Untitled_Space is conceived and realised by Paul Toornend (NL 1967) and Jelle Post (NL 1967).
Toornend & Post were both trained as architects at the University of Technology in Delft, the Netherlands. Since then Post has developed virtual environments for uses like light research and simulation, virtual sets and animations for feature films, commercials and exhibitions. Toornend started out his architectural office in 1993 and has been working on various projects in the field of architecture, urbanism and exhibition design ever since. Both are currently based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Toornend & Post, in their spare time, or one could say for fun, work on serious projects concerning what is commonly referred to as virtual architecture. They themselves rather prefer to consider these projects a kind of ‘paper architecture’, the slightly negative qualification many Dutch architects used in the 1980’s to describe the work of some of their colleagues that did not built that much, presuming that serious architecture only exists in built form and this paper kind of architecture wasn’t getting us anywhere.
They were wrong of course! And especially in our times, at a moment when architecture seems to be haunted by global hysteria, populist politics, economical hooliganism, individual vanity and the likes, digital nonsense not to forget, Toornend & Post consider it most important to step back from time to time, to sit behind a desk and think quietly a little about architecture; architecture as, though maybe a paper, but nonetheless very serious matter.
Untitled_Space is elaborated in text by different authors:
Paul Toornend introduces the project as a paradoxical space without properties in his text ‘Untitled_Space’, taken from the publication Untitled_Space (Amsterdam, Architectura + Natura Press 2005, p. 003-010).
Vincent van Rossem presents Untitled_Space as a theoretical representation of a Traumhaus, the possible senior citizens’ dwelling for the Wunderkinder of the twentieth century in his text ‘Magical Trailer Home’, taken from the publication Untitled_Space (Amsterdam, Architectura + Natura Press 2005, p. 017-029).
Maaike Bleeker discusses architecture’s potential for thought and knowledge and Untitled_Space itself as a visualisation of Deleuzian thinking in her text ‘What if…? Untitled_Space and the architecture of constructive thinking’, taken from the publication Untitled_Space (Amsterdam, Architectura + Natura Press 2005, p. 030-040).
Wouter Vanstiphout questions the escapist tendencies of both Untitled_Space and its authors and their humble attempts to show beauty through the contemporary mess that our world has become in his text ‘Absolute_Beginner’, taken from the publication Untitled_Space (Amsterdam, Architectura + Natura Press 2005, p. 066-078).
Joost Meuwissen suggests Untitled_Space as a categorical statement about what architecture is and what, mutatis mutandis, architecture therefore is not in his text ‘Primary_House’, taken from the publication Untitled_Space (Amsterdam, Architectura + Natura Press 2005, p. 080-088).
Jeroen Boomgaard opposes Untitled_Space, and its ability to predict the impossible moment when architecture makes the world become visible, to the glass myth of traditional transparent Utopias in his text ‘The_Glass_Dream’, taken from the publication Untitled_Space (Amsterdam, Architectura + Natura Press 2005. p. 114-121).
Roemer van Toorn presents Untitled_Space as a viewing machine that directs the gaze and reveals the actual character of place through spatial reflection of its immediate surroundings in his text ‘Looking through the Space, the Politics of Appearance’, taken from the publication Highrise-Common Ground, Art and the Amsterdam Zuidas Area (Amsterdam, Valiz Publishers 2008, p. 092-133).
The publication Untitled_Space (Amsterdam, Architectura + Natura Press 2005) is still available! Both the English (brown, isbn 90-768631-4-8) and the Dutch (white, isbn 90-768631-3-x) edition can be ordered through your local bookstore or by sending us an email: info@untitledspace.net
On several occasions through the years Untitled_Space was financially supported by both the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture and the Netherlands Architecture Fund.
