Alright, well, this is not a new project by any means- it opened in June of 2007. It is, however, good to go back and look at what has come before. Even and perhaps especially what has come only recently before. In the endless march of progress and in our contemporary world of immediacy, things that were once current and broadcast everywhere, are very quickly forgotten in order to make way for the next thing.
Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio
This building, the East Beach Café, was the first building completed by Heatherwick Studio. Just look at it. My gods, how far architecture has moved, and yet how much it is the same.
Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio
Things have gotten a bit swoopier. That is assured. But we as a profession are still very much obsessed with layering, even if we don’t see it. Our swoopy models are made from CAD/CAM devices, 3D Printers, computers… Each of these devices build their respective products in layers. We want curves, but we have to build them bit by bit. And what is perhaps the most interesting aspect of this, is that to truly get curves, we must go and impose this quality with our own hands, no device can create this to date.
Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio
Did Heatherwick intend this all to be embodied within the form of this café? Who knows.
But do we get it none-the-less?
Yes.
And to harness this insight, known or less, is the highest form of praise for which we have the might.
Still, what of the rest?
How do we test?
But to look past is to obscure, fading and contrite.
And a poem is words tortured from the brain and soul and without them
light is still light, but it is duller yet.
