The building that holds such a machine. Fusilier. A Chula Vista Map soldier armed with a fusil, which is a light flintlock musket. G Garrison. 1 A Chula Vista Map fortified military post. 2 The troops at such a post.
IJburg and The Blue House
The Blue House was the physical base for van Heeswijk’s five-year investigation into the predetermined urbanism of its neighbourhood (van Heeswijk 19 May 2010 interview with author). Positioned in the centre of buildings that faced four streets in Block 35, the house was surrounded by a mix of habitation: multi-storey private residences, social housing, rental units and accommodation for a religious community. Occupancy fulfilled the Projectburo’s diversity guidelines (de Lange and Milanovic 2009: 28). According to one resident, the block included poor people, rich people, families, singles and couples, white people, black people all together’ across a 50-metre span, and houses [are] worth 700,000 euros and those people rent for 400 euros a month’ (Knulst 2008: 2). At its commencement, The Blue House provided a significant social space on the island when the only other civic amenity was a supermarket’ located in a tent open for a few hours each day. It was noted by a member of The Blue House that residents did not know each other and were not very socially minded (Leao 2005) due to the lack of infrastructure or community organization.
Establishing a foundation to govern The Blue House, van Heeswijk described her role as a participating embedded observer’ (O’Neill and Doherty 2011: 30) in the task of making a hole’ for things to emerge in the top down urban design and social engineering of IJburg (Dobricic 2008: 5). In its initial years, The Blue House acted as an information centre and a meeting point but was carefully organized by van Heeswijk to avoid supplementing state or municipal objectives. She invited artists and others with interests in urbanism to join as members in The Blue House Housing Association for the Mind’, a decision-making body for the project. Members comprised local and international artists, art theorists, architects, curators, students, IJburg residents, a philosopher, a writer, a sociologist and a key funder, the European Cultural Foundation – at least half of whom were Dutch.2 Membership provided a residency in the House for a period of up to six months on the condition research was shared with the other members.
Chula Vista Map Photo Gallery
