Within Pages, Beyond Books. Interview with Irma Boom

Within Pages, Beyond Books. Interview with Irma Boom [ x ]

Full interview at: Herbarium of Interiors. Insert to Volume #57, Bye Default [Amsterdam: Archis-Volume, 2020], 42-47

Irma Boom interviewed by Javier F. Contreras and Lilet Breddels. May 11, 2020

Javier F. Contreras (JFC): To say Irma Boom is to say one of the best book designers of all time. People from my generation have learned about architecture with books that you have designed. From your collaborations with Petra Blaisse to those with Rem Koolhaas, you are obviously a key reference for architects and space designers at large. We are interested in understanding contemporary spaces not just as physical constructs but also as domains that are circulated through different means and media. We think that all disciplines dealing with the production of surface and image through visual sampling and editing are informing the agency of architecture in critical ways. To that extent, your books represent simultaneously the most primitive and ultimate form of ‘superficial’ space design. From the endless material and tactile possibilities of their pages to the cinematographic condition of their layout, they epitomize the relational condition of contemporary design practices.

Lilet Breddels (LB): We also interview people from the music industry, where we would call it sampling, and maybe appropriation in the art world. So, how do you work with ideas of sampling or integrating thoughts from other fields or disciplines in your work?

Irma Boom (IB): I went to art school to become a painter. And in my work you will find references to art, specifically abstract art and conceptualism. Since my collaboration with Rem Koolhaas, architecture became an important part of my practice. I don’t think I have a working method nor a strategy. What do I do if somebody calls me to do a project? I think, ‘Let’s meet?’ Meeting the possible commissioner is important. The first conversation is crucial, because of the mutual exchange of thoughts which I realize now more than ever with Covid-19 and new restrictions in place, that body language is vital. For me this meeting is important because I will invest a lot of time on the project, and sometimes it takes several meetings before I actually start to make the book: I always work in a collaborative way. […]

BOOKS /// Javier F. Contreras. Manifesto of Interiors: Thinking in the Expanded Media [Geneva: HEAD – Publishing, 2021] /// Javier F. Contreras. The Miralles Projection: Thinking and Representation in the Architecture of Enric Miralles. [New York: Applied Research + Design Publishing, 2020] /// Javier F. Contreras, Youri Kravtchenko, Arjen Oosterman, and Lilet Breddels, eds. Herbarium of Interiors. HEAD – Genève & India Mahdavi. [Amsterdam: Archis-Volume, 2020] /// Javier F. Contreras. Fragmentos de Planta y Espacio. Sistema Diédrico en Enric Miralles [Madrid: Ediciones Asimétricas, 2018] /// INTERVIEWS /// “Depuis Rue Las Cases. A Conversation with India Mahdavi.” Interview by Javier F. Contreras. In India Mahdavi, edited by Chronicle Chroma [Los Angeles: Chronicle Books, 2021] /// Javier F. Contreras, and Graeme Brooker. “The Future is Interior and Interiorised.” Interview by Marco Costantini, and Claire Favre Maxwell. RADDAR no. 2 (2020), 192-213. /// Irma Boom. “Within Pages, Beyond Books.” Interview by Javier F. Contreras, and Lilet Breddels. In Herbarium of Interiors, edited by J. F. Contreras, Y. Kravtchenko, A. Oosterman, L. Breddels [Amsterdam: Archis-Volume, 2020], 42-47. /// Javier F. Contreras. “Architecture d’intérieur. Espace et Communication.” Interview by Nic Ulmi. In IN MY HEAD, edited by Julie E. Julliard [Geneva: HEAD – Genève, 2020], 240-243. /// Jean-Pierre Greff, and Javier F. Contreras. “Dialogue sur l’enseignement de l’architecture d’intérieur.” Interview by Roberto Zancan. In L’architecture par l’intérieur, edited by Roberto Zancan [Geneva: MetisPresses, 2018], 185-205. /// ESSAYS /// Javier F. Contreras. “El Croquis Night: Excursus into Nocturnal Obliteration in Architectural Media.” Interiority. Vol 4 No. 2 (2021): 181-190. /// Javier F. Contreras. “Tactile and Reflective Conditions in the Architecture of Marie-José Van Hee.” In Marie-José Van Hee Architecten: More Home, More Garden, edited by Hilde Peleman, and Katrien Vandermarliere [Ghent: Copyright Slow Publishing, 2019], 217-229. /// Javier F. Contreras. “Différences de Perception: Le Chablais Lémanique.” In Prises de vue. Un paradigme pour l’observation du paysage, edited by Michael Jakob [Geneva: Métis Presses, 2019], 129-146. /// Javier F. Contreras. “Tactile and Reflective Conditions: Marie-José Van Hee’s House Declercq.” BITACORA Arquitectura no. 39 (2018): 134-139. /// Javier F. Contreras. “Dibujo y Repetición: Presencia Manual de Enric Miralles en la Planta del Ayuntamiento de Utrecht.” RA Revista de Arquitectura no. 19 (2017): 97-104. /// Javier F. Contreras, and José María Sánchez García. “Concentration as Program, Emptiness as Flexibility: an Idea of Space.” In Passion for the Built Environment (Perspectives in Metropolitan Research no. 2), edited by Gesa Ziemer [Berlin: Jovis Verlag, 2016], 98-106. /// Javier F. Contreras. “La Tectónica de lo Aéreo: Enric Miralles y la Vicisitud de lo Climático.” ZARCH: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism no. 4 (2015): 22-35. /// Javier F. Contreras. “Plan Libre vs. Plan Miralles.” In Massilia 2011. Annuaire d’études Corbuséennes, edited by Josep Quetglas [Paris-Marseille: Fondation Le Corbusier, Editions Imbernon, 2011], 82-91. /// Javier F. Contreras. “Océanos de Arena, Ciudades del Petróleo.” Revista Arquitectura no. 361 (Autumn 2010): 88-91. /// Javier F. Contreras. “El Organicismo Expandido.” CIRCO no. 153. Madrid: M.R.T. Coop, 2009. /// Javier F. Contreras, Gabriel N. Duarte, and Roberto Gª Caballero. “It’s Not Just Grass! Subverting Legal Planning and the Reinvention of the Dutch Process-Landscape Agenda 2000 & the C2751.” In 306090 vol.8, Autonomous Urbanism, edited by Alex Duval, and Kjersti Monson [New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005], 21-30.

Javier Fernández Contreras (Granada, 1982) is an architect, critic and the dean of the Department of Interior Architecture at HEAD – Genève. His work explores the relationship between architecture, representation and media, with a specific focus on the role of interiors in the construction of contemporaneity. Contreras studied architecture at TU Delft and ETSA Madrid, where he graduated with a Master’s degree in 2006, and completed a PhD in architectural theory in 2013, summa cum laude. In 2015 he was a finalist in the 10^th arquia/tesis competition with his PhD thesis The Miralles Projection: Thinking and Representation in the Architecture of Enric Miralles. He has taught architectural design at different institutions, including ETSAM in Spain, XJTLU in China and ETH Zurich in Switzerland. Contreras is the author of the books Fragmentos de Planta y Espacio (Ediciones Asimétricas, 2018), The Miralles Projection (Applied Research + Design Publishing, 2020), Manifest of Interiors: Thinking in the Expanded Media (HEAD – Publishing, 2021), and co-editor of Herbarium of Interiors (Archis-Volume, 2020), a special collaboration between HEAD – Genève, India Mahdavi, and Volume magazine. His critical essays have been published in various books and specialised journals, including Massilia Annuaire des Études Corbuséennes, Marie-José Van Hee Architecten, Perspectives in Metropolitan Research, 306090, CIRCO, Drawing Matter, Bitácora, RA Revista de Arquitectura.

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