objekt no. 41 - International Fine Living

text: Pauline Prinsen
phoros: Alaia & Hans Fonk
Left: Carel Weeber beside the wall
at the entrance painted in one of
the colours that the artist
Peter
Struycken selected for his house.
Above: looking through the house
from the lower floor with indoor
pool and against the backdrop of
the 'mondi'
- bush-land
tropical island of Cura~ao.
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on the
an
icebreaker
In the
tropics
On Curacao he has built a house for himself with a concept that is unique for that Caribbean island. He
had already left a trail of distinctive ideas behind in the Netherlands that caused 'architects united' to
despair. He designed buildings and advanced architedure theories that worked like an icebreaker in a
frozen river. And opened up the way for something new.
As an Antillean, he believes he could change the direction of Dutch architedure at least three times.
Carel Weeber, architect, has returned to the island of his childhood to cause commotion in his own way.
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"Take time to do research. Not into the town, there's no point in that any more, but into houses where people
with a lot of time live: parents, grandparents,
exes, dikes, children, witches,
nephews, baddies, nutcases,
gays, homeless people with cats, dogs and parrots. Give them homes that no longer mean they have to fly to
the tropics. Houses without an outside form, and inside forms without a programme, with mobile kitchens and
bathrooms. Houses in which to spend the new centurv", thus speake Carel Weeber.
The quotation comes from his book Het Versteende Tentenkamp (translating as The Petrified Campsite) and
immediately demonstrates that considerable
humorous bravura is part of his make-up. Particularly when he
subtly adds: "Anyone who thinks that architecture
is based on originality is untrained, unwise and possibly
a civil servant,"
This is not an artist who builds models of cultural castles in the air, but a man who, as an architect,
tongues wagging in Dutch architectural
kept
circles.
He combined his work as an architect and the director of Architecten
Cie with lecturing at the University of
Technology of Delft in the Netheriands, as weil as being chairman ofthe Royal Institute of Dutch Architects
tor five years.
Carel Weeber is an Antillean, although he was born in the Netherlands
while his mother was vacationing
there. He spent his entire working life as an architect in the Netherlands and the country is still aware ofthat
fact! "As an Antillean I was in a position to steer Dutch architecture
on various occasions - for instance, in
Osaka, where I designed the Dutch pavilion for the World Exhibition. Also, in the seventies, I helped Dutch
architecture
out of its 'frurnpishness'.
And then in the nineties my Wilde Wonen', or unregulated
caused quite astir: the idea that people are quite capable of building their own houses.ln thatway,
tecture
and ideas have helped blaze new trails. And that has meant that younger generations
approaching
building in a different way."
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housing,
my archiare now
Top left: the two large openings with industrial roller shutters in Weeber"s
house. They serve tor ventilation and afford views. During gales and tropical rains the shutters
dose off the openings.
The baroque
oblique references to similar elements extensively
balusters
are
used by local archltects.
Above: the house standing
like a red fort in Cura~ao's 'mondi'. It is built on a slope and has its entrance at the top level. The green of the interior walls extends to
the exterior, In the ventilation
grilles set in the bricks.
Qverleaf: the kitchen is In an aicove midway between
the hallway and the living area of the house. It contains moveable kitchen modules by Bulthaup. Here too, a
large window affords a view of the Caribbean bush-Iand and the occasional house. Hext: the sitting area beside the entrance with a painting by Pacho on the wall.
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Above: all the rooms in Weeber's
"Sorne of my - and my colleagues' - buildings and ideas are now recorded as milestones in history. Take for instance the MDVDR complex at the
hause are arranged along the lon-
Hanover world expo. lt's a building like no-one had ever built before. You can't repeat things like that; they enable things to happen that previous-
gitudinal
Iy were impossible. In such cases, architecture
axis, starting
from the
patio beside the entrance.
foreground,
the
In the
recess for the
operates as an icebreaker in a frozen river. It opens the river up. And I've been able to work like
an icebreaker several times, achieving things that facilitate innovation in architecture."
In 2006 he built a hause on the Caribbean island of Curacao, at the record speed of six months and with people 'who were all capable of doing
kitchen and behind lt, the dining
sornethinq'. Curacao is the island of his youth to which he returned after his working life in Holland was over. He now lives permanentlyon
area and, in the background,
island with his wife Sophie, who is also an architect
the
the
entresol wh ich, in turn, culminates
When asked if many people in the Caribbean will be hearing of him, he replied: "I think once at least, if only because this hause does not exist at
in the large opening with splendid
all as a concept here. There's nothing like it. Though some people are copying it, as my collotype printer told rne." And he went on: "I think this
views.
hause is basically the modern plantation hause. The example of how to build a country hause. But its a good town hause as weil: you could stack
Below that
the entrance immedi-
up the spaces and turn them into flats."
ately gives an idea of the colour
palette
used in Weeber's
home.
Humour and bravura would seem to go hand in hand in Carel Weeber's life. His reputation is illustrated nicely by a comment from someone who
Blue refers 10 the swimming pool
had just shown the architect round his house: "I survived Weeber."
and has been used for the floors
The architects
throughout.
shape and colour, The architect commented: 'The house is designed with the elimate in mind. The short walls are orientated to the east and west.
Top right
the entresol
large
industrial
roller
doors,
which are fitted
house, situated in the island's bush quite elose to the flamingo-bedecked
Jan Kak salt flats, stands out from afar on account of its
with the
The lang walls are screened fram sunlight by large roof overhangs. I insulated the roof with 36 cm-thick sheets of Rockwool. That stops the hause
shutter
from heating up. The indoor swimming pool is also a help, providing extra cooling especially when there's some wind. It might be just one degree,
on the
but every Iittle helps here."
inside. They have an open struc-
Also: "The elimate indoors is comparable to that beneath a large tree where the sun can't penetrate. Or thereabouts."
ture of perforated
When the hause was built, he did not seek absolute perfection. He opted for nonchalance
steel and so,
of sorts, so construction
anomalies aren't noticeable.
when dosed, can still be used for
Samething might be a little lopsided, but that is part and parcel of the design. The hause sits on a slope, with the entrance at the highest point. It
ventilating.
is 35 metres lang and 9 metres wide, and geared fully to the elimate and its surroundings. There are two storeys, the upper one housing the living
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area, kitchen and bedrooms. A long straight staircase leads to the lower Iloor with swimming pool and various lunctional
spaces. The architect
Overleaf:
carel
Weeber"s
house
has brought interior and exterior together by means of large openings in the short east wall and the long south wall which can be closed off with
radiates
industrial roller shutters. Through them there is a panoramic view of Curacao's countryside and, in the distance, the Caribbean Sea.
tranquillity.
You are immediately struck by the colour of the house. It is set like a deep red fort in the surrounding vegetation coloured green by the rains. The
pool indoors, the water is always
simplicity,
silence
and
With a swimming-
colours were conceived by the Dutch artist Peter Struycken, with whom Carel Weeber has worked since 1968.
pleasantly cool.
"I always make my projects with Peter Struycken. He decides on the colours. Forthis house he originally selected a palette of 18 shades, ofwhich
The large painting on the wall is
I used nine. I could use them wherever I wanted. He didn't interfere. So I could take a different colour for every individual component. I opted for
by Michel Snoep.
red on the outside, with aloe green contrasting with it for the indoor walls, so I always look lrom green to greenery. The blue of the floors is the
Variou5 workrooms and offices
blue of the water. All the wood is lilac-white-grey.
The only non-Struycken
colour is the aluminium of the roof slabs. But he didn't mind, as the alu-
minium reflects the other colours."
have
been
made on the
lower
floor.
"With my work I try to reduce the problem of choice: to make sure you need to choose as little as possible. Ilike that. Once l'd opted for green in
the interior, I stuck to green. In my perception, the walls are green through and through. The outside wall is really a green wall that's been painted red." Black lines cross the interior - the work of the artist Bart Olivier who came to visit and was asked to leave behind his cultural mark during Weeber's absence. "When we returned from our holiday, he'd put down these lines that aren't invented, but applied in keeping with the house:
echoes of the large openings in the wall. Further along, he drew the house upside-down
on the street, also as an 'echo'. There was a huge ver-
sion ofthe house, on its head."
And that brought hirn to the difference between artists and architects: "An architect does nothing spontaneously. We don't design for the fun of it.
But artists do. If I'm not asked to do something, I do nothing. l'd rather write, read or take photos. The design's in your mind, but you don't draw it.
In that way I have lots of buildings that no-one knows, but through which l've been walking for years. The pavilion in Osaka is long gone, but I still
wander through it almost every day. You should only make a drawing of the house you have in your mind when someone wants to know wh at it
looks like."
He has designed a house for Peter Struycken that is to be built on the adjoining lot. "The principal is the same as mine, except that it's square.
Thats not really right, but Peter insisted on square. II that's what he wants, thats what he gets", he concluded, with a smile.
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