October 2018
Explorations + Contexts
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Explorations + Contexts
After months of being an architect, urbanist or building scientist it is important to be reminded of our other roles in this world: as brothers and sisters; as sons and daughters; as best friends; as loyal supporters of our nation’s football team; as travellers; as someone’s summer sweetheart; as kind strangers, and as people.
Editorial team
Ada Jaśkowiec, Lydia Giokari, Ksenia Otmakhova, Nadine van den Berg, Elena Rossoni, Jan Pruszyński, Jack Oliver Petch, Sam Eadington
With contributions from
Thomas Dillon Peynado, @nlkrts
Cover design by
Editorial team (hand drawn by the editors in the printed version)
Editorial
Context is a word familiar to us all. Through our projects we document, analyse, reflect upon and respond to contexts of all kinds. Rarely do we stop to do the same with ourselves. Summer can be a timely reminder that life exists outside the faculty. After months of being an architect, urbanist or building scientist it is important to be reminded of our other roles in this world: as brothers and sisters; as sons and daughters; as best friends; as loyal supporters of our nation’s football team; as travellers; as someone’s summer sweetheart; as kind strangers, and as people.
We are many things beyond these faculty walls.
Isolation - whether it be architects from the general public, students from industry, or Bnieuws editors from faculty - can provide necessary space for comfort, experimentation and focus. We create bubbles for ourselves which serve as safe spaces to explore new and different ways of thinking, working and being. This allows us to fail and learn without the whole world having to face the consequences. But, sometimes, we cannot sit apart from the world entirely and by our very existence we acknowledge that we must be part of the ongoing conversation.
This first Bnieuws of the academic year is all about looking at contexts and experiences of students as they move along through education, and beyond. For those of you new to Delft, we offer some information and tips to help you find your feet amid your new surroundings. We look at life both inside and after education, where we hear about some of many possibilities available. We speak with architects from this year’s Venice Biennale to find out how their participation sits in relation to their development and future ambitions. Lastly, we cast our gaze beyond the limits of architecture in our new segment on inspirations and obsessions. Sam looks at what we can learn from journalist Jonathan Meades’ television essay on jargon, Lydia reveals the inspiration to be found in the work of Wes Anderson, and Jack writes about why he gets stuck watching YouTube videos about abandoned theme parks.
While we question our position as students and designers in the wider world, it is also a good moment for us here at Bnieuws to reflect on our role within the faculty. We say goodbye to our editors Nadine, Lydia, Ada and Kseniya, look back on their time as editors and hand over the Bnieuws baton to a new team comprised of Elena, Jack, Jan and Sam, who look forward to guiding the editorial in the future.
Contents
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Caramel Yellow.
That is what I’ve been calling the colour I have been bombarded with since arriving in the Netherlands in August 2017. Maybe you haven’t realised yet, but everywhere you look, this colour is there.
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You’ve just arrived in Delft, the Introduction Programme has ended, and it feels like there is actually not that much to do here apart from studying?
Nothing could be further from the truth! We, the editors of Bnieuws, will prove to you that there are plenty of things you can do here in your free time (not like you are going to have much of it either way) and we will teach you some useful phrases, which will help you get around the city and make new friends, or at the very least give Dutch some good laughs.
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Being an architect and especially an architectural student means to be curious about the world around you and being constantly in restless search of sources of inspiration for your work. These sources of inspiration can be multifarious and originate from all kinds of stimuli; from historical architectural references to natural patterns, travels around the world, passages from poetry and literature or even scenes taken from films and animations. In our new regular column we share with you some of the things our editors and readers have been watching, reading, listening to, visiting and looking at from outside the world of architecture that we think are interesting, provocative, inspirational, or maybe just things we’re a little obsessed with at the time. First up we dive into film, television and Youtube to share with you some of what we’ve been watching this summer.
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The multidisciplinary project (MDP) is an integral part of the education at the faculty of Civil Engineering. During their MSc programme they can do either an internship related to their specialization, or to propose and do a multidisciplinary project. While many opt for the internship, there are also groups that choose to do a multidisciplinary project.
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Painting can be a form of therapy. Similar to writing, it can be a form of externalising ideas, feelings and frustrations, putting them on paper or canvas, seeing as they materialise before your eyes. It is both a representation of a particular moment in time as well as a self-investigation.
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A while back, one of the graduating students contacted us regarding precarious work conditions in big architectural offices. Is it fair that once you’ve graduated you’re offered an intern position and are paid less than in a job which doesn’t require any academic education? Was it worth spending hundreds of euros on models, prints and fancy computers? Doesn’t architecture school education fit the requirements of the professional market? What can we - as students, elements of the bigger system - do to improve our situation?
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About the interviewer (Jack): I am going to be visiting Venice, with the main goal of seeing the Architecture Biennale before it closes on November 25th. Whilst I am an avid fan of traveling, I’ve never visited the city nor the exhibition before. I’m looking forward to both exploring the labyrinth of narrow canals and getting the most architourism possible out of my trip; visiting not only the pavilions in the Giardini but spotting the artillery installations throughout the city. In preparation I decided to speak to fellow Bnieuws team member Elena to ask about her experience as a visitor, tourist and architecture student.
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This year’s Venice Biennale was packed with unprecedented works and one-time chances to view models of milestone architectural projects. But what does it really mean for an architectural office to have its work exhibited in this prestigious biannual event? To find out, we met up with Xristina Argyros from NEIHEISER ARGYROS London-based studio and designers of the 2018 Greek Pavilion “the School of Athens”.
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Reflecting on our time in Bnieuws, it seems that we took over an established, well-functioning format of the magazine and already during our very first brainstorm, we challenged ourselves to question the occurrent standards.