Amsterdam, 28th of April 2009: Rein Jansma loves the material world. Being an architect, he builds mostly physical infrastructure. Also, Rein loves technology and he realizes that technology and
…
Expand section
Rein Jansma
Architect and director of Zwarts & Jansma
person
Rein Jansma briefly studied biology and architecture at the TU Delft but decided that ‘making things’ was what he had to do. In 1982 he published the remarkable pop-up book ‘Stairs’ with
… 
Caroline
Rein
Rein Jansma explains that in the architectural company Zwarz & Jansma no distinction is made the between the design process and the technical development of design. All collaborators have to be
…
Expand section
Space is defined fundamentally by how one interacts with a space, Jansma argues. As a child he remembers drilling a hole in an internal wall, which came out in the bathroom of his mothers and fathers
…
Expand section
When designing buildings and infrastructure the human body is always key to the design. Vision, hearing, physical constraints of human sizes, it all relates to the building. Even more so, says
… 
Zwarts & Jansma have made a lot of sports buildings but actually, according to Jansma, a soccer stadium is a very silly building for just watching the game. It costs many millions of Euros and
… 
Jansma argues that we live in a society in which risk is reduced all the time: by the government, by the municipality, by employers. On the other hand, as a biological entity, the human being has
… 
Transport infrastructure is very optimized in our part of the world, but, this brings a danger that people don’t feel where they are, Zwarts & Jansma have found. On highways, in public
…
For Jansma technology is wonderful. Without it we couldn’t have the complicated urban society with every decade higher expectations of our interactions in our society. If there wasn’t a whole lot
…
Expand section
Technology deeply influences the architecture that can be made; because of the speed of calculation of computers the process of designing has fundamentally changed; lines and shapes can be made that
…
For Jansma the most important requirement of today’s technology is very simple: there should be zero footprint of carbon energy. People should be free to use energy; it should not feel like wasting
…
Expand section
Discussing the relation between functional rhythm and aesthetic rhythm in the design, Jansma explains that architecture and music are very close and some people are more sensitive to musical rhythms
…
Space is communication anyway, argues Jansma. It is communication from the designer of the space to the user, but on a non-language level. It is a transferring of meaning and/or seduction.
Expand section
Very logic things can relate to very complex and layered things. On a visual level people understand this like they understand rhythm. Logic is not noise, it is very much a rhythm, but it is
…
Rein explains the controverse between the aim to exclude risk out of everyday life and the comfortable mental state of assess risk as we humans developed to handle everyday life. And how you to
…
Expand section
Jansma explores how to design everyday surroundings, like (public) transport, tunnels, highways etc, to have people recognise their presence on a certain moment and place. That recognition is a need
…
Expand section
Jansma talks about the difference between form space, rhytm and language and how this is influencing arts.
Expand section
Full transcript including film fragments you find at: http://www.systemsdesign.tbm.tudelft.nl/witness
Hereunder the transcript in text.
Expand section