Alexandra Sonnemans
Architect MSc
+31(0)619411178Architect MSc
hello@alexesoleil.com
Interdisciplinary architecture practice, working from an exploration of fascinations, topical issues and site-specific situations.
website under construction
hello@alexesoleil.com
Interdisciplinary architecture practice, working from an exploration of fascinations, topical issues and site-specific situations.
A combined sculpture, viewing tower and exhibition space in the garden of Sonneveld House, in the Museumpark Rotterdam. This site-specific work reflects and reacts on the surrounding context, such as the design of the Sonneveld House. It tells the story of the transformation of the area (from ‘Land of Hoboken’ to Museumpark) over 100 years, by bringing together the layers of past, present and future and making 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
Type: Architecture, Curating, Public Space
For: AIR, OMI, Nieuwe Instituut
Concept, Design, Execution: Alexandra Sonnemans
Execution 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
Photo by Frank Hanswijk
Colour research with archival experts and curators of the Nieuwe Insituut
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
Type: Architecture & Public Space
For: Municpality of Aigle / Suisse Romande
Project by: rotative studio (Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera)
Construction: Guarnaccia Constructions
Structural advice: Álvaro Romera Martínez
Strito Studio is the concept and design of four multi-functional modular small-scale studios that can be used independently and can also be assembled into one full-fledged home of ±50 square meters. The studios are easy to assemble, disassemble and relocate. The studios act as a platform for (new) natural and experimental building materials, such as bamboo and hemp. The use of such materials in small studios can be a stepping stone to application on a larger scale. Currently we are a.o. researching the application of bamboo as load-bearing structure together with the TU Eindhoven.
This project is an exploration for new ways of sustainable living and working. Questioning what role architects can play in local and global issues, such as climate change and the housing crisis. Thinking in a sustainable way, integrating materials that are in a healthy dialogue with nature. Researching the (minimum) amount of space needed for living and carrying out our daily activities. A challenge to create and design affordable flexible solutions for different needs and standards.
Ongoing – First Studio prototype built in 2021
Type: Architectural Design, Concept, Development
For and With: Strito dev.
Project and Design development: Alexandra Sonnemans
Concept: rotative studio (Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera)
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. Approaching the climate crisis from a positive stance. 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.
The Noordereiland, an island in the Maas river in Rotterdam, already on occasion has to deal with inundation. We chose this location, because it makes it easier to imagine flooding on an even more extreme scale. And Venice as a case study: 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.
2021/2022 S2
Type: Teaching | On-Site Explorations, Public Space, Exhibition, Conversation Series
Where: Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design
Tutors: rotative studio (Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera)
Students: Arianne Fleege, Wessel Geysels, Justus Schäfer, Ronja Dmoch, Milou van Zomeren, Quirine Hoek, Daan de Jong, Esmee van Beekhuizen
Invited guests conversation series: Estel Figueras, Ramon Landolt, Suze Milius, Alberto Pottenghi, Pavle Stamenovic, Daniel Fuchs
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
Type: Architectural Design, Pavilion
For: composer and musician Ramon Landolt, as part of his project Iced Sound
Project by: rotative studio (Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera) in collaboration with Ramon Landolt
Construction with Bilthauer Werkstatt Andreas Lindegger
Where: Schiffbauplatz Zürich, Ketelhuisplein Dutch Design Week
In this research and workshop, we focused on the transformation process of the Rives du Lac, the waterfront area of the city of Yverdon-les-Bains (Suisse Romande).
We went back in time, to the “corrections” of water in the Jura mountains in 1868. Necessary because the area along the shores of the lake flooded regularly, the correction resulted in the city 'gaining' land of up to 400 meters along its shores. We studied how this new waterfront resulted in a deterioration of Yverdon’s historical relationship to the water. Most of the population of Yverdon see their city as a ville d’eau, but paradoxically they feel that the water isn’t visible enough in the city, although several attempts to restore the relationship have recently been made.
We drew the original shoreline of the Neuchâtel lake ín the present situation and walked, together with the workshop participants, ‘along hte line’. Although the original shoreline is no longer visible, it is particularly along this line that we found divergent realities intersect: industries and residential areas, paved roads and green fields, but also vacant buildings, closed or dead-end roads, and hard walls between the Rives du Lac and the city center.
The workshop was accompanied by lectures and activities to stimulate the discussion and expand the knowledge of the participants, to analyse and discuss different ideas to strengthen the relationship to the water and imagine what this area could become and represent for the city.
2017
Type: Research, Workshop, Walk, Lecture
Location: Yverdon-les-Bains / Suisse Romande
Project by: rotative studio (Alexandra Sonnemans & Caterina Viguera)
A year later, exactly 150 years after the Jura water corrections, we went back to Yverdon-les-Bains and proposed an “urban installation”, through which we wanted to activate the area, and promote the emergence of ideas for the future of the city.
The installation consisted of three fragments that formed a new scenographic path along the former original shoreline of Lake Neuchâtel, and that served as a starting point to reflect on the past, to understand the present and to imagine the future potential of the city’s waterfront area.
We invited regional artists to perform on the installation, during the second edition of the cultural festival La Dérivée. This resulted in artistic performances, vibrating between sound, light, music, theater and dance.
2018
Type: Spatial/Urban Installation, Public Program
Location: Yverdon-les-Bains / Suisse Romande
Project by: rotative studio (Alexandra Sonnemans & Caterina Viguera)
Curated with: Margaux Genton
Invited Artists: Collectif Necto, Sophie le Meillour, Simon Rouillier, Ramon Landolt, Tapiwa Svovse, Maëlle Gross, Bazil Felix
Supported by the Municipality of Yverdon-les-Bains
The use of one-side mirror glass was very common in the facades of office buildings from the 60’s and 70’s. The ongoing transformation of the city of Rotterdam is reversing the strict boundary between inside and outside. An example is the replacement of mirrored glass by transparent windows. This raises questions about feelings of inclusion and exclusion and the voyeuristic components of design in the built environment.
With this installation in Rotterdam's smallest gallery, we staged a week-long choreography with three elements. Positioned differently everyday, we played with unexepected combinations, reflections, transparency and the relationship between inside and outside.
2017
Type: Site-Specific Spatial Installation
Location: Gallery de Aanschouw, Rotterdam
Project by: rotative studio (Alexandra Sonnemans & Caterina Viguera)
Curator: Catja Edens
Production assistance: Niek Mager
During the one-week workshop we explored and expanded the concept of a bench, together with students and the local community. It is the very ubiquity of the public bench, its presence in our consciousness as an archetype and its representation of urban life which led us to propose the public bench as a common – serving as an object for intercultural dialogue, on form, meaning and use.
We went on site to physically mark the bench, its size and directions. Enlarging the gesture resulted in a 35-meter long bench that accentuates potential future routes between the two neighbourhoods, and that activates an unused area in the middle of Luchtbal. With the bench, we occupied a piece of public space and claimed for more dynamic and interactive common spaces outside.
By using a simple modular system and a detailed manual of construction everybody could be involved in building and extending the bench.
International Design Workshop Week IDW2020
Type: Teaching | Spatial Installation & Public Space
Where: University of Antwerp, Antwerpen Luchtbal
Tutors: rotative studio (Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera)
Method: On-Site Explorations, *developed by Alexandra Sonnemans and Caterina Viguera (within rotative studio)
Students: Annelien Michielsen, Anthony Collin, Christophe Demarbaix, Dana Renders, Emma Scheers, Gerben Van Wauwe, Ine Vanden Bergh, Jasmien de Hoon, Jolien Hendricx, Julie Tyberghien, Liesbeth Broothaers, Charlotte De Reys, Nabina Follong, Noémie de Oliveira, Robin Peeters, Stien Aerts, Tim Verlinden
The Ministry of Make, a ‘platform for the radical transformation of the Netherlands’, addressed the Dutch housing crisis and challenged 100 designers and experts to (collectively) come up with solutions on how to create the required one million houses, while simultaneously considering the other (societal) challenges we are facing, such as the energy transition and the changing climate. All proposals were exhibited at the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, together with a letter by the former Chief Government Architect Floris Alkemade.
Our case of study was the town Margraten and its surroundings, in the southern region Zuid-Limburg.
With our proposal we add a total of 5000 units, which is half of the amount of what was requested. We consider this a realistic, sustainable approach: not expanding but densifying within the existing boundaries, with a diversity of (new) typologies and common spaces, valorising and preserving the existing landscape and built environment, with Margraten as an exemplary case for similar towns in the Netherlands.
September 22 - November 13, 2022
Type: Proposal, Research, Exhibition
By: rotative studio (Alexandra Sonnemans & Caterina Viguera)