The saltwaterpavilion has evolved from the very beginning of the design process as a three-dimensional computer model · we kneaded, stretched, bent, rescaled, morphed, styled and polished · the delineation of the form is laid down in the digital genes of the design that hold the germ of life · the first idea is the genetic starting point for all subsequent steps in the development · we no longer accept the domination of platonic volumes, the simplistic geometry of cube, sphere, cylinder and cone as the basic elements of architecture · that resolution is much too low · our computers allow us to command millions of coordinates describing far more complex geometries · the form gene underlying the saltwaterpavilion`s shape is an octogonal, faceted ellips which gradually transmogrifies into a guadrilateral along a three-dimensional curved path · along that path the volume is first pumped up and then deflated again to form the sharply cut nose · the body juts out a whopping 12 metres over the inland sea of the oosterschelde · it is an intriguing idea that a cyclops could pick up the pavilion without wrenching it out of its internal coherence · the saltwaterpavilion is also a sculpture which is fashioned in accordance with its own laws and rules and for reasons that other people can never quite fathom · then it is scrutinized by the public who, merely by looking at it and experiencing it, form an image of their own, strictly personal, laws and rules · and because of this self-sufficiency of form as interpreted by the independent observer, the saltwaterpavilion is suddenly and simultaneously a hundred different things: a stranded whale, a late brancusi, a paramecium, a sea cucumber, a submarine, a lemniscate, a speedboat, a tadpole {with silver tail}, a solidified droplet, a wave, a stealth bomber
1997
