Club architecture focuses on the performance of the DJ. The DJ is the star, and the visitors are the audience all concentrating on the booth and not so much on each other. Choosing a club is very specific so, by default, its audience has a lot in common, even if strangers. Club Folk is aimed at triggering random interaction between dancers, excluding them from the bigger crowd and acknowledging each other’s existence. The architectural intervention is made through a light-installation, contrasting with the clubs dark appearance.

Club Folk addresses the way we think about clubbing, letting go of old structures and putting the focus back on the dancers.

Inspired by Dom Hans van der Laan's theory the “Plastic Ratio” we have designed a series of wall pieces.

The way we currently design and build is based predominantly on the metric system but our perception of space is not created through meters or centimeters. We read our environment by relating objects to one another. The main premise of the series is not about “beauty” but the clarity of perception, an important feature from the Plastic Ratio. All the measurements in the series relate to each other through the “order of size”, resulting in a harmonious whole; the core of van der Laan's principle. The starting point of all proportions begins with the diameter of the shiny, inner magnet. Depending on how daylight hits the sculptures and the position of the spectator, the perception of form can alter.

This project came together in collaboration with Atelier Schaft & Latisha Loos.

On the eve of the opening, Gæa, organized both an exhibition and representation of its position and ambitions in the creative field. Historical and contemporary photography equipment was displayed next to the studio’s regular furniture. Portraitures of classical Greek elements were distributed throughout the space. By doing so, we invited visitors to explore the history and context of the objects as a body of myths, each object telling its own story. As representations of the Gæa, the objects were depicted in an equivalent and complementary manner to one another. In a time where technological and digital advances hide the inner workings of equipment from users.

During the Salone del Mobile 2018 in Milano, 20 artists and designers of the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague, presented their works under the title: My Practice, My Politics. Agata Jaworska and Saskia van Stein were invited to curate works by recent bachelor and master graduates.

Exhibition Design: Tijs Struijk, Maria Beaumaster, Erik van Schaften and Aliaksandra Pirazhenka, guided by Barend Koolhaas
Graphic Design: Yacinth Pos
Production: Nienke van Wijk, Wais Wardak
Press & PR: Maria Dzodan & Simcha van Helden

Tijs Struijk is a multidisciplinary designer interested in the social dynamics of public space in an urban context. Tijs’s work often relates to subcultures, using the frame of counterculture actions to address a variety of topics ranging from social interactions to the use of public space.

His works serve as functioning pieces, changing the existing architecture or emphasising what was already there.

Tijs currently lives and works in his hometown Rotterdam. In 2019 he graduated from the Interior Architecture department at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. His works have been shown at the Salone Del Mobile 2018, Museum De Mesdag Collectie and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.