Big Pieces of Time

Noise barriers, urban parks, prisons, coal heaps, railway stations, housing estates, motorways and industrial heritage are all part of Observatorium's field of ... » 

Noise barriers, urban parks, prisons, coal heaps, railway stations, housing estates, motorways and industrial heritage are all part of Observatorium's field of operations. This unique consortium of three artists has developed a philosophy and a working procedure that is to make the grey areas and interfaces of urban design, landscape architecture, architecture and art productive. Instead of creating autonomous art in public space, Observatorium uses the media of sculpture and installation to make functional facilities that are monumental, symbolic and meaningful.

Big Pieces of Time is both an overview and the outcome of this design philosophy - informing, philosophizing, inspiring, discipline-hopping and obliging. The photographs by Geert van de Camp, drawings by Ruud Reutelingsperger and narratives by Andre Dekker give an evocative and effervescent account of the genesis of the different projects and how they are used by the public.

The book concludes with a complete list of works, from the smallest scale of handwork to the largest scale of urban design along a line that includes New York, Rotterdam, Essen, Dresden and Krasnoyarsk.

Observatorium uses art, architecture and landscape architecture to focus on daydreams, pleasure and leisure, the needs of the individual, a love of things, communication and aesthetics. «