Design research into Big Boxes or “Verdozing” in the Netherlands
The last decades a single architectural typology has dominated the world more than any other: the big-box. While first theorized as the representational question of the ‘decorated shed’, the proliferation of anonymous utilitarian boxes demands a broader perspective. While in larger countries the amount of available land makes big-boxes less intrusive, in the Netherlands big-boxes quickly create an unmistakeable mark one the landscape. This proces, coined ‘Verdozing’, pits two of the Dutch most valued identities against each other: Trade vs ‘Polder’.
While some argue that big-boxes are simply the result of the Netherlands’ successful reorientation towards a global economy that is dependent on the seamless integration of international infrastructures. Others lament the destruction of the flat polder lands, which are not only the result of the globally renown waterwork and land-reclamation projects, but are also hot-wired with the Dutch political sensibility of collaboration and compromise.
Our research, commissioned by the College of State Advisors, seeks to first understand the proces of verdozing at various scales from the regional to the architectural and clarify the underlying forces and actors behind their construction. Based on this research, 7 design strategies have been developed that seek to deal with the generic boxes in a more specific approach that is better tailored to the Dutch social and spatial condition. Our findings will be published in the end of 2019.
Urban Redevelopment Strategy
Tacloban was hit by a devastating hurricane in 2014. In the aftermath a decision was made to develop the north of the city and to relocate vulnerable households further from the coastline. The displacement of vulnerable communities, however, has time and time again been shown to create more problems than it solves.
Our office was part of the United Nations Urban Lab team that was asked to assist the municipality of Tacloban with the development of a climate change adaptation growth strategy. This was meant to incorporate the remnants of the original relocation sites in the North into a comprehensive urban plan.
The proposal is based on a 3-tiered approach. First it aims to stimulate growth in safe areas through the strategic investment in public road, water and sewage infrastructures. Second, the plan clusters amenities and educational facilities around well connected and safe intersections. Last, a clear drainage network will double as public space and environmental reserve, but also functions as a buffer during floods and storm surges.
Our proposal speculates about a territorial project that seeks to reclaim control over the urban condition through The state of exception. Our proposal explores the possibility of co-opting this concept in spatial terms as a mechanism to achieve spatial aspirations that otherwise appear unattainable in our urban world.
States of exception are spaces where the status quo of law, economics, spatial planning and building code are temporarily suspended or modified to investigate how specific societal goals could materialize. As such, states of exception are immaterial interventions that nonetheless have large spatial and material consequences.
Urban Research
The development of mobility has a direct and indirect influence on the build environment and vice versa. The formation of urban agglomeration and multi city center urban structures are both cause and result of the rail and road network. Railway station areas are important spacial and economic nodes within these dynamic structures. The mobility landscape is continuously in change. In recent decennia the traditional role of a public transport node is slowly but steadily changing to the role of a general mobility node. As consequence of this transition, its relationship to the urban environment needs to be redefined.
In commission of the college van rijksadviseurs and in collaboration with the province of Limburg and the municipality of Eijsden-Margraten we have researched by the means of design research the possibilities of a train station in an urban periphery in the boarder area of the province of Zuid-Limburg. Here two scenario’s have been put forth in which the consequences of preservation en closure of the station by the year of 2040 have been researched and questioned. This research was conducted in context of a regional urban analysis on the impact of cross-boarder mobility, by the means of a tri-country train connection, which will bind Liège (L), Maastricht (NL) and Aachen (D) in the future.