• dwaalhuis

  The dwaalhuis, which is meant for a musician who lost most of his vision, tries to re-determine the experience of moving through a house. Where normally orientation in a space is done visually; in the dwaalhuis shape, sound, texture and lightness (thus temperature) play an important role.
  Each room has a distinct geometric shape which conveys a clear usage and in combination with the varying materialization a unique sound reflection. The path in between the rooms turns in specific ways, 90°, 45° and circular. The succeeding pattern of twists is a measure for progression. In addition to this the corridor opens up toward the top which increases the lightness and therefore the temperature.
  Together these elements give a distinct sense to each corner of the building and thus a sense of place in the whole.

  
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• hoogerstraat

  The hoogerstraat is a mixed use building with shops and dwellings. The sharply angled envelope is situated in between two squares: a soft/warm leisure bay and a hard/rigid market square. The general layout of the building consists of an open connection between the two squares on the ground floor and above it a raised street with connected to it an array of dwellings from single studios to family homes. The great variety of public places that the two squares and the buildings arcade offer form the heart of the former industrial peninsula of Dordrecht. The raised street offers smart use of the space available on the site, without sacrificing a possibility to have a small scale peaceful neighborhood. Both ends of the street have been opened to the squares to ensure light and a vista to promote a connection to the rest of the development.

  
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• dedoden

  The dedoden is situated a short walk away from a palliative care facility in a pine forest. In between the slender trees a white shell rests. It functions as a place to hold and remember the recently deceased. The pavilion presents the visitor with a chain of different experiences that support a ceremonial path through it. The ceremony takes the visitor through the stages of: daily life, departure/passing, lightness/serenity, remembrance/bliss, last goodbyes and letting go/resume. On the next pages a more detailed experience is explained.

  

  daily life The walk in the forest describes everyday life, normal things happen; beetles crawling leaves falling.

  

  departure/passing On entering the blind wall of the pavilion a dim corridor with convex walls is presented. You are now underneath the space with the body. This phase represents the actual dying; you get disconnected from the world.

  

  lightness/serenity The exit of the central volume presents a wall which turns, opens up towards the sky and catches the light. The water from the raised pond runs down and emphasizes the effect. This is the moment of accepting, peace and silence.

  

  remembrance/bliss The route takes the visitor to a raised platform where a view on the surroundings is again gained. The body is presented here and a ceremony is held.

  

  last goodbyes After the ceremony the body slides on a circular track which leads down to the forests bedding. Here there is a place for more informal and personal goodbyes. Relatives can talk to each other and children can run around.

  

  letting go/resume The end of the journey leads over the central volume and down the raised pond. It’s linearity represents time and the letting go. At the far end the visitor is back in the forest again and everyday returns.

  
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• orderly elderly

  The orderly elderly is a design for an elderly home in Schwartzach, Vorarlberg in Austria. My first conviction in this project was that the fragile skin and bodies of the elderly should have slender architecture to accompany them. The building should be in a delicate balance between protection and freedom, between concealing and revealing. To use the full potential of the beautiful location along the river the building is not confined to one place but stretches out to let the elderly enjoy the nature and space. The delicate exterior of corroding copper plates and thin ribbed windows express the same transient nature of its natural surroundings and inhabitants. The wooden walls and soft detailing give a more humane strength to balance the composition.

  
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• dematerialized pavillion

  An expo asks for an iconic building. But because in this time the need for an iconic building has become an universal one the word iconic has lost it´s meaning; no longer it stands for something exclusive and extrodinary. Due to it´s many modern adaptations the extrodinary becomes the ordinary.
  The building offers a new aproach to the original meaning of being iconic; the building has to surpass itself. The spectator should experiance the building a force of nature. The material becomes obsolete to the effect it creates. We call this proces dematerialisation.
  The ocean and it´s inhabitants served as a direct model to turn this theory into something concreate. The way the ocean concists of many parts but at the same time acts as a whole. On a smaller scale this also happens where a school of fish forms the illusion of one shape shifting volume.
  We want the building to have this undefinable richness. We want the building to give a new meaning to extrodinary. We want the building to give a new meaning to iconic.
  In collaboration with Daan Swakman.

  
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• max bill

  The beauty of the work of Max Bill lies like the Platonic and Archimedic solids in the fact that they are fully self-referring. There are no elements that originate outside the sculpture. Therefore just by looking the system can be understood and recreated.
  In the analysis I tried to show how the self-referring systems function and what the logic behind them is. In Chicago I even had the pleasure of measuring some in real life to verify my findings.

  
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• gene davis

  This painting gives an impression of order but simultaneously eliminates that notion at every turn. Symmetry is implied but not executed. It is very interesting to find the line between experience and reality. The main things I found where:
  
  -Two rhythms (12 & 123) returning but never exactly the same
  -Symmetry is there, just off, but compensated by weights
  -The two main rhythms come in the same amounts.
  -Common colors are distributed, excusive colors are centered
  
  In the end I tried to create a more perfect version of the painting without the arbitrary exceptions the painter makes. Yet this destroys the composition and I question my need for logic.

  
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• jantje

  In an urge to find use for the scrap of Jantje’s old desk in one day the stool was created bearing her name. The way how the fresh cuts in the white painted wood exposes its original surface gives an informal pattern. A nice contrast to its rigid shape.

  
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• rietveld replica

  I grew up with four Gerrit Rietveld chairs in our kitchen. For me it is therefore the archetypical chair. Only one bended element instead of a back, bottom and four legs. When I decided to work more with wood it was an easy decision to make this chair. I learned the extents you have to go through to create something this ‘simple’.

  
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• de wolk

  With this lamp part of my interest was to find a shape which is logical but does not have a clearly defined presence.
  
  De wolk consist of a space frame with ribs of the same length. To make the structure rigid triangles where introduced and thereby the shape skews. On each intersection a wooden connection element is placed. They are shaped like rhombic dodecahedrons which ensure a perpendicular connection of all the ribs. At about 500 nodes LED lights are placed which connect the copper beams and lets them conduct the current.

  
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• open city chicago

  The Open City: Chicago is a half year project I did abroad in the city of Chicago. The project tries to find the workings of the city. It describes:
  -How despite the transparent grid, the city has centers, clusters, dangers and walls.
  -How 25 mile (40 km) long streets cut through the city’s fabric and give an objective section to the great variety of program and activities.
  -How the city solves its problems by extensive layering of infrastructure and functions.
  -How the homogeneous city pattern expands and how by ruling we could break this pattern.
  In addition to the documentation of the city a proposal was made to connect two prospering leisure area’s which are now divided by a heavy industrial area. Because the three main industrial veins through the city form one of its cores, Chicago having the most heavy industry of the major cities, they are valued characteristics and should not be erased and redeveloped. This would also be a very costly process. Better to plan proposals to exploit the empty lots on the site with shops and connect these through raised/layered pedestrian walkways. The walkways function as leisure districts with scenic views on the blasting furnaces and silo’s scattered around the area.

  
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• rotterdam park

  In a leftover area in the south of Rotterdam, this consists of: industry, housing, parks and agriculture. The Rotterdam Park tries to incorporate the valuable elements.In a leftover area in the south of Rotterdam, this consists of: industry, housing, parks and agriculture. The Rotterdam Park tries to incorporate the valuable elements.
  Added to the plan is a more formal/classical tip which provides parks, ponds, lanes, and an open air theater to accompany the already existing leisure activities like a stadium, mall and large cinema. In the larger scenic part of the park, which is inspired by English landscape architecture, large housing enclaves can be found. The total plan makes an effort to interconnect the now dis-communicated eastern and western side of the area. Besides the proposed plan guidelines for future developments are also given.

  
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Photography is a selection of contributing collections.

In a view there are always elements in connection to each other. It rarely happens that a shape or a line can act alone; it usually needs its compliments or contrasts. A good photograph has selected these contributing parts in such a way that they all have a sufficient say in the composition.

In the selection I made from my pictures I show that the contributing collections have certain languages and that they can be found in multiple places.

To me the joy of photography is being hit by an existing or new language of shapes.

Marius Grootveld
Zaagmolenstraat 131b
3036HH, Rotterdam
The Netherlands
mariusgrootveld at gmail