Predictability is a built-in element of the Dutch housing stock, and so to some extent of domestic life. It rests in principle on a consensus within society that has been given form in the Building Decree. This statutory code is a clearly defined system that everyone is obliged to know and adhere to. In this regard the Building Decree is an active, formative principle that purposefully nestles in every built object to then become part of its everyday reality. If it does its job properly, the Building Decree should generate a fully predictable outcome. However, it proves to be anything but the unambiguous motive force of rationalization I had first taken it for.

Article 4.21 of the Building Decree stipulates that 55 per cent of a dwelling is to adhere to its rules and the remaining 45 per cent may be filled in at will. It therefore implies the possibility of a dark area where the light of the Building Decree cannot and must not penetrate. Indeed, by defining individual freedom as a generally legitimate interest it should create the space that allows the individual to make it their own, away from the ties of society or community. So it can guarantee that space but never give rise to it. The Building Decree then requires that we produce an architecture that maximizes the potential of both positive and negative aspects.

The literal brief I set myself was to reallocate the original volume of Parkzicht, a block of gallery-access flats in Tilburg-Noord. Renamed Black Smoker, it will once again have a residential programme, this time predicated more on the 'economic contract of the minimum' that gave rise to Parkzicht in the first place. My quest is for a more complete architecture that comes from stepping up the ambivalence. Only then can there be an architecture that is darker, more seductive, more paradoxical, with more dimensions and, ultimately, richer.

Place of education: AAS Tilburg | Specialization: architecture | Tutors: Pieter Feenstra, Martien Jansen