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NOX/Lars Spuybroek, HtwoOexpo, also known as Water Pavilion, Neeltje Jans, The Netherlands, 1993-1997, exterior and interior views. Courtesy NOX/Lars Spuybroek. Critic Charles Jencks considered the building paradigmatic of a new architectural era.
cult for the new and trendy. Despite this mixed reception, blobs rapidly became a built reality. Revealingly, blob architecture associated young Turks of digital design like Lars Spuybroek with historical figures of the 1960s and 1970s experimental architecture such as Peter Cook, a former Archigram member, or Jan Kaplicky´ of Future Systems.10 Spuybroek’s studio, Nox, opened the way with its 1993-1997 Water Pavilion. A few years later, Cook and Kaplicky´ gave prototypical examples of blob architecture
10 The notion of experimental architecture was formalized by Peter Cook in his book Experimental Architecture (New York: Universe Books, 1970).
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