Zeitschrift
archithese 6.2010
Zufall
„The only way to see the future is by indetermination, by randomness, by hazard.“
Enric Ruiz Geli, Cloud 9
For those readers who studied the preview of archithese themes for 2010 with care, the fact that this issue sneaked in to replace the planned issue on emigration will not have gone unnoticed. Random unforeseeable circumstances called for a new theme – and in turn become the theme.
At first, primarily motivated by the increasingly common aesthetic pratice of creating seemingly random configurations as paradigmatically seen in Herzog & de Meuron’s VitraHaus, it quickly became evident that chance, randomness and serendipity describe fundamental concepts of the architectural design process: the moments of inspiration, ideas and creativity are ultimately unforeseeable, undetermined and therefore, at least to a large extent, random events. Even a classicist, deterministic approach to design is, in its attempt to give order to chaos, a response to the random configuration of the world. The world, its creation and the surrounding universe have been understood as a product of random events ever since the rise of quantum physics. However, while art of the 20th century embraced chance as one of its main driving forces, in architecture the element of chance was seen as too uncontrolled, too vague, too spontaneous. It was the architects working under the umbrella of deconstructivism who made these characteristics iconic, attempting as they did to maintain the quality of randomness throughout the building process. Nowadays, one suspects randomness in architecture above all when an overall structure is not immediately recognizable and discreet forces, sometimes those of a computer, are at work.
The difficulty of defining randomness is also seen in the multitude of original and derived terms used throughout this issue of archithese: contingence, convergence, serendipity, stochastics, aleatoricism, accident, randomness and hazard. This emphasises the richness of randomness and its importance in our lives, in shaping our future and in the development and advancement of architecture. Thus, randomness stands for the emergent forces in our world, for open-mindedness and for the ability to engage with the New.
Also in this issue: A special feature on Karl Moser (1860–1934) to go along with a -major retrospective of his work at the Kunsthaus Zürich (Karl Moser – Art and Architecture, 17.12.2010–27.02.2011). The articles on Moser were conceived in collab-oration with the Institute gta at ETH Zurich.
The current exhibition at the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel also examines the phenomenon of randomness in architecture: In Space and Marked by Time. Anna Viebrock – Stage Design as Architecture (04.12.2010–06.03.2011).
The Editors
04 Editorial
Architektur Aktuell
14 Philippe Schmit Architects, Villa Vauban – Musée d’Art de la Ville de Luxembourg | Hubertus Adam
20 Stefan Zwicky, Restaurant uniTurm, Zürich | Hubertus Adam
Zufall
26 Zufall. Eine Suche in Kunst, Leben und Architektur | Günther Feuerstein
32 Der kreative Zufall. Wie das Neue in die Welt kommt | Klaus Mainzer
38 Tokio, das so nicht existiert. Sou Fujimoto: Tokyo Apartment, 2010 | Hannes Mayer
40 „Random“ has Changed. Convergence to emergence: a changing aesthetic of randomness | Sean Hanna
44 Die Wahrnehmung des Zufalls. 27 Gedanken zum Thema Serendipity | Marcel Meili
50 Feinjustierter Zufall. Sou Fujimoto: Kinderzentrum für psychiatrische Rehabilitierung, Hokkaido 2006 | Hannes Mayer
52 Zufall als Entwurfsprinzip in der Architektur. Die Karriere des Aleatorischen | Christoph Allenspach
58 Offen zur Stadt. raumlaborberlin: raumlaborkorea APAP 2010 | Hannes Mayer
60 Form Follows Fame- The curse of the surge towards authenticity | Fenna Haakma Wagenaar
64 Wohn-DNA. weichlbauer / ortis, 2001 | Martin Zettel
66 Mit dem Zufall entwerfen. Für eine nicht-totalitäre Ästhetik | Christian Gänshirt
72 Fundstücke des Alltäglichen. Brutalism as found | Florian Dreher
78 Surplus Value_01. weichlbauer / ortis, 2008 | Martin Zettel
Rubriken
80 Essay: Karl Moser – veränderte Sichtweisen, Schaffenskraft, Gegenwärtigkeit – Schweizerisch | Werner Oechslin
83 Die Idee der Einheit. Karl Mosers schöpferische Integration der Künste | Sonja Hildebrand
88 Die Schweiz und der architektonische Expressionismus. Karl Moser nach 1918 | Hubertus Adam
94 Interview: Wege zur Architektur | J. Christoph Bürkle im Gespräch mit Gigon / Guyer
100 Knicke, Sterne, Dreiecke. Ramser Schmid Architekten | Juho Nyberg
106 Neues aus der Industrie
112 Jahresregister
119 Lieferbare Hefte
120 Vorschau und Impressum
Enric Ruiz Geli, Cloud 9
For those readers who studied the preview of archithese themes for 2010 with care, the fact that this issue sneaked in to replace the planned issue on emigration will not have gone unnoticed. Random unforeseeable circumstances called for a new theme – and in turn become the theme.
At first, primarily motivated by the increasingly common aesthetic pratice of creating seemingly random configurations as paradigmatically seen in Herzog & de Meuron’s VitraHaus, it quickly became evident that chance, randomness and serendipity describe fundamental concepts of the architectural design process: the moments of inspiration, ideas and creativity are ultimately unforeseeable, undetermined and therefore, at least to a large extent, random events. Even a classicist, deterministic approach to design is, in its attempt to give order to chaos, a response to the random configuration of the world. The world, its creation and the surrounding universe have been understood as a product of random events ever since the rise of quantum physics. However, while art of the 20th century embraced chance as one of its main driving forces, in architecture the element of chance was seen as too uncontrolled, too vague, too spontaneous. It was the architects working under the umbrella of deconstructivism who made these characteristics iconic, attempting as they did to maintain the quality of randomness throughout the building process. Nowadays, one suspects randomness in architecture above all when an overall structure is not immediately recognizable and discreet forces, sometimes those of a computer, are at work.
The difficulty of defining randomness is also seen in the multitude of original and derived terms used throughout this issue of archithese: contingence, convergence, serendipity, stochastics, aleatoricism, accident, randomness and hazard. This emphasises the richness of randomness and its importance in our lives, in shaping our future and in the development and advancement of architecture. Thus, randomness stands for the emergent forces in our world, for open-mindedness and for the ability to engage with the New.
Also in this issue: A special feature on Karl Moser (1860–1934) to go along with a -major retrospective of his work at the Kunsthaus Zürich (Karl Moser – Art and Architecture, 17.12.2010–27.02.2011). The articles on Moser were conceived in collab-oration with the Institute gta at ETH Zurich.
The current exhibition at the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel also examines the phenomenon of randomness in architecture: In Space and Marked by Time. Anna Viebrock – Stage Design as Architecture (04.12.2010–06.03.2011).
The Editors
04 Editorial
Architektur Aktuell
14 Philippe Schmit Architects, Villa Vauban – Musée d’Art de la Ville de Luxembourg | Hubertus Adam
20 Stefan Zwicky, Restaurant uniTurm, Zürich | Hubertus Adam
Zufall
26 Zufall. Eine Suche in Kunst, Leben und Architektur | Günther Feuerstein
32 Der kreative Zufall. Wie das Neue in die Welt kommt | Klaus Mainzer
38 Tokio, das so nicht existiert. Sou Fujimoto: Tokyo Apartment, 2010 | Hannes Mayer
40 „Random“ has Changed. Convergence to emergence: a changing aesthetic of randomness | Sean Hanna
44 Die Wahrnehmung des Zufalls. 27 Gedanken zum Thema Serendipity | Marcel Meili
50 Feinjustierter Zufall. Sou Fujimoto: Kinderzentrum für psychiatrische Rehabilitierung, Hokkaido 2006 | Hannes Mayer
52 Zufall als Entwurfsprinzip in der Architektur. Die Karriere des Aleatorischen | Christoph Allenspach
58 Offen zur Stadt. raumlaborberlin: raumlaborkorea APAP 2010 | Hannes Mayer
60 Form Follows Fame- The curse of the surge towards authenticity | Fenna Haakma Wagenaar
64 Wohn-DNA. weichlbauer / ortis, 2001 | Martin Zettel
66 Mit dem Zufall entwerfen. Für eine nicht-totalitäre Ästhetik | Christian Gänshirt
72 Fundstücke des Alltäglichen. Brutalism as found | Florian Dreher
78 Surplus Value_01. weichlbauer / ortis, 2008 | Martin Zettel
Rubriken
80 Essay: Karl Moser – veränderte Sichtweisen, Schaffenskraft, Gegenwärtigkeit – Schweizerisch | Werner Oechslin
83 Die Idee der Einheit. Karl Mosers schöpferische Integration der Künste | Sonja Hildebrand
88 Die Schweiz und der architektonische Expressionismus. Karl Moser nach 1918 | Hubertus Adam
94 Interview: Wege zur Architektur | J. Christoph Bürkle im Gespräch mit Gigon / Guyer
100 Knicke, Sterne, Dreiecke. Ramser Schmid Architekten | Juho Nyberg
106 Neues aus der Industrie
112 Jahresregister
119 Lieferbare Hefte
120 Vorschau und Impressum
Weiterführende Links:
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