A participatory critical review
GOODBYE HIERARCHY, HELLO IDENTITY
Commissioned by SAFLE on behalf of The Welsh government and OveAarup
This critical review of the design of the New M4 motorway south of Newport, Wales (GB) is done in a participatory way. It is an INVITATION to integrative thinking. Central issues discussed are the legibility/readability of the landscape as is, leading to the conclusion that READABILITY needs VIEW. The next step involves looking into the changing culture in the motorway zone, and to attempt to forecast and examine the impact on the future landscape that the motorway will make on the landscape.
The complementary step of having a VIEW from the road is how about the VIEW at the road. Going through these steps it became clear that in this sensitive area of the Levels it is of great importance to work towards an integrative design: a road that shows it knows it is part of a landscape of a different scale.
An integrative design process with a common vision based on VIEW and Cultural History will make it necessary to take an extra step for some structures and locations. The structural works like bridge, overpasses and railway line crossings need to be designed up until the level at which construction becomes sober and pure architecture. The add-ons like sound barriers, wind baffles, fences, communication boxes and sign gantries deserve the same level of attention as the over-all projects needs. The series of twelve WTA’s (Water treatment Areas) offer an excellent opportunity to show the projects sensitivity to the fragile water management system of the Levels, and to the archaeological evidence in the area. The eastern connection between existing M4 and the relief road will involve a giant cut through the hills, when done properly it can become a positive dramatic experience. For these extra efforts it would be best to work with people with experience of creative industrial design and landscape art with clear briefs on how to contribute to the final design.
Download the full report.
Commisioned by Tauw bv, Deventer.
In collaboration with Julian Scaff.
WEAVING MISTAKES – POINT of CONTACT – SUTURES - PROTHESIS
Do inhabitants long for distance, to explore the space of the highway? Does the driver at the highway live a life in desire, is there wind of change and freedom blowing trough his head? Is the A1 a metaphor for freedom and personal growth, is the A1 provincial, turned inward? Road movie or a regional novel?
A research done in collaboration with a team of young professionals at Tauw bv (civil engineers) and Goudap[pel Coffeng (traffic logistic experts) has resulted in four design studies and a short (road)movie.
Directed by Julian H. Scaff - Produced by Jeroen van Westen - Cinematography by Julian H. Scaff
Edited by Julian H. Scaff and Jeroen van Westen
Interviews with: Machteld Aardse, Henk Hengeveld, Katrien Bijl, Floris Frederix, Marco Aarden, Annemieke Helder.
Appearances by: Ron Bos, Hem Broekhof, D.J. Faiken, Floris Frederix, Martijn Gerritsen, Nuno Gomez, Ayad Haba, A.J. van Hell, André Oldenkamp, Marleen Schokker, Maaike Teunissen, Jeroen van Westen
music "East-West" by The Al Breckenridge International Three:
Al Breckenridge, Nicholas James Enfield, Neil Thomason.
Commisioned by Province of Noord-Holland icw Baltic Sea Cultural Center.
Creative Coasts was a cultural exchange program to provide a view at each others practice for a wide range of art professionals.
Two teams accepted the challenge to help finding new ways to re-connect the fortified old city of Gdansk to modern urban dynamics.
Download the project report Reconnect a contribution to the project with many thanks to the team members (printed bold).
Carmela Bogman, Aglaee Degros, Ellen Holleman, Alicka Karska, Grzegorz Lechman, Dennis Moet, Lucyna Nyla, Anna Olszewska, Brechtje Schoofs, Jakub Szczepanski, Aleksandra Went, Jeroen van Westen, Bartosz Wysocki.
Commisioned by Apeldoorn municipality.
Commissioned by several local councils, water boards, Province of Noord Holland, secretariat DRO Amsterdam (Belvedere-project)
Icw Bureau H+N+S, bAH, Jeroen Saris communicatie, Ytsma Project Communicatie
The IJdijken tell about a more than 600 years long history of occupation in which water was an enemy. People protected themselves against this enemy by dikes, pumping engines, dams and locks. Changes that occurred in this defensive system, in agriculture and due to the fast industrialisation and urbanization have already hidden parts of the stories the dike tells. A conservation by development- rescue operation is undertaken in three phases. Phase 1: Verstoeling (division) and Schouw (visual quality check). Who is doing what in this broadly composed group, and: what has happened with the original IJdijken, what is still recognizable? Phase 2: Zeevang (sea catch). Observations and infiltrations, seeking for opportunities to gain more in-depth knowledge and broaden our knowledge of the reasons why the IJdijken exist, existed and will exist. Phase 3: Dijkpalen (Dikemarkers). To mark clear conservation by development guidelines to inspire policymakers, inhabitants and users of the IJdijken.
Water is a short movie with a poetic view at natural and cultural water from high in the Rockies through the New Mexican high desert to Albuquerques concrete stormwater channels. This movie is part of the project Desert Passage.
Commisioned by DLG-north and Emmen municipality.
De Runde is the name of a stream that disappeared with the peat that was ‘mined’. The land-restaration-re-allotment project Former Emmer peatcolonies commisioned to improve the possibilities to experience the hidden treasures of this landscape. The firm base under all proposals was to re-vive the most important hidden treasure: water welling up from the ground. A special kind of water that has the power to enable the return of nature to create variation and a sense of security in the till then open, barren, land, wasted by exhilirating industrial agriculture. Not that the old Runde would be copied from age old maps, but a course based on sories of the inhabitants of the area, and finding a way between cultural ‘obstacles’. Though it took a long time the original idea proved to be strong enough to change the plans into reality, mainly thanks to the faith and stubbornness of many inhabitants who demanded that the plans would go through, and thanks to provincial an nature organisations who picked up the ecological and economical power hidden in the idea of a new Runde.
Contributors to the design: too many to mention, but many thanks to Piet Ziel, Harry Berg, and Wiebe Rueschen.
In a small village, Heesch, a new neighbourhood (De Hoef-2) was planned in 2003. The goal was set on a sustainable development, not necessarily focused on alternative energy and building methods but by taking the original landscape as point of departure and working towards a community by variation in types of houses. An artist was invited to contribute to raising awareness among the new inhabitants, awareness for the position of the new neighbourhood in the surrounding landscape, for the (cultural) historic features that defined the lay out of their streets, for the water management. The commission was understood as a role: the artist as an audible conscience, creating conditions to understand and researching the continuity of cultural responsibility towards the natural landscape.
In 2007 part of the new area is build. Streets were named after creeks that are part of the same watershed. Each house has a river polished rock similar to the sediments of the river Maas below the soil on which the houses are build. In the rock a name of a plant, insect or animal living in the biotope of the upstream part of a lowland creek. The first inhabitants of the new houses could choose the name that they like, they got two rocks, one has to be put under the downspout, the other they will bring to a certain location in a park. The run off water from houses and streets all will feed to this small park zone. The design of the park is inspired by the lay out of local old estates. In a green border between two parts of the new neighbourhood high rise apartment blocks are build for species that have lost nesting opportunities. These 5 meter high constructions are build of left over materials and recycled plastics. Two roundabouts mark the entries to the area, both are treated as compasses build of beautifully coloured local bricks, demonstrating the slight inclination between the northern and the southern access road. A website (www.dehoef-2.nl ) was build with all kind of information on the former and present landscape, cultural historic information but also bike routes for a sunny afternoon in the surroundings.
In close collaboration with Stan Elings Landscape architecture, Compositie 5 Urban Planning, but also thanks to many conversations with local experts and future inhabitants.
Production: Jeroen van Westen, Steenatelier Johan Looije, Smile Plastics, Gemeente Bernheze
artist book, edition 21 (250x60x5mm) - part of Cross References
The colors of the New Mexican high desert form a spectre with a wide range. Not only in colors, but the tone scale is extensive too. Photographing colors in a landscape is also photographing structure, by organizing the photos on color and tonality extremes in the landscape are juxtaposed.
Cargo, Almere (NL) en CBAT, Cardiff (UK).
Osmosis is a process of selective exchange through asemi-porous membrane. It is a feeding system for plant cells, the exchange of salts is important for the survival and growth of the cell. It is an essential process for primitive as well as complex forms of life. In Van Westen’s work we can also identify the process of osmosis, an exchange of past and present, of nature and culture. He searches for the essence of a particular period which may shimmer through the landscape and defines the global importance of this for society.
Osmose is a composition of sounds from cities, churches and nature. Listen to the soundscape of 27’22”:
Wiard Sterk, director CBAT The Arts and Regenerations Agency, Cardiff, Wales UK
www.cargo-zw.net/zomer/zo3/osmosis1.shtml
Commissioned by Stichting wAarde (foundation wEarth)
icw Thomas van Slobbe (director of Stichting wAarde), Helmut Eisel (musician)
Cow 3318 is the camera woman who recorded an hour of her life with a Mini DV video camera mounted on her head. On request of the Stichting wAarde for the project "Een boom voor een koe" (a tree for a cow, trees in fields for shade). Watch a fragment of the video.
The dvd is published in a booklet titled “Dichter bij de koe" (closer (and/or poet) to the cow), ISBN 90-76661-09-x. The material is also used in a documentary for the NCRV (pbs) “Het mooiste Plekje" (the most beautiful spot) according to the writer Koos van Zomeren, with music by Helmut Eisel, played on location especially for cow 3318.
Commissioned by Verbeelding van de Regge/DLG regio Oost
Icw Peter de Ruyter (landscape architect bAH), Joost van Hezewijk (landscape architect/artist)
In the next ten years the image of the Regge as a real river in Twente will transform drastically from a wide canalized watercourse dedicated to drain the land, into a watercourse trying to slow down the transportation of water, giving room for the development of nature. Spatially, technically, and culturally there are still many issues to resolve. The need for a new watercourse to link an existing nature reserve to new nature to be developed is a pilot for how the Regge will be transformed in the near future.
In the study Vennegraven (Peat canal) is made clear that reality is less rosy, and tough decisions have to be made to give new nature a real chance. The proposal lead to fierce discussions and, a new commission, now with conditions making an ecological approach more realistic.
commissioned by Local Council Noord, City of Rotterdam
Icw Hans Snoek and Q.S. Serafijn
The strength of public transport lies in the effortless linking together of the various services they offer - preferably in a clear and well-organized environment. None of this was reflected in one of the most important junctions of public transport in north Rotterdam.
As an extension of the assignment Muizengaatje, the artists Q.S. Serafijn, Hans Snoek and Jeroen van Westen were asked to participate, in an advisory capacity, in the collaboration between municipal and government services responsible for the renewed layout of the North Station transfer point.
The advice emphasized using the space in such a way that a real square could evolve. Further, the space should be cleaned; the lighting in the square and in the tunnels for cyclists should be more than merely functional; access points to public transport should be re-designed; travel information should be readily accessible to the consumer; local trade should be encouraged; and an acceptable transit space should be installed under the overpass. The application of all these proposals will serve to create an acceptable transit space.
installation + performance icw Michael Pestel
Regina Couger Miller Gallery, Pittsburgh PA USA
Our inability to resuscitate extinct birds requires us to rethink and intensify our communication with living birds. The sounds of endangered species in particular, but all birds in general, can become a kind of mnemonic device for calling to mind absent species around the globe. Birdscape explores interactions with these sounds through a virtual garden space, video projections, performances and workshop events.
This exhibition was supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment of the Arts, by a Pennsylvania Council’s Special Opportunity Stipend, and by the Mondriaan Foundation.
commissioned by Center for the visual Arts Rotterdam and Local council Noord, Rotterdam
Icw Q.S. Serafijn, Hans Snoek and Maarten van Wesemael
An assignment from CBK Rotterdam and the North Borough to collaborate in improving the layout around the A20 and Bergweg : the gateway to the north. The proposals take ecology, public transport, traffic circulation and especially the monumental nature of the city overpass into account. The artists work with the public space. Existing plans for a sewer retention basin have been improved from a spatial and expressive point of view (work in progress), and the artists have proposed a couple of follow-up assignments in which art should take the initiative in assuming responsibility for the city wastelands. A first concise publication of the plan is published by North Borough; a second and more complete publication is foreseen.
installation + performance i.c.w. Michael Pestel
Museum De Paviljoens, Almere
with many thanks to breeding bird population VVB, Almere; 8 high school students Almere: Jasper Goedman (artist/musician)
Endangered species of birds are a living reminder with whom ‘communication’ is still possible. For Jeroen van Westen and Michael Pestel (USA) extinct birds are symbols of amputated possibilities. Art can do little for them except give them a voice. Our languages contains proverbs which typify the attitude of our (explicitly verbal) culture towards birds and towards nature. Through means of acoustic art, Jeroen van Westen and Michael Pestel can express the possibilities and impossibilities of communicating with nature and with birds.
For the triptych exhibition ‘Natuurlijke Verwantschappen’ (Natural Affinities) a virtual bird landscape is created in which an exchange between birds (nature) and people (culture) can take place through the intermediary of art. The young (planted 30 years ago) Vroege Vogelbos (Early Bird Wood) provides an extra cultural incentive. Here people can meet (in language and in sound) other people and birds.
-site discontinued june- 2005
commissioned by Center for the Arts Rotterdam, Ministry for Planology and Environment
(StIR= Stipend from Foundation for Strategic Intensive use of Space)
Icw Q.S. Serafijn, Hans Snoek and Maarten van Wesemael
Over the years, as large-scale infrastructure developed, pockets of wasteland came into being. As the city continued to grow and press in upon these areas of non-development, they became an ever greater menace.
The space was used for a variety of purposes, horse stable, green garden, rubbish dump, etc. It also attracted criminals, junkies and the homeless. Subsequent to the Muizengaatje project the artists Q.S.Serafijn, Hans Snoek and Jeroen van Westen proposed further research into the nature of these wastelands, with a view to better exploiting their potential. The investigation initially centered around criminality but later expanded to include a thorough social-cultural exploration of the urban wastelands around the A20, the Rotterdam-Utrecht railroad line and the Noorderkanaal from the Terbregse Plein to the Kleinpolderplein.
As yet there is little sign of any building activity in this polder where a new neighbourhood is planned. On a dam (barrier for the water) in a canal (barrier for the land-traveler/connection for waterspecies, boats) a black container blocks the little road. Large openings ('windows') on the long side of the container give a view of the water, visible to anyone sitting in the container. During the day the container is open at both ends and chairs are installed for visitors. The road block becomes a passage, a meeting point. Throughout one week conversations took place between the landscape, people in the landscape, future inhabitants of the new neighbourhood. The dialogue took place in words, images and sounds.
Two passage ways are planned for the area in the earthen tracks of the high speed line (HSL) but the result will feel more like a wall. The Bentwoud (the Bent Forest) will grow to the east of this wall, although not in the immediate future. The wall must be ecologically exploited and the passage ways clearly demarcated.
BIOTOOP
(BIOTOPE)
On average more rain falls on the western side. This side is also warmer thanks to the protection offered by the town and higher midday temperatures. These biological factors can be further maximized through the use of different ground soils, seed mixtures, and raised patterns in the surface of the dike. In the ecological world the paths and dikes are famous/infamous for their interlopers from distant places.
COUPURE
Where a passage way was desirable, but the omnipresence of the water too threatening, ‘coupures’ were made in the dike; openings which could be closed with beams or doors. These ‘hard’ openings in the sloping body of the dike are, for me, a reason to argue for passage ways in the form of cuts.
PERFORATIE
(PERFORATION)
Placing pipes diagonally through the dike directs the gaze to the land or sky. Drain holes and other stones or man-made material, are dotted over the earth in such a way that they manipulate one’s conception of space. This partial or complete perforation also offers a greater variation of possibilities for the balance of nature.
It was not to be expected that the soil should yield any archaeological traces of the Hildam, the 17th century overhaul. Centuries later it is once again an important place where the residents of Oosterheem can cross the HSL, either by foot or on bike, on the way to Bent Forest.
“I’d like to give content to the meeting between city and nature domain. It is a confrontation which takes place on many different scales. To start with I’d like to organize the meeting between the different landscapes belonging to this scale. Each of these landscapes has it’s own water level. By bringing these water levels into close proximity under the overpass, and encapsulating each system in it’s own material, three ‘squares’ emerge from my design. Thus, under the HSL overpass, a covered garden comes into being – a hall, a meeting space.
To the east of the HSL dike there is room for two squares. One of the squares would be the location for a high-rise building serving as a visitors centre for Bent Forest; the other would offer parking facilities. The tall building will be a symbol of city and country, and serve as an example of ecological architecture in itself.
Oosterheem’s main watercourse is a city canal, as straight as the former Plastocht but broader. It has a hard western side and a pastoral eastern flank. Numerous bridges have been planned which will prevent the canal from becoming a delimitation – on the contrary, a feeling of openness and space is created.
Together the bridges help shape the transformation of the landscape – from scenic creeks to underground water courses. Each bridge is a point enabling people to experience the water in different ways.
