24.3.05
Let the algorithm plot it's own course
A Genetic Generative Psychogeographical survey of Amsterdam's redeveloped artificial docklands
The redevelopment of Amsterdam's artificial harbour islands into a new dense urban environment near the city centre is interesting from all angles. Many ideas are compressed into a relative small area. Everything, every minor detail, is stylistically designed to the maximum level; the clear angles & the straight lines of the grid seems designed to look well on air photographs. In fact: everything might well be designed to look beautiful in a computerized 3D presentation.
A psychogeographical survey of the place uncovers that this area which is designed to be exciting by means of planned diversity in reality shows every sign of unplanned uniformity. Everything is copy-pasted from a catalogue onto a holistically planned grid, like digital LEGO for adults. Rarely this repeated usage of the same building is obvious to the casual visitor. Camouflaged between different configurations of facades the same constructions are however used over and over again. Perhaps slightly modified in colour but hardly anything appears only once. There is one street on Borneo Islands for which a dozen architects were invited to deliver their best, most 'avant-garde', work. All these designs are built next to each other & again a striking uniformity emerges: the same ideas reappear over and over again: there are no contradictions, no conflicts.
Also noticeable is the faint echo of the inhabitants from the time this area was a dead zone waiting for redevelopment. These islands used to be a semi-autonomous part of the city inhabited by artists, squatters, techno tribes, nomads & boat dwellers. Some of the artist, if they were reasonable people, stayed. The rest had to go. Only the boat people were allowed to keep their place on the quays. But only if their lifestyles didn't interfere with the demands for silence of the new inhabitants.
Especially in relation with other contemporary large-scale building projects, Leidsche Rijn for instance, the redevelopment of the eastern harbour islands might well prove to be the site where most clear a whole variety of half conscious ideas about city-planning, architecture, political motivations & the good life become visible.
This makes the area a good place for a generative psychogeographical experiment.
http://www.socialfiction.org/psychogeography/genetic.htm
The redevelopment of Amsterdam's artificial harbour islands into a new dense urban environment near the city centre is interesting from all angles. Many ideas are compressed into a relative small area. Everything, every minor detail, is stylistically designed to the maximum level; the clear angles & the straight lines of the grid seems designed to look well on air photographs. In fact: everything might well be designed to look beautiful in a computerized 3D presentation.
A psychogeographical survey of the place uncovers that this area which is designed to be exciting by means of planned diversity in reality shows every sign of unplanned uniformity. Everything is copy-pasted from a catalogue onto a holistically planned grid, like digital LEGO for adults. Rarely this repeated usage of the same building is obvious to the casual visitor. Camouflaged between different configurations of facades the same constructions are however used over and over again. Perhaps slightly modified in colour but hardly anything appears only once. There is one street on Borneo Islands for which a dozen architects were invited to deliver their best, most 'avant-garde', work. All these designs are built next to each other & again a striking uniformity emerges: the same ideas reappear over and over again: there are no contradictions, no conflicts.
Also noticeable is the faint echo of the inhabitants from the time this area was a dead zone waiting for redevelopment. These islands used to be a semi-autonomous part of the city inhabited by artists, squatters, techno tribes, nomads & boat dwellers. Some of the artist, if they were reasonable people, stayed. The rest had to go. Only the boat people were allowed to keep their place on the quays. But only if their lifestyles didn't interfere with the demands for silence of the new inhabitants.
Especially in relation with other contemporary large-scale building projects, Leidsche Rijn for instance, the redevelopment of the eastern harbour islands might well prove to be the site where most clear a whole variety of half conscious ideas about city-planning, architecture, political motivations & the good life become visible.
This makes the area a good place for a generative psychogeographical experiment.
http://www.socialfiction.org/psychogeography/genetic.htm
# posted by alvaro @ 12:43 a. m. 
