The Infinite Realm of Synchronous Cultures
Outdated Urbansim
The Slotervaart district is known for its modernist urban structure of repetitive housing blocks from the post war era and its large ethnically mixed community. Although its demography changed radically over the past few decades it spatial configuration did not. The cheap, monotonous and low quality housing stock in combination with low social status of dwellers results in an unpleasant atmosphere and an absence of social cohesion. Although within the various ethnical groups tight communities do exist, the link between the autonomous ethnicities and cultures is not existent. We consider the lacking variety to be one of the explaining factors. The repetitious blocks have an unfinished courtyard typology in which the courtyard is not enclosed but opened to the public domain. Large undefined public spaces between the blocks and opaque plinths create unsafe and unpleasant conditions at street level. The lack of differentiation in housing forces inhabitants with higher income to look for housing outside the area. To create a better social cohesion and fix the outdated urban layout to two things need to happen.
First thing to do, and the focus of our proposal, is to create a common place for cultural expression and mutual understanding. For this the August Allebé square offers the most favorable conditions.
Second is the upgrading of current building blocks. Therefore the courtyards need to be made collective. Creating covered parking and storage in these courtyards will tie the separated building mass together to a readable rectangular building block. The new parking garage will free up the storage space in the plinth and free the streets from parked cars. Its roof can be used as a playground or a collective (vegetable) garden. Residents attach better to space that is exclusively theirs, then to public space that has no specific owner. Then the freed up opaque plinths need to be opened to the streets. In allowing the first floor apartments to extend to the plinth level, more social control is available and at the same time houses with larger floor areas are added to the building stock. On top of the housing block extra floors can be added to provide more upscale houses. With these adjustments families that improve their financial situation will be able move to a better house within the Slotervaart neighborhood.
Stratified cultural program
The functional program in multicultural communities like Slotervaart can be subdivided into three layers. The first programmatic layer is generic and not culturally defined. A supermarket, a cash withdrawal machine and a city hall can be categorized in this layer. Program in the second layer is bound on ethnicity or culture as a whole. A mosque or a church are two examples. The third layer consists of more specifically oriented program for subcultures i.e. a bridge-club which is mainly visited by elderly male users of western origin, or even more specific; a Turkish coffee-house which is solely visited by Turkish men.
Opaque cultures
All over Slotervaart this rich diversity of cultural program is hidden behind monotonous facades of standardized building blocks. The reserved opaque plinths of the blocks characterize the instinctive barrier that exists between the ethnically diverse population. Culturally specific programmatic components, such as the coffee-house, barber and bridgeclub, are on the one hand spatially separated by absolute distance and on the other hand visually disconnected by introvert accommodations. This segregation of cultures invokes intolerance in the multi ethnical society. Distance obstructs interaction between cultures, visual disconnection makes cultures unapproachable. This leads to misconception and eventually to polarization. Comprehension and understanding is the key element for tolerant communities and can only exist if cultures are open and transparent.
To unite people with different social and cultural backgrounds and to disclose self-centered cultures to outsiders, the diverse cultural activities need to be taken out of the confined spaces behind the uniform facades. The variety of cultures has to be unveiled visually and made tangible in spaces that are open to everyone. Experiencing a Hindu wedding, sharing the compassionate joy of a soccer match, the scent and taste of a nocturnal ramadan meal or the sound of a piano lesson. In the experience of these human activities the key to appreciation and comprehension of others is embedded.
The August Allebé square is a place for all cultures living in the neighborhood. All programmatic cultural layers meet here. Islamic - and public schools, a mosque and a church, coffee-house and billiard-club, fish booth and Dönnershop are programmed side by side. The square has no programmatic hierarchy, but is rather an ad hoc ensemble of provisional measures. The typology of the square consists of two elements; open space and the physically allocated permanent program. The elements on a square can develop synergy, but in the case of the August Allebé square they counteract each other. The physical program splits the open space in narrow places, giving the square it’s indistinct character and diminishes the opportunities for the square to fulfill its function in hosting large scale events. Undefined front-and back side situations result in obscure places and make intense camera surveillance necessary.
A radical shift in the relation between program and the open space of the square can endorse a radical shift in the relation between cultures. By superimposing the open space on top of the program, two vertically separated levels are created; one layer of mass and program, one level of space and events.
The level of synchronous cultures
The lower level consists of a dense grid of transparent spatial modules. Each module can contain specific cultural programs, from trivial to elitist or familial to collective; a ballet school, a room for prayers, a Dutch fish-stand or a laundromat. The labyrinthian but transparent juxtaposition of these varied activities allows visitors to synchronously experience a myriad of cultural expressions. By equipping the activity-modules with transparent and fully openable walls, expansion of a specific activity domain is made possible. In this way the level of connectivity and interaction between people and program, and neighboring program is raised. The absence of physical boundaries allows spaces to interconnect, cultures to cross borders and people to cooperate.
Although we can be sure that the new open context will evoke new relational arrangements between cultures, foreseeing the exact way in which they will react on the new condition is impossible. The distribution of culturally specific program over the field of volumes can not be dictated or planned, but will be organized by unpredictable forces and processes. Because of the never ending chain reaction of influences within the structure, the layout is always in an unstable condition. Over time it is both possible to see an evenly distributed blend of cultural program transforming into an arrangement of several isolated clusters or into a complete homogenous monocultural mass.
The closeness, abundance and transparency of experiences on this level induces people to enter into a state of wandering. The principle of the ‘dérive’ through the open labyrinth of synchronous cultural ambiances, stimulates the interaction between wanderers and invokes an empathic mindset. By juxtaposing different cultures, unexpected programmatic combinations emerge, accidental encounters between diverse social backgrounds will occur and new experiences will take place.
Abundant emptiness
The upper level opposes the underlaying density and predominantly consists of emptiness. The vast public space is open to the entire neighborhood and encompasses the potential for large scale cultural expressions such as concerts and manifestations but also allows smaller scale functions like a market or sport events. Moreover it sets the stage for orientation and directness and with that counters the diffuse world it covers.
As time has changed society, new icons of contemporary life have emerged. Culturally unspecific functions that are shared by all cultures replace the cornerstone function that church and mosque used to have in a monocultural society. The iconic value of religious places plays a secondary role in a multicultural community. Therefore culturally generic functions as supermarkets like LIDL and Albert Heijn, cash withdrawal machines and the city hall are the new cult icons on the August Allebé square. Situated on the lower level, they pierce through the horizontal membrane and serve as beacons on the sizable open square. As orientation markers and collective meeting points they are directly accessible from both levels and provide access to the dense cultural labyrinth. Church and mosque are lower in hierarchy. Therefore they merely serve as visual markers. They do not provide a physical link between the two levels and do not have direct access from the square. In order to reach them, one has to submerge into the cultural mass of the lower level. Visitors of these collective culturally specific functions will experience the dense arrangement of cultural diversity before entering their monocultural destination.
Cultural landmark
With these new realms that promote and embrace cultural diversity, Slotervaart will set a new standard for cultural expression. By exploiting and facilitating the local patriotism of the individual communities a truly diverse and open multicultural institution is created. It allows Slotervaarts diverse community not just to coexist, but to intertwine. The notorious district that was avoided by all that did not have business there becomes a cultural landmark by utilizing exactly its feature that was once its major concern.
team
Sascha Glasl
Tjeerd Haccou
Marthijn Pool
year
2009
competition
Prix de Rome