Inside Rotterdam's Sonneveld House everything is in order: books arranged nearly on shelves, chairs tucked under tables, rugs set square on the bedroom floor. The house is a pristine tableau depicting what the interior would have looked like whilst inhabited by the eponymous Albertus Sonneveld and his family.
Yet something interesting lies underfoot, thanks to an intervention by Inside Outside that sees the entire floor of the home covered with a single, continuous mirror. Read more about the installation and view selected images after the break.
From February 1 audiences can see Sonneveld House as never before, with mirrored floors allowing new and unexpected perspectives of Brinkman & Van der Vlugt's early 1930s icon.
In one move the traditional manner of viewing and experiencing a room is broadened significantly, and visitors to the home afforded a worm's-eye view unfamiliar to most. Here all concealment within the house is simultaneously revealed, with undersides of furniture and hems of drapery thrown into focus.
Led by Dutch interior and landscape designer Petra Blaisse, Inside Outside reframes Sonneveld House as what the NY Times describes a "museological reconstruction." The intervention is a response to the three tenets of Dutch Functionalism of light, air, and space. Over the course of the day and with the sun's progression in the sky, the home's interior character is further altered by the reflection of daylight on the floor, with broad fenestration creating dramatic effects.
"Sonneveld House2" will run at the Sonneveld House in Rotterdam until September 13. More information about the exhibition, here.
Story via The New Institute and The NY Times
