lexicon

For our lexicon we decided to bring our idea to the online world. We wanted to incorporate the architectural side of our project but still keeping it playful. Because google maps is accessible by everyone it a good choice to combine the public sphere with a gamesome aspect to it. When playing with google maps we remembered how easy it is to leave reviews on places you have visited but also places you've also never been to before! What could we leave reviews of? Could this be only the words and definitions we had? But on what places?
Our concept elevated when we decided to associate lexicon words from our huge collective lexicon, with buildings and monuments which architecturally and emotionally spoke to these words. For each place we did not simply leave a definition but moreso, a realistic review of how it would feel to use this word as the inspiration behind the review.
We wanted to keep it light hearted but still making a statement to gender, sex and gendered architecture.

MASCULINITY - MARRIOTT HOTEL

Masculinity has certain types of characteristics, behaviours or roles, it differs per country and culture. Examples of masculinity in architecture are square, sterile, distant, wanting to look powerful by the use of materials such as marble. The Marriott Hotel has all of these characteristics.

Here are the words we used from our lexicons, their definitons, the buildings we chose to associate with them and a small description to why!

FEMININITY - HOFBOGEN

The socially constructed norms/qualities/appearance/attributes/roles associated with women. e.g. soft, delicate, emotional, irrational. These certain types of characteristics, behaviours or roles,differ per country and culture and over time and space. I feel like some of those constructed qualities are seen in the hofbogen, the round shapes and passages that you can enter. It has a much softer, rounder appearance than many skyscrapers that surround it. You can look over it from many buildings and houses and you can even walk on top of it at some places like the park. In this way it is not intimidating at all. It is about connections, connecting multiple streets through its passages, but also because of its historical function, train tracks. Now it is hosting shops, studios, bakeries in its arches, I get a familiar and home-like feeling from it, like a mom hosting all kinds of kids in her arms.

Some stereotypical examples of these characteristics: round, soft, sweet, genle.
This can also be seen back in buildings. I personally find these buildings way easier to look at, even though many buildings are very powerful, still they seem accepting and nice to me.

INTERVENING - OUR DOMAIN

Intervening means coming in between something, for example if two people are fighting and someone comes in between them and stops them.

OurDomain is a brand new building which was built in the duration of Corona. The building is super tall and build on a relatively small piece of land. Because of this, and the style of the building (which is very modern and masculine) feels like a quick intervention. It feels like there wasn’t much attention to the surroundings, a building just quickly had to be built.

SEX - MAASTUNNEL

Biological attributes, features, sexual anatomy on which you are categorised at either male or female. Sexy is often considered as something very binary, you are either male or female. Nothing in between or outside of those categories. In which females are subjugated to males.

Rotterdam is also very much divided in the North and the South .Where the North is everything above the maas and the South everything below. The South is in my eyes often subjugated to the North, being marked as dangerous and poor. However, these categories limit our perception of sex, of the city of Rotterdam and of the world. In my opinion sex is not a dichotomy. I think sex is also partially socially constructed, by focussing on only genitals to decide whether one is a female or male. For example, by deciding often at birth whether a androgynous person is going to be considered a male or female. The way we use science to make those categories is not a pre-theoretical given and inert thing, it is als ik o constructed, we have made certain decisions to focus on certain aspects like what characteristics defines someones sex. Therefore the Maastunnel feels like a place where we reconsider our perception of binaries, not dividing the North and South but connecting them. Presenting that they are not distinct but intertwined, just like sex is.

PATTERN - ERASMUS MC

A particular way something is done. Could also be a piece of fabric cut out in a particular way in order to make a piece of clothing.

The Erasmus MC hospital is the largest of the eight university medical centers in the Netherlands, which means systematic and repetitive patterns are unavoidable. There are many windows in the hospital, so many that it stops looking like windows, but it looks like a pattern on the wall.

GENDER - MAAS
Socially constructed norms in which to behave according to your sex. Gender is socially, historically, politically, culturally constructed. This changes over time and is influenced by the way women and men acted in the past, act in the present and continue to act in the future. One is considered to be a woman when one has the sex of a female and also acts according to that sex, meaning the behaviours and roles that we have come to connect with the female sex i.e. being the main caretaker, being elegant and deicate, polite, emotional. And equally for men, they have to adhere to certain constructed social roles according to their male sex. However, there is definitely not one role and norm that fits everyone and it is ever changing. There are many people born as male who do not identify with the norms of being a man and the other way around. Even more so, there are a lot of people who do not identify as either man or woman.
Relation:
The water of the Maas represents this for me, it is partially a natural phenomena, namely a river just like the construction of norms and behaviours is also a natural phenomena for humans. However, the river has been made to a certain width, with branches to parts of the harbour coming to look almost like a canal. I think the gender could be seen as this too, we have shaped it probably too excessively, but we can still recognise its fluidity, just like the fluidity of the water. It is ever changing and never fixed.

THE COMMON - BLUE CITY

The common is that what belongs to nobody and therefore to everybody, or, what belongs to everybody and therefore to nobody. This is a simple paradox that spells the fragility, the ungraspable, enigmatic character of the common well.

For a long time Bluecity was an abandoned swimming pool, visited by many for prohibited activities such a photoshoots, independent films or even just to hang out. Now, the space is open to the public for hosting events. Because of it’s unique round shape and ceiling that is completely made out of windows, this is a part of what makes the building so appealing.

VULNERABILITY/PRECARITY - METRO STATION BLAAK

Vulnerability/Precarity means the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.
Many women & queer people experience the metro station as a scary place, especially in the evening and at night. Because it is underground and usually not busy at those times, it’s very common to feel very vulnerable there. The architecture is cold, practical. Not many places you can stand unseen.

PRIVATE SPACE - WDKA

A place for people to be alone, or with very close people who they have an intimate relationship with.

WdKA doesn’t look particiulary inviting from the outside. The quote ‘You have to change to stay the same’ is made so a few can understands. The building (blaak) itself looks very closed off with all the bricks and big important door.

DOMESTICITY - OUD DELFSHAVEN

Domesticity means home or family life.

Old Delfshaven is a piece of old dutch architecture what wasn’t bombed in the Rotterdam bombing. This piece of the city feels way less sterile than the new built city. The warm brown bricks and house shape feels like a cozy country side home. The atmosphere in general in this street is also way more relaxed.

PUBLIC SPACE - STADHUIS

A public place is a space that is owned by public institution, government, municipality, (partially) open for the public, the society.

The Stadhuis is the perfect example of a public place. Many people have to go here for various different things like pasport renewals, marriage licence, and many many more of these important happenings. The architecture of Stadhuis has many neoclassical aspects, marble alike bricks and sculptures. Because of these ascpects the building seems important.

KITCH - BLUE BUILDING OF ROTTERDAM

A style which people deem ugly or of poor quality. Came standing through mass production. Nowadays the word is being reclaimed and it’s a form of fun, playful and self-expression.

The blue buildings in Rotterdam are so unique and playful. It’s a breath of fresh air through the suffocating city.

EXTRAVAGANT - DEPOT BOIJMANS VAN BEUNIGEN

It’s a lack of restraint in spending money. Usually spending more than is necessary. Ofcourse, necessarity it is debatable. Buying something that is exaggerated from the norm and that’s not giving extra value to a product or an event.

The Depot is a building that has been build in times of COVID, and cost a lot of money (92mil) and you can question if it is necessary to use this money in a building. The depot did give citizens the chance to own a part of the extravagant disco ball, to adopt a mirror on the outside of the building.

PLAYFUL - HET PARK

Playful means light heartedness and amusing, it gives the feeling of pleasure and joy.

Het Park is a nice patch of green between the busy city. The trees really close of the roads and it feels like a real piece of nature here with a lot of grass to sit on and nice ponds. There are even cafes.

HUMOUR - DENTIST KLEIWEG

the ability to find things funny, the way in which people see that some things are funny, or the quality of being funny. Brings a breath of fresh air to heavy subjects. Makes them easier to digest.

The dentist in R’dam Hillegersberg has a huge mouth on the front window. This is really inviting and funny, even though it’s often not fun in the dentist.

DISCOMFORT - MARKTHAL
A mental, physical, or external feeling of unease. In art this discomfort is really interesting and important to play with, to make something more memorable and impactful.

The markthal is one of the most well known pieces of architecture in Rotterdam. The unusal shape of the outside and art on the ceiling makes it an particular building. The inside is filled with small market shops which make the inside very crowded. Also the ceiling art depicts huge ants, strands of grass and fruits.
This makes the visitors feel small which causes discomfort.

HETRONORMATIVE - DE BOEG

Heteronormative def: denoting or relating to a world view that promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation.

This monument represents the 3500 passengers and workers on trade ships in the second world war. War, in general was fought by men, and homosexuality was almost illegal back then. This monument is a concrete long shape, very cold and sterile. This has the right tone when talking about the war.

AUTONOMY - BRIENENOORD

Autonomy is the ability to make your own decisions and handle to these. You know who or what you are as a person and you live by it. As an independent individual you exclude yourself and do your own things and don’t get influenced, only inspired by surroundings.

Brienenoord Island is a place that has communal gardens but also has a lot of nature that is just living and profitable for us as human beings. So to say, this island is quite self organised in their species. Beside that, it’s under a highway that makes a huge contrast and feels like it excludes itself from building infrastructure.

AGENCY - BLIJDORP ZOO

Agency means that an individual is free to act independently.

In the zoo that’s obviously, and sadly, not the case. The architecture of the zoo seems fun and playful by using bright colours and round shapes. This is a disguise for what is really going on there.

NORMATIVE - RABOBANK (centraal)

Normative means related to a norm, something regarding the standard of correctness in behavior, speech, writing, etc.
Relation:
The building in which Rabobank is located is a very masculine, sterile, dominant. This fits to the banking world, often male-dominated and very controlling over the world.

LONELINESS - BLOKLANDSTRAAT 108

A state of being isolated from people, things, or places.

The house on bloklandstraat 108 is known as ‘the lonely house’. A project developer wanted to demolish the houses on the whole street, but the people on 108 held their ground and kept the house. When the other houses were demolished, this house was the only one standing in the whole street, which is why this house is now known as the lonely house.

OVERWHELMING - CALYPSO

Overwhelming, difficult to overcome. Sparks a strong emotion in a postive or negative sense.

The calypso on mauritsweg is recently build 9 years ago. It is distinctive to the other buildings in rotterdam by it’s bright colours and unusual shapes. The buildings are on a slight incline which gives the viewer a feeling that it is moving.

CLASH - McDONALDS COOLSINGEL STADHUIS

If two opinions, statements, or qualities clash, they are very different from each other

A clash is two very different things that don’t go together, for example if two people have very different opinions, qualities, etc. The McDonalds on Coolsingel, next to stadhuis is clashing to it’s more classical surroundings. The architecture of the whole block is way more old-fashioned, and the McDonalds is very new, completely made of glass and just straight lines.

UNION - SCHOUWBURGPLEIN

People coming together with common interests / motives

A union is a coming together of people with common interests or motives. Schouwburgplein is a location wise place where different worlds meet, the working world, shopping street, tourist who just came from central station, people who are up for a dinner night or movie, and activism. This square has many attributes for different age groups. The architecture creates a big and atmospheric void which is very inviting.

VIVID - ERASMUSBRUG

Something vivid could be something that cannot be overlooked, for example, a very strong colour, something big, a strong feeling, or something that is very clear.

The Erasmus bridge is one of the most, if not the most, well-known staple piece of Rotterdam. Something that cannot be overlooked when thinking of Rotterdam.

STRANGER - ROTTERDAM CENTRAAL

a person whom one does not know or with whom one is not familiar.

A stranger, something strange, distant. Rotterdam Centraal is a place where people from all over the world come together in this reflective triangle. This eccentric piece of architecture for sure stands out in this place surrounded by sterile flat buildings.

CENSORSHIP - HARDDRAEVERSTRAAT

the suppression or prohibition of any parts of daily life that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.

Harddraeverstraat is a street with many of the exact same buildings under one roof. With these kind of houses even painting the door or windows is already prohibited. Because of this no one can express their own style through the accesorising the architecture.