Md
M. de Groot
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2 records found
1
For Deviation
Architecture, Control, and the Beurstraverse
Contemporary semi-public spaces – spaces that present themselves as public whilst operating under private logics of investment, regulation, and access – increasingly engineer the body as a consumer. This project examines how the apparatus of control operates spatially in one such space: the Beurstraverse, or Koopgoot, in Rotterdam. Drawing on Michel Foucault's disciplinary society, Gilles Deleuze's control society, ByungChul Han's transparency society, and Roberto Esposito's concept of immunisation, the research develops a theoretical framework through which the spatial techniques of control – surveillance, access regulation, monofunctionality, and the production of a hierarchy of legitimate presence – are identified and analysed. A comparative case study of the Beurstraverse, the Lijnbaan, and the Hoogstraat reveals the Koopgoot as an exaggerated instance of neoliberal urban planning: a space that is itself a deviation from the norms of its context. In response, the project proposes an architectural intervention structured around three spatial strategies: to wander (a park and communal garden replacing the retail surface), to bypass (an elevated walkway offering alternative routes beyond the surveillance apparatus and commercial schedule), and to collide (vertical transitions and furnitures that stage encounters between different bodies, speeds, and intentions). The design does not oppose the existing apparatus; it introduces new instruments alongside it, operating under a different logic of non-profitable productivity. The project argues for designing for deviation – not the production of an alternative, but the production of conditions in which alternatives can emerge.
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Contemporary semi-public spaces – spaces that present themselves as public whilst operating under private logics of investment, regulation, and access – increasingly engineer the body as a consumer. This project examines how the apparatus of control operates spatially in one such space: the Beurstraverse, or Koopgoot, in Rotterdam. Drawing on Michel Foucault's disciplinary society, Gilles Deleuze's control society, ByungChul Han's transparency society, and Roberto Esposito's concept of immunisation, the research develops a theoretical framework through which the spatial techniques of control – surveillance, access regulation, monofunctionality, and the production of a hierarchy of legitimate presence – are identified and analysed. A comparative case study of the Beurstraverse, the Lijnbaan, and the Hoogstraat reveals the Koopgoot as an exaggerated instance of neoliberal urban planning: a space that is itself a deviation from the norms of its context. In response, the project proposes an architectural intervention structured around three spatial strategies: to wander (a park and communal garden replacing the retail surface), to bypass (an elevated walkway offering alternative routes beyond the surveillance apparatus and commercial schedule), and to collide (vertical transitions and furnitures that stage encounters between different bodies, speeds, and intentions). The design does not oppose the existing apparatus; it introduces new instruments alongside it, operating under a different logic of non-profitable productivity. The project argues for designing for deviation – not the production of an alternative, but the production of conditions in which alternatives can emerge.
Framing the Flood
Discourse, Control, and the Reimagining of Nature in Dutch Water Management
This thesis explores how Dutch infrastructural interventions—particularly those relating to flood defence—have been shaped not only by material concerns but by the language, assumptions, and narratives surrounding them. Focusing on three moments of infrastructural decision-making—1960, 1976, and 2018—it traces the development of discourse around nature, control, and human responsibility.
The research examines post-1953 Delta Works, revealing how flood safety was framed as a matter of rational mastery. While ecological effects were mostly overlooked or reinterpreted in financial terms, engineers were imagined national heroes. This framing persisted through to the mid-1970s, even as protests emerged and ecological awareness grew.
Drawing on a range of sources—including governmental reports, parliamentary debates, and newspapers—the thesis examines how acknowledgment for ecological concerns slowly increased, but was never truly independent from a controlling, top-down approach. Even in seemingly restorative decisions, such as the reopening of the Haringvliet sluices in 2018, nature was granted a role under strict parameters—constantly monitored and managed to fit human demands.
Rather than a straightforward shift from control to co-constitution, the thesis suggests a more subtle reconfiguration: in which the language of responsibility and guardianship continues to mask the systems of human dominance. This framing not only influences policy but reflects broader cultural assumptions about who is 'permitted' agency. What emerges is a need to think more carefully about what it means to share space—both ecologically and discursively.
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The research examines post-1953 Delta Works, revealing how flood safety was framed as a matter of rational mastery. While ecological effects were mostly overlooked or reinterpreted in financial terms, engineers were imagined national heroes. This framing persisted through to the mid-1970s, even as protests emerged and ecological awareness grew.
Drawing on a range of sources—including governmental reports, parliamentary debates, and newspapers—the thesis examines how acknowledgment for ecological concerns slowly increased, but was never truly independent from a controlling, top-down approach. Even in seemingly restorative decisions, such as the reopening of the Haringvliet sluices in 2018, nature was granted a role under strict parameters—constantly monitored and managed to fit human demands.
Rather than a straightforward shift from control to co-constitution, the thesis suggests a more subtle reconfiguration: in which the language of responsibility and guardianship continues to mask the systems of human dominance. This framing not only influences policy but reflects broader cultural assumptions about who is 'permitted' agency. What emerges is a need to think more carefully about what it means to share space—both ecologically and discursively.
...
This thesis explores how Dutch infrastructural interventions—particularly those relating to flood defence—have been shaped not only by material concerns but by the language, assumptions, and narratives surrounding them. Focusing on three moments of infrastructural decision-making—1960, 1976, and 2018—it traces the development of discourse around nature, control, and human responsibility.
The research examines post-1953 Delta Works, revealing how flood safety was framed as a matter of rational mastery. While ecological effects were mostly overlooked or reinterpreted in financial terms, engineers were imagined national heroes. This framing persisted through to the mid-1970s, even as protests emerged and ecological awareness grew.
Drawing on a range of sources—including governmental reports, parliamentary debates, and newspapers—the thesis examines how acknowledgment for ecological concerns slowly increased, but was never truly independent from a controlling, top-down approach. Even in seemingly restorative decisions, such as the reopening of the Haringvliet sluices in 2018, nature was granted a role under strict parameters—constantly monitored and managed to fit human demands.
Rather than a straightforward shift from control to co-constitution, the thesis suggests a more subtle reconfiguration: in which the language of responsibility and guardianship continues to mask the systems of human dominance. This framing not only influences policy but reflects broader cultural assumptions about who is 'permitted' agency. What emerges is a need to think more carefully about what it means to share space—both ecologically and discursively.
The research examines post-1953 Delta Works, revealing how flood safety was framed as a matter of rational mastery. While ecological effects were mostly overlooked or reinterpreted in financial terms, engineers were imagined national heroes. This framing persisted through to the mid-1970s, even as protests emerged and ecological awareness grew.
Drawing on a range of sources—including governmental reports, parliamentary debates, and newspapers—the thesis examines how acknowledgment for ecological concerns slowly increased, but was never truly independent from a controlling, top-down approach. Even in seemingly restorative decisions, such as the reopening of the Haringvliet sluices in 2018, nature was granted a role under strict parameters—constantly monitored and managed to fit human demands.
Rather than a straightforward shift from control to co-constitution, the thesis suggests a more subtle reconfiguration: in which the language of responsibility and guardianship continues to mask the systems of human dominance. This framing not only influences policy but reflects broader cultural assumptions about who is 'permitted' agency. What emerges is a need to think more carefully about what it means to share space—both ecologically and discursively.