Here, February flew by. It was busy and interesting. The winter weather was like autumn, windy and warm, maybe seven flakes of snow. In the Netherlands we love skating on ice, but we wait and wait... will there ever be a winter like those on the old Dutch paintings? Like the winter in the paintings fromPieter Bruegel the Elder.
During February many new images were posted on SketchFab. The theme of the third week, with its focus on emergence, brings one of the most favourite challenges. Working with scale figures triggers inspiration and helps to see the most ordinary things from a different perspective. While preparing the feedback video, we were playing with the 'tunnel effect' that emerges when you link a camera to a screen. In the Netherlands we call it the 'Droste effect'. We started dreaming and arguing, 'what is real?'
In the video below (Feedback for the Models in Architecture course), you will see some of the images for the week 3 challenge. All these images were made in February. We selected only a few of all new course images, but we think every image on Sketchdrive deserves to be seen. It's very inspiring to see all different approaches and emergent ideas. Please treat the Sketchdrive site as if it is your museum, exhibiting the creative work from you and all your artistic colleagues, from all over the world. Visit it often, and try to seek what you can learn from others. It's also very helpful to comment on each others work in order to highlight what you like and what maybe can be improved or what is not immediately clear.
We challenged ourselves by making a video using Augmented Reality. The digital content (some images and some 3D photogrammetry models) was placed in a 3D space as if it related to the real interior of our Teaching Lab. In the video you will see that it is all just a digital render layer on top of the video image. This video is still a monoscopic AR application, but imagine that you can see the 3D models with two eyes, stereoscopically. That's what is done in AR goggles such as the MagicLeap and the Hololens. In a few years time we might all walk with such magic spectacles instead of using a phone, and instead of using our own imagination...
Remarkable work: a model for communication and intervention
Lego in a Technical University? Of course! We should always keep playing. But this is much more serious! This model was made by Linda Kronmüller and Alex Kypriotakis - Weijers, two ambitious and clever students who wanted to communicate about a neighbourhood.
Here is their story:
We worked together on developing a narrative tool that would help us with our design process regarding the development of the area. Inspired by the BlockbyBlock initiative by UN Habitat, we created a 1:1000 scale model of our area of focus out of Lego and then made the rules and elements of a participatory design game.
The goal of the game on its earliest form was to immerse the participants into assuming the identities of Binckhorst locals with the use of cards thus creating a narrative for each player and invite them into placing colourful LEGO blocks to indicate interventions they proposed. The cards were related to physical and social elements of the area but the even so, the result wouldn't reflect the wishes of the actual locals. Thus we simplified the game and roamed the area carrying the model all day. We managed to interview and collect data from 6 participants, each with unique wishes, background and ideas on what Binckhorst could become in the future.
The reception exceeded our expectations. Not only our participants were more than happy to play but their feedback was almost identical with the interventions we were thinking of implementing before making the game yet their spatial observations were much more refined and precise than ours. It is worth to mention that they highly appreciated the fact that architecture students wanted to speak with the users of the area and involve them in the design process.
After that, we got down to work to analyse the information we collected and formed a design strategy that would implement the game feedback as much as possible. We focused on the transformation of the BinckTwins building, which currently facilitates storage and industrial functions, and turned it into a new hub of the area where newcomers, industrial and creative industry workers would meet and create a community where skill, knowledge, creation and play would mix. Our proposal involves the partial transformation of the building with the introduction of (open) workshops, creative industry space, leisure & catering spaces and a large rooftop playground with communal functions. The rooftops of the Binck Twins become a common space where locals can keep a close relationship with each other: living, manufacturing, technology and leisure combined. Apart from the transformation, 5 new apartment blocks around the building are connected with the Binck Twins through roadways and passages thus creating a closer relation between the newcomers and the building but also retaining the relationship of the area automobile movement. Our vision of play is not limited just on the process of design but also on the common spaces of the building. It becomes a common playground that promotes commitment and participation for creative and leisure activities among dwellers and workers of the Binck Island. Playing is about learning, sharing, understanding and taking care of the well-being of ourselves and others and therefore we think that people should be given spaces and the tools to collectively express their skill, knowledge and talent.
Our scale figure has been climbing during the weekend.
Our scale figure from the Models in Architecture course did some extreme free style urban climbing during the weekend. So, maybe that's why this February issue of MIAMIAM arrived rather late. But some spare time is well deserved, and what an experience to climb to such heights.
What's going on at the Faculty of Architecture ?
From 27 February until 21 March, the nominees of the National Archiprix 2019 exhibit their graduation work at the BK Expo.
Since 1980, the Dutch Archiprix foundation has organised the annual competition, presenting the best graduation projects on the field of architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture. The coveted prize aims to find the most talented young designers, promoting their entry into the professional world. Both universities and academies of architecture are joined in this competition, offering those who are interested a unique chance to compare the quality, content and perspective of the work that comes from the education these different institutes offer. The educational institutes that join the Archiprix are the Academies of Architecture (and Urbanism) in Amsterdam, Arnhem, Groningen, Maastricht, Rotterdam, and Tilburg, the Technical Universities of Delft and Eindhoven and Wageningen University and Research (landscape architecture).
We like showing some inspirational models and images from the exhibition to you. Amongst the graduation plans, many interesting views can be found. The next generation of designers shows what contemporary challenges they will try to address. They show us a mirror and they seek innovative solutions for our daily lives. The exhibition is a rich overview of ideas and a showcase of all sorts of architectural presentation techniques. The short YouTube film below shows a huge conceptual model, 'META' by Paul van den Bergh. He explores the pressure on the built environment from digitalisation, media, and globalisation. The model shows a large number of scale figures in strange, confronting situations. The model is an art piece with a strong alarming message. It's a negative message and a solution is lacking.
A totally different approach comes from Iruma Rodriguez Hernández. She carefully presents her vision for a happier Havana. The posters are full of detailed ideas, little info-graphs and well chosen titles and captions. She also addresses problems, but with a positivist approach. This plan addresses a polluted river and proposes a cleaner environment with 41.000 new houses and reconstruction of cultural heritage.
The exhibition contains many more inspiring ideas, all plans contain power and spirit to not take for granted our environment. These designers show what goes wrong and they give hope for a better future. Let's wish all contenders a bright future!
A bird's dream house
This is awesome: we have a peregrine falcon nest in the top of the tower of the Delft Faculty of Architecture building! We expect little peregrine chicks getting out of the eggs after a 32 day's incubating sit. During the day time you can follow the falcon family on their own webcam. From April 12 till the end of May you can expect the parents feeding their young ones with prey, like pigeons. The top speed of these fantastic birds can be over 320 km/h (200mph).
Update 15/3/2019: four eggs!
(-: On topic, the image above shows you the roof of the scale model workshop, it's just behind the tail of the falcon :-)
THE MONTHLY IMAGE ABILITY AND MODELS IN ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE