The Story of Another Idea: Forum voor Architectuur en Daarmee Verbonden Kunsten’s. Construction of Netherlander Contemporary Urban Landscape

Abstract

“The Story of Another Idea” is the title provided to the first and the last issues of Forum voor Architectuur en Daarmee Verbonden Kunsten edited by the Dutch representatives of Team 10. From 1959 to 1967, Forum journal was the media employed by Aldo van Eyck and Jaap Bakema to spread not only the ideas shared during Team 10’s meetings but also their own research. The editorial board was comprised by other architects, like Herman Hertzberger or Joop Hardy, who developed outstanding careers afterwards. Despite the manifold authorships and formats, there is a common thread underlying all Forum’s contributions: the criticism of the functional city and the definition of an alternative urban model based on human relationships. The deliberate selection of the word ‘landscape’ for the title intends to narrow the focus on the visual component of urban design, which will be a distinctive feature of their theoretical investigations and more idealistic proposals. Forum’s issues published in this period are dissected by isolating those entries considered essential to reconstruct the evolution of the editors’ critical discourse on the construction of contemporary city mainly as a reaction against the functionalist approach encouraged by outstanding members of CIAM years before.

This article aims at shedding light on the importance given by Dutch Team 10 to habitat configuration and visual composition in the design of contemporary city after the Second World War and the establishment of the Welfare State in the 1950s. The chronological ordering of selected contributions to Forum since 1959 until 1967, helps us to identify the changes in the editors’ research on urban design, as well as to contextualize it in the post-war social, political, and cultural framework. To conclude, this study intends to demonstrate in which way Forum’s content contributed to characterize an alternative Dutch Post-War urban landscape.