Bye bye Rotterdam!!!

Took this photo of the square behind my school - Blaak square - from the bus as it looped around Rotterdam on its way to London.
The grief of leaving what was home for the last two years made the hardships of this horrible bus journey - random census interview, many immigration checks, countless baggage checks and an uncomfortable bus - negligible.

Anyhow I am now in UK. Waiting to give some interviews and see what the future holds for me here.

Graduation …

Getting my Masters of Excellence in Architecture and Urban Design from the Berlage Institute..

This is it …

And soo it’s all over .. two years of sleeplessness.. tiredness.. travel and joy …

This morning we had our final presentation of our almost year long research on Brasilia.. Our strange stage show presentation some how worked … the models resisted buckling too far .. and the bubbles in the mounted sheets didn’t betray.. And so it is … It’s finally over … Here’s a few snaps of our final moments of glory at the Berlage Institute .. As one .. One made of ten ..

Here’s a snap with all who ever involved with the project (except for Adolfo - he is missing in this snap) From left to right – Standing - Zhongping, Yvette, Elia, Lama, Me, Martino (above me), Elena, Melisa (Below Elena), Juan and Shanshan. Sitting – Pier Vittorio (PV) and Renata.

And here’s our project at the Berlage End-of-the-Year Exhibition currently on (all summer) in what used to be our studio at the school.

Our panels for Zuid

Here’s some zooms of our panels..

and some snaps of the model

Exhibition in Zuid Rotterdam

A second important exhibition of our work in Rotterdam within two weeks of each other … Yippy!!!

All the projects designed during the Masterclass are now in display on the sixth floor of Municipality building in Feijenoord, Rotterdam Zuid.. they will be there till the end of the month.

Check out the project I worked on above .. ( along with Melisa, Lauren, Miha and our guest team mate - Daewon)Even though we didn’t get any mentions.. I have to honestly say – I think ours was one of the best projects.. Our final presentation could have been much better.. But all that lack of sleep was bound to get to us at some point …

After the actual opening on the 3^rd of June … A lot of resident groups have been coming to discuss and debate the merits and demerits of our proposals and thanks to our mentor – Martin Sobota – informing us (Thanks for all the support man!!!)..

We were able to attend the day that the residents were discussing our project.. Though the whole thing happened in Dutch I have to say I got quiet a bit of what they discussed and I was pleasantly surprised with the level of discussion and curiosity that our project generated..

In fact quiet a few people even liked it.. : )

Master ‘Competition’ Class

And in no time there goes another two weeks of my life .. With much more of the usual (sleepless nights, skipped meals and days of horrible back ache) … But this time in the name of a Masterclass that was disguised as a competition between ten of the ‘supposedly’ most important architecture schools in the world today ..

[One of these being CEPT Ahmedabad… It was great to have you guys here … Was great to be able to talk in Hindi (once again) and Malayalam (for the first time) at the Berlage : )]

A Masterclass with Elia Zengelis (seen talking at the head of the table above)and Joan Oakman (seen below).

The Project at hand was to design ‘prototypical’ community centre projects for the lesser half of the city of Rotterdam – it’s south side – Zuid (in Dutch). The ‘bad’ half of the city across the Maas river.

The brief of the ‘competition’ Masterclass to design NON-Iconic projects to tackle issues of everyday for the community.. from small schools to community centres to sports facilities.. However, a large no. of projects short-listed and awarded where in my opinion exactly contrary to this plea. Having said that I have to admit I had a great time with a lot of people.. learned a lot ..and enjoyed myself.

POWER !!!

After loosing track to sleepless nights, skipped meals and days of horrible back ache .. it’s finally done … All our stuff made it well in time .. and in relatively good condition to the Kunsthal for the opening of the Third International Rotterdam Architecture Biennale titled ‘POWER – producing the contemporary city’.

Our project – ‘The completion of Brasilia’ – is part of the Visionary power exhibition in the main gallery hall of this fabulous building.

It is part of the Capital cities ‘egg’ (as these wooden blobs have come to be known to all of us, who have been struggling to fit into or next to it).

Each ‘egg’ is dedicated to one topic all related to cities however – Corporate, Informal, Hidden, Spectacle and Capital cities.

And as you walk to the Capital cities – there it is .. Our project .
Here’s a better view...

And don't miss the ‘big books’ on either side – Melisa and myself killed our selves for this book … I have to say I’m quiet pleasant with how it turned out .. Only worry is that with all that weight I hope the binding can hold till the beginning of September!

Though I was there for the opening of this important exhibition, I was too tired and worried about the Masterclass (also part of the Biennale that began a couple of days back) to check probably on all the ‘eggs’ and the projects done by small offices and research groups from around the world. Hope to be back to see them when things calm down a bit at the Berlage Institute.

After weeks of milling .. drilling.. cleaning and gluing .. it’s finally done …The grand model that they (Zhongping, Miha, Shanshan and Adolfo) promised is finally ready … well in time for the Rotterdam Biennale .. and also for our green light review…

Way to go guys !!!

But this occasion obviously calls for a group photo .. cos even if we didn’t work on the model .. there was other equally important stuff to be done .. the Collages, the drawings and not the least – ‘the big books’.

Here’s one more of the group …

And the model …Check out a detail of the model showing some of the satellite cities of Brasilia and our interventions …

Brazil Rocks !!!

Just back from an amazing twenty days in Brazil with my studio at the Berlage.

We (ten of us) spend the first ten days of our trip to Brazil in the capital city of Brasilia doing a workshop at the University of Brasilia (UnB) there with some students and faculty of the UnB and Planners/Architects from the various Government bodies.

(The next post will be links to online photo albums. So here I shall try not to crowd it with many images)

I have to say that contrary to popular belief 'Brasilia' is quiet a pleasant city and for what it was designed quiet successful too. If one remembers the main intention of this major undertaking besides a symbolic act to moving the capital of the country to it's centre (or rather to the hinterland) , it was suppose to become a catalyst to the growth of this area and in a mere 50 odd years the area of the federal district has grown from a negligible population to over 2 million people.

Though a lot of the conventional criticism towards the overall plan - its belief in zoning and that everyone will own an automobile - is well grounded, there seems to have been also an over looking of some of the truly innovative inventions of Brasilia, for eg. the 'Super Quadras'.

Above image from within a Super Quadra

The Super Quadras or what we can translate to as the Super Block - is the basic unit of the Residential axis of the city. It is basically made up of two elements the 'Super Quadra' and the 'Inter Quadra'. The Super Qudra is roughly a square plot 300m x 300m where 10-11 housing blocks (of about 6 floors each) is placed in varying configurations on a park like landscape. The landscape in between becomes a key binder of the blocks at the same time providing enough distance between these otherwise dense blocks. Along either end of the Super Quadra runs the Inter Quadra ( or lets say all the community functions - Schools, Clubs, Chruchs, Cinemas and even small retail shops). Through the Inter Quadra the Super Quadras relate to each other forming a sort of linear city. As one would expect there is a kind of monotony while you drive along this axis but because of the different ways in which these Inter Quadras have been appropriated in the last 50 years it is possible to differentiate them (that's once you become slightly familiar with them).
However, the reason I speak about these Super Quadras is because in a long time this has been the most positive housing typology I have seen anywhere. Probably they are not dense enough for most of our cities today but I guess it's a very interesting reference to how mass housing could incorporate ideas of Landscape (and probably in that sense Sustainability - don't kill me on this!!), community living and sense of 'Urban-ness'. I have to say I am a big fan of the Super Quadras.

Moving on from Brasilia we spend then next ten days travelling through some of the other important cities (in terms of History, Architecture and Culture) of this beautiful country - Salvador, Rio deJaneiro and SaoPaulo.

Photos from Brasilia

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Photos from Salvador, RioDeJaneiro and SaoPaulo

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A very interesting Lecture.

Just finished attending a very interesting lecture by Eyal Weizman as part of the Architecture and Power lecture series at the Berlage. His lecture was titled "Cumulative Radicalisation: Design in conflict" and it dealt with the use of planning and architecture by the Israeli Army as means of appropriating and controlling land.
Eyal is an Israeli architect and currently directs the Centre for Research Architecture at the Goldsmith Academy in London (a programme that he founded there).

[You can read an article about his research titled 'Politics of Verticality' here - http://www.netartreview.net/weeklyFeatures/Weizman_English.html or you could read an interesting interview here - http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/9/wall.php or better still you can watch a lecture by him here - http://webcast.rice.edu/speeches/20040318weizman.html ]

Exhibition in Amsterdam

Earlier today an exhibition of our* projects to develop a high speed railway station at Zuidas opened at a small gallery called 'Platform21' in South Amsterdam.

(* - Participants at the Berlage Institute, Rotterdam)

Zuidas - Final Review

Today finally I finished with my presentation on the Amsterdam Zuidas Train station proposal, a studio that I supposedly did with Ben Van Berkel. Extremely disappointed with my project and the whole studio especially the complete lack of professionalism from Ben himself. In the course of the 4 month studio he made only 4 appearances and was more of an outsider to the project than most external jurors. But nonetheless happy that it’s over and I can move on to my next year at the Berlage and to better projects.

However, I have to say that Olaf Gipser who was supposedly only an assistant tutor tried very hard in making sense of most of our projects and was extremely helpful and inspiring. At the very least I would like to wish him and his office in Amsterdam the very best of luck in whatever they do.

And to that spirit we decided to make the studio group portrait with him alone. Thanks Olaf!

Party in the Vault

We (Juan, Melisa and I) threw an amazing party in the vault in the school yesterday. Since the school here in Rotterdam is housed in a building that used to be a bank there are some amazing spaces and huge vault (all with fancy super heavy metal doors) down in the labyrinth on basements below our studio and school offices.

We threw the party because we just found out that the three of us were awarded the Nuffic Scholarship for the coming academic year. I have to admit that my jaw is hurting from all the smiling since this news has really sunk in.

Practicing Tokyo @ Ypenburg (Netherlands)

Starting the 15^th of the month till today we had a Master class (Intense Workshop) with Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (Principle of Atelier Bow-Wow, Tokyo and professor at the Tokyo University of Technology).

The studio explored what using Japanese Building regulations could generate in a generic Dutch Suburb. The site chosen was Ypenburg a thematically developed suburb in the outskirts of The Hague.

Besides using Japanese Regulations the studios basic aim was to triple the density of Ypenburg. We relied strongly on Tsukamoto’s own practise and his approach towards similar constraints in Tokyo.

found the format of the studio and it’s functioning extremely interesting, with quiet a few new faces from other schools and countries joining us for this. The intensity was amazing; it still is surprising to me the quantity of work that was produced and last but not the least I got to meet some great people, looking forward to the next Master class.

Mid Term Review

After a week of frustrating days and sleepless night. We just managed to finish enough work to have a mid term review.

I have to admit that the work (at least of my group) could, in fact should have been better.

The studio for some reason doesn’t have a focus; the problem at hand - i.e. designing the high speed train station at South Axis, Amsterdam (Zuidas as they like to call it here) – has more to it than just a well designed station. And I constantly feel a disbelief in most students (including myself) in the idea that an architect can solve the problems of the strange master plan and weird political situation of this ‘New City Centre’. I guess the below picture shows exactly that same worry on the faces of most Jury members.

But to be fare to the tutors I have to say that it is not an easy problem to digest let alone to find a solution too. And I have to admit its nice to have a room full of some of the top architects in Europe trying to help us figure this one out.

In the picture above from left to right in front row – Vedran Mimica (Asst. Dean Berlage), Sylvia Lavin (American Architectural Critic and Greg Lynn’s wife), Ben Van Berkel (Namesake Tutor and Director of UN studio), Alejandro Zaera Polo (Dean Berlage and Director FOA), Jaap (Project Leader Zuidas station OveArup London) and I don’t remember the lady in front. In the second row Caroline Bos (Art Historian UN Studio), Olaf Gipser (Main Studio Tutor), official from Asmterdam, Caroline (Architect with OveArup London).

Party time Rotterdam

Had a great party last night at my place because it was Juan's (my house-mate) birthday and to add to the celebration I also became an Uncle. My brother has a son now.

Here's the whole gang. I have to say it really was an impressive turn-out last night.