project06:Challenge

Revision as of 07:35, 19 March 2012

NDSM Eco-system

History and Development

The Noord district of Amsterdam had always felt a world apart. NDSM has been a shipyard until 1979, after this time the site became vacant. But now the noord has catch up: defunct warehouses have turned into ateliers for artists; companies (MTV, HEMA, etc.) moved onto the docks, festivals and galleries followed. Still more development has been planned: a hotel, housing projects...

Connection

Identity

As a former shipyard on the northern banks of the IJ and larger than 10 football fields, the NDSM wharf is now a center for underground culture in Amsterdam.
Besides its openness, another characteristic of the NDSM is its diversity, you can encounter from artist doing crazy works to office workers who were here only for its free parking. While the latter two want different things in NDSM. The close down of the bunker suggested this conflict. The balance between freedom and rules should be maintain.
Many of the people working in NDSM use their private tranport and park (free) around their office or along the roads.

The Faded Glory

The NDSM has been known as a bleeding ground for underground culture in Amsterdam. The size of the NDSM open space makes it perfect for hosting Festivals, some of which have more than 50,000 visitors. The warehouses was converted to aterilers for artists. Actually, the north of Amsterdam was used to compare as 'the Berlin of Amsterdam'.
Yet the glory of its freedom for the underground culture and independent artists is fading. The districts of the north had developed from poverty to underground, and from underground to hip and happening. And now there are signs that the north is saying goodbye to the underground culture community.The Bunker was closed in 2011, which made the artists angry, yet it was actually welcomed by the residents nearby who had long been bothered by the noise of these underground parties. And with the companies like MTV, HEMA, Redbull moved to the NDSM, the place is becoming more and more expensive for the independent artists too.

The Challenge

Temporality

The time-span and scale and needs for the events happened in the NDSM are varied. The openness of NDSM makes it full of potential, the diversity of the site is thus dramatic both in character and the scale of the events, it could go from totally empty to fully crowded; from a place of art to a open market.

Music Festival Kinder Atelier Flea Market

Public Sphere

The challenge is, how to maintain the characteristics of the NDSM, the creativeness, the atmosphere of freedom, the quietness of waterside, while providing facilities that adaptable to the vast diversity of NDSM?
The vast open space is what makes NDSM attractive for big festivals, yet it is also this vast open space make it seem so empty, missing a public sphere that encourage communications among different groups of citizens. The open accessibility alone does not turn public space into public sphere.

The Interactive Field

Concept

The design concept here is to create a public sphere, that could encourge the interaction between different communities, that could enhence the identity of openness and creativeness of NDSM.
With every public event to be ephemeral, the public sphere should also be temporal and adaptable.
In this design, I look at the public event as a particle, or an attractor. The public sphere that consisted with multiple events would be like cloud of particles that would have unexpected and sometimes amazing interactions. Thus it's not an object, but a field that capable of interaction.

Input & Output

Input
For the interactive between the The input of the design would be the people, specifically, the density of hte people. The density of the people and the events happening within, would be used to determin the connectedness between the components within the field. The higher the density, the more connection between the components, the more complex the field.
A second input would be the exhibition space indicated from Project 04. The interactive field would change accordingly to the needs coming from Project 04.


Output
The output is a field of temporary pavilions with different connectedness according to different uses.
It is a urban furniture, a playground for the kids, an open market, a temporary exhibition space, or simply an artistic installation.

Validator

During festivals the field is connective with the field of the festival and serve as organizaition or recreation space for the artist or the audiemce.
Meeting point & playground. The interactive environment serve as a meeting point and playground for employees in the MTV Network.

Open market

By encouraging the interaction between different groups of people while keep the openness of the public space, the intervention bring more control to the balance between freedom and rule. The encouraging creative spirit is what contribute to the ecosystem of NDSM.