The Jaap Bakema Study Centre's second annual conference, entitled Research on Display: The Architecture Exhibition as Model for Knowledge Production, will begin next month in Delft and Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Featuring presentations and discussions from members of universities around the world—including Ghent, Valencia, London, Warsaw, Paris, Michigan, Yale, Oslo and Zürich—the two-day programme seeks to examine what it means to curate architectural research.
The medium of film has long been employed to visualise, document and narrate architectural and urban space. Since the advent of more accessible devices to capture and record these journeys and explorations it has been used more frequently by practices and students in an attempt to develop new ways of experiencing built designs. #donotsettle, a YouTube channel established by two architects and urban enthusiasts while studying at TUDelft in The Netherlands, seeks to reconcile the disparity between film as architectural representation and as an experiential medium. Although not high in production value, their films are exciting examples of how user-oriented architectural 'vlogging' can uncover an entirely new way of understanding the world around us, imbued with a refreshing level of enthusiasm and authenticity.
Six years after the original announcement of the project, the first phase of Mecanoo's new Train Station and City Hall complex in Delft, The Netherlands, has been opened to the public. Within the new station hall an undulating 'vault', which has been designed to evoke an "unforgettable arrival experience", features a scaled 1877 map of the Dutch city rendered in blue and white. Columns wrapped in a mosaic of Delft-blue titles, also reminiscent of the colours of Delftware, one of the city's most famous global exports. The station platforms below ground have been designed by Benthem Crouwel, the Dutch practice behind Rotterdam Centraal Station.
Great movements in architecture are usually set in motion by a dull societal ache or as a response to a sudden, unforeseen reorientation of a community at large. The Dutch city of Rotterdam - vast swathes of which were cast into oblivion during the blitz of May 1940 - has been at the forefront of many shifts in approach to the built environment. It is therefore fitting that the latest exhibition at the Nieuwe Instituut (formerly the NAi), simply titled Structuralism, is being held in the city that was recently named Europe’s best.
Furthermore, Dutch Structuralism is a timely subject for Dirk van den Heuvel and the Jaap Bakema Study Centre (JBSC) in Delft to tackle. With major civic buildings like OMA's extension to Rotterdam's City Hall taking shape, it appears that a resurgence of Structuralist formal thought is appearing in the contemporary city. The exhibition seeks to shine a new light on the movement by uncovering drawings, models and texts which profoundly shaped 20th century architectural thinking.
The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design have announced their public events for Spring 2014. The public events are part of The Good Life series, "a multi-format program exploring the relationship of the built environment to collective pursuits, personal aspirations, and the contemporary world. It aims to reveal how—on different scales and in various cultural contexts—architecture and urban design can contribute and enrich societal livelihood."
The TU Delft Library, in The Netherlands, helped to place Mecanoo in the international scene. The library was designed 15 years ago, and to celebrate, Mecanoo released this great video revisiting the now iconic building. Enjoy!
The Berlage Institute closed in 2012. But the Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design is open for business. And it is accepting students. Located at the Delft University of Technology, though they are independent entities, the new, re-visioned Berlage is not simply a continuation of the original Berlage. Instead, it has been reinvisioned to train students who already have either an M.Arch or a five-year degree.
The Berlage challenges students to understand the issues and principles surrounding the economy, the environment, and society as the route towards good architecture. History and cultural issues are therefore central to this Master’s of Science degree, as they should be. Because in today’s economy, the formula for success demands more than just an agility with computer programs. Students need to be able to exercise critical thinking skills. Unfortunately, many school studios fetishize style over substance but when their students graduate, they are ill-trained.
Organized by Polis, platform for Urbanism, the third edition of Urbanism Week will take place October 8-11 at TU Delft; University of Technology, the Netherlands. A yearly conference, the event aims to understand the perspectives, practices and trends in the field. This year’s Urbanism Week explores the influence of big companies on the city and the design of urban lifestyles. Hoping to link students with the professional field, the four- day program will find new ways of approaching different infrastructure aspects and new practices dealing with the globalized world. This also includes new urban structures and new urban players are going to be designated. For more information, please visit here.
Coming to Delft, The Netherlands this September 27-28, the Revit Technology Conference (RTC) is an independent training conference covering Building Information Modelling in all its aspects, with a core focus on workflows centred on the Autodesk Revit Technology. This is a unique ‘for users, by users’ event, where experts and leaders in the field of BIM share their knowledge and exchange their insights. With speakers and delegates from all aspects of the industry – from designers to owners, from surveyors to facility managers ‐ RTC provides many opportunities and benefits together in a single location. To register, and for more information, please visit here.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the biannual workshop series, Indesem (International Design Seminar) '13 is a week long workshop for students and recent graduates, accompanied by a publicly accessible lecture series featuring renowned architects and theorists reflecting on the current theme. Taking place April 19-26 at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft, the Netherlands, the fundamental idea of the seminar, with the theme of 'Scale Matters', is to create an environment where students and professionals can debate about the position of an architect. The outcome can contribute to the current architectural discussion. Competition to participate in the workshop is open for applicants until February 27. For more information, please visit here.
Studioninedots + HVDN shared with us their winning proposal for the student housing competition for TU Delft Campus. The project parameters were to design a volume of 67 meters long and 5 storeys high, with its own strong identity and a collective space on the roof including a rain water harvesting element. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The 2011 edition of Indesem will focus on the theme ‘Losing ground’; the changing position of architect and architecture with respect to the digitalized network society and the necessary shifts in practice and thinking when designing in this changing paradigm. For more information on the theme, lectures and workshop you can go to the event’s official website.
Mecanoo Architects, a Dutch firm, recently designed a city hall and train station for the city of Delft. The new station design intends to weave the past of the city with its future in the expanding urban environment.
Further information about the project after the break.
