Blending in

Suspecting that Todays Orange weather alert will keep the crowd at home and the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum empty I feel finally ready to visit this recently reopened building.

I am not sure yet what to think of the bathtub shaped new museum extension that contains the new main entrance but today its appearance blends in perfectly well with the temporary snow white environment. I wonder, does an architect consider the different seasons when designing a building?

I arrive just in time to mingle in with a troop of excited school children. Threatened by some circulating snowballs I quickly dive into the big white bathtub, once inside it feels warm and safe. This almost floating monumental space offers an instantly agreeable atmosphere, bright and airy.

I am not the only visitor after all but the gathered crowd easily hives of in all directions and in no time is swallowed by the spick and span spacious museum halls. One of the guards explains me that in the weekend there are over the 5000 visitors a day. It feels like the new building can easily digest this.

This first visit is just a quick orientation, some halls are closed since the museum is working on the delayed Mike Kelly exhibition that will open December the 15th. During my tour there are two things that catch my attention;

In one of the ground floor halls metal cabinets are placed against the wall, visitors are allowed to open the drawers. Nicely arranged vulnerable design related objects are presented, each drawer contains a new visual surprise. Exploring the content of the drawers is definitely fun.

Close to the former entrance, underneath the famous staircase is a small space, painted red, called the Family Lab. The entrance radiates a nice red glow from within and seduces the families to enter.Theme related activities are organized and films are shown, I see some beautiful drawings on the wall...

Stedelijk museum Amsterdam, the new entrance

Stedelijk museum Amsterdam, the new entrance

Staircase and parallel escalator surrounded by yellow walls in new building

Metal cabinet with Design surprise 

Poster wall with entrance of Family Lab

Family Lab

Family Lab,  drawings depicting 'motion'

A shift in perspective

On Sunday, the day after the Designers Saturday event, I decide to take the bus to Weil am Rhein for a visit to the famous Vitra-House. On this rainy early morning crossing the border with Germany driving through some deserted little villages makes me wonder where this trip will lead me to, whether I am really heading in the right direction. But once arrived at the Vitra premises witnessing this spatial wonder placed in the middle of vast green meadows an instant feeling of excitement takes over.

The building, designed by the Swiss architects Herzog and deMeuron, is a construction of stacked and cantilevered building blocks that in shape refer to the archetypical representation of a house. This architectural assemblage has a certain degree of complexity and when entering the building it becomes even more disorientating. The stacked volumes are blending into geometrically complex shapes which are connected by staircases that do not necessarily respect the logic of the separate building blocks.

Wandering through this Vitra labyrinth is wonderful, the unexpected points of view that are offered do remind me of the sculptural building transformations of the 70ties artist Gordon Matta-Clark. His tube shaped intersections that carved in an 45 degree angle through the various levels of an abandoned building created a complete new spatial experience.

An other more recent example in this context is the infrastructure of the buildings of  the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. One of his projects, The Musashino Art University Library, has a labyrinth like interior with walls that are composed from bookshelves spiraling in from the perimeter and providing views and access across the different spaces via cutouts.

Although the interior of the Vitra-House in itself offers an unique experience but surprisingly enough it doesn't distract the attention from what is exhibited in it. There seems to be a natural balance between a space with a genuine outspoken identity and a perfectly styled collection of great furniture.

Vitra House

Interior view Vitra House

The Musashino Art University Library by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto.

transformed buildings by Gordon Matta-Clark

House N by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto

transformed buildings by Gordon Matta-Clark

Photograph of Vitra furniture

A lesson in physics

Last Saturday I paid a visit to the Museum of modern art 'De Pont' in Tilburg where several art works of the British Indian artist Anish Kapoor are exhibited. The former wool spinning mill with its spacious and intimate environments creates a perfect context for a real sensorial experience.

The atmosphere of the central exhibition space is different from the usual, instead of the formal distance to the art works the public is actively interacting with the installations. The perfectly polished steel made mirrors seem to trigger a somewhat primitive reaction. The moment confronted with the three dimensional mirrored surfaces as well children as adults are responding instantly by making distorted self-portraits or funny pictures of their companion with their cameras. It reminds me of the village fair evergreen, the mirror labyrinths.

But besides providing space for basic pleasure it definitely is the perfect play to learn installation for the physics high school teacher. Is there a better way to make students more eager to understands the complex rules of a three dimensional mirror surface?

In contrast with the extrovert spacious mirror experience,  the intensely pigment powdered half spheres presented in a separate space are providing a moment of seclusion. Absorbed by the depth of color, an experience of infinity and silence is created, the perfect mindfulness tool.

The brief moment of reflection will be rudely interrupted by a loud bang coming from the adjacent room. A compressed air canon loaded with red wax entities is fired in intervals of 30minutes. The wall opposite the canon is plastered with traces of the red wax ammunition. But the most exiting part of the performance is the waiting, the anticipating on the big bang, wanting to witness the collision, fearing to miss the moment and being anxious that the impact of the sounds will take you by surprise after all.

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Designers' Saturday

During the Orgatec fair in Köln  I was offered, by a Ruckstuhl sales representative, two free entrance tickets for the Designers' Saturday exhibition in Swiss. As I never had been at this biennial occasion before and had heard often positive stories about it, it felt as a good decision to make the trip to Langenthal.

Designers Saturday is an event organized by five major firms based in Langenthal. On the premises of these firms as well collections of international known firms as work of design students are shown in an experience like set up.

It is a very well organized, professional event with an informal relaxed and warm welcome feel. Plenty of good food, drinks and even life music create a lively atmosphere. The fact that one can enter the factory, in some locations even witness parts of the production process, makes this happening quiet special. There are of course some obligatory safety precautions but it doesn't feel like you are held at a distance, you are really inside, experiencing the atmosphere of a major industrial production site.

Some pictures to give an impression...

Creation Baumann. A dynamic color shifting maze leading the visitor to the core of the exhibition space

Presentation of Keramik Laufen & Similor at Girsberger 

Presentation of Bauwerk Parket Purzel Hause at Ruckstuhl

Creation Baumann. Factory

Office at Hector Eggen Holzbau

Food and drinks at Ruckstuhl

Presentation  at Ruckstuhl of ECAL University. Project Marbelous by Flora Fixy

Life music at Ruckstuhl

Presentation Carpets at Ruckstuhl

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Capture the moment

More and more designers are challenged by the process, material properties or artisinal skills. 

Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren from studio Glithero focus in their work on the transition of an object during the production process. Their leitmotif is  “To capture and present the beauty in the moment things are” This quest is superseding the importance of the finished product, they create experiences, the end product becomes the medium, the process the message.

 'A brief moment of happiness' which is being developed in support of the Vauxhall Collective, is a collection of ceramic objects whose decorative surfaces have been captured through the process of blueprinting.


http://www.glithero.com/