0058
09-03-1995
AS MATTERS STAND
Astrid Honold
Spatial Designer
For me, architecture is the creation of emptiness. Material is capable of defining space by delineating boundaries. In nature, matter acquires form through processes of change.In architecture, driven by an idea, we spend energy in order to speed up these processes.
MATERIAL – THE STONE
The closed book represents my skill at intervention: selection, simplification and compaction of material in a precise format.
SECRET SPACES – THE GRAVE
Even the earth, which we could regard as the only pure material source, has secret spaces in its imaginary cross-section. In the earth we find fossils and ruins of ancient cultures, reminders of the transience of human existence.
ARCHITECTURE – THE CITY
With the help of architecture, we introduce order in the chaos, we overcome gravity, establish boundaries and we determine time and space. In so doing we create an emptiness within which everything is possible.
-AH
‘Around these stones, this wall, this column, these buildings, begins the feast, the celebration of existence, the exorcism of death. They hold memory tight. They bring dimension into being, horizontal and vertical. They uncover the secrets of geometry. In the centre, this impenetrable crush of nature, they create the emptiness in which reason, as well as imagination, is given freedom of motion.’
(Geert Bekaert, ‘Architecture devoid of shadow’, Rotterdam 1988)
