Commissioned by het stedelijk gymnasium and Kunst en Bedrijf, Nijmegen (nl)
Three tiny apartments are suspended just above the level of the tables in the school’s large assembly hall on the top floor: one executed in wood, one in steel and one in glass. Each is the size of a window: about 310 cm wide, 380 cm deep and 268 cm high. The rooms have no back or front and stand on wheels; when placed in front of the windows they frame the view. Of course, there can be no Doorenweerd without a glimpse of a view; no Doorenweerd without more space than the ground under your feet; no Doorenweerd without unemphatic emphasis on observation, and no Doorenweerd without interlaced intimacy and remoteness. In that sense, he is an artist in the true tradition of Dutch painting. The nature of the material determines the construction of each element, and material and construction together determine the nature and interior of a room. Put differently, the outside constitutes the inside, as is clearly visible in the design of the wooden room. In the steel room, the middle of the sofa appears to be being pulled up from the floor. Hovering between architecture and sculpture, the three elements make it possible to physically experience the space in the hall. Relatively small interventions, which interact ingeniously and meticulously with the hall’s intrinsic features, contrive to activate both the space itself and its users. (Dees Linders)