Some prefer the shade
Roxane van Hoof
Our practice happily occupies a space in between different scales. We oscillate
between architecture, design, art, and landscape architecture and we actively
seek to dissolve the boundaries that exist between these disciplines. Our
approach could therefore be understood as multidisciplinary, though we like
to consider these disciplines as parts of one interconnected whole, united in
one practice. We investigate proportions, material expression and simple gestures through each of our projects. We explore the tensions that exist between things; the tension between elegant and non-elegant proportions, between slender and squat, between utilitarian and refined. We believe these tensions hold the potential for unusual beauty. It is these tensions that enable us to question existing archetypes and recompose them in projects with a language of their own. These themes form part of our projects no matter their scale or nature.
Drawings, objects, interiors and structures all form part of the landscapes that
surround us and we treat them with equal attention. We choose to remain involved with projects until their completion. It is the phase of execution, of drawings and ideas becoming built object, that is outsourced by many architects. We don’t believe in the division between design and execution. How things are made, how things come together, their small details and precise elaborations are essential in projects small and large. It is in this stage that we come face to face with the possibilities and challenges of materials and details.
The small scale of our practice means we are both actively and
completely part of each project. Our work includes collaborations with Unfair, Collectible, Dutch Design Week and Nieuwe Instituut. Besides our practice, we teach at the KABK in Den Haag and at the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture.
With this project we want to rethink the methods for reducing energy consumption related to thermal comfort. Common solutions are often high-tech and high-cost, they require the use of a considerable amount of resources and are invasive and permanent. Our goal is to explore low-tech, non-permanent, self-built interventions and protocols that reduce energy use and enhance thermal comfort. We centre our approach around ideas of thriftiness, ingenuity and simple energy principles. The result is an active living environment that adapts and reacts to the seasons and exists in symbiosis with its surroundings and inhabitants. We want to think towards non-destructive, reversible interventions that help achieve thermal comfort by actively responding to the context and create a living environment that adapts to the seasons, reflecting on the way we dwell and inhabit space. Some questions that are central to the working method are: Which seasonal protocols and actions around energy efficiency and thermal comfort can we imagine? What are seasonal interventions or objects that we can construct to support energy efficiency and thermal comfort? How can we forge a connection to our spaces and interrogate the use of space in a deep, more personal way? What materials can we use to achieve thermal comfort? How do they relate to their purpose?