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nt Architecture International Rotterdam (AIR) in 1982, which aimed to confront the isolated nature of the profession in the Netherlands through a discourse with acclaimed architects and critics from abroad[17]

Point/South City

“Holland is nothing but a burned-out skeleton of a culture that was once ambitious, critical, and devoted to a kind of modernism.”[18]

Criticism of the current situation

Point/South City was part of AIR 1993 which focused on Rotterdam's postwar urban development, the urban periphery and their development in the urban landscape, in particular the north eastern area called Alexanderpolder. Alle de Jogne, the director of this manifestation of AIR, states their aim was to investigate, “the relation between suburbia and the traditional city, both from functional and cultural perspectives. This was set against a background of increasing individuality, heterogeneity and fragmentation of society on one hand, and economic globalization and technological expansion on the other.”[19] OMA moved beyond Alexanderpolder and Rotterdam to consider the limitations of the current process of urban expansion affecting the Randstad and in effect the whole of the country.

In the foreword to their visual studies, OMA comment on what they feel is the irony of the treatment of the Dutch landscape, “the (one) country that more than any other fabricated itself, now treats its territory as if it has the authenticity and inevitability of nature”.[20] They state their dismay at the almost indoctrinated, unconscious acceptance of Dutch planners that envision the Randstad as an organic, outward expanding city that encircles an empty green centre. They challenge the fact that this ideal has never been scrutinised, analysed or adjusted. Is there a functional reason for the cities to develop like this? OMA convey their apathy towards this weak approach:

“Through this lack of conceptual explicitness, political decisions are not placed in the context of a particular vision or ambition but are seemingly degenerating in an endless series of pragmatic adjustments that cumulatively have eroded whatever contents of clarity there was in the formula 'empty heart full periphery'.” [21]

This erosion has meant that the Randstad cities on the periphery are spilling into the open heart and spoiling the contrast between urban and open, with low density architecture. Sprawl is damaging the relationship between city and landscape by blurring the contrast of its surroundings by blending the unique qualities and identity of different parts into a generic mass.

The quality of variation between open and closed space has become diluted by horizontal expansion. The reduction in density and dilution of the complex spatial interaction has meant that a vital element to the success and character of cities has been lost. OMA suggest that this trend should be reversed by increasing density to achieve, “truly urban conditions”[22] Their short manifesto puts emphasis on the loss of difference that has been created by the dispersed built environment that is porous to the natural landscape. The complex vibrancy of the city has degraded towards blandness.