AV MONOGRAFIAS 232

Kersten Geers and David Van Severen write like they design, with a clear line. Their interpretative transparency – both are committed to teaching –, their visual acuity and their intellectual impact make it almost redundant to comment on the work of the Brussels studio, which chose the diaphanous name of OFFICE for their presence in the world. In the text that reflects on their recent work, they frame their projects with a bold phrase, “the form of the thing precedes the thing,” a declaration of platonic idealism that prompts to see their figures as ideas “that are born naked,” and only later acquire material form on site. But their elemental figures, genuine performative geometries that create reality through spatial form, do not exclude tectonic pragmatism: if J.L. Austin taught us how to do things with words, the OFFICE partners show us how to do things with forms. (Luis Fernández-Galiano)