Bart Goldhoorn invited two architectural firms from his native Holland to the current biennial - a large company KCAP Architects & Planners, well-known urban planners acting as a partner of Rem Koolhaas. They are shown at the exhibition at the International Pavilion. And Goldhorn chose the second bureau NEXT, which are also at the exhibition and gave a lecture on May 28. Bart Goldhoorn loved them for his research on urban rationality. According to the curator of the Biennale, “this rationality is important, the better it is thought out, the more money is left for architecture. Then the architect chooses where to spend the saved money, on some unusual things, on detailing."
One of the areas of work of NEXT Architects is research in the field of urbanism and residential architecture, which they conduct in conjunction with the Delft Institute, where Bart Reuser, by the way, teaches. The result of theoretical research was computer programs developed to quickly determine the type of building, based on predetermined density parameters. In general, Bart Roiser devoted his lecture to this theoretical part of their work.
A study of various aspects of building density in relation to space was carried out by NEXT Architects using the example of Amsterdam. According to Bart Roiser, "Density is a very relative issue when you talk about it with different scales." He illustrated his idea on a map of Amsterdam.
Bart Roiser:
“As we enter or float into a city, we see more and more fully built-up areas lined with streets. As we go deeper towards the historical center, this development begins to change in typology, the buildings become smaller. If in 1900 5 people usually lived in apartments of 40 sq. m. and on average these houses had 4 floors, but now it is 2.5 people per apartment of 90 sq. m and buildings with a height of 3 floors. That is, the same number of people occupied a much larger living space. Plus, the space between buildings for parking needs has increased. It turns out that over 100 years, the same population required 8 times more space."
Bart Roiser showed how the same dynamics can be found out for the state of the land fund, i.e. free land as the city grows. Considering that the density indicators are constantly growing upwards, NEXT Architects is mainly interested in "the creation and development of 'open spaces' within the already built-up areas." Bart Roiser does not mean open spaces, but spaces within buildings, recalling the classic modernist contradiction: a building standing in an open space and an open space inside a building. So the second is about them.
According to Bart Roiser, there are various conceptual approaches to the problem of city development, of which the approach from the position of density seems to him the most rational, since "it can give a gain in space for the future." NEXT has developed several models to find different solutions to the problem of building density in relation to the depth and width of the building and the distance between them.
The program is really smart, but on the other hand, and too rational, it gives out straightforward, and, let's say, uninteresting options. For example, she produced a linear model consisting of several parallel elements with given parameters. It may be the most effective, but not suitable for life. “The question is, says Bart Roiser, whether we can create smarter models in order to create a richer urban environment. The model allows us to approach those results that we could not even clearly imagine."
Another development by NEXT Architects is the so-called Blocklibrary, or the study of the building itself and its relationship with the environment, which resulted in a catalog of 880 typical buildings, on a scale from 5x5x5 meters to 50x50x50. Among the main types, of which various variations are then formed, Bart Roiser named the following: the simplest cubic free-standing house; then, if it grows upwards, the type "tower" is obtained; putting several next to each other, you get a "row" if they merge with each other, then "ingot", and, finally, "block".
“Naturally, this is a very simplistic way of thinking, says Bart Roiser, because we overlook all the intermediate concepts. It is interesting for us to know what is in between these key types, i.e. some intermediate solutions and their capabilities”. Since the matrix of different types of buildings often provides unoriginal but effective solutions, this is a useful thing for architects. NEXT tried to improve it by covering the "gaps", ie. what is in between the main types. Bart Roiser explained this with an example.
Bart Roiser:
“For example, there is a simple structure measuring 50x50 m, flat, and the best solution for daylight in this version is patios. Suppose it begins to grow upward, and then this concept with light no longer works and it is necessary to look for other ways of the sun's access to the inside of the building. Now we need to make cuts on the sides of the building, etc.”. Thus, a program that operates with different types of buildings and their transformations provides a kind of hint, a basis for further manipulations by the architect. Here the task is, according to Bart Roiser, that it is necessary to change the conceptual approach to the problem of density and efficiency of space use and to move away from such traditional forms as "blocks", "rows", etc. All his software innovations Bart Roiser calls "elements design strategies ". “The interest in this way of thinking lies in the fact that you divide the problem into several components and already start working with them separately. And in this way you create various tools and approaches to the study of the urban situation, or the state of the city."
Toward the end of the lecture, Bart Roiser turned from theoretical schemes to how it all works in practice, and showed two examples of innovative housing. The first is an unusual residential building in the suburbs of Amsterdam called Villa Overgooi. Firstly, the very way of its implementation is unusual - the house is being built not by the developer, but by the residents themselves, these are five families who put their money down and independently chose the project. This is a novelty for the Netherlands, but to Bart Roiser himself this phenomenon seems very rational: “This is a mobile system, people themselves become developers, and everything comes from their financial capabilities, which makes the project cheaper, and they themselves determine the size of their house”.
The NEXT architects faced a non-standard task - to develop 5 residential blocks with a total area of 5,000 sq. m. at the same time taking into account the requirement that it all look like one large villa. As a result of a series of transformations with the volume of the building, as well as a seminar that they conducted with these five families, there were five individual apartments, unlike each other, but connected into a single volume. Moreover, each floor was turned relative to the other two, which gave an exceptional orientation to the entire building, the most comfortable insolation and space. Subsequently, the entire villa was raised one more floor to give each apartment a superb view across the nearby dam onto the lake landscape beyond.
Bart Roiser:
- “The first floor of the house is raised, and the upper one is“laid”on it in the opposite direction. This was due to the fact that there was a garden on one side and a lake on the other, and we turned the top floor and raised it so that all families had a great view from the window. The upper floor is not entirely built up, here the tenants saved money. They have a common 1st ground floor through which everyone enters their home. The next main floor is five apartments designed in one direction. And on the top floor, everything is perpendicular. The space under the building seems to be the most important to me, this is exactly what I call “the space inside the building”, which I talked about at the beginning. This is a completely new concept of space where all residents of the house, especially children, can meet."
In 2004, NEXT Architects opened an office in Beijing. Many projects in the field of residential construction were made by them together with Chinese partners. They have a kind of division of labor, as Bart Roiser said, “we are working on the concept, we are participating at the design stage, and our partners are already at the stage of creating drawings and construction itself”. The last project that Bart Roiser showed at the lecture is located in Beijing - a student dormitory for 3,500 people. “This is a typical example of inexpensive mass development. Despite the fact that everything is unified here and students live in the same conditions, nevertheless, we wanted to give each of the tenants a sense of the individuality of his space."
The dormitory resembles in the plan two Latin letters L, set opposite each other. This is dictated by the desire to separate the building for boys from the second as much as possible, for girls - in China this is strictly. The first building is facing south, it is a couple of floors lower, and due to the lower altitude, sunlight can penetrate into two closed courtyards. Both buildings are connected by a gallery-like recreational block that can be used by both sides. All rooms are standard, 12 sq. m each, designed for 4 students, and have a closed balcony. These balconies encompass the entire building, creating, according to Bart Roiser, a kind of "game" between individual rooms and the complex as a whole.
A Dutch architect introduced such an interesting and non-standard model in the field of residential architecture planning at his lecture, and everything related to a villa for 5 families is also a very new phenomenon, almost unknown to anyone. Summing up the lecture, Bart Goldhoorn noted that with us “panel houses are still considered the only way to achieve high density. While calculations would help to find a more economical option. So listen and learn …
