FAILED ARCHITECTURE

Failed Architecture #7: Fascinated By Failure

Sat, 26 May 2012 16:01:00 +0200

For the 7^th edition of the Failed Architecture debate and talk show, on May 9 in De Verdieping/ TrouwAmsterdam, we had chosen a somewhat provocative title to evoke the discussion we wanted to have. By naming it “Ruin Porn”, we wanted to take a step back from what we have done in previous editions – which is analyzing cases of architecture and built environment regarded as failures – and address the widespread fascination with ruination and decay in photography, urban analysis and other media. Apparently, we were not the only ones interested in this issue, looking at the large turn up it generated.

We had invited several guests to explore the different dimensions of this fascination.

The first was Rob Funcken, who is a graphic designer now studying photography. Funcken has actively engaged in the act of urban exploration, in which the trick is to find and access abandoned buildings, and often also to photograph them. He explained that the allure of urban exploration has to with adventure of how to get (in)to a location, the curiosity of what’s inside and the aesthetics of decay. Funcken said he stopped doing it a few years ago because it lost some of its exclusivity (more and more people started doing it), and because would like to engage more in documentary photography (implying he was primarily interested in the aesthetic aspect ruin photography).

One of the objects of discussion: “American Hotel” by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. Picture courtesy of Galerie Fontana Fortuna.

The second guest was Hans Aarsman, who is a photography journalist and writer. Aarsman had prepared a slideshow of images that related to “ruin porn”. He started off by showing a website, containing high-contrast black and white pictures of furrow-faced old people which contained Facebook’s like-buttons, and did a rough analysis of what kinds of ‘ruined faces’ people like most. Then, he showed a series of post-disaster images, most of them shot after hurricane Katrina and Asian floods, showing how the victims were dealing with the situation, both in a practical and humorous way. The third set of pictures contained images of single traditional Chinese dwellings with people living in them that had remained standing in the middle of a construction site, as a last stronghold. The houses were badly accessible and construction was going on around them, creating some kind of a disastrous situation for the inhabitants. The first set of pictures he showed contrasted from the second and third, in the sense that it was a case of beautification of decay. The second and third were more factual and journalistic, documenting a situation without really aestheticizing them.

Rob Funcken saying he was primarily concerned with the aesthetics of ruination stirred up the audience a bit and also became a subject of discussion later on. Some people couldn’t understand the distinction between ‘aesthetics’ and ‘documentary’, compared to ‘porn’ vs. ‘reality’. On the one hand, there was the argument that this field of photography could contribute to the comprehension of decline and the physical and socioeconomic impact of it. On the other, there was a strong critique on the aestheticization of decay, because such work is too much concerned with the nature and quality of the photographs as art and too little with the actual realities it depicts. As an example, when showing the image by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre of the abandoned and decaying American Hotel in Detroit, someone from the audience called the makers voyeuristic and not at all bothered by the social realities of Detroit residents currently living near the site they captured on film.

After the break, visual artist Kim Bouvy joined the round table discussion. She took a rather critical stance on the staged images the disciplines of urban exploring and ruin photography brought forth. She is more interested in documenting the frightening emptiness of space than beautifying and glorifying urban decay. The photos shown during the event were a rather harsh distortion of reality instead of captures of moments in time, according to Bouvy. Our fascination for the decay in them is similar to the way some are attracted to porn movies. You would look at it as a bystander from your own little comfort zone, but you rather don’t want to act in it or be there for a prolonged period of time.

Joris Montens, owner of Fontana Fortuna gallery, was much more equanimous about the photos on display. His gallery is now exhibiting the work of Marchand and Meffre. Montens looks at the work of the French photographers mainly from an aesthetic viewpoint. Of course the story behind these photos is what appeals to us the most, a story of bygone times and a glorious past. However, it would be nonsense to take into account the lives of people who still have to make a living amidst the ruins, says Montens, since the photos were taken only in and around public buildings. This was not an abuse of the people of Detroit. With this argument, the gallery owner antagonized the audience somewhat, but it can also be said that the work of Marchand and Meffre raises public awareness of the state in which Detroit is at the moment. It can serve as a warning for other former industrial powerhouses in the Western world.

FA-mobile: Rotterdam - Zalmhaven, May 20

Tue, 08 May 2012 20:38:00 +0200

After traveling to a.o. Belgrade, Copenhagen and Sofia the FA-mobile team will organise a one-day workshop on the case of Zalmhaven in Rotterdam on 20th May, as part of the conference ‘Prototyping futures / Occupying the present’ (find more info below).

Prototyping Futures / Occupying the Present is a three-day conference with workshops initiated by the Piet Zwart Institute, a centre for postgraduate studies and research in the fields of art and design. The event will gather scholars from diverse disciplines to explore strategies of resistance, intervention, and critical production in response to the crises of the present.

The FA-workshop will take the form of a role-play game, which on the one hand will inquire into the reasons for the current state of Zalmhaven and on the other will result into strategies for its rehabilitation.

Zalmhaven is the shorter name of Gedempte Zalmhaven, which is a location in the Scheepvaartkwartier in Rotterdam. It is the location of a large office building dating from the 1970’s. The last tenant of the building was the Erasmus MC. In place of the currently almost empty building there were plans to build a large multifunctional development of 35.000 sqm. Its main icon would have been a 212m residential tower on the side of the Erasmus bridge.

The project was approved in 2010 by the city council, but due to the financial crisis its realisation has been postponed. FA-mobile will look into why the 1970’s office building has fallen out of grace, are there any intrinsic qualities which make the building obsolete, and would could other alternatives be to its demolition.

======================================================

The workshop is free of charge, but registration is required. Please register at: pzwart-info@hr.nl

Please give your name and an email address where you can be contacted. If you are studying, also give the name of the academy or university you are associated with and your year of study. Modest lunches will be provided during the workshop.

Information about Zalmhaven:

http://www.zalmhaven.com/?item=zalmhaven&count=true&selected=1

http://www.architectenweb.nl/aweb/redactie/redactie_detail.asp?iNID=7022

http://www.architectenweb.nl/aweb/redactie/redactie_detail.asp?iNID=15692

http://www.top010.nl/html/woontoren_zalmhaven.htm

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalmhaven_(complex)

http://www.zalmhaven2030.nl/

http://collecties.gemeentearchief.rotterdam.nl/Publiek/resultaten.aspx?

======================================================

About the conference:

Prototyping Futures/Occupying the Present, 19-21 May, Rotterdam

The three-day conference with workshops, initiated by the Piet Zwart Institute, gathers scholars from diverse disciplines to explore strategies of resistance, intervention, and critical production in response to the crises of the present. Rather than foregrounding critique, the focus will be on experimental practices that work towards the production of alternative narratives and the imagination of different futures.

The term “media” is at the center of the symposium’s conceptual frame and is interpreted in its broadest sense so as to encompass a variety of methodologies and approaches that materialize ideas through technological, spatial, ephemeral, and poetic forms.

Key to the event is the notion and ethos of prototyping. Used in fields such as architecture, software programming, and design, the word has a range of meanings from simple working models to developmental processes. The prototype–in its etymological and theoretical senses–is an original form, an archetype. But it is also–in the applied fields of software development, design and architecture–the alpha version, made to test a concept and with the expectation of flaws, bugs, kinks, and failures.

Rather than hammering down prototyping to a single definition, this symposium seeks to embrace its tentative, iterative, and speculative qualities, with the aim of promoting interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration.

Website: http://www.prototypingfutures.net

======================================================

Contributors: Inke Arns / Bik Van der Pol / Karin de Jong of PrintRoom / Alessandro Ludovico / Danja Vasiliev / Julian Oliver / Paolo Davanzo & Lisa Marr of Echo Park Film Center / Michael Murtaugh / Failed Architecture / Jan Jongert of 2012Architecten / Mitchell Joachim of Terreform ONE / Gordan Savičić / Florian Cramer of Creating 010

======================================================

Editorial Team: Renee Turner, Rita Raley, Carolyn Guertin & Allison Carruth

======================================================

The Piet Zwart Institute is an international postgraduate programme dedicated to study and research in the fields of art and design. It is a part of the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University. As an educational programme and cultural centre, the notion of ‘making public’ is core to our activities. These public moments are an important resource for students, faculty members and guests, serving as a bridge to the city, a framework for exploring timely and relevant issues, and building a community around areas of interests.

The conference will also be a participatory occasion through which to launch an alternative to the traditionally edited essay collection. Working with Active Archives and other multimedia, our aim is to create an online publication that documents and reflects upon the various issues raised.

Practical information:

======================================================

Saturday, May 19th:

10:00 - 18:00 Lectures, Discussions & Book Launch: Sniff, Scrape, Crawl…

======================================================

Sunday, May 20th:

10:00 - 17:00 Workshops

17:00 - 17:30 Book Launch Post-Digital Print by Alessandro Ludovico

with Evening Screenings at WORM

======================================================

Monday, May 21st: Workshop documentation

for online publication with selected participants

& workshop leaders

================================================

See full schedule & venues at:

http://www.prototypingfutures.net/schedule/

=========================================

Lectures & Workshops are free & open to the public

For those of you wishing to participate in a workshop please register before May 12th as there is limited space. Send an e-mail to pzwart-info@hr.nl

======================================

FA #7 May 9 | Ruin Porn: The Beauty of Failure

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:09:00 +0200

Waiting Hall, Michigan Train Station. By Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre ©Galerie Fontana Fortuna, Amsterdam

Talks and Q&A | Wednesday May 9 | 20:00h | English | 5 euro

With a.o.: Hans Aarsman (photodetective), Rob Funcken (photgrapher), Kim Bouvy (artist) and Jarrik Ouburg (architect). Hosts: Michiel van Iersel, Mark Minkjan and Tim Verlaan (Failed Architecture)

In previous editions of Failed Architecture, we have primarily looked at the why, how and when of failed architecture, trying to get a grasp of the various dimensions of failure and to understand according to whom certain buildings or built environments are malfunctioning. This time, we will try to figure out why many people like to see and talk about failed architecture and whether this influences the future of failed buildings.

Aestheticization of modern ruins is popular: we love romantic, wistful pictures with perfect compositions and dramatic light, beautifying decay and mortality. Over the past years, the number of so-called urban explorers has grown, visiting or breaking into derelict buildings. Just take a look at the infinite number of pictures of abandoned buildings, ruined factories and rundown train stations on Flickr and other websites and blogs. These ruinous structures seem to be much more to us than just piles of rubble.

Detroit is the primary example. The extreme case of decay, deindustrialization and poverty after a prosperous century has become the mainstream case of failure fixation and a popular subject in picture, writing and film. Where does this fascination come from? Why are we so preoccupied with failure in photography, urban analysis, literature and other media? And does this obsession help or obstruct attempts to restore urban ruins and learn from past failures? These and other questions will be answered.

Psychiatric Hospital Bloemendaal. By Rob Funcken.

We have invited several guests to discuss the beauty of failure with us:

Hans Aarsman is a photography journalist, photographer and writer. Aarsman will analyze forms of failure photography in order for us to understand the underlying motives of the photographer and the collective love for beautiful decay.

Rob Funcken is a Brussels-based photographer, graphic designer and former urban explorer. He has been invited to talk about the act and glamour of urban exploring, and why so many people are intrigued by the act of urban exploring and the photography connected to it.

Kim Bouvy is an artist working with photography and text, exploring the ways our urban environment is perceived and valued and how that again is being reflected in visual culture and architecture and urbanism.

Jarrik Ouburg was trained as an architect at renowned offices in Switzerland, Japan, Belgium and The Netherlands, before he founded his own office in 2008. Starting in September 2012 he will be the new (parttime) head of the Architecture department at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture.

Location: De Verdieping / TrouwAmsterdam | Wibautstraat 127 | Facebook Event

Simultaneously with this edition of Failed Architecture, the solo exhibition “The Ruins of Detroit” of the renown Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre is programmed at Galerie Fontana Fortuna in Amsterdam.

FA-mobile: Belgrade from April 2 - 6

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:06:00 +0100

Savamala streetscape, Belgrade

Failed Architecture is coming to Belgrade, from April 2 - 6, for a workshop focusing on the Savamala neighbourhood, in collaboration with KC Grad. Please join us for a week of urban exploring and co-creation.

The makeup and dynamics of our cities are continuously subject to changing demographics, market forces, political volatility, aesthetic preferences, technological advancements and other variables. Within cities, this creates differences between areas and neighbourhoods. Some areas are more popular than others for particular population groups, businesses and (hence) for flows of capital, causing a variety of local development paths and differing spatial articulations as a result of the aforementioned variables. Next to the changing makeup of the built environment, this can cause social frictions and morphing identities.

The local expression of urban dynamics will be the subject-matter of the first FA-mobile edition, which will take place in Belgrade, April 2-6. It is a cooperation with Grad (European centre for culture and debate) and will concern itself with the Savamala neighbourhood.

Savamala was the first new settlement constructed outside the fortress walls of Kalemegdan in the Serbian capital Belgrade. Its current marginalisation and dilapidation is in strong contrast with its location and potential. Savamala has a history, but it lacks a vision for its future.

The process of documentation of Savamala will focus on explaining the significance of the area, both in terms of its physical heritage (historical moments, the typology and quality of the buildings), as well as its social (mix of inhabitants and activities) and symbolical one (its historical significance in the urban development of Belgrade). In order to achieve this the workshop will engage into mapping, documenting and describing physical and social transformations, as well as potentials.

Some of the questions which we will raise are:
-Why does Savamala fail to attract the public attention to itself?
-What are its significant characteristics that can attract that attention?
-How will the changes of this area influence the city itself?

For the purpose of the workshop we will divide the participants in groups. Each group will do research from a separate angle but always on various scales. Starting with a larger part of the area with the aim to eventually focus on particular cases, which we believe will make the subsequent discussion as meaningful as possible.

The groups will work on various tasks:
+ mapping of the physical state
+ mapping of the social structures/context
+ mapping of the economic activities and transport
+ opinion poll-on the street and on internet

PROGRAMME

The preliminary programme of the workshop is as follows:

Monday (02-04)
1400-1800: intro and walkshop
1830-1930: crit: presentation and a discussion with a Savamala specialist

Tuesday (03-04)
1400-1800: workshop action
1830-1930: crit: presentation and a discussion with a Savamala specialist

Wednesday (04-04)
1400-1800: workshop action
1830-1930: crit: presentation and a discussion with a Savamala specialist

Thursday (05-04)
1000-1300: workshop action
1400-2030: exhibition preparation

Friday (06-04)
1000-1500: exhibition preparation
1800: exhibition opening
1830-2030: debate

Want to participate?

Please do, it’s free! The workshop will take place daily, from 2nd to 6th of April, at KC Grad. The event will be led by the Failed Architecture team from Amsterdam. The main language will be English.

Participation at the workshop starts by sending an e-mail with your name, age and profession/field of study before 26 March to Failed Architecture. Participating means being present during the whole workshop.

Grotere kaart weergeven

EXCAVATING THE FUTURE

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:19:00 +0100

St. Peter’s Seminary, Cardross.

Le Corbusier never had one of his designs built in the UK, but the closest thing to a British Corbusian building might be St. Peter’s Seminary in Cardross, Schotland. The building was designed by the Gillespie Kidd & Coia office and completed in 1966. One of head architects, Isi Metzstein, died last month, something I only found out after visiting the site last week.

What you find when you go there - hidden on a hilltop just outside of Cardross, west of Glasgow - is amazing and horrific at the same time. The majestic piece of modernist architecture, featuring many imaginative elements, was practically obsolete by the time it was completed. The catholic institutions had witnessed decline, and by the end of the 1970s only some 20 students attended the college.After merely twenty years of use as a catholic college, seminary and monastery, the structure was abandoned in the early 1980s.

View from behind the altar - which is now in open air - looking towards the refectory.

The same altar, during the inaugural mass, 1967.

There have been several plans for renovation and alternative use, but nothing happened for over 30 years. Until recently. Apparently, the building has been acquired by an arts charity, late 2011. It will not be completely restored, however. The intention is to “preserve and re-use the modern ruin” (The Guardian). It should become a public arts space. “It’s such a symbol of that period of post-war regeneration, it seems logical to use the site as living heritage for artists and the public to come into this amazing landscape, for concerts and theatre groups. It will be something very special for Scotland” (Angus Farquhar, the creative director of Nacionale Vitae Activa charity in The Guardian).

The refectory, 2012.

The refectory, 1967.

Staircase, 2012.

The classroom, 2012

Elevated view, showing the classroom on the right, 1967.

The black and white pictures are from “Rebuilding Scotland: The Postwar Vision, 1945-1975”, an incredible book edited by Miles Glendinning.

via citybreaths

How buildings kill and get lost

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:29:00 +0100

In previous editions of Failed Architecture, it was often not without question whether a building or part of the built environment was failed. To whom is it failed and in what sense? Is it not possible to rejuvenate or reuse a piece of architecture? Many of the cases discussed were not failed per se but perhaps subject to certain shortcomings or unexpected outcomes – they deviously evolved from what their designers or planners had in mind.

This could not be said of the failures that were addressed during Failed Architecture’s sixth edition. Put forward were technologies, materials or designs – less ambiguous and susceptible to different interpretations – that turned out to have unforeseen negative implications for inhabitants, users, repairmen and janitors. Two speakers were invited to talk about this matter: professor Peter Luscuere and assistant professor Hielkje Zijlstra. Luscuere approached the topic from a mortal point of view and demonstrated how buildings could literally kill people. He discussed ten ways in which buildings can cause irritation, sickness or even death. In his presentation, he explored the numbers of non-natural mortal accidents in the Netherlands, of which around half is classified as ‘private accidents’. These private accidents represented to a large extent building-related mortality scenarios, according to Lucsuere. By addressing these ‘mortal mechanisms’, including fire and suffocation, explosions, overheating, electrocution and falling, but also poisoning (most common: CO-poisoning), infection (through ventilation systems), sickening (e.g. asbestos) and even depression (due to dysfunctional lighting, no view or bad acoustics), Luscuere demonstrated how faulty technologies or ill designs can negatively influence people’s wellbeing.

Hielkje Zijlstra’s lecture was titled ‘Lost in space’, by which she referred to buildings that were out of place in their urban environments because of an ill connection or a mismatch between the building and the public space. Installations and services meant to connect buildings and places, and guide their users, are more often than not obstacles to users and inhabitants instead of helpful devices. By using the TU Delft Campus as a case study to exemplify these mismatches, Zijlstra demonstrated how details of a place were not corresponding to their context and how the use and functioning of a place or a building were affected by non-effective or incomplete interventions. By showing incorrect or confusing signage, hidden passages, unfinished constructions and other faulty details on and around the TU Delft Campus, she concluded that the details were undurable and not fitting the context (or culture) of the place. In her final words, Zijlstra argued that architecture changes the condition of space and that architects, planners and city officials are jointly responsible for the inside and outside space of a building and the connection between the two. According to Luscuere, the same goes for buildings equipped with non-operating technologies; a better understanding and co-operation between the implementers of technology, designers and users will result in less ‘lethal’ buildings.

Failed Architecture #6: Concrete Failures

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:25:00 +0100

Talks and Q&A | Wednesday November 23 | English | 3,50 Euro

In the sixth edition of Failed Architecture, we will focus on the more concrete, technical and practical failures of architecture. Which seemingly clever building technologies or materials have turned out to have unforeseen negative implications for the inhabitants, users, repairmen and janitors? Which types of buildings are more often subject to failure or usage problems? When can we speak of just unforeseen complications and when are architects or contractors to blame? Which cases are exemplary and what lessons can be learned for future architecture?

- Peter Luscuere will give a lecture titled ‘How buildings kill’, in which ten mechanisms that lead to irritation, sickness or even death will be discussed. Peter Luscuere is professor in Building Technology at Delft University of Technology, guest professor at Tianjin University, China and former director of engineering consultancy Royal Haskoning.

- Hielkje Zijlstra will further zoom in on the night’s theme and elaborate on how buildings can get lost in urban space, hitherto resulting in a missing link between the former and the latter. Services and installations meant to make life in the built environment easier are more often than not obstacles for users and inhabitants instead of helpful devices. The TU Delft campus will serve as a case study in this lecture. Zijlstra is associate professor in Building Technology at Delft University of Technology.

The evening will be hosted by Michiel van Iersel (De Verdieping). Tim Verlaan (UvA) and Mark Minkjan (independent researcher).

———————————————————————————————
This edition of Failed Architecture is part of a dual programme on concrete architectural failures. Next time we will focus on how inhabitants and users actually deal with their failed environments, exposing inventive ways of improving standardized apartment blocks and central service systems from a pan-European perspective.

Location: De Verdieping / TrouwAmsterdam | Facebook event

Participating in Sofia Architecture Week 2011

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:26:00 +0200

We have been invited by Ljubo Georgiev, co-curator of the Sofia Architecture Week 2011, to contribute to this year’s edition of this annual festival. It will take place between the 1st and the 6th of November and runs under the theme Architecture Unlimited?. SAW11 will deal with the extent, in which architecture can (still) function as a transformative tool for the urban environment in an age in which utopian ideals are replaced by city marketing, and making improvements in the cityscape is often subordinated to making profit.

6 November 2011, (Sunday), 14:30 - 15:30 h. @ Perform Business Center, Sofia

Failed Architecture #6: ”Out of Obscurity”/”Forget your Past”

In Sofia the Failed Architecture-debate is the closing event for the ‘Past Continuous-exhibition’, showing a mix of forgotten buildings, monuments and graphic design from the communist era. But why do the overlooked and underrated spaces and places on the photos deserve our attention? And what strategies and practical tools can be used to save and re-activate them?

Participants a.o.:
Gilly Karjevsky – architect and activist from Israel
Hans Ibelings – critic and co-curator SAW11 from The Netherlands
Nikola Mihov – photographer from Sofia, Bulgaria
Penka Popova - architect-activist form Plovdiv, Bulgaria

& Michiel van Iersel – moderator and co-founder Failed Architecture

‘House-monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party, mount Buzludzha, 1981’, photo by Nikola Mihov

About Sofia Architecture Week

Sofia Architecture Week is an international architecture festival. It is a platform for dialogue and exchange of ideas between people who are actively engaged with the problems of urban environment. The festival aims to build up a critical mass of possible scenarios which could generate good architectural and social practices.

Sofia Architecture Week wants to stimulate a new type of thinking, perception of and reaction towards the subject of architecture, its power and impact on society. Launched in September 2008 as a two-day conference, the event expanded into a week-long festival open to the general public and featuring a diverse and intense program of exhibitions, discussions, presentations and screenings.

Participants included: NL Architects, Mansilla Tunon, feld72, Rudy Ricciotti, JDS Architects, Ivan Kucina, Atelier Kempe Thil, ECDM, Raumlabor, 3+1 architects, Anne Lacaton, А 69, Frédéric Borel, Randic-Turato, Emre Arolat Architects, Dominique Lyon, Robert Thiemann (FRAME and MARK magazine), OFIS arhitekti and KWK Promes

More information: website Sofia Architecture Week

Don't blame the architect

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:55:00 +0200

Ever since the riots in Great Britain broke out in the first week of August, media and experts have been discussing the relation between architecture and social behaviour. During our fifth edition on the 5^th of October we discussed this theme from historical, sociological and planning perspectives.

Obviously, social unrest tends to concentrate in urban environments. Rioting and the city have always been closely interlinked throughout history. In the first contribution to our fifth edition, historian Dennis Bos elaborated on the urban aspects of the 1871 Paris Commune. During this illustrious social disorder, a revolutionary self-elected government ruled the city for 72 days. Ending in utter defeat, it nevertheless was remembered and even sanctified by the international socialist, communist and anarchist movement as the first workers government in history.

However, the Commune was first and foremost an urban rather than a socialist revolution, as pointed out by Bos. First, the revolutionaries were mainly construction workers occupied with the ‘Haussmannization’ of the city. Second, the spaces they occupied during the Commune were visually highly symbolic in Paris’ urban context. According to some observers, this claiming of symbolic space was also discernable in London during the August riots. Third, the claims made by the revolutionaries were mainly directed against ‘urban’ socio-economic phenomena such as rising rents. Despite these urban preconditions, Bos refuted the idea that Haussmannization was the primal cause for the severity of the 1871 riots, thereby discharging planners and architects of being responsible for the social upheaval.

The German-British sociologist Robert Grimm took a giant leap forwards into history. After an autobiographical introduction in which Grimm elaborated on how it was to grow up in a state – in this case the former GDR – that was in a ‘continuous revolution’, the sociologist took the audience to the city of Manchester. Contrary to Bos’ arguments, Grimm did see a direct relation between social disorder and the role of planners and architects. He blamed the British state and especially ‘Thatcherism’ for rolling back in the provision of social housing since the 1980s, a development that was aggravated by the more recent specialization of the professions of developer, architect and planner. Only when the representatives of these professions co-operate in a strict and constructive manner can an urban environment be created that diminishes social divisions instead of enlarging them, as is the case in Britain nowadays. Furthermore, Grimm stressed that it was not the first time British inner cities experienced riots, but that in comparison with earlier social unrests – and the Paris Commune for that matter – there were no attempts whatsoever to politicize the course of events.

Our last speaker of the evening, urban sociologist Arnold Reijndorp, was given the difficult task to not only analyse the British riots, but also to come up with recommendations for the future. Reijndorp was struck by how the media was looking for a cause and scapegoat for the riots, provokingly stating that there actually might be no ‘Luna park without a slaughterhouse’. In the first place, we need to ask ourselves what we actually mean by umbrella terms such as ‘the public’ and the ‘public domain’ when talking about the rioters. According to Reijndorp the middle-class public that is currently disapproving of the riots in British media, is granted access to the physical as well as the spiritual public domain, thereby putting offside a neglected and hitherto frustrated, silent minority. In this way, it is not the built environment that failed in Britain, but the ‘public’ emancipation of this unrepresented minority. Reijndorp proposed a further non-paternalistic emancipation by the state, a discrediting of the prevalent hedonistic way of life in the Western world and last but not least a focus shift away from the urban environment. When local residents are given the opportunity to enhance their own environs, it is likely that the social conditions in an area will also improve. Thereby, Reijndorp joined up with Bos’ final comment: ‘Don’t blame the architect.’

Failed Architecture #5: riots and architecture

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:30:00 +0200

Talks and Q&A | Wednesday October 5 | starts 20.00h | English | 2,50 Euro

At De Verdieping with: Dennis Bos, Robert Grimm and Arnold Reijndorp

During the 5th edition of our series of talkshows and public discussions we will focus on the riots that recently took place in London and quickly spread to other cities in England, leaving several people killed, dozens of people injured and hundreds of buildings looted and burned. As Churchill famously intoned ‘We shape our buildings and then they shape us’. What is the relation between the material city and conflict? Have new urban forms produced new forms of violence? And what is the role of the architect and urban planner in this respect? Can they be blamed and/or can they provide a solution for this enduring problem?

Go to Facebook-event.

Speakers include:

Dennis Bos - studied history and received a PhD at the University of Amsterdam, where he wrote his dissertation on the history of the early socialist movement in Amsterdam in the second half of the nineteenth century. Bos worked at the University of Groningen before transferring to Leiden University in 2005. His current research deals with the politics of remembrance and the influence of the Paris Commune of 1871 and its memory within the international socialist, communist and anarchist movements during the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Robert Grimm - is lecturer at the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has substantial experience in studying urban contexts and conducted and participated in several European research projects. Grimm investigated the relationship between global flows and local lives and more specifically migrant communities in Marseilles, France. Back in 2003, during the ‘Globalization and Violence’ conference, he talked about terror and structural violence in an urban setting by describing the case of Algerian immigrants in Belsunce, a suburb of Marseille, where riots broke out in 2009 after the football match Egypt-Algeria (0-1).

Arnold Reijndorp - holds the Han Lammerschair for social-economic and spatial development of new urban areas at the faculty of social and behavioural sciences (UvA). Reijndorp has spent more than 15 years studying the relationship between urban planning and society. He is the author of leading publications such as ‘Buitenwijk’ and, together with Maarten Hajer, ‘Op zoek naar publiek domein’.

The evening will be hosted by Michiel van Iersel (De Verdieping) and Tim Verlaan (UvA); everyone is invited to join the discussion.

For more info and updates, please check our Facebook-page.

De Verdieping is the fringe programme and project space in restaurant and club TrouwAmsterdam. The building is located at Wibautstraat 127 in Amsterdam.

30 SEP: Failed Architecture in Copenhagen

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:15:00 +0200

On the occasion of the national Day of Architecture on 30 September 2011 the Danish Network for Young Planners (Netværk for yngre planlæggere) invites Failed Architecture to Copenhagen. As the fourth in a series of similar events we will discuss criteria (‘benchmarks’) for quality and failure in modernist housing estates in an international East/West perspective.

To make the event site-specific, Scandinavia’s second tallest housing complex Domus Vista (read more below) frames our “walkshop” and debate. Different stakeholders, marking the problem field, meet at the walkshop in Domus Vista’s high-rise and surroundings. We invite planners, residents, architects, journalists, politicians, etc. to test methods and discuss questions like:

- What is it that makes many people criticize modernist public housing estates as failed architecture?

- Is it because of physical, social or cultural conditions?

- Is the modernist ideal about educating and improving the people through urban planning and social engineering still relevant?

The walkshop (working while walking) opens up the debate in Domus Vista’s bankruptcy-threatened community-cum-shopping centre. International and Danish experts present their views on why housing estates from the post-war period are often regarded as failures and how this affects urban planning and regeneration. The Danish situation is put into perspective by experiences from the Balkans and Holland. Failed Architecture events have previously taken place in Amsterdam and Skopje. In the autumn FA moves to Sofia and Belgrade.

Programme September 30 @ Domus Vista (in English)

16.00 - 16.15 – Introduction to the day’s programme, Failed Architecture and Domus Vista.

16.15 - 17.00 – Experimental walkshop, testing methods in Domus Vista and surroundings.

17.00 - 17.15 – Short break

17.15 - 17.45 – Presentation of questions and conclusions, produced by the walkshop. The different ‘actor groups’ present their viewpoints for each other and the experts.

17.45 - 18.00 – Short break

18.00 - 18.45 – Debate with presentations by Ljubo Georgiev (Dutch/Bulgarian architect), Claus Bech-Danielsen (Head of Research at Centre of Housing Research, Professor mso, ph.d. Architect MAA at Danish Building Research Institute), Niels Bjørn (urbanist) and Signe Sophie Bøggild (architectural historian). Michiel van Iersel (curator and founder of Failed Architecture) leads the discussion.

18.45 - 19.30 – Open mic, moderated by Michiel van Iersel.

19.45 - 22.00 – Balkan beats and refreshments.

When?

There is programme from 16.00 until 22.00. Since the event has two parts, you can either join us for the whole day or just participate in the debate, open for everybody. To sign up for the walkshop please visit NYP’s website from 5 September (limited space).

Where?

Domus Vista, Nordens Plads 4 2000 Frederiksberg Copenhagen.

Click here to see Domus Vista on the map.

More about the venue: Domus Vista

Domus Vista is located in Copenhagen at Roskildevej in Frederiksberg and is with its 102 metres the tallest residential structure in Denmark and the second tallest residential building in Scandinavia. The tallest building is Turning Torso in Malmø, which was completed in 2005.The building was designed by architect Ole Hagen and was completed in 1969. It was built by builder Harald Simonsen, who also took part in the construction of Hostrups Have in Frederiksberg. Domus Vista has 30 floors and 470 apartments. The lower floors were originally a hotel with restaurant, banquet facilities and living rooms. The hotel was closed in early 1970s. Instead, the living room part of the building is now housing a shopping centre and a library. (Source: Wikipedia)

Architecture experts talk about the UK riots

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:39:00 +0200

Rather inevitably, discussion among the architectural community this week has focused on the UK riots and the question of whether the cities we have been building have contributed to social breakdown. The opinions on the role of architecture differ widely. Here’s an overview of what some people had to say.

Owen Hatherley, journalist and writer, Verso Books Blog:

“What I don’t understand is how absolutely anyone in any large British city could possibly be shocked by all this. Look at the looted, torched places, look at what they all have in common… This is urban Britain, and though the cuts have made it worse, the damage was done long before.”

Ike Ijeh, architect, Building (UK)

“The UK riots have exposed curious anomalies about the relationship architecture maintains with society – at least in London. The message for architects, planners and developers is a chastening one. As Churchill famously intoned, we shape our buildings and then they shape us.”

Amanda Baillieu, editoral director, BD/Building Design

This time no one’s blaming architects for the riots: This was very different to last time North London erupted – in 1985…At that time architecture was in the firing line… the last few days have taught us that “community” is a fuzzy word, and for too long architects have hidden behind it rather than confronted those who want to undermine and even destroy it.”

Lucy Inglis, writer and historian, The Guardian

“The importance of the built environment to people’s investment in their communities is consistently underestimated.” (The article was first published on Lucy Inglis’s blog, georgianlondon.com)

Wouter Vanstiphout, architectural historian, Building Design Online

“It is much too soon to say anything about the relationship between the gentrification of Brixton, or the coming of the Olympics to London, and the current explosion of violent alienation. But if we imagine another kind of urban politics, one that does not take into account a marketable image of the city, but the reality of the entire community, it would probably have entirely different priorities.”

Zygmunt Bauman, sociologist, Social Europe Journal

“Supermarkets may be temples of worship for the members of the congregation. For the anathemised, found wanting and banished by the Church of Consumers, they are the outposts of the enemy erected on the land of their exile. Steel gratings and blinds, CCTV cameras, security guards at the entry and hidden inside only add to the atmosphere of a battlefield and on-going hostilities. Those armed and closely watched citadels of enemy-in-our-midst serve as a day in, day out reminder of the natives’ misery, low worth, humiliation. Defiant in their haughty and arrogant inaccessibility, they seem to shout: I dare you! But dare you what?”

The Architect’s Journal asked prominent architectural thinkers to comment on why Britain is burning and on the role architecture. The quotes are listed on AJ’s website website and more comments are added daily. Here’s a small selection:

Joseph Rykwert, architect and author

Cities incite riots - and herding people in high rise reservoirs of social aggression doesn’t help… Locking up cowed hoodies in overcrowded prisons won’t solve anything. We need to think about public housing and public space - quickly.

Jeremy Till, architect, educator, writer

At least the architects are not blamed this time, as we were with Broadwater. Nor could we be, because (quoting Simmel) the city is not a spatial entity with sociological consequences, but a sociological entity that is formed spatially. Here the riots spatialise years of ramping up of social inequality. So when my Twitter feed calls for the reintroduction of Jane Jacobs, I blanch (because space is not the solution, just the symptom)

Irena Bauman, architect

We will see much more of this kind of unrest in the future. No amount of regeneration funding will help.

William JR Curtis, architectural historian

London has been up for sale to the highest bidders in the international plutocracy for years and the results are there to see in the Shard and all the other grotesque signs of exaggerated wealth that are in fact impoverishing the public realm for everybody else.

Please provide us with more quotes and/or give us your own opinion.

Detroit Wild City: reborn center or dying heart?

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:57:00 +0200

French filmmaker Florent Tillon’s 2010 documentary Detroit Wild City (Detroit ville sauvage) offers a poetic portrait of the dystopian ‘Motor City’ where ‘grass is growing in parking lots’ and building after building is crumbling apart. The film shows suffocating images of the Renaissance Center, one of the world’s largest office complexes and Ford’s failed attempt to revitalize the city center.

Luckily, the entire documentary is available (for free) on Mubi. We made a transcript and some film stills of the scenes dealing with the Renaissance Center, which is introduced by a nameless (?) expert who gives an instructive overview of the many architectural flaws that turned the complex of buildings into a fortress.

“The Renaissance Center was built in 1977 And when it was completed it was the largest privately financed project in the history of the United States. Over 350 million Dollars of private funds were used to built this 73 story main tower with four 44 stories towers surrounding it. Henry Ford II was trying to bring a renaissance back to the city of Detroit, but it really didn’t work as well as he planned. Instead of bringing lots of companies back to the city, he ended up pulling companies from other buildings in the city of Detroit and leaving them abandoned.”

Renaissance Center as seen from Franklin Street by dnj_Brian (via flickr)

“Also it was being criticized for being very fortress-like in that it not really integrated itself into the downtown area. It was more like city onto itself, including what is now (car manufacturer) General Motors world headquarters, a 1500 room Marriott Hotel, over 70 different restaurants and shops, a movie theater, a post office, its own YMCA workout facility, and it even has its very own zip code.”

“And there was no front entrance to the Renaissance Center. There were large heating/cooling berms, which added to the fortress-like look of it and really kept out people from the city. And people would just drive in, go to work, and drive back out and never have to interact or feel like they were in the city of Detroit.”

“The Renaissance Center is one of the main stops on Detroit’s People Mover. It’s what we call our ‘elevated rail system’. It’s a very small elevated rails system that stretches 3.1 miles around the downtown central business district, that has 13 stops and was created in 1987 with hopes of going farther, but that was never realized.”

“St Joseph’s Church with its three towers lining up precisely with the Renaissance Center’s towers. Its a reminder of the battle of opposing forces in Detroit, on the one hand the industry, the corporate culture, and the idea that big steal and glass skyscrapers will fix everything and this kind of poor struggling church in the neighborhood on the other hand.”

A 1970s promotional film of the building of Detroit’s Renaissance Center, now the headquarters to General Motors (via DetroitWonk).

Or visit the official website of the GM Renaissance Center

Architectural failure as a matter of politics

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:09:00 +0200

The third edition of our series of FA-discussions on Wednesday, June 15 at De Verdieping, a cultural project space located in an abandoned printing plant in Amsterdam, covered three different examples of fiercely debated architecture; buildings that were or are doomed to fail due to their location in the built environment, their time of conception and usability.

Maybe the most famous Dutch example of how opinion-forming on architecture works is the ‘Zwarte Madonna’, a former 350-appartmentblock in the inner city of The Hague. The building by architect Carel Weeber was heavily criticized during its life span (1985-2007). As several government departments in 2001 made a decision for the extension of their office blocks in the direct vicinity, the curtains fell for the black lady. However, public opinion altered after this decision. Some inhabitants resisted moving out, delaying the demolition process for almost six years. Attempts from their side to ‘pimp’ the building failed. According to one critic, painting the Zwarte Madonna would be equal to ‘putting lipstick on a gorilla’.

According to Dutch publicist Paul Groenendijk, it was not architecture that failed in this case, but politics. In a similar plea Fred Feddes made two months ago, Groenendijk asked for more thoughtfulness from politicians when assessing architecture. After all, it is politicians who decide over the fate of our built environment.

Political tides can influence the assessment of architecture in more radical ways as well. In Belgrade, the exhibition ground ‘Staro Sajmište’ has been neglected ever since the end of the Second World War. Built in 1938 to host international fairs Staro Sajmište was meant to promote the economy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The German Gestapo designated the ground as a concentration camp in 1941, giving the place an ever-lasting legacy. Tito’s post war communist regime was focussed on the future, not on the past, building monuments that symbolized Yugoslavian unity and prosperity. Therefore, the place had to dissolve in collective oblivion.

In recent years, discussions aroused over the future of the ground. Dutch-Serbian architect Maja Popovic would like to see a lively centre of tolerance on the ground, rather than another silent monument. This year, a website was launched to discuss visions on the future of the ground.

Staro Sajmište may become a tourist landmark one day, just like the impressive row of modernist museums that have opened up all over Europe in recent years. During the last talk of the evening, Ana Souto, lecturer in architecture at Nottingham Trent University, elaborated on the influence of these museums and their architecture on urban and national identity.

The main question was whether museum architecture should be iconic or not to achieve the goals of identity forming and attracting tourists. Most of the recently opened museums Souto has researched are situated in Europe’s economic and cultural periphery, located far of the touristic radar. A high profile museum should not be seen as the panacea for all the social and economic problems these cities have, says Souto. Furthermore, she made a firm plea in favour of ‘uniconic’ architecture, approving with how Berlin’s Neues Museum has recently been renovated.

The Failed Architecture lecture series will be back in September. In the meantime, we will keep you updated via our blog, Facebook and Twitter. Also, we would like to emphasize that our blog is open to interesting entries and discussions at all time.

Failed Architecture #3: black architecture

Tue, 31 May 2011 14:49:00 +0200

Talks and Q&A | Wednesday June 15 | starts 20.00h | English | 2,50 Euro

With a.o.: Ana Souto, Paul Groenendijk & Maja Popovic

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

(Zwarte Madonna. Photo taken from Presseurop)

Failed Architecture is a series of talkshows with presentations by various experts and public discussions that focus on buildings and urban environments that failed to stand the test of time and are neglected, abandoned or even vandalized or demolished, because of changing economic, social, political, cultural and/or physical circumstances.

Without a doubt the maxim ‘Failed Architecture’ raises questions. What and according to whom is architecture failed? Which criteria do we use when assessing architecture, e.g. the viewpoint of inhabitants and/or users, architects and/or planners? And how does the ‘Zeitgeist’ or ‘our’ contemporary taste and cultural differences influence our judgment of buildings and cities?

Follow Failed Architecture through Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr

FA #03 | June 15, 8 PM: AMSTERDAM, THE HAGUE, BELGRADE, …

@ De Verdieping, TrouwAmsterdam, Wibautstraat 127, Amsterdam

After the first edition with the American writer and urbanist Anthony M. Tung and the second edition with a panel of five speakers, who provided an international overview of cases of ‘failed architecture’, we are happy to have the following speakers as our guests during the upcoming (3rd) edition on Wednesday June 15.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 13.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia} span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; color: #0538e4}

Paul Groenendijk has been active as a writer specialized in (Dutch) architecture since 1984. He will talk about his encounters with a wide variety of ‘failed architecture’, focusing on his most recent book that describes the rise and fall of the Zwarte Madonna, or Black Madonna, arguably the most notorious social housing apartment block in the Netherlands. It was demolished in 2007 after years of fierce debate. The only people who protested against its demolition were a few of its inhabitants. At that point even the architect didn’t care anymore, saying: “I am glad it’s gone”.

Maja Popovic is an architect from Belgrade with an articulated interest in preservation of 20th century built heritage and the relationship between architecture, memory and storytelling. In her talk she will focus on Staro Sajmište. This was the site of Belgrade’s international fair before WWII. During the war, it was turned into a concetration camp by Germans. Today it’s mostly in ruins. The vast complex of buildings and smaller pavilions was supposed to kickstart the large scale development of New Belgrade in 1937, but during communist times the plans radically changed and Staro Sajmište became isolated and neglected. Although doomed to be forgotten it found a way to survive as a refuge for artists and outcasts. But how can you engage the public at large with this historically significant place, and how can it be rescued for generations to come?

Ana Souto is a lecturer in architecture and design at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. Ana’s research interest lies in architecture as a cultural manifestation of national identity. She is currently involved in a new research project on Memory and Identity. It is a collaborative project which aims to show the importance of museums’ architecture when it comes to construct, reconstruct and/or narrate a nation’s identity. She argues that the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was an architectural failure. She is comparing David Chipperfield’s museums in Germany (Folkwang in Essen and Neues in Berlin) with the proposals of Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry, showing how and why the project by Chipperfield won over the other, more iconic proposals.

Please note: due to sudden illness Arnold Reijndorp’s presentation is cancelled.

The night is hosted by Michiel van Iersel with Tim Verlaan & Mark Minkjan.

Staro Sajmište during WWII (photo taken from Oldtajmeri)

Next Failed Architecture?
Failed Architecture will return after the summer. Check our website for updates.

Hungry?
In the restaurant of TrouwAmsterdam we’ll always serve a so called ‘rapide-menu’, prior to the program in ‘De Verdieping’ that night. You’re welcome to join for a special dinner between 6 and 7.30 pm at one of the picnic tables in our wonderful restaurant. Dine with speakers and other participants, a spontaneaous conversation is easily started. It’s € 24,50 for a fresh and organic daily meal (also vegetarian!), a glass of wine followed by a dessert and coffee from the house. Booking a table is advised: call us at 0031 (0)20 463 77 88 or send us an e-mail: info@trouwamsterdam.nl.

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

De Verdieping is the cultural fringe programme and project space of TrouwAmsterdam and is kindly supported by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) and the Netherlands Architecture Fund (SfA).

Failed Architecture at Skopje Architecture Week

Thu, 26 May 2011 11:01:00 +0200

Failed Architecture will be co-hosting a public debate during the Skopje Architecture Week on Friday June 3. We were invited by Ljubo Georgiev, architect and speaker at the last Failed Architecture event in Amsterdam. In his role as curator of the coming Sofia Architecture Week in Bulgaria in November 2011, Ljubo was invited by the organization in Skopje to contribute to this annual event. Given the current debate on the legacy and future of Modernist architecture in the Macedonian capital, he proposed to organize a Failed Architecture event with the aim to re-energize the local discussion.

The debate is called “Creativity against destruction: How creative entrepreneurs can save our buildings” and will focus on the potential of temporary and creative use of (vacant) buildings for sustainable urban and cultural development. We would like to reflect on possible strategies and practical tools that help ‘creative entrepreneurs’ to establish culturally and economically viable cultural venues that become a force to be reckoned with by local politicians, real estate developers and the public at large.

In short: how can creative individuals and initiatives become sustainable urban players and how can underutilized and undervalued spaces be re-activated through artistic and creative means? And on a more fundamental level: how can we, creative producers and mediators, re-imagine and re-appropriate our built environment and how can we prevent certain types of buildings from being neglected, abandoned or even demolished?

The meeting consists of juxtaposing opinions of 3 speakers on the question ‘How/Can creative entrepreneurs save and re-activate our built environment?’ The speakers will give short presentations, which will then be followed by a public debate. The list of speakers is not confirmed yet, but will consist of various local and international experts and Failed Architecture’s co-founder Michiel van Iersel. The discussion will be led by Ljubo Georgiev (partner at de+ge architects in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and co-curator of Sofia Architecture Week in Bulgaria in October 2011).

For more information and tickets visit the Skopje Architecture Week website.

About Skopje

Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. The city developed rapidly after World War II, but this trend was interrupted in 1963 when it was hit by a disastrous earthquake. In 1991 it became the capital centre of independent Macedonia. A major international relief effort saw the city rebuilt quickly, though much of its old neo-classical charm was lost in the process.

The new master plan of the city was created by the then leading Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. International financial aid poured into Skopje in order to help rebuild the city. As a result came the many modern (at the time) brutalist structures of the 1960s, that can still be seen today, such as the central post office building and the National Bank.

(Source: Wikipedia)

More repentance wanted in assessing modernist architecture

Tue, 03 May 2011 21:53:00 +0200

Are we too quick in assessing post war architecture as failed? That was the question that dominated the second edition of the Failed Architecture series on the 20th of April at De Verdieping / TrouwAmsterdam.

At least a hundred people listened to how five speakers gave their views on how our contemporary taste influences the assessment of modernist architecture. The diverse backgrounds of the guests resulted in a comprehensive worldwide oversight.

Architectural historian Petra Brouwer took off close at home by looking at how the planning principles behind new town Almere reacted on the ideas behind the suburban Bijlmermeer, both situated adjacent to Amsterdam. Whereas the consensus nowadays is that these utopias have failed both aesthetically and socially, Brouwer warned for a too rigorous dealing with the past. Both Almere and the Bijlmermeer were thought of as solutions for Amsterdam’s failing nineteenth-century living quarters – nowadays the city’s most popular living areas. It is not unthinkable that Amsterdam’s more modern extensions will experience a public revaluation in the near future.

The Dutch-Croatian architect Lada Hrsak took the audience to Novi Zagreb, a post war modernist extension of an ancient city. In what was mostly a personal account, Hrsak invoked an image of an adventurous concrete jungle, where especially children lived a happy life. The architect sees a direct link between the built environment and the remarkable creativity of her generation. Novi Zagreb is still popular among the emerging creative class, and despite its shortcomings certainly not regarded as a failure in Croatia. Since the loosening of state regulations local residents have started to readjust and enhance their flats. At the same time commercial and cultural developments are taking off, resulting in a more diverse and challenging urban landscape.

Publicist and expert on Amsterdam’s urban development Fred Feddes pleaded for a more thoughtful handling of post war architecture. According to Feddes, architecture rarely ever fails in its aims and purposes. It is a changing political and cultural climate that strongly influences public opinion, eventually resulting in a thumb up or down for individual buildings. One sad local example of this is the recent destruction of the modernist Wibauthuis. Feddes stated that the building was solely destroyed for its symbolist value as the headquarters of the Public Works department and recent revaluation of the surrounding areas. Since the Wibauthuis did not fit in our prevailing culturalist views on the built environment, it had to be punished. In this way, the building was the victim of bad luck and external developments, ending up ‘on the wrong side of history’.

That can also be said for entire cities, in this case Detroit. Christian Ernsten, partner at Partizan Public, explained how the former powerhouse of the American economy nowadays has to deal with extreme population shrinkages and deprivation. Between 1960 and 2003 60 percent of the built environment in Detroit disappeared, resulting in a bizarre and haphazard urban landscape. Rather than focussing on the past, Ernsten elaborated on his ideas for an acute and locally inspired dealing with the problems. The Partizan Publik collective is the Dutch curator of the ‘Power House’ artist residency in Detroit, which aims to transform an abandoned family home into a self-sufficient model home with the help of artists, architects and local residents.

The evening was concluded by Dutch-Bulgarian architect Ljubo Georgiev, who showed the redevelopment plans for the city centre of the Macedonian capital of Skopje. After a massive earthquake in 1963, the city was almost completely rebuilt according to modernist planning principles. These do not stroke with the contemporary taste of the Macedonian government anymore. The proposed redevelopment plans for the city centre contain neo-classist temples and statues, glorifying the nation’s (imagined) past. Georgiev does not necessarily want to judge the recent redevelopment plans as failures, but he does see them as signs of a severe national identity crisis. As an alternative to the government plans, Georgiev showed examples from Sofia and other cities, where people found creative ways to (re)appropriate their direct surroundings according to personal taste, often combining feelings of nostalgia with a willingness to progress.

During the next Failed Architecture evening (15 June) we will further elaborate on the gap in expectations between inhabitants and users on the one side, and architects, planners, developers and politicians on the other.

Failed Architecture #2: Almere to Zagreb

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 02:17:00 +0200

Detroit. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Talks and Q&A | Wednesday April 20 | Starts 20.00h | English | 2,50 Euro

Failed Architecture is a new series of talkshows with presentations by various experts and public discussions that focus on buildings and urban environments that failed to stand the test of time and are currently neglected, abandoned or even vandalized or demolished, because of changing economic, social, political, cultural and/or physical circumstances.

The series started on March 30 with the American writer and urbanist Anthony M. Tung, who showed ‘failed architecture’ by juxtaposing ‘inappropriate’ versus ‘appropriate’ new additions to the urban fabric and by showing ‘unsympathetic new buildings set in historic settings’.

Follow Failed Architecture through Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Wibauthuis. Photo by wojofoto

FA #2: Almere, Amsterdam, Detroit, Skopje, Zagreb

During the 2nd edition on Wednesday April 20 we will discuss if, and how, modernist planning principles contradict with the preferences of the people who live or have lived in the concrete results. We invited five guests to give their view based on their knowledge of the following cities and urban areas:

Almere / Bijlmer

Petra Brouwer is assistant professor in modern architectural history, theory and town planning at the University of Amsterdam. She will focus on the ideas behind comprehensive planning concepts in The Netherlands with a focus on the urban Bijlmer(meer) and suburban new town Almere, and how the latter responded to and learned from the former.

Detroit

Christian Ernsten is partner at Partizan Publik, an innovative design and action collective that operates beyond the traditional boundaries of campaigning, cultural analysis, politics, design, publishing and curating. Until 2010 he also worked at Volume magazine. Partizan Publik is co-curating the Detroit Unreal Estate Agency, which is currently setting up a residency there. Christian’s talk focuses on Detroit.

Wibauthuis

Fred Feddes writes about architecture and urban planning and has published widely in a.o. the Groene Amsterdammer, NRC Handelsblad, S&RO, Archis. He is currently working on a book that tells the spatial history of Amsterdam with the working title ‘Alias Amsterdam’. Newspaper Het Parool and ArchiNed published his plea for the preservation of the Wibauthuis, a 1960’s office block that was recently demolished.

Sofia

Ljubo Georgiev is an architect from Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2010 he co-founded de+ge architects, a Rotterdam based office for socially responsible and modern architecture. After studying in Edinburgh, Venice and Delft he worked for ZUS, Claus en Kaan and MVRDV. He is involved in the Sofia Architecture Week. He will talk about the Macedonian capital Skopje.

Zagreb

Lada Hrsak is originally from Zagreb, Croatia. She co-founded DHL architecture after working as a partner at SeARCH Architects. She received her initial architectural training at TU Zagreb. Subsequently she followed postgraduate studies at The Berlage Institute, where she now teaches. Lada will talk about Zagreb.

The night is co-hosted by Michiel van Iersel and Mark Minkjan, and we will hear live from our Berlin correspondent Tim Verlaan.

Hungry?
In the restaurant of TrouwAmsterdam we’ll always serve a so called ‘rapide-menu’, prior to the program in ‘De Verdieping’ that night. You’re welcome to join for a special dinner between 6 and 7.30 pm at one of the picnic tables in our wonderful restaurant. Dine with speakers and other participants, a spontaneaous conversation is easily started. It’s € 24,50 for a fresh and organic daily meal (also vegetarian!), a glass of wine followed by a dessert and coffee from the house. Booking a table is advised: call us at 0031 (0)20 463 77 88 or send us an e-mail:info@trouwamsterdam.nl.

——————————————————————————————-

De Verdieping is the cultural fringe programme and project space of TrouwAmsterdam and is kindly supported by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) and the Netherlands Architecture Fund (SfA).

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Failed Architecture #1: Preservation as a matter of urgency

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:13:00 +0200

Anthony Tung sees the preservation of our built environment as a struggle between competing interests, which has to be decided yet. In a detailed and extensive lecture the author (of Preserving the World’s Great Cities, 2001) and former New York City preservation commissioner elaborated on the importance of preservation, and the different approaches to heritage in Europe and the United States.

Tung commenced his lecture with some alarming figures and statistics about the scale of destruction brought to our built environment in the twentieth century. Since 1900, war, ideology and modernist planning conceptions destroyed more than 50 percent of our cities. To cope with this alarming rate of destruction Tung praised the idea of designating inner city areas as historic preservation areas, ‘before it is too late’.

One fine example of inner city preservation is the city of Charleston, South Caroline, according to Tung. The small-scale historic core stands in a stark contrast with the standard American inner city, usually dominated by the glass and concrete of skyscrapers and highway junctions. In Charleston the predictive vision of a mayor who was in power for more than forty years led to a public embrace of the city’s architectural heritage. In this way, private developers were hindered in large-scale commercial redevelopment and more or less forced to build in a style that suited the historic environment. Tung left the question unanswered whether this led to an aesthetically pleasing architecture, but at least it ‘fitted the eye’.

In addition, Tung showed some recent examples of social housing projects in a retro-style that blended nicely into the cityscape, which is dominated by structures from before the abolition of slavery in the US, thus attempting to eradicate the visual markers of social and racial segregation in parts of the city. Based on these examples Tung stressed the importance (and success) of invisibility in architecture as an antidote to self-validating aesthetics.

Tung also shed a light on preservation practices in New York, a city that was deliberately demolished and rebuilt several times in the last century. However, in contrast to common belief, the city was actually one of the first in the Western world to designate protected historic districts in 1965. By showing a load of pictures of ‘fitting’ and ‘non-fitting’ architecture, Tung gave his idea of ‘good’ and ‘failed’ architecture. Tung had to admit that the designation of historic districts might lead to a ‘Disneyfication’ of once bustling city quarters, but it is up to a next generation of social scientists, city officials and architects to cope with the disadvantages of preservation.

During his conclusion Tung invited his listeners to judge the so-called fill in architecture of Amsterdam. Here the American-European gap between what is good and failed architecture became obviously clear. Whereas Tung judged the Nieuwezijds Kolk, an exuberant glass office building by Dutch architect Ben van Berkel, as a fine example of how modern architecture is able to pay respect to the built environment, his listeners wholeheartedly judged the building as one of the worst recent interventions in Amsterdam’s inner city.

This is an account of the kick-off edition of Failed Architecture, which took place on March 30 at De Verdieping in TrouwAmsterdam.

The downfall of British Modernist architecture

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:50:00 +0200

On the 16^th of May 1968 a gas explosion led to the collapse of an entire corner of the recently opened Ronan Point council estate in Newham, East London. The responsible council tenant, Ivy Hodge, set of a domino effect of buckling flats by trying to light her stove in her 18^th floor apartment. While Miss Hodge miraculously survived, four others died and seventeen were injured.

The accident led to a plunge in the public esteem for Modernist architecture and the architectural profession, an impact comparable to the iconic blowing up of the St. Louis’ Pruitt-Igoe housing project. This was especially so since the collapse of Ronan Point was due to construction errors. The gas explosion caused by Miss Hodge blew out the flank walls, which supported the floors situated above. A local architect discovered that the weakness was in the joints connecting the vertical walls to the floor slabs. Lack of quality control led construction workers to fill the joints with newspapers, instead of concrete.

Ronan Point following the explosion (Daily Telegraph)

Ronan Point was built from pre-fabricated concrete panels, a cheap building method commonly used in all European countries during the 1950s and 1960s. For city councils, it was the perfect means to an end in solving the post-war housing crisis. In Great Britain the national government even subsidized every floor built over five storeys high. The scale of production in which this resulted led to a related downfall in construction quality. Although architects were hardly involved in the building process, the public blamed their modernist planning principles for the Ronan Point disaster.

Whereas Ronan Point became synonymous with failed architecture at a very early stage, the estate was immediately rebuilt, probably in order to reassure the public that nothing was wrong with living in tall tower blocks. However, the damage was already done. The British press exposed several personal ties between subsidizing parties and construction companies. Soon after the collapse social problems added up to the scare of construction faults, causing the downfall of Modernist architecture in Great Britain.

Ronan Point following the explosion (Daily Telegraph)