[db] DAYA BAKKER
Architect/Designer/Carpenter/Craftsman
He is a multi-disciplinary, hands-on, designer and maker.
He creates and produces architecture, interiors, furniture, artworks and objects.
He respects the environment he works in, the people he works with and the materials he manipulates.
He believes in craftsmanship and tradition.
He uses a bespoke approach for each client, respects the available budget and is a great source of solutions.
Specialised in temporary and fleeting Architecture, modularity, mobility and multi-functionality, he is a systematic Dutch pragmatic with a precision shifting between milli- and meters with ease and comfort. Finding solutions in small spaces and creating personalised environments with a poetic touch.
COLLABORATIONS_
_ARCHITECTS
philipperizzotti.net
1024architecture.net
cigue.net
aavp-architecture.com
logarchitectes.com
_COLLECTIVES
exyzt.org
coloco.org
encoreheureux.org
macaomilano.org
raumlabor.net
constructlab.net
ruralstudio.org
_ARTISTS
rossella biscotti.com
kevinvanbraak.com
ateliervanlieshout.com
stefanshankland.com
_DESIGNERS
vincentderijk.nl
syco.uk.com
rolab.org
_WOODWORKERS
xylos.com
_PHOTOGRAPHERS
bricepelleschi.com
CyrilleWeiner.com
Arnaud Boussac
HIS-STORY
After having bought and restored a house in ruin, inside the walls of a Roman castle situated in Andalucia, transformed by the Moorish occupants into a medina, Daya Bakker returns to his homeland to study at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft, the Netherlands.
During his study he starts working with carpenters XYLOS (xylosmeubelmakers.nl), artists AVL(ateliervanlieshout.com) and designer Vincent de Rijk(vincentderijk.nl), with whom he learns to work with diverse materials and techniques, creating furniture, exhibitions, sculptures and architectural models.
During his Msc Architecture he equally frequents the Faculty of Industrial Design where he does Msc1 and 2, thus answering to his need to research and create smaller scale objects, materials and technology.
He starts working on his own account creating bespoke furniture and works closely together with syco.com with whom he takes on a job as art-directors for a well known Rotterdam nightclub called NOW&WOW.
At the end of his studies he encounters the French Collective EXYZT (exyzt.org) and a long and fruitful friendship and collaboration follows. He moves to Paris and next to his activities within the collective he works for his own account. Many collaborations follow with several architects, collectives and artists (see list), his working ground always expanding across the entire European continent.
A period of nomadic existence follows, travelling around in Europe between the Netherlands, Italy and France from project to project, with his mobile workshop, helping clients in their projects of auto-construction realising their dreams, always operating as designer as well as maker. Amongst these projects are guesthouse leChromatic, an old barn transformed into the clients residence and guesthouse OPrieur, and a house in the south of Italy, Alessano.
In the beginning of 2015 he joins his friend and colleague Nicolas Henninger, co-founder of EXYZT, in London UK.
Here they are responsible for The Union Yard Project, which is still ongoing. A site of experimental architecture, auto-construction, workshops and events. The Office for Crafted Architecture OFCA.co.uk is created, and several projects are currently in the making, amongst which a community project in Croydon and a beachfronthouse in Pagham.
NOW
We are based in East London, at Codydock, where we occupy 2 shipping containers and the space above, below and behind them with our workshop and office which are currently in the making. An inspiring place on the river Lea with inspiring people.
MATERIALS
(db) works with a wide range of materials and still explores more. Every material has its own properties, culture, traditions and stories, by listening, the material will tell you how to handle, manipulate and treat it, what it's possibilities and limits are.
In a good design every element equally has its own properties and can dictate which material should be used, (db) therefore combines materials with an internal logic.
WOOD is db's primary material. Gentle and malleable, easy to manipulate, with endless possibilities. From Hardwood to softwood and sheet material. db will propose local growing varieties over exotic ones and only FSC certified wood.
Often combined with steel elements and/or brass details.
STEEL is often used by db in traction elements as bracing and suspension, mechanical parts but also in details and finishing.
Profiles, bars, tubes, wire and sheet, welded, bolted and folded. db preferably uses steel in its raw aspect, with just a wax finish, or an epoxy coat for cold rolled steel sheet.
db often combines steel with hard-wood. BRASS for its aspect, its tradition and properties, is a beautiful material, relatively soft to work with and gentle to the touch. Traditionally used in applications where low friction is required as locks, gears, doorknobs, ammunition casings, musical instruments and zippers it is often object to human touch. db combines brass with wood in objects of design. COPPER tubes normally used for plumbing make great electricity ducts, clothing rods and elements for lamps or the like, its softness makes them easy to bend and weld. Copper sheets make great finishing. LEAD although toxic, is an interesting material for its softness, malleability and weight.
see ......(link) CONCRETE is applied in architectural as well as design projects, in architecture visual vertical surfaces are preferably cast in either softwood timber or basic ply-wood, thus leaving a print of the material on the surface of the concrete. In design db uses it for table- and worktops, bespoke furniture, sinks and bathtubs. GLASS with steel or wood, vertical or horizontal. LEATHER on chairs and benches or worktops, combined with steel and brass elements.TEXTILES such as FELT, SILK, COTTON.
db also works with POLYMERS from time to time although not preferably and only when it's the best option for the project.
RESIN AND EPOXY is applied by db in design, modelmaking and as finish. Either Resin combined with glass-fibre or cast and worked and sculpted as blocks or plates.POLY-URETHAN and POLY-UREA as incredibly strong and waterproof surfaces.CORIAN for its seamless joints, perfect for kitchen or bathroom.
ARCHITECTURE EPHEMERE or Fleeting Architecture
With the Collectif EXYZT, (db) created numerous projects of ‘Fleeting Architecture’, some of which in the UK. Often these projects were situated around an event like the London Festival of Architecture, Cultural Capital of Europe Warsaw (PL) or Guimaraes (POR), La noche es en Blanco Madrid (ES) or an exhibition of the Barbican called ‘Radical Nature’.
We as collective explore the city of interest, looking for empty spaces in an urban context where there is a lack as well as potential for growth and activity. We than invest the space with a conceptual program which tells a story and around this we create a space of gathering and sharing, around water, fire and food, using warmth in cold- and freshness in warm places. Examples are an Urban Tropical Rainforest in Madrid or a Lido in London. Saunas are often recurring items. We also create a micro-economy of which the local inhabitants can profite, such as a mushroom-lab in Karosta, Latvia, or the re-enactment of the 1830 Beer-Act in Southwark, London. We try to engage local associations in the project and the possible future of the site, sometimes this bares fruit, see The East Curve Garden in Dalston, London.
The Collective is multi-disciplinary, counting architects, carpenters, graphic designers, photographers, dj’s vj’s, and Capitaine Flam. Arriving on site we ‘build’, ‘live’ and ‘activate’ it.
see EXYZT
