It is not often that building owners encourage graffiti to the walls of their house, but at the instigation of
Metaform Architecture, the architects for this apartment building in Cessange, Luxumbourg, the graffiti artist Sumo was paid to ply his trade.
What is interesting is that the art is not simply applied to the architecture, like the hanging of a painting, but it is conceptually more integrated. Graffiti usually occurs on building surfaces that are forgotten or architecturally irrelevant. Here those surfaces are elevated aesthetically and conceptually and are used to dress the forms of the architecture, or as the architect puts it to stage the architecture.
The building's decorative features are really a side show to the dark powerful architectural form. This is almost always the case for graffiti artists working in a society that usually disparages their work. The artist's frustration with the imposed constrictions is palpable in the use of such bright, garish colours that contrasts with the dark cladding of the building. used.
Architecturally speaking, the sculptural quality of the building's forms are responsive to its environment, whilst a glimpse from one of the images, suggests irreverent of towards its neighbours. The need to escape architectural banality is noted by the architect as a driving creative force. It is plain to see they have achieved that.
Internally the spaces are more architecturally traditional in the Modernist sense with idiosyncratic flourishes such as a lovely folded steel stair, and an interesting, long dining table set in an atrium.
Photos.
Graffiti.
