#rotterdamstudioabroad

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Day 1 at OMA

The Countryside studio kicked off with a full day (10am to 5.30pm!) of introductions and presentations. We met Stephan Petermann and Rita Varjabedian from AMO who will co-teaching and facilitating the studio respectively, Niklas Maak from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung who will teach the seminar on semiotics, as well as Rem Koolhaas. 

Stephan first showed us around our main working space which had several OMA prototypes, models, and a tapestry that used to belong in Rem’s home. In the afternoon Stephan, Niklas, and Rem then brought us through the 5 themes of interest which we could choose from. From otium and the pastoral imagery to conversations with primatologists, we were encouraged to hone in on case studies that could speak to global phenomena taking place within or to the countryside. 

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It’s a wrap!

After returning from our trips bright eyed and bushy tailed, we held our final review on 23 November to a panel that included our instructors from the semester, Troy Therrien from the Guggenheim, and the AMO folks. 

It’s been intense and quick semester, but research has definitely been a different experience from what we would’ve had back at Gund. The real gem, however, lay in the conversations we had with our lecturers and guest reviewers sitting in the good ol’ Aquarium. 

Your resident Rotterdam TA signing off,

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Dispersal to our countrysides

Weeks 10 and 11 journal: We endured extreme weather, malarial mosquitoes, and shut doors to travel to our case study sites and further the knowledge of mankind. Here's our itinerary, collectively:

Hannah, for output - London and Edinburgh Gideon, Joseph, and Lindsay for permafrost - Moscow and Yakutsk Nick and Joseph, for Cartesian agriculture - Agritechnica in Hannover Remus, Noelle, and Yiting for East Africa - Kenya and Tanzania Aranza and Hayden for the Countryside State - Iceland

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Tour de France

10 meetings in 4 days, nothing could have daunted our heartened spirits as we traipsed across the French countryside, conversing and experiencing the dichotomy between the leading edge of industry and the butt of agriculture (footnote: Mao). Thanks to the planning efforts of Niklas Maak, Rita, and Remus, here's all we accomplished in 4 short days:

Day 1: Seminar with Sebastien Marot, followed by a wonderful reception at Michel Marot's.

Day 2: Site visit to Fondation Lafayette, exclusive tour of Maison de Verre, conversation with Rene Gailhoustet at her brainchild of Ivry Sur Seine, visit to Hans Walter Muller's inflatable house.

Day 3: Conversation with Yona Friedman, visit to the Familistere in Guise.

Day 4: Tour of Corbusier's Cite Fruges in Bordeaux, and a stayover at the idyllic abode of Tarnac Nine.

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More photos from the office

We met for a low-key progress update before everyone’s dispersal to the countrysides. Some on the other side of the pond would call it a mid review. Also present were Janna, Stephan, and Samir Bantal from AMO, and Niklas Maak.

No worries, we came here to study landscape/architecture. And that is exactly what we did after the busy morning when we burrowed on to the Hague for an insider’s tour to Rijnstraat 8, OMA’s renovation of the Netherlands’ government offices. 

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October 21 was a good day

As we Bostonians know and as Good Will Hunting reminds us, October 21 marks the anniversary of Carlton Fisk’s legendary home run during Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. Spirits were high in studio throughout this week leading up to this special day, and this is not even alluding to Lindsey’s scotch from her weekend in Edinburgh. Captured here are excited students planning their respective excursions to their case study sites, and us capping off the week with a dimsum dinner to celebrate the joyous day that is Oct 21st.

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Some weeks are diamonds

Who knew GSD’s hallowed halls of learning extended beyond Gund, for this week saw a turnstile of industry experts and scholars making a beeline for OMA’s Aquarium to talk about their research and areas of interest. But hey, there ain’t no easy way out, so we too reciprocated with presentations of our Countryside research in their infant prodigy stages.

The first members of this week’s breakfast club included Troy Therrien of Guggenheim NY, Meredith Whittaker of Google’s Open Research group, and Kenric McDowell of Google’s Artists and Machine Intelligence (AMI). Together, their interdisciplinary backgrounds and voracious appetites for trends of all sorts put our own work through some good, good lovin’.

Next up were Meghann Ormond and Machiel Lamers from Wageningen University. Meghann shared her work on the relatively new terrain of medical tourism and its sociological implications on hospitality and hospitals. From a discussion of the Global North and South we glided down over to more hinterland as Machiel spoke about polar tourism in the Arctic, before freefallin’ down to the Anti-Arctic (Antarctica). In both cases we saw how rationing tourism was vital to protecting the ecosystem, else the rocks might melt and the sea might burn. 

Speaking of constructive criticism, Albert Pope - yes, the brains behind Ladders - was our guest speaker for Sebastien Marot’s seminar this week. He presented his latest thesis on density and spinal patterns of growth, using Hong Kong’s public housing as the exemplar for dense housing. 

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Our very own Ban and Yina trekked down to Berlin last weekend to collect inspiration for their independent studies on social housing. Class was not only something they studied, but also how they travelled. They met up with Niklas Maak, our Semiotics lecturer, who brought them to Ritterstrasse, Lokdepot, local architect Arno Brandlhuber’s office as well as many other neighborhoods around Berlin.