now @ Zak Architecture and Design

Blobitecture, Eindhoven 2009-2010

One year ago, construction of the Blob was all but finished, with the opening just around the corner. So, after the long months' wait and the ultimate disillusionment - where do blobs originate, what do they really have to offer and last but not least, who pays any attention to them ?

Eindhoven puts final touches on Blob (NL), Article in Omroep Brabant, October 2009, by Hessel Rippe

photos by Ron Eijkman and Hadas Zemer

Instatements, Eindhoven 2010

Exhibition, Day of Architecture 26/6/ – 27/6/10

with Clare Butcher/Your-space and Freek Lomme/Onomatopee
participants Plan V (Toos Nijssen & Ron Eijkman), Jan Schevers & TU/e School of Architecture, Remote Material of Implication, Marjan Wester, Jozua Zaagman

Instatements will facilitate an ongoing series of mappings, discussions and actions to create a new set of relationships between the historical and the post-industrial fabric in the city of Eindhoven. The value of temporary status as a relevant solution to urban stagnation and zoning must be acknowledged. By deconstructing the hitherto acceptable forms of herbestemming, or adaptive reuse, this project seeks to map out the potential of the city's industrial environment and create an inclusive platform from which to redefine adaptive reuse, through a variety of disciplines.

Over the last months I have collaborated with Your-space and Onomatopee on Instatements, a project seeking to consider new and contemporary ways of defining adaptive reuse under the influence of perspectives from the creative, designed and built environment. The project opened with an exhibition during the Day of Architecture, and invited a group composed of three artists, eight designers, one public-space designer and four students from the department of architecture in the Technical University to start this process. Most of the participants have at one time or other practiced the art of re-inhabiting and reusing in the city of Eindhoven. This inevitably includes its industrial history, a great part of which took place along the 'Eindhovensch Kanaal', the city's former industrial artery. Though the historical evidence has all but disappeared, the industrial allocation has not. It is this setting that has influenced the exhibition and our train of thought.

plan of Eindhoven with industrial zone along the canal

The ongoing research in the geographical context of the canal has three aims: first, to provide new sustainable forms and methods of adaptive reuse that address the real needs of residents and interest groups, avoiding the cliches of industrial heritage projects; second, to reinstate the area into the city centre as a potential living and working neighborhood, while supporting local creative participants; third, to rely on mix-use as a crucial determining factor, to be addressed in a greater urban plan for the future.

For more information on Instatements, Click here

Fietshalte/W neighborhood version 2010

with Gil Molho, Hessel Rippe

dimensions 6.6 x 3 x 3.5 meters

materials steel volume sheets & tubes, wood, polycarbonate

Developed with the assistance of the City of Eindhoven, this prototype takes the bike station back to its primary location - a residential setting, connecting the edge of the neighborhood with an outlying green corridor. Made of a series of steel volume segments and surrounded by variable seating positions, this compact and robust version of Fietshalte/W offers residents and commuters an attractive meeting point, info-box and base from which to explore the area, starting with three converging streets.

Wall and Tower – our very own gated community

Examples abound of communal habitations that arose from the basic human need of security.

Upon visiting the opening of Mur i Wieża (Wall and Tower) by Yael Bartana in Amsterdam, I found it impossible to ignore the link between Bartana’s reinterpretation of the Jewish "Homa ve Migdal" settlement in Poland with its obvious association to the Israeli post-1967 settlement, and the world-famous form of residence known as the gated community. Comparisons have been made between the Wall and Tower settlements that were founded in Palestine in the 1930’s and their more sinister descendants. But looking more closely at all three types of exclusive enclosures raises some interesting issues that most of us planners feel strongly about but do not expressly mention. Here are some points in brief:

1) Typology There’s nothing astonishing about the local-global strategy of establishing an enclave. More interesting, or sobering if you will, is the fact that the building typologies of gated perimeters the world over are no less than Israeli history repeating. In this day and age, when high-technology is harnessed by security experts, the wall, gate and tower still combine to offer the most comforting image of a place free of outside threats, an ideal home. Insiders are distinguished by their common identity. Outsiders are the subject of the guard’s gaze.

reconstruction of Wall and Tower (Homa ve-Migdal) settlement, Negba, IL

MathKnight & Zachi Evenor

Lighthouse tower at Lavigna community, Santa Maria gated community, CA

Vandenberg AFB Homes Blog

Some ‘security villages’, or gated communities in South Africa, use a mode of initial development closely resembling that of the Wall and Tower - staking out a large land claim, building a high wall surrounding the entire zone, then gradually adding roads, dwellings and other infrastructure.

2) Narrative The settlement and gated community strive to nourish and foster a sense of pride and prestige – be it for the national cause or as a result of one’s socio-economical status. The mode of communicating or marketing this old/new lifestyle is by names and allegories that draw on a common, easily-recognizable heritage. Nature and History equals Romance. Think of the parallels in the names of some of the newer Israeli settlements and the names of their capitalist counterparts all over the English-speaking world: Alon Shvut (Oak of Return) vs. Oakdale, Nof Harim (Mountain View) vs. Ridgeview, Mitzpe Keramim (Vineyard Vantage Point or Settlement) vs. Carmel, and Derekh Ha’avot (Path of the Fathers) vs. Kingswood.

3) Territorial consequences Well, the comparison usually ends at this point - the settlements redefine territorial and political borders by pushing the perimeter. Though many gated communities are also located at the urban periphery, this form of habitation is usually represents a means of quiet withdrawal. Their main territorial effect is the added network of roads, infrastructure and suburban sprawl that follows in their wake.

4) Irregular Both settlement and gated community, whether past or present models, offer “a strategy for organizing private infrastructure and services in situations where the state cannot provide them” (Monterescu). In Israel this is usually associated with far-off locations where populations feel threatened and need to fend for themselves. Enter the gated project of the Andromeda Hill residence in Old Jaffa, aka the alliance of private real-estate market with ethnocentric planning. Alas for the Wall and Tower of old!

References:

Bartana, Yael Building Memory: Mur i Wieża

Blank, Yishai The Gated Community as a Private City: Fragmentation of Public Space in Israel

Grant, Jill Challenging the public realm: gated communities in history

Monterescu, Daniel To Buy or Not to Be: Trespassing the Gated Community

www.andromeda.co.il/project.html

wikipedia: gated communities

Fietshalte/W in design competition

In July 2009 Fietshalte/W competed with 60 other designs in Brains Eindhoven, a call for innovative, creative and socially relevant ideas for the city.

click here to view our application at the Brains website.

Fietshalte/W, Netherlands 2009

Stop, Explore, Move along

with Gil Molho, Hessel Rippe, Nicole de Boer

dimensions approx. 13 x 3 x 3 meters

materials fiber-reinforced concrete, steel mesh, wood, polyester, PVC a.o.

Fietshalte (lit. 'Bike-Stop') is a bicycle-friendly drive-thru - a lightweight structure placed next to bicycle lanes along parks, urban traffic or in the countryside. The station functions as rest area and info-box, and can be fitted with lighting, display panels and other devices. As it is open to access for cyclists, rollerbladers and pedestrians, Fietshalte/W offers a chance to stop, examine and experience one's surroundings, promoting recreational cycling in the countryside and in the city.

Fietshalte/W is a registered project.

Four versions of Fietshalte/W, corresponding to four primary settings, are proposed:
1) scenic 2) industrial 3) renewing neighborhoods 4) daily route to work.
Each station is site-specific in form and content. Together the stations form a city network of information and communication hotspots. Locations in Eindhoven may include the Karpendonkse Park, Kanaaldijk Zuid, Strip-S, Woensel-West and the High-Tech Campus.

On Sunday 10th May, Fietshalte/W (W for Woensel) was first presented in a public stall on Groenewoudseweg in the Woensel-West biennal Lentemarkt, receiving favourable responses.

kruid-o-foon, Netherlands 2009

audio installation in the Kruidenbuurt, Eindhoven

460 x 200 cm

acrylic paint, ceramic pot, PVC drainpipes, violets

awaiting authorization by local artist

'rappers leren rappen' - first trial

competition, Netherlands 2009

Living Sequences Wonen in Reeksen
(r)evolving community in Twente, the Netherlands

with Ruth van Eck-Rotholz

Dimensions
5000 m² plan subdivided into 4 X 1250 m² plots incl. central courtyard
max. building height 11 meters

Competition Slogan
“Community living in a rural setting” and “Build your own freedom naturally”

Living Sequences is a residential module dealing with the traditional barn-house and courtyard typology in a broader sense. This main requirement was reinterpreted by adding another focal point – the prevalent North-South axis, triggering the general layout. The idea of a clear, dominant feature within the residential functions led to an initial sketch of masses and joints, suggesting a hinge or pivot. The result is a partitioned residence defined by sequences – multi-purpose spaces providing light and a new material within the basic module of an elongated balloon frame. These in-betweens mark a distinctive entrance to the house and are to be used as a platform for growth and re-interpretation. The goal is a cost-effective, sober prototype with an added value – the horizontal-vertical interplay of rooms, from which a variety of personal spaces and living structures can emerge.

The central feature is a public court. This serves as traffic circle and organizes the plots and their relation to each other. The plan consists of four houses, of which two face the court and two turn aside for added privacy. A small part of each plot is provided to the narrow entrance path to optimize the entrance, receiving a green central area in return. Using natural phenomena as a guideline for design, the neighbors face each other and the open spaces outside, linked together by the incoming road, the square, and by their common use of sunlight, while each has room to expand and grow in their own yards.

Two partitions split the house into three sections. The first partition includes the stairway, which together with the main entrance links kitchen, dining room and garage; the second partition lies between these high-activity zones and the guest and children wing. Alternatively, this could become an adolescent’s side, or back door on ground floor.

The partition suggests a new version of the ante-chamber: a modular space dividing the core – kitchen and master bedroom - from the representative - dining room, guest rooms and study. Functions may differ and be replaced but the tempo is maintained by the two partitions. The entire house grows at a natural pace – the height changing from public to private functions, the meandering movement of the interior lending each volume a natural rhythm. Providing light and ventilation, the skylighted façade can also be curtained in order to stabilize temperature. The choice of material lies between glass or the more durable, eco-friendly ETFE. Yet more light can be let into the living room by opting for a double-height space in absence or in succession of the children’s area.

@Knafo Klimor Architects 2008

competition, Israeli pavilion for Shanghai Expo 2010

@Ram Karmi Architects 2005-2006

competition, public school in Yokne'am

Habimah Theatre renovation, Tel-Aviv

competition, Netherlands 2007

ARTWALK

a panoptic coridoor where art folds in on itself

with DaF-architecten, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Dimensions

15 m. sided regular pentagon

competition slogan

"center of creative industry"

besides housing art, showrooms invariably deal with the communicative tension between artist and visitor. even more so, temporary pavilions abound with human interaction - having long since become a stage for observing and being observed rather than shells or storage units.

ARTWALK offers a chance to reinterpret the stage by using two simple intermediaries - architectural detachment and active video-monitoring.

opposing the norms of buildings within boundary limits, the exhibition coridoor slices through the site. all that remains visible are an entrance and an exit. in-between activity of visitors can be monitored by CCD cameras; patterns of movement, verbal comments and facial expressions appear alongside the sought-out art objects, a valuable asset. everyone checks rating, everybody is a star. the ensuing material is recorded and screened in 5-minute delay along the outer perimeter or uploaded to wherever. anyone bringing in their own device is welcome.

art is constantly manipulating our sense of time and space, with the viewer as player, potential decision-maker, able to show him/herself, voice an opinion, and change sides.

the sense of non-place was already enhanced by the competition requirements: an abandoned railroad adjacent to the Rotterdam Fruit Pier. lightweight construction for relocation atop an existing building. in such an event, side doors are opened to create front-and backyards, extra outdoor workspace. the long facades with their multiple entries enable further partitions for living spaces within the requested atelier. Adding more rooms on the outside is facilitated by the walls’ removable elements. the cameras will remain, though - for security's sake.