PAM TALK 03 : The Big Shuffle
On the 16th of February, Pam has invited Maarten Gielen as the speaker for the talk held in Publika Balck Box. The title of the talk is “The Big Shuffle”.
Maarten Gielen (1984) is one of the founders of the collective of designers Rotor. The collective is based in Brussels and their work moves between design and research, including an innovative practice in curating and designing exhibition.
He started his career at the age of 15, selling decorative items made from objects found at scrap merchants and flea markets to fashion stores and florists. Arriving in Brussels in 2002, he set up BSF to offer technical assistance using salvaged materials to small cultural organisations. In 2005, he established Rotor where he works as designer, manager, and researcher. In 2012 he was appointed visiting professor in the HEAD in Geneva and 2014 he curated together with Lionel Devlieger the Oslo Architecture Triennale.
“The Big Shuffle” is Maarten Gielen’s movement on architectural action focusing on what can building materials can do in making architecture better. His idea to make the world a better place in the sustainable way by using the materials in the industry and construction to resource, waste use and reuse. He wishes to refine the idea of materialism in the present world and how people could see materials rather than just materials but something more detailed and sensible.
Marteen Gielen’s interest in building materials wasn’t really just based on reuse but also the human relationships and movements with building elements and building materials. He shown his research with the exhibition they have held in Belgian Pavilion at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale. The exhibition explored “wear” as a reaction while “use” as a potential creative process. It projects the relation between the material and the users. It is interesting to realise the marks people left on a material could be something that tells so much and eventually it becomes a story itself. People nowadays doesn’t really appreciate materials. They like materials if it is only new and looked nicely arranged. Worn materials are often treated as waste. It is sad to see this but Marteen Gielen has started to show how beautiful worn materials can be if we could just look it in another more interesting way and it could tell us so much of it’s past.
In his other project of Rotor Deconstruction, it is basically an expansion of the company that dismantles and sells reusable materials obtained from buildings that are undergoing demolition or even transformation. The materials are often sold to potential clients through directive newsletter or the Opalis-Rotor online store. However, it is important that he did told us that not everything that is demountable is reusable. The materials should have wear and tear but still tolerable, maintain its durability and does not affects its performance in a building construction. This shows his idea of “tangible” materials in designing.
From the talk of his proposal on this better and more sustainable way of using used building material, I was actually thinking how will architecture be since we are in a world full of mass production? This question was soon answered by Maarten Gielen when one of the Emcee asked this question. He answered that the system is taking over some of the designers. Mass production has also affected designers. For example, Mies Van de Rohe had to think of the design of all the details including the design of the curtain wall when he was designing the Seagram Building. But now, architects involve lesser in designing since mass production happens. Architect’s creativity is affected as almost everything can be controlled and produced by the system which is actually the current situation.
I totally agree with his statement. To be honest, I was actually thinking ‘why think so much on reuse and recycle while the industry is producing so many new ones?’ His answer has definitely made me realised my fixed view and thinking on designing. Mass production has made creativity more limit and more commercialised. And this is a very wrong scenario. Architects and designers should be thinking more on the details of the designs rather than doing fancy and iconic envelope of a building. Most of these designs are actually soulless.
Therefore, I really was impressed by Maarten Gielen’s talk and their ideas on reuse and recycle building materials. We architects or even building users should appreciate and proud of the marks and scars we felt on a material. You sometimes can feel and find so much more from it. Of course not to mention the value of sustainability of this action. Architects should know the materials well and use them in a better way and learn to see the beauty of the reuse materials.
