We often observe that segregation in public space is a deliberate choice of developers and municipalities. Different people are segregated through privatization, homogenization of facilities, disparities in municipal care for the public domain based on income inequality and prejudice, and urban renewal aimed at raising prices. The resulting living bubbles foster unequal opportunities and incomprehension between residents. They deprive the city of one of its most typical and valuable characteristics: the high density of a huge variety of people that enable us to develop ourselves in relation to each other.
Studio L A projects are never designed as a clean slate — our starting point is the people who use the place we are intervening in. Who are these people and what do they need to identify themselves with their public space in the long term? We aim to design spaces that are a reflection of the layered history of a place, and which contribute to an inclusive future.
In our project for Rotterdam South (2019) we respond to a large-scale urban renewal plan that the neighbourhood is facing. This process poses the danger that an improvement of the environment will become affordable and accessible only to a select public. This gentrification process often leads to an exclusion of the original, less affluent, residents of an area — often disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. In honour of the Rotterdam South motto: “What you do for us, without us, you do against us”, we have set up a collective which collects input from the current residents of the South, in order to understand their thoughts on the urban renewal plans. We travelled through the Vogelbuurt with an ice cream cart with which we provided information about the opportunities that residents have to benefit from the developments and grow within the neighbourhood. And we gathered opinions, stories and concerns voices by local residents. This project is a collaboration with architect Jan Konings, Vers Beton journalist and programme maker Jelena Barisic and hip-hop artist Grown George (George Booi).
In 2019 we were commissioned by the Municipality of Amsterdam to suggest a plan for the connection between two seperate neighborhoods in Amsterdam South-East. In this area, the municipality predicts future gentrification issues as a result of the construction of a more expensive residential neighbourhood right next to an older, less prosperous one. The neighbourhoods are also separated from each other physically by a railroad. We were asked to conduct a study into the improvement of the cycling infrastructure that runs under the tracks. Through the design of a the plan
Stay/Play/Connect
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we create a situation in which residents of both neighbourhoods use both of the area’s in their daily commutes. In this way, they are both part of each others urban environments.
Our design for the
Kattenbrug
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in Groningen was one of the first projects in which we investigated the history and soul of an environment as a design methodology. The design is based on peat boats that historically entered the city through the water. They are reminiscent of architecture on water. We translated these elements into the shape of the bridge and its material: a light soft clay and fired brick which invites different uses. The material unites all elements of the project: the public space, the construction, the furniture and the light. The connection between the water and the street is inforced by the placement of stairs towards the water, and floating objects within it. By designing through the concept of history, we always design for the future. We create space for new ways of thinking, interpreting and new rituals that make a place layered. By respecting the history, we allow the space to continue to evolve in a natural and inclusive way which residents can accept as a space they are familiar with.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall
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(May 2018) is a spatial installation which we designed for the public space of Leuven. The installation transformed a street into a mirror with a reflective material which confronted the passerby with his or her reflection. The installation turns the “self-reflection” phenomenon into an experience and questions the constant experience of being viewed as a result of the technological and digital evolution. How can we understand ourselves in a society where we are constantly being lived by surveillance systems? The mirror symbolizes the boundary between the conscious and the unconscious. Identity and self-image are not fixed data. Identity is related to something, identification is an eternal and open process. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall asks passers-by: what is your position, what is your role?