Open Architecture

 

    “If you make a new town hall you can do it in any style you like. (Say) Look at the new town hall.. its modern! But it could also be the regional hospital – doesn’t say anything about the city.

    Here in Zaandam we have a tradition of green houses. Why wouldn’t we use that language to show that we are here (bang, bang, bang on desk)… in Zaandam? Its about identity. We know that functionalist architecture will only live as long as the function is there. After that we tear down the building. So we more or less try to make buildings that could stand longer and are open for more interpretations. You couldn’t defend a building like this without a functional plan.”

– Sjoerd Soeters, Urban Designer of Zaandam Center.

 

    The argument that Sjoerd and Habraken make with the Zaandaam center is that there is no benefit to appealing to a global aesthetic or prescription for a town hall that is progressive, modern, or new looking. A town center doesn’t have to be political centered, or at least, not forever. A town center can be something that has an identity complimentary to the cultural history of its locale. This is open architecture. Not open to one’s own functional interpretations, but open for functional re-interpretation over time.

    The Zaandam center takes note aesthetically from the iconic style of homes in Zaandam. The scene is almost cartoonish with vibrant green colored everything. The architecture in Zaandam is autonomous – it will always be this way and forever an important style as an icon. The functionality of each building is secondary to the scene. Although I don’t subscribe to a stylistic component as a design generator for functional and spatial development, I feel as though Habraken’s team found the green housing as critical to producing a regional architecture capable of sustaining the cultural narrative while also being progressive.

    I found it interesting how often in our education we are encouraged to pursue a critical regionalism approach that is mostly concerned with environment and history. Habraken presents an open architecture with the Zaandam center that is involved with a cultural regionalism – or at least seems that functionality both historically and in the future is heavily linked with interpreting a cultural regionalism.