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The next step is to organize security not for individual buildings but for the whole area - a security ring similar to that created by city walls in the past. These organizations are symbolic of peace and justice, so they shouldn’t look like impenetrable fortresses to people. Inhabitants should feel privileged to be just able to walk out of their offices and stand in the middle of a dunescape.“

– Casper van der Feltz -
International Zone project
manager for the department
of Urban Planning



Ordered, light-filled and hygienic architectures produce and render a supposed democratic and safe society. Laid out by the guidelines of security, urbanscapes have grown into forensic scenographies built by policing technologies. When Tim Robinson, senior vice-president of Thales’ Security Division, states that “Security is a more politically acceptable way of describing what was traditionally defence” not only he claims that military projects are realized and financed by civil security ones. He also indicates a political agenda that consolidates militarization as the guarantor of democracy.


Wars shouldn’t be considered anymore as happening “outside”. Battlefields have become patrolling actions within our “interior”, indistinguishable from whatever we might call the environment. 1
1 Anselm Franke, The Forensic Scenography, pp. 483-494, Forensis: The Architecture of Public truth, 2014




CHAPTER 1

HORIZON

CHAPTER 2

TERRAIN

CHAPTER 3

ETHER

CHPATER 4

COSMOS
CHAPTER 1

HORIZON


The idea of the horizon refers to the endeavor of expanding the frontier of a territory, while at the same time defining the space of “the other”. We start the tour with a journey through the pillars underneath an architecture of gateways, considering how this architecture extends into the radars and drones patrolling Europe’s external borders. Colliding with Fortress Europe, we discover how military equipment outlines the European horizon as well as its logistics.

1. Centraal Station, completed
in 2015 and designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects Location: Kiningin Julianaplein

2. Europol by Quinst Wintermans Architects, completed in 2011. Location: Eisenawerlaan 73
3. Smart-S Mk2, 3D multibeam naval radar
4. Herakles, 3D multifunctional radar

 5. V-Fides, Unmanned Underwater Vehicle
CHAPTER 2

TERRAIN


The vertical and horizontal dimensions of the terrain we walk through target us. Here, new symbolic architecture of Justice performs as a missile: both architecture and arms reduce a walking subject into a point on a visual plane; both come from a Cartesian understanding of space. Finally, both rely on a targeting geography, each person considered a potential threat. Is the landscape able to target, surveil, and shoot us at any moment without notice?

1. International Criminal Court by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, completed in 2016. Location: Oude Waaldorperweg 10
2. Aculeus LG, sub- metric induction laser guided rocket



CHAPTER 3

ETHER


Fly through antennas and skate on radio waves. From this building branch out the invisible lanes that feed a geography of control which shoots rockets on Libya or commands surveillance drones flying over Afghanistan. In this chapter, the clear sky and the upper regions of air beyond the clouds are observed as a vehicle of a weaponized data Cloud.

1. NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), by MVSA Architects, 2019. Location: Oude Waalsdorperweg 61
2. NATO Satellite Ground Station Satellite dish
CHAPTER 4

COSMOS


The cosmos could be seen as a system with an order and pattern, measured, mapped, and made in the image not only of Science but also of Capital. In this building, outer space is researched and made into a territory for wealth extraction; an asset for successful modern warfare and surveillance. Let’s have a glimpse of the satellites that enable Europe’s eyes and ears to function anywhere on Earth, day and night, and in all conditions.

1. Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk (TNO), in use since 1967. Location: Oude Waalsdorperweg 73
2. Sentinel 1, mission part of Copernicus. Provides continuous mapping of the Earth through C-band synthetic aperture radar imaging