SUAS looks forward to welcoming you back after the Easter vacation, and invites you to the next installment of our 2007/2008 lecture series. While preparing a dissertation on the subject of Comics and Architecture last year, one of your SUAS minions was introduced to the Dutch cartoonist and graphic designer Joost Swarte.

Swarte was born and raised in and around the town of Haarlem, just west of Amsterdam. He studied industrial design until his interest in drawing comics in the late sixties and early seventies lead to a career in comic books and graphic design. His distinctively colourful and subtly humourous illustrations have appeared in comics, books, prints, stamps, posters, cards, LP and CD covers and on magazine covers ever since. He’s also responsible for the foundation of Haarlem’s biannual Stripdagen Comics Festival (7 & 8 June this year).

In April 1995, Swarte was invited to design a new building for the Toneelschuur Theatre in Haarlem. He had worked as the designer of the Toneelschuur’s house style for more than a decade, creating programmes, brochures, tickets and a house typeface, but never before had he designed a building, nor had he ever received any formal architectural training. Swarte accepted the proposal, and developed a design for the theatre which, with the help of the architect Henk Döll (then with Mecanoo Architects), became a landmark theatre and cinema complex on an unusual inner-city site The building is, as far as we know, the only example of a major public building principally designed by a cartoonist. The success of the Toneelschuur has subsequently lead Swarte to other architectural work, including the adjacent Johannes Enchede Hof sheltered housing scheme.

You can find out more about Swarte and his work on his website at joostswarte.com. An extensive interview on the subject of comics and architecture was undertaken as part of the aforementioned dissertation research, and can be found in the appendices of the dissertation in the digital archive (pdf link).

After our formal interview, Joost was kind enough to record a walking tour through the streets of Haarlem to see his two built projects. Click here to listen to it in iTunes, or use the embedded player below.

The lecture starts at 18h00 on Thursday 10 April (the first Thursday after the end of the Easter vacation). Free entry to SUAS members, membership on sale at the door.