International Visitors ProgrammeInternational Visitors Programme

In June 2019, architect Andreas Papallas visited the Netherlands as part of Het Nieuwe Instituut's International Visitors Programme. In this article, Papallas reflects on his visit.

In June 2019, I had the pleasure and honour of visiting the Netherlands for the very first time as part of the Het Nieuwe Instituut's International Visitors Programme. During the three-day intensive programme, we attended a conference, enjoyed discussions with architects and stakeholders, and visited many public spaces, neighbourhoods and buildings - each and every one of which invited us to re-think our role as architects, and the role of architecture within society.

After landing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, I found myself walking into an urban conference called We Make the City, and into the middle of Charles Laundry's talk on building fairer, more inclusive and more initiative-oriented cities. What a powerful start to the visit, and a truly inspirational context to find myself in - among passionate public participation advocates and stakeholders. One of the most interesting parts of the conference we attended was a panel discussion on creative bureaucracy with the deputy-mayors of Milan, Amsterdam and Helsinki. Four points from the panel have stayed with me: 1. Bring young people into the system. 2. Have active citizens outside the system collaborate with the administration and co-decide on how city assets are managed. 3. Open up institutions: transparency in bureaucracy is key. 4. Acknowledge failure and figure out how to change.

From We Make the City, we travelled to a space made by citizens. De Ceuvel is a a city playground for innovation, experimentation and creativity. While there, we had the opportunity to speak to the architect Marthijn Pool, co-founder of SpaceMatter, whose bottom-up approach in designing not only De Ceuvel, but residential schemes in general, is truly revolutionary and future-oriented. Talking to Marthijn, it became clear that they advocate for a human-centred design process in which people come first.

When spaces materialise on the basis of individual and community needs, rather than on the basis of a developer's estimate of market needs, then resilient communities are allowed to flourish and society to advance.

In the days that followed, we travelled to three more cities: Rotterdam (our base and the home of Het Nieuwe Instituut), The Hague and Tilburg. In these cities, we talked to architects working in areas from reclaiming industrial land to create affordable workspaces and intentional communities, to material reuse strategies in a nature reserve, to urban design strategies for walkable districts and bringing life back to marginalised areas.

The final day of the trip found us travelling to LocHal, a converted locomotive hall that houses Tilburg's main library. The day before we had been in The Hague, meeting architect Job Roos, of Braaksma & Roos, who had described the challenges and processes involved in such a complex project. LocHal is more than just a library: in fact, it would be better to say that it redefines what a library should be. Over a few hours at the LocHal, we experienced a living hub that includes spaces and activities that span all interests and ages. These include a maker space, exhibition and presentation spaces, a café, and much more. Describing the design approach, Job Roos noted that they didn't want to design another box in a box, and this reflects well in the result, with its fluidity of movement horizontally and vertically in respect to the outer industrial shell that characterises the experience. Building on Tilburg's heritage in the textile and fabric industry, while not a design competition aim, has proved a major asset for the proposal. The design team and the municipality understood and adopted the notion that sharing knowledge means not just reading books, but rather that human interaction must be at the centre of the learning experience.

An educational experience that is facilitated by the city is key for building resilient and sustainable communities.

It does take a while to absorb and reflect on the experience, especially as my discussions with my Turkish Cypriot, Greek and Turkish counterparts, which took place at a round table at De Nieuwe Instituut, while in transit, and at the various places we visited, were immensely interesting. Bringing insights from three different countries, we had the opportunity to compare the structures of our planning systems and the ways in which they can be addressed, discuss how new approaches in urban development can be transferred to other contexts, and most importantly, how the lessons learned from repurposing industrial heritage in the Netherlands can lead to inclusive, human-centred, and socially-impactful urban design.

Andreas Papallas is a practising architect and a research associate at the Cyprus University of Technology. He holds an MPhil in architecture and urban design from the University of Cambridge and a BA in architecture from the University of Sheffield. His master's thesis research Urban Rapprochement Tactics: Stitching Divided Nicosia, was honoured with the Susan and Geoffrey Twining Egginton Scholarship from Downing College and led to the UCF/IAMCR Urban Communication Research Grant in 2017. He has presented his work at several conferences including the 2016 AAG Annual Meeting and the 2015 CRASSH Urban Research City Seminar. He became a doctoral student at the University of Oxford in October 2019, investigating politics of inclusion in cities that have been affected by displacement and migration on the frontier between Europe and the Middle East.