COUSSÉE & GORIS architecten. Natura Naturans
Press release
Twenty years after founding their firm and ten years after being awarded the Flemish Cultural Prize for Architecture, Ralf Coussée and Klaas Goris present an overview of their œuvre with an exhibition in deSingel in Antwerp. (23/02/2018 - 10/06/2018 in deSingel, Antwerpen). Natura Naturans: A portrait of COUSSÉE & GORIS architecten by Marie-Françoise Plissart. The concept of natura naturans was used by the philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677). Loosely translated, it means ‘nature doing what nature does’, i.e. creative nature. Spinoza contrasted this concept with natura naturata, i.e. created nature. Ralf Coussée and Klaas Goris refer to this concept in each representation of their buildings. In doing so they show that the natural quality of the building material is inherently related to the cultural quality of the design. Natura Naturans offers a look back at what has been achieved and reveals the singularity in the work of COUSSÉE & GORIS architecten. A collection of models displayed like a campo marzio shows a selection of their work from the past decade. On the walls, Marie-Françoise Plissart outlines the use of spatiality in the buildings by means of photographs and film screenings.
‘Plissart’s images are a unique depiction of the interactions between architecture and its surroundings’
- Ralf Coussée
COUSSÉE & GORIS architecten strives for sobriety and a certain perfection. But the hand of the creator is always visible. Adopting a position in which they nestle between the human and the material is crucial to the success of their projects. COUSSÉE & GORIS architecten achieve a simplicity of language and a great constructive precision. This is clear from recently completed buildings such as the art gallery Zeno X in Antwerp, the crematorium in Holsbeek, het Zwin Visitor Centre and de Krook city library in Ghent.
‘You can best describe our work as an interpretation of Arte Povera. Our projects are almost always realised with relatively simple means and materials’
- Klaas Goris
In Natura Naturans they emphasise the importance of the surrounding landscape, the inspiration that they draw from the artistic and literary repertory of contemporary artists like Guiseppe Penone, and the value that is added by collaborations with like-minded architectural firms such as RCR Arquitectes, Gafpa and Raamwerk.
