003. Concentration and Complexity

From December 14th: 

"Tonight it's my first late night at the Studio. I’m finishing my model for todays meeting with Mr.Eifman. I'm lasercutting some remaining parts. While waiting for the glue to dry and the laser to cut I’m browsing through a pile of Mark magazines and I'm putting sticky notes on pages that I will re-examine later. I was also listening an interview with Malcolm Gladwell but it's finished. Many impulses at one time.

Now I’m also listening to Piano Concerto No.2 by Jakob van Domselaer, the only music composer who belonged to De Stijl. It is a fine piece but it seems to be rather a soundtrack then an independent opus. Of course there was no need for soundtracks at the time when the Concerto was conceived. However what prevails is the idea of playing in the background."

From December the 20th: 

It starts puzzling me why De Stijl never had these same strong ambitions like Bauhaus. The Dessauer School had holistic ideas about every aspect of life, ready-mades for implementation. De Stijl was somehow more subtle, it didn't have such a vast popular or social programme and it never actually had a didactic wing. The whole movement was centralised around Theo van Doesburg so tightly that when he passed away the other members dispersed.

The key word is to have good sense and be adaptable. Van Doesburg in 1920s was fully open to new members who changed the appearence of the produced works. Seeing the UN Studio is a brilliantly decentralised entity the idea of adaptability seems to be a paradigm also to Ben van Berkel practice. UN Studio's projects also changed over time with van Berkel now sitting rather on the backseat than holding the steering wheel. But possibilities changed and objectives changed. It is so beautifully obvious. To change means to live on.

It is 3.28 AM in the morning but it feels like it's the best part of the day. Warp speed intellectual engagement finally comes but it takes a number of hours to concentrate properly. A body of work is a resultant of many things, many ingredients put carefully together: space, time and practice. I woke up this morning wihout realizing if it's Wednesday or Thursday. It was actually Tuesday. Days blend with each other, rythms with melodies; space, time and your timeless thoughts are becoming a beautiful continuum. Complexity might be a beautiful thing.

To do:

Work until small hours
Study more De Stijl
Read about UNStudio's Design Strategies.
Prepare graphs tension versus decision making versus time
Start thinking about spacial continuum diagrams
Work more with drawings than texts.
Forget about the above mentioned
Start working back on the Eifman Theater

002. Endless House

Frederick Kiesler, one of the De Stijl, had researched on the concept of Endless House. Have you heard about this guy? Endless House Frederick Kiesler

His drawings and photos depict a theoretical space without traditional boundaries where the notions of transition and continuum come to front. The Endlessness itself is paradoxically limited though, it is enclosed within certain volume, a form that is a symbol. I haven't gone that far to state about it with scientific certainty but this resembles some of the research done by Ben van Berkel a couple of years ago, for example the Klein Bottle which was later used to produce the concept of theTheatre in Lelystad - a super interesting building that I will actually visit in person later in December. Is it just the first impression or are the works of Kiesler and UNStudio really in straight relationship? 

The UNStudio seems to have mastered over the years working with forms, giving abstract notions definite bodies. Moreover they always underline these particular and single forms contain not three or four but a number of ingredients. It's obvious that they were capable of acheiving coherency by working with digital tools. If you take a look at Kiesler himself he seemed to be a little lost amid all the ideas and the scope of work that he wanted to perform. Is it because he lacked sufficient tools in that period of time? Numerous critics claim Kiesler to be far in advance of his contemporaries; detractors have labeled him an oddball. The conflicts that creative minds bear within themselves - not finding the right place and time for themselves - as a matter of fact are to be attributed to not finding the right tools to convey the personal  message.

The concept of Endless House is a trully magnetic one. It seems to bring me two-three steps further in own research on habitat. An organic, unsustainable, composed of very many ingredients. 

001. This is Sparta!

"What was that?" I shouted.

"A part from your bike! But if you still can ride, it was probably useless." someone replied calmly 

I was speeding with my "new" Sparta fiets directly from Waterlooplein when something fell off and cracked under the wheels. I didn't stop, I had to rush back to the Studio and I wasn't much surprised about the cracked part after all. The market at Waterloo is the most common place in Amsterdam to get second hand junk bicycles that will fall into pieces rather sooner than later. Theoreticaly a "spartan bike" doesn't need much more than a frame and two wheels. What will be left from my Sparta after six months? Am I asking for too much?

Dear Reader, this blog is about leaving useless parts and preserving only the essentials. Firstly it is the author's record of discoveries. It is a conscious selection of what is important in the Dutch architecture and built environment based on experience of seeing it from within. Secondly it is a tool for an autodidactic purpose. It is helping in finding author's own paths in architectural world, his formation and confirmation of values, philosophies and methodologies. Last but not least it is a humble attempt to reflect on the architectural and cultural identity of author's own homeland. One of the greatest advantages of living abroad it the opportunity of seeing one's own self from the outside. 

The blog is in public domain, everyone can redistribute the content whenever finds it relevant and useful. However, please mention the source and feel free to contact the author for any further feedback. The blog is a subject of rather carefull editing than every day updating. It is calculated to bring the readers only genuine, engaging content. Please feel invited to contribute to the development of this source and the public domain as a whole.