#ArchinectMeets is a series of interviews with members of the architecture community that use Instagram as a creative medium. With the series, we ask some of Instagram’s architectural photographers, producers and curators about their relationship to the social media platform and how it has affected their practice.
Social media has undeniably affected the way we perceive, interpret and share opinions about architecture today. While we use our own account, @Archinect, as a site for image curation and news content, we wanted to ask fellow Instagram users how they navigated the platform.
We spoke to Hannes Peer, the photographer, architect and curator behind @hannespeer. With an eye for "imperfections, nostalgic utopia, and future archeology," Peer captures architectural oddities of the 20th century with aplomb.
How did @hannespeer begin?
My instagram began as some sort of personal archive of (for me) interesting eclectic architectural images.
With time it got more and more structured and i realized that it had become an actual research.
So i gave it a methodological form, posting each time not one but 3 images of one subject. 3, apart from being an evocative number, it gives me also the opportunity to study in deep,elaborate a concept.
View this post on InstagramB R O D Z K Y | Concrete has a lot to answer for. Sixties concrete, in particular. Only not all office blocks created then were monstrous carbuncles. Take this one, for example. Built in 1967 to be the headquarters of CBR, a cement and brick company, no 185 Chausee de la Hulpe has a striking if surreal beauty. It's sci-fi, it's space-age yet it sits perfectly with its edge-of-the-forest surroundings, maybe due to the reflected window glass mirroring the surrounding lawns, trees, the sky, the clouds. The clients told architect Constantin Brodzki they wanted a building that would 'glorify the technical and expressive potential' of concrete. Job done.
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How did you begin curating your Instagram profile in relation to your professional practice?
It was kind of a logical consequence, as my research is ongoing and so are my projects, my projects profit from this research and vice versa, it is a dialectical development for both. As well i am interested in eclecticism in architecture, actually all aesthetical or conceptual ideas, be it art or applied arts, that cross conventional borders.
View this post on InstagramA N T I S T R U C T U R E | / artwork by @mdviii_mcmxc
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What have you hoped to communicate about architecture through your posts?
I think my 3 titles 'imperfections, nostalgic utopia and future archeologies, explain quite well what my research is about. I am concerned with interesting concepts, architectural oddities, mistakes, imperfections in architecture rather than with pure beauty. Pure beauty is nice, but not very interesting to me, in all my projects as well as in my research I go for the concept of the 'sublime' as Immanuel Kant would put it:
He says that the beautiful in nature is not quantifiable, but rather focused only in color, form, surface of an object. To Kant, the sublime is more infinite and can be found even in an object that has no form. The sublime should be regarded as a presentation of an indeterminate concept of reason.
Basically, Kant argues that beauty is a temporary response of understanding, but the sublime goes beyond the aesthetics into a realm of reason.
I love this thought and i try to work with it on a daily basis.
View this post on InstagramJ A N T A R M A N T A R | The Jantar Mantar monument in Jaipur, Rajasthan is a collection of nineteen architectural astronomical instruments built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II, and completed in 1734. It features the world's largest stone sundial. It is located near City Palace and Hawa Mahal. The term 'Jantar Mantar' is derived from the Sanskrit terms 'Yantra' and 'Mantra' meaning 'instruments' and 'formula'.
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How do you treat your social media differently than your own personal website?
It is more interesting as it works on many more levels as my website. My website is just to have a more technical and commercial understanding of what i do,
my instagram goes deeper, it is a profound insight in my mind's work.
View this post on InstagramT H E M O R G A N H O U S E | Architect: William Morgan , 1972 | According to scholar Robert McCarter, Morgan's design was "inspired by the stepped structure of the ancient Roman seaside town of Herculaneum" and responded to the site's sandy slope. The house consists of two triangular masses which meet at the dune's crest. One triangle fronts the street entry, while the other follows the incline down to the beach.
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What are some of your favorite Instagram profiles to follow?
@conformi, most incredible research, he puts two images in one , literally sublime.
@le_triptique, he has incredible eclectic taste.
@jpegfantasy, incredible research on 80's architecture and interior design
@mariepassa, amazing architectural research, all in black&white.
@apartamentomagazine, interior magazine that goes way beyond beauty showing real life, real people.
@thecuriae, a very well curated instagram.
@the.archers.inc, American studio with great taste for European design.
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