Het Schild
Date: 2001
Commissioned by: Het Schild, Wolfheze (NL)
Type: Project
In 2001 Hella Jongerius worked together with Jurgen Bey on a commission for ‘Het Schild’, a center for the visually impaired elderly at Wolfheze in the Netherlands.
The major point was to attract the interest of blind people, people with imperfect eyesight as well as sighted people. Jongerius and Bey based their idea on a walk. During a walk there is always a surprise, something that did not happen the last time or something you haven’t noticed earlier: a flower in intensely vivid colors, changes of temperature, meeting a dog or all kinds of sounds and noises.
Sculptures were created that are recognizable by any sense other than the eye: different installations can be experienced all over the place, whether by feeling, hearing, touching or even seeing.
There is a giant dog made out of soft squeezable artificial clay in the entrance hall. Waiting for a walk or a hug?
Somewhere in the building there are capricious colored ‘flower-drawings’ that are linked to the outside temperature. The flowers are cooling elements. The warmer it gets outside the more ice is growing around these elements inside the building. In contradiction to these ‘ice-flowers’ there are infrared lamps in a chilly hallway. The colder it gets outside the warmer and redder it gets in this corridor.
On a magnetic wall there is a grid of vivid colored metal disks. It is decorative like a pixel image: The ‘picture’ changes every season of the year, it shows the four stages of a tulip’s life as a symbol of the 4 seasons. The colors used in this picture have been chosen because of their intensity. They are even recognizable for a range of visually handicapped people.
For the inhabitants, the rail is an indispensable element during a walk through the building. At a certain point this rail changes into a world receiver. Hold on and walk further; you are connected with a Chinese song on Hong Kong Radio and backwards you can be part of a discussion in The White House on the CNN.