Studio Christine Jetten

Innovative ceramic glazes for architecture in public spaces

‘When people find a building beautiful or charming, they want to keep it standing and maintain it well.’ This feeling is one of the central motivations behind designer and glazing specialist Christine Jetten’s focus on her glazes. Christine is a pioneer in the field of glazed ceramic facades for modern architecture. For Crafts Council Nederlands (w)aardewerk project, Christine is exploring no fewer than three glazes that work towards resolving the challenges of the cityscape today.

‘We are failing our senses’

Christine grew up with the Dutch urban expansions of the 1970s and 1980s. “In these new housing estates, all buildings looked alike and there were no visual landmarks,” she says. “I keep getting lost and thought: we are really shortchanging our senses here.” Meanwhile, Christine studied at the art academy in Tilburg and at the Rietveld Academy, where she started working with increasingly large ceramic sculptures. For each of these works, Christine created unique surfaces using glaze. From this practice she became fascinated by the endless possibilities of glaze

Where the ceramic industry has increasingly stabilised glazes, Christine instead chooses to work with raw materials. Because the ingredients of commercial glazes have undergone pre-processing (frits, glaze pigments) the colours become predictable- stable and monochrome. Christine exploits the natural properties of glazing materials and is always looking for the magic in the glaze: layering, depth, variation, light reflection gives pieces a spirit that appeals to the sensory experience.Christine approaches this world of glazing with an artist’s eye. “Because I was an outsider, I could experiment with compositions and technique fairly unconstrained.” This resulted in unique glazes.

Architecture glazes

Christine further developed her expertise through restoration work on historic architectural ceramics. Upon visiting a building in London by architect Berlage, whose cladding is completely ceramic, a sequence of events brought her into contact with a major international architectural firm in the late 1990s. ‘They were looking for a modern translation of this historic façade, for something special that would blend into the historic surroundings of the City in London. I then worked with them to develop glazed ceramic panels for the façade of a building. The architecture with curtain walls that we now see is very common, was just emerging then.’ In the Netherlands, Christine’s work found little traction for a long time.  ‘Here we adopted the attitude that ceramic ornaments and tile work in architecture was old-fashioned after the war. It was too expensive and labour-intensive.’ Christine’s expertise in this field was highly valued in other parts of the globe instead.

Christine designed countless glazed ceramic facades for buildings around the world, from New York and Washington DC to the Middle East and China. After 25 years of working internationally, Christine decided to focus on the Dutch scene. She saw that the time was right for her product. Nowadays, architecture has a strong focus on public space, a domain Christine has long been interested in. ‘Architects started calling squares the living rooms of the city, and then I thought: well, my glazes can become the wallpaper of those living rooms.’

Orientation for the blind and visually impaired

With the city of today come issues of today. For example: how do we make these ‘living rooms of the city’ welcome for everyone? Christine works together with Gabrielle, who became blind during her life. Together they develop glazes, reliefs and textures that deliver an engaging tactile experience for the blind and visually impaired. “Touch has always been important in my work. In London once, people almost called the police because I was touching a building with so much attention!” 

For blind and visually impaired people, orientation in the city is almost impossible. “Gabrielle told me that she often thinks she is in a certain place, and then turns out to be somewhere completely different. That’s terrible, isn’t it?” Gabrielle’s experience is reminiscent of what Christine experienced in the new housing estates of the 1970s, constantly getting lost. ‘With the texture of tiles, we can create landmarks for the sense of touch. This allows people to orientate themselves. Moreover, blind people have a different experience of beauty. Gabrielle told me, ‘all glazes sound different.’ I had never thought about that myself after all these years working with glaze.” Christine emphasises the importance of tactile qualities and stimulating the sense of touch with her work in an increasingly digitalised world.

Innovation for today’s city

This attention to tactile value and different beauty experiences, as well as climate conscious aspects, is incorporated in the glazes Christine makes for (W)aardewerk. ‘When public space becomes a residential space, beauty is very important,’ she says. The first panel shows scaled tiles with a unique tactile value. The various glazes used contain between 0.2% to 2% fine particles from heavy industry. The inspiration for this design come from the beauty of the coloured tree canopies in autumn.

With her second glaze, Christine explores the possibility of reflecting heat to keep buildings cooler. Cities are getting hotter, partially because concrete and other materials absorb heat very well. This compromises quality of life, as so-called ‘urban heat islands’ are created in cities, from which the heat can no longer escape. Christine develops reflective glaze recipes that not only repel heat, but also harbour surprising beauty. In response to changing light conditions, the surfaces emanate different visual effects. This creates a dynamic and constantly morphing experience of the buildings on which the glaze is used.

The third glaze Christine has developed is a bronze glaze that consists of 40 per cent fine dust captured from heavy industry. The fine dust is extracted from the air in factories by ENS Clean Air in order to both improve working conditions and reduce environmental emissions. This fine dust remains in the system and had no destination until now. ‘By adding fine dust to a glaze recipe, a chemical reaction is started, thereby trapping the polluting substance in glaze. As a result, it can no longer just end up in the earth or water.” Ceramics are very hard-wearing, so the fine dust is well contained in these ceramic tiles.

For the future of glaze and ceramics to become sustainable, Christine says it is important for specialists from different sectors to talk to each other. ‘Concrete, steel and glass were the architectural materials of the twentieth century. Now wood and ceramics are getting more and more applications. I need fundamental conversations as ceramics come more into the spotlight.’ Christine is always finding new ways to innovate glazes and continues to contribute to future-proofing our architecture.

@studio_christine_jetten
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Text: Anke Vromen 
Photography: Fan Liao