look snow!

To consider the city is to encounter ourselves.
To encounter the city is to rediscover the child.
If the child rediscovers the city,
the city will rediscover the child – ourselves.
LOOK SNOW!
A miraculous trick of the skies – a fleeting correction.
All at once the child is Lord of the City.
But the joy of gathering snow of paralyzed vehicles is short-lived.
Provide something for the human child more permanent than snow – if perhaps less abundant.
Another miracle.

Aldo Van Eyck

The city as a playground

The bombings that occurred during the Second World War left small, random voids in the city. Mulder, as an urban planner working in the Municipal Administration of the city of Amsterdam, began to consider these voids. In 1947, she proposed a law that would allow anycitizen to identify a void in the city and communicate it to the municipality, requesting the construction of a playground in that location. These voids could be plots between party walls, vacant lots, corners, or sidewalks. Aldo Van Eyck, an architect and employee of the city’s public works office, volunteered to design the playgrounds. With the use of economic materials and abstract shapes, Van Eyck, Mulder and their colleagues sought to stimulate children’s imagination and social interaction. Between 1948 and 1978, they constructed over 700 small parks across Amsterdam. Unfortunately, only seventeen of these remain today.

The city has forsaken its identity. It has become an onlooker instead of a participant, an
isolated soul amidst millions of isolated souls. But children withdraw from this paradox.
They discover its identity against all odds.

Aldo Van Eyck

LOOK SNOW!

Taking as a starting point the above-mentioned words of Van Eyck, this small book project reflects on snow, playgrounds, the urban design philosophies of Aldo Van Eyck and Jakoba Helena Mulder, and how they invite us to rethink the ways we inhabit the city. Inspired by Bruno Munari’s children’s book Never Seen So Much Snow, it explores the capacity of both nature and children to disrupt social norms, customs and rhythms.