According to CEBRA, every new project constitutes a new beginning. The architects believe that their work should be both individual and recognisable, meaning that they are opposed to the idea of doing one signature style all over the world. It’s their intention to always try and connect to the context in a broad sense. By that, they don’t just mean the site, but also the economic context, the budget, or the climate. CEBRA works in northern Europe as well as in hot climates, such as that of Abu Dhabi. Because of this, their projects constantly mutate from place to place, but you can still recognise them because they share a similar language.
It’s actually quite difficult to put your finger on that language. An important recurring theme is the eave, which pops up in all shapes and forms in CEBRA’s work. A few other ones are randomly placed square windows, large wide stairs that double as auditoriums, and trellises. Anyone studying CEBRA’s output will come across them. These architectural elements constitute the characteristics of the buildings they’re applied in; they partly determine the perception of those buildings. The elements aren’t purely decorative, but they’re not completely conceptual either. CEBRA has identified thirteen of those recurring themes, which you’ll find dispersed throughout this book. In the tongue-in-cheek style that’s typical of the architects, they’ve called them ‘pony tricks’.