Haagse Havens

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Date: 20 April – 12 August, 2012

Presentation of Haagse Havens at IABR (International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam), 2012
Presentation in Biella, Italy (2012)

The city as a laboratory for exploring, inventing, developing, and testing a new way of city-making.
Haagse Havens explores a new approach to urban development, with the Binckhorst area and the adjacent Laakhaven serving as the testing grounds. In both areas, the traditional focus on final images and master plans has been abandoned. Instead, the existing city is taken as the starting point for development, and the municipality actively seeks collaboration with other partners.

This requires a much more detailed and precise understanding of the area's current qualities, a more flexible approach to planning and regulation, a different way of designing, and a better utilization of the available capital in terms of time, energy, money, passion, and the involvement of local entrepreneurs and residents. All of this calls for a different way of working, observing, evaluating, financing, governing, designing, and regulating. Exactly how different — that is the subject of Haagse Havens.

To explore this new approach, three case studies were launched, each examining a specific design challenge within the practical context of Binckhorst and Laakhaven. Several (The Hague-based) designers and artists are involved. The Hybrid Kiosk case study investigates the potential for a public facility that contributes to the area's accessibility. Denis Oudendijk (refunc) designed the kiosk, and Sabrina Lindemann is involved in developing a program for it. In Case Study House, Corine Keus and Nanne Verbruggen (E19 architects) search for possibilities for "wild living" within an industrial context, where factors such as dust, odor, noise, and danger determine the design of the house. Finally, in Autonië, Hans Venhuizen and Sabrina Lindemann celebrate car culture in a namesake event that also demonstrates how this culture can influence future developments.

In addition to these practical experiments, workshops are held involving experts from within and outside the area, visiting critics explore the site, and public debates about the future of Haagse Havens are held during “Binckcafés.” Students from the R-MIT department of TU Delft are mapping the DNA of the area. Additionally, various students from the Royal Academy of Art The Hague (KABK) contribute (Inside: Master in Interior Architecture, Arts & Science, Graphic Design), as well as students from the Institute of Sonology.

During the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) (20 April 20 – 12 August, 2012), the first results were presented. On 13 October, 2012, the Final Presentation of Haagse Havens will take place in the area itself.

Haagse Havens (November 2011 – November 2012) is an initiative of the Urban Planning Department of the Municipality of The Hague and the art and architecture center Stroom Den Haag. It was developed in collaboration with Mobile Project Office OpTrek and the R-MIT department of TU Delft.
The project is supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL.