Marjan van HerpenPresent

Amsterdam Academy of ArchitectureGraduation Projects 2014-2015Architecture

0031 (0)6 28785286marjanvanherpen@gmail.com

Architecture

To show my potential significance as an architect, I have given myself a fictitious assignment. I want to make something I do not yet understand tangible, using my own area of expertise. I also want to address the current situation, to make visible what we, the Dutch society, do.At the Academy, I have researched the accommodations of refugees and aliens; research into how the Netherlands physically receives the people who seek asylum here. During my research I discovered that people disappear from the system.

Some aliens vanished into anonymity at the moment of their scheduled deportation, but did not leave. Others cannot be deported because they do not cooperate, or because their country of origin will not recognise them, or because it is too dangerous there to be sent back. Ilegals may not be here legally speaking, but factually they are definitely present.The Dutch state intended to present a sound reception/deportation policy starting January 2010, which in turn caused the municipalities to close their shelters. However, there is a hole in this policy. And in that hole there are people.Those without nationality do not have rights. For them, human rights are a utopia; an unfeasible dream. Refugee aid organisations can relieve the poverty of these displaced people, but they cannot improve their actual situation, the fact that they cannot be part of a visible community. The alien does not want accidental charity, they want their basic human rights: a house, work, a family and citizenship. It is impossible to pursue these rights when you are a person without nationality. 

The assignment is to create a manifesto for this grey area in which one can be somewhere while not being allowed to be there. A telling sign, visible, for people who act as invisible as possible. A (temporary) accommodation, a refuge, to give these people a collective place to bridge the interim period. A hiding place where one can recover from the hunted existence and where there is space to hope and dream. A place to be visible, to present oneself, where one can work to provide oneself with the basic necessities; to be self-sufficient instead of being dependent on support - work is not only financially, but also psychologically, a basic necessity. In the middle of life, these people are made passive, when they have enough to offer.  This is a place where they can develop themselves. A place where they can offer their abilities to the city, to ‘us’, to earn their own livelihood. In the scenario of my fictitious assignment this, in line with old Dutch customs, will be tolerated. The challenge is to unite the conflicting interests and its spatial materialisation in one building, in a new typology.

For this purpose, I have created a programme of requirements with specific workspaces. The workplace functions as a buffer between pubic and private. A part of the workplace is accessible to the public; for example for sales, and a part is inaccessible, for focused work, but still visible. The physical limits of the workspaces influence possible relationships and the type of work and vary in degrees of visibility. By placing these limits, or spatially speaking, these shells over each other, the limits pile up. The more shells, the less accessible; the more private. Or conversely: the external skin becomes increasingly thinner. In the spaces between, the workplaces arise.

Much like this project is about ‘the alien other’, I also search for what is unfamiliar to me in designing; I want to surprise myself, to make something I do not yet know.

Graduation date20 11 2014

Commission membersGianni Cito (mentor) Frank HavermansPaul Toornend

Additional members for the examinationMicha de HaasJudith Korpershoek

Marjan van HerpenPresent

Marjan van Herpen

Architecture

I have further elaborated on the location Weteringcircuit. A station of the North/South metro line will be placed on the North side: the greatest onrush will come from the direction of the museums (from the South West towards the Weteringcircuit). I aim to keep this area as open as possible from the direction of the city centre, on the North side, the Vijzelgracht. The building will be placed in the North East corner, to facilitate an access from the roundabout and to fit in with the rest of the existing sub square.

I choose a collection of small buildings to prevent it becoming an institute, an impregnable fortress. The locations consist of a combination of: - Stations: to reach the network of friends and acquintances; a station is a place where one can be at once anonymous and visible, and it is a symbol of transition, - Open green places: where there is space to build something, - Residential areas: to increase the quality of life of my building. They are locations which would fit a small building, which fit in with the neighbourhood and the larger network of the city; with the local resident and the passer-by.

mogelijke afmetingen van ondergrondse Stationshal

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en m

ogel

ijk la

ten,

ove

r Circ

uit h

een

afslag Circuit op mogelijk

shortcut, vanuit Musea naar metro, door gebouw heen, overdag

ground floor plan

night_theoretical (roundabout = moat) Living private/ work / work publicnight_inside daytime private / public

Marjan van Herpen

I want the location to influence the appearance of the building. Through the use of vectors, I follow the outline.

I reform this around the trees and in such a way that the internal corners are accessible.

On it, I place the work units with the public section inside the outline and the private section on the outer edge of it.

The private section will be situated at the external edge surrounding it, in order to create a closed first impression.

floor plan

daytime private / public

0 1 2 3

rooms / communal spaces rooms (short cuts) routes

Architecture

publically accessible work spaces private spacesinaccessible work spaces

concrete slab : foundation for the publically accessible work spaces

carpeting: foundation for the separate private spaces

wooden floor: foundation for the inaccessible work section

private spaces in wooden skeleton construction with the construction on the outsideand the finished side on the inside

Plan fragment: coffee house with a kitchen as a closed work section and a bar as a public section. The kitchen is in the private section.

Fragment in scale model 1:20

section

Marjan van Herpen

exploded view East side

blocks of wooden skeleton construction function as columns for the following layers

construction for the next layershell of polycarbonate: these cover the inaccessible yet visible work spaces

the tent: a thin shell in order to make the boundary between the public external space and the publically accessible work space as thin as possible

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Amsterdam Academy of Architecture

Architects, urbanists and landscape architects learn the profession at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture through an intensive combination of work and study. They work in small, partly interdisciplinary groups and are supervised by a select group of practising fellow professionals. There is a wide range of options within the programme so that students can put together their own trajectory and specialisation.With the inclusion of the course in Urbanism in 1957 and Landscape Architecture in 1972, the Academy is the only architecture school in the Netherlands to bring together the three spatial design disciplines under one roof. Some 350 guest tutors are involved in teaching every year. Each of them is a practising designer or a specific expert in his or her particular subject. The three heads of department also have design practices of their own in addition to their work for the Academy. This structure yields an enormous dynamism and energy and ensures that the courses remain closely linked to the current state of the discipline. The courses consist of projects, exercises and lectures. First-year and second-year students also engage in morphological studies. Students work on their own or in small groups. The design

projects form the backbone of the syllabus. On the basis of a specific design assignment, students develop knowledge, insight and skills. The exercises are focused on training in those skills that are essential for recognising and solving design problems, such as analytical techniques, knowledge of the repertoire, the use of materials, text analysis, and writing. Many of the exercises are linked to the design projects. The morphological studies concentrate on the making of spatial objects, with the emphasis on creative process and implementation. Students experiment with materials and media forms and gain experience in converting an idea into a creation. During the periods between the terms there are workshops, study trips in the Netherlands and abroad, and other activities. This is also the preferred moment for international exchange projects. The Academy regularly invites foreign students for the workshops and recruits wellknown designers from the Netherlands and further afield as tutors. Graduates from the Academy of Architecture are entitled to the following titles: Architect, Master of Science; Urbanist, Master of Science and Landscape Architect, Master of Science.