THE PIN–UP QUOTE: IPPOLITO PESTELLINI LAPARELLI

If you want to find a common thread to all the things I do with the team (OMA), it’s really about the idea of staging. Even the architectural projects we did were about staging and turning architecture into a stage. Some of my first projects were mostly research and fashion shows. And from that many other things developed: architecture competitions, scenography, exhibitions. It grew more into a domain that’s probably neither OMA nor AMO, but basically related to the transition between architecture and other disciplines. So I always worked a little bit in between. And actually, when I became a partner, it became clear that this domain of the “in-between” is something that we should try to grow. In a very pragmatic and simple sense, I like to design moving objects. But of course there is a little bit more thinking behind them. How do you transform your intimate space? How do you transform your nightlife experience? How can you work with time? Because in the end that’s exactly the point. The Tools for Life collection we did with Knoll was a project unfolding through time. By making the pieces moveable, they were participating in the staging of your everyday life. The counter that opens, that used to be a place to sit, or the coffee table that was redefining your borders so yo you can interact with your peer constantly in a different way. The main thing was to master plan the time and then the environment served just to make that happen. So all the stages that were able to move, transform into cinema and so on, were basically functionalizing what the space was supposed to be through time. So instead of considering your home environment as a fixed moment, it’s simply participating in the natural evolution of your everyday life.

Taken from an interview with Felix Burrichter in PIN–UP 19, Fall Winter 2015/16.

Portrait by Anuschka Blommers & Niels Schumm.