Observatorium

Mission
Noise barriers, urban parks, prisons, slag heaps, railway stations, housing estates, motorways and industrial heritage: these are all part of Observatorium's field of operations. This consortium of three artists has developed a distinctive philosophy and working procedure. They take the grey areas and overlaps of urban design, landscape architecture, architecture and art, and make them productive. Instead of creating autonomous art in public space, Observatorium uses the media of sculpture and installation to make functional facilities. The objects are monumental, symbolic and meaningful, enhanced by use. As a way of communicating their knowledge, Observatorium founded the Open Air University. It presents student workshops and programmes of co-creation.
The book 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.