Freefloating or Floating EcoLodge or Floating Suite

As some of my readers know, I did my architectural thesis on factory produced relocatable modular housing and forty years later I'm still trying to get it built.

I mention this since Thursday afternoon I travelled across the Netherlands to attend the official media launch of a project that was another student's graduation thesis. However, he didn't need to wait forty plus years to make it happen. He got his thesis built by the age of 27!

The project is a floating cabin or lodge or suite....it still does not yet have a name, and it is the brainchild of a Dutch designer named Marijn Beije. What is quite remarkable is that Marijn had not seen the project in the flesh until Thursday's launch since he is now based in Shanghai as the Creative Director for Danish designer Jacob Jensen (who is most famous for his work for Bang & Olufsen.)The concept is quite intriguing...a very small, compact floating cabin that can be set up in a variety of settings, such as a nature reserve. There is no motor...it has to be towed to its berth, but it is quite nicely appointed. The model we saw is still a prototype and I think it needs a few more features...such as a shower, and more built-in storage spaces. But hey, the guy is only 27!Rather than tell you much more about the project, you can read about it in the designer's own words, as set out in a recent article in Green Life, India's First Mainstream Green Lifestyle Magazine. (Yes, the world is truly flat!) http://www.facebook.com/GreenLifeMagazine or here http://inhabitat.com/floating-mini-catamaran-cabin-offers-a-serene-wilderness-retreat-in-the-netherlands/free-floating-marijn-beije-1/

The project has been described in a number of other international magazines (including one in Hebrew) which is odd since the launch I attended was the first official media event. However, as Marijn pointed out to me, if you look carefully, you'll note that the structure in magazine photos looks a bit different than in the photos I took. That is because all the illustrations in various magazines are simply photos of a small mock-up model!

Not only does this guy have some great design sense, he has a lot of chutzpah too. Indeed, he's known as 'the rooster', no doubt for his quiet but cocky gait and demeanor. He's a very charming guy and I suspect he has a great future ahead of him.Following the launch we all headed over to a delightful historic restaurant/bar for champagne reception, attended by the media, and Marijn's business partners, friends and family. It was all very nicely done.I could not help but admire Marijn's watch. Of course it was a Jensen design and he no doubt played a part in its design!By the way, the suggested price for the lodge is 38,000 euros. Perhaps some Canadian manufacturer would like to partner with him and manufacture it here. I'd like to buy one and berth it across the street. Having seen it, I am sure others would like to buy one too.

If anyone would like to explore a partnership arrangement on this, or any other Dutch designer or product manufacturer, just contact Johannes Vervloed, the Dutch Consul General in Vancouver. He can be reached at jtm.vervloed@minbuza.nl.

The International New Town Institute

When I was planning UniverCity at SFU, I spent a lot of time checking out other New Towns around the world. I even went to Ottawa to interview Bill Teron who created the very successful satellite city of Kanata before becoming President of CMHC. I vividly remember his advice. "Do the first phases yourself. If you let others do them and they screw up, you'll never recover!"

Unfortunately, at the time I wasn't aware that there is an organization devoted to the study of New Towns around the world. It operates out of a modest storefront office in Almere, a major New Town in Holland. However, it plans to set up in other locations around the world since New Town development has essentially stopped in Western Europe.While I know very little about its background, I was very impressed with Michelle Provoost, a Dutch architectural historian, who has been the director of the INTI since 2008. A passionate woman with bright reddish hair, she defined New Towns as cities that are master planned at one moment in time and autonomous; that is to say, not just an extension of another municipality. In this respect SFU's UniverCity would not qualify, but Disney's Celebration outside of Orlando would.Michelle was very critical of many of the New Towns being built throughout Asia, and if you have been to some of them, I'm sure you are too. Too often they incorporate the worst aspects of American city planning, with building forms that are very foreign (if you'll pardon my pun) to the local setting. Others can be quite ridiculous when they try to mimic towns and cities from other parts of the world. For example, nine New Towns surrounding Shanghai have themed centres that use historic European architectural styles as a means to create identity.

I visited the English town with its cathedral and attractive neighbourhood pub (only to discover that you couldn't get a pint of beer and steak and kidney pie in the pub since it was just a facade with a hollow concrete shell inside). I also visited a contemporary German Eco-Town that flaunted its sustainability; however, I missed the Holland Village that was designed by a consortium of Dutch firms and looks remarkably like some of the places I saw in the Netherlands, except for the large Chinese neon signs.The Institute has recently published a wonderful book called Rising in the East: Contemporary New Towns in Asia. The author is Rachel Keeton, an American architect, writer and researcher, who studied in the Netherlands, and the book is published by SUN. It is very well written and illustrated, and deals with a very important topic, especially when one considers the dramatic movement of people from rural areas to urban areas including these New Towns, not only in China, but also in India, Cambodia, Viet Nam, South Korea and of course the middle east.

For anyone with an interest in large scale planning of either New Towns, or new communities adjacent to existing towns and cities, I highly recommend that you try and get a copy of INTI's book and check out other material on their website. They can be found at http://www.newtowninstitute.org/

Just a few ideas from International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam

The 5th Rotterdam Biennale is the third in a series that looks at the City of Tomorrow. It was held within the premises of the NAI-the Nederlands Architectuur Instituut, one of the world's largest and most active architecture centres.

The NAI is the steward of a unique architectural collection, stages exhibitions, organizes lectures and debates, and provides educational programming. It is dedicated to increasing public appreciation for architecture and its ability to respond to today's pivotal questions. In 2007, the Biennale focussed on how population shifts and globalization were accelerating change and questioned the role of architects in addressing these changes. The 2009/2010 event, titled Open City, urged architects and urban designers to reflect on what other types of contributions they might make. This year's Biennale, titled Making City looks at new ways to make better cities and seeks alternative solutions to those of the past.

Since 2009, the Biennale has been collaborating with local governments and partners on three 'test sites' in Rotterdam, Istanbul and Sao Paulo. In 2011 it issued a call for proposals to identify existing projects that demonstrate new solutions to the relationship between urban politics, planning and design. 320 submissions were received from around the world and 23 were selected as 'CounterSites'. While I am told that Vancouver wanted to be part of the event, a formal submission was not made. It is unfortunate since many of the people I met were eager to learn how Vancouver has achieved the level of success that it has, especially in the inner city.
I am also confident, having briefly seen some of the submissions and related activities, there was much Vancouver could learn from those participating at the event, especially in terms of alternative approaches to planning and improving sustainability.
I particularly enjoyed meeting Hans-Josef Hinken, a journalist who writes about urban issues from Freiburg Germany. Since I often consider Freiburg to be one of the truly greenest cities of the world, we agreed to collaborate on a joint article that compares our respective cities within various categories that might be considered barometers of greenest! Coming soon....

Sadly there was too little time to fully appreciate all the effort that went into the presentations and the information presented. However a catalogue of the event was published "MAKING CITY 5th IABR 2012. I am including some random photos taken at the Media Launch.I was especially taken with presentations that looked at densification in terms of introducing building forms from other times and places into local landscapes. After all, with architects reading the same glossy magazines, this is what so often happens around the world!As I wandered around the Biennale, I thought about the recent debate over Sister Cities, and whether civic officials travelling to places around the world and events such as this should be viewed as being on junkets, or genuine learning experiences. Personally, I see value in participation in international events such as this. While I suspect other cities would benefit more from what Vancouver might offer, there is much we can learn. In a future blog posting I will describe garbage collection systems that are commonplace in Europe and yet not available here. This is just the tip of the iecberg.

The way most European cities accommodate public transit and bicycles is fascinating; as is the national attitude to architecture and design. The Netherlands has the position of National Architect and I believe this influences the public interest in design. While there are different approaches to planning in Europe...the Dutch love to master plan....the Belgiums prefer a more ad-hoc approach, etc., it is worthwhile to pay close attention to what is happening. This will be addressed in a future post that looks at a proposed new Canada-Netherlands sustainability network.

The Biennale will now continue until 31 October 2012. Check it out!

Amsterdam's Public Library

Gordon Price recently posted a list of the world's best public libraries. Since the Amsterdam library was on the list, I thought I would post a few photos that I found on a memory stick provided to me by the City's communications officer. Note the ramp leading to the underground bike garage!

There is however, one thing that I found quite troubling about the library. When I toured through it on Monday, virtually everyone inside was working on their laptop!

Maybe the Dutch aren't so crazy after all!

As I wandered around the latest 'Self-build' developments in Almere, I couldn't help but be a bit astounded that government planners would allow people to build whatever they wanted in terms of design, as long as certain fire and safety codes were met. I worried that the 'hodge-podge' of houses would look odd years from now.

But in reviewing some wonderful photos provided by the Amsterdam city communications office, I realized that the 17th century streetsapes we so admire around the country are essentially the same thing...people doing their own thing on narrow lots, side by side, without spaces between the buildings.Admittedly, the level of detail was much more elaborate compared to what it is today; but the concept is the same.

I share this because I think the time has come for cities like Vancouver to start to encourage new more urbain 'zero-lot line' developments on narrow lots, without any wasteful side yards. While the streetscapes might look a bit odd in the beginning, with gaps between the buildings, over time some very attractive streetscapes could result.

This is what we do along commercial streets. Maybe it's time to do the same along residential streets.

Just a thought....

Rotterdam Biennale: Follow the Yellow Brick Road

As part of our itinerary, we were invited to the Press Preview for the 5th Rotterdam Biennale.

The International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) was founded in 2001 in the conviction that architecture and urbanism are of public importance. The most important task facing architecture is to contribute to the housing and living standards of billions of people. It is on that basis that the IABR is working on the city of tomorrow, also in the 5th edition: Making City.

It's too late in the day to tell you much about the event, but you can find a link here http://www.iabr.nl/EN/making_city/

I do, however, want to share some photos of one of the more intriguing of this year's projects. It proposes to transform a somewhat neglected portion of the city by encouraging the public to visit it. How, by constructing a bright new yellow route along back lanes and streets, and across a major roadway via a new bridge. The route even takes you into a formerly abandoned building that is now filling up with small, creative companies, and up to a new green roof.

Will it work? Time will tell, but $4 million has been committed by the City and others to the initiative and other funds are being sought. One modest but clever fundraising idea involves etching corporate names into railings along the new bridge. Here are a few photos.










Yes JV. The Dutch are somewhat mad. But there's much creativity in their madness!

Meeting Rem Koolhaas

My first exposure to Dutch architects was in the late 60’s when Herman Hertzberger was invited to be a guest at the University of Toronto School of Architecture. I don’t remember a lot about him, other than his passion for exposed grey concrete block, which was something I thought should be hidden, not exposed.

I’m told Hertzberger is still around. But he has been significantly overshadowed by a number of other very talented Dutch architects. Perhaps none is more famous than Rem Koolhaas, whose extensive works can be found around the world. (While he has not done anything in Western Canada, he is best known by many for the Seattle Public Library, a dramatic building although not one of my favourites, especially on the inside.

He was also the architect for the CCTV headquarters in Beijing. I remember driving by it in a taxi on the way to the airport while it was under construction. I couldn't imagine what it was at the time, with its angular steel structure. Many people cannot quite figure out what it is today, with its cladding completed. An adjacent building with equally dramatic forms caught fire in 2009, just prior to its opening.

Nonetheless, I was pleased to see that our itinerary included a visit to OMA which is one of his two companies. I didn’t expect to see Koolhaas. I was therefore very surprised when he not only showed up, but spent more than two hours casually showing myself and about a dozen other international correspondents (as he called us) around his office.

When I tweeted out that I met with Koolhaas, Blah_City, one of my Twitter correspondents asked if we had been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. We were not, although we were asked not to take any photos. It seems that in the past, it was understood that although one could comment on what Koolhaas said, he could not be quoted. This was definitely not the case this time around.

So what did he say? I opened the discussion by asking whether he thought of himself as a Dutch architect working internationally, or an international architect who did a lot of work in the Netherlands. He responded by saying he would answer later. What he did say was that he does so much work around the world, and has so many non-Dutch people in his office he no longer thought of himself as a Dutch architect, but he has Dutch neuroses!

His associated was more direct. He said the Queen likes to describe him as a Dutch architect; however, in order to broaden their appeal to potential clients from outside of the Netherlands, they think of themselves as an international firm.

Whether he thinks of himself as a Dutch architect or not, there is no doubt that he has had a significant impact on Dutch architecture and other Dutch architects. There is no doubt that despite its small size, the Netherlands does have a lot of very talented people who have created a very distinct, modern architectural vocabulary.

One of the first projects he showed us was an addition to the Italian Prada compound. RK has had an extensive involvement with Prada over the years doing everything from designing catwalks to catalogues and other marketing materials. I thought the additions were just awful…completely out of character with the context. My colleague Amr asked him about the importance of context. He responded that he respects the context but is confident he can add to it. He noted that the buildings were not designated heritage per se, adding that a polemic in his office is when is something a monument, and when is it not.

When asked why he had chosen an unusual aluminium cladding for an addition to a very traditional Italian building, he was quick to retort it was not a cladding!

He then showed us a museum project but would not say where it was located. One comment with which I did agree was his claim that he found it alarming that so much money is being invested in museums around the world at this particular time. He then proceeded to describe a number of projects in Asia and elsewhere around the world.

While I may not like the aesthetics of his work, I certainly enjoyed chatting with him. He is much more than an architect. He is a big thinker who is concerned with energy consumption, the future of Europe, and many issues not normally associated with architecture.

He joked about being invited to undertake a commission in Rome. The client told him he wanted Koolhaas “to do for Rome what Gehry had done for Bilbao”. He responded that it wasn’t necessary. He didn’t take the commission.

When asked about the other architects whose work he admired, he responded that he liked Japanese metabolism of the 60’s and 70’s and had just written a book about it. He noted that he liked some Chinese architects; however he hoped to collaborate with Chinese architects so as “not to see them do what American architects do”.

When asked about the difference between working for public and private sector clients, he responded that in the case of the former, the architect serves the public; whereas when working for private sector clients the architect serves the developer.

He was asked whether he prefers to do renovations or ‘starting from scratch’ he correctly noted there is no such thing as ‘starting from scratch’. He has yet to find a country where he can design whatever he wants, nor does he want to. There is always history, context and rules.

He was asked about ‘sustainability’ and which measuring system he prefers. While I’m not sure he really understood the question, he noted that architects have been concerned about sustainability for much longer than everyone else, adding it was a key topic when he went to school in the 60’s. He’s now more interested in how Europe is going to meet its energy needs and has been looking at systems incorporating oil, wind and sun. He’s written extensively about this too.

Someone asked him if there’s a particular project he’d like to do. He didn’t answer directly although noted he’s a keen swimmer, yet has never designed a swimming pool.

He then described a new project that is being designed to work as either an office building or housing. When I suggested that I thought this approach often ended up with something that was neither a good office nor residential building, he responded that I could write that if I wanted. He was confident he could incorporate the qualities in the building that would allow it to function in different ways.

After touring his office and chatting in a very relaxed way, he then left but invited us to return to a ground floor space where a very elaborate catered reception was served, and we were joined by a number of his staff. The service was overseen by a gentleman in a black suit, white shirt and black tie. I assumed he was the caterer but in fact, he was on staff, to perform such functions. They often have potential clients and others in the office for such receptions.

While I couldn’t take any photos, I was subsequently provided by the City of Rotterdam with an illustration of a new office complex now under construction in Rotterdam.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the two hours. I didn't really like much of his work, although I was fascinated by the man, and what he had to say. I was intrigued by his new interest with rural areas, and what should be their future now that so many people are moving to the cities.

I suspect I will now see his buildings in a very different way. Although I don't think I'll necessarily like them any more.

I also look forward to chatting with Brent Toderian about him. Brent considers him a very dangerous man. I'm not sure if I agree, although I might if he gets to build the additions to the Prada compound anything like the models he showed us.