October -November -December 1998

Beware! The links in past news articles are not maintained.

New Babylon, the hyper-architecture of desire
December, 1998
Constant Nieuwenhuis has worked over twenty years on the development of his utopia New Babylon. Constant published the first sketches of what later would become New Babylon as early as 1949. The work was not exhibited for 12 years. The results of Constant's efforts can be seen again in their full glory for the first time since a long while. Until January 11th an impressive number of models, drawings, lithographs, etchings and paintings from and about New Babylon have been brought together in the Rotterdam 'Witte de With'.

Smart Architecture
December, 1998
Recently the website about Smart Architecture went online. With the launch of this website a beginning is made towards an online research on Smart projects, designers, ideas and techniques in architecture. The initiators are looking for combinations of 'green' starting points and renewing architecture. Saturday November 28, in the framework of the coming Doors of Perception manifestation, a lecture morning was organised with the title 'Play it Smart in Architecture'. The architect Ken Yeang was one of the speakers.

The Casbah by Piet Blom revised
November 19, 1998
The Casbah in Hengelo by Piet Blom is one of the few housing projects from the 1970's in which the discussed themes; condensation and function mixing, are still current. But as a concrete project the Casbah failed for an important part. The most important cause for this failure is the fact that the 'municipal roof' wasn't realised in an inner-city environment, but at the edge of a dull expansion estate. The project is apparently still sufficiently valued. The current owner, Housing management St. Joseph and the Municipality Hengelo, will make three million guilders available to secure the future of this 'modern monument'.

Popcluster Tilburg
November 19, 1998
How do you give a building which has pop music related functions a recognisable appearance? Benthem Crouwel Architects seem to refer to the punk-area of olden times with their Popcluster in Tilburg. The black leather and the studs only have been replaced by fashionable rubber and cd's.

Kazuyo Sejima at BiA
November 12, 1998
The Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima on 10th of November gave a lecture at the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam. In her lecture she introduced themes which recently influenced the work of the office she shares with Ryue Nishizawa; themes which are mainly connected to the relation of buildings with their close environment and the influence of informational space on architecture.

Bill Viola in Amsterdam
October 12, 1998
The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam at this moment presenting is a fascinating exhibition of the American video-artist Bill Viola. For this occasion the Stedelijk has been transformed it into a media labyrinth, enabling extreme experiences of basic human emotion. While the images on the one hand have a quiet beauty their impact in the installations on the other hand confronts the viewer in an immediate and direct way. Viola is using the contradictions between flowing and interrupted time in these video-installations.

Exploring the river, bridges for Rotterdam
October 6, 1998
With a study commission by seven designers the town of Rotterdam has opened the discussion on the necessity and potential of a new river crossing across the river Maas. It is a remarkable initiative as from the perspective of traffic capacity there is in fact no need for an extra river crossing, but a new bridge might bring a major impulse to the town. It looks like an inverted proof. Urban designer Stef van der Gaag says: 'the idea for a new connection is a result of the understanding that lively and prospering cities situated on important trade rivers often have an extensive network linking all areas of the city.' If Rotterdam wants to flourish, it will have to build a new bridge.

Opening conference 'Forces' at BiA
October 5, 1998
With a conference 'Forces: NL< >LA< >TOKYO' the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam on Friday, 2 October opened the academic year and welcomed the 9th generation of participants to its Laboratory of architecture. Throughout this day the outline of the studio program for this year has been unveiled and the visitors have been engaged in the theme for the research at the institute based on a comparative research of the new modernity of the Middle-Class Landscape in The Netherlands, Los Angeles and Tokyo.

New head-office for ING
October 5, 1998
On September 24 the ING - group presented its plan for a new head-office in the Amsterdam 'Zuid-as' area. The company describes the characteristics of the design by Meyer Van Schooten Architects as transparent, open, communicative and trendsetting...