Delta Life 11

Reinier de Graaf (1964) is a partner at the influential worldwide architecture firmOMA, which was founded by RemKoolhaas. He is responsible for the design of the iconic 'De Rotterdam' and 'Het Timmerhuis' in the port city. He is currently wor­ king on RAI NHow Hotel in Amsterdam. He was a co-founder of the AMO think-tank. He teaches at Cambridge University and the Harvard Univer­ sity Graduate School of Design and he recently published 'Four walls and a Roof, the complex nature of a simple pro­ fession', which the Dutch paper NRC Handelsblad described as one of the best books in 2018. DELTARES, MARCH 2019 7 CONTROLLED CAPITULATION Architect Reinier de Graaf of OMA architects gave a provocative keynote speech at the farewell reception for Delta Commissioner Wim Kuijken. His position: 'Stop fighting sea level rise: bend with it like bamboo.' R einier de Graaf projects the areas affected by both climate change and urbanisation on a map of the world. 'I like to make links,' he says, looking back on the speech the day after. 'That allows me to combine factors that other people usually see in isolation. It's a typical architect's way of coming up with new insights and solutions.' The overlap on the map makes it painfully clear that a number of densely populated areas will have to make far-reaching decisions. Including the Netherlands. His suggestion: 'Work seriously on flexible building. The central focus here shouldn't be on sustainability in the broad sense. We need to prioritise the option of taking apart buildings easily so that we can build them again somewhere else. And, if necessary, use them for other purposes.' In this respect, the classical standards, as stated in antiquity by the writer and architect Vitruvius, are changing fundamentally. Vitruvius notwithstanding, the building of the future will no longer be durable, built for a specific purpose or beautiful. But temporary, multi-functional and aesthe­ tically discreet. In De Graaf's thinking, then, sustaina­ bility stands for temporary solutions. A major associated benefit: 'It works against the evil of property speculation: if buildings can be moved, they no longer qualify as real estate.' The American example In other words, De Graaf is a proponent of the art of adapting to changing circumstances rather than fighting them head on. And that goes beyond the construction industry. 'Our engineered infrastructure is still focusing on keeping our feet dry, on keeping the water out of our castle by building higher and higher dikes. My suggestion: we should bend, like bamboo. You can describe it as controlled capitulation. And look at the Americans. They take hurricanes and flood waves as they come more than we do. Of course, they have risk analyses and they take protective measures but the basic attitude is: “Laissez faire, laissez passer” .' But what does that mean for our national identity, which is so intimately associated with the fight against water? 'That fight is a cliché. Historically, it goes back just a few hundred years to the mid-thirteenth century. It was only then that we began to "engineer" the Netherlands and, increasingly, to work less flexibly with water. We have come to see the artificiality of our country as authentic. We use history to show that isn't the case.' There is a growing need to think on different lines: 'OMA has calculated that the Netherlands already spends around 1.3 billion euros a year to stay afloat. As the sea level rises, these costs will become so high that, at some point, they will no longer be economically sustainable. Are we going to build even larger Delta Works?' Making people uncomfortable 'My role is to think without taboos. That is why I am invited as an outsider. I present extremely pessimistic scenarios. But they are based on arguments so they are irrefutable. I've done the same thing in the past with a plan for transnational energy production. I see how my approachmakes people uncomfortable. They can't deny that action is needed. At the same time, so many interests are at stake that it's not easy to talk about them explicitly. I hope my approach helps to develop new ideas.' BY FRED HERMSEN / IMAGE FRANK RUITER

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