The Creditor and The Debtor

The Creditor and The Debtor

Van Hoof, G.R.

Geerts, F. (mentor)
Marullo, F. (mentor)
Vollers, K.J. (mentor)

Architecture and The Built Environment

Architecture

Explore Lab

2014-12-16

The project represents the twofold condition present in the system of finance, the creditor and the debtor. The creditor and the debtor are two sides to the same medal; one cannot exist without the other. The different manifestations of the system of finance are a reflection of the different relations between the creditor and the debtor. The creditor-debtor relation is now an impersonal one, reduced to a business transaction; the creditor is institutionalized and is protected. The aspects of the impersonal, institutionalized, creditor are amassed in the Central Bank. Aspects of the creditor, with the Dutch Central Bank as it physical representation, are summarized, collapsed into a building, a building that represents their ongoing power, protecting the creditor from any possible doubt. The aim of the project is not to change the nature of the Dutch Central Bank and the banking system, by now almost purely representational, but to make it explicit. The condition of indebtedness is widespread; we are all debtors. The Dutch population holds one of the highest private debts in the Eurozone and its total private debt surpasses corporate debt. The debtor must inspire trust in his solvency, his ability to fulfill future payments, his accountability and responsibility. As debt has come to involve everyone it refers to no one in particular. An absence of representation represents this condition. Aspects of the debtor are reflected in a public square, a public space, where one, by appearing in public is available for the scrutiny of others, in a sense the essence of the indebted condition. To attempt to collapse the characteristics of the indebted into a building or a certain program would be to deny this condition, to deny its widespread existence, it would deny the fact that debt has indiscriminately involved everyone. The uncertain, undetermined space of the public square reflects the boundless condition of the indebted an antithesis to the enclosed space opposing it. The lobby is the place of intersection between creditor and debtor, a place of representation for the creditor, a place of accountability for the debtor. It is the place where both conditions come together and dissolve into one, the lobby as the central space of the Central Bank allows the debtor to penetrate into the territory of the creditor.

Bank
Creditor
Debtor
Finance
Amsterdam

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1abdf9b4-bb5b-482b-b724-b00ebfc787d5

2015-06-30

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2014 Van Hoof, G.R.