Balustrade by Vincent de Rijk @ Prototyping 2015

Vincent de Rijk is not necessarily well known by name, but his architectural models for clients like MVRDV and OMA are hard to miss. One of his models, a balustrade for a loft, is currently on display at Prototyping 2015, Kortijk (Oct 28-29).

The design of the balustrade is beautiful but also responds to specific design criteria, being that the surface had to be closed at open at the same time – closed for privacy and safety reasons but also open to bring in views and light.

Vincent de Rijk is valued by architects for his ability to capture the essence of a building and represent the main idea behind a building before all of the details have been finalized. After graduating from the Design Academy Eindhoven with a degree in industrial design, he went on to develop his own method of casting polyester and making models entirely by hand. His interest in polyester arose from an interest in craft-based techniques, rather than the industrial production of designs using computer-aided design. By keeping production focused on craft and away from software, he has more freedom to explore materials and develop techniques for modelling not seen by other designers.

You can discover more about the beautiful works of Vincent de Rijk here.