Zeitschrift
archithese 5.2014
Fundamental Palace
The evolution of architecture in the 20th century can be read as a history of alliances. Associations like the Werkbund, CIAM, Team 10 or the Texas Rangers acted as reform movements with a political or pedagogical agenda to spread their ideas – and finally also push them through – with the joint force of the collective. Our young millennium currently sees a renaissance of collaborative concepts and the establishment of unprecedented networks facilitated and expedited by digitalization and globalization. Can traditional structures still keep pace with these developments?
What is the general framework of these new collectives – open community, secret society or lobbyism? It is time to take a look under the surface and explore the mechanisms of these associations. How do they work, what keeps them together, and what powers them?
The recent crisis has thrown the architectural profession into economic and professional angst, and one could see a parallel in this to the previous century. Might it be that this uncertainty has led the architect – the great individualist – back into the collective? Isn’t the main purpose of alliances protection? But against whom?
The present issue of archithese examines these underlying structures of architecture on various levels. Architects like Max Bill, Le Corbusier or Esther McCoy developed their own strategies for reaching their goals and operated from their own networks. While Bill entered parliament as a politician to directly inject his idea of environmental design into the political discourse – a commitment that is rare amongst designers up to today – Le Corbusier’s upbringing in a Masonic milieu significantly expedited his career. Even today, some architects’ careers would not have come very far without a certain amount of external support, just think of SuperDutch or New Wave Denmark. In retrospect, many heroes of the American scene owe their legendary reputation to the architect and writer Esther McCoy, who, despite her achievements, has been largely forgotten by architectural historiography.
A fate similar to that of the young generation of contemporary architects in Southern Europe, who are already being called the „lost generation“. The dramatic slump of the Spanish and also the Italian construction industry has forced young architects, most of all, to question the traditional idea of the egomaniac artist-architect and to find new definitions as agents of society with social competence and community spirit. They thereby rediscover long-forgotten potential and areas for themselves and know how to make creative use of the possibilities of the 21st century to digitally connect and organize collective projects. But how does politics react to this new situation? While architectural associations used to mainly promote the interests of their members, they now for the first time in history face serious competition in the form of architectural trade unions in countries like Denmark or Spain. May it be that the profession felt their interests weren’t sufficiently represented anymore? Have the associations become tools of the economy and the construction industry?
A classic example of successful lobbyism can be found in the strategic methods of the Hamburg-based corporation ECE with its foundation „Stiftung Lebendige Stadt“ (Foundation for a Living City) for the major project MILANEO on the Stuttgart 21 area. The fusion of economy and politics achieves a certain blur here. And thus the economic lust for profit dominates the public good – which should customarily be protected by politics – thereby turning the city into prey. Lobbyism is no longer a pariah; it has become part of the establishment. We can at present already observe the emergence of new forms of dependencies, for example in the area of copyright legislation for new contracting forms like the Australian Project Alliance or in the transferral of estate archives, as is the case with the Barragán archives. So, what is the current state of the profession? – The time has come for new alliances.
The Editors
ARCHITEKTUR AKTUELL
10 Back to the Roots. Herzog & de Meuron: Naturbad Riehen | Ansgar Staudt
16 Unschärfe zwischen ideal und real. Bruno Fioretti Marquez Architekten: Neue Meisterhäuser Bauhaus Dessau | Florian Dreher
FUNDAMENTAL PALACE
24 Eine Drohne namens Architektur. Zum reverse engineering des Elements-Projekts | Stephan Trüby
32 Die Biennale als Auftrag. Über die Wirkungskraft der richtigen Fragen | Jørg Himmelreich
34 Den Drachen reiten. Fabio Gramazio von Gramazio & Kohler im Gespräch mit Jørg Himmelreich
42 Die Biennale sollte den Architekten gehören! Gegen die thematische Überfrachtung | Patrik Schumacher
44 Obsessionen, Mythologien, Attitüden. Rem Koolhaas als Ausstellungsmacher | Bart Lootsma
52 Der Mensch im Mittelpunkt. Der Schweizer Pavillon in Venedig von Bruno Giacometti | Florian Dreher
56 Die Architektur der anderen. Die Arbeiten des britischen Architekten Cedric Price | Tanja Herdt
64 Weitergehen! Lucius Burckhardt und die Architekturausstellung | Philip Ursprung
68 Lucius Burckhardt neu entdeckt. Oder: Über das Zulassen von Pluralität | Ueli Mäder
72 «Ein Glücksfall für uns». Jacques Herzog im Gespräch mit Ueli Mäder und Peter Sutter
SPECIAL: A Growing Archive. Swiss Summer School
74 Im Auftrag: Architektur zwischen Politik und Event. Marianne Burki und Sandi Paucic von der Schweizer Kulturstiftung Pro Helvetia im Gespräch mit Florian Dreher
80 Reordering Reality while Playing. Architecture and Creativity | Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen
84 Architecture, Discipline and Crisis. The Venice Architecture Biennale as Seismograph | Rute Figueiredo
88 Mulino Stucky and after. A Short History of the Beginnings of the Venice Architecture Biennale | Aaron Levy
96 Gegenwart mit Zukunft. Markus Schaefer von Hosoya Schaefer Architects im Gespräch mit Margarete von Lupin
RUBRIKEN
104 Capriccio in Book Form. A Review Of Giulia Foscari’s Book Elements Of Venice | Irina Davidovici
108 Die Peripherie radikal neu denken. Abecedarium zur Peripherie | Stefan Kurath
112 Nachruf. En mémoire de Charles Feigel | Michel Tanner
116 Neues aus der Industrie
126 Lieferbare Hefte
128 Vorschau und Impressum
What is the general framework of these new collectives – open community, secret society or lobbyism? It is time to take a look under the surface and explore the mechanisms of these associations. How do they work, what keeps them together, and what powers them?
The recent crisis has thrown the architectural profession into economic and professional angst, and one could see a parallel in this to the previous century. Might it be that this uncertainty has led the architect – the great individualist – back into the collective? Isn’t the main purpose of alliances protection? But against whom?
The present issue of archithese examines these underlying structures of architecture on various levels. Architects like Max Bill, Le Corbusier or Esther McCoy developed their own strategies for reaching their goals and operated from their own networks. While Bill entered parliament as a politician to directly inject his idea of environmental design into the political discourse – a commitment that is rare amongst designers up to today – Le Corbusier’s upbringing in a Masonic milieu significantly expedited his career. Even today, some architects’ careers would not have come very far without a certain amount of external support, just think of SuperDutch or New Wave Denmark. In retrospect, many heroes of the American scene owe their legendary reputation to the architect and writer Esther McCoy, who, despite her achievements, has been largely forgotten by architectural historiography.
A fate similar to that of the young generation of contemporary architects in Southern Europe, who are already being called the „lost generation“. The dramatic slump of the Spanish and also the Italian construction industry has forced young architects, most of all, to question the traditional idea of the egomaniac artist-architect and to find new definitions as agents of society with social competence and community spirit. They thereby rediscover long-forgotten potential and areas for themselves and know how to make creative use of the possibilities of the 21st century to digitally connect and organize collective projects. But how does politics react to this new situation? While architectural associations used to mainly promote the interests of their members, they now for the first time in history face serious competition in the form of architectural trade unions in countries like Denmark or Spain. May it be that the profession felt their interests weren’t sufficiently represented anymore? Have the associations become tools of the economy and the construction industry?
A classic example of successful lobbyism can be found in the strategic methods of the Hamburg-based corporation ECE with its foundation „Stiftung Lebendige Stadt“ (Foundation for a Living City) for the major project MILANEO on the Stuttgart 21 area. The fusion of economy and politics achieves a certain blur here. And thus the economic lust for profit dominates the public good – which should customarily be protected by politics – thereby turning the city into prey. Lobbyism is no longer a pariah; it has become part of the establishment. We can at present already observe the emergence of new forms of dependencies, for example in the area of copyright legislation for new contracting forms like the Australian Project Alliance or in the transferral of estate archives, as is the case with the Barragán archives. So, what is the current state of the profession? – The time has come for new alliances.
The Editors
ARCHITEKTUR AKTUELL
10 Back to the Roots. Herzog & de Meuron: Naturbad Riehen | Ansgar Staudt
16 Unschärfe zwischen ideal und real. Bruno Fioretti Marquez Architekten: Neue Meisterhäuser Bauhaus Dessau | Florian Dreher
FUNDAMENTAL PALACE
24 Eine Drohne namens Architektur. Zum reverse engineering des Elements-Projekts | Stephan Trüby
32 Die Biennale als Auftrag. Über die Wirkungskraft der richtigen Fragen | Jørg Himmelreich
34 Den Drachen reiten. Fabio Gramazio von Gramazio & Kohler im Gespräch mit Jørg Himmelreich
42 Die Biennale sollte den Architekten gehören! Gegen die thematische Überfrachtung | Patrik Schumacher
44 Obsessionen, Mythologien, Attitüden. Rem Koolhaas als Ausstellungsmacher | Bart Lootsma
52 Der Mensch im Mittelpunkt. Der Schweizer Pavillon in Venedig von Bruno Giacometti | Florian Dreher
56 Die Architektur der anderen. Die Arbeiten des britischen Architekten Cedric Price | Tanja Herdt
64 Weitergehen! Lucius Burckhardt und die Architekturausstellung | Philip Ursprung
68 Lucius Burckhardt neu entdeckt. Oder: Über das Zulassen von Pluralität | Ueli Mäder
72 «Ein Glücksfall für uns». Jacques Herzog im Gespräch mit Ueli Mäder und Peter Sutter
SPECIAL: A Growing Archive. Swiss Summer School
74 Im Auftrag: Architektur zwischen Politik und Event. Marianne Burki und Sandi Paucic von der Schweizer Kulturstiftung Pro Helvetia im Gespräch mit Florian Dreher
80 Reordering Reality while Playing. Architecture and Creativity | Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen
84 Architecture, Discipline and Crisis. The Venice Architecture Biennale as Seismograph | Rute Figueiredo
88 Mulino Stucky and after. A Short History of the Beginnings of the Venice Architecture Biennale | Aaron Levy
96 Gegenwart mit Zukunft. Markus Schaefer von Hosoya Schaefer Architects im Gespräch mit Margarete von Lupin
RUBRIKEN
104 Capriccio in Book Form. A Review Of Giulia Foscari’s Book Elements Of Venice | Irina Davidovici
108 Die Peripherie radikal neu denken. Abecedarium zur Peripherie | Stefan Kurath
112 Nachruf. En mémoire de Charles Feigel | Michel Tanner
116 Neues aus der Industrie
126 Lieferbare Hefte
128 Vorschau und Impressum
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