Editorial
Articles
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samenThe two drawings most often cited from Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter’s now-classic study, Collage City, are probably those, set side by side, of Saint-Dié and Parma. Their juxtaposition visualizes the contrast between the traditional city, in which the open space is defined by the building mass (Parma), and the twentieth-century modern city, in which the building mass seems to be lost in an indeterminate open space (Saint-Dié). Each of the two drawings, dubbed figure-ground plans by the authors, seems to be the inverse of the other, and the authors draw a parallel with the figure-ground diagrams of Gestalt psychology. The black-and-white representation – literal and figurative – emphasizes the contrast between the two models to its utmost.
These plans are followed by a representation, drawn in similar style, of Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin. This design has become the embodiment of an architectural philosophy in which the modern city was presented, without a shred of hesitation, as the healer of all of society’s ills. Yet the Plan Voisin can also be seen as the traditional city and the modern city being slotted into one another. It is a fragment, albeit quite a sizable one, of the Ville Contemporaine, set in the heart of Paris. It creates an enclave, an area with its own, distinctive structure, imbedded in another structure and attempting to connect with it. A number of landmarks have been retained and the meandering blocks of the new layout make tentative contact with the Place Vendôme, which has not been erased. It is precisely this aspect of the Plan Voisin – the collision as well as the mutual adaptation of two apparently highly divergent visions of the city – that seems to fascinate Rowe and Koetter. Collage City is filled with many more examples of such enclaves, all drawn in that characteristic, almost polarizing style.
samenThe two drawings most often cited from Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter’s now-classic study, Collage City, are probably those, set side by side, of Saint-Dié and Parma. Their juxtaposition visualizes the contrast between the traditional city, in which the open space is defined by the building mass (Parma), and the twentieth-century modern city, in which the building mass seems to be lost in an indeterminate open space (Saint-Dié). Each of the two drawings, dubbed figure-ground plans by the authors, seems to be the inverse of the other, and the authors draw a parallel with the figure-ground diagrams of Gestalt psychology. The black-and-white representation – literal and figurative – emphasizes the contrast between the two models to its utmost.
These plans are followed by a representation, drawn in similar style, of Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin. This design has become the embodiment of an architectural philosophy in which the modern city was presented, without...
samenThe two drawings most often cited from Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter’s now-classic study, Collage City, are probably those, set side by side, of Saint-Dié and Parma. Their juxtaposition visualizes the contrast between the traditional city, in which the open space is defined by the...
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The visitor leaving St Paul’s Cathedral, pausing at the head of the steps and looking west, faces a street, Ludgate Hill, that drops downhill to the valley of the culverted River Fleet some 6 m below. The street beyond then climbs again to become Fleet Street and passes the now-abandoned palatial offices of the national newspapers, behind which on either side are the Inns of Court, home of the legal profession and early escapees from the City’s boundaries. The street continues, level, with occasional shallow turns to the left, to follow the bank of the River Thames now some 200 m to the south. At Aldwych, a Roman vestibule opens into the expansive courtyard of Somerset House, an eighteenth-century redevelopment of one of the sites of the bishops’ palaces which in the Tudor period lined the slopes between street, the Strand, and river. Separating these, the slopes are now cut by narrow streets and alleys that provide downward views of the water. Further along, however, a broader opening, Adam Street, extends levelly, the sky at its end, and lined on one side with a few grand but much-altered houses. A block beyond again a small opening, Durham Hill, follows the slope, but stops abruptly in an arched opening in the porticoed back of an institutional building, the Royal Society of Arts. These are all that remain of one of mid-eighteenth century London’s largest single housing designs.
The visitor leaving St Paul’s Cathedral, pausing at the head of the steps and looking west, faces a street, Ludgate Hill, that drops downhill to the valley of the culverted River Fleet some 6 m below. The street beyond then climbs again to become Fleet Street and passes the now-abandoned palatial offices of the national newspapers, behind which on either side are the Inns of Court, home of the legal profession and early escapees from the City’s boundaries. The street continues, level, with occasional shallow turns to the left, to follow the bank of the River Thames now some 200 m to the south. At Aldwych, a Roman vestibule opens into the expansive courtyard of Somerset House, an eighteenth-century redevelopment of one of the sites of the bishops’ palaces which in the Tudor period lined the slopes between street, the Strand, and river. Separating these, the slopes are now cut by narrow streets and alleys that provide downward views of the water. Further along, however, a...
The visitor leaving St Paul’s Cathedral, pausing at the head of the steps and looking west, faces a street, Ludgate Hill, that drops downhill to the valley of the culverted River Fleet some 6 m below. The street beyond then climbs again to become Fleet Street and passes the now-abandoned...
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Since the late twentieth century, urban projects have increased significantly in size, reintroducing some mid-century ideas on megastructures and habitat. In this light, a return to some of the founding ideas of the 1960s may prove illuminating. In particular, the notion of Grossform, put forward by Oswald Mathias Ungers in his 1966 essay ‘Grossformen im Wohnungsbau’, seems remarkably topical. Although Grossform, or ‘megaform’, is literally about ‘large form’, this definition of ‘large’ is based on the strength of its form more than on scale. ‘Only when a new quality arises beyond the mere sum of individual parts, and a higher level is achieved, does a Grossform arise. The primary characteristic is not numerical size. A small house can just as well be a Grossform as a housing block, a city district, or an entire city.’ In retrospect, it appears to prefigure the importance of architectural form in urban planning and the rise of many contemporary urban enclaves, marked by a specific formal expression.
In essence, Grossform is a manner of addressing both form and scale in order to rethink the impact of architecture on the city. This begins as early as 1960, when the position statement ‘Towards a New Architecture’, written with Reinhard Gieselmann, relates formal cohesion to the potential for urban diversity to develop. The proposition that form is a manner of evoking a specific spirit in architecture not only posits a correlation between form and content, but also suggests that there is a sensibility legible to the lay-public that does not form a guideline for behaviour, but rather encourages an attachment to architectural projects. This explicit attention to formal articulation more than programmatic intent and social context marks the work of Ungers as a minority position in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Since the late twentieth century, urban projects have increased significantly in size, reintroducing some mid-century ideas on megastructures and habitat. In this light, a return to some of the founding ideas of the 1960s may prove illuminating. In particular, the notion of Grossform, put forward by Oswald Mathias Ungers in his 1966 essay ‘Grossformen im Wohnungsbau’, seems remarkably topical. Although Grossform, or ‘megaform’, is literally about ‘large form’, this definition of ‘large’ is based on the strength of its form more than on scale. ‘Only when a new quality arises beyond the mere sum of individual parts, and a higher level is achieved, does a Grossform arise. The primary characteristic is not numerical size. A small house can just as well be a Grossform as a housing block, a city district, or an entire city.’ In retrospect, it appears to prefigure the importance of architectural form in urban planning and the rise of many contemporary urban enclaves,...
Since the late twentieth century, urban projects have increased significantly in size, reintroducing some mid-century ideas on megastructures and habitat. In this light, a return to some of the founding ideas of the 1960s may prove illuminating. In particular, the notion of Grossform, put...
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During the history of modern architecture the large-scale urban project has been declared dead quite a few times, and not by its least thinkers. Peter Smithson, for instance, would state as early as 1962 that the ‘whole city as big building metaphor’ was a mistake,1 and in 1976 Reyner Banham published his famous history of the megastructure writing that the megastructure concept was ‘autodestructive’, and had ‘proven to be a self-canceling concept’.2 Nevertheless, with the ‘noughties’ of the twenty-first century behind us, we are not only witnessing the ongoing revival of the 1960s, we actually see such projects being built again. Steven Holl’s Horizontal Skyscraper ‘floating’ over the Shenzhen landscape, for instance, could easily be mistaken for a late version of the ‘random aesthetics’ proposed by Alison and Peter Smithson to accommodate the new ‘patterns of growth and change’, of which their 1953 version of the Golden Lane project is the best-known example. Yet it is not just in the booming economies of the East where we find that the large-scale project is the way forward. Also in European cities smaller and bigger offspring from those superstructures, megastructures, Grossformen, clusters, mat-buildings and Kasbahs are being built, despite the populist call for neo-traditionalist cityscapes. Think of OMA’s design for the Rotterdam town hall, Jürgen Mayer’s Metropol Parasol for Seville, SANAA’s labyrinthine interiors, or any project by MVRDV. Even in a historic city like Amsterdam there are a bunch of large-scale projects, which seem to be nothing but superstructures in disguise. These are mostly urban redevelopment schemes such as Frits van Dongen’s Funenpark, or, an early example, Kees Christiaanse’s design for the GWL-terrein. Also the Java-island development by Sjoerd Soeters, dressed up as a contemporary version of canal housing, is typologically speaking a modernist superblock with endless underground parking garages and built in one go by one building consortium, albeit of course in a language much more fit to Dutch bourgeois taste than say the monumental Bijlmer housing estate of the 1970s.
During the history of modern architecture the large-scale urban project has been declared dead quite a few times, and not by its least thinkers. Peter Smithson, for instance, would state as early as 1962 that the ‘whole city as big building metaphor’ was a mistake,1 and in 1976 Reyner Banham published his famous history of the megastructure writing that the megastructure concept was ‘autodestructive’, and had ‘proven to be a self-canceling concept’.2 Nevertheless, with the ‘noughties’ of the twenty-first century behind us, we are not only witnessing the ongoing revival of the 1960s, we actually see such projects being built again. Steven Holl’s Horizontal Skyscraper ‘floating’ over the Shenzhen landscape, for instance, could easily be mistaken for a late version of the ‘random aesthetics’ proposed by Alison and Peter Smithson to accommodate the new ‘patterns of growth and change’, of which their 1953 version of the Golden Lane project is the...
During the history of modern architecture the large-scale urban project has been declared dead quite a few times, and not by its least thinkers. Peter Smithson, for instance, would state as early as 1962 that the ‘whole city as big building metaphor’ was a mistake,1 and in 1976 Reyner...
Interviews
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Rob Krier studied to become an architect in the early 1960s, but has worked most of his career in the field of urban design. Housing has become both his curse and his concern, to use his own words. His designs and the development of numerous residential areas are a testimony to an approach deeply rooted in the traditions of the European city, as are his various publications on the subject, including Urban Space (1975, 2005) and Town Spaces: Contemporary Interpretations in Traditional Urbanism (2003). Although he prefers the term ‘repair’ rather than ‘redevelopment’ of inner-city areas, some of his projects – because of his strong views on the creation of urban quality – have the characteristics of urban enclaves: the Meander and Noorderhof in Amsterdam or De Resident in The Hague, to name but a few. DASH would like to know what it is that Krier aims to achieve in urban design and what his strategies are for the development – or repair – of inner-city areas.
Rob Krier studied to become an architect in the early 1960s, but has worked most of his career in the field of urban design. Housing has become both his curse and his concern, to use his own words. His designs and the development of numerous residential areas are a testimony to an approach deeply rooted in the traditions of the European city, as are his various publications on the subject, including Urban Space (1975, 2005) and Town Spaces: Contemporary Interpretations in Traditional Urbanism (2003). Although he prefers the term ‘repair’ rather than ‘redevelopment’ of inner-city areas, some of his projects – because of his strong views on the creation of urban quality – have the characteristics of urban enclaves: the Meander and Noorderhof in Amsterdam or De Resident in The Hague, to name but a few. DASH would like to know what it is that Krier aims to achieve in urban design and what his strategies are for the development – or repair – of inner-city areas.
Rob Krier studied to become an architect in the early 1960s, but has worked most of his career in the field of urban design. Housing has become both his curse and his concern, to use his own words. His designs and the development of numerous residential areas are a testimony to an approach...
Case Studies
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From the thirteenth century communities for unmarried women began to develop in a number of cities in the Low Countries. These begijnhoven, or beguinages, offered a safe haven for beguines, or women who wished to live a devout, chaste life, under the authority of the church, yet without the bonds of monastic vows. Such communities provided their members with mutual support in times of poverty or disease. Rich women had their own houses, while the less well-off lived together in a single dwelling known as a convent. The first beguinages were built outside cities, within their own protective walls. Later, communities were built inside city walls or brought within these walls by city expansion. Beguinages had their own church and an infirmary or hospital; larger communities had a shelter for indigent beguines, the Table of the Holy Spirit (also the name of the special fund, or dole, to support needy members of the community), attached to the infirmary.
Beguinages take two main forms: buildings arranged around a central square or garden, with blank rear walls facing the city (as in the Begijnhof in Amsterdam), or buildings set along streets within a separate, walled area. The Groot Begijnhof in Leuven, one of the first beguinages to be founded, around 1230, is a magnificent example of the latter configuration. Although this walled site initially lay outside the city boundaries, expansion of Leuven in the fourteenth century literally turned the beguinage into a city within a city. The Groot Begijnhof site is intersected by the branches of a small river, the Dijle, whose waters were used for washing laundry, an important source of income for the Leuven beguines. A number of streets form an irregular chequerboard of building blocks. The infirmary was situated on the southern edge of the site, where it was connected to the bakery, brewery and stores. The walls also enclosed sufficient space for a farm, a vineyard, orchards and kitchen gardens. The church was located beside the main entrance, opposite the infirmary. A later expansion, known as the Spaans Kwartier (Spanish Quarter), lies to the west of the Dijle and is closer to the other beguinage type, with buildings set around a green courtyard.
From the thirteenth century communities for unmarried women began to develop in a number of cities in the Low Countries. These begijnhoven, or beguinages, offered a safe haven for beguines, or women who wished to live a devout, chaste life, under the authority of the church, yet without the bonds of monastic vows. Such communities provided their members with mutual support in times of poverty or disease. Rich women had their own houses, while the less well-off lived together in a single dwelling known as a convent. The first beguinages were built outside cities, within their own protective walls. Later, communities were built inside city walls or brought within these walls by city expansion. Beguinages had their own church and an infirmary or hospital; larger communities had a shelter for indigent beguines, the Table of the Holy Spirit (also the name of the special fund, or dole, to support needy members of the community), attached to the infirmary.
Beguinages take two...
From the thirteenth century communities for unmarried women began to develop in a number of cities in the Low Countries. These begijnhoven, or beguinages, offered a safe haven for beguines, or women who wished to live a devout, chaste life, under the authority of the church, yet without the...
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In many respects the Adelphi in London, designed and built by the four Adam brothers (adelphoi is Greek for brothers), was a pioneering project. The brothers, three architects and a banker, had acquired a leasehold contract in 1768 for a site of approximately 65 x 110 m to the south of the Strand, on the banks of the Thames. It was the first building project in London to face the river. Prior to this the river banks had been a back yard to the city, filled with warehouses, wharves and decaying homes alongside stinking mudflats.
The difference in level between river bank and city was compensated by a series of vaulted passages and cellars set on the bank; these formed the podium for a collection of prominent houses, accessed via a second system of streets. In the centre of the podium was a closed block with 24 dwellings. The 11 most prominent houses in the block, facing the river, were set somewhat back in relation to the substructure, thereby creating an open space initially known as Royal Terrace, and later as Adelphi Terrace. This is the first known use of the term terrace to denote a row of houses. Around the central block were a further three streets, also with homes designed by the Adam brothers. The substructure and superstructure homes and streets formed a coherent whole. An arcade along the river front and openings in the sides of the podium gave access to the twilight world of the lower streets and cellars. The designers displayed great ingenuity in their response to the adjacent buildings: they preserved symmetry, for example, with an indentation along the line of Robert Street which mirrored the Adam Street passage to the Strand. This recess also allowed an existing house, owned by a banker, to retain its view of the river.
In many respects the Adelphi in London, designed and built by the four Adam brothers (adelphoi is Greek for brothers), was a pioneering project. The brothers, three architects and a banker, had acquired a leasehold contract in 1768 for a site of approximately 65 x 110 m to the south of the Strand, on the banks of the Thames. It was the first building project in London to face the river. Prior to this the river banks had been a back yard to the city, filled with warehouses, wharves and decaying homes alongside stinking mudflats.
The difference in level between river bank and city was compensated by a series of vaulted passages and cellars set on the bank; these formed the podium for a collection of prominent houses, accessed via a second system of streets. In the centre of the podium was a closed block with 24 dwellings. The 11 most prominent houses in the block, facing the river, were set somewhat back in relation to the substructure, thereby creating an open space...
In many respects the Adelphi in London, designed and built by the four Adam brothers (adelphoi is Greek for brothers), was a pioneering project. The brothers, three architects and a banker, had acquired a leasehold contract in 1768 for a site of approximately 65 x 110 m to the south of the...
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In 1921 the rapidly growing city of Amsterdam took over Watergraafsmeer polder, hitherto an independent entity. The polder was already the object of a large-scale, planned expansion of the city, whose layout employed the then customary pattern of long, relatively shallow housing blocks. One exception to this pattern was a block between Middenweg, the original central axis in the polder parcellation, and a newly constructed road, Linnaeusparkweg; the large size and depth of this anomalous block were the product of older buildings along Middenweg and a side street with low-rise working-class homes (now Linnaeusdwarsstraat). The spacious, enclosed site wad acquired in 1918 by the Roman Catholic parish of the Holy Martyrs of Gorc kum to build a church. The area not required for the church wad sold as housing land to the Roman Catholic building contractor J.J.L. Rozestraten, who developed the site and rented out the new homes. This not only enabled the parish to generate extra income to finance construction of the church, but also expanded the base for parish life by importing (large), Catholic families into the neighbourhood. In 1924 Alexander Kropholler (1881-1971) was awarded the commission to design the entire complex. A self-taught individualist who had converted to Roman Catholicism in 1910, Kropholler enjoyed a reputation for designing schools, churches and housing complexes.
In 1921 the rapidly growing city of Amsterdam took over Watergraafsmeer polder, hitherto an independent entity. The polder was already the object of a large-scale, planned expansion of the city, whose layout employed the then customary pattern of long, relatively shallow housing blocks. One exception to this pattern was a block between Middenweg, the original central axis in the polder parcellation, and a newly constructed road, Linnaeusparkweg; the large size and depth of this anomalous block were the product of older buildings along Middenweg and a side street with low-rise working-class homes (now Linnaeusdwarsstraat). The spacious, enclosed site wad acquired in 1918 by the Roman Catholic parish of the Holy Martyrs of Gorc kum to build a church. The area not required for the church wad sold as housing land to the Roman Catholic building contractor J.J.L. Rozestraten, who developed the site and rented out the new homes. This not only enabled the parish to generate extra income...
In 1921 the rapidly growing city of Amsterdam took over Watergraafsmeer polder, hitherto an independent entity. The polder was already the object of a large-scale, planned expansion of the city, whose layout employed the then customary pattern of long, relatively shallow housing blocks. One...
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The large-scale housing programme implemented by the city of Vienna from 1923 to 1934 provides a unique example of a direct connection between politics and architecture. From 1919 to 1934 Vienna was run by a social-democratic city council, thus forming a political enclave, known as Red Vienna, in an otherwise highly conservative and clerically governed Austria. Social and economic problems were colossal in Vienna after the end of the First World War and the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. High levels of working-class unemployment were combined with wretched living conditions, generally regarded as the worst in Europe. The city council initiated a programme to build good, affordable housing for the impoverished working classes, financed by the revenue from newly introduced municipal taxes. From 1923 a large number of building projects were completed, producing a total of 64,000 dwellings. Rents were extremely low, being based solely on a contribution towards maintenance, and considerably reduced the cost of living for residents.
This progressive programme was not translated in the architecture. While functional housing architecture with strict strip building parcellation was being developed on new estates in Germany, the architecture of the Viennese Gemeindebauten tended to the traditional, and projects were fitted into the fabric of the existing city. Designs were generally planned as more or less traditional blocks with large collective courtyards. Manfredo Tafuri’s book Vienna Rossa is perhaps the best known of the many studies of this programme. Tafuri described the projects as a conflict between technique, ideology and form, and hopelessly regressive from a typological point of view. His view of the executed plans as isolated enclaves, cut off from the city of which they were part, is perhaps best illustrated by the storming of a number of the projects by fascist troops in 1934, and their residents’ unsuccessful defence of these working-class bastions. This February Revolution signified the end of Red Vienna.
The large-scale housing programme implemented by the city of Vienna from 1923 to 1934 provides a unique example of a direct connection between politics and architecture. From 1919 to 1934 Vienna was run by a social-democratic city council, thus forming a political enclave, known as Red Vienna, in an otherwise highly conservative and clerically governed Austria. Social and economic problems were colossal in Vienna after the end of the First World War and the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. High levels of working-class unemployment were combined with wretched living conditions, generally regarded as the worst in Europe. The city council initiated a programme to build good, affordable housing for the impoverished working classes, financed by the revenue from newly introduced municipal taxes. From 1923 a large number of building projects were completed, producing a total of 64,000 dwellings. Rents were extremely low, being based solely on a contribution towards...
The large-scale housing programme implemented by the city of Vienna from 1923 to 1934 provides a unique example of a direct connection between politics and architecture. From 1919 to 1934 Vienna was run by a social-democratic city council, thus forming a political enclave, known as Red Vienna,...
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In 1947 Jean-François Gravier published his influential study ‘Paris et le désert français’, in which he advocated improving the balance between the development of Paris and the French countryside, for the capital’s enormous concentration of activity and population was threatening the countryside on the one hand and producing poor living conditions on the other. Ten years later the enterprising architect Fernand Pouillon took up this viewpoint when he developed plans for housing on brownfield sites in and around Paris. Pouillon, who had previously worked chiefly on large projects in cities in southern France and Algeria, intended to use these plans to gain a foothold in Paris. He founded the Comptoir National du Logement (CNL), a firm under his directorship, which combined design, development and execution in a total package designed to secure rapid, economical building. In 1957, after several early, small projects in Pantin and Montrouge, Pouillon embarked on the large-scale development of sites formerly occupied by the Salmson car factories, on either side of rue du Point-du-Jour in the industrial suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt.
Fernand Pouillon is an outstanding figure in post-war French architecture. Following the example of Auguste Perret, he rejected the protocols of CIAM planning and monotonous, prefab-dominated housing. Pouillon’s plans are characterized by careful compositions of buildings around green, trafficfree, enclosed courtyards. His architecture displays an idiosyncratic amalgam of both traditional and modernist style elements.
In 1947 Jean-François Gravier published his influential study ‘Paris et le désert français’, in which he advocated improving the balance between the development of Paris and the French countryside, for the capital’s enormous concentration of activity and population was threatening the countryside on the one hand and producing poor living conditions on the other. Ten years later the enterprising architect Fernand Pouillon took up this viewpoint when he developed plans for housing on brownfield sites in and around Paris. Pouillon, who had previously worked chiefly on large projects in cities in southern France and Algeria, intended to use these plans to gain a foothold in Paris. He founded the Comptoir National du Logement (CNL), a firm under his directorship, which combined design, development and execution in a total package designed to secure rapid, economical building. In 1957, after several early, small projects in Pantin and Montrouge, Pouillon embarked on the...
In 1947 Jean-François Gravier published his influential study ‘Paris et le désert français’, in which he advocated improving the balance between the development of Paris and the French countryside, for the capital’s enormous concentration of activity and population was threatening the...
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The large-scale destruction wreaked by the Second World War in London’s financial heart, the City of London, was responsible for intensifying the population decrease that had started many years before. Where 120,000 people had lived in 1851, this number was barely 5,000 a century later. The Corporation of London, the City’s governing body, resolved to reverse this trend, and designated one of the largest bomb craters in the City – the Barbican site – as a residential area, despite the lower revenue this would generate. Chamberlin Powell & Bon, architects of the Golden Lane project immediately to the north of the Barbican, the successful product of a 1951 competition, were invited to submit a plan. Their initial proposal for a grid-based development, enclosing alternating public and private courtyards, was followed in 1959 by a second submission whose major features were adopted and implemented without change, despite the lengthy construction time required that would extend well into the 1970s.
The large-scale destruction wreaked by the Second World War in London’s financial heart, the City of London, was responsible for intensifying the population decrease that had started many years before. Where 120,000 people had lived in 1851, this number was barely 5,000 a century later. The Corporation of London, the City’s governing body, resolved to reverse this trend, and designated one of the largest bomb craters in the City – the Barbican site – as a residential area, despite the lower revenue this would generate. Chamberlin Powell & Bon, architects of the Golden Lane project immediately to the north of the Barbican, the successful product of a 1951 competition, were invited to submit a plan. Their initial proposal for a grid-based development, enclosing alternating public and private courtyards, was followed in 1959 by a second submission whose major features were adopted and implemented without change, despite the lengthy construction time required that would...
The large-scale destruction wreaked by the Second World War in London’s financial heart, the City of London, was responsible for intensifying the population decrease that had started many years before. Where 120,000 people had lived in 1851, this number was barely 5,000 a century later. The...
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The bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940 largely obliterated the centre of the city, including the Oude Haven (Old Port). Work immediately began on reconstruction. The Witteveen Plan, named after municipal architect G.W. Witteveen, was adopted in the same year as the bombing. After a general building freeze in 1942, the Plan became the subject of debate. It was followed in 1946 by C. van Traa’s reconstruction plan, modelled along more modern lines. During the postwar years the construction of major expansion estates such as Pendrecht and Ommoord alleviated the housing shortage, while (infrastructural) projects such as the Groothandelsgebouw, Lijnbaan and Coolsingel appeared in the centre. However, the area around Blaak and the Oude Haven remained untouched until the 1970s. Architect Jaap Bakema received the commission to design a library in the district, and Piet Blom a large housing estate, only in 1975.
The bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940 largely obliterated the centre of the city, including the Oude Haven (Old Port). Work immediately began on reconstruction. The Witteveen Plan, named after municipal architect G.W. Witteveen, was adopted in the same year as the bombing. After a general building freeze in 1942, the Plan became the subject of debate. It was followed in 1946 by C. van Traa’s reconstruction plan, modelled along more modern lines. During the postwar years the construction of major expansion estates such as Pendrecht and Ommoord alleviated the housing shortage, while (infrastructural) projects such as the Groothandelsgebouw, Lijnbaan and Coolsingel appeared in the centre. However, the area around Blaak and the Oude Haven remained untouched until the 1970s. Architect Jaap Bakema received the commission to design a library in the district, and Piet Blom a large housing estate, only in 1975.
The bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940 largely obliterated the centre of the city, including the Oude Haven (Old Port). Work immediately began on reconstruction. The Witteveen Plan, named after municipal architect G.W. Witteveen, was adopted in the same year as the bombing. After a general...
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At the northern point of Sloterplas, a lake in Amsterdam, lies Noorderhof, a project built to a design by Krier Kohl Architekten. Noorderhof is situated in a zone originally intended for schools, surrounded by the open parcellation so characteristic of the suburb known as the Westelijke Tuinsteden and Cornelis van Eesteren’s Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan (AUP, General Expansion Plan). The project comprises four closed building blocks, grouped around the OLV van Lourdes Church by Marinus Granpré Molière (1955-1957), and two smaller blocks to the south of the church, where an existing semi-circular residential building now forms the southern limit of the neighbourhood.
The church building forms the pivot for Noorderhof’s spatial layout. To the front is an asymmetrical, funnel-shaped open space. The buildings around this square are two storeys high, with three-layer accents at their corners. The façades are uniform in execution, unlike in the rest of the plan, with two-storey-high window sections between brick piers, creating a rhythmic repetition that resembles a colonnade from a distance. Some of the dwellings around the square have small front gardens. The square’s funnel shape produces two slanting, irregularly formed building blocks. The largest has a public inner area, the other (like the rest of the building blocks) an inner space not open to the public. A continuous, public zone is formed around the various blocks by the system of streets, the church square, a public garden and a small park.
At the northern point of Sloterplas, a lake in Amsterdam, lies Noorderhof, a project built to a design by Krier Kohl Architekten. Noorderhof is situated in a zone originally intended for schools, surrounded by the open parcellation so characteristic of the suburb known as the Westelijke Tuinsteden and Cornelis van Eesteren’s Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan (AUP, General Expansion Plan). The project comprises four closed building blocks, grouped around the OLV van Lourdes Church by Marinus Granpré Molière (1955-1957), and two smaller blocks to the south of the church, where an existing semi-circular residential building now forms the southern limit of the neighbourhood.
The church building forms the pivot for Noorderhof’s spatial layout. To the front is an asymmetrical, funnel-shaped open space. The buildings around this square are two storeys high, with three-layer accents at their corners. The façades are uniform in execution, unlike in the rest of the plan, with...
At the northern point of Sloterplas, a lake in Amsterdam, lies Noorderhof, a project built to a design by Krier Kohl Architekten. Noorderhof is situated in a zone originally intended for schools, surrounded by the open parcellation so characteristic of the suburb known as the Westelijke...
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From the mid 1990s the Breda local authority sought a function for the Chassé site, a disused complex of barracks between the southeast edge of the city centre and the Singel. Several proposed designs were deemed unsatisfactory, before OMA won the competition for the overall plan. The basis for this plan was not a traditional city model of streets and (closed) building blocks, but a ‘campus model’, or field (Latin campus) with ‘pavilions’. OMA considered this strategy to offer the best opportunities for a phased approach to a possibly uncertain development. It also accorded a selfevident place within the new context to existing buildings on the site, such as Herman Hertzberger’s Chassétheater, completed in 1995.
Although the plan appears to be a random configuration of building forms and types, appearances are deceiving. A number of sightlines, such as the line between the water tower and the Grote Kerk, determine the position and form of several volumes. The open space between the buildings was also carefully designed by the West 8 design agency. The park-style environment is complemented by two squares, which add to the inner city’s open spaces. One of these, a quadrangle, is situated before the Chassémuseum (formerly the main building in the barracks complex, remodelled and refurbished by Pascal Grosfeld). The other forms the roof of the underground public car park. The hard surface, comprised of a number of triangular sections, runs through the heart of the Chassé Park, connecting Oude Veste with the Singel.
From the mid 1990s the Breda local authority sought a function for the Chassé site, a disused complex of barracks between the southeast edge of the city centre and the Singel. Several proposed designs were deemed unsatisfactory, before OMA won the competition for the overall plan. The basis for this plan was not a traditional city model of streets and (closed) building blocks, but a ‘campus model’, or field (Latin campus) with ‘pavilions’. OMA considered this strategy to offer the best opportunities for a phased approach to a possibly uncertain development. It also accorded a selfevident place within the new context to existing buildings on the site, such as Herman Hertzberger’s Chassétheater, completed in 1995.
Although the plan appears to be a random configuration of building forms and types, appearances are deceiving. A number of sightlines, such as the line between the water tower and the Grote Kerk, determine the position and form of several volumes. The...
From the mid 1990s the Breda local authority sought a function for the Chassé site, a disused complex of barracks between the southeast edge of the city centre and the Singel. Several proposed designs were deemed unsatisfactory, before OMA won the competition for the overall plan. The basis...
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From the 1990s the Oostelijk Havengebied (Eastern Dock Area) in Amsterdam was developed into a residential and work zone, using various large projects that display diverse urban planning models. On Java-eiland (Java Island) closed building blocks were deployed to create a kind of superblock, with added functions in the courtyards. Borneo-Sporenburg is covered with a compact tissue of deep and narrow patio dwellings, interspersed with several large residential buildings. On Piet Heinkade (clusters) of sturdy buildings allude to the large scale of the warehouses that once dominated the scene. In the most recently developed section of the Oostelijk Havengebied, an old harbour called Funen, the basic model is that of villas in a park.
Funen is a triangular site of circa 3.5 ha, delimited by the railway line running between the stations of Amsterdam- Centraal and Muiderpoort, Cruquiuskade and the Czaar Peterbuurt, the neighbourhood around Czaar Peterstraat. When IBC developers bought the site from the Dutch railway company, it was no longer a harbour and had served for many years as a transhipment area for the transport firm of Van Gend & Loos. The site’s location beside the railway line was ideal for this purpose. However, its proximity to the rail tracks was more problematic for its new residential function. The project’s overall design is thus the direct product of the search for a solution to this problem. De Architekten Cie., which won the closed competition, placed a height-progressive, hook-shaped building along the railway line and Cruquiuskade. In the lee of this building are 16 urban villas, or small blocks of diverse size, housing varying numbers of dwellings, developed by a range of architects. The park which contains these urban villas, and also forms a buffer with the Czaar Peterbuurt, has provided the project with its name, Funenpark.
From the 1990s the Oostelijk Havengebied (Eastern Dock Area) in Amsterdam was developed into a residential and work zone, using various large projects that display diverse urban planning models. On Java-eiland (Java Island) closed building blocks were deployed to create a kind of superblock, with added functions in the courtyards. Borneo-Sporenburg is covered with a compact tissue of deep and narrow patio dwellings, interspersed with several large residential buildings. On Piet Heinkade (clusters) of sturdy buildings allude to the large scale of the warehouses that once dominated the scene. In the most recently developed section of the Oostelijk Havengebied, an old harbour called Funen, the basic model is that of villas in a park.
Funen is a triangular site of circa 3.5 ha, delimited by the railway line running between the stations of Amsterdam- Centraal and Muiderpoort, Cruquiuskade and the Czaar Peterbuurt, the neighbourhood around Czaar Peterstraat. When IBC developers...
From the 1990s the Oostelijk Havengebied (Eastern Dock Area) in Amsterdam was developed into a residential and work zone, using various large projects that display diverse urban planning models. On Java-eiland (Java Island) closed building blocks were deployed to create a kind of superblock,...