Banal Dreamscape
Reimagining everyday spaces of Dutch suburbia
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Abstract
The extraordinary appears as meaningless in the lack of the ordinary. The etymology of ordinary sheds light on the orderly; referring to patterns or traits taken to be typical in the behavior of a social group. Since banality finds its way into every corner and situation using automatization processes and normal making mechanisms; it defines the majorities; nonetheless, it is the backbone that can save the extraordinary from becoming kitsch by rerouting it to the more tangible roots it stemmed from, marking a subtlety that defines the boundary between science fictions, and in-depth surreal practices. Banal Dreamscape; is a reflection, and research into the coexistence of the two contradicting forces, and the subtle combination of them using an architectural language through the exploration of each one and them together. influenced by the cinema of David Lynch, and the Lynchian adjective the project tries to reimagine everyday spaces of Dutch suburbia by the creation of objects as products of a certain space and time among the mass-produced entities with a long-lost aura. Banal Dreamscape is a critical reflection on the homogeneity of space, activity, and users in the defined, and defended mosaics of Dutch suburbia, by introducing subtle out-of-context-ness, and a more sympatric territory in the monotonous, least potent places for wonder, seldom considered as architecture and worthy of scrutiny leftovers of suburbia.
Vinex (the fourth report on spatial planning extra), an infamous, widespread, yet successful housing solution by the Dutch Ministry of Housing in its core is a Dutch suburban solution to the housing crisis. Eight hundred thousand mass-produced housing units built in ten years dislocating middle-income families from the centers to small towns surrounding them, shapes the banal context for this project. The Vinex location Eschmarke in the municipality of Enschede in particular in this case, with its border situation, reinforcing the conflict between its neighbors and German drug tourists, called for an integration of sympatric relations to host both conventional and unconventional activities within a neighborhood and to welcome the otherness and formerly sanctioned activity in such neighborhood. The formerly nuisance became a new meaningful sub-layer for the monotone context of the neighborhood in favor of a more resilient, and robust urbanity. Thus, the garage spaces, leftover spaces, and grey zones of architecture became the host to the new activity within this region. Everyday spaces of these low-importance Sub-urban spaces became the backbone for the architectural investigation that came afterward.
An architecture invested in the uniqueness of space, and the importance of atmospheres regardless of the scale of the intervention when no pre-defined value or sublime quality is present. With an eye for the details and cherishing human tangible desires through a redefinition of architectural agents on such small scales. Banal Dreamscape is a concentrated exploration of micro-adjustments to the architectural element where every line plays a defining role, that not only goes beyond the limit of the mundane but explores limits of architecture in ways that no artificial intelligence nor mass production procedure with a focus on bigger pictures and simplification of perception can create nor value. Focusing on creating subtle, bizarre situations in familiar corners of the built environment.