Recently, Mieke Meijer presented ‘Power Plant 01’ as part of the industrial archaeology series she has been working on for the past couple of years. This special presentation was a collaboration with graphic designer Kevin Kars, recently graduated from the Academy St. Joost in Breda.
Starting point for the series were the photographs of Bernd and Hilla Becher. Since 1959, they dedicated themselves to register the remnants of the industrial age in Western Europe and the United States through photography.
Industrial buildings are a remarkable building type. The architectural shape is completely functionality-based. In the 20th century, most of these buildings were taken down because they had served their purpose and were no longer a tenable economic proposition. That’s why the photographs of Becher remain the only visual record of these ‘anonymous’ structures.
This inspired Mieke Meijer to restore the disused industrial shapes and to place them into a new context. By reducing scale and playing with volume, Mieke Meijer creates autonomous interior objects with an architectural feel.
During Salone del Mobile 2010 she presented Gravel Plant 01, a piece of furniture based on one of the Becher’s photographs. The collection was continued with Gravel Plant 02, first presented during London Design Festival 2010.
Unlike the first two pieces, 'PowerPlant 01' wasn’t based on a Becher photograph but on a marquant Eindhoven building, heritage from the Philips company. Mieke Meijer translated it into a low table with two conical shaped lamps.
