Physical architecture

A wooden cube...

On my visit to copenhagen about a month ago I went to Louisiana. There they have an exibition about living - it's mainly about architecture :). Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto is one of the architects that was exhibited there and his architecture made quite a big impression on me. What I like about his architecture is that it's very physical. The architecture are not smoth under your feet - it's actually seeking conflicts. You have to climb, crawl and jump in order to move trough it. This makes you much more aware about your body and your movements than you are in a normal conflict free space. In that sense it's constantly engaging with you.

The other thing i like about it is that it's very informal and abstract. There is no sign telling you about how it should be used. Instead it's up to the inhabitant to define it and redefine it. It becomes what you want it to be. A bed. A hangout space. A fortress. or a hide away. I think this informality makes it very playful. It's not the image of a fortress itself that makes children play war games. I think that it's more about the relations between different spaces.

Children playing in the structure.

Right  now I work on a housing project in school. The concept is to make very playful homes for families with children. The biggest risk is that it becomes a house full of images. Images of castles and barbie homes. I think this kind of formality would both affect the playing negatively but also be a nightmare of kitsch. Instead i have to do like Sou. I have to encourage playing by the physical qualities of space itself rather than of the image.