Timeless Box, Skybox Johan Cruijff ArenA, Amsterdam

Cardboard sheets

ZJA used an extremely inexpensive material to make The Timeless Box: 6000 sheets of 6mm thick corrugated cardboard sheets. Their spinning wheel was the computer they used to produce a parametric design. The soft, flowing lines in the walls, the bench and the bar are determined by algorithms that in nature describe hills, ripples in a lake or the ribbed sand dunes in the desert. This design was transferred to the cardboard by laser cutter, one sheet at a time. A very repetitive job, but note that not one sheet is identical. Then, echoing the many hours at the spinning wheel in the fairy tale, came the slow and painstaking work of gluing the thousands of sheets on top of each other, one by one. The result is an environment that offers a captivating visual and spatial experience, alluding to natural beauty. And all this without the help of the likes of Rumpelstiltskin.

Parametric design method

Sometimes the material resembles water, then again it is like a coarse textile, suddenly changing into a rock formation. All these metamorphoses are the result of mathematically merging two types of waves. The straight, regular waves in the cardboard collide with the many graceful waves that were laser cut into it. These two types of waves intersect, creating shadows and new wave patterns. If you take some time, and move about, you’ll discover many nuances of colour, changing depths, light and dark waves and counter waves. And yes, sometimes you can catch a glimpse of liquid gold.

Cardboard and algorithms

Being in the Timeless Box you are inside a sculpture where music for the eyes is made of light, cardboard and algorithms. Almost as if this was the result of a natural phenomenon. The Timeless Box shows that you can start with very humble and dull material, adding sophisticated design and the value of many hours of hard work and concentration and come up with an experience of beauty and luxury.