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Growth monument, Tilburg

NEXT architects’ living monument is recognized at this year’s Dutch Design Awards.

TILBURG (NL) - When the city of Tilburg celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2009, NEXT architects were asked to design a monument as a tribute to the local textile industry's rich past. The monument is located at the former industrial Mommers complex, which now houses the Audax Textile Museum, the Textile Academy, a Textile Lab and several related activities. While the name 'monument' recalls memories of solid, static structures, erected for enduring commemoration, this monument is quite the opposite. Slender glass fibre columns mimic the pitched-roof form of the industrial buildings, like a see-through shadow of the past. Its verticality underpins its height, which reaches its highest point at 8.5 metres. But this is not all - the growth and flourishing of the textile industry and Tilburg as a city is represented symbolically by this living monument, too. The 252 columns will be overgrown with different species of climbing plants, such as clematis, trumpet vines and wisteria, creating an abundant variety of blossoms and a different 'look' throughout the year. Simple means, great effect.

NEXT architects' growth monument has been selected for the Dutch Design Awards 2010 in the category 'best autonomous spatial design'. On 23 October the winner will be announced. (Hannah Schubert)

With the projects Growth Monument and Forum Stair, NEXT architects achieved two finals in the categories 'best autonomous spatial design' and 'best private interior', respectively, at the Dutch Design Awards (DDA) 2010. This was made public on 01 July during a press conference in Amsterdam.

The finalists in the eighth edition of these internationally recognized, professional awards have been selected from more than 700 projects by committees comprised of experts in the design field. The winners – competing for a total of seventeen awards in the main categories of Communication, Product and Spatial Design – are chosen by an international jury and introduced to the design world during the awards show, together with the winners of awards in the following special categories: The Golden Eye (most successful design of 2010), the Rado Young Designer Award (incentive award for young talent), the Best Client Award, the Public Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the DDA. The designs of all finalists and winners will subsequently be exhibited in the Brainport Greenhouse on the Stadhuisplein in Eindhoven during the Dutch Design Week.

The international jury had the following to say about the Growth Monument: 'With a limited number of ingredients, the designers have made a living monument that fits magnificently in its surroundings. It is moving with the wind and the vegetation creates an ever-changing appearance.'

Tuesday | 7 September | 2010 | Netherlands | NEXT architects