The focus of my research is how Bartholomeus Guesthouse (BG), founded in 1407 by Willem van Abcoude, has organized care over more than 600 years for the elderly and elderly sick people in the Centre of Utrecht. After the reorganization of 1817 -by Royal Law- the 7 (9) Guesthouses were merged to one Board called “College van Regenten der Vereenigde Gods-en Gasthuizen” .They have had their domicile in Bartholomeus Guesthouse. This Guesthouse survived as elderly care centre on particular foundation, which has meant until today that people from different religions were welcome. The properties of the other guesthouses came under supervision of the Board of “Vereenigde Gods-en Gasthuizen”. The heritage of the other foundations was , in terms of property and land, considerable. In my paper I will present the following items: -An inventarisation of the situation after 1817 and the ‘cameren’ (vrij woningen) of the different guesthouses in Utrecht and what their (living) conditions were at that time; -the Policy of the Board supervising the Free Houses/ Cameren for Elderly during this area; the observation of the archive manager S.Muller Fz.is good illustration of the situation in 1900; -the inhabitants of the ‘vrij woningen’; the selection and the rules as part of the social housing policy; - a more general analysis: the policy of poor relief and the debate of who had to take care of the poor? - all subjects give an answer to the question whether or not poor relief can be regarded as a safety valve for the (lower) middle class, in the ninetheenth century.
DOCUMENT
In summer 2020, part of a quay wall in Amsterdam collapsed, and in 2010, construction for a parking lot in Amsterdam was hindered by old sewage lines. New sustainable electric systems are being built on top of the foundations of old windmills, in places where industry thrived in the 19th century. All these examples have one point in common: They involve largely unknown and invisible historic underground structures in a densely built historic city. We argue that truly circular building practices in old cities require smart interfaces that allow the circular use of data from the past when planning the future. The continuous use and reuse of the same plots of land stands in stark contrast with the discontinuity and dispersed nature of project-oriented information. Construction and data technology improves, but information about the past is incomplete. We have to break through the lack of historic continuity of data to make building practices truly circular. Future-oriented construction in Amsterdam requires historic knowledge and continuous documentation of interventions and findings over time. A web portal will bring together a range of diverse public and private, professional and citizen stakeholders, each with their own interests and needs. Two creative industry stakeholders, Yume interactive (Yume) and publisher NAI010, come together to work with a major engineering office (Witteveen+Bos), the AMS Institute, the office of Engineering of the Municipality of Amsterdam, UNESCO NL and two faculties of Delft University of Technology (Architecture and Computer Science) to inventorize historic datasets on the Amsterdam underground. The team will connect all the relevant stakeholders to develop a pilot methodology and a web portal connecting historic data sets for use in contemporary and future design. A book publication will document the process and outcomes, highlighting the need for circular practices that tie past, present and future.
In the small village of Nuenen in the Netherlands, Vincent van Gogh, the legendary artist, resided with his parents for two years in the late 19th century. Today, visitors can literally walk in Vincent’s footsteps and hear stories about that period of his life. There is also a renovated indoor museum in the village showcasing many beautiful and inspiring objects.We carefully studied the visitor experience over two rounds of data collection: one in 2018 and another in 2023 after the museum's renovation. In the second round, 40 students from Breda University of Applied Sciences were invited to spend a day in Nuenen. The participants, aged mostly between 20 and 30 years, came from the Netherlands and 16 other countries. None of them had visited the previous museum setup in Nuenen, although two-thirds had visited at least one other Vincent-centered attraction or had researched Vincent and his life prior to the visit.During their visit, research participants were tracked using Bluetooth beacons (indoors) and GPS tracking (outdoors), while wearing wristbands that measured their level of emotional engagement in real time. They toured the museum and the village and provided feedback on their experience through questionnaires administered before and after the visit.The results of the research showed that visitors were emotionally touched at certain stops of the tour more than others, enjoyed interacting with specific elements in the museum, and spent more time in particular areas of the museum. Most participants could vividly imagine themselves back in the days (narrative transportation), felt closer to Nuenen residents as a result of the visit, and generally found the visit to be quite meaningful. Learning and self-expansion were high, with some visitors even finding the visit transformative, leading to changes in attitude, behavior, and identities. We also found a strong correlation between these measures and the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Recommendations and emotion maps were presented to the museum as they continue to refine their visitor experiences.Research carried out for Van Gogh Village Museum Nunen.
