 
<dec. 3/03 7:20am PST> hi sam, hope you are well. i'm finally getting a chance to put together a pitch for a feature article on fat - but now that i look at my notes from our brief meeting and your lecture, they're indecipherable and incoherent. add to that the fact that i was half-listening (my issue, nothing to do with you) and have a bad memory and I'm sitting here with next to nothing. i was thinking of focusing particularly on your urban planning work for hoogvliet (sp?) and even came up with (or perhaps pilfered, I'm never sure - blame the memory again) a title for the piece - "absurbanists" - hope you don't mind it. but as a title is all i have I'm coming to you again to get a better sense of that project and some other info. my (too?) clever idea is to just post a few emails between us, thus have both a bit of content for my site useful + agreeable and the beginnings of a proper article. "cut and paste journalism" in its purest (most shameless) form. hope this is o.k. with you. i leave it up to you whether you want to answer the questions yourself or as a group. i'd also like to get a few jpegs of your proposals for hoogvliet and any other urbanism related stuff - maybe the design you did for diesel and others... so assuming (based on nothing) that all of this is allright with you, i'll just start in. Q: Can you give me the brief background again - who is the client and what is the brief? <dec 4/03 7:30am PST> A: the client is WiMBY - welcome into my back yard www.wimby,nl. You should really talk to them too. Wouter Vanstiphout and Michelle Provost... they could tell you all about who they are ... the brief was very open - initially described as a 'summer village'. But really, it was an invitation to visit and see the town of hoogvliet. then think about it. Then start to make some proposals drawing on both the current lacks in the town, but also drawing on existing activities, groups, things ... etc. the brief has evolved through drawings which show a kind of idealized vision, and with very local discussions in the front rooms of residents in the town. in this way the approach is the opposite of absurd. perhaps it only looks absurd because it tries to engage with all kinds of activities which are usually too odd, quirky, small, and domestic for important masterplanners. I'll resize some pics and send them through.... best Sam
===description of hoogvliet project=== Heerlijkheid Hoogvliet The project is a design process to create a complex of amenities, reception halls, sports facilities, cultural workplaces, a site for events, a park, stages and an exhibition space. The site is a post war new town called Hoogvliet on the edge of Rotterdam. Heerlijkheid in a 17th century Dutch word that translate both as domain and loveliness. The Heerlijkheid will have a highly individual atmosphere and image, and will be programmed by a group of curators and people from clubs and associations. It will appeal to a broad public including schoolchildren, families with barbecues, music fans, artistic nomads and other day visitors. It might be described as Hoogvliet's summer village. It will be an association of associations, which will bring about a critical mass by their compression in space and time. E.M. Forster described the early 20th century Surrey countryside as a 'landscape of amenity', and that is exactly the aspiration of the Hoogvliet Heerlijkheid. It is a compression in time and space of community activities - a scooping up and concentration of all the small groups of local pastimes. The things which have sprouted in an ad-hoc manner through desire and need of the community - the signs of life. Many of these things have remained below the radar of urban planning in the lifetime of Hoogvliet, neither problematic enough to require being solved nor important enough to warrant enshrinement within planning policy. The Heerlikheid is not a solution, but an opportunity. It takes advantage of a situation which includes planning blight, safety buffer zoning, the lack of local resources and the goodwill of the local authority to precipitate something that couldn't happen elsewhere. The project brings together disparate local groups while reaching out to communities passing by on the highway and Rotterdam sophisticates in the city centre. Its a hall, a landscape and a collection of other ancillary structures that make up a community resource. A place for the Antillian community to party and barbecue, for pensioners to play bingo, and for local kids to play speed metal. Its a cross programmed hobby ghetto - on a tight budget. The landscape which around the hall combines infrastructure with pleasure: surface water drainage becomes a boating lake surrounding a Pet Cemetery island. The landscape refers to both the idyllic community of the village green and the tough planning pragmatism of the Wild West town grid. The intention is to make the building function before it is finished. In the Heerlijkheid, the construction phases are planned to become opportunities. When the earth moving equipment is digging the lake, the abundance of mud and machines provide a landscape for events such as Monster Truck festivals, Speedway, BMX trials etc. Later, as the landscape becomes more resolved lighter events such as agricultural fairs use the ground. This preemptive planning of functions and events is motivated by recognition of a need right now, not just in 4 years time. Importantly, it also recognizes that these event leave a legacy, both as a memory and perhaps in the equipment and traces they leave behind. It is an accelerated ad hoc development. The idea of drawing on the local in order to develop a unique expression that presents a civic identity. By providing better facilities for local based activities and compressing them in space and time producing a concentrated multiactivity. Drawing on existing links help establish the project as a community resource. <DEC 5/03 6:59pm PST> Q: What stage are things at and what can you tell me about the response of the people of Hoogvliet (city council, interest groups + general population)? Is there any resistance - or are they all enthusiastic about the project? Also, what budget are you working with and what is the proposed time frame between beginning and completion? <DEC 6/03 4:39am PST> A: things are pretty much in flux still - though certain budgets have been agreed by the city council. The response has been almost wholly positive - and there has been much discussion with all of these parties. In fact, we ran a temporary version of the project this summer - a parking lot experiment. This combined an community event with consultation , but also tested how some of these things would work together. you can see some pictures attached. - this also shows something about the aesthetic qualities of the design approach. for the festival it was a kind of 2d graphic used in a 3d way, tracing all kinds of recognizable local scenes - church tower, smoke stacks, housing blocks, tree canopies, the sky line of the neighbouring port . which jumps ahead a little to your next question. the design attitude is to try to make something which be expressive about the town - to make a visible, different and unique landmark but in a way that has some connection to the place. So, yes, the designs have been in a way that is both sincere (!), exuberant and colourful. The time frame is a little unknown right now (at least by me - the wimby guys could have more info) Q: Your images appear considerably more tongue-in-cheek and humourous than your project description - which, apart from encouraging monster trucks and speed metal - reads much like traditional planning proposals. Any explanation for the dichotomy? Of course, the project isn't simply a joke, and I don't want the Absurbanists title to be taken too literally, but images like 'Garden talks' and 'San Marco' suggest an embracing of kitsch and a witty subversion of the whole idea of master planning which, again, isn't apparent in the writing you sent. A: The design is an attempt to make a kind of focus for the community that is so exciting that it starts to draw people into the town. There are lots of ways this could be described - a hobby theme park being one. The project needs to be popular to be successful - and we interpret this as it needing to be direct. Also - the budgets for the various buildings will not be large. In fact, we will be most likely customizing existing building systems - dressing up a industrial shed. So all of this sincere and hopeful thinking needs to be made real through decoration ... its closer to a circus than to grand architecture (or rather it wants all the good bits of a circus and the good bits of high architecture). Also important in the drawings I've sent you is a their directness - these have been used to explain the concept of the project, to drawn people into discussions, to help raise local awareness and demonstrate the possibilities to potential funding bodies. These drawings are more of a vision than a plan - they show a potential outcome, but in reality the project is dependent upon local interest and input. Not sure that covers everything you ask ... but if you need any more clarifications, ask away!
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