Hasta La Ideas

British artist duo breaks down contemporary war photos with a set of symbolic blocks

“Portable Monuments” presents the exhibition of a visual code of brightly colored blocks used to decipher the surplus of images accompanying news headlines. The brainchild of artist duo Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, the project marks the third installment of their analysis of German poet Bertolt Brecht’s 1955 book, “War Primer.” Brecht felt that because photography was mostly in the hands of the bourgeoisie, images from mass-circulated magazines were not an honest portrayal of capitalist society during WWII, so he compiled 85 “photo-epigrams”, turning his own four-line poems into what he felt were more appropriate captions for the pictures he clipped from publications like Time.

In October 2011 Broomberg and Chanarin created “War Primer 2,” for which they took 100 copies of the original hardback book, added silk-screened text and adhered 85 contemporary images culled from the Internet. Their soon-to-close exhibition at Dusseldorf’s Paradise Row gallery, dubbed “Poor Monuments,” takes the exercise a step further by replacing the substituted images with simple red rectangles, titling each piece with a description of the image not pictured and a URL of where it was sourced.

The “Portable Monuments” lexicon that Broomberg and Chanarin developed in a series of contemplative workshops is designed as an educational tool for deconstructing 21st-century news photos. The pair have reduced the images to a set of ingenuously hued blocks to represent the strangely palatable portrayals of modern conflict. With the majority of photojournalists following war’s rules of engagement, Broomberg and Chanarin aimed to create a code that points out the sterility of the resulting photography, documentation that they feel falls short of the full truth.

“Portable Monuments” is currently on view at Amsterdam’s Galerie Gabriel Rolt, with each original image now represented by a irreverently large-scale photo of the correlating coded blocks—arguably a nod to the fact that the photos on display will likely hold more value as unique works of art than the lives they actually depict.

The month-long exhibition runs through 18 February 2012 at Galerie Gabriel Rolt.

Close-up image of blocks: London suicide bombers (L-R) Hasib Hussain, Germaine Lindsay, Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer are captured on CCTV at Luton railway station on 7 July 2005. The Guardian, Thursday April 22, 2010., C-type print, 150 x 190 cm, 2011, Unique Work

Walls, ceilings, furniture and lighting are covered in grey felt at this advertising office in Amsterdam by Dutch interior architects i29.

Felt was selected for its sound-absorbing properties and to integrate the different surfaces and existing structural elements with one gesture.

It also served to cover the scars where parts of the building had been demolished or altered.

Designed for Tribal DDB Amsterdam, the offices accommodate 80 members of staff.

See more interiors by i29 here.

Here are some more details from i29:

Tribal DDB office

Tribal DDB Amsterdam is a highly ranked digital marketing agency and part of DDB international, worldwide one of the largest advertising offices. i29 interior architects designed their new offices for about 80 people.

With Tribal DDB our goal was to create an environment where creative interaction is supported and to achieve as much workplaces as possible in a new structure with flexible desks and a large open space. All of this while maintaining a work environment that stimulates long office hours and concentrated work. As Tribal DDB is part of an international network a clear identity was required, which also fits the parent company DDB. The design had to reflect an identity that is friendly and playful but also professional and serious. The contradictions within these questions, asked for choices that allow great flexibility in the design.

Situated in a building where some structural parts could not be changed it was a challenge to integrate these elements in the design and become an addition to the whole. i29 searched for solutions to various problems which could be addressed by one grand gesture. At first a material which could be an alternative to the ceiling system, but also to cover and integrate structural parts like a big round staircase. Besides that, acoustics became a very important item, as the open spaces for stimulating creative interaction and optimal usage of space was required.

This led us to the use of fabrics. It is playful, and can make a powerful image on a conceptual level, it is perfect for absorbing sound and therefore it creates privacy in open spaces. And we could use it to cover scars of demolition in an effective way. There is probably no other material which can be used on floors, ceiling, walls and to create pieces of furniture and lampshades than felt. It’s also durable, acoustic, fireproof and environment friendly. Which doesn’t mean it was easy to make all of these items in one material!

i29 always looks for choices that answer to multiple questions at the same time. They tell a conceptual story about the company, the space and the users of the space. They deal with specific practical and functional issues and they have to have some autonomous quality as well. These ‘levels’ are intertwined; one leads you to the other. If you see how smart it serves it purpose practically it leads you to the company. If you see the powerful image that is non-depended, it leads you to the functionality, and round it goes.

At i29 we believe that simplicity builds character. Compare it to a human being; strong individuals always have one or few characteristics that stand out. We all know how hard it is to stay focused on the one thing that is most important to you. The same way it is with a design. The result of being very selective is that you have to push the one choice to the limit. It also provides a field of tension, and gives energy to a space without fail into chaos. But more importantly it leaves you with a charismatic environment.

Client: Tribal DDB Amsterdam
Design: i29 l interior architects
Size: 650 m2

Constructor: Slavenburg
Interior build: Zwartwoud
Materials: white epoxy flooring, felt, hpl, steel
Furniture: lighting & furniture objects custom made

See also:

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Power Office by i29	No Picnic by Elding Oscarson	OneSize by Origins Architects

Wiggling back and forth across an Amsterdam nature reserve, this curved timber maze by Dutch architect Anne Holtrop was designed to stage an exhibition of landscape paintings. 

Made from untreated poplar, the Temporary Museum (Lake) had a lifespan of just six weeks.

More stories about pavilions on Dezeen »

Photography is by Bas Princen.

Here is some more information from Anne Holtrop:

Temporary Museum (Lake)
Anne Holtrop

The drawings that were used to make the Temporary Museum (Lake) were made by chance.

Not likeness or beauty is its key aspect, as in traditionalism; nor logic or ratio as in modernism; but rather ‘the possible’ in the sense of what is merely conceivable, the idea that all things can be perceived and conceived differently.

Chance struck me as a way of making work that does not reference to anything specific.

But the mind of the viewer, like my mind, wishes to see things in them, like in a Rorschach inkblot. Jumping between different visions the mind projects its own ideas on it.

Each construction, each gesture is a new reality. So is the use of one of these drawings to make the temporary museum.

See also:

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Trail House by Anne Holtrop	Eureka Pavilion by NEX and Marcus Barnett	Driftwood pavilion by AA Unit 2 opens

Strips of perforated fabric are tacked onto the facades of this house near Amsterdam by Dutch architects CC-Studio and Studio TX.

The design for Fabric Facade Studio Apartment was developed in collaboration with client and artist Rob Veening.

Each strip is attached to the elevation along one edge only, allowing the fabric to flap in the wind.

The pieces were cut from rolls of teflon, a coated fibreglass material normally used for conveyor belts in food factories.

A central atrium with a skylight above provides natural light for an artists studio and exhibition space on the ground floor of the building.

The two uppers storeys contain the residential spaces, including a living room with a 4.5m high ceiling.

Photography is by John Lewis Marshall.

More stories about projects in and around Amsterdam »

Here are some more details from the architects:

Fabric Façade: Studio Apartment Rob Veening

Description

The house is built on one of the 350 plots designated for construction by private builders (not very common in the Netherlands), an initiative of Alderman Adri Duivesteijn, in the Homerus quarter in Almere (near Amsterdam in the Netherlands). The “Herenhuis” plots, where extra high ceiling clearance (3.5 m) was required at the ground floor level, are suitable for both residential and work functions.

The assignment was to achieve a spacious home with downstairs a studio artist / exhibition space and on the top floors housing. The principal, Rob Veening, had after having lived in Canada for many years, expressed the wish that the house should not be minimally seized and narrow (like many Dutch residences) but spacious, open and giving one a sense of freedom of movement. A dream assignment for space loving designers, with the added challenge of a very limited budget.

To save costs and to make the construction of such a large volume financially viable, a number, some innovative, measures were taken.

The house (hull) was made wind and watertight by the contractor Postma after which the client finished it himself: stairs, insulation, interior finishes, interior walls, doors, equipment and installation of the external cladding. Contractor Postma’s advantage is that in addition to their own timber structure workshop they also produce their own windows and door frames. This eliminates contractors traditional 10% surcharge cost over these items. It also gave a chance to make very large window frames and doors (2.7m high) which could be realized without any fuss.

One of the most expensive items in a building budget is the facade which is usually the first item that is reduced in ambition. This always has serious consequence for the architectural image. From there came the radical proposal.

The municipality of Almere has C2C in high esteem and even drafted its “Almere Principles”! This course offered a chance to see how much they really meant it and how much liberty they were willing to give private clients. From this, cc studio developed the idea to try to produce the facade from residual waste, using their contacts with the tent industry. The extremely durable, non-combustible, residual material comes from rolls of PTFE (Teflon) coated fiberglass fabric, used in the industrial manufacture of conveyors belts for the food industry. This special material was completely sponsored by Verseidag-Indutex from Krefeld, Germany. The 5 m long rolls (about 1200m2 gross) were cut by the principal and cc-studio into strips and placed as overlapping shingles and tacked on a backing of osb panels. The flexible material moves with wind, creating a lively image. In the sidewall up to a height of 7 meters no pattern is applied due to possible future building that must, by regulation, build up to a minimum height of 7 meters.

Through integrated design it was also possible to omit the traditional steel portal for stability. The entire stability comes from stapled Fermacell (fiberboard) plates in the front, rear and side facades.

To ensure the internal spatial relationship vides and split-levels were used. The artist’s studio downstairs is, at the side of the garden façade, visually connected with the living room on the first floor trough a vide. The studio therefore has an extra window giving it more light deep into the studio.

In the middle of the building volume a central vide with at the top a skylight was carved out, visually connecting all the upper floors. A continuous internal space is the result which has a very pleasant light quality and orientation. Additional advantage is that the study / TV room, top level street side, does not need windows nor received them to save costs. Due to the split-level in the front part of the living room the ceiling height reaches 4.5 m giving it a real mansion (“herenhuis”) quality. The dimensions of the wooden doors 3.5 m wide x 2.7 m height contributes also to this sense of space. But due to all those large measurements the scale of the building is quite difficult to read and can only be measured by comparing it with the traditional sizes of the neighboring house.

Finally, the house has a lower energy requirement than demanded by law (A EPC required then was 0.8, achieved 0.6) and also features a number of other sustainability features which made it eligible for “Green” financing (a lower interest rate for sustainable building).

It was a special, very nice and close collaboration between client and designers that made the best use of the, sometimes somewhat unconventional, opportunities.

design: cc-studio & studiotx in collaboration with R. Veening
structural engineer: cc-studio
building physics consultant: bureau Kent
contractor & frame manufacturer: bouwbedrijf Postma
facade material: Verseidag-Indutex
hull completion: september 2010
interior completion: juni 2011
plot size: 168 m²
plot price: € 48.000,-
gross floor area: 190m2 floor + 30m2 vides + 31m2 roof terras
gross volume: 1030m3
height: 13,5m
construction costs hull: € 170.000,- incl. VAT
finishing and installations: ± € 80.000,- incl. VAT
building system: timber frame structure on a concrete foundation and concrete hollow core slab ground floor

See also:

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House by Jorge Mealha Arquitecto	Villa by Knevel Architecten	Home 06 by i29

Sur une période de 6 semaines, la danoise Lene Wille a construit avec 270 000 briques de Lego blanc cette structure incroyable intitulée “Metaphorical Horizons”. Installé dans le hall central du World Trade Center d’Amsterdam, ce projet est parrainé par la marque Lego.

Previously on Fubiz

• The Node
• Sugamo Shinkin Design
• Alice in Wonderland Restaurant

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