STRIJP S / EINDHOVEN. Maarten de Reus - Scheepstimmermanstraat 124 /1019 WZ Amsterdam

Transcription

1 In 2009 I was asked to develop a plan on the site of the former headquarters of Philips in Eindhoven, called Strijp. A raised services structure of entwined elevated tubes and pipes (in Dutch called a leidingstraat ) interconnected the buildings there. It will be taken down once Phillips moves out and the site will undergo urban re-development. I was asked to design a new structure with a new function that would nonetheless refer to the old leidingstraat. The result was a hortus conclusus on stilts, creating a garden in the busy public space that one could see but not enter. Under this construction, a citybus-route is planned. It will be the only traffic travelling under the full length of the construction. Artificial rain coming from pipes would intermittently fall on the bus as it passes underneath, creating an alternative fountain. In this plan, the normal elements of a city-scape were are juggled and organised in a new way. A plant bed (normally on the ground) was to be elevated into the air, and a fountain was turned upside down, creating an urban event somewhere between a giant car wash and a waterfall. Thus a large scale body would be placed in the heart of the new city-development; one with a puzzling status: is it an industrial remnant? A garden? An attraction in a theme park? An overground stretch of a subway line? A car wash? A pier away from the sea? A sculpture? Yes, well, actually all of these. Maarten de Reus - Scheepstimmermanstraat 124 /1019 WZ Amsterdam maartendereus@xs4all.nl 1

2 Green Lines in the City The once functional elevated construction of hoops and pipes hopes to survive in the future cityscape of Eindhoven by means of metamorphosis. As part of a large family of ex-industrial buildings throughout Europe, that outlive their initial purpose, such constructions end up in a no-mans land of disuse, absence of maintenance, decay, and nature taking over. Then it is the wrecking ball, or if it s lucky, an escape through gentrification, or change of purpose; being saved by the redefinition of purpose. Because of the similarities in elongated shape and elevation, my first associations were with the disused overground subways of London and New York. These are firmly taken over by nature, and some councils have decided to go with the flow and turn them into city parks. 2

3 On Stilts In a constructional sense an elongated thing on stilts is also part of a family. The piers along the sea side in many European resorts spring to mind. It is striking that many of these piers fell into dysfunction. Fire or lack of business turned them into mere shapes tiptoeing into the ocean. 3

4 For the sake of being there In contrast to it s predecessor the new leidingstraat in the Strijp location will have no obvious function. That is not a problem. Many constructions have at their core the pure joy of being there. To build for building s sake. 4

5 Tunnels, Transport For many people the car-chase in The French Connection still is the ultimate chase in cinema history. The added suspence is heightened by much of it taking place in the tangle of roads under the overground at New Utrecht Avenue in Brooklyn. Carriages in many theme park s Tunnels of Love travel at much lower speeds. The myth of the tunnel is one of transition, a rite of passage going from here to there. 5

6 Rites of Passage - Territorium Water often has a role in rites of passage. Whether it s the baptising of a person or a ship, the ritual cleansing of oneself in a holy river or one s own car on a weekend morning, or the peekaboo fountains in parks springing up from the ground when least expected giving form to the unexpected nature of life s course. A notion of territory was part of the brief for the new construction at Strijp. Water could play a part in this. 6

7 Hortus Conclusus - Fata Morgana The new construction will be a hortus conclusus. A garden you cannot enter, but one that is visible from many angles in many ways. This hortus will thus be a silent presence in an otherwise very busy traffic environment. In that sense it will be like a fata morgana, an oasis as a trick of the senses, always remaining out of reach. 7

8 Lay Out, first sketches 8

9 Shuffling the Cards The core of this design is the shuffling of known elements of the city landscape. By shuffling them, these elements find themselves in a completely new relationship to one and another, as well as to the viewer. Consider beds of flowers, a grassy traffic island, a row of shrubs or a hedge, a small park, a waterwork, a fountain, a bus passing by... A small city-park is elevated to 5 meters above the ground and thus becomes a green island of sorts. A semi-wild garden, the planting of which will be designed in cooperation with the city s botanical-ecological specialists. Buses drive underneath the full length of the structure, which has become an elongate archway, a new entrance to this renewed part of the city. The waterworks are a reversed fountain in the form of a rain machine. The rainmaker is steered (controlled?) by a computer, that is triggered by an approaching bus. The computer decides at random which bus will be rained upon. For the people on the square it will be a recurring but still unexpected event, a bit like a cuckoos clock, which one is not sure whether or when the cuckoo will appear. All together, this will produce an enormous thing that puzzles, and questions its own status: is it an industrial remnant? A garden? A theme park attraction? An overground stretch of a subway line? A car wash? A pier away from the sea? A sculpture? Yes, all of those... 9

10 Simulations 10

11 Simulations 11

12 Simulations 12