The summer holidays are the perfect time for us to discover new projects at home and abroad. Our team has traveled to special places to experience architecture in real life. We were able to touch the walls again, look around corners and absorb the local atmosphere. Some of our inspiration:
Özlem Durmaz Can has traveled to Buitenplaats Doornburgh in Maarssen. A true Bossche school classic, designed by Jan de Jong in 1966. The austere building contrasted well with the modern exhibition on technology, ‘Robots in Captivity’. In addition, it was a wonderful moment for a walk through the garden, everything was in bloom and it is a wonderful green place to relax!
In Switzerland, Elise Zoetmulder visited two chapels designed by Mario Botta. Chapel Santa Maria degli Angeli on Monte Tamaro from 1992 and Chapel San Giovanni Battista in Mogno from 1996. Although the chapels are fairly similar in scale and shape, the experience is completely different. The surrounding plastic playground and toboggan runs of the Monte Tamaro detract from the experience, how exciting in form and layering the Santa Maria degli Angeli chapel is. Fortunately, the unparalleled view in combination with the intuitive routing of the building makes up for a lot! Via a winding road through a gorge with several stone quarries you arrive at the other chapel in Mogno. Very fitting, because this photogenic chapel is built entirely from a black and white pattern of granite and marble. From the outside, the building gives a closed impression, but from the inside it opens upwards, so that the light coincides playfully with the striped pattern.
Tim Reekers was in Groningen at Wall House 2 by John Hejduk. A postmodernist building built after the architect’s death in 2000. Hejduk clearly had a fascination with walls and making transitions between different spaces in a building. The building ensures that when you are at home, you leave the outside world and daily life far behind through the 23 meter long corridor. It also beautifully visualises the different functions in a house by dividing them all into separate volumes and giving them different colours.
On the other side of the Netherlands, Anton Zoetmulder came across a special find in Moerdijk during a mountain bike tour: a football field in an old church! A unique redevelopment in which the church still functions as the heart of the village and thus keeps the collective memory of the village heart intact. He also visited a quirky tower: the observation tower by Komaan! Architects in the Kalmthoutse Heide with integrated nesting boxes.
We are back to work after a summer full of inspiration!