[Nettime-nl] 16 november: LOGO PARC symposium

[e.deen@planet.nl]

Logo Parc
Challenging the aesthetics of economy
Design meets architecture

Symposium Wednesday, November 16, 2005, 7 PM
Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam

Wouter Vanstiphout
Roemer van Toorn
Kamiel Klaasse
Daniel van der Velden
Gerard Hadders
Friedrich von Borries
Jouke Kleerebezem (moderator)

Gerrit Rietveld Academy
Fred. Roeskestraat 96, Amsterdam
Free entrance
Registration > madeleine.bisscheroux@janvaneyck.nl

Logo Parc
>From city streets, highways and airports, to billboards, magazines and 
bank cards, the contemporary city is overwritten by visual languages 
of economy. While some claim that the city should be liberated from 
these intrusions and true ‘public space’ should be restored, our times 
will be recalled by precisely those images illustrating the ‘full 
spectrum dominance’ of economic thought  – just like we remember Louis 
XIV and French state power by images of the Gardens of Versailles. 
It is time that design and architecture meet to face capitalism. It is 
time that designers no longer run away from the representational realm 
of power – by which they can offer critique and different solutions 
and proactively re-adress their own political relevance. 
Now that design and economy have joined forces under the banner 
of ‘creative industries’, a serious challenge might be to propose that 
designers, architects and artists can in fact influence and change 
what economy looks like.
Nowhere in The Netherlands this paradigm is as urgent as in de Zuidas 
(South Axis), near the premises of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. A 
prestigious area of high rise offices, residential and cultural 
facilities on both sides of the A10 motorway, the Zuidas is an icon in 
the space of flows, a key factor in Dutch economy. Its train station – 
six minutes from Schiphol Airport – will be redesigned for high speed 
trains, becoming the fifth busiest station in The Netherlands. 
Prominent banks, accountancy, and law firms (ING, ABN AMRO, Ernst & 
Young, Nauta Dutilh) occupy head offices at the Zuidas, while new 
public/private endeavours, such as a museum for design, are on their 
way towards realization. Rental apartments – outfitted like hotels – 
will further strengthen the potential of an area where nothing seems 
missing. 
The question is, how imaginative, surprising design strategies might 
re-engage with the aesthetics of economy, stretching far beyond what 
we traditionally think of as public space and far beyond what we 
understand as nine-to-five office parks. And if the aesthetics of 
economy could be changed, could they be changed beyond their own 
political limits, beyond what Roemer van Toorn calls ‘fresh 
conservatism’? These questions are urgent to those who think that 
design deserves a relevant and critical voice in today’s world.

Think with us on November 16, 2005, 7 PM, as the design research 
project Logo Parc kicks off with a symposium offering the latest 
thoughts on these topics and more. Each lecture takes no more than 
fifteen minutes, with no less than seven speakers and a brief round-
table discussion.


Logo Parc
Speakers

Friedrich von Borries studied architecture at the ISA, St. Luc in 
Brussels, at the University of the Arts Berlin and at the Technical 
University Karlsruhe, where he received his PhD in 2004.  From 2001 to 
2003 he taught urban planning and architectural design at  the 
Technical University Berlin, from 2002 to 2005 he works as lecturer 
and researcher at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. Since 2005 he is 
lecturer in history of urban design at the Academy of Fine Arts in 
Nuremberg.
In 2005 he published a  book about Nike’s urban marketing strategies 
and how they alter the  city: Who’s afraid of Niketown? Nike-Urbanism, 
Branding and the City  of Tomorrow.

Roemer van Toorn is an architect, critic, photographer and curator. 
After graduating from the University of Technology Delft, he published 
The Invisible in Architecture (1994), in collaboration with Ole 
Bouman, dissecting cultural, economic, political and philosophical 
positions within  contemporary architectural discourse. He runs and 
coordinates the Projective Theory program and the PhD research at the 
Berlage Institute in collaboration with the University of Technology 
Delft. Currently he is preparing a book as part of his PhD research: 
Fresh Conservatism and Beyond. Aesthetics as Form of Politics. 
Forthcoming is his English/French photo book  Society of The And (HYX 
Publishers).

Gerard Hadders co-founded the magazine and design group Hard Werken in 
1978. In 1979 he graduated in fine arts and photography. The eighties 
of the 20th century were characterized by a gung-ho! attitude towards 
fine arts and design. In this atmosphere he developed into 
a ‘professional borderliner’, a pathology that still characterizes his 
design practice. A professional in almost all facets of graphic 
design, from the late eighties on Hadders developed a strong interest 
in architecture as sign and symbol. The inspiration by the legacy of 
Robert Venturi materialized from 1986 on in projects that set out to 
turn architecture into a corporate messenger. Hadders is head of the 
Post St. Joost Graphic Design Department that developed a curriculum 
on the basis of the research of urban visual culture.

Wouter Vanstiphout is an architectural historian with Crimson in 
Rotterdam – but that’s only the official story. In fact, Vanstiphout 
actively manipulates history in a dazzling mix of research, 
architectural design, project development, exhibition design, 
consultancy, setting out a discourse on historical complexities of new 
(post-war) towns. Since 2001, Crimson has – together with Felix 
Rottenberg – embarked on the urban, architectural and social re-
animation of Rotterdam banlieue Hoogvliet under the name of WIMBY! 
(Welcome In My BackYard). In books such as Mart Stam’s Trousers and 
Too Blessed to be Depressed, the Crimson group reveals a fascinating 
world behind the scenes of modernism, where nothing is what it seems – 
and history is photoshopped at will. Vanstiphout is professor of 
Architecture and Urban Design at the Technical University in Berlin.

Daniel van der Velden, graphic designer and writer, research 
coordinator of Logo Parc at the Jan van Eyck Academie.
Daniel is studio partner of Maureen Mooren in a design office existing 
since 1998. Maureen and Daniel were designers of Archis from 2001-2004 
(creating a twisted, interactive, experimental design vision for this 
architectural magazine) and are the designers of the new Holland 
Festival identity and poster campaign of 2005, which centers around 
a ‘sign’ or ‘warning landmark’. As an advising researcher at the Jan 
van Eyck Academie, Daniel started the Sealand Identity Project, 
proposing a  brand for Europe’s smallest nation state. Successively, 
Daniel co-founded the design research project Meta Haven with 
researchers Vinca Kruk, Adriaan Mellegers and Tina Clausmeyer. Meta 
Haven is involved in forward thinking in (corporate) identity, design 
and politics.

Kamiel Klaasse, architect, founding partner of NL Architects. NL’s 
initial four principals (including Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk 
and Mark Linnemann) shared workspace since the early 1990s. All were 
educated at Delft University of Technology while living in Amsterdam. 
NL’s commuting office started while carpooling between these cities. 
Its fascination with mobility and tarmac could be traced back to being 
educated on the highway. Their projects focus on seemingly ordinary 
aspects of everyday life, which are enhanced or twisted to reveal the 
unexpected. Projects include Parkhouse/Carstadt (integrating auto-
mobility and architecture), WOS 8 (a rubber clad heat transfer station 
in Utrecht), the Mandarina Duck Store in Paris (for Droog Design) and 
the Dutch entry for the Venice Architecture Biennale  in 2000 
(called ‘NL Lounge’). Recently, a grand cafe with a basketball court 
on the roof at Utrecht University, as well as  a 
conferencelunchloungelobby for insurance company Interpolis in 
Tilburg, were completed. 

Jouke Kleerebezem, Dutch artist and writer, from his formal education 
in typography, photography, drawing and printing techniques, since 
1980 develops a body of work which consists of artistic, 
organisational and critical projects and publications. Since 1994 his 
work is informed by network communication technologies and their 
cultural affordances. He was long time affiliated with Mediamatic and 
Doors of Perception. Since 1999 he lives and works from rural France. 
2001-2006 he holds a position as advising researcher at the Jan van 
Eyck Academie Design Department. 

Logo Parc is a one-year design research project by the Jan van Eyck 
Academie, Post-academic Institute for Fine Arts, Design and Theory, 
commissioned by the Lectoraat Kunst en Publieke Ruimte (Gerrit 
Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam University; Partners: SKOR, Virtueel 
Museum Zuidas).

Premsela Dutch Design Foundation is partner in Logo Parc.

Application is possible until December 1, 2005. Research starts in 
January, 2006. For application, check http://www.janvaneyck.nl. Both 
2D/3D designers, graphic and communication designers, architects and 
artists are invited to apply.

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