Text

The artists' collective FAT (Fashion Architecture Taste), which operates from London, prefers to occupy unexplored areas. The artists who belong to the collective claim the entire field between architecture and art as their playground. The FAT artists satisfy their hunger for new challenges both with the design of useful objects and with the creation of unusable objects.

The pursuit of cross-fertilisation and the need for cross-border experiences (whereby the distinction between the various artistic disciplines is wholly or partially eliminated) run like a thread through the collective's projects. Assignments that offer opportunities to enter the domain of unprecedented possibilities, experiences and contrasts are grasped with both hands.

When carrying out assignments, the artists of FAT (Sean Griffith, Charles Holland and Sam Jacob) unscrupulously enter the twilight zone where commerce and art meet. The challenge lies in finding tactical and creative solutions to spatial problems, design issues and dilemmas in the design or decoration of public space.

The realisation of the Biesieklette guard house on the Noord Boulevard in Scheveningen was such a challenge. The house consists of a white mound (the supervisor's residence) that is crowned by a small Dutch house made of concrete. Crenellations of a grey castle wall cut through the mound. An accessible design that clearly refers to the bathing culture and miniature house of Madurodam. With the flaming light effects that sometimes strike the windows of the small house, FAT refers to the effect of primeval Dutch lighthouses in the mist.

In 2005, the guard house was awarded the prestigious British 'FX Award' for 'Best Public Project'. It was even included in a series of 'art stamps' in 2006.