Embedded Architectures
Flemish Architecture Review #11

The Construction of Atmosphere

‘’ The work of many architects currently working in Flanders and Brussels is the product of an intense collaboration with local craftsmen, its hallmark a quiet attention to detail that allows life to unfold. In this it bears comparison with the work of the Austrian Neue Vorarlberger Bauschule: a similarly small-scale movement that emerged in the nineteen sixties in the vicinity of Bregenz around the central figure of Hans Purin. In both movements, an ambition to reconcile modern construction techniques to the craft skills of a regional context has been a fundamental concern.’’

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Two cabinets

‘’ When in 2009 the german sculptor Tobias Rehberger was awarded the Golden Lion as best artist at 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, the jury had reported their argument for the choice as“ taking us beyond the white cube, where past modes of exhibition are reinvented and the work of art turns into a cafetaria. In this shift social communication becomes aesthetic practice.” In close cooperation with Finnish design company Artek, Rehberger had built a cafe with Aalto furniture scattered in a universe of dazzle painting. The space became an installation of op-art wherein the furniture was hard to recognise. Two years later, Rehberger- Artek cooperation was repeated in a cafe in Turku, Finland, this time to last for a couple of months as part of opening ceremonies for the cultural center Logomo. Again, the artist had created a space hard to categorise: was it a sculpture that could be used as a cafetaria or a cafetaria that could be seen as sculpture? ‘’