Curatorial Statement

The Netherlands’ most frequented public space

Urban planners and politicians have long regarded mobility as little more than a necessary evil, a source of noise and filth, and, moreover, damaging to the environment. The automobile and the freeway were singled out as the most blatant offenders. Combating the negative side effects of mobility took center stage and consumed the public resources, while at the same time the freeway was more or less left to fend for itself. But in the end we have paid dearly for this shortsighted approach: the result is a no man’s land, misspent scraps of ground that fall prey to the proliferation of unsightly industrial zones, sound barriers and nondescript office parks. Planners seem to have forgotten that millions of commuters spend a good deal of their daily lives on the freeway. And so it has come that one of our most frequented public spaces is also the most scorned.

An underestimated task

The consequences of mass mobility for spatial planning are of a far-reaching, worldwide order. In a relatively short period of time, the complexion of metropolitan areas has changed immeasurably. Cities have crept insidiously into the heart of the transportation network; this phenomenon, often referred to as ‘urban sprawl’, continues unabated. In the Netherlands, green horizons and natural landscapes have been decimated into enclaves or have disappeared altogether. But the realization of a long-term ecological structure is not only undermined by the high price of the land itself. The world can no longer afford to regard mobility and urban infrastructure as a purely technical problem: it has become a social, cultural and ethical question.

Mobility as a challenge to planners

Recognizing mobility and the freeway as a collective challenge offers new perspectives for planners and politicians. Can the no man’s land that envelopes the existing roadways be transformed into a space with an identity? Can we find additional uses for the ground upon which the freeway lies? Can roads be turned into architecture and architecture into roads? How can landscape, city and infrastructure be more optimally interwoven? Is the concept of a ‘scenic highway’ possible in the Netherlands? The world has seen a dramatic change in its roadways and countryside in recent decades; the way in which this ‘landscape of mobility’ can be guided, managed and designed is the central issue to be presented at the first International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam.