Does our knowledge about city and urban planning have solid ground? Can historical research promote creative thinking? How can we theorise about urban design and architecture in our age of the media? These questions have guided the creation of this multi-layered, richly documented and illustrated triptych, in which the Dutch architectural theorist Wim Nijenhuis pursues a creative goal: to stimulate new ways of thinking in architectural culture.Each part of the triptych treats distinctive issues with a particular style of writing:I – a treatise on urban history. Using the archaeological-genealogical toolkit Nijenhuis reveals the difference between urbanistic discourse in the modern and the classical age; the first staging the street and public space, the latter adhering to representation and mathematical order. In great detail he shows how modern urbanism did not emerge from idealistic motives and technical urgencies, but from an accidental mix of medical, engineering and aesthetical parlances, and how classical thinking on the city dissociated from Renaissance by an intertwining of military science, political science, anthropology and ethics.II – a bundle of essays about the condition of the city in our media age. In strikingly composed texts the author prophesies how rapid traffic and transmission speed of media will distort the perception of our real cities. This gradual event will profoundly influence the cultural role of architecture.III – a set of meditations about epistemological problems. Questioning the practice of critical writing, Nijenhuis proposes change of subjectivity (and thereby worldview), ethical indifference, parody, curative mythomania and hypermodern dilettantism.The book is composed as a cloud essay that serves to enrich the reader’s theoretical understanding of urban interventions. Dialoguing with philosophers like Bataille, Deleuze, Foucault, Klossowski, Sloterdijk and Virilio, Nijenhuis covers multiple disciplines such as urbanism, architecture, history, media science, philosophy and art. Stretching urbanistic thinking beyond its limits he carries the reader along into the miraculous world of the street, the engineer, the norm, the form, order, fortresses, discipline, army camps, city frontiers, the Temple of Salomon, the quest for beauty, the ‘impressiveness’ of images, speed, the tragedy of the omnipolis, solidification of time, and the liquidising potency of apocalypticism and Taoist non-action.The Riddle of the Real City testifies to four experimental exercises: transitory subjectivism to reveal hidden dimensions of the person, transhistorical verticality to communicate with singular events from the past, theory as toolkit and pursuing a personal path in reading and investigation.
Building Blocks for Liveable Neighbourhoods. Four suburbs in the province of Noord-Brabant are case-studies for a new method of urban development. Participation and scenario's are the starting point. The tools for local stakeholders to (literally) shape their own future environment are the end result.Societal issue: Gap between the plannend world and the daily life in city neighbourhoods. People are eager to take responsibility for their living environment but have no tools or knowledge to do it.Benefit to society: The method developed in this design research project enables the different stakeholders to connect, align and be effective in shaping their common future living environment.
Researching the enormous VINEX city expansion operations of 1995-2005. The research 'VINEXt' was launched in 2010 in response to an Open Call by the (then) Netherlands Architecture Fund. In VINEXt, we investigate the future-proofing of Vinex districts on a national scale. Using a number of future scenarios, four sample neighbourhoods are being studied to see where opportunities for development in the next 30 years lie or where threats may arise. The knowledge gained will be used to describe building blocks for the transformation of VINEX districts in general.Societal Issue: Times change and so do the inhabitants of modern suburbs. But these neighbourhoods can not automatically absorb these changes - how to stay functional and attractive in a uncertain future?Benefit to society: Working with scenarios provides insight in possible future demands and opportunities, and the extent to which the built environment of the Vinex areas can move with the tides of time.
