In juli verplaatste ik me ruim een week per fiets door drie provincies in Noord Nederland. Een ontdekkingstocht die ruimte bood aan veel in- en vergezichten. Het herinnerde me, onder meer, aan de tekst ‘Designing Leisure Landscapes’ die ik begin 2009 voor het Jaarboek van de Academie van Bouwkunst Amsterdam schreef

” (…) The day is easy going. It begins with some gentle yoga followed by a delicious breakfast, the community meeting and then a course in local history and culture.

In recent years a certain notion has stealthily crept its way into our society and language, and resistance, for whatever reason, is pointless. That notion is ‘leisure’ and in essence it is nothing but another word for spare time. But following on from the changes in our society to which leisure is linked or identified, and powered by the effects of globalisation and the belief in particular economic models, leisure has acquired a much bigger impact, variety and, especially, a more diffuse character than spare time. Leisure has become a notion that is now woven into our life, time and space very firmly. Acceptance of it, followed by analysis and reaction, would seem to be the best tactic to employ.

Leisure is time in which we do nothing, nothing substantial. Time in which we don’t work. Time in which we are freed, for shorter or longer periods, from obligations and tasks. It is free time and leans towards frivolity, boredom and the superfluous. Leisure emerges or reveals itself when nothing else useful can be done. Leisure can be Domino Day or a boat made from ice cream sticks. It has something to do with freedom and extravagance, but also with release and repose after work. It is a state of being or place that we long for. Leisure is James Bond and Sporthuis Centrum at the same time. When we accept these facts and accept the presence of leisure, the contours and tentacles of the phenomenon become clear. Leisure then reveals itself as an omnipresent key notion in the organisation and design of society in the early 21st century. This assertion, coupled with the finding that leisure has also infiltrated the practice of spatial planning, and curiosity about whether and how leisure can really be designed formed the starting point for the ‘Designing Leisure Landscapes’ study project at the Academy of Architecture. (…)”