Marjetica Potrč and Ooze Architects

Marjetica Potrč and Ooze Architects
The Wind Lift, 2014

Based in Ljubljana and Berlin, Marjetica Potrč’s work addresses issues such as social space and contemporary architectural practices, reflections on sustainability, and new solutions for communities. Since 2008 Potrč has repeatedly worked with Ooze Architects, comprising Eva Pfannes and Sylvain Hartenberg.

Ooze is an international practice engaged in art, architecture and urbanism. One of Ooze’s main tenets is that space is subjective. The occupants and users of any given space bring their own stories to bear upon it. Their projects allow them to appropriate a room, a building or a district of a city and develop it further using their interventions as a tool to change their culture of living. Ooze strives to be the catalyst for such processes imagining how to live in a sustainable city.

For Folkestone Triennial 2014, Potrč and Ooze Architects have used the iconic brick structure of the mainline Foord Road Viaduct as the backdrop for The Wind Lift – a wind powered lift that will carry people to the top of the viaduct offering stunning views over the Creative Quarter and Folkestone Harbour. The iconic structure of the viaduct is beautiful in its own right, but also marked with the town’s heritage (the advent of the railways was the beginning of Folkestone’s modern age). Now it has been co-opted to serve as a platform from which to look out on the future.

Potrč was born in 1953 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where she still lives and works. Ooze Architects was founded in 2008 by Eva Pfannes, born in 1970, and Sylvain Hartenberg, born in 1968. Ooze Architects was founded in Rotterdam and has an additional base in Paris.

The Wind Lift
Structural engineering: Atelier One (Neil Thomas, Christopher Matthews, Luis Fernandez)
Wind turbine: Windside
Lift equipment: Alimak Hek

This is not a wheelchair accessible artwork. No baggies or dogs allowed. In case of adverse weather conditions the artwork will remain closed.

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