Zeitschrift
A10
new European architecture #18
A threefold response
That part of building production generally understood as architecture has undisputedly strong roots in European culture and has also been exported to, imposed on, and emulated in other parts of the world. It may be a long time since Europe played a leading role on the world political stage, but in the field of architecture it is still at the epicentre of developments.
There are various possible explanations for why architecture occupies such a prominent place in Europe. The first is, on the face of it, tautologous: architecture is such a vital presence in Europe because it has a long tradition here. Yet it would be wrong to underestimate the significance of the fact that in Europe architecture is neither a novelty nor a foreign import. Which in turn raises the question of why European architecture has been able to build up such a strong tradition. The answer to this is at least threefold: it is related to the nature of European society, to the level of prosperity, and to the extent of urbanization.
To begin with the last, Europe has long been a continent of towns and cities – the natural biotope of architecture. This is not to deny the existence of architecture in rural and village settings, but the urban environment is unquestionably where it all began.
Architecture is also related to prosperity. And that’s not just because of the availability of money for building projects (there are more than enough examples of poverty-stricken countries in which huge amounts of money are spent on prestige projects). Architecture flourishes when the general level of prosperity is such that people are able to indulge their interest in architectural quality. Although Europe has never been free of poverty, the continent has long been one of the wealthiest regions in the world. Architecture is a luxury that a large part of Europe has been able to afford since the nineteenth century.
After the Enlightenment and the rapid urbanization brought about by industrialization, architecture’s focus changed dramatically and that, too, was more evident in Europe than elsewhere. Traditionally bound up with the monuments of state and church, after 1800 and the rise of the middle class, European architecture experienced a shift to the construction of buildings with a civic connotation, to structures that give form and expression to society, that facilitate community life – from market halls to libraries, from schools to apartment blocks. Notwithstanding all the shortcomings of such a rigid simplification, one can discern here a transition from architecture as an expression of the state to architecture as an expression of society, and from that moment the principle so pithily expressed by Winston Churchill in 1943 applies: „We shape our buildings, and afterwards they shape us“. Hans Ibelings
On the spot
News and observations
• The building boom in Madrid (ES) is reaching a climax with the imminent completion of a high-rise quartet
• Starchitects descend on Ireland
• High-rises are the talk of the town in flat Copenhagen (DK)
• Reality check: architect Tarla Macgabhann comments on the finished Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny (IE)
• Update: the new Dutch
• „Urban zig-zag“: a piece of high quality contemporary urban „furniture“ in Tirana (AL)
• Russia has once again embraced the practice of holding design competitions, but now not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg
• and more...
Start
New projects
• JDS Architects’ ski jump in Oslo (NO) is extending a tradition... to the sky!
• A Hungarian-Japanese team has won the competition to rehouse Hungary’s ministries in Budapest (HU)
• A crematorium in Schiedam (NL) is Asymptote’s second opportunity to build in the Netherlands
• Rudy Ricciotti returns to simple gestures with his „giant nest“ in Paris (FR)
• Erik Nobel’s design for a broadcasting building in Tallinn (EE) is tasteful, but a missed opportunity for innovation
Interview
Oleg Drozdov
In Ukraine, where people pay millions to spend their lives in „historical fakes“, a European-oriented architect like Oleg Drozdov is seen as an exotic exception. Working at an urban scale in several of the biggest Ukrainian cities, he produces positive changes in physical surroundings as well as in professional circles. Kseniya Dmitrenko investigates the intellectual background of Drozdov’s work.
Ready
New buildings
• Denton Corker Marshall’s Civil Justice Centre in Manchester (UK) confirms the re-orientation of the city
• Kalle Vellevoog reinterpreted Pärnu’s (EE) famous white Funk in his design for a holiday apartment building
• A wave-like roof announces Alberto Nicolau’s new swimming pool in Valdemoros (ES)
• In a park in Grafenegg (AT), the next ENTERprise have designed a stage for music festivals and general lingering
• Suburban abstractionism – Johannes Norlander’s first Swedish building, located in Stockholm
• For a house extension in Oelde (DE), Matthias R. Schmalohr finds a new „archaic“ form of expression for ecological architecture in the pueblos of New Mexico
• If Marks Barfield have been worried about being typecast by the London Eye, then their Lightbox Gallery in Woking (UK) will probably do the trick
• Hin Tan designed Tirana’s new Mother Teresa International Airport -the first building of modern, transparent Albania
• In Vienna (AT), Adolf Krischanitz and friends have created paradigms in concrete
Section
Wood
Wood is the oldest building material known to architecture and one of the materials provided by nature itself. Wood can be easily worked by human hands into just about all the parts one needs to build a house: the structural frame, the façade and roof cladding, the doors and windows, the furniture, ornaments, down to most of the tools.
Materia
Materia's view on the latest materials
The science of biomimicry looks at how fascinating designs and processes found in nature might be applied to other fields. How, for example, the behaviour of red algae might be used to prevent bacteria from attaching themselves to a surface. Nature-based solutions to technical problems are being sought all over Europe.
Eurovision
Focusing on European countries, cities and regions
• Maximum Security City: finding solutions that strengthen the city
• 25 recent buildings worth visiting in Istanbul (TR), the city that spans two continents and has a population of over ten million people
• Home: Jorge Mestre’s hillside house in Alella (ES)
Out of Obscurity
Buildings from the margins of modern history
In the 1960s and 1970s, many German medium-sized towns that had profited from the „economical miracle“ were building town hall towers. Some are still standing, but none of them exudes the charm of the 1970s with as much freshness and elegance as Offenbach am Main’s town hall (1968-1971), designed by Maier, Graf & Speidel. Christian Welzbacher takes a look at this triangular tower block with a glassed-over hall.
That part of building production generally understood as architecture has undisputedly strong roots in European culture and has also been exported to, imposed on, and emulated in other parts of the world. It may be a long time since Europe played a leading role on the world political stage, but in the field of architecture it is still at the epicentre of developments.
There are various possible explanations for why architecture occupies such a prominent place in Europe. The first is, on the face of it, tautologous: architecture is such a vital presence in Europe because it has a long tradition here. Yet it would be wrong to underestimate the significance of the fact that in Europe architecture is neither a novelty nor a foreign import. Which in turn raises the question of why European architecture has been able to build up such a strong tradition. The answer to this is at least threefold: it is related to the nature of European society, to the level of prosperity, and to the extent of urbanization.
To begin with the last, Europe has long been a continent of towns and cities – the natural biotope of architecture. This is not to deny the existence of architecture in rural and village settings, but the urban environment is unquestionably where it all began.
Architecture is also related to prosperity. And that’s not just because of the availability of money for building projects (there are more than enough examples of poverty-stricken countries in which huge amounts of money are spent on prestige projects). Architecture flourishes when the general level of prosperity is such that people are able to indulge their interest in architectural quality. Although Europe has never been free of poverty, the continent has long been one of the wealthiest regions in the world. Architecture is a luxury that a large part of Europe has been able to afford since the nineteenth century.
After the Enlightenment and the rapid urbanization brought about by industrialization, architecture’s focus changed dramatically and that, too, was more evident in Europe than elsewhere. Traditionally bound up with the monuments of state and church, after 1800 and the rise of the middle class, European architecture experienced a shift to the construction of buildings with a civic connotation, to structures that give form and expression to society, that facilitate community life – from market halls to libraries, from schools to apartment blocks. Notwithstanding all the shortcomings of such a rigid simplification, one can discern here a transition from architecture as an expression of the state to architecture as an expression of society, and from that moment the principle so pithily expressed by Winston Churchill in 1943 applies: „We shape our buildings, and afterwards they shape us“. Hans Ibelings
On the spot
News and observations
• The building boom in Madrid (ES) is reaching a climax with the imminent completion of a high-rise quartet
• Starchitects descend on Ireland
• High-rises are the talk of the town in flat Copenhagen (DK)
• Reality check: architect Tarla Macgabhann comments on the finished Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny (IE)
• Update: the new Dutch
• „Urban zig-zag“: a piece of high quality contemporary urban „furniture“ in Tirana (AL)
• Russia has once again embraced the practice of holding design competitions, but now not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg
• and more...
Start
New projects
• JDS Architects’ ski jump in Oslo (NO) is extending a tradition... to the sky!
• A Hungarian-Japanese team has won the competition to rehouse Hungary’s ministries in Budapest (HU)
• A crematorium in Schiedam (NL) is Asymptote’s second opportunity to build in the Netherlands
• Rudy Ricciotti returns to simple gestures with his „giant nest“ in Paris (FR)
• Erik Nobel’s design for a broadcasting building in Tallinn (EE) is tasteful, but a missed opportunity for innovation
Interview
Oleg Drozdov
In Ukraine, where people pay millions to spend their lives in „historical fakes“, a European-oriented architect like Oleg Drozdov is seen as an exotic exception. Working at an urban scale in several of the biggest Ukrainian cities, he produces positive changes in physical surroundings as well as in professional circles. Kseniya Dmitrenko investigates the intellectual background of Drozdov’s work.
Ready
New buildings
• Denton Corker Marshall’s Civil Justice Centre in Manchester (UK) confirms the re-orientation of the city
• Kalle Vellevoog reinterpreted Pärnu’s (EE) famous white Funk in his design for a holiday apartment building
• A wave-like roof announces Alberto Nicolau’s new swimming pool in Valdemoros (ES)
• In a park in Grafenegg (AT), the next ENTERprise have designed a stage for music festivals and general lingering
• Suburban abstractionism – Johannes Norlander’s first Swedish building, located in Stockholm
• For a house extension in Oelde (DE), Matthias R. Schmalohr finds a new „archaic“ form of expression for ecological architecture in the pueblos of New Mexico
• If Marks Barfield have been worried about being typecast by the London Eye, then their Lightbox Gallery in Woking (UK) will probably do the trick
• Hin Tan designed Tirana’s new Mother Teresa International Airport -the first building of modern, transparent Albania
• In Vienna (AT), Adolf Krischanitz and friends have created paradigms in concrete
Section
Wood
Wood is the oldest building material known to architecture and one of the materials provided by nature itself. Wood can be easily worked by human hands into just about all the parts one needs to build a house: the structural frame, the façade and roof cladding, the doors and windows, the furniture, ornaments, down to most of the tools.
Materia
Materia's view on the latest materials
The science of biomimicry looks at how fascinating designs and processes found in nature might be applied to other fields. How, for example, the behaviour of red algae might be used to prevent bacteria from attaching themselves to a surface. Nature-based solutions to technical problems are being sought all over Europe.
Eurovision
Focusing on European countries, cities and regions
• Maximum Security City: finding solutions that strengthen the city
• 25 recent buildings worth visiting in Istanbul (TR), the city that spans two continents and has a population of over ten million people
• Home: Jorge Mestre’s hillside house in Alella (ES)
Out of Obscurity
Buildings from the margins of modern history
In the 1960s and 1970s, many German medium-sized towns that had profited from the „economical miracle“ were building town hall towers. Some are still standing, but none of them exudes the charm of the 1970s with as much freshness and elegance as Offenbach am Main’s town hall (1968-1971), designed by Maier, Graf & Speidel. Christian Welzbacher takes a look at this triangular tower block with a glassed-over hall.
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