Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Image © Myra May

The Rijksmuseum, one of the largest museums in Europe dedicated to arts and history, made 250,000 works from its huge collection available for free online viewing or download. 

During the golden age of sailing ships (roughly between 1584 and 1702), when Dutch ships dominated the trade routes of the world, the Netherlands became the first capitalist power in the west. The growing bourgeoisie class demanded a vast production of portraits and paintings, which enhanced trade, promoted the sciences and especially stimulated the arts. Few countries have such great quality artistic productions such as the Netherlands from that time.

The Rijksmuseum collection of paintings includes works by the leading masters of the seventeenth century. Names like Jacob van Ruysdael, Frans Hals, Fra Angelico, Rembrandt, and Vermeer are part of the collection. Works such as “The Jewish Bride” (1665), “The Nightwatch” (1642), “From Staalmeesters” (1662) by Rembrandt; “The Milkmaid” (1660), by Johannes Vermeer; “Winter Landscape” (1608), by Hendrick Avercamp; “Portrait of Couple Isaac Abrahamsz Massa and Beatrix van der Laen” (1622), by Frans Hals; and “Portrait of Adolf in Catharina Croeser” (1655), by Jan Steen, are available for free download.

All pictures are available in high resolution and users can explore the entire collection by artist, theme, style or similarity. To download, a simple registration is required or you can log in using your Facebook account. Then, just click on the option (download image) located below the selected artwork and save. 

Access the Rijksmuseum page to download your free high-resolution images.

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Reporting from Mali. Photo: Malkit Shoshan. Design: Irma Boom and Julia Neller. Image © Volume

Volume #48: The Research Turn contains the exhibition catalogue for BLUE: The Architecture of UN Peacekeeping, the Dutch entry at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, by Malkit Shoshan. BLUE focuses on the most prominent footprint of the United Nations’ peacekeeping operations: the compound.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and increasingly since 9/11 and the ‘War on Terror’, warfare has moved into the city. While the wars of the 20th century were largely between nations, fighting over territorial sovereignty and along disputed borders, the wars of the 21st century have been internal and borderless. Today’s wars are being fought between large multinational coalitions of security regimes and insurgent networks. It’s not just war that has moved to the city though: the entire security apparatus has moved with them too, including its peacekeepers and their entire infrastructure. Today, United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations are taking place in hundreds of cities around the world and at a large scale.  

Reporting from Mali. Photo: Malkit Shoshan. Design: Irma Boom and Julia Neller. Image © Volume

BLUE aims to turn the spotlight on contemporary UN peacekeeping missions as an urban phenomenon.  For the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, the Netherlands will explore architecture’s ability to improve the quality of the built environment – and with it people’s lives – by critically exploring its own role in UN missions and its frontiers.  

BLUE: The Legacy of UN Peacekeeping Missions began as a research project and a dialogue between the Dutch Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, architects and other cultural actors. The Dutch ‘3D’ approach to missions – integrating Defense, Diplomacy  and Development – is internationally regarded as innovative and progressive. By adding a fourth ‘D’ – Design – UN camps can be transformed from closed fortresses into catalysts for local development. 

BLUE takes the Dutch Camp for the UN in Gao, Mali – Camp Castor – as its case study. Here the ‘blue people’, the Tuareg, and the ‘blue helmets’ of the UN meet; as do the desert and the Dutch approach, the nomads and settlement…  BLUE – which as a color also represents boundlessness – exists at the intersection of architecture, human rights and activism. It emerges in times of conflict as the endless space of imagination and pragmatism that can produce alternative solutions. BLUE has the potential to improve life for millions of people.  

BLUE is made up of a series of narratives based on conversations with military engineers, architects, anthropologists, economists, activists, policy-makers, journalists and novelists. Incorporating cultural and spatial explorations, BLUE positions architecture in three distinct ways: as research, identifying and making visible spatial challenges and opportunities; as a practice, improving people’s living environment; and as a critical cultural space, reflecting upon phenomenal transitions in society. With this approach, conflict can become a chance for architecture to reinvent both the built environment and itself.  

BLUE: Architecture of UN Peacekeeping Missions. Photo: Iwan Baan. Image © Volume

Design for Legacy

There are about 170 UN peacekeeping bases located in rapidly growing cities in the Sahel. These compounds are there to accommodate UN personnel while they conduct missions. In order to not put additional pressure on scarce local resources, bases mostly provide their own water and electricity. They have basic infrastructure – a hospital, power plant, and waste treatment plant. The camps are rapidly built and are designed to operate as self-sufficient entities that have little need for interaction with their urban environments.

On the other side of their fences are the cities, which are mostly expected to multiply in size over the next twenty years. Many of these cities already struggle to provide residents with regular access to water and electricity. They have shortages of both food and housing. If armed conflicts and militarization continue to escalate in the region, resources will become even more scarce.

Design for Legacy aims to introduce architectural and design thinking into the planning and construction of UN peacekeeping bases. Currently engineered like machines with no civic or communal values, they could provide essential support local populations and leave behind a sustainable physical legacy that is beneficial to the development and stability of the local community once the mission is completed.

The UN itself talks about ‘Guidelines for the Integrated Approach’ – bringing together Defense, Diplomacy, and Development. What if we added a fourth ‘D’, for Design?

Architectural and urban design knowledge can bring together scales, disciplines, and stakeholders. By incorporating participatory practices, these could become important instruments for mission planning. It could help to generate alternative visions for the future of these areas and work towards a positive legacy.

In the end, the mission will be gone, but infrastructure, resources, and knowledge will remain behind with the local populations. 

BLUE: Architecture of UN Peacekeeping Missions. Photo: Iwan Baan. Image © Volume

Four Steps for Sharing Space

Below is a four-stage process that describes how a UN base can gradually open up and share resources and knowledge with local populations. The four stages are linked to security regimes. These exchanges aim to empower the local population so that they can reconstruct and strengthen their own environment.

First Step for Sharing Space: Exchange. Image © Volume

1. Exchange

A first interaction with the community during the construction phase of the base is important. In an uncertain security environment, relationships should be established at the start that facilitate knowledge exchange and carefully managed economic exchange, with some local sourcing. In this first exchange, UN forces should address local urgencies wherever and whenever possible. 

Second Step for Sharing Space: Interface. Image © Volume

2. Interface

The periphery of the base can act as an interface with the local environment if the right precautions are taken, even with relatively high threat levels. Here the civilian population can receive medical treatment and have access to water, food and electricity.

Inside the base, infrastructure such as water, electricity and sewage could be developed with a legacy in mind. The physical organization of the base could be designed so that it takes into account the future growth of the city and allow for an easy transformation of the base from being used by the UN to local inhabitants – from both an organizational and a technical point of view.

3. Shared space

Whenever possible, a shared space between the city and the base should be developed. This could be where UN peacekeepers and the local community develop and execute projects together. Here resources, education, trade, employment and cultural facilities could be designed to bring the locals and the UN together. 

This area should be visually attractive, taking into consideration local culture. It could contribute to the establishment of a safe and secure environment for the local population as well as for the UN troops. The shared space should be developed gradually and in collaboration with the local community. It could be considered a hub and as a catalyst for local development. 

By supplying resources and making knowledge available, local inhabitants can become empowered to develop their environment themselves. Schools and workshops could experiment with the production of resources by combining do-it-yourself solutions with both smaller and larger scale infrastructural production and maintenance. Spatial practices developed in the shared space could be replicated both in the city and on base.

Fourth Step for Sharing Space: Post-mission. Image © Volume

4. Post-mission

At the end of the mission, the base should be handed over to the local population, and become an integral part of the city. Since bases have been developed with the idea of legacy in mind and have incorporated local techniques, the structures should leave behind valuable resources for the city.

Malkit Shoshan on How the City is a Shared Ground for the Instruments of War and Peace
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BLUE: Architecture of UN Peacekeeping Missions: Inside the Netherlands’ Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale
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© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

• Architects: Fragmentos de Arquitectura
• Location: Praia D’el Rey, 2510-451 Amoreira, Portugal
• Area: 600.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2010
• Photographs: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Located in Praia del Rey, Obidos, this 4-bedroom detached villa has two floors, which are developed around a mezzanine. From the central positioning of the mezzanine it is possible to appreciate the dynamics of the various surrounding spaces. Strong ties are created between the house, the garden and pool – the outdoor living areas clearly visible from the inside through large west-facing windows. Walkways encircle the house; the outdoor leisure areas around the swimming pool and reflection pool, surrounded by extensive lawns, fruit trees and shrubs.

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

The main living room, with dining area and movie theatre, have a large fireplace as the central feature. Also on the ground floor, facing the pool and garden, are two rooms: a games room and a multipurpose room. Only accessible from the garden, and each with its own washroom facilities, these rooms are ideally suited as play/recreation rooms for teenagers and young people.

Ground Floor Plan

With the exception of the three rooms with views, the whole of the ground floor is clad with horizontal wooden slats. This “camouflage” allows the entry of light and ventilation whilst preserving the privacy of interior spaces such as the kitchen and washroom.

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Access to the suites on the 1st floor, is via a flight of stairs designed in two distinct sections. The lower half are a solid structure made out of masonry, which end on a small landing before turning into an upper section of wooden floating stairs.

Section

The mezzanine, used for circulating and as a reading area, looks out over a large terrace with spectacular views of the surrounding area. Off of the mezzanine are 4 individually designed suites. Each suite overlooks a different garden – gardens with a  “zen-style” theme which are viewed through vertical wooden slats. The sea-facing suites each have a small covered veranda, which helps to bring the view into the room. The house is primarily south and west facing in order to make the most of natural sunlight and its relationship with the sea, garden and pool.

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

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© Laurian Ghinitoiu

“Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country” is a response to the fact that over a million refugees arrived in Germany during 2015. The expectations for 2016 are similar. The need for housing is urgent, but just as urgent is the need for new ideas and reliable approaches to integration. The exhibition therefore consists of three parts: the first part surveys physical refugee shelters – the actual solutions that have been built to cope with the acute need. The second part seeks to define the conditions that must be present in an Arrival City in order to turn refugees into immigrants. The third part of the exhibition is the spatial design concept of the German Pavilion, which will make a statement about the contemporary political situation. Something Fantastic will plan and stage the architectural presentation and graphic design. 

© Laurian Ghinitoiu

An overview of the three sections of Making Heimat:

1. Launched on 10 March 2016, the website makingheimat.de documents some 35 refugee housing projects that have been gathered by DAM through a Call for Projects since October 2015. The spectrum ranges from temporary lightweight structures that house 300 people, whose interiors have been designed by an architect, to low-cost long-term housing projects, not only intended to house refugees. An emphasis has been laid on wooden modular structures. Yet the scope of the database also ranges from projects initiated by citizen groups to the efforts of a private benefactor to create an estate-like complex for artists and refugees. 

The projects on makingheimat.de depict the reality of Germany’s current situation. They are grouped according to size, cost and number of occupants per square metre, material and construction. The database is not a best-of collection nor is it an architecture prize—instead, it’s meant to provoke discussion. It aims to help us compare current solutions and provide a foundation for local and regional policymakers. 

© Laurian Ghinitoiu

2.
Eight theses on the Arrival City were developed in close collaboration with Doug Saunders, author of Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History Is Reshaping Our World. DAM intends the theses to address the following question: what conditions must be met in Arrival Cities, from an urban planning and architectural perspective, for immigrants to integrate successfully into Germany?

Many of the current refugees and migrants will remain in Germany, as a swift resolution of the war and persecution in their homelands seems unlikely. Together with immigrants who have arrived in Germany by other means, they’re effectively turning Germany into a popular country of immigrants. Yet if we hope to avoid the mistakes of the 1960s and 1970s, it’s essential that these new citizens are not treated as guests, who can be “sent home” at any moment. These immigrants must be given the chance to make Germany into their second home. This is what the title of the exhibition is meant to convey: Making Heimat implies that the stay in Germany will be a permanent one.

Immigrants tend to gravitate towards people in similar situations. This results, unplanned, in the formation of many different Arrival Cities. Doug Saunders defines them in the following terms: “The Arrival City is a City within a City”. Saunders has based his observations about Arrival Cities on his time spent in slums and favelas around the world. Such areas are poor and remain poor, but their turnover rate is high. Many people arrive, but don’t stay permanently. Arrival Cities emerge in urban zones—not through the proportionate distribution of asylum seekers, or under the terms stipulated in a “Residenzpflicht” (residence requirement), a subject currently back under discussion. They offer cheap rent, access to work, and ethnic networks that adopt new arrivals and facilitates their social advancement. In Making Heimat, this model is applied to the situation in Germany. One of the examples that will be investigated is the city centre of Offenbach; another is the Dong Xuan Center in Berlin-Lichtenberg – a Vietnamese supermarket in which everything functions a little differently than what Germans are accustomed to.

The current refugee situation and the demands for an Arrival City converge on an important point: the housing crisis in Germany. We’ve been talking about the issue of low-cost housing for many years; now, it’s time to develop concrete solutions. The situation demands it. We need housing for everyone – and that includes (but isn’t limited to) refugees and migrants. 

© Laurian Ghinitoiu

3.
The Berlin-based team Something Fantastic was responsible for the overall presentation in the German Pavilion. Its three partners Elena Schütz, Julian Schubert and Leo Streich are trained architects. They were chosen by DAM because of their intensive engagement with Arrival Cities, both in their teaching capacity at ETH Zürich and in their work around the world. Their extensive architectural studies of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Addis Abeba and Cairo have been published in book form. Something Fantastic work as architects, exhibition designers, researchers, curators and graphic designers. For the German Pavilion, they have created the spatial concept, and will design the exhibition and catalogue. The design refers to the immediacy and pragmatic visual communication in the Arrival City. 

© Laurian Ghinitoiu

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