Artefact: Ulf Hackauf

Artefact

KITCHEN KNIFE

Words Ulf Hackauf

‘Artefact’ is a recurring two-page spread, which features a beloved object presented by one of the BK City staff members. Every month, the author passes the ‘Artefact’ contributorship to the next. Last month, Amber Leeuwenburg nominated teacher and researcher Ulf Hackauf, who works on the relation of urban metabolism and urban morphology at the section of environmental technology and design.

After my toothbrush, my phone and computer, this kitchen knife is probably the artefact I use most. In the morning to chop fruit, in the evening to prepare dinner and since corona also to prepare lunch for me and my partner. Preparing food is always a welcome break from work. Your hands get to do something different than typing. And you get something done: Cooking a meal is like a small little project, where you actually do meet the deadline. A very rewarding experience.

When I was young, I started baking before I got into cooking. After all, self-made cakes and tarts are essential to German family life. Only later, as a student, I got into cooking. Baking and cooking seem similar, but are actually two very different ways of preparing food. For baking, good planning and precision are required. If your dough misses the right amount of yeast or soda, you will later not be able to repair the failed cake. Cooking is much more forgiving. A lot of dishes can still be tweaked until the very last moment. A good chef is not necessarily a good baker and vice versa.

You could compare this to researching versus designing. While you can tweak the design of a building until close to the deadline, research is less flexible and requires stricter planning. Maybe this difference makes it so very challenging to combine the two, in practice, but also in education. How rare is it to be a really good researcher and designer at the same time? And why do we expect designers to be good in research, while we do not expect researchers to be skilled in designing?

The short moments of chopping an onion and preparing a meal are great times to let your thoughts wander off…

And then we whispered. Was it fear? Was it fire? Closing the eyes and shutting down. Refuse to use, refuse to drown.

We are triggered, Withdrawn in the waiting room. Flooded with the silence, Unspoken, imbalanced.

Here are misunderstandings, Words without endings. Stirred up, swallowed, Skewed looks, walls narrowed.

Whereas the windows still open, Not meant for only staring. Blame it on us, shame on you, Ascend through and shatter,

Taboo.

Words by Anne van den Berg, Image by Raven van der Steen. Want to share your art or design our next cover? Contact us!

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Before 1856, people had to catch 12.000 snales to produce 1,4 grams of the colour purple, that's why you don't see purple flags until recent times. In west-african cultures people used the colour blue during death and bereavement ceremonies, which is why slaves who worked on the Southern plantations sang about "the blues" in their songs. There are many stories, symbols and associations with colors, that's why the next's edition will be all about colors. Each writer will be matched with a color, so which color are you going to write about?

Bnieuws 54/05 due April 2021.

NEXT ISSUE: COLOURS

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INDEPENDENT PERIODICAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TU DELFT

VOLUME 54 ISSUE 04