August

What if architecture could be discovered rather than designed? This publication documents August Grootveld’s ad-hoc search for structure; a daily, intuitive process guided by the act of making. The need to make a gate, something to pass through; a platform, something to climb. The method is just as direct: stacking bricks without a plan, finding what works moment by moment. If a structure falls, it’s broken. Tomorrow, something new begins.

Here, construction is a ritual freed from formal intent or convention. The only rules are the physical limitations of the materials and the unwavering commitment to start anew. The forms that emerge are not born from a preconceived vision but from unconscious choices, a spontaneous dialogue between hand and material that intuitively seeks balance, enclosure, or height. This search might yield a large window to look through, high up, not because it was designed, but because it was found. It is both a search for control and a testament to what is possible when we simply go without.

The resulting structures are the unmediated artifacts of this continuous exploration. They are not finished products but fleeting monuments to a daily pursuit of possibility. This is an architecture found through doing, a practice where the act of stacking one brick upon another is not a means to an end, but the entire point. It is a testament to what is possible when the builder’s ego is set aside in favour of play and repetition, an architecture that simply becomes.

Editor: Marius Grootveld

€ 24,50
LEMON PRESS
September 2025, English
ISBN: 978-90-834983-1-7

Full Colour & Silver, 23 x 33,5 cm
52 p, Saddle Stitch, design: Andreas Depauw

© 2025 August & Marius Grootveld, Ghent