Can you share the story behind founding Collective Paper Aesthetics? What inspired you to combine architecture, mathematics, and hands-on audience engagement?
A happy accident, I suppose. I graduated from the Berlage Institute with a Postgraduate degree in Architecture and Urban Design in 2004, before it officially became part of TU Delft. From 2004 to 2008, I worked as an architectural designer for studios in Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. In the summer of 2008, I was invited by one of the London Festival of Architecture’s venues to present my graduation work from the Berlage Institute as a participatory activity. Although not many people attended the Trinity Buoy Wharf venue, two of them were learning and participation curators at the Hayward Gallery, which at the time was hosting an exhibition called Psycho Buildings. At the end of the festival, I had a meeting with them at their office and was quite charmed by how welcoming the professional environment was.
Upon returning to the Netherlands, the financial crisis hit a few weeks later, and many architecture offices began laying off staff. At the same time, it became increasingly difficult to establish new contacts with architecture firms. I managed to find a few small projects through design festivals and museum education, using the photos I had taken during the London Festival of Architecture.
With a few more images from Dutch Design Week, Amsterdam Museum Night and IMM Koln, I managed to get a small grant to start the studio. The relationship with mathematics was rooted in my graduation work, where I manipulated and diversified Buckminster Fuller's Octet Truss patent using 3D Max to align with the public housing demands and desires in Madrid. After returning from the 2011 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, the studio began focusing on STEM and hands-on engineering, where it presented its first cardboard prototype. When I look back, I am very grateful for the three-year grant that allowed me to find my way while working on numerous models, competitions, and teaching architecture at the Rotterdamse Academie van Bouwkunst.
Can you walk us through the process of creating large-scale installations like the "Frozen Forms" exhibition at the Anchorage Museum?
When we design a new modular system, it's unknown how successful it will be in the future. This system turned out to be much more successful than I expected and was replicated by nearly 10 different museums afterward. One of them was the Kidspace Children's Museum, which used the design in a new space to accommodate the same number of people as before, post-COVID. I enjoyed working with Erik Bertellotti on the project while in two weeks of self-quarantine in South Korea, which gave me plenty of time to create new configurations using AutoCAD.
The advantage of computer models is that there are no limits to imagination, whereas when it comes to realizing them, not everything is possible with cardboard alone, and additional solutions may be required. During a visit to the Anchorage Museum in March 2024, the team and I discussed a few possibilities for a hands-on educational program and exhibition to take place in the first-floor family galleries. One idea focused on the morphology of local flowers, and the other explored the crystalline structure of snowflakes.
The exhibition team at the Anchorage Museum used the 2021 sketches made in Korea as the foundation for the Frozen Forms 2024 exhibition. Jonny Hayes and his team defined the positioning of the structures, their colors, and the storytelling elements as well as the practical ones, while Alberto Marchante and I focused on creating scale and material variations that allowed the museum to maintain the large exhibition intact for six months, while also engaging the audience with medium- and large-scale elements.
To communicate some of the possibilities within the system, photographer Aldwin van Krimpen and his son Walder created instructional animations and a series of images. I am looking forward to visiting the exhibition in mid-February during Anchorage Design Week, as it will be the largest one we've put together so far.
Although the images from the exhibition are stunning, we already have a list of issues to address if and when we realize the giant structures again. Feedback from clients and collaborators is crucial to the professional development of the studio, as well as to the clients' ambition and risk-taking.
How do you tailor your designs to different cultural and geographical contexts, such as projects in San Francisco, Singapore, and Norway?
The projects in San Francisco, Singapore, and Norway are quite different from one another, even though they all share similar technical details, scale, and function. In San Francisco, we implemented a sketch that had been developed in detail but not realized for Botanica: Contemporary Art Outside 2023. It doesn't incorporate any local elements, apart from the love and dedication of the exhibition team, the technical staff, and the volunteers at the Exploratorium. Light Lilies is still a work in progress for everyone involved, partly due to the complexities of electronics and lighting.
For the National Gallery Singapore, we created a massive structure that interprets one of the 10 key artworks from the museum's collection, Pagodas II by Malay artist Latiff Mohidin. The project’s design was created in Rotterdam, the first phase of development took place at Labro Verpakkingen BV in Eindhoven, and the second phase of development and production was carried out at Paper Carpenter in Singapore. To this day, I remain satisfied with the result, as it’s evident that all the hours of development contributed to a high-quality pop-up installation.
The project for the opening of the Kunstsilo in Norway was designed in collaboration with the enthusiastic team responsible for the museum's grand opening, as well as the education wing. The unique model, which interprets the silo structure, adds an extra touch of fun, creating an engaging hands-on experience. This model has since been replicated by the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, as it is easy to assemble and effectively activates the audience. On my Instagram page, you can find a video created by the Casula team documenting the setup. These types of videos are the best feedback and compliments we can receive.
Overall, the projects in San Francisco, Singapore, and Norway are designed for temporary exhibitions that engage both visitors and staff in co-creation, rather than positioning them as mere spectators.
What methods do you use to prototype and test your designs before final production? How do you incorporate feedback loops to refine the structural performance and user interaction of your installations?
For the user interaction models, we follow the method outlined below:
- Hold an in-house workshop with the education and marketing teams, using 3 to 5 1:1 models from previous projects.
- Create computer models, renders, and paper prototypes to summarize the workshop and visualize the possibilities.
- Follow a feedback loop with the client to select the best option for development.
- Collaborate with packaging engineer Alberto Marchante from Labro to refine the paper model into a 1:1 cardboard model, incorporating details such as size, cardboard thickness, and geometry.
- Send the client the 1:1 model for feedback. If the project involves special printing, we also produce a print prototype and send both models to the client.
We proceed to final production only after incorporating the client’s feedback.
What exciting projects or innovations can we expect from Collective Paper Aesthetics in 2025 and beyond?
We are still seeking our first client for the Acoustic Pet Felt Panels, the prototype of which we presented at SXSW EDU in 2024. This model is of high interior furnishing quality and is more durable than cardboard. The material is made from 30% recycled plastic bottles and can be broken down into particles for reuse.
I will be joining Anchorage Design Week from February 18th to 22nd, 2025 for the Frozen Forms outreach activities with a neighborhood outside of the museum. On March 9th, the project will be part of the 20th anniversary celebration of Kunstmuseum Stuttgart in Germany. From May 25th to June 1st, 2025, the project will also be featured at the 25th Children’s Art Biennale in Poznan, Poland.
Furthermore, although our participation in the next edition of the Amsterdam Light Festival has been canceled or delayed for a year or two, we look forward to improving the Light Lilies and taking them to the next level.
First things first, completing the website and publishing it after working on it intermittently for the past two years, as well as launching the Shopify platform for some of the more marketable models.
