Rotor, Maarten Gielen
Maarten Gielen, Rotor
Arose from a sea of theorist that favoring to make things complicated, Maarten Gielen from Rotor, a recycling company based in Brussels are definitely something refreshing. In an architectural world that keep producing ever complex design solution, at some point, we seems don't even remember our history or, to be exact, humanity. Maarten Gielen doesn't graduated from any architecture school, nor neither a proper degree. He's in a deep interested in material since his high school time. He's lecture were mainly on the relationship between material and the user, materials flows, materials embodied energy and even the deconstruction process of materials. Rotor are particular interested in relation to resources, waste, use and reuse. His lecture are briefly about the process of discovering a new possibility in built environment.
Gypsum Rennovation
At the beginning of the lecture, he discuss about material that is not favor by all architects that is gypsum. Gypsum boards can be describe as a neutral material as it’s a byproduct limestone mixing with carbon combustion’s ashes. In fact, exhibition design preferably utilise gypsum as a neutral background materials. That’s a contradiction with architects on materials. Later, he break down his lecture into 3 major parts which is “Relocation as a design strategy”, “student project at HEAD” and “how to manage tangible material in the process”.
Belgian Pavillion in 2010 Venice Biennale
“Relocation as a design strategy” is an interesting projects that displayed in Belgian Pavillion at Venice Biennale 2010. The project explore the relationships of how building materials reacts with human activities. For instance, he shows photos of staircase’s threads that is peeling paint, demounted carpet that leave grease and stain on specific space, and also the prostitution corner in a street of Brussel. I think this is an interesting exploration that people who architecture background wouldn’t be appreciate of, or any other related intellectual background. Many of the times, we often discuss about form, space and order but we never thought of what happened when architecture react with time. It turns our that, our professions are going to a direction where we only talks about philosophy, forms, economical effects, and any other inhuman’s experiences. From here, we need to rethink on the direction of our professions in term of what should we do for human instead.
The “Student Project at HEAD, geneva” is a less interesting subject to me. It’s an attempt of relocating interior panelling materials to different location and how these locations such as primary schools, skateparks or even streets react to this place. I find this project less interesting as it’s doesn’t provide any interesting outcome except how when authorities remove the marble-like material like rubbish when it’s placed randomly in the streets. It’s doesn’t tells any moral values or solution when discussing this issues, or it’s never was an issue before. It is still fun to see how different people react to these materials throughout the journey though.
Cultural Center in Bomel, Namur
“Case 3 Cultural Center in Bomel, Namur” seems to be a more valid attempts compare to the previous project. It was their very first design commission by local athorities on a heritage building. It was a sudden decisions of rennovation by the the authorities to turn the exisiting building into cultural center and were not able to alter any of the exterior. They decide to look around in the office areas around the neighbourhood as it is a very common practice to completely renovate the interior when a new business came into the block. They took many of the furnishes from a CEO’s office and utilize it into a cultural gathering space. It’s very interesting to see how different furnishes made of different materials divide spaces and made people utilize it differently. For instances, a rooms where many well polished furnitures and ornamentation encourage people to act more casually, but on the other hand, a plain white space encourage people to be more peace-in-mind and quiet. I think it is very essential for us to understand our human senses and how different environment influence human behaviour.
Book Tower in Ghent, Belgium
Last part of his lecture were the most valuable lesson for me, as it’s opened up a different insight for me on materials that exist or not in our built environment. What if a custom steel design that has end his lifespan and had to tear it down? What can we do with the custom-made steel? If we wanna use it to reconstruct in a different context, what if it’s doesn’t work with it? How are we going to remove it once we purchased and how are we going to dispose it? We designer never really care about what happened after the building is off the paper. It is always a big problem to work with material that is not versatile, especially with custom design. From all examples, book tower in Ghent is the best represent the whole idea. The university called up Rotor ask if they want the bookshelves as they are going to renovate the tower. The problem is, those bookshelves are never going to work outside the context. So, they replied, why not you pay us to deconstruct these shelves, repackage it, so you can reinstall it once you finished your rennovation. From there, they started a new type of contractorship in construction industry.
Sometimes, it’s very difficult for designer to come up with such an idea when we were so stuck in the implicit system. In the architectural scene, we are too caught up with pseudophilosophy, and to please those who built the money game system. We need to look more into these ideas that could contribute seriously to our community and environment at the same time. Compare to what Rotor did to redefine construction materials flows and how it’s react to people and nature, green buildings seems to be ridiculous and only contribute on surface, or maybe it’s just another type of branding.
