Archinect - TUDelft - Delft University of Technology

Back to life...apologies to Bryan (GSD)

2004-11-24T21:49:18-05:00

Well folks...sorry for the long period without any posts.
I spent 2 weeks in the US doing field research in NY and Boston, and when I returned found myself in turmoil of unforeseen work to be finished.
I also apologize to Bryan (GSD blog)...my friend at the GSD did me the huge favour of formating his HD with the pic we took together in Gund Hall. It's a pity the first join-post of the school blog project will not happen.
By the way, I was in NY+Boston visiting sites in these cities where infrastructure generates a sort of interstitial situation...quite amazing places like this in Queens and Lower Manhattan.
In Boston I was taking a look in that 'big dig' project, amazing.

For MADianito

2004-10-19T18:13:06-04:00

We also have our share of sand and ocean over here, though these pics were taken two monsths ago!
Viva Scheveningen!!!
Anyway, but 'your' beach is still better...

Berlage Institute - Michael Speaks Lecture

2004-10-19T17:51:03-04:00

As I've already mentioned, one of the advantages of studying in Delft is that we can attend all the public events at the Berlage Institute.
Rotterdam is less than 10 minutes away by train!
Today they had Michael Speaks talking. He is very concious on the position of contemporary architecture towards modernity and truth claiming. Great lecture! Sci-Arc people are lucky to have him in their faculty.
As I haven't booked a seat inside the lecture hall I had to watch the lecture through a TV outside.
Well, at least it is for free and I don't need to avoid the Dutch giants to see the lecturer. I'm 1,90m tall and still heve difficulties in having clear looks from stages / screens. I pity the Asian inside the hall.

Delft Fraternities

2004-10-19T17:45:57-04:00

Similar to the American fraternities system, their Delft counterparts have a couple of differences. Membership is restricted but access to their services is open to everyone, not necessarily students.
Fraternities are basically divided between Protestant and Catholic.
The biggest ones offer 3-Euro dinner meals in weekdays.
It's f... good and worth the price!
When I'm on a hurry and cannot go home to cook, I eat at the one pictured below, the Kornbeurs. It's the 'alternative' fraternity, whose members have long hair and still wear flannel shirts, but they do have the best buffet!!!
It's amazing the number of locals to also eat there.
Next to their building, an old butchery, is a seafood shop (on the left) older than Brazil. It's quite weird to think that this family has been in this businness for over a century before the Portuguese set foot on Brazilian soil.

Architecture Building Features 7 >>> UNDERGROUND BIKE PARKING

2004-10-19T17:35:11-04:00

The title is rather self-evident...no comments necessary.

Architecture Building Features 6 >>> MAIN COMPUTER LAB

2004-10-19T17:34:29-04:00

The main computer labs cluster and color-plotting central.

Architecture Building Features 5 >>> EXPOSITION HALL

2004-10-19T17:33:51-04:00

This is the 'blokhal', where most of the expositions, charettes and workshops take place.
Studios are also using parts of it as the rest of the building is rather crowded. This year the universty increased the number of undergraduate freshmen.

Architecture Building Features 4 >>> WORKSHOP - MODELS

2004-10-19T17:29:54-04:00

I've almost forgotten to complete this image series on our building.
These are images from our model workshop.
It's one of the liveliest places within the building. There people there all the time and there's a kind of communal spirit there. Most of the poeple working are up to help each other in how to operate the machinery, choose materials and etc.
Ah! And we also have our share of high-tech modelling machinery, with laser cutters and 3D printers.

Many pictures today! >>> Relation and Forms Seminar

2004-10-19T17:21:03-04:00

Today I had the chance to document several parts of your daily life with my camera.
Some of them I took in a sort of 'hideous' way...not to embarass myself and the others when they could eventually ask: "-What are these pics for?"
The ones below were taken during our weekly philosophy and theory seminar - 'Relations and Form'.
It's a free-choice course shared by both PhD and MSc students.
We're currently studying Deleuze's writings on Kant and it involves a lot of ' a priori' and 'a posteriori' quotations (I alsways think of the GSD's posts on how the expression 'a priori' is quite fashionable there).
The professor guiding this seminar is Patrick Healy, an Irish philosopher from the theory department here. It's unbelievable how much he knows while being one of the most friendly and open professors we have here.

No comments...just tired...

2004-10-15T05:31:13-04:00

Sometimes 'Red Bull' is not enough...

What I'm doing...

2004-10-11T14:00:20-04:00

As I said in my last post, we're basically working on the theoretical framework of our thesis research and, therefore, reading a lot!
We're also working on diagrams to demonstrate what our design ambitions are, and to backup our theoretical research with empirical data (these I'll show later).
The books on the 'reading-queu' on my desk right now are (reading deadline >>> end of the month >>> hand in research papers):

'The Production of Space'. Lefebvre;

'The Condition of Post-Modernity', Harvey;

'Splintering Urbanism', Graham & Marvin;

'Everyday Urbanism', Crawford;

'Cities: Reimagiing the Urban', Amin & Thrift;

'The Critical Space'; Virilio.

ufff....!

Summarizing the research I'm developing here (with the more-than-welcome financial support of the Dutch government): it investigates the interstitial spaces between city and its mobility infrastructures, and how flows and forces influence urban form and society. I'm using Rio de Janeiro (hometown) as the empirical object fo...

UFO's in Rotterdam!

2004-10-11T13:46:19-04:00

Well well...after a 'sick' week I'm able to post again. The temperature in NL droped more than 5 degrees in only two days, meaning that a huge part of the population got sick in any possible way. Of course, I was included in this collective flu.
Differently from most of my 'school-blog-mates' we're not exactly concentrated on design right now. Reading, writing, and analyzing are our main activities. By the way, piles of readings to be done.
Last Friday we had another of those 'Urban Design Theory' off-campus lecture. This time we were in Rotterdam's WTC, one of the tallest buildings in town.
The lecture hall was on one of the top floors and we could get a great view from the city, what made going to this lecture worth enough.
An Asian friend, who always carries a camera (God bless her, a sort of 'secondary' author of this weblog) let me took some pictures with her camera. You can check them below...

1) UFO's invading R'dam, and the Blaak train/subway station and Kop van Zuid ...

More Utrecht Libray...

2004-10-04T17:01:57-04:00

For your delight...due to the 'boosted' public receptivity of my last post. Thanks Paul!

Utrecht University - Central Library - PICTURES

2004-10-04T06:29:50-04:00

As promissed in my last post...here are the images of Wiel Arets' library at Utrecht University. Enjoy!

New Urbanism X 'The Others' Debate

2004-10-01T06:19:41-04:00

Yesterday night we had a very nice 'change of habits', let's say...
Instead of having a regular lecture for the theory course called 'Spatial Dimensions', we had a presentation from a professor and a practioner about New Urbanism. This was followed up by a debate with other two professors who were completely against it.
I won't tell you the outcomes of it...I'll leave it to your imagination.
I'll just say that the 'hottest' moment of the debate was when the new urbanism team said that architecture and urbanism have nothing to do with politics and it should be exclusive property of other professions, such politicians and etc.
I really liked this shift in our normal daily life here. Students were more able and compeled to participate than in other days.
Unfortunately, I felt a bit shy to take pictures as I was sitting on a rather prominent place. So, this is my first pictureless post.

P.S.: By the way...I was in the Utrecht Universty this week checking the recently opened centr...

'Ubiquitous' classes!

2004-09-26T07:44:32-04:00

I don't know what happens here that our teachers love to organize classes outside the universiity. OK OK, it's cool once in a while to have classes at the NAi in Rotterdam, Kunsthal and etc. However, this semester ALL our lectures for the 'Thoery of Urbanism' course will be held off-campus.
It wouldn't be a problem if we were not supposed to rush back to the university for other classes!
Last Friday we had a lecture at Den Haag's city haal (Richard Meier's design), which finished at 12:40 and we had to be back at Delft at 13:30...meaning, no lunch time!!!
At least they try to calm our bitterness down with a free and abundant coffee-break.

How things work here...

2004-09-26T07:38:04-04:00

I finally got the time to post on how things work for post-graduate master students here in Delft.
Basically, if you come from abroad, you'll enroll in the so-called 'International MSc Programme', which has two subdivisions: architecture and urbanism.
Let's say it basically works as an M.Arch 2 programme. It lasts for 2 years and you can get licensed in NL, and therefore in the EU, afterwards.
However, it has a 'pot-professional' nature for us, international students, and a 'professional' one for Dutch students.
Before continuing, I need to explain something...
The EU is making an effort to make as uniform as possible its higher education system, as agreed in the Bologna Act (I'm not really sure if it's Bologna...if it's not, it's another Italian city for sure). The EU is doing that to increase mobility and attract more non-EU students.
For that, they created what they call the Bachelor-Master system (Ba-Ma), which is starting to be implemented by most of the universities arou...

Lectures here and there!

2004-09-21T18:05:39-04:00

Another good feature of studying in NL is the range of architecture-related lectures we get here in Delft and elsewhere.
Rotterdam (Berlage, NAi, Kunsthal) and Amsterdam (ARCAM, AvB) are, respectively, less than 10 and 50 minutes away from here.
According to friends studying at GSD we have seen Koolhaas more than they have.
Pictures: Koolhaas at the Berlage annd Winy Maas at TU Delft.

Why do they have to be 'weird' in everything?!

2004-09-21T17:52:40-04:00

Just a quick testimonial of cultural integration within Dutch culture...
If it wasnÃ‚Â´t strange enough for them to live 6 meters under sea-level and be in a constant state of fear of a collapse of the dykes system (thanks God no oneÃ‚Â´s had the idea of hijacking a ship an hitting them), Chritsmas here is kind of different from most of the western world.
A summary:
.Santa Claus (Sinter Klaas) is thin;
.he dresses like a priest;
.he comes from SPAIN;
.in a BOAT!;
.he walks around on a horse;
.his helpers are small black guys, which have been legally forbidden to be pictured as black in an state effort to reduce prejudice;
.if youÃ‚Â´re a bad boy your punishment is not only staying out of Sinter KlaasÃ‚Â´ list...youÃ‚Â´ll be taken to Spain inside a potato bag and will become one of his slaves!!!
.finally...he comes on December FIVE!!!!!!
.before someone asks...Dutch kids receive gifts on both 5 and 25 of December.

...

Architecture Building Features 3 >>> PRESENTATIONS + ACADEMIC WELFARE

2004-09-21T17:40:46-04:00

Well...first, IÃ‚Â´m sorry for not posting for a long time. Busy busy week...
Continuing the 'Building Features...' series, here are some pics from a studio presentation.
Last semester we had a quite large assignment involving both planning and design scales. For that, teams of up to 3 students could be formed.
We were a group of 2 Spanish and 1 Brazilian (me).
Studio crits here in NL are not that different from other places. Except for the fact here they are more aware of our stressful living conditions and try to 'smoothen' the schedule when it gets closer to presentations dates. It means less lectures and other stuff a week before presentations.
Maybe itÃ‚Â´s only due to the fact that universities must build up their scheduled under certain legal constraints.
Just like normal workers, students in NL have a limit of hours per week of compulsory work. This limit is calculated by adding the amount of time spent at the university and an estimation of how much time the studen...

No boy in the dykes...

2004-09-13T05:56:24-04:00

Well, I think most of you have already heard the story of a Dutch boy who saw a leaking whole in a dyke, put his finger there to stop the leakage and saved the country. It might only be a tale, but small wholes in dykes can cause a lot of trouble here. Check this image out from a broken dyke around here during this summer.

Architecture Building Features 2 >>> GRADUATE STUDIOS

2004-09-09T16:54:14-04:00

These are the studios reserved for 2nd-year Urban Design students in the building.
Basically, we have two different environments througout the 2nd year, one for the 1st and the other for the 2nd semester.
In the 1st semester, groups of around 10 students from the same research lab share a common unity (picture below)

Then, in the 2nd semester weÃ‚Â´re moved to individual units where we have our own university computers and drafting space (picture below).

We also have our own A4 printers and coffee/snacks supplied by the univ. We can also relax while admiring the activity in the undergraduate architecture studios from above. The Urban Design Studios are in a sort of closed balcony (pictures below).

Architecture Building Features 1 >>> LIBRARY

2004-09-09T16:45:48-04:00

As weÃ‚Â´re having a quite calm first week here I had the chance to take some time today to take some pictures of the architecture building here in Delft. IÃ‚Â´ll start with the academic posts next week, when weÃ‚Â´ll have everything completely settled down.
So, I proudly present a series of some features of our building here! (respectfully 'stealing' the clever idea of the Princetion bloggger)

First, below is a picture of our local library which houses most of the universityÃ‚Â´s book and periodicals collection on architecture, urbanism and landscape. All the new acquisitions and more rare volumes are kept in the centrl library (by Mecanoo).
ItÃ‚Â´s quite a good place to sit down for a couple of ours to read, especially when the sun is shinig through the north windows and one of the sofas are free over there. ThereÃ‚Â´s also a special study room upstairs with computers where we can go to work in a more quiet environment (for writing mostly), away from the constant noise of the ...

The good things of life (in Delft)!

2004-09-07T14:52:26-04:00

Two good things about life here in Delft...
1) Have lunch on the roof of MecanooÂ´s central library of TUDelft;
2) Chill out after 19:00 in the 'Bouwpub', which is outdoors due to the good weather (itÂ´s usually in the basement of the building).

Nothing much for the first week. Just setting things up...

2004-09-06T10:29:47-04:00

Well well, first day of classes and we just had 2-hour meeting with the coordinator of the 2nd-year graduation labs when he explained how things will go on from now on.
We just have a couple of lectures and other meetings this week...burning hell starts next week.
We've also had good news about really good visiting teachers this semester: Margareth Crawford (GSD), Cristine Boyer (Princeton), Sola-Morales (BCN), Zaera-Polo (London) and some others...
IÂ´ll post again (tomorrow) with detalied information on the graduate urban design programme in Delft to contextualize everything I say here.
In the meantime...below are pictures of 1st-day frenzy for undergraduate and graduate freshmen...Delft rule-"If you donÂ´t know where to go, hang around the entrance hall and go with the flow".

2nd year...weird weather

2004-09-06T05:32:27-04:00

I think itÂ´s needless to introduce myself again as you just need to click on my name and see my Archinect profile (which is quite complete, I think). Well, throughout this "scool blog" project IÂ´ll try to keep my blog as updated as possible with both academic and, letÂ´s say, "regular" issues. IÂ´ll try not to fill it up only with info regarding the MSc programmes here in Delft, but also with facts from everyday student life. After all, at least 10% of our graduate life here is not spent in the studio/library/computer lab. We do try to chill out sometimes...itÂ´s the Netherlands and, by law, we have the right for some time only for ourselves.
Today, first day of my second year here in Delft, and things are just like the usual here in the Netherlands - weird. ItÂ´s an extremely odd and hot day. No cyclones, blue sky...
In the afternoon, we,2nd-year students will have preliminary meetings with our tutors and heads of the graduation research labs. When we reach 2nd year here we ha...

Testing again...

2004-09-01T15:18:26-04:00

Testing again...

Test

2004-09-01T15:10:55-04:00

Test

Just testing...

2004-09-01T14:54:44-04:00

Just testing...will post "seriously" soon.
Classes will start next Mopnday, Sept. 6.