Notan office: Time-Space-Existence - Venice Biennale 2021

NOTAN OFFICE has been selected by the European Cultural Centre for the “TIME – SPACE – EXISTENCE” exhibition at the 2021 Venice Biennale.

This young Brussels architecture firm will present two built projects: LINCOLN in Brussels and LE13EME in Beirut. Both projects involved roof extensions of apartments and are also alike in the fluidity of space that is articulated by a functional core. While the two projects share a similar philosophy the finished constructions are strikingly different.

In presenting these two projects at the exhibition, NOTAN OFFICE seeks to emphasize the influence of context and the chosen construction methods. The key role of the artist in creating an authentic, unique and contemporary end product.

The two projects exemplify one of the recurring issues in architecture – the search for harmony between “the controllable and the unexpected”.

In collaboration with the artist / photographer NICOLAS DELAROCHE, who shares the same obsession with improbability as an additional spacial and material feature, images of the projects will be printed on ceramic, using a specialist technique mastered by the artist. This is a raw representation that intensifies NOTAN OFFICE’s ambition to always leave space for the unexpected.