Newsletter #2

Contents: 

Post Box for the Open Society
Newsletter #2
July, 2014

Het Nieuwe Instituut launches the online and interactive Post Box for the Open Society, an invitation to the international community of architects, designers, thinkers and researchers to submit ideas and designs for an open society. The Post Box is part of the Dutch entry to the Biennale di Architettura in Venice, entitled Open: A Bakema Celebration. It presents a critical reflection on the work and research of Jaap Bakema (1914-1981), in particular his ideas for the open society.

From the submissions to the Post Box a monthly newsletter will be compiled by Het Nieuwe Instituut. This is the second issue with an overview of new submissions and a preview of the essay by Inge Goudsmit and Adrienne Simons in a series of reflections on the subject of the open society.

Visit the Post Box at open.jaapbakemastudycentre.nl 


NEW: SUBMISSIONS

  1. Battleground Gota (TU Delft - Global Housing Studio / Vastu-Shilpa Foundation, Ahmedabad )
    Team Gunday - Hemant Pawar, Francesca Agresti, Zhen Zhang, Hugo Corbett, Thomas Ponds
     
  2. The Transparency Grenade. Julian Oliver.
     
  3. Radicalizing the Local. Jeanne van Heeswijk, Afrikaanderwijk Cooperative.
     
  4. Integrating Informality: A Case for an Informal Settlement in Mumbai. Rohan Varma.
     
  5. Opening Speech Open: A Bakema Celebration. Jet Bussemaker.
     
  6. The Golden Heart Pavilion. Malkit Shoshan.
     
  7. HABITAT. Inhabited. Laura Katharina Straehle, Ellen Rouwendal, Rohit Raj, Marlen Beckedahl.
     
  8. 3D Print Canal House. DUS architects.
     
  9. BIM is beautiful. NL Architects.
     
  10. The Good Life. The Berlage Center of Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design.
     
  11. House and Contradiction. Quaderns #265. Ethel Baraona Pohl.


FEATURED PROJECTS

The Golden Heart Pavillion. Malkit Shoshan.

The Good Life. The Berlage Center of Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design.

Battleground Gota. TU Delft - Global Housing Studio / Vastu-Shilpa Foundation, Ahmedabad. Team Gunday - Hemant Pawar, Francesca Agresti, Zhen Zhang, Hugo Corbett, Thomas Ponds

HABITAT. Inhabited. Laura Katharina Straehle, Ellen Rouwendal, Rohit Raj, Marlen Beckedahl.

Integrating Informality: A Case for an Informal Settlement in Mumbai. Rohan Varma.


OPEN: ARCHIVE

In every newsletter of the Post Box for the Open Society, we will refer to the historic Post Box for the Development of the Habitat of Jaap Bakema. This is the first newsletter that Jaap Bakema wrote in 1959 as an open call for submissions for the post box.

Post Box for the Development of the Habitat, Newsletter #1 by Jaap Bakema
Sunday, September 20, 1959

The work presented at Otterlo September 1959, made clear that the interest of the participants was no more only directed at the development of modern architecture, but more at the development of total human Habitat […] Therefor it is also decided that the name of C.I.A.M. could no more be used by the participants, and that the international contact should be developed towards a more intensified working method for individuals and groups on the subject Habitat. 

For that purpose there will be available the secretary address: 
Posthoornstraat 12B
Rotterdam
Holland
J.B. Bakema

Now, I make the next propositions:

1. If you are confrontated with problems concerning Habitat and you like to confrontate them with other colleagues, who are working in research spirit, you send me plans, text and photos concerning this problems.

2. I shall prepare a folded illustrated communication paper with summaries of this information.

3. After a period there will be a meeting of those who gave information, organized by themselves.

4. The name of this exchange centre will be :
Post Box for the development of the Habitat. (B.P.H.)
Boîte Postale pour le developpement de l’Habitat. (B.P.H.)
Briefkasten für die Entwicklung von Habitat. (B.P.H.)

5. The aim will be to develop architecture and townplanning towards a language which can communicate about human behaviour. 

B.P.H. 20th. of September
Rotterdam
Posthoornstraat 12B
J.B.Bakema
 

NOW: ARCHINED

During the Biennale ArchiNed is taking the discussion about the open society out of the Dutch pavilion and into the world of today on the World Wide Web. In six articles designers and academics will critically reflect on the idea of the open society. Readers are expressly invited to take part in this debate.

The Dull City Creates Social Distance - Inge Goudsmit and Adrienne Simons

Housing estates in Hong Kong are compact and densely populated residential zones about the size of a small European city, made up not only of homes but also of countless other functions. More than 60% of the inhabitants of Hong Kong live on estates. Right after the Second World War these housing estates stood at the basis of a relative open society that offered plenty of opportunity for social mobility. More than fifty years later, in a society dominated by the market, such estates form an obstacle to the emancipation of population groups. They have become masterpieces of efficiency, tailored precisely to the needs of residents, automatically encouraging like-minded people to live close to one another. That has turned Hong Kong into a city of islands, with little interaction or exchange between them. Hong Kong seems to prove Richard Sennet’s theory that people who do not develop their stranger skills are incapable of responding to complex situations, and ultimately will no longer show any empathy or interest in ‘the other’. A radically different approach to the housing question is essential if the city is once again to become inhabitable for everybody and to serve as a forum for sharing ideas.

Click here to read the article.

Inge Goudsmit is a project architect at OMA Hong Kong. Adrienne Simons is a journalist and owner of Studio Refill. Both of them live and work in Hong Kong.

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