Prof. IR Wiel Arets Architect & Associates, Maastricht
Blending means
Junction-Association-Combination-Admixture-Fusion-Conjunction. The
exhibition about Wiel Arets, architect from the Netherlands, displays the
results of these complex processes of joining, mixing and connecting.
Hence, more than a mixture out of the basic materials comes into being and
programms which are more than an addition of the basic substances are
created. Manner and way of composing are important steps within this
process.
Nine projects will be presented at Aedes.
The Jellyfish House, positioned in the neighbourhood of houses on a
slooping linear terrain close to the sea in Malaga, shows an interesting
conception of space. An outside ramp is leading to a separate garden with
access to the guest rooms and a roof garden. Inside, nine stairs are serving
as connector for the different levels; steep and shallow stairs are
differentiating the speed of movement and the mood. The name of the
house derives from the fact that a cantilevering swimmingpool with glass
floor is divided from the kitchen via a glassed aquarium with jelly fish.
Art as part of life is the main issue for the small Hedge House in a
seventeenth century castle-garden where seemingly conflicting functions as
an orchidee-growery, a chicken room, a room for tools, an orangery and a
space for art are housed. 60% of the volume is built below grade in the
groundwater.
In the rural area of the Veluwe countryside a 5-hectare property, Kwakkel,
locates a house at the edge of the terrain. House, Orangery and two car
rooms interact when glass seperations open a proximity and a visual
movement - like in a 'car-bathroom-plant space'.
In the Europark in Groningen the idea to mix use by connecting activities
such as entertaining, shopping, sporting, working and living within a soccer
stadium and a new railway station in the midst of a huge park-landscape,
creates a new urban device.
In Hoofddorp three runways of diverse programs cross the railway to
Schiphol. Using the top of the strips for further housing and garden layer
creates a second ground level.
Altering vertical joins for lightning and ventilating define the public zones
in-between the apartment puzzle and shape its volume in the A-Tower.
In the B-Tower the base is defined by parking garage and shopping
facilities and additional functions are rotated to the existing structure of the
tower.
The Stadium-Oostpoort, located in an ecological zone at the edge of
Haarlem, marks the beginning of a new development along the
Amsterdamsevaar, one of the city's main access. The soccer field is on top
of a Multi-space,with hotel, loft, flat and office structure therein. Light
through cuts provide orientation in the huge volume, a 'walking structure'
defines public zones.
The new Sydney-Green Square is structured about a large continuous
public domain surface partitioned by three hovering buildings. They create
a tripartite surface at ground level comprising the three main plazas, the
transport, the civic, and the neighbourhood. Environmental principles, the
surrounding fabrics and the existing building masses influenced the nucleus
of a green square, housing active public uses such as sports, cinema and
library.
