Utrecht Old and New

We've had some great opportunities in the past week to explore Utrecht and take in some ARCHITECTURE. Our generous host, Gerrit, is a part-time tour guide, and he took us on his official tour of Utrecht on Tuesday. At the heart of the old city is the Cathedral, which was partially destroyed by a tornado in 1674 or so. The nave was obliterated, but the crossing and choir at one end and the great entry tower at the other end remain, with a large square where the nave used to be. The statue on the centerline of the nave is to commemorate the end of the War and the Resistance.

From inside the cloister, looking back at the tower, the missing nave is no longer apparent, and you get a sense of the scale of the original church.

Utrecht's canals are unique in that the water level is a story below the street level, giving direct access from the canal into the cellars alongside. Originally, the Rhine ran through Urecht, and the houses were built on great dikes to contain seasonal flooding. After the river was tamed by an upstream dam, tunnels were bored through the dikes for easier access to the cellars, and the dikes were eventually hollowed out into cellars themselves.

We were fortunate to have a guide who know all the tiny passages and alleys in the old city. Utrecht is quite beautiful; big enough to be a real city, but still compact and beautiful, retaining the character of the old city.

On Wednesday, we joined up with Rob Corser's Amsterdam class on a tour of the buildings of Utrecht University. The university moved from cramped quarters in the center of town to a new campus on the polders on the outskirts. The campus plan (most recently revised by OMA), tries to retain the verdant ground plan of the polders by building up and connecting through 1st floor pedestrian bridges. There are quite a few buildings by significant architects, and noone seems to be afraid of a little color. This is the newest dorm, called Casa Confetti (supposedly it's REALLY Smarties House, but they didn't want to pay for the name).

Some converted shipping containers comprise another set of dorms; they're looking a bit shabby these days, and are apparently pretty lonely places to live.

This older dorm used to form a gateway from the campus to the polders, but the ground plane has been filled in with some newer, low-rise housing.

One corner of the 16-story tower straddles a bike path.

And the center is occupied by a pub (in a dorm!) and lots and lots and lots of bike parking.

The University Library, by Arets, is organized around a very tall central volume. The vertical surfaces are all black and very weighty, but the horizontal planes are white, making it feel much bigger when you're at the top looking down than it does when you're looking up from the ground floor.

The building is clad in black concrete panels cast with a bamboo pattern in relief, and with glass panels silkscreened with the same pattern. Many of the panels open on hydraulic actuators for ventilation and daylight control.

The most well known buildings on campus are probably the Minnaert building (which I'll get to in a minute) and the Educatorium by OMA. The Educatorium is a prime example of OMA's brand of Dutch functionalism, with a program-driven organization and a collage of spatial and material approaches. The details can be a little rough, but I suppose it's impossible to hire enough interns to work out ALL the details when every room and corridor is completely different from the last.

Samuel enjoyed all the ramps.

We also visited the Schroder house (HORRAY!), which was totally awesome. Better than I expected. I was very familiar with the exterior of the house, but the interior organization is really what this place is all about. We had a very quirky and wonderful guide, who started the tour with all of the sliding wall panels closed up and the house partitioned into individual rooms, then told the story of a day in the house while opening it up until the whole first floor was an uninterrupted volume. Really beautiful, and full of fascinating details. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside, and the tours are too short to do any real sketching. Still, one of my favorite ARCHITECTURE sightseeing experiences.

Post-Rietveld, we headed back into the old city and had a beer on the canal. Rob didn't really enjoy his fruity beer, but suffered through it nonetheless. That's Ann and Will in the background; Will is quickly turning from baby into little boy.

Samuel and I also enjoyed the respite (that's Clifford, Rob's coteacher, in the background).

The next day, we went back to the University campus to visit the Minnaert building. I've always been very interested in the building, and was disappointed the first time I saw it to see how much the exterior finish has degraded. It looks like shit.

The interior study carrels are very nice, with superbly finished concrete portals into pretty luxurious red leather banquettes.

The centerpiece of the building is the cooling pond, which USED TO collect water from the roof, absorb heat energy from the whole building, and send it back outside for cooling. Unfortunately, the University has decided that they need more classroom space in the building, so the pool is being ripped out and replaced with enclosed rooms. I couldn't find out for sure whether the cooling system was problematic or not, but as you can see, they're collecting the water from the roof and routing it outside rather than letting it freely fall into the pool. Well, it was a good idea (I think). Too bad I never got to see it in action.

I also took a trip to the FabLab in Utrecht (back to the research). It's in a great industrial area, right across the street from this sweet old factory.

The lab was busy and in full swing. Pretty great.

The beating heart of every FabLab is the coffee station. This one is particularly fine.