Lumpen Elegance. The Sculptural Mathematics of Neutelings Riedijk Architects

Architects do not often use the terms ‘lumpen', ‘surly', ‘sullen' and ‘ham-fisted', and certainly not when they are describing their own work. Yet these adjectives capture the essence of the work of Willem Jan Neutelings, who runs the architectural firm Neutelings Riedijk Architects with Michiel Riedijk. For them, architecture does not have to be beautiful or graceful. Quite the opposite; they see architecture as a brave submission to the forces of gravity, while many of their fellow architects see it in terms of weightlessness and buoyancy, evading the gravitational pull of the earth. This vision has earned them a unique place in contemporary architecture both in the Netherlands and in Flanders, where they are the most frequently commissioned Dutch architects.