noAarchitecten. Encounters
Press release
In the work of noAarchitecten, in the course of time a seemingly intuitive design approach transforms into a true design strategy. This collective takes up a position subtly reconciling the principal, the building, the assignment and the future user. The firm sometimes even opts for different approaches within a single building. The result is contradiction and complexity. An ambiguity which this collective explores by means of a meticulous plan and a precise selection of colours and materials. Their architecture is never neutral. It is intended to uplift, but never becomes pedantic. It is specific, offers a tailormade location and gives an almost ritual dimension to everyday actions.
It is an installation that invites the visitor to walk, see, feel, study and think.
A space which, like a square, offers events and experiences, a family of objects, large models of parts of buildings, etc. A rather theatrical display with a proper layout design: walking routes, perspectives, rows of aisles. And yet the visitor is still free to determine his own route, to reconstruct, look at, feel and think about the buildings. The photos in the exhibition are of a different nature. We are showing them full-size as a window that allows the viewer to enter into another space. Like Alice in Wonderland, you enter a different world. In the second room of the exhibition, which is arranged like a studio, you will find 10 projects on drawing boards, with drawings and small models, while a set of shelves contains an amalgam of materials used for building.
noAarchitecten created a profile for themselves from the very beginning, with both notable small buildings and several large-scale public buildings including the Petrol electricity cabin and the expansion of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, the Texture museum in Kortrijk, the town hall in Lo, etc.