Date published: 2008/02/21
The Cambridge University Arcsoc society is running a series of lectures by Dutch architects this term, with sponsorship by the Dutch Embassy. The second lecture was by Ben van Berkel of UNStudio. It looks like all the talks are going to be about "recent projects", and van Berkel indeed spent most of the time doing that. This was weaved in with his architectural philosophy.
UNStudio certainly seem to have done some interesting work, such as the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, a museum for Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart, and a couple of private houses (one in the Netherlands and one in upstate New York). And, unlike most architectural firms, the UNStudio website is very good, even listing details (dates, places, etc.) of all their (presumably not insignificant) projects, so it is easy to get a feel for their work. There are also links to articles and publiciations by and about the firm.
Like all architects with any international exposure, UNStudio seem required to have to build wackier and wackier buildings, just because with modern computers you can do lots of clever 3D modelling. Funnily enough, at the beginning of his talk van Berkel praised computers because they made it easier to show relationships (in space and time), but at the end of his talk he said computers were making it too easy to make wackier and wackier buildings ("if we are not careful we will build the same spaghetti everywhere").
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