Category Archives: Architecture

Radio Kootwijk

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“Hello Bandoeng, hello Bandoeng, Kootwijk here”, said the queen in 1929, using the radio connection with the Dutch colonies in Indonesia. After completing the radio transmitter complex 12.000 kilometers away in Bandoeng, the high plain of Kootwijk was chosen for the Dutch radio receiver. Architect Jules Luthmann designed the iconic transmission building, also known as ‘the cathedral’, along with other typical structures in reinforced concrete. A hexagon of 200 meter high towers was erected around the central building, interconnected with copper wires to form a gigantic antenna. The complex was inaugurated in 1923.

After the radio antennas in the area had become obsolete, in 1998, the by then privatized telephone company KPN sold the complex to the Ministry of Agriculture. On the one hand, the population of Radio Kootwijk (less then a hundred people) was afraid of new antennas with disturbing effects on health and the environment. On the other hand, demolishing the unique heritage of the radio complex was polemic. The buildings could only be maintained if  a new function for them was found. In 2009, the complex was sold back to the national foresting department Staatsbosbeheer, who developed a joint vision for redevelopment of Radio Kootwijk. The plan strives to find new cultural and leisure uses for the historic radio buildings and surroundings, while maintaining the quiet and natural qualities of the place.

At the moment, especially summer activities are scheduled, on a temporary basis, in and around the ‘cathedral’ and in a so-called ‘theater shed’. In winter, the place is very silent. The spaces can also be rented for events. The hotel building caught fire in 2006, but is to be rebuilt in its former glory. In the area, management training facilities have landed, using the green surroundings for inspiration.


Radio Kootwijk in Google Maps

LowLine New York

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After successful transformation of overhead infrastructures into leisure spaces, such as the New York HighLine park, new possibilities are being explored underground. The LowLine project uses crowd funding to turn the old Williamsburg Trolley Terminal, an underground complex, into a community park. The complex was built in 1903 and has remained unused since 1948.

The location in the Lower East Side, which lacks public green space and business opportunities, challenged a neighboring architecture firm to come up with this plan. The designers developed a system that captures sunlight and transmits it to the subterranean park, in sufficient quantities for photosynthesis, in other words to grow trees and other plants.

 

Grand projets – Bibliotèque François Mitterand

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Current times of bottom-up planning, urban acupuncture, pocket parks and temporary uses make the Grand Projets of president Mitterand – merely a few decades ago – look like remnants of a distant past. One way or another, these projects create the context of our current interventions and will determine the face of the city for centuries. Parque de la Villette, Grand Arche (La Défense) and the Bibliotèque de France became landmarks and icons for Paris, despite heavy criticism about the high costs for the tax payers and elitist locations of the project, predominantly in the west near the river Seine.

The expansion of the national library – with its historic location at the Rue Richelieu – was to create a new hot spot at the margins of the river, stimulating the revitalization of the Rive Gauche area. It was the most costly of the Grand Projets, and suffered various operational problems, such as creating a good climate for conservation of the books inside the glass towers. The project by Dominique Perrault was the winning design of the 1989 competition. The honorary mention of the OMA project also became famous. The project was inaugurated in 1996, a year after Mitterands death.

The library occupies 60 thousand square meters, with a stunningly quitet forest patio in the middle.

The project is connected to the other side of the river by a new pedestrian bridge. The full perimeter of the library is accessible as a wooden staircase.

Multi-use buildings – a city within the city #1

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Many times, modern architecture is blamed for the separation of urban functions, as well as the lack of street life and human scale in the contemporary metropolis. Fair enough, but modern building types may also provide the solution if you do it right. Learning from the good examples and improving them provides a much richer perspective than moving backwards with retro town planning. This is the first of a series of posts celebrating the big-scale multi-use building.

Instead of separating public from private space, multi-use buildings can be extremely permeable and add thousands of square meters to the public domain, in the shape of internal streets, escalators and mezzanines. They give access to a variety of urban functions, such as retail, public services, offices, cinemas, theaters, restaurants and bars, auditoriums and apartments. This means they are also an important meeting place, and certainly more than just a building: they are a city within the city. In this post we take a closer look at the Galerias in São Paulo.

Conjunto Nacional during festivity at Avenida Paulista (Gay Parade)

Conjunto Nacional, designed by David Libeskind in the 1950s, is one of the main attractions and meeting points at the busy Avenida Paulista. The classic sidewalk pavement (designed by Burle Marx) continued seamlessly into the ground floor of the building. The complex combines shops, lecture halls, restaurants, exhibition space, offices, a gymnasium, a cinema and many apartments.

Conjunto Nacional – running track on the second floor

Edifício Copan in urban context (to the left Edifício Itália)


One of the most iconic buildings in the city is no doubt Edifício Copan, built in the 1960s by Oscar Niemeyer. With its 5 thousand inhabitants, the 35 storey building is a city in itself. For many years the building was in poor conditions, but new inhabitants and higher rents have made it possible to restore the edifice to its former glory. The ground floor, open to the street, is a pleasant semi-public space during the whole day, mixing small shops, coffee bars, a church and the elevator halls of the 4 blocos.

Galeria do Rock – facade

A typical remnant of São Paulo’s modern past are the galerias. The whole week round, but especially in the weekends, Galeria do Rock (1963) is a favorite hangout for alternative youngsters, mostly part of skate, gothic and rock subcultures. The multi-storey building is populated by some 450 small shops, varying from clothing to music, fruit juice and tattoos. The entire ground floor connects to the street and literally connects 2 parallel streets with a ramp, across the building block.

The idea of permeable multi-use  buildings and galerias is also common in the more anonymous buildings of the newer central parts of the city. It is here – and not in the drive-in type shopping malls – that new trends emerge, and fashion labels, biker shops and new designers have their start-up businesses. Several such galerias can be found at Rua Augusta and near Praça da República.

Shops in multi-use residential building at Rua Pamplona (Jardins). The inclined street is used to create easy pedestrian access to two levels of shops from the sidewalk. The typical cantilever above the second floor provides shelter in rainy weather.

Covered two-level galeria at Rua Augusta

Open galeria as a semi-public perpendicular street of Rua Augusta

 

50th anniversary Flemish urban planning law

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Coming up: great talk&film event at De Singel (Antwerp)

‘On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the urban planning law (1962), the Flemish Architecture Institute’s Centre for Flemish Architectural Archives (CVAa) is programming a series of talks and films. You can see four films from the 1950s to the 1970s, each introduced by an expert in postwar urban planning and urbanisation. How did the urban planning law come into being? Why did it take so long for such a law to appear in Belgium? What effect did it have? You will get the answers in these films and talks.’

tue 23 oct 2012
Talk: Michael Ryckewaert (Erasmushogeschool Brussel, KU Leuven)
Film: Trilogy: Eigen schoon, rijke kroon/Mensen in de stad/Een centenkwestie (1951) – director Charles Dekeukeleire

tue 6 nov 2012
Talk: Michiel Dehaene Ghent University
Film: Six mille habitants (1958) – director Luc De Heusch

tue 27 nov 2012
Talk: Marcel Smets KU Leuven, former Flemish Government Architect
Film: De straat (1972) – director Jef Cornelis scenario Geert Bekaert

tue 11 dec 2012
Talk: Bruno Notteboom Ghent University, Sint-Lucas Architecture
Film: Vlaanderen in vogelvlucht (1976) – director Jef Cornelis scenario Geert Bekaert