Sketch Design for Metro Station Rokin / Amsterdam North-South line (2013)

This design proposal was commissioned for the interior of the new metro station Rokin. During the construction of the metro line 700,000 archaeological objects were found in the sediments of the Amstel’s former riverbed. The design needed to refer to the archaeological findings, but also create a strong link to the present. The jury commissioned 4 artists to develop a proposal: Ni Haifeng, Marcel Schmalgmeijer, Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel and myself. The design of Daniel Dewar and Grégory Gicquel was chosen to be executed, the station will open in 2018.

FLOOR PROPOSAL: ARCHAEOLOGY OF WORDS
A typographical floor design, with words and the date of their first known usage milled into the floor of the platform. During the construction of the metro line, a huge number of archaeological finds were made in what was once the river bed. It was almost an entire history of local civilisation. I found a chronological dutch dictionary with listed words with the date of their first known usage. This makes a parallel to the history of the objects that were to be displayed at the station – the history of the word, the history of thinking. In my design, thousands of words with their date of origin would be engraved in the floor. It was very playful. Why did the word “two” originate before the word “one”? Which came first, the word “chicken” or the word “egg”?

DESIGN TILES
Julia Born

FONT
Laurens Brunner

DESIGN SHOWCASES
Bruno Vermeersch and Leon de Lange

ASSISTABCE
Emilia Bergmark, Nina Paim

LINGUISTIC ADVISE
Dr. Jan Stroop

FLOOR TILES
Mutsaert Natuursteen