After Image
Former sugar refinery, Groningen
After Image allows people to experience an aspect of The Netherlands that is normally hidden from view: cities are built on millions of pillars. After the radical demolition of the Sugar refinery only a desolate concrete area remained.
RAAAF discovered that beneath the surface of the site — around which in coming years a new neighborhood will emerge — a colossal city of pillars is hidden.
The intervention reveals this underworld of the former sugar silo seven years after the demolition. By excavating the foundations a concrete cathedral appears 30 feet below ground level. A new public space for the city.
Data
Client: Municipality of Groningen
Art intervention: RAAAF
Team: Ronald en Erik Rietveld, David Habets, Arna Mackic, Cecile-Diama Samb
Locatie: Former sugar refinery
Status: Design 2015
Reviews
Metropolis Magazine NYC - New Talent issue, October 2015
"After Image shows the world below the Netherlands’ terrain, constructed on millions of pillars. RAAAF’s intervention reveals part of the exciting underworld of a former sugar silo, where uncovering the foundation of just one silo exposes an enormous concrete cathedral belowground. In the end, the genius of RAAAF is in its strategic interventions that, though small, invite viewers to imagine a completely different way of living."
A10 Magazine, 2015
"City of Piles, Groningen
"...RAAAF’s boundless imagination sets in motion the realization of subterranean labyrinth at the site of a former sugar factory."
More publicity:
>>> Dezeen
>>> Metropolis Magazine NYC
>>> Architezer
>>> Architectenweb (in Dutch)
>>> Groot Groningen (in Dutch)
>>> CLAD
>>> DAFNE
>>> A10 Magazine
