ARCHITECTURE IN LIMBO END

kneeling

cooking

Architecture In Limbo

The Bijlmermeer never stops

a strategy for a sustainable living environment for living and working in a dutch new town

standing

walking

sitting

laying down

jumping

running

falling

dancing

cycling

PT traveling

car driving

boating

flying

playing

making love

sleeping

eating

petting

hanging around

fleeing

using the toilet

coming home

conversing

cleaning

singing

making music

drinking

shouting

fighting

sporting

speaking

praying

staying over

Content

Content

Introduction Past Middle Clash

What is it

Why

How

Recipe Assembly Regional urban strategy

Built environment, landscape and public space

Extending a shopping mall and housing

Facilities for appropriation in the future.

Conclusion

“According to SO the collectivity of the new form of living should be emphasized in the design of the dwelling units. Not the individual house but the repetition of the collective elements should be accentuated.” (Bolte & Meijer 1981: 262)The rigid implementation of the modern concepts of city design on such a large scale had, of course, huge implications on the working of the public life in the neighbourhood. The urban principle of the ‘city street’ was eliminated in the Bijlmer and most of the functions it had to fulfil were placed within the community of the flat. The concept of the dry walk, which was a key element of the urban infrastructural scheme, was therefore essential to the design of individual flats. This link between ‘house’ and ‘road’ was planned on the ground floor, though it soon was moved to the first so pedestrians and cyclists could pass unhindered at ground level. The ground floor consisted furthermore of double height apartments. Initially two dry walks were designed per flat: one as an open gallery on the sunny side and one as an indoor corridor on the east side of the block. Between the walkways there would be elevators, staircases and more importantly the collective spaces, on which later more.In the initial plans the apartments were accessed by means of an elevator and a small vestibule or portico for a maximum of four houses (see fig.7 on page 24). In the few cases where this was not possible short, separated galleries would have to be the alternative. This access system was very important because it concentrated the horizontal movement in the corridors, which would add to the experience of a real street (see images 11 and 12 on page 34).

The most important elements of the internal street were the collective spaces. Between the two dry walks the communal life of the whole flat should take place. The architects and planners envisioned bars, child care and sports facilities, playgrounds, meeting points and conference rooms. Just as these things find their place in ‘regular’ neighbourhoods there was room in the blocks for the bridge club, the elderly committee, stamp collectors and the occasional block party. Not only inside the buildings there was room for collective activities, at some points little pavilions were designed to house extra neighbourhood facilities. These pavilions were accessible from both the internal corridor and the ground

fig.of ttake70s.

Fig.01.Bijlmermeer and its middleclass in the late sixties (source; Kees Rijnbout)

Introduction Past Middle clash

Introduction

As an architect I assemble physi-cal environments and infrastruc-tures for human activity. I would like to believe that my assem-blies could facilitate these human activities. A built surrounding that facilitates or helps people to live, dwell and work in good or bad times.

To be able to assist with a build-ing in bad times it is essential to understand the relation between social activities and infrastruc-tures, specifically in crisis envi-ronments. Jouke Sieswerda and I did an elab-orative research on the history of the Bijlmermeer. A late mod-ern housing area that started out as one of the most popular living areas but ended up as the first ghetto in the Netherlands. The re-search is about politics, the re-alisation of the built environment (and its infrastructure), the big cutbacks,the effect it had on human usage and their control over pri-vacy. The title of the book is;

Architecture in Limbo, A short his-tory of public, private and collec-

tive spaces in the Bijlmermeer. It describes how physical infrastruc-tures and environments influenced the initiatives of inhabitants to live, dwell or work in a distorted crisis environment. (http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/architecture-in-limbo/1045052 )

After this research it was only natural for me to react on our find-ings and generate a strategy for a sustainable environment for living and working. This strategy enhanc-es the infrastructure and privacy control in order to better life and business possibilities for in-habitants, in both good and bad economical conditions. This way it would be possible to facilitate the emergence of talents that encour-ages entrepreneurial tendencies even when when vicious socioeco-nomic disasters tend to eliminate the middle class from parts of our society.

Past Middle clash

Quote; ’The position starting busi-nessmen who emerge out of social security is of great importance to the Dutch economy, their con-flicting situation is illustrating how little thought their strug-gle really gets.’(Frank Kalshove; De Volkskrant, zaterdag 13 juni, Economie )1

The article explains how the insti-tute ‘UWV’, for social security, is demoralising people to emerge out of unemployment with their own business. Kalshoven concludes that entrepreneurs, who are emerging out of the precarious situation of social security, are not as free as others.In my opinion he describes the ob-struction of emerging business-men and talent. They are trying to arise out of crisis but do not have the same chances, to initiate a business, like others do. This seems a peculiar situation in re-lation to the current perspectives that we live in. If we like it or not, we do live in a world that faces a luring financial catastro-phe. This crisis is one where mid-dle class will be struck by huge

losses of employment, making the middle class more and more depen-dant on their own entrepreneurial initiatives and talent.Therefore the aforementioned sit-uation seems peculiar and even threatening when policies start to obstruct and even financially punishes2 small-scale business-es that are emerging in spite of their crisis. This discourages en-trepreneurial tendencies instead of a fundamental enhancement of economic activities and trust.

But lets not start off with a doom scenario. Lets have a look at the statement and lesson that could be learned from the article and relate it to a future where governance cannot guarantee your social well-being due to a global economical shift or crisis. A future in which more and more people will start their own business out of neces-sity and not just for fun. It is a future where we’re all businessmen or freelancers in a neoliberalized ‘welfare state’ in which we need to sustain our own residential and

economical wellbeing.

1 Het spel en de knickers, Ondernemende WW’ers verdienen meer vrijheid, minder regels; Frank Kalshove, De Volkskrant, zaterdag 13 juni, Economie 2Recently penalties up to thousands of euros are being given to starting entre-preneurs who are trying to get out of social security. The Uwv (social securi-ty) treats non profit hours that one puts into a new business as if these hours directly cause capital accumulation by lets say charging the costumer for it. So don’t think of your company when you are surfing the web, because you will get fined.

What is it

This project is a reaction to the redevelopments in the Bijlmermeer. The Bijlmermeer is a late modern housing area, built in the 1960’s and situated in Amsterdam South East (ASE).The design of the Bijlmermeer is not unique. It is part of a huge amount of dwelling areas developed with a strong social or social-istic ideal. These ideals reached from France to Russia1 and are nowadays often referred to as New Towns2 .Most of these areas are facing de-molition because they are percieved as complete social, architectural and technical failures. The areas look endless, are subordinated to socioeconomic disasters and start to just fall apart. In this sense it seems reasonable to get rid of these social housing slabs and ar-eas as soon as possible and build a complete new and nicer housing area from scratch! However, there is another side to this story.With this demolition we face a new problem in the Netherlands. This problem is the termination of:

1 Read; Idealen in beton; verkenning in midden- en oost europa

2 Read; Wimby; welcom in my backyard .by Crimson.

Social cultural infrastructures; think of families, friends, neighbours or business relationships that will not live amongst each other anymore. They are being separated.

Cultural Heritage and Physical national history;The Bijlmer is the condensed result of Dutch architectural and political histo-ry. It is telling the story of Dutch socialism, colonialism, immigrant policies and housing on the background of the most contemporary Dutch architecture, Urb-nism and Real Estheat business of the 60’s

Socioeconomic infrastructure; We’re losing a ‘school’. The Bijlmer is almost a school from which we could learn about the rise and fall of business initiatives. It tells the story of the do’s and don’ts in relation to emerging businesses, both formal and informal

Fig.02.Air picture of Amsterdam Southeast, showing the Bijlmermeer(source; google earth)

Fig.03.Arial masterplan of Amsterdam Southeats(source; Kees Rijnbout)

Fig.05.Arial masterplan of The Bijlmermeer(source; Kees Rijnbout)

Fig.04.infrastructural plan of The Bijlmermeer(source; Kees Rijnbout)

Fig.06. Function construction plan of The Bijlmermeer(source; Kees Rijnbout)

Fig.07.demolition of flatslabs

Fig.08.flatslabs in their green surrounding

The demolition of the Bijlmermeer is typical for the way housing corporations redevelop their real-estate stock, only this time it concerns a national monument that represents a historical heritage of failures that the Netherlands rather seems to ignore. One would expect that the people who are governing these areas would learn from such mistakes. Nevertheless the redevelopment completely fails to see local; potentials, charac-teristics and even talents.3

Fig.09.origional Bijlmermeer fabric(source; municipality)

Fig.10. new Bijlmermeer fabric(source; municipality)

3 Documentary ; VPRO Tegenlicht (Back-light); Sloop-Sloop , Het nieuwe Bou-wen. (Demolish- Demolish, Thé contem-porary way of building) (http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleverin-gen/22966523/) Documentry; VPRO Tegen-licht (Backlight); Erop of eronder in Noord (http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/27401046/)

Fig.11.Richard Yeboart & Jouke Sieswerda

These demolitions and redevelop-ments position the established middle class and destabilise low-er-class talents that could have emerged, both in business and so-cial activities. In the case of the Bijlmer we can mention the many soccer talents, the business-es that where started in living rooms and parking lots. A nice ex-ample is Richard Yeboart, a young engineer who started his own con-sultancy office in one of the park-ing garages on the Daalwijkdreef. We spoke to him in his office and walked with him through the Bi-jlmer where he grew up.It seems that the recent redevel-opments or ‘vinex’ revitalisations do not enrich the environment with possibilities or tools for the in-habitants and their diverse range of activities, which are charac-teristic for the Bijlmer. Nor are these redevelopments capable of facilitating several ways of space appropriation by its inhabitants in the future. In other words: if these interventions of stan-dardised housing with gardens are not working in the Bijlmer, they can start to demolish it again.

The built surroundings of the re-development are, in that sense, not capable of adapting to several socioeconomic scenarios different from the middle class scenario, where people are supposed to have a general, or even high income, a 9 to 5 job, a car and a dog. This mono-modal environment is be-ing positioned because ‘everyday life’ activities in the Bijlmer-meers’ buildings and surroundings are not being taken sufficient-ly into account. These ‘everyday life activities’ can be both legal and illegal, are often depending on the socioeconomic conditions of the area and often reveal very exclusive, unexpected and typical potentials for the area.In case of the Bijlmermeer you might think of the spontaneous emergence of churches, business-es, restaurants, shops, bars or even brothels that are situated in parking lots, boxes and living rooms. They emerge out of spac-es that are cheap, easily modifi-able or big enough to be changed into a program that is required by the inhabitants of the Bijlmer-meer. For example, priests used to

start night intakes for junkies in places that where actually meant for traffic or storage purposes. Municipality came and shut these down as it was prohibited to house people in those spaces. On top of that it was impossible to get the required permits for these prac-tices, leaving the junkies on the street again. This story was an example given by Jan Willem Slu-iskens, the Bijlmermeer coordina-tor of the municipality who had to go and shut the aforementioned ac-tivities of the priest down. An act he was definitely not proud off.He showed us the inefficencies of certain policies in reality; people are opposed right at the beginning of their attempt to participate in the Bijlmer society. These people felt sabotaged by rules and regu-lations as certain valuable ini-tiatives never got a chance. In this situation policies simulate disbelief, distrust and disobedi-ence, instead of order and trust.The example of Jan Willem Slu-iskens shows how people’s initia-tives where often being torn apart by rules and regulations, just be-cause these actions did not fit a

Fig.12.new housing put out for saleby its owners

typical Dutch way of doing things. The point is that the Bijlmer in-habitants had a far more intensive or intelligent way of dealing with space than the rest of the Neth-erlands could imagine. Therefore it often seemed strange, false or illegal.This means that activities and talents that emerge out the Bi-jlmermeer are less available to potential metropolitan, regional or global visitors. The inhabit-ant’s chance on a profitable or liveable environment is being re-duced. On top of that it seems that built surroundings do not provide a clear physical acces-sibility for visitors. This makes it even harder to have access to the environments of local talents or activities. And it explains why this area is an unknown ‘void’ to most people in the Netherlands and why the population in Ghana could possibly know more about the Bijlmermeer than the population in the Netherlands. In this sense the Bijlmermeer has a mission to be-come more accessible to the Dutch inhabitants of Amsterdam and the region of Amsterdam Southeast it-

self. This would make the charac-teristic socioeconomic potentials, cultural initiatives and ‘everday-life’ activities of the Bijlmer more available.Nevertheless it was the revitali-sation of the recent years that erased the existing built sur-roundings. The existing buildings had to make way for a large amount of generic housing. This replac-es the Bijlmer history, identity, characteristics and part of its inhabitants with a generic middle class that initiates a gentrifying effect, making it easier to for-get what happened in the Bijlmer-meer. The risk in this is that we forget to learn from the mistakes we made in architecture, urbanism, immigration and politics, both na-tional and International. All top-ics are very contemporary topics in our Dutch society, making the Bijlmer a typical example of mod-ern planning and Dutch politics, which is now being demolished. It would have been interesting to see how this original ‘new town’ of the Bijlmermeer could have evolved into a real Amsterdam city-borough and international centrality, be-

fore it was being reduced to a typ-ical Dutch ‘vinex’ village. Prob-ably we would have learned more

from our mistakes.

Fig.13.Gliphoeve flatslabs

Jouke Sieswerde and I went to the Bijlmermeer, spoke to people on the street, analysed its history, compared it to late modern areas in Rotterdam, discussed the qualities of the Bijlmermeer with its inhab-itants and stayed overnight sev-eral days to feel what it is like to live there. We took the condi-tion of the Bijlmermeer in 2005 as a starting point and speculated on what it might be in 2015. This way we found valuable ingredients we could reassemble for a new housing project.I made a spatial recipe that con-

sists out of:

1. A regional urban strategy; for the initiation of socioeconomic activities in several neighbourhoods (in the Bijlmer)

Fig.14.new program and infrastructural layout for the NorthernBijlmermeer Daalwijkdreef area.for legenda see fig.29

2. A built environment that is integrated with the green landscape and public space; realised by phasing several experiences of entering or leaving territories. this effect is assembled by emphasising the readability between several topological scale transitions, both in- and outside the buildings.

Fig.15.sketch model of a part in the new layout for the Bijlmermeer.It shows asloping landscape that is intergrated with a housing block, water surfaces and entrees for appartments, shops and neighbourhoods

3.The extension of a shopping area with housing; a platform where local business ambitions could meet agenda’s and agents of the housing corporations or municipality.

Fig.16.Full sketch model of the new layout at te Daalwijk flat area. It it setup out of triangular slopes, Shops, parks watersurfaces, roof tarreces and circulation for ;

-Region amsterdam-Amsterdam Southeast-The Bijlmermeer-The neighbourhoods -local housing blocks

4. Built facilities for several forms of appropriation in the future; implemented by designing flexibility in the ‘building plinth’, the housing typology and the technical detailing.

The goal of this thesis was to deal with the monstrous scale of the original Bijlmermeer project and make ‘Nessy’ surface from the ‘void’ so people passing the lake could enjoy its positive value.

Or in other words; to break down the huge scale of the Bijlmermeer in several territories for socio-economic appropriations and every-day life activities in the housing slabs.

Fig.17.Triangular slopes that run from groundfloor into the buildings, allowing for shops to be positioned on groundlevel and a big amount of public space near the appartments

Fig.18.topview a triangle with a view on the appartments,the public slope, a local street and shops underneath the appartments allong the Bijlmermeer circulation at the bottum.

Fig.19.shops underneath the appartments allong the Bijlmermeer circulation at the bottum.

Fig.20.front view of the appartments with galleries, The roof terraces, the local street with entrees and shops allong the Bijlmermeer circulation.

Fig.21.view of the public slab entering the housing block. Showing apartments, both on the left and the right, and generating shoppingspace underneath. The construction literally frames the public space making it possible for the apartments to expand. In this way the apartments generate a natural territorial controle over the public space.

Recipe Assembly

IJselmeer recreation area

Schiphol area

Bijlmermeer area

Almere city area

Utrecht city area

Amsterdam city centre area

New regional connection

Creative indutry

Concentrations ofnon-western immigrants

Transitions area s

Renewall area s

Profide 3%-5% of jobmarket


Profide over 10% of jobmarket

Jobs

Art

Media and entertainment

Creative businessservices

24001500900

3000

Fig.22.

A poster,

explaining

municipality’s

policy and funding

for sterting

entreperneurs in

Amsterdam Southea.

5 km


Schiphol area

Bijlmermeer area

Almere city area

Utrecht city area



Creative indutry


Transitions area s

Renewall area s




Jobs

Art



24001500900

3000


Schiphol area

Bijlmermeer area

Almere city area

Utrecht city area



Creative indutry


Transitions area s

Renewall area s




Jobs

Art



24001500900

3000


Schiphol area

Bijlmermeer area

Almere city area

Utrecht city area



Creative indutry


Transitions area s

Renewall area s




Jobs

Art



24001500900

3000

Fig.23.creative ind. on the regional and global network. Pointing out the Amsterdam and Hilversum concentration overlapping with transition and renewall area.

1.A regional urban strategy

A good urban strategy for a ‘liv-ing & working’ area has ingredients just like a recipe. These ingre-dients need to be in equilibrium with each other to for them to co-exist and strengthen each other.In order to make a ‘living & work-ing’ one needs to live there, work there (business possibilities), visitors need to be able to get there, by-passer outside of the area should be directed thought it (clientele), inhabitants need their territories for privacy (sense of locality) and the green and blue (water) should create public ter-ritories for movement and meet-ing.In other words we need infrastruc-ture to get to new functions that help inhabitants to work, life, survive and seduce clientele, in a landscape of territories that is clearly readable and regulates ac-cessibility between domains from the big region to the local house-holds in the new built fabric.

By making atlases about the job generators, business initiatives, living environments, industries and the political territories

that relate to the aforementioned through policies and regulations, we could put all of those issues on the regional and city circu-lation of the Amsterdam. In this sense we got an insight on the ac-cessibility of important potential positions in certain areas. This way it is possible to physically reconnect them with each other or with other emerging available ini-tiatives. In the case of the Bijlmermeer (in Amsterdam South-East); one would look at the positions of, financial-, shopping- and emerg-ing ICT-‘centralities’4 and recon-nect them with places where people could start there own businesses, like the Daalwijkdreef. This is why we gave the Daalwijkdreef new connections towards Almere, mak-ing it part of a regional cir-culation between Almere, Utrecht, Hilversum,the IJselmeer, Amster-dam South-Axis (ASA) and Amsterdam City Centre (ACC).This way Amsterdan South-East (ASE) becomes a regional centrality of business and housing, for starting entrepreneurs. This centrality of-

4 Gemeente Amsterdam, Dienst Onderzoek en Satistiek ; Fact sheet ; nummer 1 | februari 2007 Creative industry and ICT in Helsinki and Amsterdam: a comparison5 Gemeente Amsterdam, Dienst Onderzoek en Statistiek; 2007_staat_stad_h05; economie. Blz 81 and6 Gemeente Amsterdam, Dienst Onderzoek en Satistiek; Marktanalyse Daalwijk-dreefzone Eindrapportage7 ‘soft’ locations have factors like tolerance, ethnic diversity, a lively (sub) cultural scene and attractive meeting places in the city. Read; Ge-meente Amsterdam, Dienst Onderzoek en Statistiek; 2007 fact sheet; Creative industries in helsinky and amsterdam; a comparison

5 km


Schiphol area

Bijlmermeer area

Almere city area

Utrecht city area



Creative indutry


Transitions area s

Renewall area s




Jobs

Art



24001500900

3000


Schiphol area

Bijlmermeer area

Almere city area

Utrecht city area



Creative indutry


Transitions area s

Renewall area s




Jobs

Art



24001500900

3000


Schiphol area

Bijlmermeer area

Almere city area

Utrecht city area



Creative indutry


Transitions area s

Renewall area s




Jobs

Art



24001500900

3000

Fig.24.regional reconnections to enhances Amsterdam southeast and the Bijlmermeer

fers a good connection with impor-tant business partners or living environments with employees5.But most important of all…. it could be the most contemporary an-swer to the greatest shortage in business space in Amsterdam: the need for 13.000 m2 of space for ‘small scale business in a dwell-ing environment’6. (especially im-portant for ICT, entertainment and media). It is the ideal ‘soft en-vironment’ Amsterdam is looking

for7.

The trick to this strategy is to connect the right type of infra-structure, (lets say a regional road or a local street) to the right type of function or activi-ty. This way we create a potential public a domain and therefore turn this into public space by adding a certain type of landscape (water, green etc). This is being done for every scale imaginable between country and household. In this sense urbanity, landscape and house are being reconnected.

8 Gemeente Amsterdam, Dienst Onderzoek en Satistiek; Marktanalyse Daalwijk-dreefzone Eindrapportage9 Taken from our ‘study case’ after the morphology off successful function ex-ploitations in the late modern areas of Rotterdam. Base on circulation and pub-lic space qualities. Done in 2007.10 Emphasizing a regional territory and a tourist attraction along the Daalwijk-dreef in the Bijlmermeer.

To provide a regional business en-vironment we have situated office buildings at the north side of the Daalwijkdreef. They are positioned as extensions of the existing flats slabs and overarch the Daalwijk-dreef, which should bring region-al by-passers and visitors as po-tentials clients for both small starters and bigger enterprises. The Daalwijkdreef is able to fore-see ASE in the 70.000 square metre of office space that it needs8. These office buildings have to be flexible enough to be transformed into housing in the future and will be joined by a typical regional program9 and a regional water con-nection between the IJsselmeer and the Amstel10 The aforementioned 13.000 square metres of business space has to be dispersed throughout the apart-ments and neighbourhoods of he Bi-jlmermeer. This amount has to be dissolved in housing typologies and along urban axis.

Fig.25.

A poster,

explaining

municipality’s

policy and funding

for sterting

entreperneurs in

Amsterdam Southea.

Apendix

Fig.26. ‘study case’ after the morphology off successful function exploitations in the late modern areas of Rotterdam. Base on circulation and public space qualities. Done in

2007.

Fig.27.sketch of the lifted regional circulation in connection with the Bijlmer infrastructure and program.

2. A built environment that is in-tegrated with the green landscape and public space

One thing that the original Bijlmer was lacking is an urban circulation on ‘ground level’. All the major circulation was lifted from this ground level and placed on dikes. This way there was enough space for an abundance of park life.The idea was to put luxurious flat slabs in this green luscious land-scape and provide a collective garden strictly meant for leisure and cycling.This concept prohibited cars and the dispersal of shops throughout the area. As a result the area be-came less accessible, both physi-cally and mentally. People had no practical reason to go inside the green landscape and the area was lacking the urban axis or city circulation that normally generate territorial clarity and everyday life activities. Although the in-habitants loved the green panorama and the amount of open space, it was the lack of city circulation on ground level that made it impos-sible for them to experience a lo-cal environment. Therefore, people often experienced the territory as very big and quite monotonous. The public space, green landscape and

buildings were not integrated into one another at all. They where just superposed on top of eachother and copied throughout the Bijlmer.

If one wants to integrate the green landscape with the housing and its public space, one has to phase zones of territories by means of

circulation, as followed

- Adding efficient circulation for the city, the neighbour hoods and the buildings, - Defining clearly which territory one enters or leaves - Considering the facilities that these territories could offer for inhabitants, visitors and by-passers of this environment.

Fig.28.origional green structure of the Bijlmermeer

So we;

- Added circulation for all scales, namely for; Amsterdam Southeast (regional connection), Bijlmermeer (connected to city centre), Neighbourhoods(linking neighbourhoods) and Local streets (activating the building skirts or plinth of the flat slabs with shorter streets that connects buildings directly).

- Emphasized territories with several water bodies, like a regional water connection (that assists the regional territory) , water channels(that assists the Bijlmer territory), water streams(that assists the Neighborhood territory), water creaks (that assists the local territory) and water puddles (that can activate smaller places as water parks for children).

- And collected successful facilities like; functions, street furniture, shops and urban typologies from other ‘late-modern’ areas and Bijlmer inhabitants. We compared their success, circular position and aesthetic qualities over the years, so we could speculate on their importance for an active and sustainable living environment.

Fig.29.lack of activity

Fig.30.These maps explaine the territorial composition of the proposed program and infrastructural layout allong the Daalwijk dreef

New water structure

OLD

NEW

Fig.31.- Newtown of the Bijlmermeer showing little territorial infrastructure- Newtown in Rotterdam showing the crossing between the neighbourhood and local circulation.

An amount of possibilities was gathered, through which it was possible to generate a patchwork of roads, water bodies and func-tion related to territories in the Bijlmermeer. It was even possible to give the ‘ground-level’ back to its inhabitants by introducing local allotments or smaller un-planned plots. These places have the potential of initiating a wild growth of vegetation or activities that used to emerge out of the Bi-jlmer spots that where less main-tained by the municipality. This flora emerged spontaneously and housed all sorts of fauna and had a natural landscape quality that is typical for the Bijlmer.If we implement a new dwelling en-vironment we should have to re-spect, or deal with, this land-scape as a vital ingredient. Our designs will be subordinat-ed to this landscape and could be overgrown as well! New build-ing designs should either be very transparent or take the landscape up as a public facility.This way we are able to maintain the green panoramic landscape of the Bijlmermeer.

Fig.32.Unmaintained green landscape overtaking the formal newtown design of the Bijlmermeer

Fig.33.sketch of the lifted regional circulation in relation with the Bijlmer infrastructure and program.It shows an exterior that suports the appropriation of the ‘empty’ courtyards or uncharged spaces ‘in-between’ territories.

Fig.34.Bijlmermeer networks, that generates portholes through the buildings,facilitates bigger program near the crossings with other network scales.The portholes are perfect spaces to mark these territorial transitions

Fig.35.Neighbourhood networks are perfect for small shops. This enhances the cohesion between several nearby neighbourhoods in the Bijlmermeer

Fig.36.The transition from neighbourhood networks to local territorry can be emphasized by local leisure program or shops in small pavilions

Fig.37.The transition from neighbourhood networks to local territorry can also be emphasized by a blockage. Think of small garden fences,platforms,porche,veranda or water ditches

Fig.38.small infrastructures along the gardens devine the local territories of the inhabitants

Fig.39.lokal and private porch gardens in the plinth of the flatslabs

3. The extension of a shopping area with housing

Making an extension of the Amster-damse-Poort that would reach out to the west corner of the Daal-wijkdreef was a perfect chance to try and integrate seemingly con-tradictory principles;

a The new area should ‘concentrate’ activities and housing, while it should respect the green landscape and even stimulate its growth and green appearance, at the same time.

b The area should allure new visi-tors but protect the territory of inhabitants.

cThe area should address the munic-ipality’s agenda of the shopping centre and possible local agendas from inhabitants.

dBut most importantly; it should prevent a ‘mono function-al’ regional centre. It should take the transitions between ter-ritories in account and position

‘meeting places’ in-between these territories both in and outside of the buildings11 .

This last aspect is being dealt with by difining generic phases from ground level towards and through-out the houses or apartments. These phases are the steps in the build-ing circulation and understood as scale experiences that are relat-ed to a sense of community. This way one could imagine who would be involved with certain phases in the building circulation. In other words: phases for privacy control in the circulation system of the housing slab.Jouke Sieswerda and I defined sev-eral scales in a building;

- The Block scale (additional circulation through several buildings or paths behind backyards, generating clusters of apart ment, offices or gardens)

- The Entrance scale (entrée,elevators and staircases)

- The Indoor scale (hallway,wardrobe area, guestrooms)

- The Inner scale (living room,kitchen, dinner room)

- The Screened scale (toilets, bathroom,

sleeping room)

Fig.40.The public entree of the block scale or network. This transition from the neighbourhood scale ( network ) to the Block network is simular to the the small paths behind the gardens of normal rowhousing

This multifunctional flexibility for appropriation has to be de-veloped for positive and negative

scenarios.

These scales help inhabitants to deal with visitors in their house and business. Spots in between these phases or scales are a very effective space to receive visi-tors or retreat from by-passers.These spaces in-between these scales are facilities for human interaction and formal introduc-tion into the next phase.This aspect is very important for doing business at home or in a dwelling environment and helps households or companies to define their boundary.

The apartments itself are divided into a ‘formal’ and ‘non-formal’ household and are combined with a cluster of intimate spaces that belong to the ‘screened scale’.These concepts were developed af-ter a number of interviews with Bijlmer inhabitants. The inhabit-ants explained the necessity for a flexible concept for privacy con-trol and the need for formal phas-es in the household. We concluded that the flexibility for appropria-tion is very important when house-holds are multiculturaand or re-ceive clients12at home13.

12 Different cultures have different de-mands for there house and these demands might be contradicting when one house-hold takes over from another one.13 When business is being done at home it should be possible to protect or introduce the household in a very con-trolled way.

Fig.41.The block network crosses the more private galeries on the first floor. This suports blockfacilities, collective program or small studio’s for business

Fig.42.The block scale crossing the galeries on the other side of the street is welcomed by a small cluster that suport blockfacilities, collective program or small studio’s for business.

Fig.43.This is the transition from the Bijlmer network to the entree network of the building. Or in oter words;The private entree for the appartmentbuilding, this entree is enriched with mailboxes and bench to facilitate meetings and a good view over the visiting public on the Bijlmer network scale.

Fig.44.The transition from the entree scale to the indoorscale. This area allows neighbours to ‘hang out’.It is here that inhabitants negotiate their boundaries between their household and other apartments on the entree scale.

Fig.45.The transition from the entreescale to the indoor scale. This introduces the household

Fig.46.transition from the innerscale to the screened scale.

Fig.47.the screened scale.

Fig.48.Scenario sequence explaining the operating possibilities of the building during several circumstances

Fig.49.overview of the standard units that can be used as ‘1 room studio’s’ or combined into appartments. This could even be done later on as the construction is made out of flexible wooden elements.The gallery, the appartments entree and the formal side of the household is situated in the bottum of the picture. The backside and informal side at the top.

Fig.50.backside and terrace of the apartment.

Fig 51.Frontside of the apartments

Fig.52.backside of the block and view on the public slope

4. Built facilities for several forms of appropriation in the fu-ture

The public space, on top of the supermarket, acts as an entrance buffer for the aforementioned ‘block scale’ circulation. The en-trée could be closed of or con-trolled by appointing it to the inhabitants when business is bad due to a socioeconomic crisis. The design is made in such a way that its public space could be filled up with extensions of apartments or small office in the building.This means that its materials and detailing should provide an easy opportunity for transformations.Using ‘Lenotech’, a cheap wood-en sandwich panel system, for the construction of walls would allow an inhabitant to easily adjust or cut out openings the way he or she prefers. This way apartments can be combined or altered.The technical construction details are put together in such a way that they can be easily reassembled or repositioned in case of an exten-sion. The treatment of the pub-lic space and these technical de-tails, during the lifespan of the building, will express the condi-tions through which the community went. Possible social and business

initiatives are facilitated and inscribed in the built material and fabric. The built environment could facilitate and even express various socioeconomic scenario’s. Time would literally tell if the building could adequately respond

to what life will be like.

Fig.53.possible apartment extentions in case the public slab is being used properly and maintained by its inhabitants

Fig.54.possible apartment extentions in case the public slab is being used properly without maintanance by the inhabitants

Fig.55.possible apartment extentions in case the public slab abused and cause of complaines

Fig.56.plan first floor

see Fig.40.see Fig.41.see Fig.42.

see Fig.43.

see Fig.44.

see

Fig.45.

see

Fig.46.

see

Fig.47.

Fig 57.1. formal front ( light pink), intimate middle (red) and informal back side( dark pink)of the apprtment

Fig 58.2. basic order for expantion

Fig 59.3. possible expantions

Fig.60. lightweight flexible wooden element thet form the main construction.

Fig.61. Finnforest product principles for flexible wooden light weight constructions

Fig.62. sketch of the building section with finnforest products and green roof terraces

Fig.63. principle details for the roof,floors front and back.The details are setup in such a way that they can be easily adjusted, dismantled and replaced.

Possible extentions

Possible extentions

Conclusion

The explained strategy shows how the built environment is no longer directing lifestyles and becomes an infrastructural programmatic-platform with cheap flexible spac-es. These cheap spaces are impor-tant as they facilitate possible social and economic activities in everyday life.

Time and technical details would tell if its cooperative, communal or collective spaces are flexible enough to facilitate its successes and survival! In this sense it is empowering inhabitants over time instead of directing lifestyles. In other words: this place is not directing a branded market image but is facilitating the emergence of territories for communities over the years. These territories will change and not always in such a clear way that it is immediate-ly transparent to outsiders, but these changes will always be very essential for the residing qual-ity of the inhabitants, just like a real city!

To understand and experience the potential urban excitement of these places, one should give it time before one decides to demolish it. So what is important for the Bi-jlmermeer and all of its sibling

areas, is to give this place a chance and to believe in its peo-ple! For the good and the Bad. From my point of view; The Bijlmer-meer has been refurnished accord-ing to the opinion of developers, municipality and corporation which is based on housing densities, its exploitation and the purchase of this commodity by a middleclass target group.

This generate a vinex where people have a car and are able to buy and maintain their house. This hous-ing environment is their goal and perfect hero! I am not saying that people, who are not part of our middle class, are immediately ex-cluded, but it sure makes it hard-er for them to reside in a suit-able house when these houses are not suiting their needs.

Beside this the planners forget to learn from the past and that middleclass can stop to exist when when public facilities become poor, social economic conditions deteriorate or move out.

The Bijlmer history is important and shows several residential sce-narios and emphasizes which as-pects and public facilities where important and used in alternative

ways of appropriation. It explaines how people could emerge out of the dark with initiatives, companies or the ‘good life’.

Interesting is how this happened in, or out off, the ‘dark’ places behind the scenes of the Bijlmer-meer. One thing about these ‘plac-es’ behind the scene was clear. these places where free to appro-priate in anyway possible. The in-habitants made it their place! Peo-ple could define their territories and control them more easily than the facilities that where formally meant for these activities. It’s space and infrastructure was the opposite of the super-scenario and shows how mono-appropriative the super-scenario realy is. This phe-nomena of alternative appropria-tion behind the scenes of the Bijlmermeer could be called the anti super-scenario or anti-hero.

The anti hero generates a far stronger aerial characteristic than the heroic vinex super-sce-nario and allows people to take control over their own territories and emerge out of crisis with ini-tiatives. This is why the hero and the anti-hero should be in bal-ance. The environment should be able to respond to several sce-

Fig.64. Night view with illuminated shopping plinth

nario’s between good and bad con-ditions and still allow the in-habitants to control and maintain the territories they need. This is real privacy from my point of view. To be able to control areas and space where you can decide if you want to be alone or with oth-er and appropriate these territo-ries according to your needs, for both commercial and non commercial purposes. If we can arrange these spaces as architects and planners we enable talent to emerge with their initiative in both good and bad times.

Fig.65. Night view of the building entree, its street and its wsurrounding on the Bijlmer network.At the frond there is a pavilion near the water channel this pavilion is a bar or restaurant with a water terrace and emphasizes the transition between the Bijlmer network and neighbourhood network.

cohabitating

partying

meeting

flirting

planting

harvesting

inviting dwelling

gardening

having a conference

working

shopping

doing business

burying

marrying

dreaming

zzZZZ

listening

thinking

contemplating

reflecting

planning

relaxing

joking

hahAHA

grieving

learning

enjoying

surviving

getting mad

stressing

in need

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ARCHITECTURE IN LIMBO END

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