indesem is a biannual event held at the faculty of Architecture of the Technical University in Delft, the Netherlands. The event was initialised in 1962 by a group of students led by prof. MSc Wiek Röling. That year he worked together with Jaap Bakema and invited Team X to tutor the INternational DEsign SEMinar. Among the lecturers were Aldo van Eyck, Peter Smithson and Herman Hertzberger. After a long period, Herman Hertzberger organized the seminar again in 1985, as a tribute to the retiring Aldo van Eyck. Since then INDESEM has become a regularly returning event, mostly held in Delft and occasionally in other European cities like Geneva or Split. Its well-known international character is generated by the large group of foreign students attracted to the event.
In the coming edition of INDESEM the relationship between (the perception of) mobility and architecture will be the central theme. We are also co-operating with next years' first Architecture Biannual in Rotterdam (1AB), which will be focusing on mobility too. MSc Francien Houben (Mecanoo Architects and director of the 1AB) and INDESEM2003 are working together to give expression to the theme in a broader sense.
By choosing the theme of Mobility and Perception, we are looking to provide a theoretical background to the rediscovered task of explicitly designing the motorway and its surroundings.