Adriaan Geuze

Conférence du 8 juin 2006

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The West 8 urban design & landscape architecture office was set up in 1987 as an international team of architects, urban designers and industrial designers.
West 8 designs landscape interventions, urban plans, squares, parks and gardens. The philosophy of West 8 is deeply rooted in an optimistic attitude towards the contemporary landscape, in which it expresses both the vulnerability and the euphoria of mass culture. Landscape, infrastructure, nature and archaeology coalesce to form vital constituents of the city.
Arcadian landscapes coexist alongside the dynamic, mutable and sprawling city unimpeded by architectural doctrines or history, the city stretches towards the horizon or shoots skywards. Space has acquired new dimensions that constantly put the sense of scale and proportion to the test. West 8 draws inspiration from the poetic beauty of the artless and the mundane.
The urban dweller is no pitiful victim needing compensation in the form of green and nature; today's urbanite is a self-assured, exploratory, creative individualist. He is well informed and affluent, and equipped with the most up-to-date technology. He is an explorer and manipulator of his surroundings.
The design of this environment demands a sensitivity that goes beyond the creation of mere decorative nature. The city produces its own wastelands. Severed from the traditional centre by railway lines, motorways and fly-overs, new dispersed centres are created. That their identity is not fixed in advance is neither good nor bad... - Adriaan Geuze