Sunday, 12 September 2010

Rubber House by Zeinstra van Gelderen architecten

Rubber House by Zeinstra van Gelderen architecten

Dutch architects Zeinstra van Gelderen architecten have designed this one-man pavilion made entirely of rubber.

Rubber House by Zeinstra van Gelderen architecten

The Rubber Pavilion is entered though a slit and has a bench in one wall and a window frame, which cannot be seen through, in another.

Rubber House by Zeinstra van Gelderen architecten

The entire pavilion including the bench and window frame are formed from resin poured into a mold.

Rubber House by Zeinstra van Gelderen architecten

The pavilion will be on display at the Museum Bahnsteig in Oberhausen, Germany from Wednesday 25 August until the 1 October, and then will sit in front of the Schauspielhaus in Bochum from 4 to 8 October.

Rubber House by Zeinstra van Gelderen architecten

Here’s some more from the architects:


“I have often thought that probably there might be a way found out to make an artificial glutinous composition much resembling that excrement out of which the silk worm wire-draws his clew” Robert Hooke, 1664

The Rubber House is a small pavilion, completely made out of rubber. The house can be entered, one person at a time, to retreat from the outside and to find oneself again. The introvert character of the pavilion is reinforced by the hollow acoustics of the interior. Partly translucent walls enlighten the space during the day Unlike what you might expect, the Rubber House is all about mass and weight.

Rubber House by Zeinstra van Gelderen architecten

The house is an amber-coloured rectangular monolith (outside dimensions 1,5x 1,5 x 2,3 m) in which an egg shaped interior seems to be carved out. One wall offers a small bench and another a window-frame with no view. The entrance is nothing more than a vertical cut in a third wall. The whole house, including bench and window-frame, is made out of poured in place urethane resin.

Rubber House by Zeinstra van Gelderen architecten

The Rubber House will be the main source of inspiration for a performance by the dramaturg Tjyying Liu in the first week of October 2010 on the square in front of the Schauspielhaus Bochum. Before that, it will also be on display in Oberhausen as part of the ISEA2010 conference, the International Symposium on Electronic Art. From August 25 till October 1 it will be on display at the Museumbahnsteig in Oberhausen. The Rubberhouse has been made possible by a grant from the Fonds BKVB

(the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture) and is produced by ‘Anything is Possible’, Amsterdam