Orange Town

What kind of image for ideal suburban will come out while you are hearing it? It is Le Corbusier's or Ebenezer Howard's or neither of them.

Dutch edition, suburban metropolis, seems different from others. Under the particular land use system and its central planning hierarchy, the scattered suburban was planned through policy with careful choice of locations. VINEX is the most typical of it despite it happened far after the rethinking about suburban sprawl though even sprawl is controllable in the Netherlands.


--The unintended consequences after national policy

The policy of the ‘compact city’ contributes unwittingly to the rapid growth of suburbanization. …… And that is annoying for the environment, because recent research has shown that the city and its inhabitants score better on almost all environmental parameters than the inhabitants of smaller towns and the countryside (H+N+S Landscape Architects, 2002). It is so ironic that the words” compact city” were given but the suburbanization is promoted. Despite numbers of public transportation lines are constructing and planned for the future’s networks, not so big different from the existing rail road, the suburbanization seems unstoppable because the network of highways will be implemented equally.

--All about living style

Unfolding the Dutch territory map, especially in Randstad, the cities with different sizes scattered on it. The biggest one is Amsterdam with less than 0.8 million population. It is called network city. The evolution of this specific morphology historically came with its geography and each city’s strong characteristic. One of the most important factors is Green Heart. It, as the area enclosed by the West Holland conurbation is called, is the policy’s maker’s expression of this ideal. The Dutch cities of the west have grown up in the form of a ring, largely due to the exceptional hydraulic and soil characteristics of the land (H+N+S Landscape Architects, 2002). Since the creation and technology of housing building on the one hand and the demands for new housing location on the other hand, this forbidden inner center and the similar place outside Randstad was coveted since the propaganda is “ creative balance between nature and urban”, “living in the wildness”, ”new ecology” and so on. Somehow, it is intentional for the folk hobby, living in the wildness and that slogans, almost a synonym to Suburban, a dream of living style.

Indeed, a new mixture intermingle nature and urban was so successful here that it is overwhelming. There is no surprising for VINEX's realization though it was debated toughly for a decade. The desire was too much to be stopped. Even without a collective name like VINEX, numbers of planning and design were repeated again and again under the “network city”.

--Another way or this way

Seemly, the trends are going to the suburban metropolis in the near future if the attitude of treating them remains the same, which is passive to the radical inclination. Compared with the public transportation of other metropolises, the quality and quantity are never enough for its future being. It is even not enough for now, a budding network city. Definitely, the Dutch suburban will never become another American suburban monster since the matter of size and distance. Still, it is true that the problems of ecology, environment and resource threaten the folk future of both nature and living. If the vigorous action can not be exerted immediately, reducing the card-based transportation and intensifying the contrast between urban and nature, the shadow of monotone, dimming and waste will always shroud the brilliant suburban housing.

又是一個文章的黑洞，幾乎半個月沒在部落格留下文字了，上一篇是我半翻譯半改寫台夫特Urbanism網頁的文章，那是為了申請台灣獎學金用的，這畢竟是個歐洲的大學，雖然在歐洲挺有名的，但我想台灣的這些評審對他還是很陌生，只好花了些精力寫了這些介紹的文章，其他關於碩士研究計畫的撰寫，也在上上禮拜的忙亂中完成了，算是多出來的工作，但在這過程中，不少收穫來自於重新建構這幾個月來所學，並試圖在整個規劃設計經驗的框架中，為荷蘭這階段所受的知識與教育定位，同時又把從大學到現在的經歷和規劃設計作品整理了一下，寫了一些敘述，算是又重新沈澱了一下，還有些挺有趣的小發現，不過這以後有空再談。

時值期末，大抵就是很多deadline在你眼前，presentation、報告都等著完成，時間不若台灣般的緊迫，例如以小組為單位的Design and Strategy課程就花些精力時間做些整理和評估就行了，跟台灣建築科系的那種期末總評不同，大抵最忙的時間都是在一個月前。倒是在在期中懷著滿腔熱血報名的期末工作營快把我搞暈了。

這個工作營的目的是要利用五天的時間成立工作坊，邀請幾個外國與荷蘭專業團隊，提供荷蘭的地方公部門一些設計提案。這個工作坊的主持老師希望有學生能參與並協助畫圖，大抵以三天的時間工作，有250歐的打工費。以台灣的物價水準，這樣的打工費其實是很好賺得，不過顯然荷蘭人覺得還好，所以最後國際學生和荷蘭學生的比例是7:3。每一團對有兩個學生支援，共有五個團隊。三個荷蘭、一個挪威、一個瑞士。

出乎預料的，我這一組的專業團隊其實只來了一個人，跟我同一組的安東尼和我都傻眼了，心想，真是不知道會怎樣進行，這錢會很不好賺。而這個人就是唯一來自挪威Oslo的建築師，叫Gary Bates，我後來才知道他曾經是Rem Koolhaas團隊OMA(Office for Metropolitain）很重要的一員，後來1999年在Oslo成立Space Group事務所，簡而言之，就是那種跨國的菁英建築師，是個非裔美國人，也曾呆過韓國。

這個人十分十分的聰明，三天的時間裡面，我們跟他的溝通不超過三小時，再加上他是native speaker，用的英文和形容詞都高出歐洲人一個等級，也就是高出我一個等級，最後能畫出他想像中的圖，只能說不知道是我厲害，還是他聰明的可怕。但在他繁忙的每天行程中（中間還應鹿特丹建築雙年展邀請去發表演講，他的口才真的是很好），他仍是能很快的掌握問題和角度，把我們提供的資訊和他的看法融合在一起，也能掌握我們畫圖的內容，最後變出一個十分精彩又具有觀點與說服力的演講，是個狠角色。

一開始的不進入狀況到中間的不知所措、亂畫圖，到後來這位建築師精彩的presentation，我倒是歸結出幾點結論：
1.建築師要具有的最重要能力其實是口才。
2.圖面雖重要，但好的虎爛能力能讓遜圖面變的非常具有說服力，只要角度和圖恰到好處。
3.我們已經知道建築自身已變成廣告，現在我覺得，論述也已是廣告。
4.在這種工作營中，概念比設計重要，設計作為一種批評形式，其實是非常具有力量的，但要清楚目標是什麼。


真是很神奇，在兩天（扣除一天的忙亂與討論）之內畫出的幾張分析圖、一張平面圖、一個安東尼render出來的3D圖，我想是不太可能被期待能有什麼的，但在他的presentation裡，我們的圖面卻變的十分具有力量，如大師作品一般，受到大家的注目，我跟安東尼倒是心虛的很，只有自己知道每天在一起回家的路上都在抱怨，不知道自己在幹什麼。而工作營這樣的結果實在讓我們心情挺複雜的。

這次的經驗不算是「好」經驗，但是個非常「有趣」的經驗，在慌亂的同時，也見識到了大內高手怎麼說服業主的能力。值得一提的是，我的日本同學在遭遇到跟我同樣的處境後，意外的獲得機會去他瑞士老闆事務所實習的機會，他之前十分苦惱的問題，這工作坊倒是幫他解決了。