Lars Spuybroek

Lars Spuybroek (Rotterdam, 1959) is a Dutch architect and artist.

Education

He graduated cum laude at the Technical University Delft in 1989. A year later he won the Archiprix for his Palazzo Pensile, a new royal palace for Queen Beatrix in Rotterdam. Shortly after he started NOX-magazine with Maurice Nio, of which four issues were published in Dutch between 1991 and 1994 (A: Actiones in Distans, B: Biotech, C: Chloroform en D: Djihad). Since 1995 Lars Spuybroek is the sole principal of the office which carries the name NOX and creates buildings and artworks.

Career

Lars Spuybroek broke onto the international scene of architecture with his water pavilion on the island of Neeltje Jans (1993-1997), a building consisting of two halves of which he designed the silvery freshwater part. The renowned architecture critic Charles Jencks qualified the building in "The New Paradigm of Architecture" as “yet to be surpassed.” The water pavilion is the first building that has an interactive interior where visitors can transform sound and lighting conditions by actively using sensors. It also has a so-called continuous geometry, where floors, walls and ceilings merge into a smooth whole. This form of blobitecture was later officially coined "non-standard architecture" at the large group exhibition of the same name at the Centre Pompidou (2003) in Paris. This architecture advocates a technological revolution where powerful computing-tools are deployed to replace simple repetition of elements by continuous variation. The computer is used as much in the design (CAD) as in the manufacture (CAM) and sometimes even in augmenting human experience. These techniques are extensively discussed in his book published with Thames & Hudson titled "NOX: Machining Architecture" (2004). Though the projects seem very experimental, in interviews [AD "Architextiles" (Wiley-Academy), ed. Mark Garcia, "Textile Tectonics," interviewed by Ludovica Tramontin. "Interact or Die!" (V2_Publishing), ed. by J. Brouwer and A. Mulder, "The Aesthetics of Variation," interviewed by Arjen Mulder. ] Lars Spuybroek always rejects a connection to futurism (which generally refers to the car- or filmindustry) or organicism (referring to natural forms) and only points at historical examples. Among these are Gottfried Semper’s "Der Stil" (1852), Wilhelm Worringer’s "Form in Gothic" (1911) and William Hogarth’s "The Analysis of Beauty" (1753). Other influences that are often quoted are D'Arcy Thompson's "On Growth and Form" (1917) and the work of German architect-engineer Frei Otto. One of the traits common to all these is a sinuous complexity and delicacy of form,another that the aesthetics are more of feeling and bodily experience than of mental judgement. Blobs he dismisses as "uncontrolled variation" and being "at the low-end of architectural articulation." [ "NOX" (EdilStampa), "L'Architettura del Continuo", interviewed by Ludovica Tramontin.] He has a strong belief in the cultural effects of new technologies: "Soon it will be possible to have completely unique parts in a built structure for a price that before would only be possible through huge amounts of repetition - a variable prefab, or as it is called in production terms, mass customization. We are dissolving the opposition between elitist handwork and machined parts, between emotionality and high-tech, between Art Nouveau and Bauhaus." [ [http://www.coa.gatech.edu/news/story.php?id=1088 Georgia Tech College of Architecture News : Lars Spuybroek Joins Faculty as 3rd Endowed Chair ] ]

In 2001 his design for a new WTC in New York brought him renewed international attention. A few years later, in 2004, several works of Lars Spuybroek were completed. In France the "Maison Folie de Wazemmes" was opened, a cultural center at the heart of a derelict area in Lille. In the Netherlands the "D-tower" was completed, a large, interactive sculpture for the city of Doetinchem which he created together with Dutch artist Q.S. Serafijn. This tower connects directly to a website that surveys the emotional lives of the inhabitants. [ [http://www.d-toren.nl/site/ D-tower ] ] Close to Eindhoven, in the small city of Son-en-Breugel, the "Son-O-House" was opened, an interactive sound sculpture conceived together with composer Edwin van der Heide.

In 2001 Lars Spuybroek was appointed Professor of Digital Design Techniques at the University of Kassel in Germany. And until 2006 he also taught at Columbia University in New York. Since 2006 he is a full Professor and the Ventulett Distinguished Chair in Architectural Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

Awards

In 1989 Lars Spuybroek received the Archiprix, in 1995 the Mart Stam Incentive Prize and in 1997 the Iakov Chernikov Award and the Zeeuwse Architectuurprijs. Two years later he was also nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award. In 2006 he received the Kölner Klopfer (Cologne Thumper) for "Weltbeste Designer."

External links

* [http://www.noxarch.com NOX official website]
* [http://www.vividvormgeving.nl/vormgeverpagina/spuybroeknrc.htm some interviews in English]
* [http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb6/ddt/ university website Kassel]

References