Day trip to Essen

Just back from a day trip to Essen (just across the border in Germany) along with people from Wiel Arets Office. We went to see the new Design school building designed my the Japanese Firm SANAA (kazuyo sejima + ryue nishizawa) (Read a bit about this firm here).

The building itself, as you can see, is quiet a beautiful piece of sculpture. But sadly the only things that it’s concerned with are its fine detailing and construction itself. The experience of the moving thru the building itself was very sterile and boring. The building in no way confronts its users in anyway and remains a silent backdrop, a sort of mundane elevator music. Probably it’s not so much a problem of this particular building but a general approach towards architecture that is adopted by SANAA.