Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
PLAYGROUNDS
AMSTERDAM.
1947 | 2011
Abstract
The object of study of this article are Aldo van Eycks playgrounds, built in Amsterdam
between 1947 and 1978, and intends to give continuation to an effort of documentation
and updating present in an exhibition and a series of publications that started in 2002. In
a field trip (April 2011) some of these playgrounds have been revisited. The reading of
these spaces have been guided by the questionings organized by Marc Aug in the theory
of places, by the introduction of the term situations by the International Situationist, as
well as by the photo essays and propositions that introduce the as found concept. As
a product of this questioning and investigation a photo essay is delivered: it shows how
the playgrounds, as ready-mades, characterized by the simplicity and neutrality of its
design, reveal their surroundings (that becomes background and articulated element in
each one of them), as found. As a series of events, they structure a network of places
with capacity of transformation and re-codification, constantly guaranteed by participation
in several levels.
Bertelmanplein,
Amsterdam-Oudzuid,
1947. Photo: 1956. In:
Lefaivre, de Roode,
2002, p. 85. Original:
Gemeenterarchief
Amsterdam.
Key words
Architectural urbanism (architektur urbanistik); playground; place; as found; Situational
Urbanism.
Place,
as found
References
AUG, Marc. Non-Lieux. Introduction une anthropologie de la surmodernit. Paris: Seuil, 1992.
Hanahan, Jonathan / Hyde, Rory. Aldo van Eyck playground tour 2009, in: Volume Magazine, n 22,
Amsterdam, 2009, pp. 36-39.
Lefaivre, Liane / De Roode, Ingeborg; Van Eyck, Aldo. The Playgrounds and the City (catalog). Stedelijk
Museum Amsterdam, Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2002.
Lefaivre, Liane / Tzonis, Alexander; VAN EYCK Aldo. Humanist Rebel, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 1999.
Lefaivre, Liane, Ludens Puer, in: Lotus International, n 124, Milan, 2005, pp. 78-85.
Lefaivre, Liane / Boterman, Marlies / Loen, Suzanne / Miedema, Merel, A psychogeographical bicycle tour of
Aldo van Eycks Amsterdam playgrounds, in: Archis, n 3, Amsterdam, 2002, pp.129-135.
Oudenampsen, Merijn, Aldo van Eyck and the City as Playground, in: www.flexmens.org/drupal, 10/10/2009.
VAN DEN BERGEN, Marina, Aldo van Eyck, translation: Billy Nolan, in: http://www.classic.archined.nl/
news/0207/AldovanEyck_playgrounds_eng.html, 13/04/2011.