kiss the mist

Aldo Van Eyck’s Orphanage is a truly unique building. Van Eyck designed the orphanage to be a city-like house – a house-like city. The building houses eight different age groups, with four mixed departments. The Plan provides a built framework for the dual phenomenon of the individual and the collective. An internal street connects all of the group houses, this is the main integration space. The street is quite wide yet broadens further at times to create indoor squares. This street is lit at intervals so the children walk from a lit area to shadow, to light. There are a great many moments in this building where the everyday is celebrated. No minor detail went unnoticed when Van Eyck was designing this masterpiece, bringing joy in celebrating the simple, ordinary events in life.

“Deep shadows and darkness are essential because they dim the sharpness of vision, make depth and distance ambiguous and invite unconscious peripheral vision and tactile fantasy.” – Juhani Pallasmaa