ARCHITECTURE
MUST BURN a story continued...
Three years ago we, Martijn de Geus and Philip Mannaerts, began sketching our ideas for the ‘New Stylos Pavilion’ competition, that eventually led to building the ‘BlackBox’. The competition procedure was initiated when ScafFold, the previous pavilion, burned down after a Molotov cocktail set the building on fire. In the following three years two more fires haunted the Berlageweg and destroyed both our first ‘real’ child and the place where we spent days and sometimes nights trying to get our baby working. 1 fire destroys ScafFold, August 2006 .start of the new pavilion competition .Martijn and Philip flat mates at Oudraadtweg 2 fire destroys Bouwkunde, May 2008 .BlackBox survives, watering for plants destroyed .iWeb blob (Kas Oosterhuis) severely damaged, not usable anymore .Philip studying in Delft, Martijn working in Los Angeles 3 fire destroys BlackBox, October 2009 .plans for regeneration come to a definite stop .Philip graduating at Public Realm Studio .Martijn doing urban research in Johannesburg The sequence of these three fires and the significant role they played in our lives, made us notice their power to function as a metaphor. This is also described in ‘architecture must burn’, a 1980 installation by Austrian architecture firm Coop Himmelblau, in which their 15m tall, suspended construction was set on fire deliberately.1 Their allegation was that architecture should evoke strong emotions of affection or aversion, to be able to guide us in a modern world of confusion and contradiction:
“Architecture must be cavernous, fiery, smooth, hard, angular, brutal, round, delicate, colorful, obscene, sexy, dreamy, intimate, remote, wet, dry and heart-beating, living or dead. If it is cold, then as cold as ice. If it is hot, then as hot as a tongue of fire. Architecture must burn.” 2 We agree in portraying architecture in a certain state, between living and dead. And instead of displaying an architectural vision, the burning down of our pavilion showed a sense of fragility. “Maybe our BlackBox needs to show an architecture of decay instead of conception. (…) Beauty is only there when it is fragile, able to break, to go away.” 3 Last month this fragility was once again revealed. We definitely did not have any intentions of burning it down, but what took months to build and years to find a destiny for was swept away in only 2 days, by a small fire, a big crane and only one stroke of a pen. This last fire became the destruction of a dream. We can say that the ‘burning desire’ to give purpose to the pavilion and to make it a beautiful example of this exiting or ‘blazing’ architecture, was actually extinguished by repulsive action, on the 17th of October. Architecture must burn: the installation ‘blazing architecture’ by Coop Himmelb(l)au
In the end, the destruction of ScafFold provided opportunities for our BlackBox, the destruction of ‘Bouwkunde’ gave rise to ‘BK City’ and with BlackBox there have risen a lot of opportunities for us: For Philip, who is currently graduating at the studio Public Realm, Building the BlackBox gave the rare experience of actual building in practice, something in which we probably will never take part in ever again. It gave him confidence in his student projects, during his internship in Antwerp, and will be of unquestionable use in his coming career as an architect. It gave valuable insight into human character, useful for functioning in a team. It offered us the opportunity to give lectures on congresses, to pay visits to multinationals, etc. For Martijn, the completion of the BlackBox in 2007 proofed to be a tipping point in his early career and directly after finishing his BSc in Architecture in February 2008 he was given the opportunity to work as a junior-designer at Behnisch Architects in Los Angeles, USA. Coming back about nine months later he started his own practice ‘Vision Included’, that officially launches December 4th. He also worked with Marc Koehler Architects (with an honorable mention for the ‘Building for Bouwkunde’ proposal) and at MVRDV. For other students involved throughout the design and building process, it has proven to be a worth wile and enriching personal and professional experience. This BlackBox pavilion really had the power to be a catalyst: thanks to everybody who made this possible! Philip & Martijn 1. ‘blazing wing’, Graz, Austria 1980, also see ‘Architektur muss brennen’ by Wolf D. Prix, 1980 2. Himmelblau,Coop “Architecture must blaze” The Power of the City. Ed. Robert Hahn and Doris Knecht, Darmstadt: Verlag der Georg Buchner Buchhandlung (1988) p.95 3. our previous article in B-nieuws, april 2009.
Demolishing BlackBox
B_Nieuws 04 | november 30, 2009 | blackbox
19