oscarloeser Brutal Beauty
BB is a project research on Architecture/ Body and Image. The different disciplines offer a unique perspective on a place such as Bijlmermeer. It searches for a holistic approach of:
How do we live?
Where do we live?
Why are we living like this?
How does our presence influence the ongoing tranformation of the architecture?
How does the architecture influences our transformation?
Brutal Beauty is the name of an ongoing process. Every event forces the next step. It eludes the capitalistic destination of a product. It is thought as a mental architecture. Constantly transforming.
f or english below
"All buildings have arisen, have stood, and stand as physical symbols of the psychic state of the people ... throughout the past and the present, each building stands as a social act, in everything that men do they leave an indelible imprint of their minds. If this suggestion be followed out, it will become surprisingly clear how each and every building reveals itself naked to the eye; how its every aspect, to the smallest detail, to the lightest move of the hand, reveals the workings of the mind of the man who
made it, and who is responsible to us for it."
Louis Sullivan (1906 'What is Architecture'.)
der Godfather des Hochhauses benennt diesen sozialen Aspekt als die Verantwortung von Architektur- was haben die Architekten in Bijlmer gedacht (auf der MS Patrias II) War Ihnen das Ausmass bewußt? Wieviel Utopie steckte in den Entwürfen? Ab welchem Moment haben sie mit den Knien gezittert? 100000 Menschen. Nassuth, der Mastermind von Bijlmer verließ desillusioniert 1979 das Projekt. Da galt dieses Megaprojekt als gescheitert. 31 in Honigwaben angeordnete 500m lange 10 stöckige Betonhüllen sind gebaut worden. 60% davon sind bereits abgerissen.
Cut.
Vor Ort: Bijlmer. 20min mit der U-Bahn vom Bhf Centraal entfernt. Wir tauchen ein in eine Utopie. Gaasperplan so hieß einst die Wiese, jetzt die Station, so auch Bijlmermer, ein See mit Feldern und Schafen. Wasser ist omnipresent. Es ist menschenleer. Man fühlt sich ein bisschen w
ie ein Elektron, das von einer Steckdose in die nächste geleitet wird. Der Versuch dem zu Widersprechen endete in einem endlosen Marsch. Wo sind wir eigentlich? Waren wir hier nicht schonmal? Orientierungslosigkeit. Wir treffen den Leiter des Bijlmer Museums, ein Bijlmer Believer der ersten Stunde- Leben gab es hier, freien Wohnraum, Strassenhändler, es waren alle gleich. Kriminalität ja, aber man wußte wo man hin gehen konnte und wo nicht. Elixer, ein Restaurant mit lokalem Gemüse wird ebenfalls geleitet von einer Bijlmer Believerin. Circular Economy wird hier gelebt. Sie ist hier groß geworden- eine glückliche Kindheit. Draussen in der Natur waren sie gewesen. Welche Natur? Die flachen kargen Wiesen? Der Untergrund ist meist Beton, Asphalt, selbst der Rasen ist hart. Der Blick haftet an den Fassaden und schlängelt, schneidet sich immer wieder entlang an den durchgehenden Balkonen. Wie Felsen winden sich die Kolosse in die Landschaft. Bijlmer ist eine Schleuse, eine Verteilerdose. Hier kommt man an, wenn man von weit weg kommt. (On arrive ici, si on vient de loin). Die Fluktuation ist groß. Frequenz, Puls. Die Architektur verrät das nicht. Sie gibt den Anschein des Beständigen, des Erhabenen. Was hat sich aber verändert und was ist geblieben? Welche Handgriffe sind im Beton sichtbar? Welche Beulen, welche Schleifspuren. Wie kann man, bevor man dieses Gebäude betritt (im Grunde ist es nur eins) nicht daran denken, dass das Leben eine Maschine ist.
Mit großer Hartnäckigkeit in Form von stobenden, schnaufenden Maschinen werden jegliche Sedimente als Ausdruck menschlichen Daseins weggebürstet, weggesttrahlt, verhindert. Potential gibt es hier nur bei den BijlmerBelievers. Das sind diejenigen, die die (sozialistische) Idee eines der Gesellschaft dienenden Individuums als Chance begreifen etwas auf die Beine zu stellen, das sich gegen Luxus und unendlichen Spasskonsum ausspricht. Die den Raum begreifen als etwas, in dem man sich befreit von der Selbstverwirklichung. Als einen Ort des Austauschs, getrieben von Leidenschaften die man teilen möchte. Diese Architektur läßt diese Räume zu, sie schlummern als Idee von Anfang an auf dem Papier, man muss die Tür zu diesen träumenden Räumen nur öffnen.
ENGLISH:
Bijlmermer (near Amsterdam), a social housing project from the 1960s for around 100,000 people, is a testimony to modern architecture from the pen of the CIAM (Congress International de l'Architecture Moderne), whose members included men such as Corbusier, Alto and Gropius. In the Athens Charter (drawn up on the way from Italy to Greece on the MS Patrias II ), they developed the theory of a modern city, which envisaged the separation of the functions of the various areas of life. Mobility, work, leisure and living. What did modern architects think about the body? Ever since the discovery of blood circulation in humans (Harvey ca. 1670), the idea of a human machine had been developing and this idea was soon transferred to the urban body. One speaks of arteries and veins. Let us think of the Bauhaus - Oskar Schlemmer, the form (the costume) determines the type of movement. Were people measured at this time? Quantised? Was the development of the individual a possibility because he was a number, calculable, countable?
"All buildings have arisen, have stood, and stand as physical symbols of the psychic state of the people ... throughout the past and the present, each building stands as a social act, in everything that men do they leave an inde
lible imprint of their minds. If this suggestion be followed out, it will become surprisingly clear how each and every building reveals itself naked to the eye; how its every aspect, to the smallest detail, to the lightest move of the hand, reveals the workings of the mind of the man who made it, and who is responsible to us for it."
Louis Sullivan (1906 ‘What is Architecture’.) the godfather of the skyscraper names this social aspect as the responsibility of architecture - what did the architects in Bijlmer think (on the MS Patrias II) Did they realise the extent? How much utopia was there in the designs? At what point their knees were trembling? 100,000 people. Nassuth, the mastermind behind Bijlmer, left the project in 1979, disillusioned. This mega-project was then already considered a failure. 31 10-storey concrete shells, 500 metres long and arranged in honeycombs, were built. 60% of them have already been demolished.
Cut.
On site: Bijlmer. 20 minutes by underground from Centraal station. We immerse ourselves in a utopia. Gaasperplan was once the name of the meadow, now the station, as was Bijlmermer, a lake with fields and sheep. Water is omnipresent. It is deserted. You feel a bit like an electron being channelled from one socket to the next. The attempt to contradict this ends in an endless march. Where are we actually? Haven't we been here before? Disorientation. We meet the director of the Bijlmer Museum, a Bijlmer Believer from the very beginning - there was life here, free housing, street traders, they were all the same. Crime yes, but you knew where you could and shouldn’t go. Elixer, a restaurant with local vegetables, is also run by a Bijlmer Believer. The circular economy is a way of life here. She grew up here - a happy childhood. They had been out in nature. What nature? The flat, barren meadows? The ground is mostly concrete, tarmac, even the grass is hard. The view clings to the façades and meanders, cutting along the continuou
s balconies again and again. The colossi wind their way into the landscape like rocks. Bijlmer is a sluice, a junction box. You arrive here if you are travelling from far away. (On arrive ici, si on vient de loin). There is high fluctuation. Frequency, pulse. The architecture does not betray this. It gives the impression of permanence, of the sublime. But what has changed and what has remained? What hand movements are visible in the concrete? What wounds? Before you enter this building (it is basically just one), how can you not remember that life is a machine. With great tenacity in the form of puffing, puffing machines, any sediment as an expression of human existence is brushed away, blasted away, prevented. There is only potential here with the BijlmerBelievers. These are the people who understand the (socialist) idea of an individual serving a society as an opportunity to create something that speaks out against luxury and endless fun consumption. Who understand space as something in which one is liberated from self-realisation. As a place of exchange, driven by passions that people want to share. This architecture allows for these spaces, they lie dormant as an idea on paper from the very beginning, you just have to open the door to these dreaming spaces.
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