook voor gevoelige, religieuze gebeurtenissen. Feest en religie worden verbonden.
Een visioen schiet door mijn hoofd. Meer Braziliaanse gebouwen, grotere daken, collectiviteit in een publieke ruimte die aanvoelt als woonkamer. Ambigue ruimte als compromis tussen binnen en buiten. Het is het pad dat we in willen slaan, maar nog geen naam hebben gegeven. Florerende dakarchitectuur, of nee, een nieuwe stroming. Roofication is bezig aan een opmars. Het enorme dak van de Maloca werkt als overkoepeling voor alles wat je maar kan bedenken: van wonen tot werken, van opgroeien tot oud worden. Men werkt niet alleen samen aan het bouwen, maar verblijft het grootste deel van de tijd onder hetzelfde dak. En dat met maar liefst tientallen tot honderd personen. Om het centrale deel heen zijn woon- en werkruimtes gesitueerd. Slaapruimtes bevinden zich aan de randen van het gebouw. Verschillende functies worden niet ondergebracht in meerdere bouwwerken, maar juist bij elkaar. Zo wordt het gevoel van saamhorigheid en gemeenschap versterkt
Een dak boven je hoofd. Roofication verbindt, inspireert en beschermt gebouwen tegen weersinvloeden. Geborgenheid en esthetiek staan hoog in het vaandel. Begroeide daken die zich expressief in het omringende landschap voegen. Gebouwen, publieke ruimtes, kronkelende spaceframes, ritmische kolommenvelden: allemaal onder één dak. De Maloca is een langwerpige woning gebouwd door de Yucunas en Barasana, inheemse bevolkingsgroepen in het Amazonegebied van Brazilië. Door gebruik te maken van slimme bouwtechnieken en klimaataspecten zijn zij in staat een dak boven hun hoofd te bouwen, met alleen de materialen die in hun omgeving aanwezig zijn. Daarbij worden allerlei functies ondergebracht in één gebouw. Hun vernacular architecture maakt op deze manier gebruik van een overkoepelend dak op de meest buitengewone manier.
In dit artikel is met behulp van de ontmoeting met een modern Braziliaans gebouw en Braziliaanse vernacular architecture uit het verleden een nieuwe stroming geïntroduceerd. Roofication geeft het antwoord op de problemen in de huidige maatschappij. De stroming speelt in op de wens van steden en bewoners om unanieme publieke ruimtes te veranderen in plekken waar collectiviteit wordt gestimuleerd. De stad als woonkamer is het streven. Ook bieden daken bescherming tegen weersinvloeden die door de klimaatverandering steeds onstuimiger en onvoorspelbaarder worden. Naast de situatie ónder het dak, ligt veel potentie in de invulling óp het dak. Door begroeiing op de daken te realiseren, komt een nieuw ecosysteem tot stand. Zo ontstaan door Roofication twee werelden: de stad als woonkamer onder het dak en als natuurgebied daarboven. //
SOURCES Arjun, C.M. (2013). Amazonian Vernacular Architecture . Geraadpleegd op 25 maart 2020, van: https://www.slideshare.net/ arjuncmslide/amazonian-vernacular-architecture 2 Brant, J. (2019). Brazilian Houses: 9 Examples of Residential Vernacular Architecture. Geraadpleegd op 25 maart 2020, van: https://www.archdaily.com/909366/brazilian-houses-9-examplesof-residential-vernacular-architecture 3 Corry, S. (1985). Forest Indians of South America. Survival International News, No. 9, p. 5. 4 Hybel, J. (2017, 26 september). MAR – Rio Art Museum. Geraadpleegd op 28 april 2020, van https://arcspace.com/feature/ mar-rio-art-museum/ 5 Oliver, P. (1997). Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World: Cultures and habitats Volume 3. Cambridge, Engeland: Cambridge University Press. 1
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THE ULTIMATE SOFTWARE FROM SKETCH TO BIM SKETCH, DRAW, AND MODEL IN A FULLY INTEGRATED BIM WORKFLOW. BIM with Vectorworks on bim.vectorworks.nl Free student license on student.myvectorworks.net I M A G E : S COT T S P O R T S S A H E A D Q UA R T E R S © I T T E N + B R E C H B Ü H L A G
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DETAIL versus ABSTRACTION Ocularcentrism, “a perceptual bias ranking vision over other senses in Western cultures”1, is something we’re thoroughly familiar with in the built environment. Most of the work we do is focused on visualising; a minor role is reserved for the acoustics of a space, the touch of materials is often neglected, and lastly the smell of a design is never discussed. A seemingly large field left to discover. However, the above list still limits itself to the exteroceptive senses. There’s much more... Before you turn the page, thinking I’m going to bring up the sixth sense and the possible haunting of your final designs by spirits, I would like to introduce you to the ‘proprioceptive senses’. As it turns out even a sixth sense isn’t cutting it, and we probably have about seventeen. Proprioceptive senses are our internal senses that help our body map the position and feelings of our body parts. You can thank your proprioceptive senses for that feeling of heaviness after a good workout. A special and peculiar function of the proprioceptive neurons is that of “mirroring”. Mirroring cells are neurons, which are not only activated when the organism itself acts, but also when it sees another organism make a movement. Thus, if we see someone walking past, our mirroring neurons fire within the muscles that would be active when making these movements ourselves. We literally “mirror” the other person’s movement. Mirroring mechanisms also play a large role in the perception and understanding of another’s emotions. By simulating the facial expressions of others, we self-generate that same emotion. Mirroring mechanisms are thus at the base of our ability to feel empathy. The ability to mirror does not stop with other humans, or even other living organisms, but weirdly enough also happens with inanimate objects. One fMRI study in 2008 presented subjects with four instances of touch: someone touching another person’s arm, someone touching a chair, a palm branch touching an arm, and a palm branch touching a chair.2 Not surprisingly the subjects’ brains simulated the sensation of being touched in the first three instances. However, interestingly, the same thing happened in the fourth instance when two inanimate objects touched each other, meaning that animate or
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, USA. Designed by Frank Gehry.3
TAMAR HENQUET MEREL HUIZEN
inanimate, the sign of any touch evokes activation of the neural network. This is where it becomes interesting for the built environment, as “architecture, of course, is the art of composing materials and forms that touch one another”2. These studies on mirroring show that our experience of a space is not limited to sight, acoustics, smell, touch, and taste - for instance, if you happen to wander into the original Charlie and the Chocolate factory, where wallpaper tasted of raspberry - but that it is actually an embodied experience. An experience that is strongest with instances of ‘touching’ materials, which is traditionally referred to as ‘detailing’. Empathy in architecture or embodied experience are elements that were intuitively already applied long before they could be proven with MRI scans. Around 1900, German architectural discussion was dominated by Einfühlung or “empathy” theory. From this theory also originated the well-known concepts Formgefühl (feeling-for-form) and Raumgefühl (feeling-for-space). Einfühlung, feeling-into-a-space, formed an important element in the development of German modernism and some argue that it was one of the aesthetic underpinnings of the Weimar Bauhaus.2 The importance of the detail for our perception of a space might question the focus of our education on the abstract design ‘concept’. As architect Edward R. Ford, advocate of the architectural detail, puts it: “If architecture has its tools for ‘abstraction’, such as its geometries, rhythms, and proportions, it also had its tools of ‘animation’, not the least of which is the detail’s ‘tactile, sculptural, animated intrusion into the rigid, abstract, and geometric building’”2. Has the abstract concept that aims to ‘intellectually’ justify design decisions, not gained too much ground on its antagonist detail, which helps us as humans to feelingly, and perhaps emotionally, perceive a space? // SOURCES Oxford Reference, (n.d.). Ocularcentrism. Retrieved from https://w w w.ox fordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100245338 2 Mallgrave, H.F. (2018). From Object to Experience. The New Culture of Architectural Design. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. 1
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The Shard, London, United Kingdom. Designed by Renzo Piano. 4, 5
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Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, USA. Designed by Frank Gehry.6, 7
SOURCES Highsmith, C.M. (n.d.) Walt Disney Concert Hall [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.rawpixel.com/image/2212449/waltdisney-center-concert-hall 4 Piano. R. (n.d.) The Shard [Sketch]. Retrieved from https://www. dezeen.com/2012/05/18/interview-renzo-piano-on-the-shard/ 6 Gehry. F. (n.d.) Walt Disney Concert Hall [Sketch] Retrieved from http://wdch10.laphil.com/wdch/process.html 3
Cluet. M. (2017) The Shard [Photograph] Retrieved from https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Shard_in_March_2017_ (cropped).jpg 7 Tuxsyo. (2013) Walt Disney Concert Hall [Photograph] Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walt_Disney_ Concert_Hall_2013.jpg 5
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Team SUM
Danny: From the Netherlands. Master of Architecture since September 2019. Discipline: Communication & Branding.
Adriano: From Chili. Master of Architecture & Engineering since August 2019. Discipline: Architecture. Team expert on solar integration & circularity.
“We are not fixing what is broken; we need to relearn how to live” In the last edition about Abstraction I interviewed Thomas Rau about circularity in the architectural world. He stated that students can ‘forget everything they learnt’ when they would show up at his architectural firm. I wanted to get another perspective on this subject and decided to interview two members of the SUM team. They are going to participate in the Solar Decathlon 2022, during which they will create a circular design. How will they do this and what is their opinion on circularity?
You started with six people during the summer, and now you are growing by the day. Consisting of 42 committee members today, what does this start-up phase look like? Danny: “In September we started with the concept. We wanted to make clear our vision on this competition. At the moment, we are focusing on brainstorming and creating the first drawings. We are doing a lot of research and case studies as well. We have a lot of meetings in which we discuss this research of all the disciplines. We are not only learning what we want to design, but also how to work together as a team. Our team consists of 42 people with 15 different nationalities and backgrounds. We all have our own experiences. By combining all those experiences, we want to come up with the best plan possible.” Working together as a team must be hard with so many people. You consist of disciplines that differ from Communication & Branding to Engineering and Partners & Budget. How do you keep those disciplines in balance? Danny: “I think integrating these disciplines will be one of the greatest challenges. It is even more difficult since we are fully working online due to the corona crisis. Communication is key, in my opinion. This is quite a challenge because we want to create
a solution not only for the competition, but for the challenges we are facing today and in the future. The first major challenge is that we will have to create a climate-neutral economy by 2050, according to the Paris agreement. The other challenge we face is the population growth. We need to build a million new houses before 2030. That is why we looked for an area in the Netherlands with those two challenges in mind.” Adriano: “Yes, our main goal is to find the biggest challenges and to find the most sustainable solutions for the maximum amount of cases possible.” “We definitely don’t want to find the most comfortable building example for us to develop; we want to find the most adaptable solution in order to establish the biggest impact in the Netherlands. ” So that is the reason you started looking at tenement flats in The Hague. Adriano: “Exactly. It is also important to realize that we are not building something new. All the buildings we are looking at are post-war buildings and we are trying to find a way to renovate them. When you create a new building, you waste a lot of energy in the process. When you renovate efficiently by using the existing embodied energy of the materials, you are adding less carbon emissions to the process of design, manufacturing, transportation and construction.”
LIZ HOOGEVEEN MEREL HUIZEN
“We want to create a whole movement so we can shift towards a better economy for our world.”
It sounds to me like you have a lot of things to think through. What are the parts of the competition you are looking forward to the most? Danny: “For me it is building the prototype, scale 1:1. We will take out a fragment of the building and put it on the site. First, we will build it in the Netherlands, and then shift it to Wuppertal (where the competition takes place) and build it again. That will be really challenging but fun, I think.” Adriano: “Creating a real solution, a product. We need to make a product that can serve the market; that is modular, flexible and easy to assemble. Hopefully, we can create guidelines for other companies as well.”
components. We want to diminish the CO2 footprint. By doing that, we create a material passport.” Danny: “Normally, the material passports are only available for the developer or architect, but we want to share it with the residents. By sharing it, they learn and know what their walls are made of and they will become more conscious about the circular economy. We want to create a whole movement so we can shift towards a circular economy for our world.” The idea of a material passport comes from architect Thomas Rau, who I interviewed in the last edition. It was a special interview to me, partly because of his radical statements. In one of them he considers that sustainability has nothing to do with circularity and that sustainability only consists of ‘repairing the system’. What is your opinion on that? Adriano: “I understand what he says. My opinion is that sustainability is more about adaptability instead of repairing. We believe that circularity contributes to a more sustainable future. Materials are the essence. The buildings that we are looking at were built a long time ago, and in that time they were okay for their standards. But today we are more aware and conscious about our relationship with the Earth and we know that the way that we managed our built environment has been detrimental for a long time. Therefore, we need to adapt.” Danny: “Indeed, we are not fixing what is broken; we need to relearn how to live.”
That would be beautiful. As you mentioned, a huge aspect of this competition is reducing energy, but also circularity plays a considerable role. How do you think the competition can be renewing, when speaking about circularity? Adriano: “The competition is expanding towards the urban aspect. This adds a different perspective on circularity; it includes transportation and other approaches that go beyond the building. We want to educate the residents as well.” And how do you think you can educate the residents about circularity? Adriano: “Now, we are evaluating all the parameters and existing conditions of the materials and the
by
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874,000 CO2/m2
1,000,000
current plan
new homes
TENEMENT FLATS label <C
team sum
New Construction
current plan team sum
Renovation + Extension
-50% CO2
Demolition
Renovation
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Renovation 0
80-120 Figure Material & Energy Global Warming potential
New Construction
Image 1: Infographic SUM
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Extension
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Image 2: Team SUM
“We have one planet, and it is our responsibility to approach the building environment in the most efficient way.” That is another beautiful thought, I think. Since this edition of pantheon// focuses on the Detail, what is your opinion about the detail being a part of a design? Danny: “There are two different types of details. The first one is when you base your concept on a certain detail. For example, if your goal is to design and develop a modular building based on a wooden connection, the detail plays a major part in the design. That is different from a detail that is added to an already existing concept.” Adriano: “Indeed, then the details bring life to the concept. I think that good detailing adds quality to the end product.” And what do you think about your education? Rau stated that the universities completely fall behind if you look at circularity. Do you agree on this? Adriano: “In most universities, circularity is a new thing. They give you the guidelines, but in the end you can choose how to design. However, we will have to shift from a linear economy towards a circular one. It should be compulsory at some point, to design with circularity in mind.” Danny: “I think our faculty is doing a great job in circularity; we are shifting towards it. But if you look at the design projects, it is not a compulsory part to create a material passport and you get the freedom as a student to choose a topic you prefer. I think it is great to have this freedom, but it would be a good idea to get a grade for topics such as circularity or solar integration somewhere during your education. That would be the perfect balance.”
And that is all we are looking for in the end, a perfect balance. Adriano: “Yes. While doing that, I believe all students must think and act with sustainability in mind. We have one planet, and it is our responsibility to approach the built environment in the most efficient way.” Danny: “Indeed. And if you think you want to contribute and make that step to a more sustainable world, the Solar Decathlon Europe 2022 Competition is a great opportunity for you. By designing and developing the building in real life you learn so much. Together we will search for solutions that contribute to a positive urban and social living environment; we will create future-proof communities that are based on sustainable habits. Join our Symbiotic Urban Movement!” //
STUDIO DRIFT
‘Every light consists of the seeds of a single dandelion flower glowed to a led ligt.’
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Shop class as
TAMAR HENQUET MEREL HUIZEN
Soulcraft Currently, we live in a knowledge economy in which most of the work we perform is abstract and fragmented. Information and knowledge have become core values and manual labor is often seen as lesser than intellectual labor. Even as an architecture student, a study that is concerned with the material world, I spend most of my time focusing on abstract concepts.
‘Why is craftsmanship still relevant?’, we might wonder while tinkering away at our larger than life computer renderings. Currently, we spend about 6,5 hours a day within the virtual world, be it for school, work, leisure or communication. However, as we are not yet able to upload ourselves to the cloud, we’re very much still inhabitants of the material world. But in contrast to the craftsman, who is a conscious part of this world through manual labor, we are slowly losing our grasp on it. Let me try to answer the above question through James Gibson’s concept of affordances. Gibson argues that we experience the objects of our environment not as neutral entities, which we simply name and categorize but that they carry inherent possibilities, called affordances.1 This means that our perception of the environment is not merely through input from the external senses. It is rather a system of action-oriented perception; meaning we map our environment in terms of action or potential actions. The ability to anticipate these actions comes from previous bodily experience in the form of the acquisition or expansion of our sensorimotor skills, or in simpler words: mastering a movement or tool. This can be illustrated by comparing our dynamic field, the collection of potential actions regarding movement, to that of a free climber: mountain climbers who may only use equipment for protection against falling and not to assist progress. The dynamic field of a regular person is more limited than that of a free climber. When confronted with a hallway, we sense the potential action of moving forward. Similarly, when confronted with stairs, we perceive it as a possible route upwards. However, when confronted with a solid rock, we will perceive it as a blockage and our premotor cortex will not fire in preparation of ascension. In contrast, a free climber, through his motor skills and previous experience, will sense a route and therefore his field of potential action is wider than ours.
This comparison can also be applied to the modern human and the craftsman. The craftsman, through their motor skills and previous experience, has a larger field of potential manual action than the average modern person. Their cognition of tools and material - or in more general terms; the physical world - thus carries more information. The effects of our learned helplessness, a lack of manual and technical knowledge, goes further than not being able to fix our own sink when it’s leaking; we also understand it less as an entity. When expanding the example of the sink to the entire physical world, it portrays an environment, which is confusing if not hostile. The loss of connection to the material world could spark one of two reactions; either we retract even more into seemingly virtual perfection, or we literally try to tackle it hands-on. Interested in the empowering effect of working with one’s hands, I went into conversation with three workshops that have craftsmanship as a main core value: the Openbare Werkplaats Amsterdam, the Stadswerkplaats Utrecht, and the ‘klusclub’ of a group of students from TU Delft. Each conversation hacked away at an upbringing that had always focused on getting me into higher ‘knowledge’ education. Empowerment formed the main motive for the Stadswerkplaats Utrecht to come about. Stadswerkplaats Utrecht originated in a neighbourhood where a lot of renovations were taking place. The architects involved felt like the inhabitants should be able to make their own adaptations and started an open workshop. The municipality supported the initiative by paying the workshop’s rent. A volunteer recalls: “I think, the municipality thought they wanted to stimulate that people learned to build things and make things themselves”. Fast-forward 35 years: the workshop is still going strong and largely run by volunteers. However, craftsmanship entails more than manual competence. In contrast to the online world, it requires concentration and patience. The virtual world is a playground of autonomy, choice and freedom, but with its quick visual changes, it is one of distraction rather than contemplation. Philosopher Albert Borgmann argues that some things have a life and dignity of their own, e.g. works of art, music, and sacred places. He
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calls “skilled and active human engagement” with such things focal practices.2 The strength of the virtual world lies in the suggestion that the pleasure of things and practices can be removed from their context and made available though a technical device. However, such readily availability of a thing destroys its commanding presence. The need for concentration is also mentioned in a recent interview I conducted at the Openbare Werkplaats Amsterdam. One of the local craftsmen recounts the relief and focus participants of their workshops experience: “The tempo is very high everywhere and with craftsmanship that isn’t possible. [...] You have to take back a couple of gears, because this work requires concentration, peace of mind and a steady pace.” In addition, participants often express their surprise that they feel exhausted at the end of a three-hour workshop. The popularity of these courses in public workshops throughout the Netherlands shows the need for focal practices that require an engaging mix of work and pleasure. This need is also present in a generation that grew up with the virtual world as becomes clear in a conversation with Louise Houweling, an industrial design student at TU Delft. Together with ten fellow students she started a ‘klusclub’ at the Schiehallen in Delft. The idea started from a mutual desire to work more with one’s hands. Houweling ponders: “It has to be that there’s a large demand for something like this in Delft, because people are creative and want to make and build things.” I’m guessing she’s right. The sports and culture centre X of TU Delft organizes 10 crafts courses like pottery and screen-printing. Notoriously, most of these classes are booked full within the first five minutes of opening. It seems like we, as future engineers, long for working with our hands. Makers Space Delft, anyone? //
SOURCES Mallgrave, H.F. (2018). From Object to Experience. The New Culture of Architectural Design. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. 2 Crawford, M.B. (2009). Shop Class as Soulcraft. An inquiry into the value of work. The Penguin Press. 1
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BART CLAVER BART CLAVER
#GET INSPIRED #TO READ
#TO WATCH
#MORE TO WATCH
THINKING ARCHITECTURE Peter Zumthor (1999)
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE Céline Sciamma (2019)
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY ANTHONY MINGHELLA (1999)
In a series of essay’s famous architect Peter Zumthor goes into dept about his design philosophy. He talks not only about form and construction but also the sensuous connection between architecture and life; and how good design impacts the senses.
Portrait of a lady on fire was nominated for the Palme d’Or and winner of the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival last spring. Set in France in the late 18th century, the film tells the story of a forbidden affair between an aristocrat and a painter commissioned to paint her portrait. It is intricately layered coded an gilded with symbolism just like the paintings by the Old Masters.//
With a star studded cast, that together has a combined five Oscars and another thirtheen nominations. The talented mr. Ripley will take you on a journey to sunny Italy with Tom Ripely (Matt Damon) on an assigment to retrieve the rich and spoiled playboy Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), but when things go sideways Tom is forced to live a life that is not his.
The book is beautifully written in a way that feels like Zumthor is sitting across from you with a cup of coffee in a small café and underscored with photographs. This book will change your outlook on design.//
Bookcover of ‘Thinking Architecture’
The setting of Italy in the 1950’s with its sun, jazz and riviera style clothing makes you nostalgic for a place and a time that you haven’t even lived in. Your next holiday destination will probably be Rome or Florence; and I can’t say I blame you.//
Film poster of ‘Portrait of a lady on fire’
Film poster of ‘The talented mr. Ripley’
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@jonnymarlow
@earthling_ink
@urbandesign.lab
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@bk4_grondslagen4
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HUMANS OF QUARANTINE The Corona virus resulted in the closure of our beloved faculty. BK City turned silent, students and employees left and the continuous buzz in the model workshop faded away. Graduation students are probably suffering the most. They expected their last year to be completely different. The women below are somewhat lucky though, living in the same student house while working diligently on their graduation projects. What is it like to graduate in quarantine?
Kyra van den Berg - Msc graduation student, Track: Management in the Built Environment (MBE) The timing of this 1.5 meter society we live in matched rather well with my graduation project. Just before the national measures, on the 12th of March, I finished the data collection for my research and conducted a final discussion group with residents. Just in time, lucky me! Although Corona barely impacts my graduation from the practical perspective, emotionally it definitely does. Normally, I am switching my work environment a lot; some days in the library, some days at the faculty and some days at the office. Social activities take a huge hit as well. Since the outbreak of Corona I am obliged to work at home and life looks totally different. Every day feels the same and there are less opportunities to share my thoughts with others. Where I normally bump into fellow students or colleagues at the coffee machine, I am now in my room all the time and graduation really has become a solo project. That said, I live in a student house, which makes this period way more fun! Following the ideology “If we cannot go to the outside world, we bring the outside world in here!”, we created a barbershop, Zumba classes, an outdoor gym (including fanatic instructors), a library and even a print shop. Together we make the best of it and give mental support when needed. Taken all things together, I would say corona “messed-up” the graduation process a bit, but at least it is a graduation process to remember. It is a dualistic, positive, negative, moving, non-moving, socially, solo time, which is special in many ways.//
Marloes Bier – MSc graduation student, Track: Architecture In September I started my graduation in the chair of Heritage&Architecture. I am making a design for a library in a 19th century Neogothical church. The first part of my graduation I always worked at BK City, together with other people from my graduation studio. The 13th of March we were sent away from the faculty. Because of Corona we couldn’t work there anymore. For me that was quite a shock, but I took all my stuff with me and started working from home. At first this wasn’t nice. I was used to be able to chat and discuss about my design, but now I had to decide all things on my own. After a month, two of the girls of my studio and me started working together on Skype. Every weekday we meet at 9 in the morning, chat for a bit and then we put ourselves on mute. The whole day we are on Skype, so when someone has a question, she can just ask right away. This “online atelier” really helps me through my graduation and it is also very fun at times! Also my house has never been as important for me as it is now. I live with fourteen and we do a lot together nowadays. Two of my roommates are also in their graduation and we help each other through the tough moments. Coincidentally our graduation schemes are quite similar, if everting works out fine we will have our graduation presentations within two weeks of each other. I’ve just passed my P4. For years I’ve wanted to make an epic final model for my graduation, so I am now transforming the spare room in my student house into a mini model workshop. With the help of some of my roommates I am sure the model is going to be awesome!//
RAF VAN OOSTERHOUT
ARCHITECTURE IN 5 SECONDS In their book Film in 5 seconds Matteo Civaschi and Gianmarco Milesi compress the storylines of over 150 films into a few pictograms, challenging their readers to guess the titles in 5 seconds. Architecture is a whole other field of work than film, but at the same time it has got a lot in common. Telling a certain story plays an important role in both disciplines. Below you can find abstracted details of one installation and two buildings. Do you know which details are depicted? The answers can be found on the next page.//
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WHAT: ROZET, ARNHEM WHO: Neutelings Riedijk WHEN: 2013
WHAT: SEAGRAM BUILDING
WHO: MIES VAN DER ROHE
WHEN: 1958
WHO: IRIS VAN DER HEIDE
WHAT: NAVITAS FOLLY
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ARCHITECTURE IN 5 SECONDS ANSWERS
Construction of a panel
Mechanism
Material 2
Moving frame
Material 1
Solid frame
Base frame