the black box, the concealed room

Erika Kruger: the black box, the concealed room

Amazing... this piece is inspired, intelligent and dark. I think as architects we often think that good design equals light, but often the most wonderful experiences can occur in the dark. Maybe we dont need to be creating grand gestures of glazing and extreme amounts of artificial light to illuminate how well we've managed to detail a space, but maybe more effective experiences occur in dark crevices and in lonely expanses?

The aim of my cloned rat lab is to be sinister and dark, not as intimate as the spaces Erika's created, but an expanse of repeated forms where you get lost and confused.

What I also related to was Erika's user analysis (top). Are the only users physical human beings, or can we design for dead people; or for what once stood on the site; or design for a concept like a shadow and the feelings that surround it? My previous design for Gascoigne's studio space transformed after I realised she had actually passed and resulted in a much more emotive and effective space.

Visually I enjoy the forms that Erika uses in her architecture, trunkated pyramids, morphed cubes and layer sheets that with subtle differences suggest a new positive space. These forms seems to be a combination of random shapes overlayed and fused together, but the most important and consistant element for me in the intellectual investigation which enriches the entire design.