Jan Slothouber / William Graatsma

Cubic Vaulted Cross 1970

Slothouber and Graatsma know each other from DSM (the former state mines), where they are engaged with exhibition architecture. Later both will go to the Section Theory of Form of the Department of Architecture, Building and Planning at TU/e. Slothouber becomes a professor in 1980, Graatsma becomes director of the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht.

At DSM Slothouber and Graatsma conduct research into cubic patterns. This leads inter alia to the establishment of the CCC, the Center for Cubic Constructions, which represents the Netherlands in 1970 at the Venice Biennale. Using the cube and the unit of 700 millimeters as a basic form, they build their specific world of forms, which has various uses.
Slothouber: "This means that not everything needs to become square. You can combine several squares and as long as you take units that are small enough, you can achieve any size."

Slothouber and Graatsma make spheres, towers and cylinders of cubic cells. They apply them in Perspex showcases or in hassocks that can be combined by means of zippers. In addition, they make hexagons in colored Perspex, which are composed of 4, 16 or 64 lozenges identical in shape. The cubic vaulted sidewalk, which can be seen at the Venice Biennale like the Cubic Vaulted Cross, was purchased by the municipality of Eindhoven and can be seen at Luxemburglaan in Woensel.

The Cubic Vaulted Cross was made specially for the Venice Biennale in 1970. DSM donates the construction to the Department of Architecture, Building and Planning, which donates it to the TU/e in 1977, on the occasion of its sixth lustrum. A special role is reserved for the choice of the material, colored Perspex. The light effect gives the construction an inner life, as it were.

Constructions and Installations

Jan Slothouber / William Graatsma