MAKING – by SO-IL and Barcode

The discussions around ‘Making’ suggest that it is not so obvious what makes our future prosperous. Both teams agree that the future of making will be less ‘material’ in character. But what exactly will be made, and how the future of work is organized, are themes that generated much discussion in the Glimpses teams.

Rotterdam based Barcode Architects is convinced that the future of working and the future of learning are intertwined, and that national excellence is to be cultivated. Its glimpse shows what they define as ‘the tip of the iceberg’, a center of excellence that pulls the best and the brightest from the dozen or so other Dutch ‘centers of excellence’. The team proposes a huge circular depression in the Haarlemmermeerpolder next to Amsterdam’s international airport. This creates a focal point for national excellence and an organizer for international exchange. A red carpet connects the center to the Schiphol departure lounge, providing an escape for scientists and new knowledge.

So-IL emphasizes the future scarcity of precious metals and other hi-tech resources. Its glimpse takes recycling to the next level and suggests that the area around Bush Terminal becomes a market place for the exchange of valuable re-use materials. Robots sort through the rubble on barges in front of the terminal, and a ‘farmers market style’ precious materials market provides the innovation producers of Bush Terminal with the resources needed to solidify their inventions.

Both glimpses emphasize the production of software and orgware. What is actually produced is not ‘stuff’ but software, apps and ideas. That leaves the question open where and how the physical production of the future will take place. Is China becoming the industrial production heartland of the world? Or does Africa have the future? SO-IL assumes that more and more of the tools and gadgets will be locally re-used, so that less physical products will be required. Barcode proposes the tip of the iceberg for the Netherlands. And the team is convinced that the tip of the iceberg is about knowledge. Where the actual production takes place is not the concern of their glimpse.

During the symposium 'Planning the future of Amsterdam & New York' at ARCAM (July 5) we will discuss the theme of “MAKING” further. Henk Ovink, the Director for National Spatial Planning at Netherland Ministry for Infrastructure and the Environment, will address the theme and reflect on the glimpses by SO-IL and Barcode. Caro van der Venne of Barcode Architects will be there to discuss the theme. Florian Idenburg of SO-IL will not be present. Luc Vrolijks will stand in. Florian will lecture at ARCAM later this month, on July 22nd.

See for more information and subscription: ARCAM

Luc Vrolijks

FOODPRODUCTION IN THE CITY - 2040

We have one week to go before the symposium 'Planning the future of Amsterdam & New York' is organized at ARCAM, the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture (July 5, 1-5 pm). This week, the themes to be discussed during the symposium will be addressed in this blog daily: Eating, Breathing, Making, Moving and Dwelling, which are also the main themes of the exhibition 'Glimpses' now on show at ARCAM and the Center for Architecture New York. We will start today with EATING.

In the Exhibition Glimpses we have challenged ten architecture and landscape architecture firms to imagine an urban future with the focus on above themes. For 'Eating' we have asked the Dutch firm van Bergen Kolpa Architecten and Work AC to design visions for local food production in New York and Amsterdam. How will food be intregrated in our cities of tomorrow?

van Bergen Kolpa Architecten has examined the way food production on a more regional scale can be integrated in the city of Amsterdam. In their vision the Dutch polders, once the icon of our food production landscapes, function like parks for the Amsterdam metropolis. These green wedges can be developed into a Landscape Supermarket.

Prompted by the growing demand for recognizable food, Amsterdam Homemade directly involves city dwellers from all cultures in food production, stimulating local economies and entrepreneurship.
By making use of the available soil types and differences in water levels, ideal conditions can be created for a wide variety of produce: pandan and risotto rice is cultivated on the water terraces of the Waterland Wedge. Tilapia fish is reared in water basins in the IJ Wedge and kiwis and avocados grow along undulating fruit walls in the Amsterdamse Bos Wedge.
The requisite landscape climates are created by means of old techniques such as heat accumulation in serpentine walls and modern techniques such as insulating vapor roofs and the use of thermal heat. Van Bergen Kolpa Architecten has focussed on the green wedge 'Brettenzone'.

Their Glimpse 'Amsterdam Homemade' is divided into 1 hectare plots (~2.5 acres), which can be rented and managed by entrepreneurs and city dwellers in a cooperative way. The produce is sold in Amsterdam Homemade’s market buildings. The combination of open space and entrepreneurship, consumption and recreation is central to the development of Amsterdam’s metropolitan park landscape. In this vision food and recreation can be combined and a new form of coherence could be organized around food.

The New York based firm Work AC has named their Glimpse of the future 'Infoodstructure Brooklyn'. It is a vision for Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. They explain Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant are poorer Brooklyn neighborhoods, underserved by supermarkets and suffering from a number of health problems associated with poor diet. They propose a new food infrastructure for these neighborhoods that can eventually spread to the entire city.

Work AC declares that New York will be completely free of the combustion engine and private transportation will be dramatically reduced. Most people will travel by foot, bicycle, rickshaw or an expanded network of public transportation, including a new gondola-based personal rapid transit system which will seat up to eight people and allow each car to choose a unique destination.

Farm-Streets
Some streets will therefore be able to be completely liberated from vehicular traffic and transformed into vast, linear urban farms for the community - with bicycles and pedestrians alongside. Concentrating primarily on North-South running streets, this new network of fresh produce will not provide all of the district’s caloric requirements, but will introduce people to the pleasures of organically grown fresh fruit and vegetables. Bodegas, Greenmarkets, and Hubs will specialize in one type of organic specialty food: fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, dairy etc.

Comparing

The visions of van Bergen Kolpa and Work AC are very different but are both showing how food and urbanism can work together. They also show that our existing food systems with the growing population has to be reinvented. Other models are needed. Also the human dimension in both plans is very interesting.

During the symposium 'Planning the future of Amsterdam & New York' at ARCAM (July 5) we will discuss the role of food production in planning issues further.

See for more information and subscription: ARCAM

Marlies Buurman

GLIMPSES OPENED - LET'S START DEBATING

Last Friday - 10 days after the opening in New York - the exhibition 'Glimpses, New York & Amsterdam' opened at ARCAM, the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture. After our own welcome words and introduction on the exhibition, a big crowd listened to a speech by urban trend hunter Nathatlie Jager, Urban Signature. She addressed the five glimpses of the exhibition: BREATHING, EATING, MOVING, MAKING, DWELLING and added her own glimpse 'MEETING'.

The exhibitions in both Amsterdam and New York consist of five presentations of locations which, in a unique way, offer a ‘glimpse’ of the sustainable future of the city. The exhibition is divided into five 'Glimpses' based on necessities of 21st century urban life. The roles of recreation (a section dubbed “Breathing”), food production (“Eating”), economic production (“Making”), transportation (“Moving”), and living spaces (“Dwelling”) are explored in the context of both cities.
Within New York, firms focussed their attention on recreation on the Hudson River (W Architecture), expanding the food network of Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn (workAC), commerce and development at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn (Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu (SO-IL)), transportation in Long Island City (dlandstudio) and the residential development of Newark, NJ (Interboro Partners).

In Amsterdam, designers focussed on the development of the northern and southern IJ-waterfronts (Delva Landscape Architects / Dingeman Deijs Architect), local food production in Amsterdam (van Bergen Kolpa), Schiphol as a national Hub for knowledge (Barcode Architects), South Axis Business District as a mobility hub (.Fabric), and the Andreas ensemble in Slotervaart as a high density housing estate within the city (Space & Matter).

Nathalie Jager on the sixth 'Glimpse': MEETING.

In the opening address ARCAM stressed the importance of exchanging knowledge with other cities and institutes, providing images for a broad audiance, and the fact that the whole process of making ‘Glimpses’ is not meant to provide definitive answers, but rather, to ask the right questions from the right people in an attempt to generate discussion, provoke thought and stir the imagination. During the summer the exhibitions will serve as a background for several debates and lectures organized at ARCAM to stimulate the debate on the sustainable future of our cities.

Programs:
4 July: Public talk on professional organizations BNA (he Dutch Association of Architects) and the AIA (American Institute of Architects) and architecture policy in the Netherlands.

5 July: Symposium 'Planning the Future of Amsterdam & New York' on the city plans: 'Structuurplan Amsterdam 2040' and 'PlaNYC 2030'. We will discuss the future of both cities and their future plans with contributions of Zef Hemel (Deputy director City Planning department Amsterdam) and David Bragdon (Director, NYC Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability New York). During the symposium all themes of the Glimpses will be addressed by the participating architects and special respondents. The symposium is moderated by Tracy Metz.

8 July: Lecture by Bjarne Mastenbroek 'Real Sustainability'

22 July: Lecture by Florian Idenburg, So-Il on recent work.

See for more information on the programs and subscription:
ARCAM

Marlies Buurman (ARCAM)

OPENING TOMORROW AT ARCAM

We still need to wrap up the last event in New York but are working hard on the final details for the opening of the exhibition 'Glimpses, New York & Amsterdam in 2040' tomorrow at ARCAM, the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture. Please join us for the opening tomorrow, Friday 17 June at 17.15 h. at ARCAM and listen to an opening speech by urban trend hunter Nathalie Jager, Urban Signature.

The Newark Visionary Museym, a glimpse of Broad Street Newark, New Jersey, Interboro Partners

Hybrid Urban Base (HUB), a glimpse of Hunter's point, Queens, DLANDSTUDIO

Save the date:
Tuesday 5 July: Symposium 'Planning the Future of Amsterdam & New York' on the city plans: 'Structuurplan Amsterdam 2040' and 'PlaNYC 2030'. We will discuss the future of both cities and their future plans with contributions of Zef Hemel (Deputy director City Planning department Amsterdam) and David Bragdon (Director, NYC Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability New York). During the symposium all themes of the Glimpses will be addressed by the participating architects and special respondents. The symposium is moderated by Tracy Metz.

ARCAM
Center for Architecture New York

OPENING THIS FRIDAY IN AMSTERDAM

This Friday the exhibition Glimpses, New York & Amsterdam in 2040 will be opened at ARCAM, the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture. After a full week of prorams at the Center for Architecture in New York the Amsterdam architecture firms have touched base in Amsterdam and are preparing for the opening in ARCAM this Friday.

Image: W Architecture

The exhibition will show 10 presentations ('paintings') of locations which, in a unique way, offer a ‘glimpse’ of the sustainable future of the cities of Amsterdam and New York. In addition, themes will be addressed, such as climate change and the environment, recycling, housing, social issues, and the issue of the densification of the urban area in relation to mobility and accessibility. The whole process of making ‘Glimpses’ is not meant to provide definitive answers, but rather, to ask the right questions from the right people in an attempt to generate discussion, provoke thought and stir the imagination.
It focuses on the way we live, work, meet and move in the city in 2040 and how it will impact the physical city.

Image: Barcode Architects

‘Glimpses, Amsterdam & New York, an exchange of sustainable ideas’ is a collaborative project between ARCAM and the AIA Center for Architecture in New York in which the focus is on the exchange of knowledge regarding the sustainable future of the two cities. The aim of the project is to create an exchange platform that can provide a stimulus for the international professional debate surrounding the theme and can lead to new, innovative developments in both cities.

Image: Space&Matter

Image: Delva & Dingeman Deijs Architect

Save the date:
Tuesday 5 July: Symposium 'Planning the Future of Amsterdam & New York' on the city plans: 'Structuurplan Amsterdam 2040' and 'PlaNYC 2030'. We will discuss the future of both cities and their future plans with contributions of Zef Hemel (Deputy director City Planning department Amsterdam) and David Bragdon (Director, NYC Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability New York). During the symposium all themes of the Glimpses will be addressed by the participating architects and special respondents. The symposium is moderated by Tracy Metz.

See also:
ARCAM, Amsterdam Centre for Architecture
Center for Architecture New York

THE CREATIVITY IS INCREDIBLE!

Friday June 10th a wide audiance came to the Center for Architecture for the program 'Rising Water and the City: a New Design Challenge?' At maybe the hottest day in the week students and professors discussed how design education and architecture schools can respond to and address the new challenges concerning Climate changes. At the end everyone agreed on the value of a more integral and interdisciplinary approach and international collaboration between schools and universities. A vibrant discussion took place under the guidance of moderator Lance Jay Brown, professor at CCNY/CUNY and Aart Oxenaar, director of the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture.

The student plans that the participating speakers projected, showed that there is a more relaxed attitude to the water then maybe ten years ago. Rogier van den Berg (Head of the Department of Urbanism at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture) noted that after a long period of fighting the water a more 'Fluide attitude' is arising but it should be embedded in the institutes also.
More to follow..

Also at the Center, later that day Archiprix International students presented the results of the workshops they had to design new plans for New York, taking into account solutions for traffic, water and new typologies for the skyscraper. The results showed an incredible creativity, a shift away from the sexy object to integral city plans.

See for more information on the Glimpses project and our programs: ARCAM

Today Saturday June 11:
Symposium Glimpses at the Center for Architecture, follow the livestream!



Marlies Buurman

Glimpses of Practice – dialogue between two cities

The Thursday program for Glimpses focused on differences and similarities between Dutch and New York practices. We started with a visit of the Hudson Square Connection, where planning director Renee Schoonbeek, arranged an introduction and walk around this industrial neighborhood in motion. We discussed the Business Improvement District as a potential planning tool for the Netherlands Situation, and Renee shared her experiences in the Netherlands and the US as a source for comparison.

We then visited the SO-IL architecture office in DUMBO, where Florian Idenburg showed some of the office’s projects and shared his thought about building up a new architectural practice in New York. Florian sees the office that he and Jing Liu built up over the past six years as an international office with a world-wide reach, established in New York because it is such a good jump-off point for the rest of the world.

From the SO-IL office, a small delegation of the Dutch architects visited the Brooklyn Waterfront Parks – at the heat of the day, over 35 degrees Celsius. Dan Wiley and others shared their thoughts about the Brooklyn waterfront and the parks designed by Michael van Valkenburgh.

The evening program was a discussion on the future of architectural practice. Three Dutch designers and four New York practitioners were comparing notes. Between Bjarne Mastenbroek’s plea to ‘fight back for more space for architecture’ and Suzannah Drake’s ‘tinkering with what can be done’, a world of difference became apparent. It even took a while before we were starting tpo understand each other’s arguments, but once the discussion started, it continued way beyond the meeting at the AIA Center for Architecture.

EXHIBITION OPENED IN NEW YORK!

Last night the exhibition Glimpses was successfully opened by Margaret Castillo (The American Institute of Architects New York Chapter AIA) at the Center for Architecture New York.

Many people were there to join us to celebrate the mutual exchange between Amsterdam and New York, where five architects in each city have been commissioned to undertake the task of representing selected 'glimpses', focusing on five basic human activities - breathing, eating, making, movng and dwelling.

Earlier that day we had a press conference, all architects were there to explain their Glimpse. It's exciting to see the exchange between the Dutch and American architects and compare approaches.

Marlies Buurman

GLIMPSES KICKED OFF IN AMSTERDAM

The GLIMPSES-project had a great start in Amsterdam as well!
On the PROVADA, the annual 'real estate meeting point', the framed glimpse DWELLING was presented by Proper-Stok director Petra Rutten and the architects of Space&Matter to Paulus de Wilt (Nieuw-West).
Preceding the actual presentation Maaike Behm (ARCAM) introduced the GLIMPSES project and reported some of the already striking results. Jeroen Geurst (Geurst en Schulze architecten)explained both the urban design and the architectural design of the Andreas Ensemble. This housing complex is the starting point for the glimpse of the area at its west – according to Space&Matter. Marthijn Pool, Tjeerd Haccou and Sacha Glasl presented their analysis of the neighborhood, future trends among buyers, politicians and real estate developers. The outcome turned out the be provocative: immediately discussions on the ‘islands of similarity’ started. Reactions of, among others, Paulus de Wilt, Bob Mantel (Department of Urban Planning Amsterdam)and Rob van Kalmthout (Director Proper-Stok) made clear that the debate on the future of DWELLING and how to even out the Ring road will continue. Soon, at ARCAM, once the exhibition is on show.

Real Sustainability, projects by SeARCH

Bjarne Mastenbroek presented an overview of his work and positioned it in a broad discussion on sustainability. Bjarne emphasized that his architecture put necessity over opportunity, and that sustainability is a complex thing to achieve. He explained how his work on the Netherlands embassy in Addis Ababa –and his collaboration with the team in Addis- had taught him how simple solutions can be more sustainable than high tech approaches. His perspective is that high tech and low tech approaches need to be combined in new, smart ways. The audience was excited by the Villa Vals and the Amsterdam Synagogue and applauded his work.

PRESS BRIEFING

The press briefing of the Glimpses exhibition at the Center for Architecture was held this morning from 10-12am. There was a wide variety of press present, including several blogs and a crew of Arte, the French/German tv-channel. Each of the teams briefly presented their glimpse. The briefing was also the first opportunity for the Dutch and New York architects’ teams to meet each other and to compare and discuss their respective glimpses. The dialogue has started, and will continue throughout the week.

ARCHIPRIX Capital of your world

The first leg of a week full with programs at the AIA Center for Architecture starts for me at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge. Around eighty of the best young architects have worked here on proposals for Manhattan and the future of New York. They are all Archiprix nominees, and from this group a select jury selects the best graduation work in architecture, landscape and urbanism. The prize ceremony will be held at the Guggenheim on Thursday, but on Friday the teams will present their New York ideas to a panel of city experts at the AIA Center of Architecture within the frame of the Glimpses program.

Monday marks the final day of a weeklong workshop at MIT. Ten groups presented their results at the Media Lab. The presentations show a glimpse into ideas on urbanism and the city. Radical speculations mostly, with titles as ‘Empire Port’, ‘In Grid we Trust’ and ‘NYC Vice’ and ideas to match them, including a canal through the length of Manhattan, radical levels of sea rise and a race track/parking lot at Randall Island. But there were also smaller interventions by ‘the Department of Benign Violations’, the team that proposed geothermal street furniture and dust-catching taxis. ‘Malibu Manhattan’ proposed a new type of skyscraper – one that could inflate in times of economic prosperity and that would provide on-street homeless housing in times of despair.

The presentations were smashing, with moving images, beautiful views and sharp statement. Some of us thought it was a relief that even the MIT Media Lab would have problems with projector presentations, but that was only an aside. The presentations were reviewed by an impressive line-up of Deans of architecture schools from the US and the Netherlands. They offered thoughtful comments, sharp observations and praise. The general feeling was that it was quite incredible that groups of young graduates, all from different countries and talking different languages, were able to come up with these though provoking observations and well presented ideas in such a short period of time.

The ideas will be presented at the AIA Center for Architecture on Friday from 4.30 – 8.00 pm. There we will ask a panel, moderated by Olympia Kazi of the Van Alen Institute, to reflect on these ideas. They will have a lot to chew on, and I look forward to that discussion.

Luc Vrolijks

TON VENHOEVEN LECTURE IN NEW YORK

Last night, June 7th, Dutch architect and Chief Government advisor on Infrastructure Ton Venhoeven lectured at the Center for Architecture New York.His lecture was the first in a series of events this week related to the exhibition Glimpses, opening tonight! His lecture 'Crossing Sustainability and Mobility' dealt with the future of sustainable infrastructure and how mobility can contribute to a vibrant and dynamic sustainable urban development.
One of the main conclusions was that our cities are up to now far too much based on infrastructure and the separation of functions. Cities must be more efficient, more compact, more varied, better connected. People should be able to go to work walking.We should reduce energy needs, optimize land use, reuse waste and produce food locally. Venhoeven is working on a network of transportation nodes in the Netherlands and a new train network connecting several Dutch cities (Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Eindhoven, Utrecht) in the 'Randstad' that will be realized coming decades.