Project Description

What is the media hub?
The development in Sloterdijk I South requires transforming the MediaCollege plot. The logic of this transformation is clear. It is based on the vision of a compact city composed of densely built multifunctional urban blocks. But the thing is, our objective is no restricted to augmenting the university with new buildings. The vaster objective is to transform the MediaCollege into a MediaHub. But what does MediaHub stand for?

Indoor city
MediaHub is not a building. We propose to cease using the building as a minimal city unit. MediaHub is a collection of spaces that offer various opportunities for education as well as for work. Following Google Indoor Maps, we transition from the building-function scale to the level of specific spaces and the opportunities those spaces could offer.

Interface
The tool that makes the hub open is the Web Interface. The hub architecture does not work independently. It only serves as an infrastructure, a necessary but insufficient condition of the hub's functioning. Spaces and the technology they host are a toolbox, and the Web interface enables accessing that toolbox. The virtual interface is augmented by a physical complex of display window facades that are placed in the key shared spaces of the hub. Display windows create the visual drama of the hub as the spot for education and media production.

Curator
The value of the MediaHub is not restricted to the possibility to create a multifunctional space that can incessantly produce. The curator determines how the infrastructure of the hub will materialize. The curator is an expert that works with the hub as an art-residence or a creative cluster. Curator determines what the hub is. The mission of the hub can change year after year. In any case, the hub is a place that doesn't operate by itself. It must be tuned by the curator.

Media settlement
The architecture of the hub is a combination of the vertical and the horizontal. The horizontal plane contains all productive elements - the university, workplaces, commerce, public spaces. The vertical is a residential plane. It houses apartments of various configuration that can make homes for people of various requirements and opportunities. The value of the apartments, however, is linked to the horizontal of the hub. Residential spaces and the hub form a media settlement meant for those that value the content of the urban block.

Jury comments

The jury finds this a promising proposal, as it is very specific in terms of program and in the appearance of the building. The project establishes a cluster of new interventions, where existing and new functions are combined in distinct building volumes. The proposed building cluster establishes new visual, functional and movement connections its surroundings while creating a nice interior world with interesting spatial configurations on the ground level and second floor.

The scheme is about creating synergy between form and program which is then brought back to one strong image which could function well as catalyst for the future development of the area. The jury appreciates the proposals on how the interactive program could be managed. The jury misses a stronger connection between the housing with the program of the plinth and feels that the impact of noise on the residential accommodation has not been addressed. This proposal has significant consequences for the existing buildings of the Media College.

Project Team

Aleksandr Zinovev (RU), Architect
Budarin Konstantin (EE), Journalist
Shmeleva Irina (RU), Architect

Dimitrii Andreev (RU), Movie Director
Elmira Kakabeava (KZ), Public Relations and Education

Contact information

Via Della Rosa 8, 50122, Florence, IT

Project Description

Understanding the Media College as a catalyst for education and technology, the proposal intends to translate the potential of the creative thinking that is taught in the classrooms to every aspect of daily life.

Under the current situation, the Media College is a heterogeneous building lacking of a unified image, due to the process of addition in which it has been built over the years. The aim of this project is to provide a unified language and logic with the new construction without touching the existing building. Moreover, this strategy allows the Media College to function without changes through the several construction phases.

Therefore, the proposal is a building that surrounds the existent, embracing the Media College and unifying the whole ensemble through its architecture. This unity is achieved through a translucent polycarbonate façade, related with the usage of new materials and the technological program. In addition, this double skin façade has an efficient environmental behaviour and responds to the sustainability requirements.

In terms of urban planning, this strategy allows the building to control and adjust the urban space. This intervention proposes a wide range of public spaces with different characters.

Firstly, a wide open space it is created at the north east corner, where there can be concerts, bicycle parking space is provided and the different users can interact with the city. Secondly, there is an interstitial space between the old and the new building that becomes a threshold between uses. Finally, the external space that faces the street is redesigned in order to have a wider sidewalk and reduce car traffic.

In conclusion, the proposal condenses living, working and learning all together in a single building, where the mixture of uses is seen as the main attraction to this area. The students of the College can rent an apartment in the new building, learning from entrepreneurs that can have their productive space close to their home, in a building specifically thought to integrate singles, families, young couples and social houses that can even be adapted for the elderly.

We strongly think this interaction among users benefits the community as a whole. Thus, the building is designed for a contemporary way of living, where a new model of city is proposed, which strength is on the mixture, and where education and technology are placed in the centre, with a whole building embracing the future.

Jury comments

In the emptiness of its surroundings, this proposal is a radical redefinition of the cluster with a perimeter block that defines clear edges, opens up connections to the park and embraces the existing the Media College structure. The proposed tower doesn’t block the views to and from the Transformatorweg. The jury is convinced by the way the building complex opens towards the park and strengthens connections between different kinds of public space and the transitional, differentiated spaces in between. The jury feels that the interaction of new proposal and the ground floor of the Media College is not that clear.

Project Team

Oscar Linares de la torre (ES), Architect

Bernat Bastardas Llabot (ES), Student in Architecture
Guillem Rius Manuel (ES), Student in Architecture
Maria Del Olmo Gomez (ES), Student in Architecture

Contact information

Avenida de la Ciudad de Barcelona 190 3o1a, 28007, Madrid, ES

Project Description

Our Media Epicenter proposal is a vision of how the expansion of the Media College can catalyze urban transformation by melding education and entrepreneurship into a creative production hub.

Successful academic and business campuses deliberately maximize chance encounters. We designed diverse streetscapes that maximize the interaction between the College, residential, work and commercial programs.
The future infrastructure axis on the north, activity park on the west, quiet street in the south, and typical Dutch dike on the east are connected by a network of internal streets and plazas to foster a rich interaction between city, neighborhood, and programs.

We envision an iconic creative melting pot tailored around the Media College and Media entrepreneurship. The Media Epicenter expands on the creative force of the Media College by offering a variety of Media work/living combinations. The integration and transparency of the residential, work and college programs maximize the density and frequency of interactions.

The proposed lot coverage mimics the typical lot coverage of the Amsterdam inner city (~ 70%), and wraps the Media College with housing in an open grid network to facilitate interaction between all programs, culminating in the various plazas which are surrounded by Media functions and activities.

The tallest buildings are located at the northern edge as an extension of the density around Sloterdijk Station and reinforce the Transformatorweg as gateway to Sloterdijk I, as envisioned by the City in “Koers 2025”. All new College areas are located on the current Media College lot. Two Media College volumes that created dead-ends have been replaced with a more efficient volume. The new and existing Media College buildings form one entity with a single central entrance and exit, and the extensions of the Media College are connected with an underground hallway.
Our Media Epicenter proposal is adaptable and sustainable. Our phasing prioritizes the Media extension, but the grid provides flexibility, permitting the phasing to be altered as needed. Our proposal promotes sustainability through minimal energy consumption and timber construction to minimize its carbon footprint.

Media Epicenter is a proposal in which the Media College and its expansion are densified with live/work combinations and commercial program in a flexible process to form an iconic creative melting pot to kickstart the Sloterdijk I development.

Jury comments

Here, the strategy is to densify the site with small functional and spatial intervention in order to create a campus. The scheme is easy to build in phases. It’s an intriguing project, the organization is smart but the small-scale massing is doubtful and inefficient and the appearance of the proposal seems quite generic.

For the jury, it is not evident that the Media College could function well in this scheme due to the lack of spatial hierarchy and clarity

Project Team

Haiko Cornelissen (NL), Architect

Contact information

34-18 Northern Blvd, 11101, Long Island City, US

Project Description

FRAMING TRANSFORMATION

URBAN STRATEGY

The objective of the project is to embrace the adaptive character and spatial quality of the existing Sloterdijk area and the Mediacollege ensemble.
We therefore propose to create a campus of buildings composed of concrete frames and a steel infill. The buildings are independent entities forming an urban ensemble allowing for different development timelines as well as creating a rich in-between urban space.

Framing the school with a living & working zone
The Mediacollege building has a strong L-shaped organization towards to southwest of the site with the interior Mediaplein at its core. The proposal is to add a counterpart to the northeast. A combination of living, working and educational spaces activating also the current “back” of the school.

Creating a new urban square
By adding this couterpart development to the northwest a new urban space is created. A lively urban square framed on all sides. A meetingspace for students and future residents with the potential to host larger scale events to communicate the work of the students with a broader audience.

Creating MaLab
The Mediacollege is launching a number of initatives to better prepare its students for their future careers. Most of them such as MaIncubator focus on a more open and collaborative way of working and supporting entrepreneurship.
In its current building these activities are not easy to house. We therefore propose MaLab a space consisting of a number of intersecting frames. This creates a variety of ceiling height and large span spaces to facilitate for instance production of movies and performances and large scale installations.

Creating a network of small scale open spaces
Apart from the central Mediasquare the ensemble of volumes also creates a varietly of smaller scale spaces that are interconnected. This creates new public pedestrian and cycle passages from the Spaarndammerdijk and Westerpark into Sloterdijk I. On the outside the ensemble responds to different conditions by opening up - towards the planned Contactweg park - or closing in - towards the traffic of Transformatorweg.

Jury comments

This project is an interesting modular system that offers a lot of flexibility for the Media College. The voids and glass elements in architecture are vague and lack some degree of hierarchy. It is nice project but it is a bit too generic.

Project Team

Carolina Schippers (NL), Architect

Contact information

Korenschoofstraat 195, 3513 DE, Utrecht, NL

Project Description

INCLUSIVE CITY
The city’s chain of production will be constantly changing and productive businesses will keep on specializing. Future urban factories have cleaner production methods, are smaller because of just-in-time manufacturing and are vertical organized; resulting in a potential engine of urban revitalization.

SLOTERDIJK I
A monotonous, non accessible urban fabric represented by a flat and closed production typology. This current typology requires a lot of circulation space, is very introvert and results in deserted streets. To accommodate a gradual shift from a monofunctional to a lively mixed district an urban model is needed that enables phased relocation of the existing typology. A model that includes small-scaledness, accessibility and open, extrovert plinths without losing its productive character.

HAVEN STAD BLOK 1
Haven Stad Blok 1 is based on a hybrid urban model: we set simple rules (marking the outer plotlines, integrating an inner square and opening up the block) that allow for different typologies and uses to cooperate on one plot. We oppose the superblock (problems regarding relocation, nuisance, phasing etc.) and combine this set of rules with a -new- production typology: Pakhuis. Because of the required high density, Pakhuis is integrated as a vertical ‘factory’ in between the housing blocks. Each function has it’s own connection to the street and contributes to a lively neighbourhood where various functions meet.

TYPOLOGY: PAKHUIS
In the desired mix for Haven Stad we believe production should be experienced. Highly transparent volumes allow residents to get involved in the production process: consumption of production. Based on the old Amsterdam warehouses, the Pakhuis has its vertical transport on the visible outside creating big open floors on the inside. With a floor height of 6m and the possibility to open up floors, any given production business can be accommodated.

MEDIACAMPUS
The Media College has a specific program that can easily be integrated in the urban model. By relocating several functions to the high new extension at the Spaarndammerdijk, the Mediacollege becomes a campus around the inner square. Interaction with the residents and production units is stimulated through the inner street and square. With a direct connection to Pakhuis III the alumni are stimulated to live and work on the plot and use it's facilities when starting their own bussiness.

Jury comments

This project demonstrates interesting ideas on how to set up a mixed-use, lively urban environment. It proposes to transform the Media College by creating a new building in the center of the site, surrounded by supporting program. For the jury, the connections between spaces in between the buildings are diffuse and not clearly defined

Project Team

Wouter Keizer (NL), Architect
Ule Koopmans (NL), Architect
Remko van der Vorm (NL), Architect

Contact information

Nassaukade 301-3, 1053 LN, Amsterdam, NL

Project Description

RESILIENCE THROUGH DIVERSITY

“Modularity, versatility, and adaptability are prized features that need to be prioritized in an uncertain and fast-evolving world. Diverse systems with many connections and scales are more resilient in the face of external shocks than systems built simply for efficiency – throughput maximization driven to the extreme results in fragility.” (Ken Webster, The Circular Economy: A Wealth of Flows)

The functionalist CIAM principles come to life in the model city of Bijlmer. It was a triumph of simple efficiency in times of stability. The movement could not foresee the heightened efficiency as impediment to fostering complex diversity needed for resilience in the unstable times to come.   With our proposal, we aim to address the resulting undefined and fragile site by preparing it for the possibility of a new, nimble and savvy economy to emerge. An economy built on the circular principles of long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing, and recycling.

Jury comments

This project has been unanimously voted the best proposal. The plan is interesting in that it proposes a solution that functions at different scales and with different typologies, with a clear and well defined collective space in the center of the plan. It proposes a clear hierarchy of urban spaces and city blocks, set within an loose organisational structure that allow for different types of uses. The system of flexible blocks is adaptable and can allow for different phasing ideas. This scheme is creating opportunities for entrepreneurs or private ownership situations. The proposed interventions offer undefined space as a reaction to the overly defined space which is considered one of the problems of the Bijlmer. The project is productive because it is ‘forever young’ and focused on the future. It somehow brings optimism and facilitates user participation without being to ‘closed’ to the community.

Project Team

Timur Shabaev (NL), Architect
Timur Karimullin (NL), Urban Planner

Sofia Koutsenko (US), Interior Architect
Maria Krasnova (NL), Artist
Kristina Knauf (DE), Urban Planner

Contact information

Borgesiusstraat 27B-2, 3038 TB, Rotterdam, NL

Project Description

The project is an individualized stepping stone in the sequence of diverse encounters along the metro-line and the adjacent south-west soft axis. Composed of a mix of middle-income housing sitting atop a set of affordable incubators of production, the strip becomes a brand name in Amsterdam, BUURTMAKERS, synonymous with local production in H-Buurt.

Capitalising on the potential of Bijlmermeer’s stacked traffic system, 2-story boxes are built directly against the broadened embankment, creating a filter and car-oriented interface. The other three sides face the neighbourhood on the lower level. The public space defined by the spaced boxes contracts and expands, cutting out a series of specific spaces from the non-differentiated landscape. Moreover, the pedestrian areas continues into the interiors, embedding the structures in their surroundings, while the plinth of the adjacent housing slabs is also activated with public amenities, fostering local initiative and bridging the social divide.

A base module with all the ingredients allows for the development to be phased organically. The project works also as a precedent for the broader strip: Amstel III’s commercial structures being transformed into housing can have productive spaces retroactively added to them, strengthening the Buurtmakers identity.
The apartments and co-housing units enrich the housing stock of the Bijlmermeer, attracting students, middle class people and entrepreneurs from outside, while allowing those local people that shift to higher incomes to stay here.

The large glass sheds made of cheap structures provide space for clustered individual production units, surrounded by areas for distribution and consumption, both for residents, people from the neighbourhood and Amstel III. On mezzanine level, the sheds unfold as greenhouses allowing daylight deep in the interiors and the possibility to grow crops. The existing community centre, carwash and catering businesses located on site find a new home in the sheds.

The parking needs (250p) are incorporated on the ground floor under the embankment platforms.

The development becomes the host of affordable start-up cells, low-end productivity units ran by locals, but also larger spaces for common use with leisure facilities and shared equipment to make small businesses profitable. In the vast interiors individual units aggregated into clusters become a breeding ground for cycles of production, distribution, waste management and re/upcycling.

Jury comments

The proposal is interesting at different scales, and the strategy is clear with its modularity and use of green houses that try to bring extra types of buildings and an increased population. A new park connects different public spaces with the existing neighborhood and creates opportunities for new collective spaces. The plan is quite utopian in the way it presupposes how working spaces in open areas can survive. In that sense, the jury feels that the proposal might not meet the needs of the affordable working spaces to the extent the project team claims it can.

New living opportunities interact with each other under the over-arching roof. The generic glass structure could be seen as being an answer to the generic structure of the Bijlmer but on the other hand the jury is critical about the amount of glass roofs proposed, and its maintenance. The jury feels that the plan proposes an unrealistic romantic image of society and lacks density

Project Team

Arie Gruijters (NL), Architect
Mircea Munteanu (BE), Architect Urbanist
Ryosuke Yago (JP), Architect Urbanist

Contact information

Mariastraat 25, 5735EW, Aarle-Rixtel, NL

Project Description

Habitation is an act of production. As a result of capitalist trends a division has formed separating domestic and production spaces. What binds communities together and creates a vibrant neighbourhood is in fact small scale urban production. We are suggesting a revival of the domestic workshop tailored to the demands of contemporary life. A necessary element in this process is a new form of coexistence which considers labour as a part of life, therefore a space becomes multifunctional.

THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME is a lively and productive neighbourhood. If our home is the place where we feel most comfortable, then there is no better place to produce. The working condition is in constant transformation, everything is potentially productive and at the same time, despite technological development, there is still a strong need for manual labour.

Bijlmermeer is an area known as a planning blunder from the CIAM-inspired post war period. Before attracting investors the purpose is to propose an approach capable of visualising a scenario of possibilities for a community to be sustainable.
In order to achieve economic sustainability what we have can be traded in exchange for goods and services forming a productive peer to peer economic system. Accordingly we have created an initial blueprint based on several parameters including production time and what is obtained from trading it as money, knowledge, goods and services. The aim is to investigate the spatial consequences of breaking the barrier between inhabiting and working, deconstructing the traditional formal housing unit and unlocking its productive potential.

We are suggesting a system offering spaces that can be more domestic or more productive. Each individual can choose how involved they want to be in this system, being part of it is a free choice. Another point of the project is to transform the monofunctional district into a “land without shadows, always in light” – the introduction of mixed activities and functions to promote the livability of public space. In this way we introduce small interventions in selected areas next to the existing dwellings. INNESTI are tools that affect the city and trigger the revitalization within it. This project wants to be a replicable research able to rejuvenate a context characterized by monofunctional blocks. The proposal is not an insurmountable wall, but a porous settlement, not an isolated element but a growing entity able to expand to other areas.

Jury comments

Interesting concept of habitation as act of production and an attempt for a revival of the domestic workshop with a research on typologies for a productive system based on a circular economy. The aim of the project is to create a community through fostering productivity. The jury is critical about the low density with only two floors of program, a large amount of public space and buildings that lack clarity of orientation and access. The jury felt that is a rather generic urban pattern and lacks explicit relationships to its context.

Project Team

Ylenia Rose Testore (IT), Architect
Michela Di Saverio (IT), Architect

Valeria Colosetti (IT), Architect

Contact information

Via Messina 15, 20154, Milano, IT

Project Description

We propose to develop H-buurt by introducing a mix of production space and housing on the project site. We want to raise the quality of the area through a well-thought productive program, that empowers the residents of H-buurt and Bijlmer. The program “made in bijlmer” (MIB), is split three ways; The MIB hub, the MIB production and the MIB distribution.

The MIB hub is a catalyst for business start-ups. The hub is serviced by the municipality in cooperation with locals, providing help and knowledge for people wanting to start a business within the MIB structure. Furthermore, the MIB hub contains basic meeting rooms, workshop spaces and production facilities, available for small businesses, that have not yet access to such functions.
The hub doubles as a community house, hosting larger events rooted in H-Buurt and Bijlmer.

The MIB production spaces are extrovert and flexible, and can house minor as well as major production facilities, to accommodate varying need for space, as a business grows. New production spaces are added to the project site, and the surrounding ground floors are transformed into production space to further activate the project site. Lastly every existing apartment is perceived as potential production space, as every resident can start up a home business.

The MIB distribution is a logistical structure supporting every business enrolled in the MIB. The structure consists of storage, transportation and sales. The main point is to streamline the logistical part of the businesses, leaving plenty of time for production and development, making it easier to startup and run a new business.

The point of the program is to make it easy for single residents as well as local corporations and existing companies to start up business in H-buurt. Branding H-buurt as a start-up community, will inspire a sense of pride within the residents and continuously contribute to the development of H- Buurt and Bijlmer.

To fund MIB, a reasonable amount of housing is added to the project site. In conjunction with the MIB buildings the new housing enhances the quality of existing, and creates new, urban spaces. The new buildings respect the aesthetics of the Bijlmer masterplan, and adds contemporary social elements that raise the quality of the housing, the new production facilities, and the surrounding urban space.

Jury comments

housing as the moneymaking agent for economic development. The project proposes two blocks of stacked program, with residential accommodation located on the upper levels. The typology is conventional, clear and realistic.

Project Team

Morten Vestberg Hansen (DK), Architect
Christopher Galliano (DK), Architect

Rasmus Wieleman (DK), Architect

Contact information

Ryesgade 19a, 3.sal 2200, Copenhagen, DK

Project Description

In The Little Street (J. Vermeer, 1658) some details insist on the ambiguity between the outer space of the city and the interior space of the dwellings. A door, cut out in the wall joining the two brick facades, leads to a courtyard whose soil has the same colour of the road one. This speaks about continuity: the road and the living space are linked together. Furthermore, some benches, on the edge of the road, emphasize the relationship between domestic and public spheres. The space between buildings is one of the dominant subject of the painting, a seemingly indistinct void overlooks the uses and suggests a potential versatility: the sidewalk is the place for moving, for resting and, why not, for playing.

In the modernist Bijlmer the void was designed as a pervasive park-land crossed by the infrastructure and surmounted by the residential blocks. Each part - park, infrastructure and residence - was conceived exclusively. The urban renovation has approached the problems of Bijlmer by a systematic reduction of these individual elements and today living conditions have been improved. However, the modernistic idea of public space has been atomized, now it has become a generic space between buildings often underused, sometime abandoned.
Overall there was quite completely overlooked an important work for the cohesion between urban pieces. Now that the “elements” have been fixed, it is time to think about the “space in-between”!
Bijlmer’s unsafe parking garages, such as the one in the project area, have been demolished and substituted with extended open-air parking. This is a large amount of passive surface.

Nowadays free car cities, sustainable mobility and the idea of “no-mobility” (many activities can be done everywhere) are real. Our proposal doesn’t imagine that the car will disappear from the city but, according to the progressive decrease of the car need, we think it is possible to plan a systematic implementation of the Bijlmer’s public space connected to the idea that the parking can play a real role in public space design. Parking can be just one of the several tools that contribute to the design of a public space free from the need of a specific functionality and a space strong enough to absorb during the time the changing of its elements. Without this kind of space the city cannot be productive because as in Veermer’s painting this space simply generates opportunities.
H-Buurt has the chance to start his way to be productive.

Jury comments

This plan makes an interesting relation to the wider context by introducing an urban strip of specific public spaces that enhances the potential of the area to be productive. The scheme for the H-Buurt is rather schematic and is not very clear in spatial terms and lacks a specific development strategy. The jury thinks that this is a rather conservative plan which does not conform with the current world.

Project Team

Alessandro Perotta (IT), Architect
Valeria Iberto (IT), Architect

Filippo Vaijra (IT), Student in Architecture
Giovanni Ratto (IT), Student in Architecture
Alessandro Chilosi (IT), Student in Architecture

Contact information

Piazza Grillo Cattaneo 2r, 16123, Genova, IT

Project Description

Undergrowth consists of bushes and plants growing together under the trees in a forest.

We should deal with the undergrowth of Sloterdijk area. No transformations in the sense of a new, more vibrant and diversified urbanity will be possible while this part of the city remains composed of mere high, mono-functional and isolated buildings. We need to take care of and give form to this empty and generic space around them; we need to work on definition and proportions of open spaces. The renovation of Piarcoplein is an opportunity to welcome this attitude and take a step towards a wider transformation.

Within an area that already has plenty of parks and other vaguer open spaces, it is strategic to typologically think about the future Piarcoplein as a square. This way, it will be able to better receive all the systems that arrive there, both ecological and transport, and to foster vibration, affluence and proximity in the neighborhood. A square is, above all, a precise answer to the demands inherent in the theme of rethinking the productive city. Historically, it is a hybrid space that offers itself as support for different aspects of city life. Since a square is naturally characterized by compresence and proximity of activities, it can interpret and give space to a new idea of production, more circular and diffused.

Without any nostalgic attitude, we learn from historical cities that lively squares need to be mainly mineral, enclosed and precisely defined by continuous and active borders. For this reason, erecting new volumes is a necessary operation in Piarcoplein. Proportions of the buildings are also crucial for the scale of the square, since the dimensions of the existing constructions are too aloof to dialogue with the groundscape.

Considering these premises, the proposal consists in a series of operations:
-Liberating the space from cars to imagine a new kind of space for various and variable activities
-Concentrating cars in two strategic points to organize them in a much more efficient way in terms of use of space
-Occupying the space under the high-lines with new volumes to enclose the space and shape the square through solid and active borders
-Modelling the volumes to generate visual and physical permeability, and then intercept flows from the surroundings streets
-Proposing new activities to increase mixité and vibration within the area
-Using open spaces and vegetation to diversify and enrich the inner landscape under the high-line

Jury comments

This proposal comes up with a simple solution for a complex situation through creating a public square with clearly defined boundaries under the existing infrastructure structure. The scheme creates a well-dimensioned square with buildings under the tracks without disturbing the flow of the different users. This set-up follows the logic of traditional arches underneath train tracks creating special spaces that offer interesting locations for additional urban programs in a friendly and transparent way. The scheme is smart in the way that it is organising the program at the ground level. The square is a simple gesture offering rest and quietness for this area without direct focus on connection, and by doing so, offers a clear vision and an opposing view to the current messy situation. This openness allows the connection with the station to happen naturally. The jury values this proposal as a solution for the immediate future without blocking a long-term development strategy. There some were discussions in the jury about the transparent building on the reservation for parking and the way future flows of residents are integrated in the plan.

Project Team

Federica Andreoni (IT), Architect
Anna Chiara Bonora (IT), Architect
Valeria Lollobattista (IT), Architect
Mattia Biagi (IT), Architect
Marco Mondello (IT), Architect
Valerio Socciarelli (IT), Architect

Contact information

Via Efeso 23, 146, Roma, IT

Project Description

This proposal aims to investigate how digital and physical connectivity can recombine an existing transit oriented development into an urban platform. Considering work activities as a core productive factor for cities, workplace digitalization has in fact implications not only for the architectural scale, but for the overall urban space. Firms - previously identifying themselves into office buildings - are turning into platforms - that means the overall complexity of urban environment becomes their main productive resource.

Within this framework, we proposed the design for a digital and physical infrastructure that allows local collaboration in space and provides a virtual environment of local connectivity which doesn’t have access to the internet but works as a City Operating System.

If planned with an open source approach we believed this is a promising way to design an attractive environment for those digital industries or researchers interested in using urban data to experiment their services, producing innovation and sustaining, in its economy, the urban development phases. A sensing system, for instance, can allow to combine data on rail public transit with cars fluxes or parkings. Moreover, local environmental data can be matched with Orlyplein gardens uses for irrigation or botanic research. If this concept is extensively known and experimented from an engineering perspective, we wanted to explore its possible implications for urban design.

Piarcoplein is an already dense and high rise area, with an high transit accessibility. The key strategy of our proposal is to oppose to existing vertical developments an horizontal ring of pedestrian connectivity which puts in continuity, at level +7.00 m, Piarcoplein, Carrascoplein and Orlyplein, today divided by vehicle streets and vertical gaps. This system can be extended linearly in four temporal phases through Piarcoplein, connecting neighborhood with an increasingly mobile workforce which, might give this area the potential to be re-vitalized. Existing parkings are moved two levels underground turning Piarcoplein into a whole pedestrian area at ground level. Instead of new buildings, it is provided a system of adaptive and modular structures which completes the spaces under the raised railways. This can support the temporary location of small industries or researchers using the digital infrastructure to conduct experiments in place and for the place, potentially collaborating and exchanging knowledge.

Jury comments

This project creates a very interesting connection between the station and its surrounding by linking the different squares. The design brings together the different movements and flows in the area. By introducing a new mid-level movement system, the project creates a landscape underneath the elevated train tracks of folded footpaths and pavilions with urban program and places to stay. Using the different movements and flux as well as integrating ‘the bypass’ and the parking makes this a proposal worth looking at it seriously. The idea of respecting the existing structure and building underneath the tracks is strong but these new landscapes generate much more space that would need to be animated and programmed.

Project Team

Michele Angelo Vallicelli (IT), Architect
Giulia Panadisi (IT), Architect
Annalisa Pilati (IT), Architect

Contact information

Via Cassia 901/a, 189, Rome, IT

Project Description

The goal of the project is to create a living and working place inside one of the main metropolitan transport hubs in Amsterdam city. In response to this starting point, the proposal radically makes an opposite urbanism to that of the current neighbourhood: a human scale place in which a dense wild tropical garden with foreign species grows and hidden buildings which seem to be chaotically organized show up along the path, everything covered by a glass vault that creates a warm atmosphere protected from rain and city noises. This contrast is perceived both in urban and building interior spaces: the garden literally enters inside them, as if they were forgotten ruins.

Everything is set up in order to carry the user physically and mentally far away from the surrounding city, helping them to both rest or concentrate depending on their mood.

Jury comments

The idea of a tropical garden is a nice image that gives a completely different look at the place. Through this intervention the whole situation is put in a new context in order to create a lively place with a big staircase towards the station hall. This landscape approach with pavilions has a lot of flexibility for the development. The orientation of the public space in relation to the flows of users and the infrastructure is problematic and there are no clear front and backsides.

Project Team

Irene Iglesias Román (ES), Architect
Jacobo Márquez Muela (ES), Architect

Contact information

C/ Amapola 12, 28939, Arroyomolinos, ES

Project Description

“Rooted Landscape” deals with and contributes to the topic of residual infrastructural spaces as an opportunity for life and enjoyment of the city for the sake of a higher urban productivity. Through a detailed and precious treatment of the spaces between the Piarcoplein infrastructures, our project aims to offer a new perception of habitability for this non-place. Architecture and public space fuse together to create a new rooted landscape over the existing one.The new Piarcoplein square is an elevated garden covered by four concrete viaducts. The atmosphere is strongly marked by the combination of natural elements supported by artificial devices. The new system includes both floor-standing elements (water ponds, garden and building foundation), and suspended elements that hang from the existing viaducts. So the new public space appears as if it is floating in the air between the viaducts and carpark. The matrix structure of the whole complex is the result of a geometric pattern which allows the position of pillars and slabs in points not affecting the optimal functioning of the car park. This structure is gradually transformed to integrate the position of the existing and future viaduct pillars, without losing unity and geometric consistency. The result is a diverse landscape that integrates paths, uses and sensations around a common geometric pattern.Even though the place is dominated by public spaces for resting and walking, a series of nine types of small pavilions set up to be used in free and diverse ways will emerge alongside the elevated paths, small squares and vegetation and water ponds.The idea is to provide the system with small scale inner spaces, lightweight and simple in terms of construction but with great architectural appeal. Thus, these emerge to encroach the existing structures, but also generate visual kindness and smooth the rigidity of strictly technological elements. They are suspended in an isotropic and balanced way within the new Piarcoplein garden. They are conceived as high quality spaces, available to future users and entrepreneurs from the area.The new uses should interact with the environment in order to enrich the experience and promote the respectful uses of the space: Exhibiting art, producing art, relaxing, eating out, taking care of children, purchasing food and drinks, massage, smoking, indoor sports… All these activities they give the place a new identity and promote new economic opportunities.

Jury comments

This proposal is creating a three-dimensional landscape by introducing an artificial structure and additional level of public space. Landscape elements, bridges and voids are used to create a world on its own and at the same time offers a solution for a better atmosphere for the parking spaces on the ground floor. The jury is critical about introducing another public level which creates even more public space and the adding of new tracks which is not temporary at all.

Project Team

Jose Luis Munoz (ES), Architect
Román Cordero Tovar (MX), Architect

Daniel Usero Guerrero (ES), Architect
Cristina Medina Valverde (ES), Student in Architecture
Lorenzo Vallone (IT), Student in Architecture
Agnieszka Kepa (PL), Student in Architecture
Yoshimi Horiuchi Gallardo (MX), Student in Architecture

Contact information

Calle Trabuco 3, 18001, Granada, ES

Project Description

Like many European cities, Amsterdam started out as a village in support of a local economy whereby the city became a productive world capable of sustaining itself. The construction of the Noordzee Kanaal in 1876 saw the harbour moving westwards - gradually decreasing its level of production and becoming more just a vessel for goods. Globalisation - encouraged by the introduction of Schiphol Airport after WW1 - encouraged the city of Amsterdam to reinvent itself as a creative knowledge economy. Today, city, harbour and airport make up Amsterdam’s economic landscape, but their geographical divorce prevents interaction, and this comes at a price - an average dinner for example has travelled 30,000 kilometres.

Amsterdam now functions as a three-poled non-productive city. So how do we turn the tide? By exploiting the incredible potential of Amsterdam’s rail and road infrastructure. This existing network presents itself as the ideal carrier for re-connecting city, harbour and airport. A network of productive villages will result in a polycentric productive city capable of re-introducing Amsterdam’s circular economy. With a daily passenger rate of 50,000 people, Piarcoplein forms the ideal test ground for the first productive village.

Today, the square consists of a landscape of infrastructures; a series of beautiful columns and bridges. Celebrating these two key elements as catalysts for spatial layout, Piarco’s productive village weaves around and between columns and bridges, breaking up the site’s vastness and introducing a sequence of human scale landscapes. The principle of induced demand proves that the provision of car parking simply generates car traffic. Reducing car parking will therefore decrease car traffic. In each phase of Piarco’s transformation, the productive village works differently according to the extent of parking space. Exploiting the limitation of opportunities to build between existing and future bridges allows the village to peek up to train level to announce itself and catch the eye of numerous bypassers.

Hybrid typologies - a symbiosis of the civic world and the productive world as we know it - will populate Piarco Village. These typologies provide spaces in a variety of shapes and scales, a permanent base capable of adapting to an extremely flexible productive programme. A new strong visual identity and a highly productive programme counterweight Piarco’s surrounding blandness with a joy for life that was previously unimaginable.

Jury comments

his plan is adding production space on the ground level where various types of production could take place. By placing new buildings in the middle of the parking area the project will transform the character of the place from mobility to productivity. The jury is rather critical about the historical building references and the orientation of the in-between spaces which look a bit naïve and romantic.

Project Team

Tomaso Boano (GB), Architect
Valentine Gruwez (BE), Engineer-Architect
Lieve Smout (BE), Urban Planner

Contact information

28, N80 AB, London, GB

Project Description

Modern ways of living, innovative materials, the millennials generation, new industrial sectors, contemporary productive and sharing spaces, new means of transportation and communication and the new “standards” in human relations and societal values, are gradually but strongly generating new urban images. Focusing on the train station, as the primal factor and generator of the urban environments in the area, our strategy develops between the three existing urban squares. The pedestrian and cycling flows and functions meet the transition that happens firstly through the station and secondly through elements of space that need to be adjusted and integrated in the urban fabric. The new developments in the area and the future goals, impose a new character that creates a fertile ground for urbanity and form the base for a long-term vitality. The strategic long-term design, regarding the new connections, negotiate between those elements that can be fixed and integrated (pedestrian bridge) and those elements that need to stay flexible to anticipate future changes (new station, new tracks etc.) Therefore, a new identity is established, based on the extension of the surroundings and street networks but also reinforced with new programmatic clusters, green and new visual connections. The transformation of the current programmatic needs (new housing, casino, Media College etc.) and socio-economic circumstances are also taken into consideration in pursuance of a flexible public space. There are no unattractive entrances in the area or undefined urban edges. New infrastructure focuses in connectivity while avoiding fragmentation of the existing and future urban fabric. At the same time, shifting from heavy infrastructure to “heavy” nature, the new green is not isolated but knitted with the existing and the future program. Redesigning democracy means in practice that our common city spaces, are the right place for a collaborative production of public life, goods and services. The flexibility in “including” is a key aspect for the long term prosperous continuity of an urban environment.

Jury comments

This proposal was selected for the Europan Cities and Jury Forum, held in Helsinki in October 2017. It lacks the concreteness of a proposal but it can be considered as being honorable because it is a new idea.

Project Team

Rafail Gkaidatzis (GR), Architect
Jonian Silaj (AL), Architect Urbanist

Contact information

Westplantsoen 16A, 2613 GL, Delft, NL

Project Description

The proposal suggests an evolution towards a more flexible and sustainable urban model, able to respond not only to the current living and working needs but also adaptable to future changes and trends. Is difficult to predict the way work, housing and productivity will continue to develop in the coming years and which spatial requirements will fit with that development. Thus, the proposal is to create a flexible model designed to host both residential and non-residential functions, foreseeing future needs.

The traditional construction system is based on rigid elements, with a long life-span but limited flexibility program-wise. This model is transformed to split the rigid and durable elements on the one side: ‘SUPERSTRUCTURE’, and on the other side those linked to the final use of the space, more flexible and with a shorter life: ‘GUEST CONSTRUCTION’. Setting a time-frame division, with different cycles of use over time, the building adapts the program to the population requirements.

Unlike the typical high-rise development, with towers resting in a plinth, the proposal here is to emphasize their presence. The footprint of the towers is clearly defined at street level and works as a Hub. Main facilities in the block are placed in the lower levels and the public space is organised around them sorting out the risk of privatisation of the public space due to logistics or public-safety. The activity, typically facing main streets, is now transferred to the courtyards surrounding the towers.

‘Guest constructions’ are designed in response to the current needs and Master plan vision, establishing the first steps to create a vibrant neighbourhood, attractive for future residents and workers. Special attention is paid to the lower floors, essential to create an active neighbourhood. At grade level, the plinth program is limited to small mixed-use units, a combination of living-working and small productive or commercial activities, linked to the street. The integration of workspace and small productive activities in residential district generates a lively atmosphere and, with that, contributes to the attractiveness of a neighbourhood.

The internal distribution of living and working typologies is defined and limited by the superstructure, supply connection points and facade alignments but without a closed layout. Internal partitions and room configuration will come with the final user. A more flexible design with less specialised spaces is encouraged.

Jury comments

This plan is convincing as it delivers the best organization of the ground floor. The design and organization of the lower levels of the tapered towers bring quality and spatial and functional diversity to the public space. The design enhances porosity and interaction between the plinth and the towers, where the core program is organized. The massing of the high-rise elements and the distribution of different typologies within these elements respond well to the surroundings.

The design approach demonstrated in the project could be establish urban design guidelines. The façade design offers a lot of flexibility and creates nice possibilities for gardens to be positioned behind the facades. It’s a clever building scheme with double height units where all kind of uses could be possible. A phased development is easily possible.

The jury is convinced by the strong public space ideas and because the proposal responds well to the brief. There is some discussion on the singular identity of the over-arching superstructure which is a strength but also a potential weakness if applied to the whole site.