Open Building Academy
This page features videos with lectures on Open Building, given by the Founding Partners of OpenBuilding.co and people from our network.
The Open Building Academy started in September 2019 with students from Hogeschool van Amsterdam and Delft University of Technology (the architecturalEngineering studio of professor Thijs Asselbergs). With site visits and lectures by the Founding Partners of OpenBuilding.co, the architecture and engineering students amassed a wealth of information about ‘Open Bouwen’ in a short period of time.
In 2020 the Open Building Academy took a different, online direction. Initiated and organized by John Habraken, Thijs Asselbergs and the aE studio students, the workshop and lecture series Open Building NOW! generated a fascinating perspective on Open Building, given by (at least) five generations of architects. Watch the videos here!
Site visit at Patch22 and TopUp, in Amsterdam Buiksloterham. With Tom Frantzen, Thijs Asselbergs, Mauro Parravicini and students of the TU Delft and HvA, in 2019. Image: Jorn Beltman.
Pieter Stoutjesdijk
Open Building NOW! 2 | March 2021 - About prefabricated infill systems, customization, adaptability and reusage.
“In the revival of Open Building the main focus is on the support, and less on the infill. While what makes an Open Building open is mainly what’s on the inside.”
#opensystems #infill #customization #prefab
Chris Aerts
Open Building NOW! 2 | March 2021 - About how automation through robotica and parametric designing can facilitate for mass customization and prefabricated assembly architecture.
“I don’t say we should mimic the process of the car industry, but I think we can learn a lot from them in the built environment.”
#experimentation #innovation #automation #masscustomization #assemblyarchitecture
Jos Lichtenberg
Open Building NOW! 2 | March 2021 - About innovative development of industrial and circular infills called 'Slim Bouwen’ or Smart Building in English.
“The market is quite dynamiek, and so as the needs of people and organisations change it is important that buildings are agile, or cater for our dynamic world.”
#timberarchitecture #openbuilding #buildingtechnology #timberstructures
Gert-Jan Rozemeijer
Open Building NOW! 2 | March 2021 - About Open Building in timber in contemporary architecture and structures. Gert-Jan elaborates on new production methods that could be used to scale up building production in wood.
“By extensive detailing Lüning was able to offer a rigid timber structure with 60% less materials.”
#timberarchitecture #openbuilding #buildingtechnology #timberstructures
Ronald Schleurholts
Open Building NOW! 2 | March 2021 - About the use of materials, (new) building systems and existing structures. Ronald showcases projects are the new, lightweight extension to the office of cepezed and a large scale transformation project, Park Hoog Oostduin in Den Haag.
“Since the founding of Cepezed, all our buildings have been a dry-assembled prefab kit of parts, to offer adaptability, flexibility and short construction time.”
#adaptability #reuse #opensystems #prefab
Pirouz Nourian
Open Building NOW! 2 | March 2021 - About ‘Affordable Haute Couture for the Masses’. Pirouz Nourian, assistant professor of Design Informatics at the Faculty of Architecture & the Built Environment of Delft University of Technology. He shows ways to use (digital) tools and strategies to scale up building innovation and production, without losing sight of the comfort and wishes of the users.
“If we look at children’s books illustrations and medieval towns, we can see the value of participation and co-creation.”
#parametricdesign #masscustomization #affordablehousing #computationaldesign
Bas Hoevenaars
Open Building NOW! 2 | March 2021 - About the processes and design of Schetsblok. A housing unit co-created with a group of twenty five (future) inhabitants, in Amsterdam.
“3 things are very important in a co-creation process. The first is that the building has a clear and rigid structure. Secondly the rules and descriptions about the possibilities for the infill should be clearly determined. Thirdly a clear communication with all the future residents should be maintained.”
#cocreation #customization #participation #fostercommunities
Robert Platje
Open Building NOW! 2 | March 2021 - About how architecture shapes people and how people shape architecture. Robert Platje elaborates the working process of Mei Architects and Planners, of flexible, ecological, and timber architecture in heritage and new buildings.
“Long time flexibility should be guaranteed in the structure of buildings by disconnecting parts of different lifetimes.”
#flexibility #designforthefuture #timberarchitecture #ecological #userfreedom
Open Building NOW! Finals
Open Building NOW! | November 2020 - A compilation of the presentations by the students of their work for the workshop Open Building NOW! in November 2020. With a focus on the scale of Open Cities, the students worked together on a master plan provided by John Habraken.
#openbuildingstudents #openacademy #openbuildingnow #architecturalengineering #tudelft #opencities
Tom Frantzen
Open Building NOW! | November 2020 - About designing a hybrid of architecture and engineering for adaptability.
“We don’t know what the future will look like and we should design buildings accordingly. We should no longer the design extremely optimised and minimised floor plans for the average resident, because the demands of the average resident change quite quickly as recent decades have shown.”
#biodiversity #timberarchitecture #ecologicalmilieus #materialflows
Jo Coenen
Open Building NOW! | November 2020 - About Open Building and his story with John Habraken.
“Although I am in the lead as supervisor, I don’t want to intervene on those moments when good, talented colleagues are working hard on their products in our urban plan. When I feel there are issues that relate to the urban tissue and the future of the city, I will intervene. Be dominant, even. I am always helped by the idea of a frame or structure, which I learned from Professor Habraken.”
#opencities #urbandevelopment #openbuildingheritage #urbansupervisor #johnhabraken
Olaf Gipser
Open Building NOW! | November 2020 - About the valuable environments in the light of Open Building.
“Transforming the the building industry and the built environment by confronting the twin challenge of environmental and socio-political crisis with a series of conceptual, architectural, and technical measures.”
#biodiversity #timberarchitecture #ecologicalmilieus #materialflows
Roderik Zu Castell
Open Building NOW! | November 2020 - About the the past, the present and the future of Open Building.
“If you make a lot of dwellings as a building, and a few dwellings don’t fulfil their function anymore, it becomes inevitable to replace the whole building. This is what happened in the bijlmer and resulted in a waste of a lot of energy, resources and money.”
#johnhabraken #openbuilding #habrakensbooks #supportandinfill
Marthijn Pool
Open Building NOW! | November 2020 - About creating inclusive Open Cities.
“To me ‘building happiness’ is about connecting people with their environment. This has to do with the opening up and democratising of the design process by involving and thereby connecting users.”
#inclusivity #identity #participation #placemaking #upcycling #fostercommunities
Frans van der Werf
Open Building NOW! | November 2020 - About valuable environments in the light of Open Building.
“Open Building is a strategy, based on the vision that in housing residents could decide on the lay-out of their own dwelling, dwellings that are located in base-buildings. On a larger scale the strategy offers different builders the freedom to develope their own architecture within coherent urban fabrics.”
#openbuildingprogenitor #buildingcommunities #diversity #wholeness
Sjoerd Soeters
Open Building NOW! | November 2020 - About his approach towards urban development, identity and human scale.
“The human scale, the human well being and with that a happy society are the main goals. Pleasant places, happy people.”
#humanscale #identity #serialvision #opencities
Marc Koehler
World Architecture Festival | December 2019 - About the ever growing importance of Open Building.
“Open Buildings are a much needed concept to lower drastically the significant ecological footprint for which the global building industry is responsible; in particular to reduce its production of waste and CO2- emissions by extending the lifespan of buildings and engaging in circular economies.”
#designfreedom #cocreation #verticalvillage #creatingcommunities #buildingbelonging #liberate