ENVISIONING BAUCIS
observatory for an artificial landscape
observatory for an artificial landscape
“After a seven days’ march through woodland, the traveller directed towards Baucis cannot see the city and yet he has arrived. The slender stilts that rise from the ground at a great distance from one another and are lost above the clouds support the city. You climb them with ladders. On the ground the inhabitants rarely show themselves: having already everything they need up there, they prefer not to come down. Nothing of the city touches the earth except those long flamingo legs on which it rests and, when the days are sunny, a pierced, angular shadow that falls on the foliage.
There are three hypotheses about the inhabitants of Baucis: that they hate the earth; that they respect it so much they avoid all contact; that they love it as it was before they existed and with spyglasses and telescopes aimed downwards they never tire of examining it, leaf by leaf, stone by stone, ant by ant, contemplating with fascination their own absence.” - from Invisble Cities by Italo Calvino
There are three hypotheses about the inhabitants of Baucis: that they hate the earth; that they respect it so much they avoid all contact; that they love it as it was before they existed and with spyglasses and telescopes aimed downwards they never tire of examining it, leaf by leaf, stone by stone, ant by ant, contemplating with fascination their own absence.” - from Invisble Cities by Italo Calvino
EnvisioningBaucis is an entry for the Europan 11 competition, location Almere. Theassignment was to design an unusual and unique building that can first serve asan eye catching information centre or cultural pavilion and can subsequently be“reused” as a detached house in the wood. This building should therefore bedemountable. The study assignment is a landscape design for the alreadyexistent woods with extra focus on the new water system to be constructed and,in particular, the way in which the “woodlands” in this wood can be developed.
EnvisioningBaucis was designed in a multidisciplinary team, consisting of:
Olaf Janson MSc, architect
Joost Maatkamp MSc, architect
Rens Wijnakker MSc, landscape Architect
Koen Looman BSc, building engineer
EnvisioningBaucis got awarded with the runner-up award
“EnvisioningBaucis is a well-balanced, well-considered and practicable design. Owing to thedistinct form it provides the icon that the clients requested. The fact thatthis form was achieved by ‘adapting’ the archetypical house is rather obvious,but in this case also effective. As a pavilion this building can fulfil severalfunctions, as a house it also has the advantage that the private external spaceis in the form of an internal terrace that does not encroache the woodland. Thegrid of the urban development plan shows respect for the landscape.” – taken fromthe jury report
EnvisioningBaucis was designed in a multidisciplinary team, consisting of:
Olaf Janson MSc, architect
Joost Maatkamp MSc, architect
Rens Wijnakker MSc, landscape Architect
Koen Looman BSc, building engineer
EnvisioningBaucis got awarded with the runner-up award
“EnvisioningBaucis is a well-balanced, well-considered and practicable design. Owing to thedistinct form it provides the icon that the clients requested. The fact thatthis form was achieved by ‘adapting’ the archetypical house is rather obvious,but in this case also effective. As a pavilion this building can fulfil severalfunctions, as a house it also has the advantage that the private external spaceis in the form of an internal terrace that does not encroache the woodland. Thegrid of the urban development plan shows respect for the landscape.” – taken fromthe jury report
