Love of the city?

This year too, students of the Academy of Architecture will give an interpretation of the Tschumi Pavilion during the Day of Architecture. According to them, love for the city is not just about love for the old buildings and architecture, but also about appreciation for experimentation and innovation. The students' design therefore seeks out the field of tension between old and new and asks passers-by what Groningen would look like without modern architecture. This theme will be fleshed out in the Pavilion too by means of a questionnaire.

Groningen is an ancient city. At least, that's how we like to see it, and many people find the city so beautiful for precisely that reason. But isn't the city interesting and characteristic precisely because of the innovation that is continuously taking place? Isn't that where our real love for the city lies?

Groningen does indeed have ancient roots. Many streets, alleys and squares of the city centre as we know them today have been in the same place since their origin. This may contribute to making the city feel old too. Because although we think that the façades in the city centre are really old too, the vast majority of them are less than 150 years old. Parts of the buildings are sometimes much older, but almost all the façades in the city have simply been replaced with a newer version relatively recently.

In those last 150 years, a lot has happened in the area of living, construction and architecture. There have been technological developments that have familiarised us with the Nieuwe Bouwen (New Construction) architectural style; modernism with its large glass surfaces and simplification of ornamentation. But even before that, innovation was constantly taking place in the traditional 'old' building styles. Windows were getting bigger, bricks were getting smaller, decorations changed. In Groningen, there even used to be wooden half-timbered houses.

Nowadays we no longer see those half-timbered houses, because the story of the city is one of constant change, of innovation. Resulting in the visible city as we know it today. Movements such as Jugendstil, the Amsterdam School, reconstruction architecture and post-modernism (such as the Groninger Museum) all play their part in forming our city's character.

All these buildings are the result of experimentation and innovation. Not every innovation and every experiment is a success. It can leave a nasty taste behind in your mouth. It might feel like we're not as good at innovative building as the generations before us, but that's just uncertainty talking. It takes time before we can appreciate new developments; whether good or bad. Sometimes the novelty needs to wear off first.

Which is why it is important to appreciate the innovation and the search for new quality. The city consists of different layers and that's what makes it so distinctive. That's why, just like every generation before us, we have a responsibility to add new value whilst looking ahead to the future.

Marek Boekholt, Remco Wagenaar 2018