Designblog

Chaos and Order is the name of Hendrik Wijdevelds endeavor to eradicate the chaos and clutter of modern city life. I use his theories and pictures as a starting point in a deeper research into chaos and order, as one of the most fundamental dichotomies in our struggle to make sense of life. In its most extreme from it can be used as a formula to describe practically everything, from the beginning of time to the heat death of the universe.
 

Through juxtaposed pictures and excerpts from texts [download pdf]
I try to tell a story perhaps better lived in imagination than understood.
 

inspired by Rem Koolhaas’ Kunsthal Rotterdam (1990).

The Rotterdam Kunsthal is one of the very first of contemporary buildings that have tried to connect themselves in direct ways to their urban surroundings. By using geographical context it attempts to strive placelessness and lack of identity.

The first sketches of the Kunsthal show a changeable space called ‘robot’ which is flexible to all kinds of exhibition concepts with its shifting walls and tribunes. However the concept of adjusting develops further in the process and in his scale models he presents building blocks with two streets cutting straight through the construction.The Actualization: a square flat box located at the edge of the museum park. The building is divided into 4 pieces by an arterial road. It contains 3 exhibition spaces. 650m², 1000m² and 1250m², an auditorium, office and cafe.

Kunsthal

In the following drawings I researched this idea of architectural integration and urban fusion.

Gerrit Rietveld Academie / Hard Rock Cafe

Spui / Vondelpark

In this research i collected exciting materials and information, i compared it to other data that in a certain way related with it and questioned with this his decisions and my thoughts about the project.

What appealed me to start this with this project is the difference in between the first intentions and sketches and the actual outcome. The sketches look great but not very Gerrit Rietveld, the outcome (or at least the exterior of the house) looks kind of normal and look far from what I expect from a guy like Gerrit Rietveld. Never the less i like it a lot.

SharedInterests_BvandenBerg

Sayuri Chetty’s tale of the world bottle.

Villa dall’ava is a villa designed for a family that wanted a house that could be seen as two separate apartments; one for the parents and one for their daughter. The Family wanted a swimming pool on the roof and a panoramic view of the surrounding and over Paris.

The design is made with cheap material such as corrugated aluminum panels combined with expensive material such as natural stone, which is also a significant of Rem Koolhaas. Which for him is a way of mocking modernism by using materials and building structures that are different of what is commonly esthetically accepted. Another way of mocking modernism is by using different building systems that can have practical disadvantages such as sloping floors or ceilings, which you can also see in the design of Villa dall’Ava.

I was inspired by the way Rem Koolhaas is known for mocking modernism. And I questioned myself why would you call the combination cheap with expensive material, and sloping floors or ceilings mocking with modernism. Aren’t sloping floors and ceiling or the use of cheap material modernistic?
I thought that the ultimate way of mocking modernism would be something that wouldn’t be modernistic. I made a non-realistic sketch of Villa dall’Ava in a way that I find is mocking modernism.  By using materials that aren’t modern.

The Villa dall’ava is part of the Treasures of the NAi (Rotterdam); You can read more about the designed by 3 architects from OMA architects in my enclosed research pdf.

Vipcity is a research project of the Belgian bureau for urban planning T.O.P.office Luc Deleu. ‘The Unadapted City’ is a design based urbanist study. Earlier models such as Brikabrak (1998), Dinkytown (1998-99) and Octopus (1999) lead to the latest model Vipcity: an urban plan for 38,000 inhabitants.

According to T.O.P. office life on earth will become a problem because of a lack of space. While most architects and urban planners design spaces for one fixed purpose, T.O.P. office designed basic shapes that could fit for all purposes, to reduce the inefficient use of space in cities today. The basic shapes behave like a sort of skeleton, and can be filled according to the needs of the inhabitants. The only way a city can be adapted to its needs, is when its design is unadapted, still to be customized accordingly. Research lead to some rules in the arrangement of the city.

First, all needs are categorized. The facilities mentioned:
– hotel and catering – social facilities – medical facilities – distribution and Transport – education – universal and commercial services – culture and entertainment – worship – arts and crafts – sports and recreation

Next these facilities can be placed in three categories: structural, zoned and occasional.Structural facilities provide the cities structure.

The transport and distribution facilities are represented in the black oblong shape. It functions as the cities spine, along which the zones are placed (white parts in photo).The zoned facilities, shown as the small colored blocks, can develop by various, uncontrolled within a specific zone.

The facilities are shaped rectangular. This proved to be the most versatile and fitting for every function. The colors represent the different facilities.
Occasional facilities can develop everywhere by individual. By free initiatives that directly answer to a inhabitant needs.

When the needs of the inhabitants change, adjustments can be made on either zoned or occasional facilities. The space or form does not have to be adjusted, only its function, i the image represented by the change of color. Occasional facilities can easily be taken down or moved and affect the cities shape.

This research project by T.O.P. office is highly theoretical and not one of the models is executed. Nevertheless it gives fresh view the construction of the society.