Tensile Fluidity, by 3deluxe 2/2

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Florian Kresse) (click-2-enlarge)

When you look at the panorama photographs of the interior of the pavilion by 3deluxe in Bad Driburg it looks like the interior twirls and twists like spaghetti. Amazingly beautiful. Very baroque. And interestingly the renderings of the interior show a similar panorama with a similar curvature - it was designed like that.

3deluxe - Rendering Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg (Copyright 3deluxe) (click-2-enlarge)

But the panorama perspective is deceiving as it compresses the rounded forms. After that image the unmediated reality is quite a disappointment. One kind of wishes one could walk around in the panorama photograph.

And that while the interior has been designed with great care, with great means. It is so dynamic! Everything curves and flows into each other. It seems there is no rectangular piece left. Except for the floor then.

In contrast to the exterior, there is however also a very upfront sense in its styling the interior is quite old-fashioned. Already in 1962 Eero Saarinen for instance build his TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport in New York, which applies the similar flowing forms. Architects add value by relating to contemporary culture, I recall Michiel Riedijk saying a couple weeks ago. It is an idea that – at least in the Netherlands – popped up around 1850. But it still makes sense.

I also keep pondering why it has all been painted white. The blurring between building and surrounding landscape is nothing compared to the blurring of all the white. Where are the accents, the graphics, the patterns, the ornaments? There is no shadow either. Only blinding light from the surrounding glass façade.

The level of detailing and formal freedom shown in this project sure is stunning. But the level of control over the matter, is absent in the control over the architecture; the experience of the space, and the relation to contemporary culture.

For some reason, 3deluxe held back here. And I don’t know why.

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright 3deluxe) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Emanuel Raab) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright 3deluxe) (click-2-enlarge)

 

3deluxe - Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany (Copyright Florian Kresse) (click-2-enlarge)

Before, the exterior: Tensile Fluidity, by 3deluxe 1/2 

Related iconography: Chewing Gum, by Asymptote

Related theory: The Endgame of Minimalism