Entre racionalidad geométrica y sensibilidad material. Joop van Stigt en Twente

Abstract

Abstract: In 1961, the Dutch architect Joop van Stigt received the commission to design a small staff canteen at the University of Twente. His proposal, which takes as a point of departure a very precise structural reasoning -both in geometric and bearing terms- reveals a simultaneous extraordinary effort to emphasize the haptic dimension of the built space. Halfway between exactness and imperfection, between abstraction and a palpable condition, between the artificial and the natural world, this project is based on the organic value of wood as a building material, calling for a line of research alternative to the machinist paradigm, which seeks a redemption from the Cartesian anxieties of the modern movement, in order to bring architecture closer to man and nature.