TS
“Simplicity is complex…” Alvaro Siza

“Très simple”, or TS, is the name of a high-performance sailing catamaran designed by Christophe Barreau. Following the mini/max principle of having only the absolute necessary, as to obtain simplicity, effectiveness, and performance, this vessel project shows what is it to construct a sailing device at the state of art, touching the level of an aesthetic doctrine. A doctrine of dry stringy minimalist body tailored to high speed and the simplicity of a survival regime.
Without any reference, this example resonates with the work of STARH studio of Svetoslav Stanislavov on its “deep grammar” strategic level. His architectural designs show a concentration of artistic power, based on simple visual orders, turning each one of their works into a spatial mono-spectacle based on a clear performance idea. Their work follows an algorithm of phases. The spatial concept establishes a set of simple rules. The set of rules organises the body of the design. As it is in a complex universe - crossing and hybridising rules lead to a variety of life forms, distilled to their pure skeletons. The above sequence is converted into a strategy aimed to obtain the unity of the design space syntax. Nothing more and nothing less is added or subtracted. In the works of STARH, form follows strategy. There are no additional decorations, as the project itself obtains a quality of a space ornament.
Yet, each ornament is based and refers to a certain visual concept out of reality: a sequence of ameboid shapes recreates the recognisable silhouette of Vitosha mountain with its two humps, the rhythm of elegant horizontal strips resonates to a sequence of sea waves, loggias organised as cuts in a white purist cubic shape read brick walls as its inner flesh, a recognisable strung out pose in its pure essence, with no body present, can still be distinguished in the overall building shape. Each work carries a hidden metaphoric power made visible through its abstract syntax. If the environment, where STARH install their designs, has already obtained its own integrity and, hence, offers a dialogue regime to newcomers, their works show responsive behaviour: the dialogue runs through proportions of openings, scale correlations, and shape analogies, entering a regime of resonance.
The quality of the interiors is TS too. Even when organised as floating free lines in space, they are crispy clear, frank and minimal. Mostly not colorised, they demonstrate the dominance of the black and white photography restrictiveness over the semantics of the material.
That is why the works of STARH generate a deceptive feeling of clarity and transparency. Their visual innocence gives rise to the false conviction that this is easy to do, that clarity is simple to achieve, and that the TS effect is accessible for everyone. But it is not. Stanislavov gives the spectator wings to dream, but not to fly. Yet this is the target of any good architecture, to rise hope for an alternative world, as our own does not satisfy our intentions.
Life sounds très simple with this architecture.

Prof. Arch. Georgi Stanishev