Marija Mateljan

 

Following Georg Vrachliotis’s initiative to choose a model from the BK collection, what made you pick this one?

Marija Mateljan: The Sculpture Pavilion Sonsbeek, designed by Aldo van Eyck in 1966, stands out as a seminal piece in his body of work and resonates closely with my interdisciplinary research, which bridges architectural design, computer vision, and media theory. In choosing Van Eyck's pavilion, I was drawn to its unique architectural language—characterized by Hertzberger as a series of 'parallel walls' creating 'streets,' in which alternating curves create a dynamic experience, ‘expanding and narrowing one’s field of vision.’ What struck me about Hertzberger’s description is the relationship between the perceived geometric patterns and the functional and experiential aspects that the building embodies. The spatial features of the pavilion, when analyzed with computer vision and translated into numerical patterns, are also discernible from a machine's perspective. Now, imagine the possibilities of perceiving and analyzing millions of architectural images from digital archives, unlocking the full potential of the building knowledge stored in digital memory.

 

Marija’s installation is part of her ongoing PhD Research titled: ‘Design Curriculum for a Learning Machine: Towards Computer Vision for Architectural Design in the Age of Deep Learning’. More information about Marija’s PhD research can be found here.