Time Tower is a performative architecture which changes the perception of time through light, air, sound, and movement. It brings the viewer to the “now-moment”. Neither the past nor the future this now-moment is very difficult to grasp. By changing the experience of space, the design of the tower helps with grasping that moment. The inspiration to work with light comes from Huis Sonnenveld’s design. The design slows down the viewers and brings them into temporal time.
Sundial
Located between the two clock towers of Bojmans and the church (Arminiuskerk), the tower is a clock tower itself. On the rooftop, there is a site-specific sundial. If one stands on the month ruler, their shadow will tell them the clock connecting them more to the cosmic time of the sun.
Views:
The Tower’s structure is scaffolding partially wrapped in recycled plastic through which different times and spaces come together. By cutting specific frames in the facade and creating air balloons, different gradients can be created for opacity, transparency, framing and blurring. This is done in response to the context and the different views:
The eastern façade responds to the four tall trees in the garden of the house and the two towers at Eindrachtsplein. Four vertical divisions respond to the verticality of these elements and they create a rhythm from the inside.
The western façade has a window frame which exactly mimics the house’s kitchen window and it looks back at it.
The southern façade frames the Land of Hoboken, the Villa Park and looks into the two other clock towers.
Time traveling performance
Through a performative act, the citizens will walk a route in the surrounding area together with a storyteller who will tell them stories from the past and the future of the area. Throughout the walk, the group stops in two specific locations coordinated with the story. After they hear the story of that location, they collectively blow a plastic balloon. They bring the balloons to the tower and hang them on the northern façade on which two balloons are already hanging and two are missing. These air bubbles are time capsules from the past and the future.