Karl Popper, in his Three World Theory, describes three distinct realms: the physical material world, the subjective world, and the abstract mental world. Reality emerges from the interaction between these three worlds. The architect belongs to the subjective world and, through abstract ideas, creates designs that shape and manipulate the material world.
In the garden of the ‘EDEN’ Hotel, Herzog & de Meuron designed a canopy in which the four letters of the name serve as slender supports for a square concrete grid. The letters, a found element, acquire a unique and unexpected form in their stretched typographic expression, giving each of the four columns its own identity.
For the exhibition Objets trouvés, we explored the possibility of representing architecture through found objects. The ‘EDEN’ pavilion functions as an idea, quickly materialized using four glue bottles and a rubber gym tile. The project is not only a tribute to the architectural reference, but also to the transformative potential of objects—activated by the power of an idea.
