Architecture Events
Adriaan
Geuze, West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, awarded the
Seventh Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design by Harvard Design School
Award Recognizes
Excellence in Urban Design With International Scope
December 4, 2002
30 – 50% Void: Borneo Sporenburg Residential Waterfront, Amsterdam
Exhibition of Award-Winning Project to be Presented at Harvard Design
School
November 25, 2002 - January 12, 2003
Cambridge, MA– On Wednesday, December 4, 2002, the Harvard Design
School will award designer Adriaan Geuze and his firm, West 8 Urban Design
& Landscape Architecture, of Rotterdam, Netherlands, the seventh Veronica
Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design for its innovative design of the Borneo
Sporenburg housing project in Amsterdam. The project involved the transformation
of two expansive docks on Amsterdam’s eastern waterfront into residential
neighborhoods that have become a striking waterfront landmark.
The Green Prize is awarded every two years to recognize excellence in urban design with an emphasis on projects that contribute to the public realm of a city and improve the quality of urban life. The foremost award recognizing achievement in this field, past recipients include Jorge Mario Jauregui Architects in 2000, Sir Norman Foster (now Lord Foster) and his London-based firm Foster and Partners in 1998; Mexico City in 1996; joint winners Fumihiko Maki and Luigi Snozzi in 1993; the City of Barcelona in 1990; and joint winners Ralph Erskine and Alvaro Siza in 1988.
Harvard Design School Dean Peter G. Rowe and jury chair Rodolfo Machado, Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design, will introduce Adriaan Geuze and present him with the Prize at a public program that will feature a lecture by Geuze on the award-winning project. The Design School will also present 30 – 50% Void: Borneo Sporenburg Residential Waterfront, Amsterdam, an exhibition that charts the evolution of the project through plans, drawings, models and photographs.
“Adriaan Geuze
and his firm created a profoundly inventive design solution for Borneo
Sporenburg that emphasizes the importance of open space within a high-density
housing area, and adheres to the traditions and character of its Dutch
urban setting,” said Rodolfo Machado, Professor in Practice of Architecture
and Urban Design at the Harvard Design School and Chair of the Green Prize
jury. “This visionary work is also a testament to the fact that the
most successful urban designs emerge when there is collaboration between
the planners and architects.”
Borneo Sporenburg Residential Waterfront
In 1996, West 8 was commissioned to transform Borneo and Sporenburg, two expansive docks on Amsterdam’s eastern waterfront, into residential neighborhoods with 2,500 housing units. The program called for suburban-style, low-rise housing, each with a front door opening onto the street, to be introduced into a high-density urban setting with 100 units per hectare (roughly 2.5 acres), three times the density of a typical suburban development.
These requirements resulted in a highly original design that draws upon and enhances the surrounding landscape, and features a rhythmic interplay of built and unbuilt forms. Drawing upon Dutch architectural heritage, the West 8 design is inspired by villages on the former Zuiderzee, where small, intimate houses descend toward the water, as well as the sublime relationship between indoor and outdoor space in the paintings of Pieter de Hooch and Vermeer.
Low-rise structures are arranged into strict banded blocks and sub-divided into individual parcels, each containing an inside void that comprises 30 to 50 percent of the parcel. More than 100 architects participated in the planning process, developing new housing prototypes that incorporate these voids. The resulting designs feature patios, roof gardens and striking views of the waterfront. The Borneo Sporenburg plan divides the grid of low-rise buildings in three places with architecturally distinctive high rise residential buildings, or “sculptural blocks,” which create significant landmarks within the harbor landscape. These sculptural blocks, informally known as the Sphinx, PacMan and Fountainhead, also contain collective open space in the form of a courtyard or garden. The water surrounding the docks serves as the dominant public space, open to Amsterdam’s boating culture.
Committed to creating unique structures within a unified whole, West 8 worked with nearly 80 architects who design the various structures, including O.M.A., Neutelings Riedijk, Mastenbroek, Miralles, van Berkel, and Mateo. West 8 designed the various gardens and other open spaces, as well as such landscape elements as the three sculptural bridges that connect the different neighborhoods on the peninsulas. Completed in 2000, Borneo-Sporenburg already has become a striking landmark on the Amsterdam waterfront.
Adriaan Geuze, West 8
Adriaan Geuze is the director and head designer of West 8, a European leader in landscape and urban design. Geuze founded West 8 on completing his Masters degree in landscape architecture at Wageningen University, Netherlands. He has since worked all over Europe, on projects ranging from the redesign of the northern Copenhagen waterfront to the landscaping of the grounds at Schipol Airport, Netherlands. His recent and current projects include the Schouwburgplein public square, the Swiss National Exhibition (Expo.02) in Yverdon-les-Bains, Erasmian Garden in Rotterdam, and Chiswick Park, near central London.
The Veronica Rudge Green Prize
The Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design was established in 1986 on the occasion of Harvard University’s 350th anniversary, and the 50th anniversary of the Harvard Design School. To be considered for the Prize, projects must be larger in scope than a single building, and have been constructed within the last 10 years. Nominations are submitted by a panel of distinguished critics, academics, and practitioners in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. Prize recipients are presented with a monetary award and certificate.
The jury for the seventh Green Prize was comprised of experts in the field of architecture and urban design. Jury members were: Preston Scott Cohen, Professor of Architecture at the Harvard Design School; Margaret Crawford, Professor of Urban Design and Planning Theory at the Harvard Design School ; Gary Hilderbrand, Adjunct Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Design School; Mark Robbins, Director of Design, National Endowment for the Arts; and Rodolfo Machado, Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Harvard Design School, who served as jury chair.
Exhibition at Gund Hall Gallery
In conjunction with the Green Prize, the Harvard Design School will present
an exhibition, 30 – 50% Void: Borneo Sporenburg Residential Waterfront,
Amsterdam from November 25, 2002 – January 12, 2003. The exhibition
will focus on the planning process, exploring concepts of sculpturality
and ornament, diversity and individuality, and the significance of individual
open spaces through the display of site plans, models, and photographs.
The exhibition will be on view at the Harvard Design School’s Gund
Hall Gallery, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA. The line for the public
to call for information about the Gund Hall Gallery and exhibition is
(617) 495-4784.
The
Harvard Design School
The Harvard
Design School is the nation’s leading center for education, information,
research, and technical expertise on architecture and the built environment.
Its flagship graduate programs provide masters and doctoral degree programs
in three integrated departments: Architecture, Landscape Architecture,
and Urban Planning and Design. Established in 1936, the School educates
a broad range of design professionals, policy makers, government officials,
business leaders and the public about design and its impact on our lives
through an array of conferences, exhibitions, professional development
and executive education programs, and research activities.
# # #
The exhibition is free. For more information on 30 – 50% Void, the public should call (617) 496-1234 or visit the Harvard Design School Web site at www.gsd.harvard.edu
Harvard Design School
Gund Hall Gallery
48 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel.: (617) 495-4784
For media inquiries,
requests for visuals and RSVPs, please contact:
Blythe Liebgott/Deborah Kirschner
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
(212) 671-5161/(212) 671-5178
bliebgott@resnicowschroeder.com/dkirschner@resnicowschroeder.com