Scgreen - a partition made by splitting the archetype into three planes and manipulating them to produce a final idea which does not just divide the space, it enhances it.
The "Schroeder" House has influenced the designs of GROEN, Vertigo and Scgreen with Rietveld's use of plane adaptation in the real world: the interior walls moving to suit the client's needs. The house was originally designed for a mother and her three children, the house had to learn to grow with the family and adapt to their daily routines.
In the same way that the De Stijl movement rationalises its works to the fundamentals of primary colours and simple geometry, architects recognised as minimalists design with similar principles.
"The minimum could be defined as the perfection that an artefact achieves when it is no longer possible to improve it by subtraction. This is the quality that an object has when every component, every detail and every junction has been reduced or condensed to the essentials. It is the result of the omission of the inessentials." - John Pawson, 2006
A residential building which I believe encapsulates John Pawson's quote is Shigeru Ban's 9 Square Grid House (1997). The architect has refined the space to the fundamental necessities of a home. The space is composed of a universal tiled floor which has been divided into nine zones by grooves. These grooves allow the space to be sub-divided by sliding walls positioned around the grid. This allows the user to change the functionality of the space at will. The only fixed items within the residence are the kitchen unit and bathroom which require permanent services. The exterior walls utilise furniture walls, an idea from another of Ban's prior works; Furniture House (1995). Use of these walls create ample storage to aid in the space's minimalist aesthetic.
While the screen divides the space, the diagonal planes in Scgreen allow the space to be elongated through the perceived extension unlike a wall which would cut off the person's view. Turning the partition 90 degrees allows users to look through but still feel separate as it acts as a threshold where one could still communicate.
Based on the principles of the De Stijl movement, the collection explores the use of three planes/elements in such ways as to define the forms of a chair, table and screen. Interestingly, as they all share the same three planes they could arguably be formed into one piece which fits all functions. The three precedent archetypes have been established in everyday life, the collection challenges these everyday norms by intervention on how these could be used in new ways - the forms are derived from their function. In keeping with the two previous projects the colours and materials are kept consistent which encourages a tie between the three pieces and the natural themed narrative.
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