ALEXANDRA SONNEMANS

Alexandra Sonnemans
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Time Tower

A combined ‘sculpture, viewing tower and exhibition space’ in the garden of Sonneveld House, in the Museumpark Rotterdam. This site-specific work brings together the layers of past, present and future and makes them spatially and sensorially experienceable, offering new perspectives, possibilities and value.

Modular structure, scaffolding material and two layers of printed mesh textiles, and reclaimed wood for flooring.

June 2024
For: AIR, OMI, Nieuwe Instituut
Concept, Design and Execution: Alexandra Sonnemans
With: OMI , Team Thursday, Paul Groenendijk, Titus Verheijen, Dutch Steigers, LENN
Thanks: Hetty Berens, Tijn van de Wijdeven, Alfred Marks, Joost de Munk, Stichting Volkskracht, Nada Kojadinovic, Catja Edens, Suze van der Markt, Jolanda van Dinteren, Quintus Belichting

On the occasion of 100 years Museumpark and Rotterdam Architecture Month 2024

Photo by Ossip van Duivenbode

The Time Tower is a project that I could do as a result of winning a tender by AIR and OMI Rotterdam, where I presented the concept and design, along with a budget, plan of action and team for implementation. I was then in charge of the entire process, from idea to realisation.

Photo by Frank Hanswijk

Colour research with archival experts and curators of the Nieuwe Insituut

The principles of the villa's design, including its layering, colors and patterns, were a major inspiration for my Time Tower design. The facades therefore consist of a double layer of printed mesh fabric.

The inner layer of printed mesh textiles carries the exhibition “From Land of Hoboken to Museumpark,” created with curators from OMI, which consists of archival materials with drawings, photographs and texts from 1924 to 2024, summarized by theme in rectangular frames, and an immersive “Overlap Map." Photo by Frank Hanswijk

In the Time Tower, I centered the stairwell, and enclosed it in red colored fabric, all the way to the top, to give the color, chosen at the time for the service spaces, and the concept of the “double staircase” the most visibility and new value in the present.

You look through the layers of time, at archival images with a glimpse of the present behind them – lightly abstracted and layered, like a scenography.

The pattern on the curtains in Sonneveld House was designed by Elise Djo Bourgeois and reprinted by Marina van Tuikwerd. The “contemporary echo,” printed on the outer layer of the Time Tower mesh fabric, was created in collaboration with graphic design firm Team Thursday.

Photo by Frank Hanswijk

Photo by Aad Hoogendoorn

I mostly design modular, elementary building systems, making pavilions and other objects easy to build and dismantle. For this month-long event I decided to work with rentable scaffolding material.

In combination with the printed textiles it becomes a subtle reference to the city in transformation – a recurring theme in my projects – and it was possible to make a large gesture in a 'light' way.

Photo by Frank Hanswijk

Three Pavilions

A series of three colorful pavilions as the first gesture and stimulus to change the perspective and use of the city’s central square, the Place du Marché, as a real place for encounters, a place for the residents.

Modular structure of wood and steel, with aluminum details and integrated lights, built locally in the atelier and assembled on site.

Completed 2021
For: Municpality of Aigle / Suisse Romande
Concept, Design and Execution: Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera (rotative studio)
With: Alvaro Romera Martinez, Guarnaccia Constructions

Nominated for Arc Award 2023 by Schweizer Baudokumentation

Photo by rotative studio

Photo by Antoine Allaz

Photo by Marco Guarnaccia

Photo by rotative studio

Drawing by rotative studio

Publication in Bauwelt

Pavilion Encounter Iced Sound

The pavilion with sound installation makes perceptible what we cannot directly see and hear: the story of fragile landscapes that are gradually, but also ever faster, changing, which has major consequences for our planet. It brings the sound of melting Alpine glaciers within the public, urban space, and highlights the climate crisis through spatial and sonic experience.

We created a wooden modular structure that we could easily build, dismantle and transport ourselves.

March and October 2023
For: composer and musician Ramon Landolt, as part of his project Iced Sound
Concept, Design and Execution: Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera (rotative studio)
With: Ramon Landolt, Andreas Lindegger
Where: Schiffbauplatz Zürich, Ketelhuisplein Dutch Design Week

Nominated for Building of the Year, Small Scale & Installations by Archdaily

Photo by Alex Ochsner

Photo by rotative studio

Drawing by rotative studio

Photo by rotative studio

Learning from Venice – anticipating a constantly chancing landscape

Making the future flooding of inner-city rivers visible in the present, to architecturally and culturally revisit public space and the value and meaning of urban elements by which it is formed. We encouraged students to work on-site in the scale 1:1 and to work collectively, and to present their work all together in a final exhibition.

Noordereiland already on occasion has to deal with inundation, which makes it easier to imagine it on an even more extreme scale. Venice is a city where the seasonal fluctuations of water have become part of everyday life and where a wide range of solutions have been developed in anticipatory ways that lead, sometimes unintentionally, to new uses of space and encounters.

21/22 S2
Type: Teaching
Tutors: Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera
With: students + Estel Figueras, Ramon Landolt, Suze Milius, Alberto Pottenghi, Pavle Stamenovic, Daniel Fuchs (invited guests conversation series)

The methods On-Site Explorations and Overlap Map are developed by Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera (within rotative studio)

‘On-Site Exploration’

Overlapping present and future in an ‘Overlap Map’

‘On-Site Exploration’ by Arianne Fleege

‘On-Site Exploration’ by Milou van Zomeren, capturing movements of the river

Diagram of uncertainty by Daan de Jong and Wessel Geysels

Collective exhibition, Rotterdam Academy of Architecture

Coworking spaces

A collective corridor connects five collaborative work spaces and a communal kitchen.

All the new walls, frames with glass and doors are built up of a designed modular system, wooden structure. By devising such a system, we were able to make customisation feasible and affordable and build on site.

Completed November 2023
Type: Transformation of a 1911 house - ground floor
Where: Staatsliedenbuurt Amsterdam
For: V. Arends
Design and Execution: Alexandra Sonnemans
Concept: Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera (rotative studio)
With: Eulàlia Martin, Erwin Weenink, Rafal Bouw

Kitchen and Bar

Transforming an existing building and activating a street corner by introducing a new function. An opportunity to create a place for encounters, full of warmth and color.

Restoring the space, which has been modified many times in the past, to its full potential. Removing all layers, opening up the space and exposing hidden quality. And a complete remodeling of the interior, including the design of custom-made elements, furniture pieces and sunshades. These were built by local craftspeople, using a.o. steel and rubberwood. The vivid colors are executed with steel menie, sustaibable chalk paint and kurkuma. Irregularity of rythm is a reoccuring topic within the elements.

Completed 2019
Type: Transformation
Where: Kruiskade/Middellandstraat Rotterdam
For: Kristian de Leeuw and D.J. Wooldrik
Concept, Design and Execution: Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera (rotative studio)
With: Niek Mager, Breedveld Staal (Marc Gouwens, Maurice Hennekens), Janek, Erné, Van Dijken Glasbeleving, Kwarts en Co, Frans van Hooijdonk

Photo right: Rubén Dario Kleimeer

Photo: Rubén Dario Kleimeer

Strito Studio

Strito studio is the concept and design of four multifunctional modular small-scale studios that can be used independently, and that moreover can be assembled into one house. The studios are easy to assemble, disassemble and move.

The studios function as a platform for (new) natural and experimental construction materials, such as bamboo and hemp. Using such materials in small studios can be a stepping stone to larger-scale application.

We are researching the application of bamboo as load-bearing structure together with the TU Eindhoven.

Ongoing
For and With: Strito dev.
Design Execution, Research and Development: Alexandra Sonnemans
Concept: Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera (rotative studio)
Technical Execution in collaboration with Gerben Buijten