We have worked in the Amstelpark previously on the invitation of Zone2Source. From the basis of this working period, we continue our research for Exploded View. Many spatial residues of the Floriade are still visible in the park. Should we just leave them or do they offer leads for the development of new scenarios? Archival research and fieldwork have led to the development of different strategies to provide the Floriade heritage with a new context, and to give a renewed experience of the park to its visitors.
By means of five temporary spatial interventions we have experimentally tested these strategies, for example in the French pavilion. By speaking with the managers who have been working in the park since the Floriade, we found out that one of the pavilions was buried shortly after the closing of the Floriade. Based on archival photos and field research we determined the presumed location of the French pavilion. With a group of archaeology students we have uncovered the entrance of the pavilion in one day. In the evening, the entrance was covered again with soil. The group of students and casual passer-bys have witnessed a remarkable finding. Through this and other interventions, the involved participants and regular visitors have briefly met the layered history of the park.
In a new phase, as part of the research project Exploded View, we search for a way to make the special history of the Floriade part of a visit to the Amstelpark. In a small but uniquely designed pavilion, Grace Kelly baptized a lily that was named after her in 1972. Recently this pavilion was demolished, which has made the spatial carrier as a memory of this happening disappear. Formerly this carrier did exist, but only a few people knew what the pavilion was built for originally. For a long time it was used as a place for picnics, blowing, hiding or resting in the park. What is a suitable way to make the layered history of the park visual, without elevating one layer above the other? Through a collage-like travel guide we want to make this diversity insightful and divisible from different perspectives.
By means of five temporary spatial interventions we have experimentally tested these strategies, for example in the French pavilion. By speaking with the managers who have been working in the park since the Floriade, we found out that one of the pavilions was buried shortly after the closing of the Floriade. Based on archival photos and field research we determined the presumed location of the French pavilion. With a group of archaeology students we have uncovered the entrance of the pavilion in one day. In the evening, the entrance was covered again with soil. The group of students and casual passer-bys have witnessed a remarkable finding. Through this and other interventions, the involved participants and regular visitors have briefly met the layered history of the park.
In a new phase, as part of the research project Exploded View, we search for a way to make the special history of the Floriade part of a visit to the Amstelpark. In a small but uniquely designed pavilion, Grace Kelly baptized a lily that was named after her in 1972. Recently this pavilion was demolished, which has made the spatial carrier as a memory of this happening disappear. Formerly this carrier did exist, but only a few people knew what the pavilion was built for originally. For a long time it was used as a place for picnics, blowing, hiding or resting in the park. What is a suitable way to make the layered history of the park visual, without elevating one layer above the other? Through a collage-like travel guide we want to make this diversity insightful and divisible from different perspectives.