Monday 2 July 2012

Maykel Roovers


Collection: Critical Blocks
 

 


Design vision

My Flat, Mega Farm, Power Plant and Highway are designs that came from my research into public space and architecture and the idealized version of both in toy modelling. On the basis of my research I selected a number of buildings that epitomize today’s zeitgeist. I transformed these architectural types into toy blocks. In doing so I have two objectives. The first is to shed a light on the excessive nature of contemporary large scale architecture – the mega factory – by using the poor and abstract form language of toy blocks. My second objective is to make full use of the contrast between the harshness of contemporary architecture and the illusory children’s world of friendliness and unlimited possibilities cultivated by adults.

Born: 1987 Roosendaal-Nispen NL
Maykel was an intern at Floris Hovers
Contact and information:
Research and Inspiration
I come from a family of men who occupied themselves with railway modelling. It fascinated me as a child and still does, but for different reasons.  Railway modelling to me is an indicator for cultural discontent. It shows something of Das Unbehagen in der Kultur. What typifies today’s world is the omnipresence of architectural mega structures, not only in urban settings, but in the form mega farms in rural settings as well.  Yet all this is carefully excluded from the world of railway modelling and the world of children’s toys. In railway modelling the development of architecture stopped somewhere in the sixties of the last century. This shows that where we can build our own world or a world for our children, we don’t want today’s reality to be part of it.  This is a painful fact, but I don’t want to moralise. I just want to play with it.  My collection Critical Blocks in a playful way brings mega architecture to the world of modelling and children toys; it makes good an arrested development.  The research for this collection started with finding out about my own fascination and included study and observation. I visited a lot of sites typical for contemporary mega structures, such as high rising housing projects and mega filling stations.  It’s not only the building itself but the atmosphere around it that interests me. This atmosphere I try to catch by working out specific details.  During the first stages of my research I work almost exclusively with at CAD/CAM drawing program. For Critical Blocks I used laser etching on beech wood. Laser etching adds allure and value to beech products, but not every object or surface can be laser etched in the same way. In some cases it takes time to find out how to do it. My collection Critical Block is for children and for the child in adults.  I like the idea that children and adults can play with items that have  a certain quality as design and a critical link to reality.  As a German manufacturer showed substantial interest in my use of laser etching on beech, I’m thinking about working in this field even further.



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