68

James Graham 3 Musique en fer forgé

Philip Boyle 16 George Finch and the London Point Block

Thomas Daniell 22 In Conversation with Arata Isozaki

Martin Bressani 43 Prosthetic Fantasies of the First Machine Age

Peter Wilson 50 Some Reasons for Travelling to Italy

Edward Denison 61 Crime Against Architecture

Françoise Fromonot 69 The House of Doctor Koolhaas

Bodo Neuss 88 The Funerary of Thomas Willson

Elena Cogato Lanza 93 The Squares of Montchoisy

Davide Spina 101 Sign Language

Nicolas Stutzin 108 More Permanent than Snow

Marie-Antoine Carême 112 Fish Soup à la Lady Morgan & Meatballs

Vittoria Di Palma 114 Empire Gastronomy

Florian Beigel & Philip Christou 125 Changefulness

Gillian Darley 129 In Conversation with Richard Hollis

Dietrich Neumann 141 A Skyscraper for Mussolini

Thomas Grünfeld 154 Bayer Cross

156 Contributors

68
 More Permanent than Snow
The Photographing
of van Eyck’s Playgrounds
Nicolas Stutzin

It all started in 1947 when a small square in the south of Amsterdam for these playgrounds quite like their sheer proliferation. Inven-
opened as a new public playground. The relatively humble task of tories by different scholars situate the actual number designed by
its design had been handed down to a callow 29-year-old architect van Eyck as somewhere between 730 and 740, all carried out from
named Aldo van Eyck, who was then just five years out of the ETH 1947 to 1978. This would suggest that on average one playground
Zurich and working for the Amsterdam Public Works Department was produced every two weeks. Statistics of their scale are equally
under CIAM architect and planner Cornelis van Eesteren. Despite overwhelming. Although they vary in size often quite dramatically,
the modesty of the commission, the unveiling of the Bertelman- one could timidly estimate the average area occupied by a given
plein speelplaats was greeted with huge public approval, and playground at 150m2, in which case the total sum of land covered by
prompted commissions over the next three decades for an unprec- the playgrounds would be close to 105,000m2, or the entirety of the
edented number of similar playgrounds, all designed by van Eyck, area taken up by the city’s nineteenth-century Oosterpark.
in empty lots, streets, squares and parks all around the city. In this sense, mathematics, or at least the inviolability of raw
Today, almost 70 years later, this first foundational playground data, certainly helped transform the playgrounds into a kind of
remains remarkably unaltered. Its only adornment is the addition architectural and urban myth: one of largest, most radical and excit-
of a large sign installed across the street, celebrating its impor- ing exercises in serial architecture ever conceived. Despite their
tance as the starting point in both a distinguished architectural shared authorship, relative resemblance and repetition of common
career and a profound transformation of Amsterdam’s urban and elements, in actuality each playground represented a very particu-
social landscape. While the serial qualities of the project as a whole lar exercise and a single commission subjected to specific rules.
should really pale in comparison with these Ultimately, however, the defining element that
Aldo van Eyck, Speeltuin Jekerstraat,
deeper architectural and cultural resonances, Amsterdam, 1949–50, modified 1971 helped bring these playgrounds together as a
somehow nothing conveys the euphoria felt Photo © Nicolas Stutzin, 2013 narrative and as part of an urbanistic ideology

108 aa files 68
was not the physical trail they left behind but a series of photographs the Dutch-Hungarian photographer Eva Besnyö is credited in just
of children playing in them as they transformed the streets of Amster- a few photographs from 1959 and 1960, depicting children playing
dam: the most wonderful collection of images of an urban utopia. in various playgrounds as part of a series on Amsterdam street life.
Aldo van Eyck’s playgrounds, then, offer a photographic legacy In the same way, there is almost no reference to their architect – van
perhaps more enduring than their actual architecture – a subver- Eyck’s name is noted in only two photographs, one of the Zeedijk
sion of architectural value and importance that the Amsterdam playground (Besnyö, 1959) and one of the Koningsstraat playground
municipal archive in many ways conspired with, by systematically (anonymous, 1971).
commissioning photographs of each playground. The archive holds Immediately following van Eyck’s death in 1999, and as part of
more than a thousand of the resulting images, which depict in a number of efforts to catalogue and define his incredibly rich archi-
black-and-white and subtle sepia tones both an urban morphology tectural output, Liane Lefaivre and Alexander Tzonis wrote Aldo van
and children happy in play. What is significant is that the images do Eyck: Humanist Rebel – Inbetweening in a Postwar World. Although the
not simply capture the completed playground, but also show their book appeared more than half a century after the first playground
sites as they once were, so that each commission produced excep- photographs were taken, it seems to have been the first published
tionally photogenic ‘before and after’ images. Right from the outset, study to feature some of the archival ‘before and after’ images and
therefore, the playgrounds represented a perfect scenario for care- the impact of the playgrounds on the city’s landscape. By this stage,
fully photographing the recovery of Amsterdam’s postwar street life however, so many of the playgrounds the book was celebrating had
in a style that was both quasi-scientific and incredibly artful. already vanished. As Amsterdam continued to develop, over the 31
Ironically, its architect was also complicit in this seeming pro- years of their design and construction, the playgrounds were disap-
motion of photography over architecture, for it was almost uniquely pearing as fast as they were being built (and in fact, many of them
via photographs that van Eyck presented the project, and therefore were never built at all). So although more than 700 playgrounds
it was through pictures – both commissioned and as reference – were designed, at no point in time did they all exist together.
that the playgrounds were circulated within architectural circles. Drawn to these playgrounds and the myths surrounding them by
Their first major public appearance was in the ‘Lost Identity Grid’ the handful of wonderful images in Lefaivre and Tzonis’s book, in
introduced by van Eyck at the CIAM X meeting in Dubrovnik in 1956. 2013 I set out to trace a map of Amsterdam in which I would include
Like the archive in Amsterdam, this grid contained not a single the position of as many playground sites as I could find so as to
architectural drawing, but instead only featured large photographs visualise their distribution in both space and time. To do this I used
– by Wim Brusse, Cas Oorthuys and others – depicting empty the only known comprehensive list. This was compiled by Francis
Amsterdam streets alongside new images of the playgrounds glee- Strauven in 1980, based on the archive of the Site Preparation
fully occupied by local children. These were accompanied by a text Division of the Urban Development Department of the Amsterdam
by van Eyck, including his famously lyrical line that gave sense to Local Authority, and later published in the catalogue for the exhi-
the playgrounds as a corpus: ‘what we need is something more bition ‘Playgrounds by Aldo van Eyck’ that opened at the Stedelijk
permanent than snow’. Museum in Amsterdam in September 2002. Despite the unbe-
As much as it drew on Amsterdam’s own system of catalogu- lievable accuracy of Strauven’s list, using it to find more than 700
ing and archiving the city’s urban projects, van Eyck’s attention to locations proved to be quite a challenge. Having cycled across seem-
photography possibly also reflected an upsurge of interest in the ingly every inch of the city in a ten-day frenzy of surveying, I was
medium following the hugely successful ‘The Family of Man’ exhi- able to pinpoint only around 640 playgrounds, photographing them
bition held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955, just where I could so as to reconstruct the project from their ruins up.
a year before the Dubrovnik meeting. Curated by the American This archaeology revealed that a number of playgrounds remain
photographer Edward Steichen, the show featured over 500 images in a beautiful condition, largely because they have been lovingly
drawn from more than 60 different countries. Over the next eight restored, and even now have commemorative plaques. Others
years it toured different galleries and museums throughout the survive with little glory or fanfare, maintained but somehow now
world, including Holland, and its accompanying catalogue went on lost amid the modern housing slabs of van Eesteren’s Amsterdam
to sell over four million copies, symbolically cementing photogra- expansion plan. Several more have been renovated, their swings,
phy’s place as the best possible way of documenting what Steichen sandpits and climbing-frames replaced with playground furniture
saw as the universality of human experience. that is simple, generic and almost wholly plastic. In a few cases
Just like The Family of Man book and exhibition, the vast image all I could find were small traces – abandoned ruins of fragments
bank of playground photographs in Amsterdam’s municipal archive of the earlier sites – while for many others there is no trace at all,
is housed in small groups and in rather generic inventories, like the and the original playgrounds have long disappeared under subse-
‘City of Amsterdam Archive’ or the ‘Urban Development Depart- quent building and redevelopment. But of course what does still
ment’ collections. As a result, there is no systematic way of finding exist – full, complete and as wonderful as ever – are the archival
specific playgrounds. Moreover, and again very much in the spirit photographs. Hundreds and hundreds of images of both vernacu-
of Steichen’s egalitarian visual sweep through the world’s diverse lar Dutch gables and modern blocks enclosing little playground
places and cultures, with few exceptions the photographers remain oases, sometimes elegiacally empty, but in most cases full of chil-
anonymous. This, though, probably relates to dren totally lost in play. To see them in the
the fact that they were commissioned by the Research for this project was made possible Amsterdam municipal archive is to appreciate
by the support of a William Kinne Travelling
city archive and taken by staff photographers, the enduring qualities of an utterly compelling
Fellowship from the Graduate School
not out of artistic free will, but in response to of Architecture Planning and Preservation, piece of serial architecture reassuringly now
a civic mandate for documentary images. Only Columbia University more permanent than snow.
 Moddermolensteeg, Tuinstraat,
Ponomastraat, Saffierstraat 42–46,
Joop Gerritzestraat 1–2–3,
Bertelmanplein 7–13
 Moddermolensteeg, Tuinstraat,
Ponomastraat, Saffierstraat 42–46, Gordijnensteeg,
Joop Gerritzestraat 1–2–3, Zeedijk (between 104–120),
Bertelmanplein 7–13 Laagte Kadijk, Boerensteeg
 Elzenstraat, Antillenstraat 20, Jekerstraat 55–59,
Laurierstraat, Palmgracht, Palmgracht, Prins, Bernhardpark,
Madelievenstraat, Mariniersplein,Zaanhof 33–34,
Sarphatipark, Pieter Vlamingstraat, Zeedijk 106–118,
Westzaanstraat 2, Saffierstraat 18–24, Jac P Thijsseplein

© Amsterdam City Archives

Florian Beigel is director of the Architecture Research Unit
and professor of architecture at the Sir John Cass Faculty
Contributors Richard Hollis is a graphic designer and writer, and has
also taught in various art schools and worked as a printer,
of Art, Architecture and Design, London Metropolitan art editor, production director and publisher. A recent
University. His most recent built projects are in South Korea, exhibition of his work was shown in London, the Centre
notably in Paju Book City. His work has been exhibited Pompidou in Paris and in New York. He has worked with
and published internationally, including Architecture as artists including Bridget Riley and Steve McQueen and
City, Saemangeum Island City (2010), Baukunst 01 The Idea Gillian Darley is a broadcaster, journalist, writer and author collaborated with John Berger, most notably on Ways of
of City (2013) and the forthcoming Translations (2014), all of a number of books. Her first, Villages of Vision, was revised Seeing. His books include Graphic Design: A Concise History
co-authored with Philip Christou. In 2013 he was awarded in 2007 with a cover designed by Richard Hollis. She has (1994), Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an
the Grand Art Prize by the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. written biographies of Octavia Hill, John Soane and John International Style 1920–1965 (2006) and About Graphic Design
Evelyn, an account of industrial architecture, Factory, and (2012). He is currently working on a study of the Belgian
Philip Boyle has worked as an architect for London’s a cultural history, Vesuvius: The Most Famous Volcano in the architect, designer and painter Henry van de Velde.
Ministry of Housing and Local Government Research and World. In the 1990s she was the architectural correspondent
Development Group, the architecture departments of the Observer and director of the Landscape Foundation. Arata Isozaki is a Japanese architect. Born in 1931, he studied
of Islington and later Milton Keynes, and also for various Among many publications she has been a contributor to at the University of Tokyo under Kenzō Tange, for whom
private practices. He is currently secretary of the Greater the Saturday Review pages of The Guardian and The London he later worked on a number of canonical architectural and
London Architecture Club and has been coordinator Review of Books and a columnist for Building Design since urban projects. Loosely affiliated with the Metabolist group
of DOCOMOMO-UK since 1999. He also sits on the casework 2011. Her latest book, co-written with David McKie, is Ian in the early 1960s, Isozaki established his own office in 1963
committee of the Twentieth-Century Society and will Nairn: Words in Place (2013). and went on to produce many significant buildings in Japan
shortly deliver a second series of lectures on modern and elsewhere. Throughout his career he has been a prolific
architecture for the Highgate Literary and Scientific Society. Edward Denison is a writer and photographer based in writer of history, theory and criticism. An English-language
London, where he teaches architectural history and anthology of his most important essays was published in
Martin Bressani is an architect and architectural historian theory and is a research associate at the Bartlett School of 2006 with the title Japan-ness in Architecture.
and teaches at McGill University’s school of architecture Architecture, UCL. He has worked extensively in China,
in Montreal. He has contributed essays to many books as Africa and the UK and his previous publications include Dietrich Neumann trained as an architect at the AA and in
well as publishing in numerous journals such as Assemblage, Luke Him Sau, Architect: China’s Missing Modern (2014), Munich and is currently professor of the history of modern
ANY, Log, the American Journal of the Society of Architectural Building Shanghai: The Story of China’s Gateway (2006), architecture at Brown University. Among his publications are
Historians and Studies in the History of Art, the French Revue Modernism in China: Architectural Visions and Revolutions Film Architecture: Set Design from Metropolis to Blade Runner
de l’art, the German Architectura: Zeitschrift für Geschichte (2008), The Life of the British Home: An Architectural (2000), Richard Neutra’s Windshield House (2002), Architecture
der Baukunst, the British Art History and the Canadian History (2012), McMorran & Whitby (2009) and Asmara: of the Night (2002) and The Structure of Light: Richard Kelly and
Annals in the History of Canadian Art. He is also the author of Africa’s Secret Modernist City (2003). the Illumination of Modern Architecture (2010). He is currently
Architecture and the Historical Imagination: Eugène-Emmanuel a resident at the American Academy in Rome.
Viollet-le-Duc (2004). Vittoria Di Palma taught at the AA from 1999 to 2003 in both
the graduate histories and theories of architecture Bodo Neuss holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural
Philip Christou co-directs the Architecture Research Unit programme and in general studies. More recently she has science from the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart,
and is an associate professor in architectural design at taught at Rice University (Houston), Columbia University and completed an acting conservatory programme at
London Metropolitan University. Born in Canada, he (New York) and the University of Southern California the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York.
studied art history at McGill University, Montreal, and fine (Los Angeles). She is the author of Wasteland, A History (2014) He is currently finishing his second year as a diploma
art at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta and the Nova and co-editor (with Diana Periton and Marina Lathouri) of student at the AA.
Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, before working Intimate Metropolis: Urban Subjects in the Modern City (2009).
with the artists Krzysztof Wodiczko and Daniel Buren Davide Spina studied architecture at Roma Tre and
on gallery and public art installations. He then went on Françoise Fromonot is an architect and critic, and professor architectural history at the Bartlett, UCL. He lives in
to study architecture at the AA and has worked in London of theory and design at the Paris-Belleville school of London.
with Florian Beigel and ARU since 1985. architecture. She is the author of numerous monographs
and essays, including Jørn Utzon and the Sydney Opera Nicolas Stutzin is an architect and teacher. After graduating
Elena Cogato Lanza is a senior lecturer and researcher at House (1998), Glenn Murcutt: Buildings and Projects (1995) from the Universidad de Chile in 2006 he moved to New
the Laboratory of Urbanism, École Polytechnique Fédérale and La Campagne des Halles (2005). She is also a founding York and studied at the GSAPP, Columbia University, before
de Lausanne. In addition to her research and teaching member and contributing editor to the Paris-based returning to Santiago in 2011 to set up his own office. He is
activities she is the founder of the vuesDensemble imprint architecture journal Criticat; a selection of articles from currently working on a number of competition projects in
for MétisPresses and also sits on various international its first ten issues, Yours Critically, will appear in English addition to teaching at the Universidad Diego Portales and
editorial boards. Her recent books are De la différence in summer 2014. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
urbaine (2013), with Luca Pattaroni, and Experimenting
Proximity: The Urban Landscape Observatory (2014), with James Graham is a doctoral candidate in the history and Peter Wilson taught at the AA as a unit master for ten years
Christophe Girot. theory of modern architecture at the Columbia University from 1978, and was later a guest professor at the Kunsthoch-
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, schule Weissensee/Berlin, 1994–96, and at the Accademia
Thomas Daniell is an architect and writer currently dividing where he is also the director of print publications. His di Architettura in Mendrisio, 2006–09. In 1980 he established
his time between Japan and Macau, where he is head of dissertation, ‘The Psychotechnical Architect: Perception, Bolles+Wilson in Münster, Germany with Julia Bolles.
architecture at the University of St Joseph. Widely published, Vocation and the Laboratory Cultures of Modernism, Their projects include the City Library in Münster, the Luxor
his books include FOBA: Buildings (2005), After the Crash: 1914–45’ looks at the translation of applied psychology into Theatre in Rotterdam, the Suzuki House in Tokyo and the
Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan (2008), Houses and Gardens architectural pedagogy and practice in Germany, the Soviet National Library in Luxembourg. A selection of his writings
of Kyoto (2010) and Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama + Amorphe (2011). Union and the United States. His writing has appeared in and drawings – Bolles+Wilson: Inspiration and Process in
Grey Room, Manifest, JSAH and Thresholds. Architecture – was published in 2011 and he was awarded the
Gold Medal of the Australian Institute of Architects in 2013.
Thomas Grünfeld was born in Leverkusen in 1956 and is
an artist based in Cologne.