Facade as drawing paper
The design concept was to work together as an architect and an artist from the very first sketch of the project, working on the same scale and considering the same budget. Art would no longer be a small brooch pinned onto a much larger building, and would no longer take up a mere 1% of the budget. And the architecture would refrain from traditional details as to give space to the art. In the drive-in patio project the art is wrapped around the full perimeter of the outer skin, the façade has become a giant sheet of drafting paper. Private cars of the inhabitants are parked within the envelope. The six homes are grouped together to form a single large block which does not reveal its contents easily. It is impossible to count the number of homes from the outside, it is hard to tell whether the box contains any homes at all. Yet the inhabitants find their own home easily, orienting themselves to the colours and the graphics on the front of their house. A very large sliding door can open up the patio completely. In its closed state the box communicates with the outer world only through the mailbox, the intercom and the street number sign.
Design team: Ilona Lénárd, Kas Oosterhuis | commissioned by Bokx Project Schiedam 1991