Opening .DGN file(microstation)

Hi there,
anyone able to open a .DGN file and convert it to DWG?
please email me... thanx!
Joeri

Movienight five!

DELICATESSEN (1991)

Datum:	donderdag 10 december 2009
Tijd:	19:45 - 21:30
Locatie:	Architecture Department; oost-serre (the orange tribune)

Omschrijving

Delicatessen by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (known from Amélie, Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles and Alien: Resurrection (really..)). This should be enough recommendation in itself; if not watch the trailer!!

"A hugely enjoyable film, "Delicatessen" welds comedy and magic into a bizarre, grotesque fantasy of an oddball dystopian future. The directors are constantly playing curveball with the audience's expectations and nothing can prepare you for the sheer weirdness of it all." (BBC Review)

iMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101700/
Youtube trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYo_SkERMNI
Youtube amazing scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJU4IwC3LjQ&feature=fvst

Free!

Bring your own food and drinks. Keep in mind to also leave the space clean, so that we can organize future events :)

Pre-Movie

from 1:50!
enjoy

Pretpark Nederland

Movienight 4 - Thursday 3rd December, 20.00h (we start later so that you can see Sarah Wigglesworth lecture in Room A first).

Next time Paris, but as we are right before Sinterklaas, we feel that we first need to talk about Holland! As the foreigners in our group only spend time with us, the intellectual elite of the Netherlands, the smartest 10% of Dutch people, we think that you should also know the other 90%. It is also a really good film for the Dutch to watch!! Feel free to do some PR and invite your Dutch and non-Dutch friends, the tribune is big enough...

About the film

Pretpark Nederland - a film by TU Delft alumni Michiel van Erp - beautifully portrays leisure in the Netherlands. It takes us on a trip to themepark Efteling, a fair for 50+ housewives, the gay-parade, the chocolate festival of the small city Zutphen, and other activities organized for and by Dutch middle-class. Moreover, by showing how the Dutch middle-class choose to spend their free time, the film portrays who the Dutch really are. Michiel van Erp looks beyond the stereotype. From a review on the NRC-website (Dutch quality newspaper):

"After seeing Pretpark Nederland, you could state that the majority of the Dutch population is on a permanent bus trip through a gigantic open-air museum, without taking any notion of large-city problems, immigrants, unemployment, religious revival or poverty. But also the invisibility of the architectonic and planning implications of this perpetual ongoing consuming: more shopping centers with more similar shops and the vanishing of local and regional differences and identity. You could wonder if Michiel van Erp really cares about this, because other than that, it is quite 'gezellig' in the Netherlands!" (souce)

IMDB

Ape(t)rots

http://www.dearchitect.nl/nieuws/2009/11/27/Winnaar+LAI2009.html

"De tribune is daarmee ook een pleidooi voor korte, maar krachtige ontwerptrajecten..."

Chihuahua diver

Anouk it is not only for duyven , it's also for chihuahuas...

NO MOVIE

Hello everybody

Because not many people are on school today, and because the bouwpub has his own French night were nog having the movie tonight. Next week will be movie night again.

Proposal for next film on Thursday nights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkrqtxogmME

After Tokio, it could be Paris.

So, it is "Paris je t' aime" for next Thursday, 19:00?

A bientot!

EKISTICS

Hi all,

I will attach a link to website on "ekistics". The word comes from the greek "οικιστική" and has to do with anything dealing with housing and habitation. It was used as a term for research by a Greek architect - urbanist called Constantinos Doxiadis that was responsible for many projects around the world (Brazil, Cyprus, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Greece, Jordan, Iran, Italy, Lybia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sudan, Syria, USA, Zambia, etc.). His projects were big settlements starting from the scale of urbanism and reaching the scale of architecture. His major concern was the best living conditions in respect to social changes and cultural background.
Despite his death, there is organization with ongoing research on this subject and which organizes also conferences. To be able to have access to the research and the proceedings, I think that you have to subscribe (and therefore pay).
However, it is very interesting work, so the link is http://www.ekistics.org/ .

10 minute break

Bruxelles Underground

EASA

I guess some of you guys already know this (i joined it two times already and it is worth going at least one time)
This year it is in Manchester (always in August).

http://www.easauk.net/easa/

AFFR

Let's behave like architecture students should do, and set our minds to architecture in our spare time! Who's interested to join to the Architecture Film Festival in Rotterdam this weekend? I must warn you that there's a lot of nerds out there wearing fancy 50's imitation designer glasses and tuxedos with sneakers under it. But this will not spoil our joy; I'm sure we can make it awesome!

I was thinking about saturday night, or sunday. Of course the film festival may very well be combined with having drinks or dinner.

As is the case in every (thematic) film festival, the AFFR too has an awful lot of terrible, experimental films, as well as boring documentaries/biographies. But there are also some good films! I have very high expectations of Malls R Us on sunday night (though there's no rating at IMDB), and good expectations of Bomb it on saturday night (rates 7.5 at IMDB, which is good), but I'm open to other suggestions (on saturday night/sunday).

Check the schedule here

just casual morning

Toon uw Hart :)

Workshop: Con temporary footprints

ExploreLab: The band

First attempt explorelab band

Toon and Jan, since your subject is informality, I found an article that I post here and its subject is "slums" by Lebbeus Woods.

SLUMS: What to do?

It must be said at the outset that no enlightened political leaders in any part of the world can legitimately believe in the practice of what is called ‘slum clearance,’ which refers to the demolition of slums and the displacement of their inhabitants without a thought about where they can go. This is not to say that the brutal practice of bulldozing slums and driving out their inhabitants with armies of police is not being carried on—it is. Recent examples in Africa and Latin America only testify to the persistence of despotic political leaders in places where people have little voice in public affairs. Elsewhere it is well recognized that such an approach simply relocates the problem at a high human cost, postponing the day when it must be dealt with more humanely, and on a more enduring basis.

Secondly, it must be said that the idea of ‘urban renewal,’ which is a less blatantly brutal but still violent approach to the elimination of slums, simply does not work. The practice of demolishing slums and then imposing large-scale housing projects has generally failed, for the reason that slums do have social structures, however misunderstood they may be to those of the higher socio-economic strata from which come the urban planning professionals and bureaucrats who design the renewal projects. It has been shown by many tragic examples that simply replacing slums with planners’ ideas of what people should be living in destroys much of human value that can never be replaced, and causes untold human misery. Slums are inhabited by human beings, many of whom, even at the desperate edge of survival, have invested themselves in their families and communities, and want a better life for themselves and their children. Not unlike many others who are at the lower end of the economic chain, they need help in coping with their circumstances, help that comes from those who control the wealth and resources.

The burning question is: exactly how—in practical terms—is an enlightenment of the ruling, or at least the managerial, classes to come about? What are the best possible scenarios?

At the top of the list: the increased availability of information will make politicians and business leaders aware of the human catastrophe of slums, and this will mobilize them to improve the slum dwellers’ living conditions. In short, government and corporations will make the elimination of poverty a high priority.

This is a most unlikely scenario. The availability of information has done little to mobilize leaders in the past, from stopping the Holocaust to the genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda, the famines in Africa and Asia, the ‘death squads’ in Latin American countries, and many other human tragedies that could have been stopped by the intervention of political leaders. Knowledge of slums is today widely disseminated in the print and electronic media. Leaders give occasional lip service to this problem, but little else.

Another possibility: elected officials and business leaders will recognize that the vast, interconnected webbing of the global economy cannot carry permanently the burden—financial, political, moral—of burgeoning slums. As a result, government and corporations will find more effective ways of employing the slum’s under-utilized human resources.

This is a somewhat more likely scenario, given the right conditions. The costs of slums, like those of a deteriorating environment, are often hidden because they are purposely overlooked, but they are enormous, and cumulative. Slums are increasing in many urban areas already the most afflicted by them, and so is the economic drain they cause. This drain comes from the costs of ‘containing’ slums, which includes the costs of policing at least the perimeters where they abrade with more acceptable urban areas; the costs of dealing with humanitarian crises caused by outbreaks of contagious diseases that might spread into the wider urban population; and of water pollution from untreated sewage, including human waste, being dumped into rivers and streams that must be shared by all; the costs of lost city services, such as potable water and electricity, that are appropriated by slum dwellers without paying for them; the costs of keeping order when unrest or mass violence occasionally breaks out in the slums for whatever reason; the costs—often indirect—of maintaining a large population of illiterate and uneducated human beings, who nevertheless require not only food and shelter, but also intangibles like personal dignity and social justice, which must be ‘paid for’ by somebody, usually elsewhere, in the social network; likewise, the costs—psychological and moral—of having to live with slums, costs paid for by the other social strata in the society afflicted by them. Slums drain a society’s resources, and are a form of entropy that threatens, in the long run, the society’s survival.

Finally, if the perspective is altered to a purely capitalist one, slums can be seen as an unused pool of human potential–that is, of cheap labor–that could be employed in the global economic system. Businesses, supported by government trade policies, have recognized for many years the advantages of cheaper ‘offshore’ labor in the making of many consumer products. As nations such as China and India and Indonesia develop their domestic economies and expand their global influence, the demand for cheap offshore labor will dramatically increase, even as the present ‘outsources’ dwindle. New sources of skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled labor will have to be found—or created. With the same sort of investment made in training workers in the garment and other consumer products industries in Southeast Asia, present-day slum dwellers could take a first step up in the economic chain. The main impediment to this happening is that government and business would have to cooperate in a coordinated way, and, so far, neither social sector has shown any real interest in doing this.

However, the idea of turning millions of people who have been held down in abject poverty into millions exploited in subsistence-wage sweat shops and factories is far from an ideal solution to the problem of slums. It might be an economic step up, and a point of entry into the game of capitalism, but it amounts to a type forced labor, where the slum dwellers would have little choice but to accept it, considering the alternative of continued abjection and destitution.

An intriguing hypothesis–advanced by a number of people–emerges: what if the slums could be improved from the inside, rather than from without? Or, to put it another way, what if the interventions coming from without were aimed at empowering slum dwellers to find—or invent, using their ingenuity to adapt—the ways to transform their own conditions? After all, they understand these conditions better than anyone, where they work for them and where they do not. If the slum dwellers have admirable ingenuity in surviving under the most terrible of conditions, why should this same ingenuity not be the key to transforming slums and eventually eliminating them?

The biggest task would be addressing the problem of changing the terrible physical conditions of slums. How might the vast pool of human energy embodied in the people who live in slums be liberated to engage the physical transformation of their place of living–their habitat? Answering this question will take much more than political good will, and more than the commitment of money by public and private institutions to such a project, even in substantial amounts. It will require new ideas about how to effect real changes in conditions, and from within.

This is where architects come in.

[To be continued]

LW

A new view on diving centres

For Anouk: The first governmental underwater meeting ever, at the Maldives. An agreement was signed for taking action for the reduction of greenhouse gasses, since the Maldives are only 1.5m above sea level and are threathened to entirely disappear as sea level rises. (source: Volkskrant)

This opens up a whole new perspective on the possibilities of diving centres!! You could even include conference rooms underwater ;)

fall of the wall

hey gang

interesting films regarding europe since the fall of the berlin wall and it's future...

http://www.sica.nl/pdf/Flyer_89_Amsterdam.pdf
http://www.sica.nl/pdf/Flyer_89_Denhaag.pdf

Lecture: City and Fear NAI

This thursday there is a lecture about Fear and the relation to the city at the NAI.



you have to subscribe on the website. it starts at 20:00.

please vot ASAP fot this project

hi all,
some small advertisement for a project of mine:

http://www.venlovernieuwt.nl/kazernekwartier/revival-of-the-fittest

please vote, it takes only half a minute... and it might get me 1000 euro!!
thanks!

Space and Democracy - the Un-Built, Athens 2008

While searching for something concerning my project, I found a site that is called "The space of democracy - The democracy of space".There was a conference from this network in Greece the previous year. I will post a text here and the link of this conference in the end, so whoever wants can be directed at the site. It has some videos, but the majority of them is in Greek (sorry for this!)

UN-BUILT - 2008 international architecture research events

www.byzantinemuseum.gr/unbuilt/unbuilt.htm

The Athens Byzantine and Christian Museum

in collaboration with SARCHA (School of ARCHitecture for All)

organize the international conference

Negotiating the Un-built

Interdisciplinary Interactions on Space and Democracy

an Athens event of the Space of Democracy and the Democracy of Space network supported by the

ESRC (Economic and Society Research Council) UK

Athens, December 19-20, 2008

During the last decade of the 20th century the concept of space/place has entered several debates in the humanities and social sciences in what has been summarized as ‘the spatial turn’. For other disciplines, such as architecture, space has been a central operative tool since the 19th century. Practitioners and theorists have approached it in a variety of ways in different periods of history, and it still remains today a valid concept with a constantly changing content. Within the general context of the spatial turn, this event aims at highlighting the problematic of the un-built in both its dimensions, as a limit to be negotiated and even marked and acknowledged as well as an incarnation of the promise of architectural/political imagination and socio-spatial construction. The dialectic and/or disjunction between these two angles seem to stand at the centre of any attempt to discuss the relation between space and democracy.

The two distinct dimensions are evident both in political theory/practice and in theorisations/enactments of space and architecture. The un-built, for example, has been historically associated with unrealized projects that may be attributed to a wide range of reasons; from the ‘circumstantial’ ones related to financial or construction technology restrictions, building regulations or policy particularities, to the less apparent social, historical, political issues, and the cultural stereotypes operative in a given context. On the other hand, the un-built also denotes so-called utopian or visionary spatial/architectural projects and the operation of drawing or writing as a critical tool. The un-built is that which cannot be built or awaiting to be built as much as that which is drawn and discussed but not meant to be realised. It indicates a state of abjection and repression, designates a condition of potential conflict and, at the same time, holds the promise of transformation. The un-built is therefore more than a mere void or empty space. If we consider it as ‘an agitated state of a seemingly balanced immobility in which all possibilities remain open, and all states of attachments can be potentially enacted’, it might form a basis for thinking the contemporary relation between democracy and space. This is especially the case given the prominent theorisations of dynamics between emptiness and fullness in democratic politics (as highlighted by a series of contemporary theorists from Claude Lefort and radical democratic theory onwards), psychoanalytic theory (mostly in the Lacanian tradition), theories of space, etc. Here emptiness and lack is not an accident or anomaly that needs to be masked and covered over but a limit, a mark of contingency and finitude that needs to be ethically negotiated and politically marked. At the same time it stimulates the desire for the new. In these traditions the problematic of the un-built meets that of the unconscious, the abject, the unrepresentable, raising the issue of exclusion and its ‘administration’ in democracy and post-democracy (locally and globally). The event will assume the form of a series of interactions between theoreticians, urban theorists and architects that will theoretically address issues related to the democracy of space in historical and contemporary contexts, and activist groups/teams or initiatives that work within the conditions of the un-built to create a space for democratic exchange and mobility in the current circumstances. ‘Speakers’ and ‘groups’ will be provided with equal time (30 minutes) to develop their arguments. The conference language is English.

The conference took place as the December insurrection was unfolding in Athens.

School Building in Patras, Greece by Papaioannou & Isaias

Hello everyone!

I know that Chica is doing a project for a high school, but my post is irrelevant. I wanted to share some pictures of a school built in my home town by two very known architects in Greece and professors at the National Technical University of Athens. Their names are : Tasis Papaioannou and Dimitris Isaias. It is a school and because it is semi-private (it's name is Arsakio) it has many facilities inside, things that are not obvious at the pictures.

Im sorry Benny, i've 'baggsed' (not sure if this is a kiwi expression or not, but nevermind), the next movie night for Eagle vs Shark

And I forgot to share a link that has to do with innovative ways to communicate information through graphs and images. Sometimes it has some very interesting graphs.

It is called "visual think map".

Hello everybody!

Sunday is close, and I suppose most of us are waiting for the dinner to test who is cooking well.:P Kidding of course! However, still the reactions were few on the blog - as far as I remember only eleven people reacted to the previous post. Only Joeri suggested to bring drinks and it won't be of course enough for everybody! So, let's see how we could also split the drinks between us, so as to be able to drink something while eating. Toon, there will be for sure two vegetarian dishes! (we thought of you!). We already have two desserts (Toon and Felicity). So far, Mike and Jan suggested to make a dutch soup, Anouk had said that she would make a salad (is that right?) and Willem today was thinking that pancakes would be a good idea. Greek mousaka will also be on the table and a greek vegetarian dish that still is not decided.
I am making the list, in order to make sure that food will be enough, desserts not more than the food and of course we have to see what we will do with the drinks!

See you all! (please react! :) )

Dear explorers,

This afternoon you all can fill out the days you can not join our enormously amusing, common workshop the Road Trip, to Holland. There’s a list on the BiG Orange Cave/Hill. Without filling out dates your participation will be set. Locations and content is top-secret. One think is for sure, each activity during this week is related towards all of us.

Regards,

On behalf of the Workshop Comity, EXPLORE LAB 9

movienight; A Stanley Kubrick film 'A Clockwork Orange'

Without arguing Tokyo, maybe a good alternative towards the upcoming movie night (next week):

A Stanley Kubrick film; A Clockwork Orange

The film’s central moral question, is the definition of “Goodness”. After aversion therapy, Alex behaves like a good member of society, but not by choice. His goodness is involuntary; he has become the titular clockwork orange organic on the outside, mechanical on the inside. In the prison, after witnessing the Technique in action in Alex, the chaplain criticizes it as false, arguing that true goodness must come from within. This leads to the theme of abusing liberties personal, governmental, civil by Alex, the Government, and the Dissidents manipulating him for their political ends. Concording with Kantian ethics, this critically portrays the “conservative” and “liberal” parties as equal, for using Alex as a means to their ends: the writer Frank Alexander a victim of Alex and gang wants revenge against Alex and sees him as a means of definitively turning the populace against the incumbent government and its new régime

Watch the trailer, and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n2NXuQ5ako

Filmnight, THURSDAYnight!

If the Greeks give up on democracy, then who are the Dutch to judge it.. Tokyo it is! The trailer is very promising.
Thursday it is!

Koolhaas about architecture

This video is a lecture by Rem Koolhaas where he explains is way of dealing with architecture - something that goes really beyond the build artifact. I think this guy really is a forerunner when it comes to redefining our profession, especially when it comes to the role of architecture in the megapolis and the influence of global capitalism. The good thing about Koolhaas attitude towards it - in my opinion - is that he takes this condition as a given, not politically correct withdrawing himself from it, but trying to see what the possibilities are to intervene in it.
Well have a look for yourself and maybe we can later on have a discussion about it.

Hallo! I want to democratically suggest that we don 't vote for a film for next week but we just pick my suggestion :P

Have a look

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TUbDzB7m5U

Dinner reschedule

Hi guys, hope its not too annoying for you but I can't host the dinner this sunday, but next sunday the 11th, would be good instead, if it suits you all?

Sorry for the inconveniance,

Felicity

check, this, its free and too good to bee free

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfHGVMODVVU

Hi guys!

CHECK IT OUT..

ARCHITECTURE FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM 2009

29-10-2009 until 1-11-2009

'fun' EXCURSION TIME!

http://www.affrblog.nl/lang/nl/program/

As I suppose everybody will see the post in the morning, so, Goodmorning!!
I just found an interesting article about architecture and computation and I share it here. It is called "zeros and ones".

Next filmnight, vote!

Next filmnight: Thursday October 1st! Be there! We'll start at 19.30, so you can go to the Bouwpub first (don't drink to much though, the orange stairs are quite steep...). The rules: clean up your mess, feel free to invite friends!

We have slightly democratized the process: you may now vote which film we are going to show. The film with most votes will be shown (if available). See the poll in the side bar on the blog.

Hi everybody!

Few days now we are discussing about planning a social event. Considering the fact that we don't know each other very well, a first event would rather be an international dinner where we can all get to know better our colleagues. International dinner means that whoever will cook has to make something traditional from his/her country and if there are people that don't feel like cooking, they can bring drinks. The dinner will take place at Felicity's house on 4th of October, at 19:00. It would be better to have some reactions at this post, so that we will have a list of people coming and foods/drinks.

We found that the dinner idea would help having some fun altogether in a different environment to the orange room. We can discuss in a relaxed way while eating and drinking and sharing our cultural backgrounds!.

See you all at the orange room! Waiting for your reactions as soon as possible.

Felicity and Eri

Toon, I think this video is relevant to your topic : Stewart Brand on squatter cities.
And this : Robert Neuwirth on our "shadow cities"

I saw a movie that is very interesting and I add a link to the trailer. It could be an option for a movienight.

The movie is called "My sister's keeper".

Bienale

I am planing to go to opening of this exhibition. It is at 17.00 i think.
Anybody who wants to join is welcome!

http://www.iabr.nl/EN/open_city/_news/parallel_cases.php

Filmnight, sequel!

After positive responses on yesterdays film event, we want a sequel! We can try to arrange it next week or the week after that, wednesday or thursday (sep 30/oct 1 or oct 6/7) at 7.30pm. We can't satisfy everyone, and we are also dependent on the Department. If you want influence, make yourself heard.

We'll decide tomorrow (friday) about the details and try to arrange it!

All of you can suggest movies here. So far, the following movies have been suggested. All of them are must-see classics, dimly related to architecture/science, and accessible, but not too popular.



I am Sam



Rear Window



2001, A Space Odyssey

Hi all!

I was searching on the internet to find material for my topic and I ran into a site that had a very nice project from Venice Biennale, called the "Koolhaas Houselife". The main point was to show that architectural "monuments" are completely different viewed from the people that use them. The lived space exceeds the designed one and it is shown in the movie. (http://www.koolhaashouselife.com/)

Venice Biennale of Architecture: Koolhaas Houselife

Cu all tomorrow at the movie!

Movienight!

IT'S ON!! It took quite some effort to organize this, we've been sent "from the closet to the wall" several times. But we managed to get permission and technical support to use the gigantic projection screen in the orange room! It hasn't been put to a serious test before, so let's hope the audio and projection quality are good. Bring your own drinks and popcorn, and a pillow for your own comfort. Feel free to invite friends. Screening starts at 19.30 sharp, because the building closes at ten.

updates

Aloha,

How's everybody('s projects) doing?
since I'm pretty isolated working on my history thesis and my (damn slow) internet connection is the only connection to what so ever, I hope to get some inspiration of you guys....
Since the blogging depends on feeds,
here is my feed for your brain....

some conclusions so far on the Bijlmer area....
-from the start, there where no typical 'city functions' planned in this area, in order to make the area dependent on the city center of Amsterdam. The origin of this decision is in the AUP(Berlage's extension plan for Amsterdam, 1935), where all the extensions focus on the center. After the war, the extensions become part of the reconstruction plan, and therefore bigger. This resulted in the bijlmerplan for 110000 inhabitants without any city functions, other than those reachable by car or train.

-another huge problem turned out to be the strong separation between living, working, recreation and infrastructure, which has his roots in the CIAM philosophy. The infrastructure should be a connecting element between the separated programme. The main infrastructure is elevated and therefore a huge BORDER in the plan.

more lateron....
please show me your progress....

Movienight !!

mini-symposium

On Wednesday 4th of november Thomas Rau is organizing a mini-symposium about sustainable and healthy schools. This symposium is held in Nationaal Park de Hoge Veluwe, where also the Kröller-Möller museum is located. Maybe it's interesting for those who are fascinated by high schools (me :)), sustainabilty or those who already had the idea to go to the Kröller-Möller. 

More info: http://www.rau.nl/

Movienight !!

We have a plan to have a movie night at the faculty next thursday. We reserved a room (probably in the orange temple). Our plan is to show movies that are connected to architecture or connected to our themes. We start with the movie 'das experiment', but better suggestions are welcome. If the movie night is a success we plan to do it more often.

Hope to see you there

Explorations in the Fall

You have all received some 'datumprikker.nl' spam which invites you to give your possible dates for the big EXPLORATION # 9. Potential dates are from 11 - 16 october, 18 - 23 october, 25 - 30 october. After our meeting today we decided that the trip will be a series of explorative workshops in a journey (probably by borrowed cars!). This will mean we will stay within a certain radius of Delft. (A more faraway exploratory trip to Cyprus will be organized separately by Orcun, probably in November). In order to have a wide range of workshops, each day (and night) will be organized by a different group of people. These people will have to arrange transport, accommodation and workshop material within a budget of 30 euros per day. Our destinations are surprises.

Day 1 may have a theme of enclosure. (Toon and Benny have ideas for a jail in Veenhuizen, a visit to Westerbork or a monastery).

Day 2 may be themed around sensual perceptions. (Mike has some ideas for spending a day with the blind in undefined location).

Day 3 may be set in a more natural environment. (Erik and Joeri are interested to explore an activity involving local materials).

Day 4 may be exploring the urban. (Laura and Natalia will start exploring the topic).

Day 5 may involve an interchange with the university of Eindhoven, the Design Academy and the Dutch Design Week. (ask Eva!).

Of course everyone is welcome and very much invited to join any of the 'teams' that will be organizing the separate days. BLOG!
We will start the exploration excursion on a Sunday night from Delft and end ... in a surprising environment! The excursion group

1st proposal for small things within the dutch territories

Within the frame of "camera japan festival", this documentary will be projected, which is related to Eric's final project. If more people are interested, we could arrange to go all together.

Waiting for reactions!

Workshop back to basic

Hi guys,

This could be an interesting workshop to do at the excursion. (andy goldsworthy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TWBSMc47bw

See you all at 11!

Erik & Joeri

Architecture is a Fragile Enterprise - Kenneth Frampton interviewed

Hi all,

I found this interview of Kenneth Frampton and I thought that it was quite interesting, so I share it on the blog.

For the ones that are interested in exploring the boundaries between architecture, literature and visual arts, I found a book that is relevant. The link is from a portuguese site, but the review of the book is in english.

http://abarrigadeumarquitecto.blogspot.com/2009/08/beyond.html

TED - Idea's worth spreading

Heya guys,

Here's a great little site with loads of fascinating short lectures on thousands of different topics, many of them environmental:

www.ted.com

Jaron

Excursion Suggestion to İstanbul and Cyprus

Hi everybody,
After the meeting on Friday, we had a discussion and we were thinking that the already suggested destinations are very interesting but not fulfilling the needs and expectations of every student. Paris is a city that everybody can reach easily from here, while Iceland is a tempting destination that however might not help everybody. So, we came up with the idea of Istanbul and Cyprus (Nicosia).
Istanbul and Nicosia are two cities that can combine the urban and architectural demands of almost every student's project. Istanbul manages to combine eastern and western influences, providing a diversity of cultures, living habits and images, etc. On the other hand it is a metropole having the manifestations of a capital in many different ways.
In order to be more specific, we will provide links related to the fascinations, creating a map of "interests" for everybody in the city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levent

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gecekondu_Istanbul.jpg

http://www.mimdap.org/w/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/gecekondu39.jpg

http://www.mekder.org/

http://www.santralistanbul.org/

These are some indicative links of what someone can see and experience there. In Nicosia, however someone can see the division of a city, the difference of two cultures and the way they influenced the urban structure and experience the memory of the city dramatically.

http://www.prio.no/upload/Anita%20Bakshi.pdf

We calculated the cost of the flights and it is less than 200 euros from Amsterdam -Istanbul - Cyprus (return).
We can discuss it on Tuesday at the meeting. Until then, you can have a look and find what everybody finds interesting there.

See you tomorrow then at the meeting,

Orcun and Eri

excursions within the dutch borders :)

hallo!
This is my e-mail: ebosmi@gmail.com

where you can all send me one or two places-spots-buildings-museums e.t.c. that you wanted to visit but have not found the time to do it up to now.

As soon as I have a number of replies, I will make a map so that we can be organised.

Paper model

For the people who have some problems with making a model, and for the ones who love the models given by the repro, I have a solution. Just go to this link and instal the program pepakura. It is a small program to make models with. Just import a 3d model (sketchup or dwg) into the program and it will make a foldout included glue strokes of that model. Now you can make models like this:

Something else!

I was talking with Erik by lunch about a group of French light artist which I couldn't keep from you all. Just check the link and check the videos. It’s brilliant.

Interesting exibition

Specially for issues on informality:
http://www.stroom.nl/

Workshop proposal: Behind bars

In Veenendaal, the north of the Netherlands, there is a prison called De Rode Pannen. This prison was one of the few high security prisons in Holland. It has been closed for over one year, but is still preserved in its current condition as a prison that can be used if extra capacity is needed.

I have asked the maintainer of the building for the possibility to spend a night in prison. If this is feasible (I hope to know this by next week) we can give the workshop more content by an introduction lecture and visiting a prison which is still used. This might be possible in e.g. Breda, Rotterdam or Arnhem. We can organize the last part of the workshop in any case; spending a day/night in prison (without a conviction of course) would be the ultimate goal.

The idea behind the workshop proposal is to get a broader view on social themes of daily life which take place beyond what is visible to us. Although it barely relates to any of our themes directly, we could organize some activities/small assignments that will help you understand social issues. This activity might change your perception on space in relation to society, and would be something that you will probably never have access to again.

How to Become 100% Dutch: Visit a windmill with me.

This afternoon we talked about the excursions. Well, after biking back to Rotterdam I got lost a bit and eventually I was biking through Schiedam. There I saw these beautiful and very tall windmills, I actually had never seen them before. It reminded me of the discussion that we had this afternoon, saying that in many cases you don’t know your own country that well. And suddenly I realized myself that I never visited a windmill! How stupid! I am this guy who lives six meter under sea level in Rotterdam and still I have never visited a windmill! I have to admit that I am not very nationalistic but never having visited a windmill makes me feel a miserable citizen of Holland. Maybe I should make a pilgrimage to Kinderdijk on wooden shoes and sacrifice some tulips. However, I think that’s a bit too much, I will improve my Dutch citizenship by visiting a windmill without pilgrimage. I am thinking about going to Schiedam because they look rather impressive. Maybe the windmill in Delft is also open for visitors. I think it would be great to see the mechanism inside the windmill; to see how it works. If anyone want to come with me: that would be very nice. (Actually a windmill is a very good example of the modernistic dictum “Form Follows Function” – maybe that’s why functionalism was such a successful movement in the Netherlands…)

ps: For everybody interested: my personal blog is named amongmiracles.blogspot.com. Here you can find all kind of stuff I am reading, ideas, and eventually sketches and images.

Workshop Criteria

Hi all,
please all post your criteria(derived form your fascination?) for the workshop(s), so the proposals can be fitted to them.
REPLY THEM TO THIS POST, so we keep track.
if your criteria are specific for a certain workshop, please metion this aswell.

one other(not really unimportant) point:
SIGN your blog contributions,
so other people know eachothers opinions and can reply, it makes the blogging think a lot easier....

thanks,
Joeri

Road Trip

Hi all!

Personally I really like the idea of the road trip! When we decide to go for a road trip I would like to invite you to go to the Wadden Sea, which is added to Unesco's World Heritage List last June. When the water is low, you'll be able to walk from Noord-Holland to Texel (the first Wadden Island). It may be a nice starting or ending point for the trip.

Have a nice weekend and see you all next week!

diving trip

Scuba Diving in swimming pool in Breda.
A small introduction to the diving sport. The sport that allows you to breath underwater and could show you a whole new world you could not see before. We will gather at the train station Breda or Breda - Prinsenbeek I’ll have to check this. Then we will go by car to the swimming pool. The instructor will tell us what we can expect when we go in the water. After this we will do some small exercises outside, in and underwater. These are really the fundamental things you would need to know when you would go diving outside. (like how to built up you equipment, getting ready to go into the water, clearing your mask etc. ) Finally we can swim around so you can get the real feeling of weightlessness.
The equipment that we have to rend and possibly your train ticket will be the only costs. (I’ll will come back to you as soon as possible when I know anything about the price.) The only thing you’d have to bring is your bathing sued, a towel and a lot enthusiasm.

Excursion ideas from Sigrún

Excursion:

First proposal:

Iceland:

Accommodation would be provided in Nýp in the country side, in Reykjavík, I would try to accommodate everybody somewhere, don’t as yet know where but could prob be arranged. If not hotels and youthhostels range from 12 euro in a dormitory.

Ticket from London, is about 200 e, from Copenhagen 230 (with icelandexpress airline which I think is the cheapest www.icelandexpress.is)

This could mean we could stop either in Copenhagen or in London for a while.

Second proposal

Paris:

Paris is a good choice because it could have exhibitions/buildings appeal to a diverse group such as us!

http://www.citechaillot.fr/?langue=us

http://www.citechaillot.fr/exposition/museum/museum_exhibitions.php?id=80

30 Apr 2009 - 22 Nov 2009

LE GRAND PARI(S)

The consultation process was launched at the beginning of 2008 and is being overseen by a steering committee made up of representatives of the State, the City of Paris, the Île-de-France Regional Authority and the Île-de-France Mayoral Association, with the support of a scientific committee of 23 qualified figures led by architect Paul Chemetov and geographer Michel Lussault. President Sarkozy appointed the minister of Culture and Communication to coordinate the consultation process.

Since June 2008, each team has been working to complete the two components of the consultation: “the 21st century post-Kyoto metropolis” and “the present and future analysis of the Paris agglomeration”.

From 29 April to 22 November 2009, the “Le Grand Pari de l’agglomeration parisienne” exhibition will present the results of the consultation.

The proposals of the ten multidisciplinary teams – selected as part of the consultation and working in partnership with architects and urban planners – will be presented at Musée de la Cité :

- Sir Richard Rogers, Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners/London School

of Economics /Arup team

- Yves Lion, Groupe Descartes team

- Djamel Klouche, AUC team

- Christian de Portzamparc, Atelier Christian de Portzamparc team

- Antoine Grumbach, Agence Grumbach and associates team

- Jean Nouvel, representative of the Ateliers Jean Nouvel/

Michel Cantal-Dupart /Jean-Marie Duthilleul team

- Bernardo Secchi and Poal Vigano, Studio 09 team

- Finn Geipel, LIN team

- Roland Castro, Ateliers Castro/Denissof/Casi team

- Winy Maas, MVRDV team

An exhibition presenting ten scenarios for the Paris metropolis

For the first time, Musée de la Cité welcomes the ten visions of the future of greater Paris to its collection of casts of French monuments. The exhibition design by 2004 NAJA (Nouveaux albums de la Jeune architecture) award winner Jean-Christophe Quinton presents ten contemporary installations in a historical itinerary, giving each team the freedom to make the most of their space to present their proposal. This approach gives rise to ten different ways of presenting ten research and deve¬lopment strategies.

An exhibition introduced by a major public debate:

“Le Grand Pari(s): à la recherche de nouveaux équilibres”

All the teams consulted will gather at La Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine on 17 March 2009, along with external figures, for a day-long public debate in the great hall of Théâtre national de Chaillot. The teams will be invited to compare their proposals in areas like the environment, economics, social balances and mobility. Actors from other major “metropolitan projects” (Greater London, Greater Madrid, Greater Berlin, etc.) will be invited to share their experiences.

Exhibition presented with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Communication/Department of Architecture and Heritage, and the City of Paris.

On 17 September 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy marked the inauguration of La Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine by stating his wish for international consultation on a «new comprehensive development project for Greater Paris» which would bring together the professional expertise of ten architecture and urban planning agencies.

Other exhibitions include:

Exposition d'Art Urbain

Every Sun, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat

10 Urban Artists on show at the Galerie Anne Vignial. Closed Monday.Tuesday-Friday 14:00-19:30. Saturday and Sunday 11:00-19:30. 53 rue Charlot (Arr 3) Tel: 01 48 87 01 00. Metro: Arts et Métiers.

Metropolis

Every Sun, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat From: Monday, August 24, 2009 To: Saturday, September 26, 2009

Exibition of Michael Wolf's recent series: Architecture of Density and the later Transparent City. Wolf was a Hong Kong based photo-journalist for many years, and Architecture of Density was his first major art project. Metropolis is a reflection on the architecture of the modern city and on its oppressive influence on the lives of its inhabitants. La Galerie Particulière, 16 rue du Perche, (Arr 3) Metro: St-Sébastien - Froissart.

elles@centrepompidou

Every Sun, Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat From: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 To: Monday, May 24, 2010

Women artists in the collections of the Centre Pompidou. For the first time in the world, a museum will be displaying the feminine side of its own collections. This new presentation of the Centre Pompidou's collections will be entirely given over to the women artists from the 20th century to the present day.The programming cuts across disciplines to take a deeper look at the place occupied by women in the culture of the last century, from literature to history of thought, from dance to cinema. Centre Pompidou Place Georges Pompidou, ( Arr 4) Tel:01 44 78 12 33. Métro : Rambuteau, Wednesday until Monday, 11.00 am to 21:00, late evening ( exhibitions only) onThursday until 23:00.

@rt Outsiders: Art and the Environment

Every Sun, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat From: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 To: Sunday, October 11, 2009

Annual modern art festival, @rt Outsiders, The festival explores issues relating to nature, science and technology. This year, the theme is Extreme Environments, both inhabitable and uninhabitable. Maison Européenne de la Photographie,5-7 rue de Fourcy (Arr 4) Metro: St-Paul or Pont-Marie.

Art@Outsiders

Every Sun, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat From: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 To: Sunday, October 11, 2009

For the last 10 years the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, exhibits the works of tomorrow’s digital talent. This year, ten artists, worked on the subjects of waste, how to manage shortages and creation under difficult contexts. Not just artistic projects, but sustainable. . Maison Européenne de la Photographie 5/7 rue de Fourcy (Arr 4) Métro: Saint-Paul. Hour: 11:00 to 20:00. tel: 01 44 78 75 00

More Info...

Born in the Streets - Graffiti

Every Sun, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat From: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 To: Sunday, November 29, 2009

Devoted to graffiti and street art, the exhibition Born in the Streets—Graffiti will bring to light the extraordinary expansion of an artistic movement that developed in the streets of New York in the early 1970s to rapidly become a world-wide phenomenon. Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain 261, boulevard Raspail, (Arr 14) Tel: 01 42 18 56 50 – Métro : Raspail, Tuesday to Sunday, 11.00 am to 20:00, late evening on Tuesday until 22.00 pm

Avant-Apres

Every day

A new kind of cultural institution and the biggest architectural centre in the world. The opening exhibition is called Avant-Apres, the conscience of time. It aims to show modern architecture where it is most positive, where it has transformed its environment, where it has integrated perfectly into its context (whether topographical or historical), where it has made mankind's life easier, more pleasant and more interesting. Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine Palais de Chaillot - 1, place du Trocadéro (Arr 16) Metro:Trocadéro