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Dear all,

after talking to you Thursday and Friday here are some remarks to take into account when continuing working on the projects coming week. A general remark for all projects is that it is important to draw things on scale and more precise. Sketches can be useful to develop and explain ideas and to communicate, but to really know if these ideas work in the plan you will have to draw them precisely (Autocad or Vectorworks etc.) so that you know measurements and proportions. Also, for all plans, make sure that you have a general idea of the amount of program in each drawing/ model that you develop, and that you can explain what is different from the program that you have been given and why. 'Why?' is the most crucial question in anything that you do when working on your project...

Gulay en Polina

As we discussed the current plan somehow combines two ideas that at this point are not really more than the sum of its parts. The first idea is that of a 'linear city' or strip, that stretches from the Spaarndammerbuurt all the way into the existing Houthavens (Danzigerkade etc.) and that organizes all the required programme. The other idea is that of a series of bands, each offering a specific condition, that together constitute a 'field', on top of this field some superimposed interventions /diagonals that operate as connectors over these bands. Now, as a way to proceed, it would be good to spend some time on developing both ideas separately into two radically different plans to investigate the potentials and inner working of both ideas. From the parallel research on both ideas you probably will be better able to bring the plan as a whole a step further. 

As we discussed in the studio Leonidov's Linear City but also Rem Koolhaas' Exodus project, (and also conceptually Superstudio's Continuous Monument or maybe even Le Corbusier's Plan Obus) are important to look at when developing the linear model. In this model it is important to not only think about the inner workings of the strip but also about how this strip of program relates to what is happening on both sides of the strip. For the field idea both OMA's as Bernard Tschumi's plan for Parc de la La Villette are plans to carefully look at. Especially for how programs, spheres and activities are both distinct as well as interconnected on the same time. Also OMA's recent plan for Qianhai Port City in China might be an interesting reference: http://www.oma.eu/projects/2010/qianhai-port-city . Make sure that you have a general idea of the amount of program in the two plans that you develop. Testing both ideas parallel is also a way to generate spatial concepts that you might later use either way in the plan that you will continue to develop further. 

Zuhair, Lava, Piangpim

The idea of a neighborhood that organically grows by itself and that can be constructed by a range of stakeholders (individuals and institutions) on base of a set of parameters or rules is very interesting and has a lot of potential, especially within the current condition of the housing market in Amsterdam. Apart from thinking about the 'rules of the game' though, it is also important to also think about the spatial conditions that the plan could generate. Therefore it is important to be more precise in the plan; make drawings on scale with exact measurements, think about profiles, public spaces, typologies (in fact the most important components of your plan), what kind of urban spaces will be generated from the rules that you develop? What is fixed and what is flexible ? As we discussed it is also important to think about the development of the plan over a longer period of time. In what way can the plan be more than a series of plots to be sold on the free market? Graafland already mentioned Habraken and the SAR to you. Also Gert Urhahn's recent book 'Spontaneous City' would be an interesting reference for you to have a look at (http://bit.ly/rz5ANm I think for your project it is worth to order online and you can also check http://bit.ly/rDtc5t with a short 'manifesto'). Also look at Greenwich Village in NY as an example of an interesting distribution of typologies.

Roman, Alexandra

The new diagrams that you presented last Friday have a lot of potential, especially the third one: the loop that connects Spaarndammerbuurt, existing Houthavens (Danzigerkade) and even the Silodam. It could be interesting to think about the loop more as a public space than solely as a 'technical' infrastructure that is just there to connect the different programmes. Within the design you will have to think about how this loop spatially connects to existing and news programmes on both sides of the loop and what type of conditions can be generated from that. We mentioned already Tange's Tokyo Bay Project as a relevant reference for building a neighbourhood on the water. Maybe also Paolo Soleri's Noah Babel could be interesting to have a look at (as an example of a circular plan on the water with different conditions (almost as satellites) connected to it). As for Polina and Guley it could also be interesting for you to look at Leonidov's Linear workers' City (a continuous line that contains different parallel conditions that apart from other things also create interesting sections ) and more recently OMA's Crystal Island competition entry in Shenzhen: http://www.archdaily.com/25450/oma%C2%B4s-new-landmark-for-shenzhen-crystal-island-competition/

Alan & Egor

From a city within a city you decided to now work on an 'open city'. In that case it is important to think about how the plan is connected to Amsterdam, both in terms of its direct surroundings as well as to the position of the plan within the development of Amsterdam as a city. At the moment the project is still very much a diagram, now you have to make a plan on base of that diagram in which you show the spatial qualities of your concept. One of the directions in that could be your idea of a section that is more dense in the part that is related to the Spaarndammerbuurt and softer towards the water....

A couple of years ago the Architecture Biennal of Rotterdam was curated by Kees Christiaanse who gave it as a theme 'Open City'. It is worth to have a look at his terminology and what he describes as an open city: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4B1RI-6NDc

Asya

A lot needs to be done. Make a plan that is based on the programme that we provided you with. The initial idea of a small compact gridbased watercity that accomodates the programme could be interesting but was to unelaborated to seriously discuss. 

Aliya

You have formulated seven statements as a summary of what you think is important for your plan for the Houthavens site. Now that you have developed a first diagram for the site you should critically look at your plan and see how these 'seven statements' are incorporated in the diagram. The idea of a combined 'water city' and 'green city' (you call it garden city) could be interesting but how do these distinct conditions relate to each other ? What make these two parts in the plan different? and what do they have in common? Also the idea of of making a neighbourhood for creative people could be interesting but just stating that creative people will be living there won't work. For example it requires to be more specific about what housing types and and accordingly some ideas about the financial conditions your plan needs to accommodate in order to make that a convincible statement. On the diagram of Howard's Garden City in your presentation there is the warning "NB Diagram only, Plan cannot be drawn until site selected". Somehow the same goes for your plan; , starting from what is there - a site - you have to be more (site) specific, both in terms of plan as well as in ideas.

Zohal and Mostafa

The diagram is very radical and interesting, but now the diagram has to be translated into a plan...As we discussed there are three lines of research/ work that are important for you to pursue.

1. Argument. it is important to continuously know what you are doing in terms of programme and how this relates to the city of Amsterdam. As we calculated roughly in the studio Friday your proposal contains over 3000 houses, three times as much as the requested programme... You have to work on an argument why this density is important and what it means for Amsterdam (for example: will all proposed new developments in Amsterdam for the coming twenty years take place in the plan that you are proposing?)

2. Grid and Public Spaces. We discussed the research that you did on grid cities, especially Chicago and Barcelona. It would be good to look again at Barcelona, especially on how the Cerda grid in Barcelona contains within its generic characteristics a richness of specific public spaces. In your grid proposal for the Houthavens there is currently hardly any variety in public space, therefore it would be interesting to develop on base of you analysis of Barcelona a more rich public space strategy.

3. Typologies. Think about how the grid can accommodate a variety of typologies that each addresses different groups of users. An interesting read for you could be the article of Bart Goldhoorn and Alexander Sverdlov on urban blocks see: http://www.masshtab.ru/pict/Volumeblockcity.pdf (it was originally published in this issue of Volume Magazine on the urban block: http://volumeproject.org/blog/2009/10/02/volume-21/ (in your case worth to order, see preview here: http://issuu.com/gsapponline/docs/volume21-previews))

Good luck and best wishes,

David, Max

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