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Short video flipping through pages of the book, which is printed on translucent paper, giving the effect of a constant process of building up and stripping back.

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Self Assembly - Assembling posters video

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Self Assembly - Assembling posters video

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Video of various posters being assembled and disassembled from the pages of the book. Each poster was assembled following a specific rule such as 'only B/W pages', 'poster only assembled by people from outside of the team', 'only 3 pages each', 'pages can only be placed without looking' (pin the tail), 'pages can only be placed around a person' etc.

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Self Assembly is a proposed spatial intervention – designed to be implemented in and around Fratton Community Centre. The material and conceptual forms that the intervention takes are subject to constant shifting, shimmying, distortion and collision. Currently, Self Assembly consists of:

- A set of size specifications for scaffold, sheets of wood and connective fixings.

- A range of drawings, diagrams and images illustrating possible structures formed from scaffold, sheets of wood, connective fixings and a variety of fabrics, within the context of the site. Suggested uses for these structures include performance spaces, temporary shelters, exhibition spaces and gardening spaces.

- A collection of texts conceptually situated within New Materialist, Intersectional Feminist, Structuralist and Situationist theory.

From these parts, a framework is formed for the potential assembly of temporary structures by members of Fratton’s community. Rather than any set structure, this forms a workmanship of both risk and care, which depends on the judgement of the maker. Based on their perceptions and understandings of the relationships between the structures and their surroundings, the community can action physical changes to the space, forming a spatial conversation.

Self Assembly is an open-source system: modification and adaptation of parts by the community is encouraged. Because of this, community members have the opportunity to contribute their unique ideas and abilities towards a shared cause. Fratton’s third largest industry is construction, so the way that the scaffold is connected is subject to change and improvement based on the expertise of construction workers. A child might suggest that a tyre swing should be added to a structure. Birds could begin to routinely perch on one particular part of a structure – perhaps suggesting to the human community that this part should become permanently integrated into the community centre. Self Assembly, thus, provides a shared platform for material and conceptual commoning, not only from the human perspective but also inclusive of non-human actants.

(314 words)

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PDF file for (most of the) pages of the book which, when disassembled, form many different posters.

This modular and adaptable format reflects the nature of the outcome of this project: An open-source system with which human and non-human members of Fratton's community can form ever changing spacial conversations.

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This week I presented the work that my group has produced for review. This went very well and I felt very proud of the work that we were able to present. Almost all of the feedback was positive and suggested that the group should simply carry on doing what we are doing.

Unfortunately I was the only group member able to attend and present the work. This was due to all three of my group-mates experiencing medical problems. To add to this, one group member has made the decision not to submit their work and to effectively step away from the project for the foreseeable future. A decision which I respect, but didn't expect

Even with the resounding positive feedback, the unexpected pressure that emerged has left me feeling burnt-out. I decided that I needed to slow down. I needed to look back to my notes on care and careful design, but with the perspective that I have gained during this module. My new understanding of materials and the material nature of everything.

I should not only design with care for other material bodies in mind, but also be mindful of my own experience and how it affects the outcome. This is because I myself am a material part of the design, and so I should treat myself with the same care and awareness that I treat all other parts of the project.

My focus this week is on an internal slowing down through meditation on the project and it's conceptual and material parts. Aiming to bring my thoughts about the project away from erratic panic and back towards careful consideration.

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Grear, A. (2020). Resisting Anthropocene Neoliberalism: Towards New Materialist Commoning? In A. Grear & D. Bollier (Eds.), The Great Awakening: New Modes of Life amidst Capitalist Ruins (pp. 352-353). Punctum Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.2353884.13

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Presentation of the work on this project so far:

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Presentation of the work on this project so far:

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Constant Nieuwenhuys, New Babylon, 1961, litho. Collection Het Nieuwe Instituut, archive Academie van Bouwkunst Amsterdam (ABAM).

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Based on my concept image for an adaptable outdoor structure, my group-mate Libby and I developed a design concept for an 'open-source' modular system for building temporary structures.

The system provides specifications for sheets of scrap plywood and scaffolding poles to form framing structures. These structures can then have repurposed fabric attached to them to form flowing walls and ceilings.

Our initial plan was to propose this as a method of building adaptable performance spaces. However, we discovered that the system could be used for a multitude of different purposes, both indoors and outdoors. Depending on the specific materials used in each individual construction, the structures could serve as temporary shelters, playgrounds or exhibition spaces - to list a few possibilities.

An additional benefit of the 'DIY' nature of the system is that the people who use the system can add or take away any conceptual or material elements. We hope that this would accommodate an attitude of 'commoning', in which community members feel that they can contribute their unique ideas and abilities towards a common cause. A construction worker might suggest a safer method for coupling scaffold. A child might suggest that a tire swing should be added to a structure. An artist might make decorative sheets of tarpaulin to hang from the frames.

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Concept image for a potential application of the system:

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Concept image for a potential application of the system:

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Group Section/Collage of Fratton Community Centre

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Group Section/Collage of Fratton Community Centre

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Constant Nieuwenhuys’ ‘New Babylon’ project presents as a prominent example of architectural design which aimed to transform public life and activities into a playful experience. (Bryant, para. 21) Mallorie Chase (2015) notes that Constant’s New Babylon was designed to act “as a city forever in process because new paths could be added without  limitations  and  connections  would  be  reconfigured  at  will.” (p. 7) In this process-centric design, Chase identifies the evolution - and critique - of Le Corbusier’s concept of architectural promenade, noting that “the sectors and nodes of the project unfolded over time, but instead of framed views orchestrated by one lead architect, the aesthetic encounters would be unpredictable and pluralistic.” (p. 7) This ephemeral and adaptable aspect of Constant’s design for ‘New Babylon’, which rejects Le Corbusier’s hierarchical outlook, emerges as a valuable principle in constructing playful spaces.

Bryant, J. (2006). Play and Transformation (Constant Nieuwenhuys and the Situationists). Drain: A Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture, 6, (para. 21). Retrieved from https://www.drainmag.com/ContentPLAY/Essay/Bryant.html

Chase, M. (2015). Revisiting Constant's New Babylon: City surfaces and saturation. Diffractions: Graduate Journal for the Study of Culture, (7). Retrieved from https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/diffractions/article/view/501/450

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Concept Image for adaptable outdoor structures using scaffold and tarpaulin

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Concept Image for adaptable outdoor structures using scaffold and tarpaulin

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"The temporary character of the intervention was part of this “in between” nature, recreating space through incremental adaptation instead of the tabula rasa approach of modernism, in which the designs had an autonomy of their own, based on abstract data and statistics."(Oudenampsen, 2013, para. 8)

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Ambiguity as a Resource for Design by W Gaver, J Beaver & S Benford

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Ambiguity as a Resource for Design by W Gaver, J Beaver & S Benford

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A lack of clarity can be virtuous in design and can be intentionally used as a tool to allow meanings to be created with more freedom  on the part of the audience. This gives room for more subjective readings, and often encourages audiences to actively consume. This in turn creates a deeper relationship between the audience and the content and possibly a more in depth personal understanding. Ambiguity can also be useful in creating more inclusive design by removing conceptual constraints in the audiences reading of the design.

In the examples provided, ambiguity is used effectively as a design tool. A particularly relevant example is ‘Projected Realities’  where a lack of context encourages an active reading of the messages that are displayed. These messages were generated by quoting the concerns of older members of the community. An active reading of these concerns encourages a greater understanding, and in turn encourages young people to help alleviate these concerns in any way that they see fit. The lack of information regarding their origin or purpose may have removed biases felt by the younger generations towards the older members of their community. This allows people to independently decide whether their contribution is important and whether it benefits the community as a whole rather than a specific group.

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Ambiguity as a resource for design | Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Ambiguity is usually considered anathema in Human Computer Interaction. We argue, in contrast, that it is a resource for design that can be used to encourage close personal engagement with systems. We illustrate this with examples from contemporary arts and design practice, and distinguish three broad classes of ambiguity according to where uncertainty is located in the interpretative relationship linking person and artefact. Ambiguity of information finds its source in the artefact itself, ambiguity of context in the sociocultural discourses that are used to interpret it, and ambiguity of relationship in the interpretative and evaluative stance of the individual. For each of these categories, we describe tactics for emphasising ambiguity that may help designers and other practitioners understand and craft its use.

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'Tent Typologies' by Sam Chermayeff and 'My Castle is Your Castle' by Brave New Alps both came to mind as projects to take inspiration from when thinking about 'site in process'.

Both projects challenged my preconceptions of architecture as solid and permanent, seeming to reference their own material and ephemeral nature.

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My intervention is not final. I cannot categorically solve all problems that Fratton community centre might face with one intervention. Instead I would like to see my intervention as a continuation of the addition and assembly that has formed the building thus far. It is not the end of this process, it is just another part of the unending ephemeral process.

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Van Toorn, J. (2003) Design's Delight. 010 Uitgeverij.

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While working on the section drawing I was reminded of Jan van Toorn's later collage work.

I was inspired by his ability to abstract every day images to a point where they are still very much recognisable, but become more able to function as story telling devices.

The cut out objects in the collage, by means of assemblage, become more like ideas than 'unremarkable' objects. Their remarkability is brought to light.

It is important that the objects do remain recognisable. I feel that this brings a 'real life' element to the work. There is no imitation of anything that the objects are not, even imitation of abstraction. The objects are revealed to already be abstract concepts.

(link to Haegue Yang/Deluze drum machine notes from 2/11/24)

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Work/text by Seda Yıldırım & Efe Yekta Kaya

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Work/text by Seda Yıldırım & Efe Yekta Kaya

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Efe Yekta Kaya on Instagram: "𝘐𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘝𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 (𝘐𝘝)

Obsession for predictability has us yearning for regularities. We strive to fit our dance within an order, yet the tune that guides our steps pulses with an irregular beat. This doesn’t imply our folly. In the end, we all but concentrated set of order that otherwise would decay into atomic chaos.

Irregular Vibrations is an interactive audio-visual experiment. It combines a sound design and visuals that are generated out of the formula of bifurcation. The place where the next white square will appear depends on a flip of its internal coin but somehow it remains in a boundary that carves a pattern. Interaction rests within a simple knob connected directly to the heart of the bifurcation’s rate. Puts you at a point of self-reference, predicting the unfolding rhythm of what’s to come."

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122 likes, 0 comments - efeyektakaya on October 17, 2023: "𝘐𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘝𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 (𝘐𝘝)

Obsession for predictability has us yearning for regularities. We strive to fit our dance within an order, yet the tune that guides our steps pulses with an irregular beat. This doesn’t imply our folly. In the end, we all but concentrated set of order that otherwise would decay into atomic chaos.

Irregular Vibrations is an interactive audio-visual experiment. It combines a sound design and visuals that are generated out of the formula of bifurcation. The place where the next white square will appear depends on a flip of its internal coin but somehow it remains in a boundary that carves a pattern. Interaction rests within a simple knob connected directly to the heart of the bifurcation’s rate. Puts you at a point of self-reference, predicting the unfolding rhythm of what’s to come.". 

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Efe Yekta Kaya (@efeyektakaya)

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Audre Lorde’s statement that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” emerges as a powerful instrument for critical resistance, but has been misinterpreted as a call to passive acceptance. Lorde’s original intent was far from advocating inaction; she aimed to provoke critical examination of oppressive systems and promote proactive engagement with diversity for genuine societal transformation. Her message, rooted in a revolutionary ethos, emphasises the need to challenge norms and embrace diversity as a catalyst for change. By understanding Lorde’s true intentions, there lies an opportunity to mobilise collective action towards dismantling oppressive structures.

In relation to my object and it’s ‘original purpose’, as a tool to fight world wars with, I can take from Lorde’s writing a new understanding. Camp beds have existed for hundreds if not thousands of years prior to this context of 20th century war. Warfare existed as an invention of “nomadic anti-state forces” prior to becoming a state controlled mode of oppression. Stripping back further, ‘original purpose’ is written in apostrophes because the object itself did not simply materialise as a camp bed. Before this it was wood, metal and canvas, and before this it was trees, ore and cotton. These materials were then appropriated and given this 'original purpose'. It is not one of the "master’s tools", because the “master” appropriated every aspect of it. It is one of our tools to reclaim.

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Jan van Toorn, Design and Reflexivity, the Social Design Reader p.175-178

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Here Jan van Toorn discusses how symbolic productions, such as cultural artefacts and media, often reflect the views of powerful people and serve their interests while appearing to be universal. The culture created by these elites, helps maintain the existing social order by reinforcing differences and legitimizing those in power.

Van Toorn discusses the impact of this dominant culture on other cultures, forcing them to define themselves based on the symbolism of the powerful. He notes the challenges in representing reality due to the overwhelming influence of symbolic representation, creating a disconnect between ethics and the symbols we encounter every day.

Can we counter this by exploring symbolisms outside of the mainstream, considering all created solutions as legitimate “design” and placing both mainstream and alternative ideas about “design” on a level playing feild to be critically analysed.

What makes the skyscraper designing “architect” more valuable than the teepee building nomad? What makes either of these more valuable than the web building spider or the nest building wasp? Are they not all architects, separated by their perspectives on what should be built?

(link to Audrey Lorde notes from 25/10/24)

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Oudenampsen, M. (2010). Aldo van Eyck and the city as playground. In A. Mendez de Andés (Ed.), Urbanacción 07/09 (pp. 25–39). La Casa Encendida.

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In 1947, the architect Aldo van Eyck built his first playground in Amsterdam, on the Bertelmanplein. Many hundreds more followed, in a spatial experiment that has (positively) marked the childhood of an entire generation. Though largely disappeared, defunct and forgotten today, these playgrounds represent one of the most emblematic of architectural interventions in a pivotal time: the shift from the top down organization of space by modernist functionalist architects, towards a bottom-up architecture that literally aimed to give space to the imagination.

Immediately after the Second World War, Dutch cities were in a state of dereliction. The housing stock was falling dramatically short in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Combined with a dysfunctional infrastructure, it presented planners with the situation of an outright emergency. On top of that, this ravaged urban context was soon to be confronted with the birth peak of the postwar baby boom, whereas almost no space for children was available, neither inside nor outside the house. At that time, some playgrounds existed in the city, but almost all of them were of a private nature and based on membership of the fortunate few. Van Eyck's playgrounds, initially build on temporarily unused plots of land, can be seen as an emergency measure, but they had a significance far beyond that of a creative solution in a time of need.
The Functionalist City
Postwar urban planning in the Netherlands mainly consisted of a rushed and economized implementation of the prewar ideals of the modernist movement grouped around the CIAM (Congres International d'Architecture Moderne), identified with the work of modernist architects like Le Corbusier, Giedion, and Gropius. In Amsterdam, Cornelis van Eesteren, longtime president of the CIAM, was to implement his General Extension Plan (Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan - AUP) of 1934, one the first modern urban masterplans to be based on extensive statistical forecasts of demographic and transport developments (1). His plan embraced the ideal of functional separation, meaning that housing, work, traffic and recreation where to be functionally separated and integrally planned. This was the basic premise of the large-scale construction of new post-war neighborhoods in the fifties such as Buitenveldert and the Westelijke Tuinsteden, resulting in the well known open housing blocks with large amounts of light, air, greenery and monotony.

But the agenda of functional separation also resulted in the conclusion that Amsterdam's economic center, the CBD, had to be further expanded and the old city had to be "opened up" to traffic. This vision was radicalized in the sixties, when the entire city clogged up due to the explosive rise of car traffic, and urban planners introduced a proposal for an extensive network of metro lines and highways to cut through the old fabric of the city. What was on the agenda was a tabula rasa makeover of Amsterdam's 19th century ring of popular and derelict neighborhoods, the Jordaan, Nieuwmarkt, Oostelijke Eilanden, Weesperbuurt and the Pijp (2). A wholesale urban modernization wave that would form a 20th century version of the hitherto unrealized 19th century Hausmannisation of Amsterdam, much like Robert Moses famously used 'the meat-axe' to make space for his parkways and causeways in New York. The Dutch planners, however, never got that far. They were soon to find a huge protest movement on their way that effectively poured sand in the machine, and finally defeated what was by then called the 'urban bulldozer' (3). Aldo van Eyck played an important role in defining what would follow.
The Break with CIAM
Van Eyck's path and that of the functional modernist school were initially one and the same. When he started on the playgrounds, Aldo van Eyck worked directly under Cornelis van Eesteren, who was in charge of Amsterdam's urban development department until 1959. He also began to participate actively in the CIAM conferences (4). However, the perspective on urban space that van Eyck developed through his playgrounds, would lead him to become one of the most fervent critics of the functionalist tendency that dominated the CIAM movement until then. In 1953, a critical group of young architects formed within the CIAM, van Eyck was one its most vocal members. "Functionalism has killed creativity", van Eyck stated in an article in the Dutch magazine Forum, "it leads to a cold technocracy, in which the human aspect is forgotten. A building is more than the sum of it's functions; architecture has to facilitate human activity and promote social interaction" (5). In 1959, this critical group was in charge of the organization of the 11th CIAM conference at the Dutch town of Otterlo, where they did nothing short of declaring CIAM for dead (6). By that time, the CIAM had already lost much of it's momentum. Out of the organizing group of the Otterlo conference emerged a new platform: Team X. The influential Dutch members, van Eyck and Bakema, were to replace the old rationalist and functionalist approach for a new, modular, and participative architecture under the label of 'structuralism' (7). Looking back, we can see that the ingredients for this shift were already present in the playgrounds.

Between 1947 and 1978 Van Eyck designed hundreds of playgrounds, first as part of the Department of Urban Design and later on (in 1952) for the municipality, working for his own office. In the first eight years he designed sixty of them and after that many more, the last ones almost in batches in the new post-war districts. Of the grand total of 700, only 90 survived into the 21st century with their original layout. The first playground on Bertelmanplein was a test case. Van Eyck designed a sandpit bordered by a wide rim. In it he placed four round stones and a structure of tumbling bars. The pit was placed in the north corner of the square, diagonally across from three tumbling bars. Bordering the square were trees and five benches. The playground was a success. Many designs followed and, depending on the site, Van Eyck deployed a number of compositional techniques.

For him the playgrounds were an opportunity to test out his ideas on architecture, relativity and imagination. Relativity in the sense that connections between elements were determined by their mutual relationships rather than by a central hierarchical ordering principle. All elements were equal: the playgrounds designed by Van Eyck were exercises in non-hierarchical composition (8). Van Eyck also designed the playground equipment himself, including the tumbling bars, chutes and hemispheric jungle gyms, and his children tested them. To him, playing equipment was an integral part of the commission. The purpose was to stimulate the minds of children. The hemispherical jungle gym was not just something to climb. It was a place to talk and a lookout post. Covered with a rug, it became a hut. These sandpits, tumbling bars and stepping stones were placed throughout the Netherlands.

Different elements of the playgrounds represented a break with the past. First and foremost, the playgrounds proposed a different conception of space. Van Eyck consciously designed the equipment in a very minimalist way, to stimulate the imagination of the users (the children), the idea being that they could appropriate the space by its openness to interpretation. The second aspect is the modular character of the playgrounds. The basic elements - sandpits, tumbling bars, stepping stones, chutes and hemispheric jungle gyms - could endlessly be recombined in differing poly-centric compositions depending on the requirements of the local environment. The third aspect was the relationship with the urban environment, the "in-between" or "interstitial" nature of the playgrounds. The design of the playgrounds was aimed at interaction with the surrounding urban tissue. The temporary character of the intervention was part of this "in between" nature, recreating space through incremental adaptation instead of the tabula rasa approach of modernism, in which the designs had an autonomy of their own, based on abstract data and statistics. Of course the use of empty plots was also a tactical solution. Because the Site Preparation Service of the Department of City Development, working together with local associations, wanted to give every neighbourhood its own playground, they often had to be placed in vacant, derelict sites.

The focus on how space could be appropriated, stood in clear opposition to the prevailing modernist conception of space in architecture, most famously formulated by Giedion in his classic Space, Time and Architecture. Here he defined the essence of modernist architecture as the merger of space and time, creating the experience of movement (9). Van Eyck's concerns were of a completely different nature: "Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more. For space in the image of man is place, and time in the image of man is occasion" (10). The question raised was not the emulation of movement towards some unknown horizon, the archetypical uprootedness of the experience of modernity (11), but exactly the opposite: how can people make space their own and create a subjective "sense of place"? How to feel at home in the modern city, this machine of mass rationalization? The transitory playground was "place" and "occasion" combined.
The Playground as Cultural Critique
The playgrounds were not isolated architectural interventions. Somehow they served as a powerful synthesis, a distillation of some of the most interesting motives that resonated amongst the last avant-gardes in that interesting time span when modernism came under heavy fire, but the general disillusionment of the postmodernist era was nowhere yet in sight. In itself, a playground seems a rather sweet and non-controversial undertaking, but at the time, it also functioned as a crystallization point of cultural critique.

In 1949, van Eyck played host to the first exhibition of the Cobra group - a short-lived but influential avant-garde art movement - in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The Cobra group drew their inspiration in particular from children's drawings. They believed that the spontaneity of children's imagination, untainted by modern protocol, was one of the privileged sites of authenticity in a society where man was to live "in a morbid atmosphere of artificiality, lies and barrenness" (12). The close relationship between Van Eyck and the artists from the Cobra current makes it probable that much of his early inspiration for the playgrounds derived from Cobra: "On the margins of attention there is always the artist, essential companion to the child. His function is too decorative," Aldo van Eyck stated during CIAM X, Dubrovnic 1956 (13). The Cobra group dissolved only three years after it was founded, but Cobra members Constant Nieuwenhuys and Asger Jorn were to re-appear on the stage as co-founders of the Situationist International in 1958.

In that context, also the notion of play gained symbolic importance. In 1938, the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga wrote Homo Ludens (14), a book on the historical importance of the element of play in culture; Constant Nieuwenhuys used the idea as the basis for his critique on urbanism. Much like Aldo van Eyck, he was deeply critical of the functionalist architecture of the postwar period. Together with Guy Debord, he drafted the now famous tract on Unitary Urbanism that proclaimed the advent of a society of mass creativity. Due to mechanization, Constant proposed, Homo Faber, the traditional working man of industrial society, would be replaced by Homo Ludens, the playful man, or creative man, in postindustrial society (15). The Situationists took this element of play and developed it into one of their core notions, as Debord would state: "Due to its marginal existence in relation to the oppressive reality of work, play is often regarded as fictitious. But the work of the situationists is precisely the preparation of ludic possibilities to come" (16). The situationists, whose ideas came to play an important role in the '68 rebellion, developed the notion of play into a subversive strategy to rebel against modern capitalism and modernist architecture; Le Corbusiers' authoritarian architecture was portrayed as a form of fascism. With psychogeography and the famous dérive, they changed focus from "streets, buildings and businesses" to how "people inhabit the city and the collective psychic ambiances they project", much in parallel with van Eyck's stress on place and occasion.

After leaving the situationists, Constant was to play a role in the Dutch spirit of '68. In his famous utopian work of architecture New Babylon (Van Eyck actually assisted him when he started making scale models), Constant created an explicit metaphor for the advent of a creative society. He saw his ideas on mass creativity materialized in the youth culture of the sixties, where his ideas were taken up by the Dutch yippies, the provo's, that through playfulness and endless provocation brought the authoritarian spirit of the Dutch fifties down on its knees (17).
End Battle
In the Netherlands, modernist urban planning and the growing anti-modernist spirit of revolt were to have a final confrontation in the Nieuwmarkt neighborhood in Amsterdam. This was the site where the first of the metro-lines - with a four lane inner-city highway on top - was to be constructed, cutting through one of the oldest popular neighbourhoods of the city. Hundreds of students, artists and activists moved into the empty buildings of the neighborhood, where provo's together with a mix of residents and activists founded Aktiegroep Nieuwmarkt. Years of spirited resistance, and a conclusive violent riot in 1975, led to the final surrender of the modernist planners and the politicians who headed them: the metro-line was finished but the highway was stopped, and all other metro-plans were off the agenda.

The New Left came to power and the Nieuwmarkt was saved, to become an inspiration for anti-modernization struggles elsewhere in the country. A new model for urban development emerged - " bouwen voor de buurt" (building for the neighborhood) - that was to replace large-scale modernist intervention for small scale participative projects in the neighborhoods. The "structuralist" architectural philosophy of Aldo van Eyck and the group around the magazine Forum was to become a template for a decade to come. One of the first and most symbolic of these projects was the redevelopment of the Nieuwmarkt itself. Maybe not so surprising, Aldo van Eyck was the architect to work on it. Here, his ideas on interstitial space, non-hierarchical composition, and participative planning led to an architecture that could easily mold into the existing tissue of the neighborhood. "Play", as Huizinga once said, "is a serious matter".

Published in Ana Mendez de Andés (red.) (2010) Urbanacción 07/09, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, pp. 25-39.

Notes:
1 Vincent van Rossum (1993) Het Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan van Amsterdam: geschiedenis en ontwerp. NAi publishers, Rotterdam.
2 Gemeente Amsterdam (1968) Voorontwerp tweede nota over de binnenstad. Gemeente Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
3 Bergh & Keers (1981) 'De Binnenstad als Vrijetijdscentrum'. In: Wonen TA/BK, nr 19, oktober 1981, pp. 2-18.
4 Lefaivre & Tzonis (1999) Aldo van Eyck, Humanist Rebel. Inbetweening in a Postwar World. 010 publishers. Rotterdam.
5 Aldo van Eyck (1959) 'Het Verhaal van een Andere Gedachte' (The Story of Another Thought). In: Forum 7/1959, Amsterdam and Hilversum.
6 Louis Kahn (1961) 'Talk at the conclusion of the Otterlo Congress'. In: Oscar Newman, New Frontiers in Architecture, CIAM '59 in Otterlo. Jürgen Joedicke (ed.), Universe Books, New York.
7 W. J. van Heuvel (1992) Structuralism in Dutch Architecture. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam.
8 Lianne Lefaivre & Ingeborg de Roode (eds.)(2002) Aldo van Eyck. Playgrounds. NAi Publishers, Rotterdam.
9 Siegfried Giedion (1980/1941) Space, Time and Architecture. The Growth of a New Tradition. MIT Press, Cambridge.
10 Aldo van Eyck, 1959.
11 Marshall Berman (1982) All That is Solid Melts into Air. The Experience of Modernity. Simon & Schuster, New York.
12 Cobra #4, 1949, cited in W. Stokvis (1980) Cobra. Geschiedenis, voorspel en betekenis van een beweging in de kunst van na de tweede wereldoorlog. De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam.
13 Aldo van Eyck, 1959.
14 Johan Huizinga (1952/1938) Homo Ludens. Proeve eener bepaling van het spelelement der cultuur. Tjeenk Willink, Haarlem.
15 Mark Wigley (ed.)(1998), Constant's New Babylon. The hyper-architecture of desire , 010 Publishers, Rotterdam.
16 Guy Debord (1958) Contribution to Situationist Definition of Play, Internationale Situationniste #1, June 1958, Paris.
17 Richard Kempton (2007) Provo. Amsterdam's Anarchist Revolt. Autonomedia, New York.

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Aldo van Eyck and the City as Play­ground

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In 1947, the architect Aldo van Eyck built his first playground in Amsterdam, on the Bertelmanplein. Many hundreds more followed, in a spatial experiment that has (positively) marked the childhood of an entire generation. Though largely disappeared, defunct and forgotten today, these playgrounds represent one of the most emblematic of architectural interventions in a pivotal...

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Mevis, A. & Van Deursen, B. (2005) Recollected Work. Artimo Foundation Breda.

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Mevis & Van Deursen's short essay titled 'Restrictions' explains that design can be constructed with intentional use of open restrictions. These self imposed limitations become tools for arriving at an unexpected end products. This makes design into a more playful task, reducing concern for professionalism and directing activities towards exploration of possibilities.

I think that there can be a further enhancement of this principle. Mevis & Van Deursen appear to view whichever response to their self imposed rules that they decide upon as the 'final' design. To take the principle of 'restrictions as tools for playful design' further, the restrictions themselves can be seen as designs for further designs. This creates a constant and playful adaptability.

In the context of Fratton Community Centre, I think it would be useful to intentionally allow for adaptation, addition and reinterpretation in my intervention. Communities adapt and morph through time, and so a design that can follow these adaptations becomes a useful tool for community action. If my intervention can be a set of restrictions or rules to a game, then community responses to these restrictions or rules become the ever changing 'final' designs.

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Rather than 'what can my object be turned into?' asking 'what can my object and it's materials do?'.

I don't want to turn my object into a representation of something. Instead I want to see my object in terms of what it really is. In doing this, I can allow my object to show me new things.

Forcing it into being a poorly constructed version of something else is a useless endeavour. Understanding it, working with it, allowing it to shape itself, that is what can create exciting things.

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Ancient and contemporary, grounded and precarious, architectural and ephemeral, tensile structures offer a clarity of form at all scales.

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My piece explores themes of materials, production and play through both its performance and process of coming to be.

I have situated my work on this piece within the context of the CoBrA art group and the Arte Povera movement, referencing the post-war attitudes of these artists. This choice was made in reaction to the object and its wartime history, aiming to create a parallel between the postwar era and a potential current “post”.

My object was made with the intention of suggesting more playful attitudes towards materials and production, viewing the materials of production as playful entities.

This is especially apparent in the fabric element of the piece, where parts of the object have been strewn across the fabric and spray painted using cyan, yellow and magenta, the primary colours of printing. I see this scattering of objects and the colliding interactions between them and the fabric as a form of material play.

The hinging movements of the object give it a sense of life, the in and out movement suggesting a breath. Though this I don’t aim to imitate "life", but bring attention to the liveliness of the material, putting forward the idea that they are also actors in play.

Where CoBrA and Arte povera saw playfulness as a reaction to war, I see playfulness as a reaction to the ongoing, albeit less visible violence of production. In the context of Fratton, which has a supposed history of prospering during wartime, I cannot accept that violence could be a truly positive influence. I view play as an alternative to be explored. Could fratton prosper in a time of play?

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my classmates analysis of my object provided me with new perspectives. Many of them compared my object to a winged creature. They created temporary shapes and structures, moving hinged parts and resting the central 'leg' on the table.

One classmate felt that the canvas and beam structure was tent-like. We began to discuss how my object could provide shelter, and how the temporality of this shelter allows for nomadic values of 'leaving no trace' to be upheld.

Another classmate saw the object as reminiscent of playground structures, suggesting that children could play in the spaces it creates when unfolded. We began to discuss the tension between childsplay and the wartime history of the object. We spoke about Fratton's wartime history and how this history cannot be erased, but deciding that Fratton can still evolve to become a space for play even with it's violent history considered.

A classmate pointed out the "empty spaces" left by loose parts on the spray-painted canvas, associating them with a recording of the objects history, but also noting that they produced a "playful" visual image.

We discussed the weight of the object and it's different parts. A classmate described my object as a "combination of a dense mass and an airy space". The weight of the whole object makes it a "two person job" which forces collaboration between two people, or one person and an object like the table.

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Eating and learning about food (how is it prepared? how/when is it to be eaten? what cultural meaning does it hold?) alongside course-mates. Teaching class-mates who are not familiar how scones are prepared, eaten and culturally thought about. I think this was a powerful method of exchanging information about personal and cultural existences.

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Dorrell, D., Lindley, T., Connor, G. & Henderson, J.(2019). Introduction to Human Geography (GGC).

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Excerpt: David Dorrell, Joseph Henderson, Todd Lindley, and Georgeta Connor - Introduction to Human Geography

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Excerpt: David Dorrell, Joseph Henderson, Todd Lindley, and Georgeta Connor - Introduction to Human Geography

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Paper Geometries at Fratton Community Centre

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Paper Geometries at Fratton Community Centre

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Modular spaces using (mostly) the standardised ISO 216 sizing system to create adaptive geometries.

Echoing the additive nature of the buildings construction, where additional sections have been attached over time to form an assemblage of parts, which give eachother new meanings.

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I find this play-centric attitude that the CoBrA group, and later the situationist internationale, adopted in response to the world wars inspirational in imagining a future for Fratton.

From my recent observations and time spent living in Fratton, I think that there are lingering aspects of wartime attitudes in the design and performance of the area. I often feel like there is a sense of tension and unrest. I think that a play focused attitude to design in Fratton would help to transform this tension into something hopeful.

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Reading Jane Bennett's Vibrant matter, I found a moment of understanding. I began to think about my perception of humans and things, and to realise their inseparability.

I think that there is a tendency in humans to raise 'human power' above thing power, not only because of human self interestedness, but because humans create so many and such extreme measurable affects by 'doing'.

This tendency can be challenged when the act of 'not-doing' is understood to be equally as powerful as 'doing'.

Non-human entities are often perceived by humans to be 'not doing anything'. The pebble performs by sitting still in it's place for a length of time that is entirely unthinkable for a human to do. But this pebble, in doing so, also forms a topology, affecting the shape of the earth.

On a microscopic scale, the pebble is eroded by wind and water, releasing parts of itself into the surrounding area.

The pebble, in 'not doing anything', also doesn't create suffering in other entities, it doesn't accelerate a climate crisis, it doesn't perpetuate inequality.

Surely this 'not-doing' is equally significant as 'doing'. If humans suddenly stopped 'doing' many of their daily activities for a week, such as driving, labouring or killing, then the measurable effects would be far more extreme than many of those that we currently create and measure our power with.

'Doing' and 'not-doing' are then one in the same when they are measured in terms of their affect and significance. And thus, things that 'do' and 'do not do' are too one in the same.

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Understanding things as similar to energy. Things that can be altered, broken down, built up, but never created or destroyed entirely. Always producing affects.

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Rather than an exterior world being perceived by humans; an assemblage of things, including humans and their perceptions, among all other things.

Viewing this world as a web of interconnected things affecting one-another.

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While working on my object I was reminded of some research that I had done into the Arte Povera movement. Since looking into the movement for a project on my undergrad course, I have always looked out for names like Jannis Kounellis, Luciano Fabro and Giovanni Anselmo when visiting art museums. I think that the reason I was reminded of this art movement was because of the way that the artists appeared to accept and embrace the objects they worked with. When I have seen works from the movement I have always felt that the materials are presented as what they really are. They are rarely made out to be something else, rarely changed dramatically from their original state. They are often simply presented in the material forms that the artist found them in, or as part of an assemblage of material forms, with the affect of each form on the other presented and recognised as a foundational element of the artwork.

I think that this acceptance of the material nature and qualities of the objects brings a new kind of abstraction to them. In taking them out of their usual context, they become abstract forms with noticeable qualities. They come to be understood as their qualities and the affect of their qualities, rather than as unremarkable objects. Even an object like a chain or a knife, with strong semiotic links to pain and violence, have these associations removed and become understood as materials within their own right, separate from any prior human-imposed meanings.

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Finding, transporting and drawing my piece of furniture 

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Finding, transporting and drawing my piece of furniture 