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Articles
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The research that the 5x5 project is based on partially consists of intensive map studies. The first part of these studies, presented in OverHolland 5, shows a Randstadscale map with the expansion of the builtup urban area and a map showing the railway infrastructure development, compared to the 18thcentury bow hauling network. On an urban regional scale, the study reveals a map matrix of the ‘changing’ locations of the station areas in relation to the expansion of the builtup urban area. In addition, three map sections from the five station areas show the morphological conditions around 1830, 1910 and 2000.
In this second part of the map research, two map images were elaborated for each city. The first map image shows when the railway was first put into use. In addition to the railway, the main connecting roads between the cities are also shown. The urban area on these maps was drawn based on the historical cadastral plans dating from around 1830. The cadastral plans document the state of urbanisation just before the large city expansions and radical changes in historical centres. The townscape, as depicted on the historical cadastral plans, generally corresponds with the situation at the time when the railway network was built. The characteristic element of the Dutch peat landscape is its water structure. Rivers and parcel ditches were drawn based on the topographical and military map of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, dating from between 1850 and 1864.
The second map image shows the situation around 2000. Using colour coding for separate buildings, the expansion of the builtup urban area has been itemised for 1850, 1910, 1940, 1970 and 2000. The colours used do not necessarily indicate the period in which the buildings in question were actually built. Transformations of parts of the city after their expansion period are coloured according to their expansion period. Therefore for example, the transformation of the Northeast part of Gouda’s inner city up to 2000 is shown in black, the coding of the builtup urban area until 1850. Often however, the period of the expansion of the builtup urban area matches the period in which it was actually established.
The builtup urban area, national and secondary trunk roads, railways routes and water structure around 2000 are adaptations of the digital Top 10 vector map.
With this series of ten maps for five cities, the urbanisation around 2000 is shown per city, the beginning on the one hand and the ‘halftime score’ on the other. By using an unambiguous coding, drawing style and scale, the maps can be mutually compared and specific features can be read. Therefore, the different periods of city expansions clarifies to which extent the railways zones were a barrier for urban area expansions on the ‘other side’ of the railway, and how because of this, station area locations were moved from the periphery to the ci
The research that the 5x5 project is based on partially consists of intensive map studies. The first part of these studies, presented in OverHolland 5, shows a Randstadscale map with the expansion of the builtup urban area and a map showing the railway infrastructure development, compared to the 18thcentury bow hauling network. On an urban regional scale, the study reveals a map matrix of the ‘changing’ locations of the station areas in relation to the expansion of the builtup urban area. In addition, three map sections from the five station areas show the morphological conditions around 1830, 1910 and 2000.
In this second part of the map research, two map images were elaborated for each city. The first map image shows when the railway was first put into use. In addition to the railway, the main connecting roads between the cities are also shown. The urban area on these maps was drawn based on the historical cadastral plans dating from around...
The research that the 5x5 project is based on partially consists of intensive map studies. The first part of these studies, presented in OverHolland 5, shows a Randstadscale map with the expansion of the builtup urban area and a map showing the railway infrastructure development,...
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Project for the station of the 21st century within an urban expansion that builds on the tradition of the West European city
Scope
‘Using an architectonic intervention, create a vision for the Haarlem railway zone based on the assumption that the need will arise to place the railway underground’ is how the project read that we were given. It is a very broad project, which surely does not only contain architectonic aspects. Where to start? We discovered that moving the station to the East side of the city would make for a nice project. But how should we give it form here with any sense of reality? Nowadays, a station is just a roof and some stairs financed in order to offer the traveller shelter and make the platforms accessible. This reality is terribly banal and has nothing to do with a concept such as ‘coming home’ with the station as a ‘sign in the city’, ‘gateway to the city’, etc.
A similar project does, however, offer the possibility of reviewing existing structures. In Haarlem, which has already grown many times beyond its city limits, this seems like an interesting question. The starting point of moving the current railroads created a series of viewpoints for a new urban design and related transformation projects: recovery of the characteristics of the historical city centre, the transformation of the Oostpoort area into a new core and the layout of the new infrastructure, both above ground and underground. How does one deal with such transformation processes? How does the city preserve its recognisability and still anticipate new circumstances? By using existing elements and designing a new spatial and programmatic cohesion, this project has resulted in a proposal for transforming the railway zone, from which the project designs a new station as ‘un fait urbain’ (‘an urban fact’).
Project for the station of the 21st century within an urban expansion that builds on the tradition of the West European city
Scope
‘Using an architectonic intervention, create a vision for the Haarlem railway zone based on the assumption that the need will arise to place the railway underground’ is how the project read that we were given. It is a very broad project, which surely does not only contain architectonic aspects. Where to start? We discovered that moving the station to the East side of the city would make for a nice project. But how should we give it form here with any sense of reality? Nowadays, a station is just a roof and some stairs financed in order to offer the traveller shelter and make the platforms accessible. This reality is terribly banal and has nothing to do with a concept such as ‘coming home’ with the station as a ‘sign in the city’, ‘gateway to the city’, etc.
A similar...
Project for the station of the 21st century within an urban expansion that builds on the tradition of the West European city
Scope
‘Using an architectonic intervention, create a vision for the Haarlem railway zone based on the assumption that...
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When it is successful, urban design is praised for its problemsolving skills. Urban design does not differ from architecture in this capacity. If there is a spatial problem, then a professional process will lead to a solution. It is obvious that the professional merits of a discipline can be measured to a large extent by using the degree of its problemsolving skills. In the discipline of architecture, Vitruvius’ utilitas has acquired canonical status. And something that presents itself as a solution is useable. Yet, the question remains: what is usefulness?
In the modern urban design process, the professionalism of the architect/urban designer is used in a very reduced manner. It acts as a lubricant for a different process in which large yet very specific economic interests determine the direction. Architecture and urban design are the professional legitimacy, a kind of lubricant for fundamental processes. One could say that urban design is dissolved in the process. In its attempt to change the more significant powers in society, urban design disappears.
It must be possible to achieve other results using urban design. The actual reflection of the urban design plan, the tangible project, is in fact its most important asset. The problem of the dominance of the diagram in urban design is its apparent vagueness. A diagram can be reinterpreted endlessly, as it has an endless set of interpretations; it is an empty box.
We plead for urban design of which the most important quality is not interpreting, but presenting and proposing. It is an a priori form of urban design proposing projects that draw their intrinsic qualities from the perception in the phenomenological space. Urban design should in the first place present spatial models instead of interpretations of economic concepts. These spatial models should be evaluated based on their usefulness.
In this project we want to research usefulness of the urban project despite its possible economical value. It is an attempt to regain a relative autonomy for which we actually have the tools for our discipline: occupying space. Occupying is capturing something. You capture something by building something. Architecture acts as an antagonist to nature and the world. Once a site has been captured, it then obstructs. Architecture is a form of obstruction.
We have addressed the half hypothetical question of removing the visible infrastructure of the station area of Leiden by researching the notion of standing in the way by means of a project. Removing and developing underground works like a magic wand: a presumed problem is eliminated by an inexplicable, magic – presumed – liberating deed. Here, we ignore the intrinsic quality of buildings, the structure in the city. If we were to shove the entire city underground, the same would happen within the new horizon at the new site,. In other words, it looks like an attempt not only to sweep the dust under the carpet, but all the furniture as well. Is the furniture then not empowered in some way or another? That is the question we asked ourselves when we elaborated this project: what is the possible quality of a physical obstruction? Is it possible to detach the infrastructural hindrance of the station area from the physical appearance? The result is the design of a core dyke as an architectonic project. It is an incarnated barrier.
When it is successful, urban design is praised for its problemsolving skills. Urban design does not differ from architecture in this capacity. If there is a spatial problem, then a professional process will lead to a solution. It is obvious that the professional merits of a discipline can be measured to a large extent by using the degree of its problemsolving skills. In the discipline of architecture, Vitruvius’ utilitas has acquired canonical status. And something that presents itself as a solution is useable. Yet, the question remains: what is usefulness?
In the modern urban design process, the professionalism of the architect/urban designer is used in a very reduced manner. It acts as a lubricant for a different process in which large yet very specific economic interests determine the direction. Architecture and urban design are the professional legitimacy, a kind of lubricant for fundamental processes. One could say that urban design is...
When it is successful, urban design is praised for its problemsolving skills. Urban design does not differ from architecture in this capacity. If there is a spatial problem, then a professional process will lead to a solution. It is obvious that the professional merits of a...
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This project for the Delft rail zone was designed by AWG architects for the Delft University of Technology within the scope of the research project 5x5 Projects for the Dutch city. The study on the potential of the area that will be freed up when the rail is placed underground is an academic exercise just like the studies for the other Dutch cities of the 5x5 project. It has to be seen as separate from the practical assignments that are currently being worked on in Delft.
This project for the Delft rail zone was designed by AWG architects for the Delft University of Technology within the scope of the research project 5x5 Projects for the Dutch city. The study on the potential of the area that will be freed up when the rail is placed underground is an academic exercise just like the studies for the other Dutch cities of the 5x5 project. It has to be seen as separate from the practical assignments that are currently being worked on in Delft.
This project for the Delft rail zone was designed by AWG architects for the Delft University of Technology within the scope of the research project 5x5 Projects for the Dutch city. The study on the potential of the area that will be freed up when the rail is placed underground is an...
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Placing the railway that runs through Gouda underground means more than just removing a physical barrier in the city. While in other cities of this design research the rail path cuts through a more or less continuous structure, in Gouda the railway line at station level is simply a line separating different structures. Making the rails disappear from ground level will result in two entirely different districts, the historical and 19thcentury city on the one side and the postwar city on the other, which will suddenly confront one another. In the case of Gouda, a design study of the spatial possibilities of placing the railway line underground is actually research on a connection: how can a space that separates be converted into a space that connects?
Placing the railway that runs through Gouda underground means more than just removing a physical barrier in the city. While in other cities of this design research the rail path cuts through a more or less continuous structure, in Gouda the railway line at station level is simply a line separating different structures. Making the rails disappear from ground level will result in two entirely different districts, the historical and 19thcentury city on the one side and the postwar city on the other, which will suddenly confront one another. In the case of Gouda, a design study of the spatial possibilities of placing the railway line underground is actually research on a connection: how can a space that separates be converted into a space that connects?
Placing the railway that runs through Gouda underground means more than just removing a physical barrier in the city. While in other cities of this design research the rail path cuts through a more or less continuous structure, in Gouda the railway line at station level is simply a...
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The starting point of the design study presented here is the question: what could be the advantage for Dordrecht if the railway would be built underground? The issues related to such an intervention are extensive, but here the accent is placed on the architectonic aspects. The railway is a remarkable artefact, which has been a determining factor for the townscape of Dordrecht. The construction of the railway and station characterized the beginning of a new period of urban development. Railway traffic was the clear and tangible visualisation of the fact that the new period was associated with a leap of technological developments, which changed the perspectives of spatial relations. The railway bridge over the Oude Maas River, the railway embankments and the station building bear witness to a new territorial order which starting with the first Memorandum on Spatial Development of the Netherlands, is presented as Randstad Holland
The starting point of the design study presented here is the question: what could be the advantage for Dordrecht if the railway would be built underground? The issues related to such an intervention are extensive, but here the accent is placed on the architectonic aspects. The railway is a remarkable artefact, which has been a determining factor for the townscape of Dordrecht. The construction of the railway and station characterized the beginning of a new period of urban development. Railway traffic was the clear and tangible visualisation of the fact that the new period was associated with a leap of technological developments, which changed the perspectives of spatial relations. The railway bridge over the Oude Maas River, the railway embankments and the station building bear witness to a new territorial order which starting with the first Memorandum on Spatial Development of the Netherlands, is presented as Randstad Holland
The starting point of the design study presented here is the question: what could be the advantage for Dordrecht if the railway would be built underground? The issues related to such an intervention are extensive, but here the accent is placed on the architectonic aspects. The...