THE VINEX HOUSING development site of Leidsche
Rijn near Utrecht is equipped with an environmentally friendly water system,
so that clean rainwater is retained in the neighbourhood itself and has
the time to settle. The metalling of roads in the neighbourhood has been
adapted accordingly. Washing cars on the street is therefore no longer
an option, because of the detergents and dirt that would pollute the groundwater.
Special car-wash facilities (dubbed ‘WAPLA’) are to be provided
so that residents can still clean their own cars. BEYOND (the multi-year
art project for Leidsche Rijn) has taken the initiative of asking artists
to make designs for the WAPLAs. Bureau Venhuizen was responsible for the
concept management of the project.
www.beyondutrecht.nl
To a commission from the BEYOND project bureau, which is charged with
the realization of art in Leidsche Rijn, Bureau Venhuizen has developed
a plan to give artists and designers a role in the creation of car-wash
facilities. The brief from BEYOND asked how it would be possible to involve
both the managers of future car-wash facility and the artists in this
process.
Eight artists and designers were commissioned to design a WAPLA that would
satisfy all the technical and practical criteria for such a facility.
These designs were presented during a semi-public meeting where, besides
representatives from the car-wash sector, BEYOND and SKOR, there were
also residents and local administrators present. Prompted by questions
and comments from this sounding-board, the artists could tailor their
designs further.
The artists and designers were BAR
(Joost Glissenaar, Klaas van der Molen with Max
Zolkwer and Joris Ghyssaert), Frank
de Bruijn , Bureau
Dolte (Godfried de Graaff), Marcel
Schmalgemeijer, Barend
Koolhaas, Hans
Eneman, Kaptein
Roodnat (Marleen Kaptein en Stijn Roodnat) and Marcel
Smink.
The designs were collated in a catalogue, from which interested businesses
could make a selection. Artists and designers were thus directly involved
in the creation process for the WAPLA. They provide the space, the entrepreneurs
equip it, and they jointly develop the WAPLA’s definitive form and
content. The artistic input is therefore not created in isolation and
added later, but is anchored in the process of creation, positioning and
layout of the facility.
The local council issued permits for businesses to run the WAPLAs. The
council also issued long-term leases for the required plots of land at
a reduced rate. This left the business with extra funds for the special
design of the WAPLA. Interested businesspeople could submit a business
plan for the WAPLAs in a public tender process. These plans had to be
based on a WAPLA design from the catalogue. Only the tenders from businesspeople
who made use of the artists’ proposals in the catalogue, and also
presented a convincing business plan, were considered for a WAPLA permit
in Leidsche Rijn. The entrepreneurs were asked to devise a definitive
application in cooperation with the artist.
The catalogue was published and distributed in December 2003 and completion
of the first WAPLA is expected in 2004.
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