Kleiburg Piñata

After his internship Matt is now about to leave the office. He prepared a surprise: a model of Kleiburg, a 1:200 scale piñata stuffed with sweets. It proved pretty hard to demolish…

Matt wearing body armor while wrestling with model

Rosa Spier †

Heaven on earth, ain’t no heaven on earth nowhere…

According to the national newspaper De Telegraaf the Rosa Spierhuis will soon be demolished.

The Rosa Spier is a home for elderly. A very special home, intended primarily for artists and scientists; it features ateliers with shed roofs for Northern light, a gallery for exhibitions and a theater / concert hall.

The Rosa Spier is located in Laren, the Beverly Hills of the Netherlands. It is conveniently situated in the woods near the village center, and the Singer Museum. And not far from the local hotspot Het Bonte Paard.

The layout is spacious. The gardens, designed by Mien Ruys, are visible from the corridors and the rooms. The corridors in fact form a museum; the inhabitants use the walls to show their work. The corridor becomes a billboard for the residents, a personalized interface. In the process turning Gross floor space into Net.

But the Rosa Spier does no longer comply with regulations for care institutions. Bathrooms and living rooms are too small. (Says who?) And the corridors and the doors are too narrow. Interestingly within the strict regime of the Gross / Net Proportion that rules contemporary construction and that squeezes all excess space out of today’s architecture some components are actually forced to be relatively spacious: wheel chairs and rolling beds define the minimum space. So potentially an ideal space for showing art could be the derivative, a by product. But then again, if the corridors in the new facility will become bigger, economizing has to take place elsewhere. Lower ceilings?

The retirement home will be relocated. On the current site about six luxury villa’s can be realized. The new Rosa Spier will be placed along highway A1 (elderly suffer from hearing problems anyways?) directly next to the mysterious sex club Boccaccio. It isn’t entirely clear what strategic symbiotic relationship is to be expected of this proximity… Maybe the claim that Boccaccio is the world’s first sex club with a golf course has something to do with it…

In 2003 -at the time very interested in the effects of aging and its consequences for Architecture and Planning- we dropped by the Rosa Spier. The vernissage of an exhibition of the famous photographer (and prominent Rosa Spier-resident) Eva Besnyö seemed the perfect occasion.

The clever thing about making a gallery part of the institute is that, besides introducing constantly chancing interesting content, fresh blood, new faces and old friends can enter the compound; it turns the usually suffocating communal space into a dynamic, public room.

Siemens Hengelo Officially Opened

Our building for Siemens was officially opened by Mayor Frank Kerckhaert on June 15th. Kind of old news, but now there is a series of exciting new photographs by Marcel van der Burg, please check our photo-book.

Official Opening Mountain Network Dordrecht

Aldermen Rinette Reynvaan and Bert van der Burgt of the City of Dordrecht have officially opened the new home for Mountain Network in Dordrecht.

According to Frits Vrijlandt, President of the Royal Dutch Climbing Association, this is the most beautiful of such facilities in the Netherlands. And yes ONL’s walls do look stunning. And it is not even completed yet… soon the cap between the walls and the facade will be bridged, the missing panels in place and the ceiling installed.

We could not prevent the client to abandon the original –sublime- color scheme: an incomprehensible dazzle painting is now annihilating the potential sculptural qualities of the cave. A paint job would do wonders. The cliffhanger continues…

Concrete!

After submerging in the instant bliss of 3D printing and our regular dose of Shapeways excitement we’re back to the real thing; we’ve finally produced a model made out of concrete. Hell Yeah!

After several successful failures Roel created the perfect cast of Kleiburg in 1:500…    gorgeous!

The project itself is actually also becoming more concrete too: Quality Team, Government, Housing Corporation, and  Consortium all seem enthusiastic about the amazing potential of the new Kleiburg! More will follow soon.

The making of …

In September the art piece by Gabriel Lester will be placed in Funenpark: the final touch. The City and Heijmans (the developer and builder) thought this would be a great opportunity for the official opening of the area as a whole. A book and a film about the making of are in the making. For the film Gabriel is doing interviews with some of the people involved.

Duck

The grass in the elevated garden of the Kameleon is getting greener and greener.

Photographer Marcel van der Burg took a bunch of amazing pictures of the building. Please check them out here:

The ‘floating river’, that was envisioned by Sant en Co, is now officially in use: ducks have arrived.

And Gert Jan and Iwan recently discovered other signs of life too…