Amsterdam Innovation HUB

Capital Transformation Architectures @Harvard GSD/UNSTUDIO

[amsterdam-innovation]

Diagramming the Open Surface

An equipotential surface script allows the ability to control surface characteristics yet not determine specific spatial boundaries.

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Architectural Thesis

The idea of radically open and flexible ‘physical’ space is well conceived. Early projects such as Superstudio’s collages of the infinite grid and Mies’ Neue Nationalgalerie present an open interpretation of navigating physical space. More recent projects by SANAA such as the Rolex Learning Center or Frank Gehry’s proposal for Facebook’s Silicon Valley Headquarters seem to accept the continuous single floor plane as the ideal model for today’s collaborative office space.

I question what is the conception of a radically open digital network. The Open Source movement foregoes the traditional model of intellectual property viewing openness primarily in terms of information access and continual prototyping. Radically open in digital space connotes access to information and the ability to use information as one’s own in a continual common prototype. Assuming a constant bandwidth, distance is severely suppressed. Any location contains equal potential to move to any other. Whether I am near you physically or not does not matter. What matters is that we share a common access to a level of information so that we may collaborate. As a result the ability to access different types of information produces various forms and feelings of openness in the digital realm. A specific example such as Creative Commons defines the openness of IP in tiers of what is available for various forms of reuse.

The following diagrams describe a logic of relating the notions of openness for both physical and digital space. The result is a unique framework to today's quest for open collaborative space that maintains levels of privacy for collaborating, learning, focusing, playing, and socializing.

Moving forward a spatial and structural model is being developed. This model begins by investigating the gridded surface of Mies' Neue Nationalgaleire of Berlin and its phenomenal effects regarding openness and flexibility. A fresh look at this project in relation to a digital openness yields a logic following the above diagrams that allows the flexibility required for exception program, site, and architectural vision.

[amsterdam-innovation]

Amsterdam Maps throughout History and What they Tell Us

1590 - TODAY

Amsterdam's representation through maps reflects a strong image of more than the geography of the region. For example, until 1690 the region across the IJ on the map was occupied by a representation of Amsterdam's identity rather than a geographical reading of that space. Specifically, the map of 1690 depicts a view of the city center from a ship on the IJ. The earliest map in 1590 emanates a mythic feeling of the city of canals as clouds billow around the edges of the map. By 1735 the area across the IJ from the city center where Overhoeks lies shows up on the map. The infilling of the IJ and building characterizes the evolution of the Overhoeks region. Elevating portions of the site becomes the logical succeeding step for the Overhoeks site.

[amsterdam-innovation]

Mapping Networks

Text based diagrams in design are a great way to connect issues, ideas, facts, major player, and other. In the previous post I elaborated on the primary issues of the Overhoeks site in Amsterdam resulting in what I call an elevator pitch diagram.  Building upon the issues represented via the word, it is the designer's role to become visual as quickly as possible. For the architect specifically that means mapping issues and areas spatially.

The map below simply places the issues portrayed on the Strange Networks diagram from before on the site. Through the map not only conceptual relations but spatial and geographic relations are portrayed.

Placing the Strange Networks

  While testing initial site design, the diagram serves a crucial role in treating boundaries at the scale of the site, the development, and the city.

[amsterdam-innovation]

Strange Networks Acting on and through the Overhoeks Site

Strange Networks Diagram

The strange network coined by Albert Pope develops an understanding of both the intuitive and factual understandings of a site or culture. Initially put forward in diagram form by the Culture Now Project the diagram serves as an instigator between site research and initial design responses.

Here the specific natures of Overhoeks and my intuitions arrive at four statements. These issues tie back directly to the initial hard research and serve as an elevator pitch diagram to mobilize multiple parties engaged in a project.

The four statements: 1. Reconceive Place: Water to Ground, Industrial to ! 2. Absorb New City Center: Amsterdam city center rolls out creating another ring of development in time. 3. Qualitative Impulse: Provide amenities and public space for emerging development & existing neighbors. 4. Allow Growth, Scaffold Use: Promote diversity in building stock age

[amsterdam-innovation]

A Site for Design: The Overhoeks Strip, Amsterdam-Noord & the IJ

> In Conclusion, following the SWOT analysis of each site, the Overhoeks Strip appears most appropriate. The access via ferry, separated by the IJ from Centraal, allows the building to be placed in a specific spatial sequence that reinforces the nature of the building. The existing emerging development will also allow an intensification of use and the nearby Shell New Technology Centre a chance to serendipitously create relations and frictions between my proposal and an existing corporation. The Shell tower office space may be leveraged in the program and phasing proposal of incubators and growing companies that reside within my proposal.

Site Procession

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The Fours CTAAMS Research Sites with Proximities Mapped

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Studied Sites | AMS

Four sites located in the following neighborhoods were studied: Slotervaart, Biljmerbajes, Overhoeks, and Oosterdok. Each site can be leveraged in unique ways based on existing and emerging conditions. What follows is a SWOT analysis of each site and finally a winner is chosen.

Slotervaart Hospital The Slotervaart Hospital as the name implies is located in the Slotervaart area of Nieuw-West about 20 km from Centraal Station. The site occupies 0.14 Hectares set within a series of healthcare related facilities. The site itself would involve the renovation, perhaps radical renovation, of an existing hospital, Slotervaartziekenhuis, built in 1976.

Strengths: Proximity to A4 & A10 Access to Sloterpark Streetside bus & tram connectivity

Weaknesses: Very strong existing building form Internalized general form but w/potential edges of contact Removed from city center Bearing infrastructural edges on (2) sides Low concentration

Opportunities: Relationship to existing workplaces Leverage frequent area users and periodic visitor to hospital Outcrop/’skunkworks’ for businesses at Zuidas Approx. 7 minutes by car on A10) Approx. 8 minutes by car to port area

Threats: Intensive single use - healthcare Uncertain development pattern

Biljmerbajes Prison The Biljmerbajes prison as the name implies is located in Biljmer about 15 km from Centraal Station. The site occupies 0.28 Hectares and forms an existing prison complex that due to Holland's low crime rate is not intensively used. The site itself would involve the renovation, of the existing prison complex opened in 1978. The complex includes six towers connected by a low slung building serving as a kind of mega corridor.

Strengths: Proximity to Duivendrecht inter rail & metro station Proximity to Spaklerweg Metro Proximity to A2 & A10 Industrial/Business use nearby Access to Amstel River

Weaknesses: Strong existing building form Internalized site condition Constrained area by railway, A10, & canal Public connectivity Low concentration Opportunities: Relationship to local universities & businesses Leverage student users & user turnover for system feedback Outcrop/’skunkworks’ for businesses at Zuidas (approx. 7 minutes by car on A10) Threats: Non-continual programmatic use University/industry specific

Both the Slotervaart Hospital and the Biljmerbajes sites include the renovation of existing building typologies and therefore present illogical challenges to the intention of building a new prototype of radical policy experimentation and open labor practices. 

Overhoeks Strip The Overhoeks development lies directly across the IJ from Centraal Station. The site occupies 0.17 Hectares and is situated amidst an emerging residential development (2,200 new units), the EYE Film Museum, and existing buildings with plans for more cultural activities and creative office space. The entire Overhoeks development occupies 20 acres, 7 of which are the new Shell New Technology Centre.

Strengths: Emerging mixed-use area Proximity to ferry, Centraal Station, & Downtown Amsterdam Proximity to Amsterdam-Noord Ring Road Greenways Quickly leave town for country

Weaknesses: Not intensive mixed-use or concentration ‘Shadow’ of EYE Museum Homogenous development Young - plans first developed in 2003 Opportunities: Connect to IJ (Lake) Introduce program lacking in immediate area Create public (open) space Young - plans first developed in 2003 Approx. 8 minutes by car to A10 & “country” Approx. 15 minutes by car to port area

Threats: Quick successive development Further homogeneity in building stock age Dependence on NTC (7 acres)

Oosterdok Island The Oosterdok Island embeds itself within a busy zone just east of Centraal Station. The island site is small yet sits within 1.36 Hectares of potential urban designed space. The area was master planned in the 1990's and since has seen the construction of the Nemo Museum designed by Renzo Piano as well as a largely successful library.

Strengths: Proximity to Centraal Station Proximity to IJ Tunnel Concentration of intensive use Public connectivity

Weaknesses: Atrocious continuous mass on north side Public connectivity Opportunities: Increasingly touristic - global feedback to system Relationship with library Approx. 11 minutes by car to A10 & “country” Develop relationships w/inhabitants of existing and emerging developments

Threats: Increasingly touristic -short duration feedback Intensive uses replaced by less intensive

In Conclusion, following the SWOT analysis of each site, the Overhoeks Strip appears most appropriate. The access via ferry, separated by the IJ from Centraal, allows the building to be placed in a specific spatial sequence that reinforces the nature of the building. The existing emerging development will also allow an intensification of use and the nearby Shell NTC a chance to serendipitously create relations and frictions between my proposal and an existing corporation. The Shell tower office space may be leveraged in the program and phasing proposal of incubators and growing companies that reside within my proposal.

[amsterdam-innovation]

Potential Sites

While in Amsterdam I visited four sites for further research and the design of the innovation hub. Here are some photos of the various sites: CTAAMS: Sites of Initial Investigation

The four sites offer distinct advantages and disadvantages which I will elaborate upon in a follow up post. For now, enjoy the diverse neighborhoods of Amsterdam shown here: Slotervaart, Biljmerbajes, Overhoeks, and Oosterdok.

[amsterdam-innovation]

Defining the Thesis... 'Sharply'

New modes of production and alternative forms of capital allow start ups to occupy entirely new space within the global economy. The success of these companies challenges the one dimensional and traditional approach to capital, i.e. economic capital. No longer can companies not take advantage of existing cultural and symbolic capital nor can they ignore vigorously pursuing the amplification of existing alternative forms of capital.

Furthermore, the most successful of the emerging start ups seek ways of circumventing economic capital altogether in specific instances of their business models. Quirky, for example, rewards community members with points for later purchases when they contribute their opinion to the development of a product. More and more businesses are discovering the importance of designing and iterating their business models for improved results.

At the same time it is clear that the effect of regulation on innovation is crucial. Policy initiatives and existing laws in various cities point to the importance of less burdensome regulation on start ups and innovators. The intellectual property debate cannot be divorced from these policy issues. As is the case in Silicon Valley, the heralded region of innovation, the elite are turning to rent-seeking behavior in the form of patent based IP, thus stifling the creation of new wealth. Coupled with the increasing importance and exchange of other forms of capital a condition is emerging where patent based IP moves towards obsolescence. Through the one dimensional economic capital logic this appears as a threat to innovation. BUT the patent is not the only formalized product of an idea. In fact, the success of companies utilizing social media as an exchange of capital are finding that there is more than one way to assign value to an idea or product and that throughout the mode of production different capital forms can be applied to the exchange of the goods and services needed to move further along the process.

Throughout the world Special Economic Zones (SEZs) provide corollary models for states to experiment with other forms of governance and market ideologies. SEZs aim to facilitate foreign investment and strengthen a state's competitiveness in the global market. These territorial zones allow alternative economic models to exist within diverse governmental contexts. So What if IP Didn't Exist? What if Goods & Services were Exchanged for Various Forms of Capital? I am proposing a prototype of openness; a special economic zone within a city to restore the catalytic information and experiment in radically open labor practices. Current capital thinking, IP, and the geographic disjunction of information inhibits the amplifying of flows of ideas and energy. The aim here is to discover the architectural implications of such radical openness embedded within the context of Amsterdam, a historically forward looking trade state.

Question and Proposal: Slides from a presentation given at Harvard University on October 24, 2013 More to come...

[amsterdam-innovation]

Amsterdam Fall 2013 (70 photos)

+AMS Photos Fall 2013 Research Trip

As promised here are photos from my research trip to Amsterdam for the Overhoeks innovation hub and prototype. I am only sharing photos from around the city now. I'll save the site photos for later posts. Again, I can't stress enough the importance within the design process of visiting a site, seeing the city, meeting the people, and experiencing their culture.

Enjoy! LINK:

AMS Photos Fall 2013 Research Trip

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Silicon Valley, a Knowledge City Case Study

Silicon Valley serves as the go to innovation city case study. Its role in popular culture has reached a nearly mythical status. As a result many misconceptions exists regarding its origins and future. The popular notion is a Silicon Valley pulled up by thousands of engineer's bootstraps. Unfortunately, for the glory seekers that is not the case. The true history is much richer and involves periods of intensity of different forms. 

Set within the larger context of the Bay Area, three crucial periods formed the Silicon Valley we know today. Initially, the Gold Rush established a resilient and bottom-up approach to development and speculation. This period laid the groundwork for San Francisco as a global network city. Later after World War I through the beginning of the Cold War a period of top-down sustained government investment took place. By the 1960's Lockheed Martin employed 20,000 engineers in the region creating a unique and robust local talent pool. By the 1950's Dean Fred Terman of Stanford University was transitioning the area for another bottom-up period. Through Terman's connections and insistence for students to start their own companies, an entrepreneurial culture was developed atop the existing groundwork of the previous two periods.  Silicon Valley's Three Crucial Periods Today we know SV for its incredible innovations and seeming continual growth. We know it for its fluid knowledge exchange between universities, trade associations, and companies. California's law against non-compete clauses reinforces ths fluid exchange. Because of it the boundaries in the labor market are porous. As Manuel de Landa writes "continual migration ensures that new formal and informal knowledge diffuses rapidly through the region." 

How We Know it Today

Like any successful city or institution, Silicon Valley faces threats. Its very own success could possibly lead to its demise. Very real problems have emerged in Silicon Valley over the past decade that are converting its meshwork characteristics into the more hierarchical and bureaucratic organization that it despises. For example, investment capital is already moving north to San Francisco and Oakland as start ups look for more affordable real estate and urban qualities. The slide below summarizes key threats to Silicon Valley's future success.

What's in store for the Future

The slides shown here our from a presentation given in Amsterdam at UNStudio. Ben van Berkel and Christian Veddeler served as faithful listeners and fantastic critics for moving forward.

More on SV / Sources: Quora on Silicon Valley Secret History Lessons from Silicon Valley A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History

[amsterdam-innovation]

IP?

I briefly described Bourdieu's forms of capital in my last post to frame the value systems associated with intellectual property.

The United States approves nearly 401,000 patents a year. While historically this would be a prime example of the US' prominence in innovation, the patent model itself is being challenged. A patent costs between $5,000 and 10,000 depending on the complexity of the invention and takes 2-3 years. In the EU patents are similarly time sinks and cost on average €30-36,000. As the landscape of technology rapidly develops time means big money. Increasingly, companies are avoiding the patent model altogether in favor of emerging methods for valuing intellectual property. 

The diagram below depicts the traditional model of intellectual property development alongside that used by Quirky and other crowd sourcing companies. Using Bourdieu's various forms of capital it demonstrates how Quirky integrates not only economic capital, but symbolic and cultural into the development of a product.

The advantage of the Quirky model is increased speed to retailing by integrating the consumer and various taste makers into the R&D phase from the initial idea. In fact, Quirky often does not pursue patents and instead focuses on being first to market.

As new technologies make information exchange more fluid and less expensive it is inevitable that companies will emerge to leverage the various forms of capital available in their networks to establish market presence and even exchange goods and services in an a-monetary form.

[amsterdam-innovation]

Alternative Means for Understanding Capital Transformation

I mentioned in previous posts the increasing value placed on other forms of capital. This is important because businesses do best when multiple forms of capital are leveraged at the right moments and stages of development. 

As a reference frame for this research Pierre Bourdieu's forms of capital are incorporated to expand the complexity of the understanding of capital. 

For the record per Bourdieu: Economic Capital is immediately and directly convertible into money and may be institutionalized in the form of property rights. Cultural Capital is convertible, on certain conditions, into economic capital and may be institutionalized in the forms of educational qualifications. Symbolic Capital is the resources available to an individual on the basis of honor, prestige or recognition. Social Capital is made up of social obligations (‘connections’), which is convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital and may be institutionalized in the forms of a title of nobility.

This categorization of capital better approaches the transformations of capital taking place today versus the conventional model of economic and intellectual capital. Through this lens we can better speculate on emerging programmatic needs in the contemporary workplace.

Read more Bourdieu:

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

[amsterdam-innovation]

Company Capital Matrix

The above chart depicts the space in which emerging companies dealing in various forms of capital (economic, social, symbolic, cultural) lie and relate them to 2 historical examples: the tradesmen or smith and the consignment shop. The chart though only relates them in the traditional sense of capital, i.e. economic. Depending on where a company is situated their degree of catalytic information varies. For example, a company like Sculpteo who produces 3D prints for customers lacks the internal non-codified information exchange occurring at the smith's workshop. To a lesser extent Quirky does a decent job at spreading that knowledge out though the use of social media working in tandem with an in house R&D team.

Start-ups challenge the space along the emerging modes of production constantly. The most successful ones will disrupt their markets by leveraging the increasing public value put on other forms of capital.

[amsterdam-innovation]

The Project or Problem, and the Consultant

I write today following up on the issues raised in the post: Widgets or Decisions. McKinsey Solutions is an appropriate case study in new labor management techniques as Clayton Christensen, Dina Wang, and Derek van Bever explain in Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption. McKinsey & Company, the parent company, solves problems of concern for senior management. As McKinsey Solutions they advise businesses, institutions, and governments; they are not insiders. They solve the hard to solve problems in innovative ways through assembling "leaner project teams of freelance consultants for clients at a small fraction of the cost of traditional competitors. They can achieve these economies in large part because they do not carry fixed costs of unstaffed time, expensive downtown real estate, recruiting, and training1."

What the consultant offers is a set of fresh eyes and on demand expertise. My question functionally and architecturally is would these individuals not benefit from space to interact with each other and further their knowledge? A space such as this would promote the catalytic information exchange necessary in today's fast paced world. Looking towards the design field, IDEO and Open IDEO serve as prime examples. Their approach distinguishes them from not being just a design firm, but in fact consulting on innovation as well. And they are in fact geographically dependent, yet flexible to client needs through multiple offices and online platforms.

One last important item from Christensen, Wang, and van Bever is autonomy. The organization of innovative consulting must function independent of the parent organization, a sentiment echoing that of DARPA in a previous post, Innovative Management Structures (Developing a Corollary).

In following posts I'll describe the companies and organizational structures forming around emerging modes of production.

Companies being Challenged/Challenging Emerging Forms of Capital & Production

1. Read more here:

Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption

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Amsterdam Trip

I almost forgot the most interesting part thus far, my research trip to Amsterdam. I'll post links to photos in the coming week. Trust me, Amsterdam was real fun. My time there offered incredible insights on the four potential locations for an innovation hub. In architecture nothing beats the information gained from visiting the site, seeing the city, meeting the people, and experiencing their culture.