Ornament and Identity

architect Willem Jan Neuterlings
interviewed by Vera Grimmer and Krunoslav Ivanišin

 
The architectural team Neutelings Riedijk belongs to a successful generation of Dutch architects, known by the wellknown term Super Dutch. Willem Jan Neutelings started his professional career in the eighties in a world renowned oma office, only later to develop an autonomous definition of architectural processes with the architect Michiel Riedijk. In his works there is no place for puritanism, much less for minimalism, but they contain sculptural qualities that give them a very specific character. In this way, they communicate with the urban context. Inviting the public domain into the interior of the buildings is a part of the project of Neutelings’ architecture which seeks to influence the community’s way of life. The buildings, by way of renewed affirmation of ornamentation, become urban icons whose intention is to create identity and give new layer of meaning, firmly related to the element of surprise. This enables the strong presence of architectural objects within the urban context, and their communication with the society.