TimeTravel: Digital Archives of Amsterdam’s Underground for Circular Building Practices

In summer 2020, part of a quay wall in Amsterdam collapsed, and in 2010, construction for a parking lot in Amsterdam was hindered by old sewage lines. New sustainable electric systems are being built on top of the foundations of old windmills, in places where industry thrived in the 19th century. All these examples have one point in common: They involve largely unknown and invisible historic underground structures in a densely built historic city. We argue that truly circular building practices in old cities require smart interfaces that allow the circular use of data from the past when planning the future.
The continuous use and reuse of the same plots of land stands in stark contrast with the discontinuity and dispersed nature of project-oriented information. Construction and data technology improves, but information about the past is incomplete. We have to break through the lack of historic continuity of data to make building practices truly circular. Future-oriented construction in Amsterdam requires historic knowledge and continuous documentation of interventions and findings over time. A web portal will bring together a range of diverse public and private, professional and citizen stakeholders, each with their own interests and needs.
Two creative industry stakeholders, Yume interactive (Yume) and publisher NAI010, come together to work with a major engineering office (Witteveen+Bos), the AMS Institute, the office of Engineering of the Municipality of Amsterdam, UNESCO NL and two faculties of Delft University of Technology (Architecture and Computer Science) to inventorize historic datasets on the Amsterdam underground. The team will connect all the relevant stakeholders to develop a pilot methodology and a web portal connecting historic data sets for use in contemporary and future design. A book publication will document the process and outcomes, highlighting the need for circular practices that tie past, present and future.

Eindrapportage

Time Travel argues that largely unknown and invisible historic underground structures exist in a densely built historic city that shape how we design the future. Smooth building processes require historic knowledge and continuous documentation of interventions and findings. A lack of connection has negative impact in multiple ways: 1. Information on the past is lost and problems arise when companies actually start digging into the ground. 2. Knowledge on the systems of the past, their interconnection is missing and disregarded, which leads to a lack of buy-in from local stakeholders 3. Circular building practices are not engaging approrpriately with historical structures.
In Time Travel we have worked together with a range of partners— Yume interactive (Yume) and publisher NAI010, a major engineering office (Witteveen+Bos), the AMS Institute, the office of Engineering of the Municipality of Amsterdam, UNESCO NL and two faculties of Delft University of Technology (Architecture and Computer Science) to inventorize historic datasets on the Amsterdam underground. We have developed and started test a methodology to connect the information held in historic archives, only some of which is digitized, to contemporary datasets. The team has connected all the relevant stakeholders and developed a pilot methodology, which we have tested in a number of workshops. A student in the AMS MADE program has adapted the methodology to explore the link between archival information, heating systems and public buildings in Amsterdam. We have also experimented with computer science students on challenges such as automated handwriting recognition or map analysis.
This collaboration has led to identifying concrete steps and partners and selecting a case study and relevant archival documents. that will serve the publication. The data situation is extremely complex and we have not yet been able to build a website, but we participate in the Nationaal Groeifonds award (Multifunctional Urban Waterfronts/Quaywalls).