BERG (Built Environment Research Group)
de Appel, Schipluidenlaan 12, Amsterdam
BERG (Built Environment Research Group)
How to develop strategies for a better understanding of the built environment in the vicinity of de Appel and beyond? We pose this question to enhance a sense of belonging to our neighbourhood, our city and our region, and to make resourceful use of the signature modernist structure that de Appel inhabits. What is now Broedplaats Lely initially used to be the Christelijke Scholengemeenschap Pascal of Tuinstad Overtoomseveld and later Calvijn met Junior College, built from 1963-1969 and designed by architect Ben Ingwersen (1921-1996). The context of post-WWII planning and development of Amsterdam Nieuw-West, as well as the more recent histories of the school and the neighbourhood, are insightful for the current situation of rapid construction and urban redevelopment in the area – a unique situation which nevertheless relates to other spaces where demographics, value and lay of the land is transforming. As a project of active study, BERG supports forthcoming exhibitions, events and educational initiatives. It aims to helps de Appel to become a better neighbour and an ever-better host to artists, Curatorial Programme participants, Archive visitors, contributors to our Education Initiatives and therefore our valued and varied public. The initiative also leaves records – materials for future interpretation…
The idea is to encourage forms of informed inhabitation and to take part in the making of the environment that shapes us. True to the open and lively nature of de Appel’s Archive, research is not understood as the delivery of an informative document alone, but precisely as the formation of a group of active, engaged citizens who advise de Appel’s long-term strategic planning as well as the day to day use of our built environment.
We are shaping a shared sensibility, a shared sensitivity, a better sense for the unseen in the built environment and for things hiding in plain sight.
- we walk
- we talk and plan
- we listen well
- we remain watchful
- we ask about what is possible, livable, nourishing and inspiring
- we exercise our bodies, minds, rights and freedoms
- we study our history to better plan for the future
- we question what is coming soon
- we let the ghosts in to do their part
- we begin again
Convened by de Appel with Rosa te Velde*
* Rosa te Velde graduated from the designLAB department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2010, after which she obtained an MA in Design Cultures from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam in 2015. Her main interests revolve around the politics of design and (national) identity (exemplified by concepts such as Dutch Design), coloniality, race and gender. As a freelance designer (/researcher) and educator, she has worked with the Research Centre for Material Culture, the Sandberg Instituut and the Royal Academy in the Hague.
BERG meets inside the Aula at Broedplaats Lely during a month of warm up activity, as de Appel resumes use of this iconic space throughout 2020.
Neighbourhood walk with Arie de Fijter and Rosa te Velde
Friday February 7
14:00-16:00
meeting point: entrance hall of de Appel (Broedplaats Lely)
If you would like to join please e-mail berg [at] deappel.nl
To contribute please write to berg [at] deappel.nl with observations or an idea for the use of the Aula.
