Post WWII Amsterdam
Imagine a city ravaged by war. Imagine the citizens and their memories, their relief, their hope. The city structure has been ripped apart. Something new has to come, but let us pause at this moment for a while.
The grid has turned into shambles that create space charged with nothingness, ripped memories, but also potential. The structures still standing were lucky to live through the war, or maybe they have to live on with terrible memories. Either way they will be treated as heroes and will serve as reminders of how the people made it through. The people and the heroes have something powerful in common, together they form a powerful Collective.
The destroyed city is the collective space. The possibilities and dreams are limitless in number and extent. Until the Strong Individuals launch new plans, sing the songs of their future and take the air out of the Collective’s chants. New monuments of men will be built, no doubt handsome, functional and necessary. But they will be selfish. The architecture is selfish and always will be selfish.
This is the given climate and it is why it is necessary for the architects to define their roles, to keep their morale and legitimacy.
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Hugo Losman is a third year architecture student at the School of Architecture in Lund, Sweden.
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