SANAA. Towards Mantra Space

Abstract

The bulk of SANAA’s works designed and/ or constructed well into the twenty-first century is characterized, among others, for having rater atypical spaces because in them, the viewer, wherever he is, always has the feeling of being in the same place, in contrast to what happens in the bulk of ancient, modern and postmodern projects generally formed by the sum of different spaces. After analyzing and identifying its characteristics, I’ve coined for it the name ‘mantra space’. Inside the Toledo Pavilion, the experience takes place with a standard sequential cadence, repeated again and again; no differences, no singularities; the viewer is always within a glass bubble surrounded by other glass bubbles; bathed in the always very similar reflections of the surrounding trees, not even clearly distinguishing the different views and orientations. Two other SANAA’s paradigmatic works have Mantra Space: the Flower House and the Rolex Center. The article delves into the distinct formal mechanisms and design strategies making Mantra Space possible: from the first indications in the Gifu apartment project, to their progressive development and the analogies and variations in the consolidated aforementioned SANAA’s projects.