BuildingforBouwkunde | BK2008-4324

Vertical Forum

Elsbeth Ronner (1984, student) and Mick van Gemert
Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft
Delft, The Netherlands

Motivation by the designer

Place for debate
The art of building is a social art, it requires full engagement from its participants; the practitioners, the teachers and the students. This engagement realizes itself through debates and confrontation but also through consent and agreement. It realizes itself through a conversation or a collision between different entities and different movements, resulting in stronger ideas, profound knowledge and vast enthusiasm. The current faculty of Architecture embodies many components of the art of architecture and the different movements within. It encompasses both Architecture and Urbanism as well as Real Estate and Housing and Building Technology. By collecting the different entities in boxes which face each other the diversity is celebrated. Where the different components used to live on top of each other, not being able to reflect or argue, this proposal evokes a transparency and as such provides the possibility for the participants to position themselves.

Van den Broek&Bakema Revisited
The original masterplan of the Technical University Delft proposed to keep the surface level untouched by buildings. The initial idea was to connect the buildings of the different faculties by bridges leaving the middle space for traffic. Currently the Mekelweg is being altered into a park, yet it is left without a programme and thus it is only transformed from a transitional zone for cars to a transitional zone for pedestrians. Hence, the full potential of the space is not regarded. The design aims to revisit the original plan by Van den Broek en Bakema, not by creating another alienating building alongside the heart of the campus, but by putting it in the park. It is sunken into the ground, both to create a strong visual relation with the surrounding environment as for sustainable reasons. Using the temperature of the earth, the building will be either cooled or warmed.

Climbing the study
In the course of the study, the student passes through different stages regarding different forms of knowledge. At the start the student is blank and open to every component of the art of building. This is the phase where the student has to build the foundations by gaining basic knowledge. After having enough understanding of the fundamental facts, the student is able to choose his or her way. This is the phase in which the student specializes into a certain direction. The new building of the faculty of Architecture should facilitate this growth by visualising it in the organisation of the building. At the beginning, the student is thrown in at the deep end in order to learn the elementary specifics, already being able to look up towards the diverse directions. After passing through the first stage the student climbs up, yet always in the knowledge of the other directions caused by the appearance of the other boxes. Further upwards the other faculties form the theatrical background as the middle between the academic world and the practical world.

Presentation and concentration
Presentation forms one of the essential parts of the profession of building. However, room to present projects, materials and ideas is often rare. Also working space to create the thoughts forming the base of the ideas is mostly deficient. The object of the proposal is to create enough space for both presentation and concentration. The space created within the boxes hanging from the wall represents the room for concentration. The density of the space catalyses the ideas. Programme like the library and drawing rooms is located in these spaces. If the programme changes over time, the structure of the building allows to react, it is possible to add boxes, or even remove one. The spaces created between the boxes functions as a dynamic zone for continuous presentation and exchange of the formed ideas. This will generate a vibrant working space for participants in the art of building.

Comments by the Jury

This project, like a number of others, takes the street as a typology that allows for and generates encounters between people. Indeed, the architecture faculty's social aspect is seen as the driver for the project. The proposal refers to the Roman Forum as a place to meet and exchange: the faculty of architecture is seen as a place for debate. The various departments within the faculty are each given their own position, while mutual exchange is stimulated. Moreover, the proposal includes a critique on the current use of the Mekelweg. According to the designers of Vertical Forum, the Mekelweg has more potential than just being a transitional zone without programme. Instead of adding another volume to the series of faculty buildings situated along the Mekelweg, this design proposes a building sunken into the park. This offers sustainable heating and cooling solutions, and, moreover, generates more activity on the campus. The proposal also provides a radically new structure for Bouwkunde, in which presentation and concentration are seen as key activities in a faculty of architecture. The spaces in between rooms for concentration therefore offer a ‘dynamic zone for continuous presentation and exchange of ideas'. The jury wonders however if this clearly defined organisation leaves enough space for free thinking and creativity? The graphic representation shows a chaotic, yet at the same time very inviting space, full of activity. The project clearly presents a vision and is well elaborated. According to the jury, Vertical Forum offers a remarkably inspiring and critical view of architectural education, as well as of the position of Bouwkunde on the Delft University of Technology campus.