NL

Now to mainland Europe! This was my first visit to the Netherlands after having lived here for 2 years from 2005 till 2007. I was a bit worried of having to face bitter sweet memories at every street corner and was quiet apprehensive. The fear of being unable to appreciate the 3 cities I would visit in this country loomed large!

Luckily my experience in my first city of call - Amsterdam - was quiet contrary and I really enjoyed the city.
As planned we did our round of all the usual touristic stuff - the Van Gogh Museum,
the flower market (above), Dam Square and the of course the famous canal tour. To my surprise I really enjoyed it and I had forgotten how beautiful this city really is!

I also managed to have a pleasant time in the Hague,
where my little cousins just adored the Mini-Holland Park (Madurodam).

My last stop in NL was Rotterdam - now this was never going to be easy! It is here that I went to school and lived. In under 2 years the city had really changed a lot!
Lots of new buildings and infrastructure was being built and parts of the city - that I spend most of my time in - is now a giant building site.I went to my school (the Berlage Institute - below photo) where I met quiet a few familiar faces (Marja, PV, Trummer, Danny, Suchada and Janki),
walked past my favourite housing project in the city,
went to see my favorite building in the city - the Kunsthal -
designed by OMA (above and below)
walked by the Erasmus bridge in front of which I rode my bike everyday.. here too was a brand new tower disappearing into the sky..
walked past my supermarket
and even dared to walk by where I lived! Ahhhh the good old days..
I bite my lip really hard and I didn't let a tear drop - now I'm left wondering if that was a good idea?

Anyhow I'm happy that I was able to visit this slightly eccentric dutch city once again!

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.

Janmashthmai in Rotterdam ?

Saw a strange sight today (Actually I’m seeing this for the second time since I’ve come to Rotterdam) … the celebration of Lord Krishna’s birthday- Janmashthmai - by a small Surinamese community. This community has Indian origins (some of them trace back there last generation to live in India up to 6 or 7 generations) .. However, over all these years and literally half way around the world in South America this small community has managed to hold on to some rituals and habits that still connect them strongly to there motherland. Almost all of the older people and a few young people still speak a sort of Bojpuri language… like all true Indians ..they love Indian Food.. Indian Gods .. Indian Festivals (hence this celebration) and not to forget they also love – Bollywood!!

Now the story goes something like this .. these Indians were taken there are slaves by the Dutch .. And after they gained there independence from the Dutch .. the Dutch government offered them a chance to come and live there lives here .. (mostly in the bad parts of their cities – for example here in Rotterdam in the South) .. And long story short – here they are in Blaak plaza celebrating an Indian festival – which most of their kids have no idea what it is ?? or what for?? But the free Indian food and sweet they give to everyone who comes makes it all forgivable..

So how does a Indian community from South America .. now living in Holland celebrate one of their most important festivals – besides the free food, a small ‘Indian’ bazaar, the odd golawala, the good attempt to have a nicely decorated rath for Krishna , they ask none other than Anuradha Paudwal to sing bajans for them …

Yes that's her singing in the middle...

And if that wasn’t enough they even have lord Ganesha himself – in flesh and bone standing with the most bizarre of backdrops (the ridiculous cube houses of Rotterdam)

Though I’m not at all a fan of elephants on streets, I have to say they blend in better back home in India.

Desperation??

Can somebody tell me what the hell this ad is ????

Pathetic !!!

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 …