The name and d i d a c t i c aims of t h e c h a i r of I n t e r i o r s have been open t o i n t e r p r e t a t i o n ever since t h e c h a i r was e s t a b l i s h e d . Even though t h e i n t e r i o r of a b u i l d i n g and i t s e x p e r i e n t i a l q u a l i t i e s and mean-i n g have always been at t h e very c e n t r e o f our i n t e r e s t , we r e g a r d a l i m i t a t i o n t o t h e l i t e r a l i n s i d e o f a b u i l d i n g c o n t r a d i c t o r y t o t h e i n t e g r a t i v e approach t o a r c h i t e c -t u r e we b e l i e v e i n . Q u a l i -t y and meaning of space are our main f o -c u s , whether t h e spa-ce i s small or l a r g e , or o u t s i d e or the i n s i d e a b u i l d i n g . In r e c e n t years t h e chair t h e r e f o r e has been c a l l e d I n t e r i -o r s B u i l d i n g s C i t i e s i n -o r d e r t -o express i t s openminded and i n c l u -s i v e c h a r a c t e r .
The state of present day architecture w i t h its unsettling lack of d e f i n i t i o n , l i m i t a t i o n s and con-sensus has been generally c r i t i c i s e d many times, most recently by my colleague Dirk Somers in t h e introduction of his essay 'what happened to t h e fagade'. A r c h i t e c t u r e in the Netherlands has, however, now entered a new phase t h a t seems to be even more unsettling than before. D u t c h ar-chitecture in general is losing ground.This crisis has been related to the economic crisis, b u t t h e problem is more f u n d a m e n t a l . In contrast t o the s i t u a t i o n in our neighbouring countries, where architecture seems to be flourishing despite similar economic circumstances, and where firm political and cultural structures have recently been established to enhance this development, t h e profession in the Netherlands seems to have relinquished all the tools and structures that t r a -ditionally protected and c o m m u n i c a t e d its value. W e architects will have to redefine and reposi-t i o n our profession if we wanreposi-t reposi-to f i n d a way oureposi-t of t h e present crisis. A s educators we have a role to play in t h i s , even though an academic i n s t i t u -t i o n has a differen-t scope -than -the world ou-tside and f u n c t i o n s at a d i f f e r e n t pace. More than ever before we need to define explicitly what kind of architects we want to educate, what kind of skills and knowledge we want t h e m to develop, and how we want them to reflect on their profession and to operate w i t h i n a threatened culture. T h e more architecture seems to be endangered, t h e more f i r m l y we believe in the specific aspects that, in our eyes, architecture has and needs.The more the current public opinion, t h e a t t i t u d e of today's clients and recent economic o p p o r t u n i -t i e s reduce -the profession -to -the surface, -the more we feel the need to c o n c e n t r a t e on the values we share at Interiors, namely the integra-t i o n of skills, crafintegra-t and r e f l e c integra-t i o n . T h e more archi-tecture merges in the public opinion w i t h other visual disciplines, such as design, photography, fashion and advertising, t h e more we feel like emphasising architecture's specific character and role.The weaker the f o u n d a t i o n s of architec-ture seem to be, the more we feel like concen-t r a concen-t i n g on archiconcen-tecconcen-ture's fundamenconcen-tal aspecconcen-ts, such as building and space and the relevance of materials, structure and proportions.
An integrated design task
The Msc1 project is t h e first big architectural project during an architecture study at t h e T U Delft, and the first design project after the m u l t i -f a c e t t e d Bachelor programme. Because o -f t h e large variety of didactic concepts applied w i t h i n the large faculty, architecture at D e l f t is taught as a colourful puzzle that often consists of many at t i m e s unrelated, fragmentary pieces, and despite considerable efforts it's hard t o integrate for both students and teachers those pieces into one consistent whole. In the Msc1 project we expect our students to design a real building, w i t h a realistic, complex programme. We try t o s t i m u l a t e t h e m to design a considered structure and a t h o u g h t f u l fagade, and to pay attention t o careful detailing and materialization. We try to include conversations w i t h a 'real' client into t h e semester. We choose a location on a historically and spatially demanding site, one t h a t is close enough for our students to visit several times, t h a t they can develop their own relationship w i t h it. For our understanding of architecture the inte-gration of those aspects is essential. In the Msc1 project we try t o bring it into practice. We can summarise it very shortly. It means to us that we design from inside out.
Designing from inside out
Designing f r o m inside out means many things to us. But it mainly means that we look at the very inside of a design task f r o m various angles, using both our minds and our senses.This turns the commonly expected, linear design process f r o m small to large, from concept t o detail upside down.
We start w i t h the essence of a project and f r o m there we develop a shape, an o r g a n i s a t i o n , and an architectural expression. W h e n design-ing a school we simply cannot avoid startdesign-ing our work w i t h our own memories of our own experi-ences and our own ideas about the feel and char-acter of a classroom in our minds. So instead of starting our semester w i t h an urban analysis we ask our students to make a classroom model in 1:20 in the first week o f t h e semester. We look at its atmosphere, its scale and its proportions, and we develop our building proposals f r o m there. W h e n developing a fagade, we start by building
I n t e r i o r Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet 1850
a f r a g m e n t at a large scale instead of gradually moving from the large scale to more detail.This way of working forces us, and our students, to get down f r o m the bird's eye perspective, right from t h e start.
Leeskabinet
In the spring semester of 2012 we worked on a design for the Rotterdamsch L e e s k a b i n e t - a small library dedicated t o literature and history. It was privately founded in t h e 19th century, and now serves as a department of the university library.The library's original inner city building was destroyed during the war, and its present spaces on the university campus lack quality, space and specificity.The need for a replacement is easily imaginable, and the present librarian encouraged us t o take on the project by acting himself as client.
The reading room o f t h e pre-war Leeskabinet, w i t h its large café on the ground floor and a read-ing room on top contained all read-ingredients that belong to the building type In general: a large, common reading table, the use of bookshelves as a powerful architectural gesture, the clarity and s i m p l i c i t y of its arrangement, and the combina-t i o n of a high ceiling w i combina-t h a large, monumencombina-tal skylight and the domestic intimacy of individual reading lamps. In the course of t h e semester we carefully studied the few existing, contemporary images o f t h e beautiful space and discovered striking similarities to much grander libraries such as Labrouste's St. Geneviève and Dublin's Trinity College library. W e then held an inten-sive, short workshop during which we intuitively worked on an experimental interior space as a large-scale model, t e s t i n g our f i r s t associa-t i o n s , and associa-then refining associa-t h e m . T h e models associa-thaassocia-t were developed during t h e w o r k s h o p were useful throughout the semester and f o r m e d a lasting source of inspiration for most designs.
Context
Designing from inside out means to us that we t r y to establish a personal relationship with the context in which we set our design tasks. We are quite suspicious about references taken from distant contexts, and try to avoid the uncon-sidered use of the vast imagery of architecture
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provided by the media. We start to look at our building site w i t h our own, preferably unpreju-diced eyes, spend hours walking around, taking photographs, observing its life, its buildings, its use, its light, its sounds and its atmosphere. We look at Its history, its f o r m a l i t i e s and i n f o r m a l i -ties, and at its qualities and shortcomings. We try (sometimes very hard) to develop sympathy for and an understanding o f t h e place and f r o m there we developed our interventions. We start to look a t t h e urban space our building shares and influ-ences and base our architectural intentions on t h i s spatial experience.
In the spring semester of 2012 t h i s proved to be a demanding task. Not many students (or architects!) look w i t h empathy at the architecture of the (recent) past and at neighbourhoods t h a t were obviously built on a small budget.This ap-plies especially to the many participants o f t h e studio who did not know Rotterdam well. It takes t i m e to appreciate Rotterdam's post-war herit-age, w i t h its subtle beauties and obvious imper-fections. It is even harder to make a conscious judgement for the required formal strategy for an intervention in such a f r a g i l e context.The c o m -munication w i t h the context was mandatory (as it always is in our studio's) and we discouraged the many a t t e m p t s by students to escape their
mundane surroundings by making (too) large gestures.
Making space
In the work in the studio, designing f r o m inside out means t h a t we make t h i n g s and look at t h e m . We make many big models, sketches, drawings and more models.To get a closer look photograph them to bring the images of the model closer to reality. We concentrate on capturing space rather than objects. We look at t h e s t r u c t u r a l setup of our projects and the implication o f t h e structure for the interior character and quality of all spac-es. We try to think like engineers and discover the beauty of grids, columns, rhythms and structural logic. We understand and appreciate t h i s s t r u c -ture as the very grammar of our work.
Finally, designing from inside out means ask-ing questions. W h e n startask-ing on the essence of a programme, a building, a room or a site we need t o know what kind of space we want to make.
L i b r a r y St. Genevieve (1851), H. L a b r o u s t e Wren L i b r a r y , T r i n i t y College (1595), C. Wren Herenplaats 1945 21 M e c h t h i l d S t u h l m a c h e r
W h a t ' s the meaning of it, to us and to others? How does it suit its purpose, its context? W h a t Idnd of materials do we want to use? A r e those materials related to the structure and, if so, how? How do these materials relate to the surround-ings? Does the choice make sense? Can we un-derstand i t ? W o u l d everybody unun-derstand it? Do we need clear shapes and proportions? Do we desire order, complexity or monumentality? W h a t does our building represent? How intimate can a space be? How w e l c o m i n g , warm, inviting? How much should architecture determine its use and how much should we leave to its current and f u -ture users? W h a t does i t t a k e to inhabit a space? Or t o put it more simply: what kind of skills do I need to make a good room? W h a t kind of quali-ties does it need? Is there such a t h i n g as a clear answer to good and bad in architecture? Is this a matter of skill, of good eyes or good thinking? Or is it a matter of luck? Or of skill, good eyes, good thinking and good luck?
Vedute
In o r d e r t o encapsulate both the questions and the f i r s t a t t e m p t s at answering them in one f i r s t -week design task, we s t a r t e d our M S d studio by making aVedute. It's a powerful design exercise to s t a r t t h e design process, as well as a small design project in itself.
'Vedute has been set up w i t h the aim to build up a library w i t h spatial manuscripts: a collection of three-dimensional objects that make the no-tion of space visible and tangible, as visualised thoughts. Vedute invites a r t i s t s , designers, archi-t e c archi-t s and oarchi-thers working in oarchi-ther disciplines archi-to
illustrate and reflect their personal ideas about space by making a three-dimensional work. In contrast to books spatial manuscripts reveal their secrets by images. Some can be
under-stood directly, whereas others need to be looked at again and again; the p o s s i b i l i t i e s seem to be endless. By c o l l e c t i n g and exhibiting these works Vedute aims to give giving new impulses to the thinking and the discussion about space and architecture.'
(Vedute Foundation website, www.vedute.nl) The kaleidoscopic c o l l e c t i o n ofVedute i n -spired us to use the f o r m a t as a warming up for our semester. Many students accepted the
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lenge, w i t h all its limits and endless possibilities. A n d many showed a surprising a m b i t i o n , creativ-ity and artistry.
The idea arose f r o m an own experience we had in our office. A couple of years ago the
Vedute Foundation invited us to c o n t r i b u t e to the c o l l e c t i o n . T h e invitation to make a manu-script in the Vedute format was a privilege and I f e l t happy to accept. A t the same t i m e it gave us enormous headaches. In our minds the whole thing grew to assume the proportions of a real project or even larger, with as its programme no less t h a n our concept of space and architecture in general.
The impressive collection the Foundation has assembled over the years and the e n t e r t a i n i n g presentations t h a t introduce new o b j e c t s force the p a r t i c i p a n t s to take their small t a s k very
seri-ously.This sense of urgency is the very basis of the quality o f t h e collection.
If done well, a Vedute is a spatial o b j e c t with t h e lightness of a 'Santa Glaus S u r p r i s e ' , the weight of an altarpiece and the value of a treas-ury. I s t i l l prize the lengthy conversations we had in the o f f i c e about this project, our s m a l l e s t ever, and the experiments we did as a r e s u l t - ( i n our case the casting and modelling bee's wax!) I be-came more and more grateful f o r t h e opportunity t o make a mission statement rather t h a n having to think about w r i t i n g down such a s t a t e m e n t down. A n d I value even more the spinoff it all had for o u r t e a c h i n g and our students. ' V i s u a l i s e d t h o u g h t s ' - w h a t more can a school of architec-ture hope to achieve in the first days of a design studio?
T h e V e d u t e s by our students were to be pre-sented in the second week. We had asked them to 'make' their ideas of a library and compress t h o s e t h o u g h t s into t h e Vedute-dimensions of 44 X 32 X 7 c m . T h e task dealt with such issues as order, atmosphere, light, material, symbolism, s i m p l i c i t y - in short w i t h the essence of a library. Wood was cut, guitars were destroyed and re-assembled in a Braque-like manner, paint was spoiled, transparencies t e s t e d , patterns devel-oped, churches built, poems w r i t t e n , wood sawn, cardboard chopped.The variety o f t h e results was impressive. Poetic, beautiful, experimental, creative.The objects accompanied t h o s e who
had accepted the challenge t h r o u g h o u t the rest o f t h e semester, as a meaningful guideline. I recall the presentation of the Vedute's as one o f t h e most cheerful, hopeful and inspiring mo-ments o f t h e semester.The almost absurdly t i g h t restrictions of the Vedute dimensions made it impossible for anyone to reuse known s t r a t e g i e s and to borrow imagery from somewhere else.The objects therefore revealed the surprising a u t h e n -ticity of our students.
In t h e weeks that followed it proved to be hard work to transfer the promising, initial creativity of t h e V e d u t e s into a 'real' building design. Not all of our students had been adequately prepared for their masters, and unfortunately quite many miss basic architectural skills. Nevertheless, t h e Vedute proved to be a friendly, speculative de-sign exercise for everyone, independent from lev-el or experience. It hlev-elped us to think and speak about the integration of meaning and material. W i t h the Vedute we invited our students to reveal their t h o u g h t s in a more direct way than a design of a building would allow them t o do.Those who accepted the invitation felt inspired throughout the semester. Some learned by looking at others, others need more time, maybe more invitations. But everyone in one way or the other kept refer-ring back to t h i s first week, its images, t h o u g h t s and conversations. A n d like t h i s the whole group got at least a bit closer to what designing from inside out means to us. For young architects who will need a lot of willpower, dedication and au-thentic thinking in the years to come that's quite something.
Choi Wah Lui Roos C o r n e l i s s e n Taja Bencina
24 S t u d i o : Library
