B NIEUWS 03 17 NOVEMBER 20142 NEWS NEWS 3

Workshop ‘Living with water’

Since the effects of climate change - such as rising sea

levels and extreme rainfall - are occurring globally,

water management is no longer an exclusive Dutch

topic. Worldwide, designers are searching for ways to

safeguard against flooding. During a three-day

workshop in Aalborg (Denmark) master students of TU

Delft and Aalborg University joined forces to combine

water safety and quality of living. It led to innovative,

unusual designs.

From the introduction of the workshop, it immediately

became clear that water management should be better

integrated into Danish residential design. Aalborg - a

medium sized town in the north of Jutland - has a nice

waterfront that is experiencing rapid development.

Historically, a number of small rivers flow from the hills

around Aalborg into the fjord. At periods of extreme

rainfall these rivers rapidly increase in size and the water

level rises meters at a time.

This has led the municipality to not allow housing in areas

less than 2.5 meters above sea level. As a result, Aalborg

is left with a substantial amount of well-located, but

unused land. One of these areas is a beautiful former

industrial site just outside the old city centre. Between

old factory buildings lies an open green area with two

small rivers and a lake. The rivers drain rainwater from the

hills towards the city centre. The students were asked to

design a residential area where residents, regardless of

the water level, live in a safe and enjoyable environment

which also provides water storage capacity during

extreme rainfall.

Designing for different conditions.

In the first design sketches students focused on the

question of how the individual home can be protected

against water and yet still benefit from water. The starting

point was the constraint of a site which is flooded every

two years. Among the solutions were submersible

houses, waterproof houses, floating houses and houses

that could be lifted.

It was a challenge in itself to design a house that

continues to operate under different conditions. An

elevated house for instance is well protected against the

water, but under normal circumstances - due to its height

difference - has a bad relationship to its surroundings.

How to solve this?

Next, the students combined their individual unit designs

into urban plans. The probabilty of flooding turned out to

be an extra design challenge, for example in the area of

accessibility. Why organize enclosure from the dry land,

when the water actually provides the most consistent

transportation medium?

Results

The 10 plans that the students presented after three days

varied significantly. There was a fully floating

neighborhood where - depending on sun, wind and

privacy - homes could rotate around their axis. Another

design featured Team X-inspired neighborhood whose

streets, squares and houses were built around a regular

grid of poles. Depending on the water level the housing

could be hydraulically lifted or lowered.

At the final exhibition a jury (consisting of the four teachers

involved) awarded the design 'Submerged Living' as the

overall winner. The design consisted of houses that were

made of tilted and partly submerged floating blocks and

combined the optimal experience of living on and under

the water. The more private parts of the houses were

situated partly underwater, while the spaces above the

watersurface provided a wide view of the surroundings.

Minervahaven

Back in Delft, students are applying their experience to

the development of a new neighborhood in Amsterdam’s

Minervahaven neighborhood. In the future - according to

the Structure Plan 2040 - this area aims to provide a large

part of the required 70,000 new homes in the city.

However, there is a relatively high risk of flooding in this

area. Additionally, the nearby industrial infrastructure

creates a serious obstacle to the livability. The design

challenge thus is how water safety, water storage and

water experience can be integrated with building homes

in this difficult context.

Curious about the outcome? On Friday, January 23,

2015 starting from 14:00 a final public presentation of

all studio results will be held at the orange tribune in

the West Serre at TU Delft, with contributions of Dick

van Gameren (head Architecture section, TU Delft) and

Lasse Andersson (head of urban design section, Aalborg

University).

By Pepijn Bakker and Olv Klijn

Tutors Msc 1 studio ‘Living with water’, Delft faculty of

Architecture, chair of Dwelling.

Architecture Students from TU Delft and Aalborg (DK) are working on inventive solutions to combine water safety and living quality.

GrenzeloosVorige week sprak ik een studente die vijf jaar

geleden aan onze faculteit is afgestudeerd. Zij heeft

na het afstuderen een interessante baan als

projectmanager in Londen gekregen en vertelde

vol enthousiasme over haar internationale

belevenissen. Zij is een voorbeeld van een steeds

grotere groep studenten die na het behalen van

hun masterdiploma in het buitenland als architect,

stedenbouwkundige, projectmanager of adviseur

aan de slag gaan. Voor mij opnieuw de bevestiging

dat het diploma van bouwkundig ingenieur ook

over de grenzen waardevol is.

Deze mobiliteit is het gevolg van de veranderin-

gen in onze omgeving. Twintig jaar geleden

beperkte ‘interactie met het buitenland’ zich tot

onze vakantieactiviteiten. Momenteel is de

mondiale context bepalend voor student en

faculteit. Invloeden zijn zowel in het onderwijs als in

het onderzoek merkbaar. In het onderwijs wordt

samengewerkt met een groot aantal gerenom-

meerde universiteiten door middel van exchange

programs. Daarnaast komen jaarlijks circa 200

nieuwe studenten uit tientallen landen om een

master binnen de faculteit te volgen. En zoals

gezegd steeds meer studenten waaieren na hun

studie uit over de gehele wereld. Ook op onder-

zoeksgebied vindt samenwerking met talloze

instituten uit het buitenland plaats. Te denken valt

aan KU Leuven, ETH Zurich, MIT, the Bartlett, TU

München, Cornell, Uppsala en vele andere. Over

‘de grenzen gaan’ brengt de faculteit veel goeds.

Studenten en medewerkers met een achtergrond

uit andere werelddelen verrijken onze faculteit. Een

ontwikkeling die we moeten blijven stimuleren.

Op deze manier lijkt het misschien een

vrijblijvende ontwikkeling: Studenten uit het

buitenland die aan onze faculteit komen studeren,

studenten die na het afstuderen naar het buiten-

land vertrekken en BK-medewerkers die in alle

delen van de wereld gevraagd worden aan

onderzoek bij te dragen of lezingen te verzorgen,

tot meerdere eer en glorie van de faculteit. Maar

de internationale context is alles behalve vrijblij-

vend.

Zo zien we dat ‘Europa’ een bepalende invloed

krijgt. Onderzoek wordt steeds minder gefinancierd

met behulp van geld van de Nederlandse overheid

en steeds meer door Europese onderzoekspro-

gramma’s. De faculteit moet zich mengen in de

internationale concurrentie strijd voor onderzoeksfi-

nanciering. Sterke banden met andere universitei-

ten zijn daarbij van groot belang. Ook op andere

vlakken merken we de dwingende invloed van

Europa. De Beroepservaringperiode (BEP) is

bijvoorbeeld een direct gevolg van Europese

wetgeving.

De kunst is om zo goed mogelijk in te spelen op

deze internationale invloeden. Dat geldt voor de

faculteit, haar medewerkers, maar ook voor de

studenten. Kortom, verleg je grenzen en toon een

grenzeloos vertrouwen in onze (internationale)

toekomst.

HANS WAMELINK

Student experience Workshop 'Living with water'

After a 10 hour drive, we found ourselves in a wet and soaked Aalborg. We got invited to stay with fellow Danish

students, which gave us the opportunity to get to know the Danish student life. Before entering the apartment of

our hosts, we had to overcome the first problem, crossing the 5 centimeter flood in the hallway. This scene turned

out to be quite appropriate for the theme of the workshop, designing for the potential effects of intense rainfall in

Aalborg.

During the intensive 3-day workshop that followed, we were expected to work under high pressure, to produce a

lot of ideas in a short amount of time. It felt like a big brainstorm session, creating ideas without thorough research.

Apparently for the Danes a workshop like this is a standard way of starting a project, for us this was quite an

uncommon way of working.

In the end the results were very decent and were put on display in the big hall of the newly built faculty building in

Aalborg. After the presentation we finally managed to explore the Aalborg students’ nightlife, before preparing for

another 10 hour drive back to Delft.

Nander Brinker, Christiaan Dorlas en Coen van Vreden

Hergebruik begint bij jezelf: RE-USE!Heb jij ze al gespot? De houten afvalscheidingsmeubels met daarop de tekst: “Re-Use”. Het heeft wat energie en tijd gekost, maar mede dankzij de FSR zijn deze meubels geplaatst om hergebruik en recycling van materialen onder studenten en medewerkers te stimuleren. Bnieuws sprak met FSR om meer te weten te komen over deze ‘Re-usebakken’.

Wat zijn de re-usebakken en voor wie zijn ze bedoeld?

De houten re-usebakken zijn multifunctionele materiaalbakken die voor zowel afvalscheiding als hergebruik

kunnen worden gebruikt. Ze zijn er voor iedere student en medewerker.

De meeste re-usebakken bestaan uit twee delen: het linkerdeel bestaat uit afvalbakken voor papier en restafval.

Het rechterdeel bevat ruimte om je overgebleven materiaal in achter te laten. Op deze manier verdwijnt jouw

vergeten foamplaat niet meer in een berg van restafval, maar krijgt deze een nieuwe eigenaar.

Wordt er op de faculteit voldoende afval gescheiden en materiaal hergebruikt?

Nee, het is schokkend om te zien hoeveel bruikbaar materiaal er verloren gaat. Tijdens ontwerpprojecten stapelt

het materiaal zich in de stellingskasten op en na afloop worden er enorme containers vol, soms nog ongebruikt,

materiaal afgevoerd. Dat is natuurlijk doodzonde! Met de re-usebakken komt hier verandering in: door je

overgebleven materiaal achter te laten, kan een ander hier nog gebruik van maken. Dit vermindert de enorme

hoop afval die op atelier overblijft en dit merk je ook nog in je portemonnee. Genoeg redenen dus om bewust

met je afval en materialen om te gaan! (JP) Vo

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Dutch structuralism?!The New Institute (or 'Het Nieuwe Instituut) in

Rotterdam houses a duo-exhibition on Dutch

Structuralism, with one exhibition curated by

Herman Hertzberger and the other by Dirk van den

Heuvel of the Jaap Bakema Study Centre. The first is

a personal view on Dutch Structuralism through own

work, the second is the presentation of an ongoing

research. Both exhibitions display a broad collection

of drawings, sketches, models and pictures. They

also offer a wonderful journey through the minds of

the architects and artists behind the Dutch Structura-

lism movement. Bnieuws visited the exhibition

during the preparations for part two of the exhibi-

tion (ideals in structuralism) and talked with Dirk van

den Heuvel. A short review of the exhibition and a

strong recommendation to visit the exhibition

yourself.

Upon entering, the duality immediately becomes clear.

Where Herman Hertzberger has chosen for

architectural black and white cabinets, the Jaap

Bakema Study Centre displays the materials on a

vibrant red installation. This design by Lada Hršak from

Bureau LADA houses not only the exhibition, but also

contains drawers with even more material, a small

library, a stage and a space for seminars. Including all

the movie materials and the opportunity to draw and

tinker with your own ideas, you could spend an entire

day at the exhibition and still have things left to

discover.

Although there is not one coherent answer available,

both exhibitions touch upon the subject of defining

Dutch Structuralism. It is not only an architectural

movement that emerged in the post-war architectural

field and it does not only involve designing by patterns

and ideal geometry. It is breaking loose from

technocratic and functionalistic approaches in search

for ways to create vibrant cities, incorporating

architecture, art, and cultural influences from all over

the world. It is about creating social architecture, with

bottom up initiatives and space for the opinion of the

inhabitants. It is about redefining the city block in a time

where urbanization was rapidly emerging, trying to mix

new proportions and functions within the existing urban

structure. Dutch Structuralism may look like something

from the past, but the issues are still present in our

modern society and offer us a way to take a critical look

into our own design approaches.

Between the lines you can also discover how the small

Amsterdam movement of the Dutch Structuralism could

have such an impact on the international architectonic

world view. Young students from the Academy of

Architecture in Amsterdam worked closely together

with established architects like Aldo van Eyck and

Herman Hertzberger, touching upon vital issues. The

results of these cooperations received international

acclaim through taking part in international events like

the Architecture Biennales and publishing in renowned

magazines like FORUM.

A remarkable fact that becomes clear through the

exhibition is the playfulness of the designs. Children and

playgrounds have an important place within the oeuvre

of both the architects, the artists and the photographers

associated with Dutch Structuralism. The portrayed

children show the very essence of both the search for

the working of structures while also creating habitable

places. Specifically, the designs by Herman Hertzberger

feature schools with multifunctional spaces, hallways

that would also be an auditorium and a space for

playing. The impact becomes clear if you realize that

this is still how most schools are designed nowadays.

The process of how this now well established concept

was developed becomes clear through his sketches.

mplete city block within the urban fabric. You can see

how Herman Hertzberger executes thinking by drawing,

from the small detail of a stairs banister to the large

scale of a complete city block within the urban fabric.

Make sure to check the drawers of the red installation,

because the Jaap Bakema Study Centre exhibition

shows even more of these thinking processes through

sketches. (LD)

Do you want to know the whole story? The exhibition

is open until January 11th, 2015. Whereas the Herman

Hertzberger exhibition is a constant one, the Jaap

Bakema Study Centre deals with four different themes.

December has a focal point on ‘building the welfare

state’, January shows ‘urban renewals’. The Jaap

Bakema Study Centre also invites a guest lecturer

every Thursday afternoon, to offer different

perspectives on Dutch Structuralism, its development

and its appreciation.

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