Van stoel tot stad
- Bakema's lectures in book form -From 1962 to 1963, J.B. Bakema was the presenter of the television series ‘Van stoel tot stad’ ('From chair to city'). An inspired and animated speaker, the architect set out to explain his efforts to reconcile the growing industrialisation of building and the rapid urbanisation with the imminent loss of humanity in cities. Private houses were particularly hard hit, with expanding building processes resulting in monotonous and soulless housing estates.
Bakema tried to win popularity for the modern urban development of the fifties. Drawing on a blackboard, he contended that such seemingly uniform new housing estates offered plenty of scope for orientation and explained how they could be given a homely feel.
1964 saw the publication of Bakema’s lectures in book form. ‘Van stoel tot stad. Een verhaal over mensen en ruimte’ (From chair to city. A story of people and space) contains most of the drawings he made during the television recordings complete with corresponding explanations. On the cover illustration, Bakema draws a parallel between a family and the structure of a city. He compares the composition of a family consisting of father, mother and four children with the differences in height, function and position of buildings in a city. In both cases, there are hierarchic relationships and connections between the various parts, which nevertheless retain their individual qualities. The title of the book emphasises Bakema’s belief that the structure of a city is an interwoven entity. Bakema aimed at a design that would make a statement on every level of scale in a city, ranging from the interior of individual houses to the location of a city in its surroundings – from chair to city.
Request number BIBL 2844
Literature
-H. Ibelings (ed.), Van den Broek en Bakema 1948-1988. Architectuur en stedenbouw. De functie van de vorm (Van den Broek and Bakema 1948-1988. Architecture and Urban Planning: The function of form), Rotterdam 2000