5th Biennial



			Summervillage "Hoogvliet Domain"

			City of Hoogvleit
			Welcome into My Backyard! The Rotterdam-Hoogvliet International Building Exhibition is an adventurous project which over ten years (2001-2010) will be involved in the transformation of the postwar satellite town of Hoogvliet near Rotterdam. With its history, its share of the problems of major cities, its location in the midst of the heaviest infrastructure and industry in the Netherlands and the large-scale renewal of its housing stock (5000 homes), Hoogvliet provides an example of the challenges facing present-day urban areas in the Netherlands and abroad. Under the motto 'Welcome into My Backyard' (WiMBY!), the International Building Exhibition intends to enrich and inspire the transformation of Hoogvliet by entering into joint ventures with private and public bodies. It would like to initiate projects that make Hoogvliet more beautiful and attractive and which have an international appeal.
			1. Hoogvliet Domain: a summer village Hoogvliet Domain will be one of the most important projects in the near future. We hope to have finalised the most important provisions for its realisation in 2003, in collaboration with the Rotterdam City Development Corporation (OBR), Loeder Events, FAT Architects of London and a major construction company, among others. It is the intention that the reception hall, as well as a large portion of the other elements such as the barbecue park, swimming lake, pet cemetery, open-air cinema, riding stables, etc., will be open and functioning in 2004. The Hoogvliet Domain project is a design for a summer village on the northern outskirts of Hoogvliet: a lively park with diverse structures, hills, ponds, caves and islands where people can have parties, practise their hobbies, play sports, exercise their dogs, race pigeons, create and show art, play music and watch films while sitting on the grass. This Domain is created for and by the Hoogvlieters themselves. This is the place where they show who they are and what they are capable of: to one another, to their friends and families and to anyone who has become curious about just what exactly is going on in Hoogvliet. For the time being it is just a design, an idea, an image of what could be. But in 2004 this summer village will be realized. We invite you to take a look!
			2. Why a summer village? It is sometimes said that Hoogvliet is ahead of other Dutch boroughs, exactly because it is actually thirty years behind them. Many Dutch people long for a real community life in which people organise all sorts of cultural, athletic or hobby-oriented clubs on a non-commercial basis. As a result of its history as a pioneer town of post-war reconstruction and of its remoteness from Rotterdam, Hoogvliet still has this community life that was thought to be lost. The fact that many clubs are in need of assistance is certain. Their accommodation is often antiquated and demands increasing maintenance, something that the aging members have an ever-harder time taking care of. For a number of clubs, new communal accommodation would offer relief. Moreover, with the demolition and new construction activities, many sites and buildings are disappearing which might still be used cheaply by hobbyists, clubs, artists and starting entrepreneurs. In addition, there are also many activities that have absolutely no accommodation at present, as a result of which large numbers of Hoogvlieters are forced to seek refuge elsewhere, although they may prefer not to.
			Hoogvliet is invisible Simply finding accommodation for club life is not enough. If we walk, cycle or drive though Hoogvliet today, we see absolutely nothing of the lively activity inside the buildings and behind the shrubs. Hoogvliet seems to be an extremely boring, even empty place. There are many green fields, surrounded by beautiful trees and enhanced by ponds and canals. Nonetheless, nowhere do we see typical park scenes as we do in the big city, with people playing football, barbecuing, lying in the grass or sitting on a bench. This is also related to Hoogvliet’s history. This town has clearly been built by people who knew their job, but the people who live there are completely different from the people for whom these houses were built, and you don’t see evidence of that anywhere.
			3. Design of the summer village When we asked the London architectural firm FAT (Fashion Architecture Taste) to do a design for Hoogvliet Domain, we actually gave them two assignments. These assignments thus addressed both imagination and concrete everyday problems 1. The first was to explore Hoogvliet, to seek out the traces of the inhabitants and the dreamt-of Hoogvliets such as those found in gardens and entranceways, and to invent a typically Hoogvliet style of architecture based on these things. 2. The second assignment was to design a summer village that could quickly be realised using simple technical resources, that could be completely functional for a couple of months a year and that could solve the Hoogvliet clubs’ need for space.
			Ideas The Hoogvliet Domain should be built in the greenbelt that is cut off by a rise in the A15. Hoogvliet is showing its pride with Hoogvliet Domain, so we should also let passing motorists see that by spelling out the word Hoogvliet along the motorway in letters several metres tall. A pet cemetery could be included in Hoogvliet Domain, not in a remote corner of a cemetery for people but as an island in a pond, which must be accessed by a small bridge. Why not build a series of brick barbecue pits in the park? And why not give each of them a little something extra: a pretty tree-stump, a small hill or four trees? You drive up, park your car, pick out the nicest spot and the party can begin! Why not dig out a huge swimming lake? In the summer, everyone wants to swim or sit near the water. You can sail boats and fish there too. But the most important and biggest part of Hoogvliet Domain is the reception hall. The example for this structure cannot therefore be too beautiful, big or exotic: so what about San Marco in Venice. We therefore want to have a large, richly-decorated building that no one will easily forget, and which can yet be built quickly and inexpensively.