EENWERK is an exceptional project because it demonstrates how experimental architecture can be instrumental in the making and presentation of experimental work. By offering a diversity of spatial conditions it allows its users to experiment with the way in which it can be used. Most buildings designs neatly follow functions that are predetermined, this project merely tries to create as many different spatial possibilities as possible within the site. Even within such a small envelope it manages to create a large diversity of spaces. Concentrated working, meetings, exhibitions, receptions, presentations, discussions, etc., they can take place anywhere; the architecture anticipating the unexpected.
EENWERK and Irma Boom Office are two entities but they always interact and they share a network of people. This network of people concentrates within this building, whether they come to work, exhibit or as a spectator, it doesn’t matter, it all overlaps. The fluidity of the architecture matches the fluidity of its users. The old and new architecture also overlap as do the disciplines that operate inside of it. This crossing over is actively promoted by the architecture in the way that it connects the different spaces to each other and to the world outside.
The experimental attitude of the users of the building is matched by the building’s appearance. It is clearly different from the other buildings in the street but it doesn’t scream for attention. As one moves down the street the building slowly appears. This creates a tension between the building and the spectator that continues on the inside. Each door, window or stair sets you up for an unexpected view or spatial experience. Sometimes it is intimate at other times completely open and transparent., sometimes classical, sometimes modern, sometimes low, sometimes high, etc. Always unpredictable.
EENWERK does not distance itself from its content; it is not a backdrop, it is one of the actors on the set. The building is in itself EENWERK [ONE WORK] in a line of works that continues to accumulate and that grows with every artist, designer or maker that uses the building. To underline the unfinished nature of the building it materials are also left unfinished. Basalt, aluminium, concrete and pine wood are all left bare to show the traces of time and make imperfections part of the design.
Hard to convey in photographs, but clearly apparent in the real experience, EENWERK shows what architecture can do when you free it from commercial constraints and focus on quality. The owners of this building, Julius Vermeulen and Irma Boom, created a cultural institution on the own initiative. The only limit that they had was that it had to offer them a maximum amount of possibilities even if we couldn’t predict what they would be.