Greenpeace launched an architectural competition to stimulate ideas for ways to fortify the Airplot in case a new government allows BAA’s third runway plans to proceed. Effectively, the brief was to come up with a 21st century fortress – capable of resisting BAA’s bulldozers and stopping construction of the runway. Greenpeace asked for an exemplary piece of sustainable design: a practical solution with cultural and aesthetic power to match the depth and importance of what’s at stake. What better fits the committed Greenpeace spirit than devoting the hereafter to the ideal of a better world? What better way than offering those true partisans the ultimate act of eternal activism by embracing the most courageous gesture and radical devotion- Greenpeace’s first dedicated burial ground. Building upon Britain’s proclaimed ‘best in the world’ graveyard heritage, the project concentrates on the actual social immovability of the undertaking rather then the physical immovability of an object. The proposal aids the resistance of evection predicated on the understanding that by law any graves less than 75 years old cannot be removed. The initiation of the project would secure the parcel from development close the 22nd century. Arguably, by that time a renewed environmental understanding and monumental cultural shift has swept through industrialised societies, rendering the battle obsolete. With 221.000 members Greenpeace UK has a solid base of support. Although some 72% of Britons choose to be cremated (of a registered average mortality rate of 500 deaths per 100,000 population) the numbers show great potential. It is projected that 330 Greenpeace members will pass away annually. This project is designed to immediately facilitate those who embrace their last act as one of protest and insures them an active role in Greenpeace’s ongoing fight for environmental awareness. By will, a request for burial at the Greenpeace site can become a positive and effective way of leaving the legacy of a healthy, peaceful planet for future generations. With each landing at Heathrow Airport incoming passengers can witness the effectiveness of a peaceful resistance. The entry was made in collaboration with the befriended office Space and Matter (http://www.spaceandmatter.nl), headed by Tjeerd Haccou, Sascha Glasl, and Marthijn Pool.

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The competition entry combined a number of contemporary and historic methodologies into what we term ‘Direct Architecture’. It argues for a renewed relationship between the architectural and urban space and engages the city on its own terms. The site, August Allebéplein, is notoriously known for what is in essence a cultural phenomenon; a disintegrated sense of community. A series of undertaken direct actions and related articles were presented in an edited format most familiar in the shaping of the site; the cities main newspaper Het Parool. The initiated (spatial) campaign used a public square that has been the focus of several anti-social events to demonstrate the effect of targeted, well-designed event orchestration and branding campaigns on the use of public space. The aim with the series of events was to demolish the idea that physical upgrades are essential in order for people to manifest themselves in a self-confident and respectful way. This is something that is achievable through non-physical means when spatial issues are taken into account and leveraged. We would therefore argue for a design intervention that we would call ‘Direct Architecture’: the alteration of activities and non-physical elements in order to create or augment architectural space. The project therefore embraces an architecture that moves from being reactive towards an architecture that is interactive. In collaboration with Matthew Murphy.

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Randstad Sleutelprojecten is an extensive exploration of the so called Randstad Key Projects. The exploration has been done together with OMA and has resulted in the publication “Differentiëren, Calibreren en Integreren Ontwerpende verkenning naar sleutelprojecten in het kader van de Structuurvisie Randstad 2040”. This research by design was accompanied by the Ministery of Spatial Planning (VROM). Based on this exploration of the current Key Projects the government will possibly start with an integral and substantial exploration of the Key Projects after 2020. Examples of these new projects are: Olympic games, integral safety projects and large scale urban projects on an international level. Four narratives are used to explore the full range of the project: Randstad Safe (Randstad veilig), Randstad Health (Randstad gezond), Living together (Samen leven, samen wonen) and Conversion towards electricity (Conversie naar electriciteit). In collaboration with One Architecture B.V. Text One Architecture B.V.

The Ministry VROM has commissioned One Architecture to develops strategies for the Randstad. A Design Studio ‘Networks’ (Atelier Netwerken) was initiated, together with a.o. Xaveer de Geyter (XDGA), Reinier de Graaf (OMA) and Rein Jansma (Zwarts en Jansma), in order to develop a vision for the Randstad in 2040. As a follow-up Yttje Feddes, Matthijs Bouw, Hilde Blank and Jan Brouwer, urban designers, architects and landscape architects explored possible layouts for the region of West-Netherlands, concluded in the book ‘Ontwerpen aan de Randstad 2040’. It is the second issue in the series ‘Design and Politics’. This series is an initiative of VROM (Dutch ministery of housing). The book describes three perspectives on the future of the Randstad: Wereldstad, Kunststad and Buitenstad. In collaboration with One Architecture B.V. Text One Architecture B.V.