Architecture, once the purview of amateurs and generalists, has become an increasingly fragmented discipline full of specialist roles. From interiors to facades, public realm and landscape, now more than ever you’d be hard pressed to find a practice, or indeed a single person, who works across all these categories today. One rare exception to this is our guest on episode 109 of Scaffold, Petra Blaisse.
A British-born Dutch designer, Petra Blaisse dropped out of art school to work with photographers and fashion and book editors before joining Amsterdam’s Stedelik museum in the department of applied arts in 1978. For Blaisse, an autodidact, working with applied arts was formative: “Art Applied” is the title of a recent monograph of her work, edited by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen, and published by MACK earlier this year. The book’s title lays claim to a term that effectively sums up Blaisse’s practice, Inside/Outside, which she founded in 1991. As Rem Koolhaas has explained in a lecture on Blaisse’s work, included in the monograph, “Applied Arts essentially boils down to art that engages with the world outside the museum, and maybe that is the most precise way of describing what Inside/Outside does."
Perhaps best known for its work with textiles and interior design, Inside/Outside also creates landscapes and exhibition designs, and has even undertaken collaborative research projects on topics as scientifically niche as soil biodiversity. She’s worked with many architects but most notable is her ongoing collaboration with Koolhaas and his practice OMA. A hallmark of Blaisse's practice is its playful disobedience, and the contradictions it poses to aesthetic norms and conventions. As this interview reveals though, her work takes aim well beyond the boundaries of taste, and right at the heart of personal and political life.
Scaffold is a podcast series featuring interviews with architects, artists and designers. Hosted by Matthew Blunderfield and produced by the Architecture Foundation, it is available on Apple Pocasts, Spotify, and most major podcast streaming platforms.
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