This year’s Dutch pavilion at the Venice Biennale hosts ‘Vacant NL’, an inventory of empty buildings irrespective of their age or former function. Five thousand of these dormant shells, all government property, are shown as miniature models to indicate the millions of square meters vacant (floor) space in the Netherlands alone. Volume editors Rem Koolhaas, Mark Wigley, Jeffrey Inaba and myself gave a first reaction on the theme, and presented some ideas for further exploration during the opening weekend. In particular, Rem Koolhaas presented OMA’s experience with changing an old prison in the Netherlands in the early 1980s; Jeffrey Inaba connected VOLUME’s latest issue on counterculture as a mentality and socio-political experiment with respect to the task presented here; Mark Wigley stressed the normality and necessity of a certain percentage of empty building stock, pointing at the inspirational and stimulating aspects. My five remarks, presented while seated below the ‘low ceiling’ of the blue foam marquette in the Dutch pavilion, reappear below.

1. If AMO/OMA, in one of the rooms of this exhibition’s main pavilion, states that it ‘has been obsessed, from the beginning, with history’ (propagating an ‘almost doing nothing’ approach), I can also remark that VOLUME/Archis has been obsessed from its beginning with empty buildings. The reasons may in part have been banal – the need of cheap office space – but the engagement was and is sincere. Archis is currently housed in the former health service center of Shell in Amsterdam and is involved in the reuse of other buildings on this huge inner-city site. We are also addressing the issue of what to do with the larger part of the former Shell terrain that awaits redevelopment, after most of its abandoned laboratory buildings have been demolished although the projected residential buildings have been put on hold. The expected delay in redevelopment will be 5 to 10 years, leaving the site as a fenced-off, empty sand pit for years to come. So my first remark is: vacancy is not only about empty buildings, but also about empty land and vacant plots.

2. During the Dutch pavilion’s opening ceremony, Mr. Cor Zadelhoff, retired real estate agent, expressed his mea culpa for the pitiful real estate situation in our country. He pled guilty for introducing lease and rental constructions for offices, where in the past firms would build and own their own office space. This freed capital to be used for the company’s core business, but this also produced a serious number of technical and functional crappy office buildings that are empty today. Yes, self-accusation is interesting as a signal (real estate developers and agents being instrumental in producing the situation we’re in, comparable with the bankers’ role for the credit crisis), but the problem as indicated is only one element in a larger whole. So my second remark is: crappy buildings and empty offices are only part of the problem. Fundamental economic and cultural shifts (products and production methods) have changed the footprint of our economy. This sheds new light on the relation between function and use.

3. After seeing the Dutch pavilion, there is no need to panic for Dutch or European architects; the globe still needs a lot of new construction. But if you’re primarily designing for the local or regional European market; ‘new’ may not be the main focus. My third remark is: architects must become smarter in the art of reuse.

4. Reuse was about taking apart and constructing anew with existing elements, components, and materials (instead of demolishing and starting from scratch). It was a revolution that is still gaining in attention and popularity. ‘Cradle to cradle’ is one of its mantra with two Americans (McDonnough and Baumgarten) as high priests and Mr. Gore as nuntius. Future reuse will be about refraining from construction at all. So the fourth remark is: use what we have, deal with what already exists. Architecture schools and specialized firms will focus on matching demand and supply, on adaptation, and first of all on the notion of temporary use versus the permanence of construction.

5. The issue is not simply about the designer’s mentality and educational focus, it is about economic and political conditions that have to be confronted. What in heritage is the norm – do not harm the buildings main structural components and preserve its character as quality – is still alien to redevelopment and refurbishment. Economic mechanisms give preferential treatment to stripping and fitting out anew if demolishment is avoided in the first place.

Regulations, laws and habit prevent reuse of the existing. To demolish and build something new is much more easier than to keep and change what we have. This asks for some clever redrafting of the existing legal framework. My fifth remark is: remove the incentives to construct new building stock in a saturated market, to construct for emptiness. And clear away obstacles that prevent the reuse of existing buildings.

—Photos: Rob ‘t Hart

Rory Hyde made three radio shows during the Venice Biennial. Click on the titles to listen to the recordings (mp3): Venice show 1 (Australia, Ross Lovegrove), Venice show 2 (Ronald Rietveld, Saskia van Stein & DUS), Venice show 3 (Fuad Al Ansari, Momoyo Kajima, Ivan Rijavec).

22 September-24 September, 2010, PICNIC Festival, Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam. More information here.

Build architectural constructions of bamboo around a wooden bicycle track. The track, commissioned by Mediamatic, was designed by DUS Architects and will serve as the ‘city-ring’. Around it we’ll create an urban bamboo landscape. Every hour you’ll see the structure grow, until it’s a massive bamboo-constructed city. Antoon Versteegde is known for his immense installations constructed in the public space. DUS Architects specialize in social architecture.

Please RSVP if you want to participate. The chance to work on such a project doesn’t come around often, and the workshop will only set you back € 25. This is a three day event, so make sure you RSVP for the day of your choice.Wednesday September 22, Thursday September 23, or Friday September 24.

On FlowingData we found a map which provides insight in how the Mississippi river has evolved over the past. In 1944, cartographer Harold Fisk mapped the current Mississippi River — the white channel on the map. Besides that, he drew the river as it had been in earlier decades (all colored ribbons), based on old geological maps, and created a fascinating graphic for the Army Corps of Engineers. Click here to view a graphic of the entire Mississippi river.

15-19 September, Broedplaats Westerdok, Amsterdam.

In response to economic and environmental pressures, innovative city administrations are actively seeking temporary land and building uses that support the city and its people physically, economically and socially. Urban agriculture projects can bring positive new life to the many unproductive urban voids that are mushrooming in our cities, leading to better living environments and stimulating local economies.

Through Farming the City, CITIES and the dienst Ruimtelijke Ordening Proeftuin Amsterdam are bringing together farmers, local communities, policy makers, academics, students, architects, designers, technologists, engineers, city users, commuters and tourists to trigger imagination and share knowledge, skills and ideas about urban agriculture. By highlighting the range of innovative projects taking place around the world, it aims to promote existing projects and to explore creative new ways of taking city farming projects forward. CITIES proposes a collection of case studies and examples of urban agriculture projects from Amsterdam and all over the world. The examples of urban agriculture shown in this exhibition are divided into three groups.

Community activism
Typically, urban agriculture projects have been developed by local communities, for example produce markets, city farms and garden allotments. An emerging new public policy focus on community engagement and local partnership working is creating new opportunities for community-based projects to inspire, develop and prosper:

Innovative public policy
Local authorities recognise the benefits of encouraging urban agriculture through existing and future planning and land use policy. Supporting city farming delivers a range of benefits: providing locally-produced fresh food, greening the city, reducing waste, improving public health and enabling the growth of productive community partnerships.

Design, technology and engineering
As economic and environmental pressures rise up the political agenda, technological innovators, engineers, architects, landscape designers, planners and urban designers have responded to the need to develop more sustainable ways of living. New forms of vertical farms, green domes, roofs and walls, water gardens, green towers, green bridges and perfume jungles offer new scope and potential for the viability of urban agriculture.

During the launching event, local actors, active in the urban agriculture field, will work together to define new strategies. Eight workshops, one each city district, will be hosted by city council representatives. For the city center, a selected group of professionals from different disciplines will work on the definition of new visions and plans, while in the other districts attention will be focused on the implementation of existing plans. The final results will be presented during the opening of the exhibition.

Spectacular architecture was one of the backbones of last Olympic Games organized in Beijing. Both the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube were meant to attract attention on the event and the city on a global level. This approach or discourse in architecture and city marketing provoked a lot of criticism worldwide. Questions were asked, such as what to do with a hugh mega stadium and an olympic swimming pool after the Olympics? And should buildings, this big and pretentious, be built to facilitate a four week event only?

Since the end of the Olympics in 2008, the Bird’s Nest hasn’t found a significant use. According to Wikipedia only two events were planned, both on 8 August 2009, the one-year anniversary of the stadium’s opening. One is a performance of the opera Turandot. The other is the final of the Supercoppa Italiana (Italian Super Cup). Football team the Beijing Guo was supposed to play at the stadium, but finally they didn’t want to use a 80,000+ seat venue for games that routinely draw only slightly more than 10,000 people.

“In January 2009, the venue’s owners announced the stadium would be turned into a shopping and entertainment complex in three to five years. The venue costs approximately $9 million to maintain per year. Due to a lack of use, paint is already peeling in some areas; plans call for the $450 million stadium to anchor a complex of shops and entertainment outlets in three to five years is being developed by operator Citic Group. The company will also continue to develop tourism as a major draw for the stadium, while seeking sports and entertainment events.”

To the contrary, the Beijing swimming pool seems to have found its new life in facilitating fun and entertainment for Chinese families. The great Water Cube is transformed into an amazing water theme park with the help of $50 million in renovations. The water park currently takes up half the space of the Water Cube and tickets costs about $30. CNN reports online:

“The water park, which takes up about half of the 12,000-square-meter complex and, according to state media, is now the largest in Asia, features a wave pool, lazy river, spa area and 13 water slides and rides, including the Bullet Bowl, Speed Slide and Tornado.”

This way the original atmosphere of the stadium is used in a great way. One can imaginarily enjoy being in between all the bubbles on the facade. The Water Park is like a fairytale in an underwater world that even Michael Phelps must enjoy more than a boring 50 meters pool.