6 July 2017 – Yesterday evening I had the pleasure to present Post Piraeus, the publication we made with 10 architects about Hans Kollhoff’s renowned housing block, to the architect. Kollhoff would not be Kollhoff if he did not use the occasion to make some critical remarks. Just like he freed the brick from its dusty image in 1994, he pleaded for another attainment of our polder: the Polder Model, the Dutch ability to decide on the basis of consensus.

In Kollhoff’s eyes Piraeus is the result of a collective enterprise in the so-called Plan Teams of those years- with much coffee and much beer. He talked about a perseverant lady who, within the Plan Team, kept interrogating him on the position of her home, the layout of it and the right place for her kitchen. Piraeus is also made by her. Kollhoff took the instrument of the Plan Team back home to Berlin and to other places in Europe.

This morning, a beautiful review of our publication by Bernard Hulsman in the daily newspapers NRC Handelsblad and NRC Next: De Duitse baksteen bloeit (the German brick flourishes).

Photo: Job Floris