Book
MVRDV Buildings By Ilka and Andreas Ruby Published by NAI 010, €65 (£56) Review by Thomas Wensing
In 1990 Rem Koolhaas organised a symposium which posed the question ‘How modern is Dutch architecture?’. The lecture identified an intellectual and critical malaise in the country’s discipline, right at the moment when a new generation of architects emerged. Koolhaas argued that society had been completely reformulated along late-capitalist lines in the Eighties, that socialism as a progressive force had ceased to exist, but that the formal repertoire of contemporary Dutch architecture was still alluding to a triumphalist modernity rooted in the early heroic period. How could it be that, at the end of the tumultuous 20th century, the formal language of architecture had remained so consistent, he argued.
Even though Koolhaas clearly stated that he did not exclude himself from this critique, as he too was heavily indebted to modernism, it is ironic to note that the practices coming out of his own OMA, such as MVRDV, Neutelings Riedijk and others with different beginnings (West 8, Mecanoo, Wiel Arets, UN Studio), have never attempted to cut their modernist roots, and often pride themselves in extending Dutch modernism and its ‘formal universe’. The point Koolhaas was trying to make was lost, however, which is that modernity as a daring, progressive force was spent in a society that prefers the bottom line and is essentially risk averse. The self-congratulatory triumphalism of the Dutch eventually led to the publication of the book Super Dutch, written by Bart Lootsma, and it was again Koolhaas who took it on himself to point at the supposed critical deficit of the whole movement. Leaving Koolhaas’ disapproval
and Bart Lootsma’s positivism for what it is, it is undeniable that something was happening in the Netherlands, however, and its lively architectural climate did become, for a while, the envy of architects across the world. The blossoming of Dutch architecture from the mid-Eighties to the early Noughties had to do with a favourable economic and cultural climate, a mix of credit-fuelled economic growth and a public sector that perceived ‘Dutchness’ and Dutch design as a good business model. This model has in the meantime all but crash-landed. The economy is slow to recover and austerity politics have rolled back progressive social and cultural programmes.
It is to MVRDV’s credit that the more-critical observations of clients and users have not been edited out, but indeed are answered
It is against this backdrop that MVRDV (acronym for Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries) succeeded in becoming a global practice in its own right. It did this by publishing numerous data-based theoretical studies, such as FARMAX (1998), MetaCity/Datatown (1999) and KM3 (2005), and by its quirky and original buildings. The practice has now published its first monograph; MVRDV Buildings is a reflection on the practice’s built work over these past two eventful decades. It is edited by Ilka and Andreas Ruby, two self-confessed admirers of MVRDV, and it offers a mainly image-based tome and relaxed read. The book is specifically not intended to be a glossy advertorial, but qualifies more as a revisit and reinvestigation of the projects, with the texts consisting of reportage-style descriptions of the work and interviews with users and passers-by. This methodology of popular involvement went so far as to mine the web for images, which results in a multiplicity of views on the life of the buildings. If I were to be overly critical I would say that the book does little to stretch the classic format of the monograph; after all the projects are still featured through images, (shoddy) drawings and a blurb, but in the context of MVRDV it is nice not to be distracted by boldly coloured diagrams. The book also rectifies the overexposure of the more spectacular works in favour of more modest and interesting projects. I have in mind here the patio dwellings in Ypenburg (The Hague), the Lloyd Hotel (Amsterdam), and the Celosia apartment building in Madrid. Furthermore, it is to MVRDV’s credit that the more critical client and user observations have not been edited out, in fact they are answered. The contributing authors did fortunately take MVRDV to task on windswept holes doubling as public spaces, greenhouses as extensions to hospitals and so on. As far as I’m concerned this questioning did not go far and deep enough, however. The book’s authors for instance assert that ‘MVRDV reclaimed modernism as an unfinished project’, and then state that the office has the capacity to ‘produce design spectacles on end’. This oxymoron makes me curious about which modernist core values MVRDV is actually exploring. I am not so ungracious as to question the social motivation of MVRDV, since I do believe that it genuinely strives for more equity, changes in behaviour and sustainable solutions. It is, in fact, much more socially engaged than OMA, but the question remains whether MVRDV expresses a truly critical attitude, and if so what it is that the practice is critical of. 189