ZAUBERPHOTO’S

photographs Dieuwertje Komen                                                         text on frameweb by François-Luc Giraldeau                               cabinetmaker Martijn Pekelharing                        

Amsterdam-based architectural firm Bureau LADA has come up with an innovative and compact living unit that meets all the needs and requirements of a creative German filmmaker while promoting an intriguing reinterpretation of the 17th-century Dutch merchants’ traditional lifestyle.

Zauberkast – a neologism formed by the combination of the German word for magic, Zauber, and the Dutch word for closet, kast – is the proposition laid out by the client to the founding partner Lada Hršak as part of the refurbishment of a historical Amsterdam canal house.

The architect’s built-in modular intervention opens itself almost magically, revealing a series of functions that enable up to four programmatic configurations. This 67 cm-thick unit can be adapted to create a living room, a kitchen and a bedroom/bathroom while providing the owner with extensive storage possibilities.

A white curtain conceals a brightly coloured sofa that folds out deftly to become a spacious bed. As this central piece of furniture defines a clear resting/sleeping area, a small wall-mounted dining table is used to mark a certain distance between it and the fairly simple cooking facilities.

Given the significant housing shortage caused by the exorbitant cost of living in central Amsterdam, architects are now requested to constantly develop alternative space-saving design solutions to make the most of what’s available. Zauberkast may not match everyone’s style of living but it definitely constitutes a promising overview of the current possibilities of compact urban life.

CUM LAUDE FOR TXELL’S VINEXMARKT

CONGRATULATIONS to Merixell Blanco Diaz with her Cum Laude graduation project: VINEXMARKT !!!!!

The opportunity to write a report for Txell’s graduation puts me in the enviable position of creating a text that supports our recommendation that she graduate cum laude. What impressed us most in this extraordinary project is her originality and the pioneering position this design takes in relation to the future of our profession. She epitomises the need for a revised position of the designer, combining the conceptual starting points with architectural design by using social methods. (mentor and supervisors: Lada Hršak, Kamiel Klaasse, Jochem Heijmans)

The graduation project ‘Vinexmarkt’ is a personal and intriguing exercise, combining into one the layers of concept, architecture and art with Txell’s own social engagement. The brief has an autobiographical quality generated by her real life experience of moving to Leidsche Rijn, possibly the last Vinex housing location to be built in the Netherlands. The design process is articulated with the curiosity of one who passes through life with their eyes open, seeking out spaces suitable for ‘exploitation’. The neighbourhood where she and hundreds of others live is not visible on Googlemaps which still shows an agricultural landscape even though the last farm departed years ago. Several future plans for the area have been widely publicised leaving the residents caught somewhere between the past and future. What is the identity of this place in the making, and who are the other ‘pioneers’ living there? Who are my neighbours, and where do I meet them? The research embarks with these questions in mind on a quest for the character and identity of Leidsche Rijn.

Txell developed a personal design trajectory flitting alternately between the many roles of our profession. As social activist, researcher, designer, technician and assembly instructor she engaged directly with the narrative’s other protagonists. Displaying endless energy, she contacted and spoke to an impressive number of people ranging from the Local Authority’s marketing advisor, urban planners and structural engineers to local entrepreneurs and the last farmer to vacate the area.

In her search for the meaning of Vinex and its potential as a place for interaction, she proposes the Vinex Markt – a specific market formed by hijacking the characteristic Vinex building module (a repetitive 5.1m suburban housing grid) and using it to generate a covered, yet open marketplace with an iconic quality. Located on a vacant site adjacent to the train station, Vinex Markt is arranged in a square layout that differentiates the submerging inner square from the outer zone. The stalls are located between the concrete dividing walls with concrete furniture to aid the activities of buying, selling, playing etc. The market serves as the missing public forum: a local place capable of transforming to suit its users with their various interventions and activities as: the ‘classic’ market, extended market, playground, meeting place, cafe, cinema, theatre etc….

The material presented for her graduation consisted of conceptual analysis, action-research, urban studies, a design proposal,design details, plans for flexible use, water and sustainability schemes and a host of models arranged in a variety of scales (1:500, 1:100, 1:20 and 1:1 poured in concrete). It also included a beautiful scale model of the wooden scaffolding illustrating how the idea can be developed in the future.

See the blog http://vinexmarkt.wordpress.com/ and our earlier post Rearranging the Real

D_Day_REHAB FOR GREDELJ

18 meter long ‘Scramble City’ being hung at Gredelj factory hall

Recently finished Dan_D (Day D, or day of design) in Zagreb Croatia took place in another one of the many abandoned industrial premises in the centre. The industrial heritage of the old Gredelj facory fills the largest central city gap, just behind the main railway station. Organised by the HDD Croatian Designer’s Society and in collaboration with Zagreb Holding, the partners managed to open the doors of the beautiful area and gave the ‘patient’ a shortlived rehab therapy. Pointing out the potential of the area. The romance and charm of the industrial heritage is in most European cities adopted by cultural polities, with varying degrees of success, but any larger city has one. Could Zagreb manage to get this one off the ground ?Having in mind that the theme of current expo  is Design and the City, the temporary and ambitious programming works very well at the spot. Our ‘Scramble City’ lecture was planned together with several interesting practices: Muzej Kvarta, Akunpktura grada, 1postozagrad, Lana Cavar i Narcisa Vukojević, engaging with city and public space. Hungry Designers have, except of having made the beautiful exhibit, been grilling sardines for the party. IGle with Nataša Mihaljčišin have made a catwalk. Propuh action in the ‘downtown’ blew some new wind in the area, opening the doors of small practices. In the photostudio Zelmanović portrait photographs were taken with the wind blowing machine. For the best photos the wind blows from the front. Hopefully reuse of the industrial heritage in Zagreb will get some wind from the back…..

PRESENTATION OASE 89_MEDIUM

http://www.oasejournal.nl/en/News#presentation-oase-89-medium

OASE 89 wil be presented on April 25 in the Stadsmuseum Gent (STAM). 25 April 2013 19.00
Stadsmuseum Gent (STAM). Bijlokesite. Godshuislaan 2, 9000 Gent stamgent.be

Klaske Havik will present the issue.
Lada Hrsak will reveal the project ‘Scramble City’.
Michiel Dehaene will discuss the Mid-Size City in a conversation with Bart Verschaffel and Paul Vermeulen

De middelgrote stad is een onderbelicht thema in het discours over stad en stedelijkheid. Urban studies hebben zich in hoofdzaak op de metropool gericht en focussen meer recent ook op relatief nieuwe fenomenen als de generieke stad of de netwerkstad. Terwijl de middelgrote stad weinig tot de verbeelding sprak van diegenen die het discours bepaalden, bleek zij in de praktijk desalniettemin populair als woon- en vestigingsgebied – misschien juist vanwege haar weinig spannende karakter. Als de metropool bij uitstek de plaats van de moderne stedelijke ervaring is, dan is de kleine en middelgrote stad de plek waar de moderniteit wordt geabsorbeerd en zich een vertrouwd en vertrouwenwekkend gezicht verwerft. De middelgrote stad als plaats, waar het verlangen naar een ‘getemperde’ stedelijke ervaring voorwerp wordt van stedenbouw en architectuur. Ooit het centrum van haar eigen ommeland is de middelgrote stad meer dan ooit deel van een stedelijk netwerk waarin de kansen en problemen van de hedendaagse stedelijke samenleving neerslaan. De grote maatschappelijke opgaven, demografie, migratie, mobiliteit, ecologie, zijn net zo goed uitdagingen voor de middelgrote stad. In die context is de middelgrote stad vandaag opnieuw de plek waar de stedelijke beeldvorming rondom de Europese stad herijkt wordt.

text OASE Journal for Architecture

AFREUROPE_PAST FUTURE

‘ He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.’ George Orwell. Exhibition at the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is celebrating the 400 years from the Golden Age, and all venues in the city are focusing on it. Some parts of the famous ‘Grachtengordel’ or the canal district look very much alike the historical paintings (if we erase trash bins and cars and parking ticket poles). Alike but not the same, as the subtle layers of developments throughout time show through the historical cracks. UNESCO has granted a good deal Amsterdam Centre a monumental status, which works like a preservative. Question arises how will the city develop further? At the same time, inside, the city changes and develops. Two almost consequent  projects deal with the question of how to imagine and give form to the future by understanding the past. One of them, the last Winterworkshop (Jan-Feb 2013) at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam was dealing with the question what will the Grachtengordel be like in the 400 years from now.  The students predicted the New World coalition: the AfrEurope, a north south pact of an imaginable non-material society where people will be wearing their mask as the only possession describing their qualities, abilities and influence. Students doubled the portraits in the seventeenth century gallery with copied portraits wearing the future masks. Overcoming the 800 years in time.

with: Lada Hršak, Frederica Jambor, Paul Kuipers, Jerryt Krombeen, Heather Macsween, Wishant Manna, Patrick Rogiers, Eva Souren, Mark van Vilsteren, Thom Zijlstra.Map of The Afreurope Union

MEDIUM AND THE SCRAMBLE

Accompanying the ‘Medium’ OASE magazine issue nr 89 devoted to Mid-Size City you will find our visual essay  entitled ‘Scramble City’. (see earlier blog) The upcoming seminar and debate focusing on the topic will be held in Ghent on 25 April 2013.

THE GEORGIAN TALES_FACADES

Upon the invitation of The Dutch Embassy in Georgia we went to Tbilisi to participate in an interesting event: Days of Dutch Architecture in Georgia containing an exhibition and the lecture series. Accompanied by very warm welcome, many interested parties and foremost an interesting place. When the mist set off the city revealed it’s treasures. The Ministry of Transport designed by minister Chakhava himself at the end of soviet times turned into The Bank of Georgia. Followed by the restored wooden loggias of the historical summer place and ultracontemporary architecture. The change and adaption was however most interesting to be seen in modernist housing slabs. One might call it personalising the facade, and activating the ground floor with public functions: small commodity shops and services.  It is difficult to trace the original elevation and shopkeepers were suspicious to strangers. But energy of people and  power of change makes this definitely a place to return to. 

WINNING DESIGN FOR PUBLIC SERVICE HALL

De Architekten Cie. and  HL architecture won the competition for the Public Service Hall in Georgia. The competition was held by The Ministry of Justice of Georgia and supports the countrywide reform for renewal of public services. Eight PSH’s are (almost) realised and eight new ones are about to come.

The project proposes an elevated square being the roof of the building. The square connects the public space with the roof auditorium which becomes the new civic place for the city. Municipal services housed under the coffered ceiling are arranged in a free plan. This space where 250 services can be obtained, is composed of five sectors – islands with the proposed two minute waiting time.. ….’Public Service Hall is the property of each and every citizen of Georgia’…..Siteplan_Roofplan

PAROOL_INTERVIEW

‘Modernism also belongs to the City’ and is part of us, our memory. This is the title of an recent interview with Lada Hršak brought out on friday 13th, by Amsterdam’s daily newspaper hetParool. As it happens, some of the data in the interview can be taken with a ‘grain of salt’ therefore the credits for the Dutch Embassy in Ethiopia shall be completed with Van Gameren Mastenbroek. More about the topic, and foremost the jounalist’s experience of the ‘house of the architect’ is available for the Dutch readers when clicking on the image.

SCRAMBLE CITY

photos Dieuwertje Komen

Our 5m long leporello has arrived! And has already been pronounced ‘The Book of The Month’ by renown Dutch site ’Archined’ (in a bundle with 3 other cahiers). Available via: archined-boek-van-de-maand

Scramble City is a visual essay by Lada Hršak, Michiel van Iersel, Dieuwertje Komen and Neeltje ten Westenend. It presents a fragmented journey through a fragmented urban landscape filled with good intentions. In the autumn of 2010 they were part of a group of 20 architects, urban designers, artists, designers and writers that travelled to the Balkans(Skopje, Priština, Tirana), Marseille, the North of England (Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool) and the Basque region (Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz). This ninth Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture study trip was entitled What’s Up, What’s Down: Cultural Catalysts in Urban Space and investigated the urban transformations of the last several decades in these European secondary cities.