“You’re invited”, that’s what HUNKdesign stands for. It’s all about the inviting and the enticing in their designs, about the way of working together with others and about hankering as a style of design. HUNK-design is a design bureau new style, without strictly delineated disciplinary boundaries, but with an open approach toward the rest of the world. In the past four years, during which the bureau was founded and developed further, were turbulent, challenging and constantly surprising. Architect Bart Cardinaal, who in the past as worked for O.M.A, Klein Dytham architecture (KDa) and Neutelings Riedijk Architects among others, together with artist Nadine Roos started their own company in order to be able to focus in full freedom on designing buildings, cities, products and home interior. Every single one of their pieces is sexy, playful and seductive. After four years of HUNK-design full of passion and fun I am interviewing Bart and Nadine about style, dreams and inspiration, about Tokyo and about the future. One thing is absolutely clear: “Everything is possible, as long as you really want it”.
The first outlines of HUNK-design start to emerge as early as 2003 as a fantasy project. A daydream that starts to develop as Bart and Nadine (who are also partners in daily life) take evening strolls together and dream of the future, and what they both really want out of life. HUNK-design takes shape a few years later when Bart and Nadine, after one year of working and living in Tokyo, return to Rotterdam. In Tokyo they come into contact with Klein Dytham architecture, for which Bart used to work. “Tokyo has been super inspiring for us,” says Nadine, “The city itself, the culture, the atmosphere, the design and art scene there, but also the architecture bureau KDa have really made a large impression. What we have learned in Tokyo is that everything is possible if you really want it”. Bart was considering KDa before as one of the bureaus where he would want to work. “Most of all because this bureau is completely crazy. I mean, which bureau has its own night club”. KDa had just begun organizing of the nowadays famous Pecha Kucha Nights (an evening in which creative minds can exchange their ideas in 20 slides X 20 seconds). Bart was allowed to give a presentation on one of the Wednesday nights on which KDa organized the Pecha Kuche Nights in SuperDeLuxe(their own club in the Ropongi entertainment district) and was hired by the bureau that same night.
“Tokyo also showed us that you can judge work by its actual merits.” Nadine tells me. “In Tokyo, and certainly during the Pecha Kucha nights, everything is received with an open mind. If you say that you are danser, people will take that seriously. No one will ask you whether you earn enough money doing that. It’s all about what you are showing, and whether that is good work or bad work. The moralistic difference between art and kitsch doesn’t really exist in Tokyo and that was quite the revelation”. To this Bart adds that you can so much beautiful and well-made design in Tokyo. “That has also been a real inspiration on the design level.
Back in the Netherlands HUNK-design is an immediate hit. They bring the Pecha Kucha Nights with them. In Rotterdam and later on also in Amsterdam they start to organize the evenings full of inspiration and creative exchange in Japanese style. Immediately it’s a big success. “The most bizarre experience,” Bart reminisces, “was the second Pecha Kucha Night in the Boijmans Van Beuningen. In the first place because we were allowed to do it at such a large institute, but above all because there was a line of 50 meters in front of the doors before it even started; amazing!”
“HUNK-design is not purely an architecture bureau; we also organize events, manufacture products and do interiors. Actually we make designs that are supposed to make people happy. They have to exude fun and also have to be inviting. Hence the slogan: ‘You’re Invited’. People are welcome within our designs. We think that is really important. We don’t design our buildings for architects but for people.
Characteristic of this is the Flying Grass Carpet, which HUNK-design invented and developed together with Eddy Kaijser (Studio ID Eddy). The ‘flying’ park made of artificial grass which travels from city to city is in fact a communal public space for the whole world. A fairy tale-like story. “It’s amazing to work on something like that,” Bart says, “One afternoon you think up something that has never existed before. Three-quarters of a year later it was realized, now we have been to several countries, won the public prize of the Dutch Design Awards and had a lot of fun”. The latter, pleasure in work, is one of the goals of HUNK-design. “We have to like working on things ourselves. That’s why we enjoy working together with others; bureaus, artists, designers. It’s just a lot of fun to see and hear about what other people are working on and how they think about things”.
“We built the Flying Grass Carpet ourselves from the ground up and that is just so satisfying. Initiating a project yourself is fantastic but can also lead to sleepless nights sometimes. Luckily, those are occurring less and less. We have never been happier really. Even at home it’s all about design, image and style all day. Work and home are hard to separate if you are putting so much passion into your work. The breakthroughs and good ideas come at the strangest times”.
When asked about the future Bart and Nadine indicate that HUNK-design doesn’t want to repeat itself. “We want to keep doing new things. We don’t base ourselves on thick books, design philosophies or intellectual argument; we want to be judged by the things that we make. What is important to us is that our designs are for everyone, we design without a focus group in mind. Of course we have our manifesto, but that develops along the way. Each design stands on its own. We want to make products and buildings with feromones.”
They already have plenty of new plans: Walls coated in moss like breathing vertical façades in the city, and the ‘urban ball pit’: a football cage filled with beach balls as a happy playground for adults. The future is looking good: “We’ll see what happens. We want to go on like this, maybe grow a little more as a bureau so that we can take on even bigger assignments. But yeah, what is big? Flying Grass Carpet was 1000m2, which is pretty big, ánd it was important internationally, but not fixed and permanent”. Nadine: “Sometimes Bart misses the real architecture work, pouring concrete and working on large projects”. Bart, who before worked with OMA on the Kohlenwäsche and the Paard van Troje in the Hague, confirms that there is an ambition for building larger buildings. “Seeing one of those beautiful three-dimensional objects grow is awesome too. That will then be one of the ambitions for the next four years. There has to be something left to dream about.”
While studying at the Technical University Delft Bart already developed his passion for cheerful and bright buildings. He sharpened his skills by working at O.M.A. for four years, at KDa for one year and at Neutelings Riedijk architects for another year. Working at these offices he mastered every aspect of architecture. He worked on all stages of the design process and on different scales and functions. For instance he worked on an intimate cultural centre, a large scale museum, characteristic dwellings and a fashionable restaurant.
Before Nadine started HUNK-design with Bart, she worked as an independent artist. Her crisp work most often concerned cities and more specifically how cities are organized. After a couple of years she decided to study urban design to get a better understanding of the structural part of cities and their architecture. To feed her fascinating for cities she moved to Tokyo for a year to experience the ultimate metropolis. She now puts all her passion for the urban life and structures in HUNK-design.