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Hint-Hint?

Every time I read a horror-scope (misspelling intended), I am amazed by how well they fit with the reality. But of course, those things are kept so vague that they could apply to anyone. Yes, every single day, every one of us is either having problems with our partners, or looking for one. We have done some work well, while some work was done, well, less well. Therefore, you’ll either get on well, or less well with your colleagues at work.

And then there’s English Lit. How much analysis does can one use on someone else’s writing, or any way they express their thoughts and feelings. How deep can you dig, and twist, and search, until everything seems to fit your purpose, just like horoscopes. Can subtle hints even exist today, can they be picked up, or are all hints (apart from shameless flirting), just wishful thinking. Are we so desperate, as to twist, reinterpret and believe that what our friends, media or the government say, and they actually say it in a literal way, into something that we want to believe, into something we can believe.

What am I trying to say. It’s crystal-clear to me, but I guess I’m just hinting it to you.

Peter S.

Skin Glider: Ep 1

Another one of my creative outbursts, this time on a more humorous note. As we all know, superhero genre takes itself too seriously, as we’ve all had the chance to see in The Dark Knight. At other times, the things are rather weak, and and “Superhero Movie” despite its good intentions of parodying the genre is an artistic failure. A more subtle, biting, coherent and entertaining satire is needed. This is where we come in. I say we, because me and my brother came up with it. The ultimate superhero satire should operate on the same basis as a normal comic, it should be one coherent whole, with a simple enough storyline, that can be added to, unlike the seemingly random cameos of parody-superheroes in the Superhero movie.

I think every good comic begins with the “birth” of a superhero, that’s why our story begins the same.

Story: Our hero is an extremely obese man called Stan Superfett. One night, when going home from a movie (where he had to purchase 2 tickets, because he could not fit in one chair), he gets assaulted in one of those cases of random street violence. He is almost killed, but fortunately, he was quickly transferred to a hospital where he lies in coma for 12 months. During that time, our hero loses all his body fat, being left with vast amounts of loose skin. After he finally wakes up from coma, he is shocked by his appearance and goes to the top of the hospital tower. In desperation, he jumps off the roof, only to find out that his loose skin allows him to glide in the air, like that particular squirrel (or whatever it is). He lands on the roof of the building across the street, and tired and stressed out, he faints, the rain beating down on him…

As in any good superhero comic, there is a sidekick (Blubberbutt), the love interest (Tina Thunderthighs) and the villain (Chemical Dean) in his evil lair (the location is very secret as of now.)

The details of those merry adventures will follow soon. If only I could find someone with enough free time to draw one A4 for episode 1. I think it has potential, even though everyone else says it’s rather stupid.

Peter S.

A Self-fulfilling Prophecy (or Why we love Lady Gaga)

So I momentarily return to my celebrity musing, though this will not last too long, so bear with me (or click it away, bitch).

I can remember that this january, a friend of my was commissioned by someone to paint a picture of Lady Gaga, Carl Lagerfeld and Kanye West in a jacuzzi, with their clothes on. While the commission did not work out as planned, it did introduce me to Lady Gaga. Not really, I read about Lady Gaga in that Playboy my uncle gave to me for Christmas (as a joke, I’m giving him one this time around, the one with Marge Simpson). But still, Lady Gaga wasn’t all that huge back then, but she was being hailed as the next big thing.

I still remember when Avril was the next big thing, and it was rather disappointing. All that’s left now are a couple of old ties in girls’ wardrobes and a couple of overproduced pop-rock albums (plus that perfume-advertisement, which was atrocious). Sorry for being a culture snob, but even pop can be done well.

Now for Lady Gaga. I truly think she’s awesome. I don’t care if she’s overproduced, overmarketed, sounds like  man etc… With Lady Gaga, the conscious, the behind-the-scenes, the overproduced, the plastic and  all the hoo-hah becomes irrelevant as soon as the product is revealed. Very Warhol-esque. Following the formula Modern Ar t= I could do that + but you didn’t, Gaga (or whoever is lurking in the background) mystifies the world. No one cares about her person, only her persona. The woman becomes dematerialized in her Kermit-the-Frog costumes, her red drapes and whatever she wears. We don’t really care who she’s doing, what she’s eating or anything. We wait until Gaga throws another piece of media fodder from behind her plastic mask and we chase it rather than the perpetrator.

By creating a strange consumer product, a self-fulfilling prophecy (a song such as “Paparazzi” would have been ‘appropriate’ for someone who actually spent some time in the media’s spotlight, not on a debut album of a hopeful star), the Haus of Gaga created a myth that’s hard to bust. As soon as Lady Gaga becomes human, we’ll tear her to shreds (in the media), because that’s what we do. While Gaga’s strategy is paying off for now, it would be interesting to see how long she can keep this up, and when her current myth is all gone, she’ll have to really put in some thought on new artistic direction. Get the PR department ready.

Peter S

House Concepts Continued…

Apart from enormous pressure from all the things I have to do in my time (emails, work, school- the vicious circle), I would still like to share some things I’ve been working on. After the rather horrible sketch model, we decided it was time to make more models. I’ll only post mine, although Ceciel did a fantastic job as well, we really came up with some great things.

Double Helix House

Here I’ve taken tried to interweave two separate dwellings into a single entity. The idea didn’t really catch on, even though I insisted that the shared patio in the middle of the two houses could lead to social interaction between the two different (sets of) inhabitants. (It would also create a feeling of a very large house, simply because of the distances one would have to walk to get from point A to point B (entrance to the bedroom, for example).

Then I followed with this one…

House 1

I’m very much for roof terraces. From this view, you almost can’t see it, though its there on the left. The Spiral structure is still being maintained. We eventually agreed to work this model out, because, being the contextless thing it is, we can later impose our own limits, rather than being limited from the very start.

Then, Ceciel and I once again reshuffled the cardboard pieces to form prototype 1.01, again, with a roof terrace, though here it’s rather different and the spiral logic is somewhat warped.

Prototype 1.01

All photos by Ceciel van Rinsum.

That’s all folks!

Peter S.

Chairs

Here’s what’s been keeping me busy for the last couple of weeks. Chairs. Designing one is very tough, especially when the teachers say things like; “the best three or so chairs will be made in scale 1:1, and we will include them in the Bouwkunde chair collection (where chairs by Breuer and Rietveld are kept, for instance). This opens many doors.”

Naturally, with this in mind, and with potential real results that could be quite profitable, you can’t just design any old chair.

Here’s a sequence of designs that I’ve been working on.

The first sketch of P Chair

Later sketch of P chair and the L Chair, a 'correction' of La Chaise

La Chiase, by Charles and Ray Eames

The Modular Low-Chair, all componets are the same

Those were just a few experiments, but here’s what I’ve really been developing, the N Chair, with a (presumably polished steel) tubular base and a independently “floating” (not really, but that is what I want to suggest) seating shell (it’s a very Eames idea). However by sliding the components into each other, it could be viewed as a hybrid of the Eames’ completely independent base and the skeleton-is-all-there-really-is principle of the Heroic period (1920-1939).

Low-back N chair 1.1

High-back N Chair 1.1

High-back N Chair 1.2

N Armchair 1.0

Chaise Longue, version 1.1

Chaise longue, 1.2

N Armchair 1.2

Chaise Longue, 1.3

Zig-Zag Steel High Chair 1.0

High-back N Chair, 1.4

N Armchair, 1.4

Chaise longue, 1.4

Chaise longue 1.41

Chaise Longue 1.42

Zig-Zag Steel Armchair (same base as Chaise longue 1.4, only rotated)

There were of course more designs in between. There are so many, though, that I would spend an eternity putting them all up, and these are the really vital pieces. The higher the number, the later the stage these chairs are in. Therefore, Chaise longue 1.42 1 and 1.42 are the latest studies (using different colors). As for the colors and the exact shape of the seat, that will be researched later (but don’t let that keep you from sending suggestions).

I am quite enthusiastic about the N series. The Zig Zag series, was first tried as a joke, and surprisingly, it has a certain elegance. It is, however, a reworking of the Zig Zag motif introduced by Rietveld, so there are pretty low points on originality, even though the Zig Zag Armchair has some “fresh” elements of its own.

All of the designs are meant to convey lightness, simplicity, and the use of only two elements is keeping with this concept. I hope I can pull it off well enough. Comments, please (if you help me win this thing, you’ll get a chair from me should it ever really be made)!

Peter S.

One Last Collage

This is the last collage from the Formstudy series of 2009. Basically, it is the three other collages “collaged” digitally. It was meant to provide us with insight, though I would hardly claim it gave me any insight at all. The rest of the posts on this subject will involve photos of models of chairs. How fascinating, right? Well, it might be.

House of the Future collage 4

Peter S.

Ugliest House Ever!

I need to make a confession. During the project, house of the future, our duo (Ceciel and I), decided to focus on the theme of “home”, due to our belief that houses in the future will all be “homes”. With some help, we managed to get our concept semi-finished and started with the general spacial compositions.

We argued that a “home” of the future will be characterized by a gradual transition from public space to private space, I which the more public (aka semi private) rooms of the house (living room) will have a stronger relationship with the outside and with the more private rooms (bathrooms, bedrooms).

My humble sketch of this concept also represents the movement through the house. The inhabitant is to move constantly, in a spiral, to make the withdrawal into the private place not only a emotional, but also a spacial journey. The split-level layout of the house is meant to place the person more strongly and in touch with the spaces through which he passed and is about to pass.

Spiral concept for the spatial organisation of a future "home"

The idea is very simple and clear, yet the model looks like the ugliest house ever. I promise it will get better, we still have 11 weeks to make it look like a “home”, where people would actually want to live.

The home, with a porch element and a large terrace on the first floor. Photo by Ceciel van Rinsum

The house has a large private terrace, which should (if properly designed) give the inhabitant a view of the common green, while protect his privacy. This principle is shown in the “caveman” sketch. We believe that this is one of the markers of comfortable and secure home (and community).

The cave: when inside, you can see out, but if you stand on the outside, you cannot look in.

I promise to keep y’all updates as the project wears on.

Peter S

Huis Sonneveld, Rotterdam

During our Formstudy project, in which we have to design a chair, we went to Rotterdam, to see Huis Sonneveld, a Modernist masterpiece by Brinkman and Van Der Vlught (or so we’ve been told). It is not as cool as Villa Savoye, but hey, it’s the closest the Dutch have (if we don’t count the Schroder/ Rietveld house, which I plan to visit one of these days). I hope you enjoy the following little gallery.

Huis Sonneveld, as seen form the outside

Waiting room for guests

Dining room

Kitchen, bare and only used by the staff

The living room, with the strip window

Girls’ bathroom, in the most fashionble of colors

Guest room

Terrace from Puk’s room

Puk’s room

Parent’s bathroom

Ge’s room

Master bedroom

Master bedroom

Wardrobes with built-in lighting (that was in 1930!)

Dressing room

Stairs

Thermostat

Maid’s room

Maid’s bathroom

It’s interesting to see how high bourgeois life is served by modern architecture. But though the house seems quite comfortable, some rooms (especially the guest room) are furnished like your better hospital. The maid’s rooms, though they have the same facilities, are smaller. The Sonnevelds must have been pretty progressive for their time. Apparently, Mrs Sonneveld was the first mother in Rotterdam who picked up her daughters with a car. And that concludes your architectural education for today.

Peter S.

Visitin’ 020 or AmsterDAMN!(13/10/09)

This semester, we’ll (among other things) have to design a chair. I’m really low on inspiration (as of now), so I thought a  trip to the Amsterdam Central Library, with a temporary exhibition of Rietveld chairs might do me some good.

First of all, the area near Amsterdam Central Station is not a happy place. Like in Rotterdam, or The Hague, the Central station is being refurbished. Unlike the two other cities, the area of building activity in Amsterdam is more extensive, so all the way from the station, to the library, one passes a network of fences, small cranes and temporary pavements. It’s better when you reach the library, which is one of three standing buildings (one of which is being refurbished).

The Central Library in Amsterdam

The Library is quite a collage, and is actually quite nice and compact compared to the horrible NAi by the same architect, Jo Coenen, who either does something very well, or very badly (if I should ever find it, I’ll post an image of his project for the  Delftse Poort; which he, thank God, did not win). But enough about the library. The exhibition room is quite small, and to my dismay, the vast majority of the displayed chairs were scaled 1:3. But some were full size, so I’ll show them to you:

The Zig-Zag Chair and the Military Chair

f.l.t.r. Crate Chair, Child's seat and Brace Chairs

Unfortunately, the famous Red-Blue Chair was only a small model, but at least the small models were correctly displayed, at eye-level, which is more than the little Rietveld model collection that our faculty currently displays.  But hey, it was free, and the displays were actually very good and well-presented.

The Red-Blue Chair, 1:3

Since the exhibition was so small, I wanted to go to ARCAM (Architectuurcentrum Amsterdam), but I couldn’t find the way, since there are fences everywhere and the directions were a bit misleading. It was also getting late, and I really wanted to see this one movie, which I did see (more about that later).  I got on the tram just outside the famed complex of the Passenger Ferry Terminal, With the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ and the Movenpick Hotel (by Claus en Kaan). Methinks the modernistic formalism is not all that great, but to each his own.

Modernistic Formalism

The Next time I will go to Amsterdam is probably when all the work in the city centre is finished (including the new underground), which should be around 2017 or something. Or maybe earlier, as long as the Central Station is all done.

Peter S