You may have noticed that when we shoot
architecture, from private houses to grand
public buildings, we generally try and keep
pesky people out of the picture. However
well-dressed or easy on the eye, they just
distract and get in the way. We like the way
things look pre-population, but that does
deny an obvious truth. Architecture has to
work for the people who live or work in it.
On page 120, writer Ellen Himelfarb visits
the Bijlmermeer, a massive housing project
in south-east Amsterdam which celebrates
its 50th birthday this year. It was built
in concrete with utopian underpinnings
but too little money. There were some bad
ideas. It was criss-crossed by high-lying
highways and walking or inding anywhere
was a nightmare. Promises were not kept,
gardens were abandoned, playgrounds and
shops never appeared. And the Bijlmer, as
the area is known, quickly became a byword
for drugs, destitution and the essential
arrogance of urban planning. Now, a mixRegeneration game
Newsstand cover
Photography:
François Coquerel
Entertaining Director:
Melina Keays
Interiors:
Olly Mason
For interiors credits and
our full Italian-inspired
feast, see page 140Limited-edition cover
by Katharina Grosse
The German artist
created our special cover
and is interviewed on
page 084. She also
serves up her favourite
recipe for our Artist’s
Palate series, page 186
Limited-edition covers are
available to subscribers,
see Wallpaper.com
Wallpaper* is printed
on UPM Star, upm.comof sensitive architectural renewal, some
judicious demolition, outside interventions
(the arrival of a contemporary art museum)
and more organic, tenant-led innovations
(a food market among them) have revived
the Bijlmer’s fortunes. People, all sorts of
people, want to live there. Regeneration is
a loaded word these days (so many are) and
it’s a diicult subject. Earlier this year we
received some online heat for a story about
the planned second life of Ernö Goldinger’s
Balfron Tower in east London. Renewal
is read as social cleansing and vice versa.
And the future of last century’s large-scale
social housing projects is a vital and
fractious debate in cities around the world.
The Grenfell Tower tragedy reminded
us just how vital. I’m sure some people
will take issue with our Bijlmer story too
(outrage is everywhere now and cheapened).
I like to think that more people will ind
it enlightening and perhaps even hopeful.
Nick Compton, Acting EditorTHE KRAAIENNEST
METRO STATION IN THE
BIJLMERMEER DISTRICT
OF AMSTERDAM, A
HOUSING PROJECT
THAT MARKS ITS 50TH
ANNIVERSARY THIS YEAR.
RENOVATED IN 2013 BY
MLA+ AND MACCREANOR
LAVINGTON ARCHITECTS,
THE METRO STATION
FEATURES A DECORATIVE
ENCLOSURE BY FROUKJE
TACONIS. SEE OUR
STORY ON PAGE 120046 ∑
EDITOR’S LETTER