Zeitschrift
A10
new European architecture #10
Cure or disease?
Up to what point is architecture a cure and when does it become a disease? This is a question that I, coming from a country that fairly bristles with „architecture“, have been pondering for some time now. But it is a question that is relevant not only to the Dutch context of over-design, but also, given the high density of architects and architecture on this continent, to the European one.
It is clearly a matter of architectural quality when a building or complex makes a meaningful contribution to the surroundings in which it finds itself, and not just at the aesthetic level, but also, for example, from a spatial or organizational point of view. If, in addition, a building or complex has a public function, it may also have a not inconsiderable social and civic significance. (Architecture’s capacity to improve what is already there is for many architects the fundamental tenet of their professional existence.)
Where there is nothing, the addition of a little bit of architecture can often have an enormous impact. Where there is already a lot of architecture, however, the law of diminishing returns irrevocably kicks in. Every subsequent new, high-quality structure, every subsequent intervention and new addition, makes progressively smaller contributions to the improvement of the built environment, notwithstanding the intrinsic architectural qualities of the individual projects concerned. In such locations, which have already been treated to a high dose of architecture, it is impossible to escape this phenomenon simply by doing one’s very best to come up with even better architecture, noble though that endeavour may be.
The day may well dawn when „more“ and „better“ no longer go hand in hand, and an environment ceases to benefit from architecture that aspires to be outstanding. A medicine that is administered too frequently and in too high a dosage is not only in danger of losing its efficacy, it may even turn into its opposite and become a poison. However attractive outstanding architecture is by definition, in the doses in which it is administered to some environments today it can only provoke resistance, boredom, even aversion, in me at least.
An architect cannot but make architecture, otherwise he or she should look for another profession. Yet, however unnatural it may seem, we are gradually reaching a point where a growing number of cities, villages and environments in Europe might be better off with architects who do not react automatically to every commission by wanting to add something „special“ to the built environment. (Hans Ibelings)
On the spot
News and observations
• Patrick Gmür and Jakob Steib's „sexy“ social housing in Zurich (CH)
• Architects and citizens in Sarajevo (BA) campaign for a new city square
• Artist Pipilotti Rist and architect Carlos Martinez lay out a blood-red urban carpet in the city of St. Gallen (CH)
• The project for a National Cathedral in Bucharest (RO) reveals an unfortunate continuity with the totalitarian interventions of the 1980s
• The debates surrounding the results of several invited competitions in Istanbul (TR) reveal the dynamics of the Turkish architectural community
• Update: Amsterdam's Eastern harbour area (NL)
• The new scheme for Ljubljana's Central Station area is of national importance, but is Slovenia's capital ready for a „project of the century“?
• and more...
Start
New projects
• With the design of a library in Kiev (UA), Zotov & Co strike the right balance between urbanism and nature
• 3XN's holiday resort in Çandarli (TR) comprises 900 villas and a hotel, spread over the slopes of a site overlooking the Aegean Sea.
• László Bérces of Mérték Studio has won an ambitious competition for the VUEK-Ház cultural centre in Budapest (HU)
• A beach promenade in Esbjerg (DK) will be Spektrum's first realized project
• Mueller Kneer Associates' design for a new church in east London (UK) is not merely a communal building but quite literally a communal work
• A governmenal office building in Hasselt (BE) by architects J. Mayer H., a2o and Lens-ass has ambitions to become the architectural icon of the Belgian provincial city
• Ingarden & Ewy Architects go for contrast with their winning design for the Malopolska Garden of the Arts in Cracow (PL)
Interview
Craftsmen
Emmett Scanlon sits down with Dublin-based architects Marcus Donaghy and Wil Dimond, two architects who seem genuinely more preoccupied with watching the world, than whether the world is watching them back
Ready
New buildings
• Two school extensions in Gentofte (DK) by CEBRA and Søren Robert Lund have turned old school buildings into „schoolscapes“
• In designing a private house in Epalinges (CH), nb.arch hovered on the borderline between simplicity and austerity
• A69 architects have made a strong statement in nondescript surroundings with their design of a private house in Frantiskovy Lazne (CZ)
• Gernot Hertl has created a generous allotment garden house in Steyr (AT) for his uncle Alfred
• Sporting transparency: Emmanuel Saadi's gymnasium in Paris (FR) is open to all
• Radu Teaca's private house in the suburbs of Bucharest (RO)
• Hotel Sotelia in Podcetrtek (SI) by Enota hovers between building and landscape
• Skater/architect Stefan Hauser has designed and built an undulating skatepark in the harbour of Malmö (SE)
• The human scale of Josep Llinàs irregularly faceted Jaume Fuster Library in Barcelona (ES) seems out of step with its urban context
• Poetry by numbers: Gianni Botsford's design for a private home in London (UK)
• Two non-identical twin high-rises by ARCHES bring change to Klaipeda (LT)
• The first major building by feld72 is located in Kaltern/Caldaro (IT), a town which offers an unusually high density of good architecture
• In their design of a church in Rome (IT), Sartogo architects fracture the traditional vision of the divine
Eurovision
Focusing on European countries, cities and regions
• The Centre for Central European Architecture (CCEA) and Wonderland are two organizations that are mindful of the new conditions confronting (young) architects in today's Europe. Two reports by insiders of both organizations
• On the occasion of the tenth issue of A10, many of A10's correspondents have contributed to a Europe-wide collection of projects that in some way or other mark a New Beginning
• Home: Olavi Koponen's spiralling seashell house in Espoo (FI)
Instant history
Buildings that already get their share of media attention
Sophie Roulet reports on Jean Nouvel’s latest building in Paris (FR), the Musée des Arts Premiers, which houses a collection of 300,000 objects from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania. The main building, a footbridge on pilotis with 10,000 m² exhibition space, and the enormous green facade next to the 1.8 ha garden, make this museum a spectacle and a curiosity in itself
Up to what point is architecture a cure and when does it become a disease? This is a question that I, coming from a country that fairly bristles with „architecture“, have been pondering for some time now. But it is a question that is relevant not only to the Dutch context of over-design, but also, given the high density of architects and architecture on this continent, to the European one.
It is clearly a matter of architectural quality when a building or complex makes a meaningful contribution to the surroundings in which it finds itself, and not just at the aesthetic level, but also, for example, from a spatial or organizational point of view. If, in addition, a building or complex has a public function, it may also have a not inconsiderable social and civic significance. (Architecture’s capacity to improve what is already there is for many architects the fundamental tenet of their professional existence.)
Where there is nothing, the addition of a little bit of architecture can often have an enormous impact. Where there is already a lot of architecture, however, the law of diminishing returns irrevocably kicks in. Every subsequent new, high-quality structure, every subsequent intervention and new addition, makes progressively smaller contributions to the improvement of the built environment, notwithstanding the intrinsic architectural qualities of the individual projects concerned. In such locations, which have already been treated to a high dose of architecture, it is impossible to escape this phenomenon simply by doing one’s very best to come up with even better architecture, noble though that endeavour may be.
The day may well dawn when „more“ and „better“ no longer go hand in hand, and an environment ceases to benefit from architecture that aspires to be outstanding. A medicine that is administered too frequently and in too high a dosage is not only in danger of losing its efficacy, it may even turn into its opposite and become a poison. However attractive outstanding architecture is by definition, in the doses in which it is administered to some environments today it can only provoke resistance, boredom, even aversion, in me at least.
An architect cannot but make architecture, otherwise he or she should look for another profession. Yet, however unnatural it may seem, we are gradually reaching a point where a growing number of cities, villages and environments in Europe might be better off with architects who do not react automatically to every commission by wanting to add something „special“ to the built environment. (Hans Ibelings)
On the spot
News and observations
• Patrick Gmür and Jakob Steib's „sexy“ social housing in Zurich (CH)
• Architects and citizens in Sarajevo (BA) campaign for a new city square
• Artist Pipilotti Rist and architect Carlos Martinez lay out a blood-red urban carpet in the city of St. Gallen (CH)
• The project for a National Cathedral in Bucharest (RO) reveals an unfortunate continuity with the totalitarian interventions of the 1980s
• The debates surrounding the results of several invited competitions in Istanbul (TR) reveal the dynamics of the Turkish architectural community
• Update: Amsterdam's Eastern harbour area (NL)
• The new scheme for Ljubljana's Central Station area is of national importance, but is Slovenia's capital ready for a „project of the century“?
• and more...
Start
New projects
• With the design of a library in Kiev (UA), Zotov & Co strike the right balance between urbanism and nature
• 3XN's holiday resort in Çandarli (TR) comprises 900 villas and a hotel, spread over the slopes of a site overlooking the Aegean Sea.
• László Bérces of Mérték Studio has won an ambitious competition for the VUEK-Ház cultural centre in Budapest (HU)
• A beach promenade in Esbjerg (DK) will be Spektrum's first realized project
• Mueller Kneer Associates' design for a new church in east London (UK) is not merely a communal building but quite literally a communal work
• A governmenal office building in Hasselt (BE) by architects J. Mayer H., a2o and Lens-ass has ambitions to become the architectural icon of the Belgian provincial city
• Ingarden & Ewy Architects go for contrast with their winning design for the Malopolska Garden of the Arts in Cracow (PL)
Interview
Craftsmen
Emmett Scanlon sits down with Dublin-based architects Marcus Donaghy and Wil Dimond, two architects who seem genuinely more preoccupied with watching the world, than whether the world is watching them back
Ready
New buildings
• Two school extensions in Gentofte (DK) by CEBRA and Søren Robert Lund have turned old school buildings into „schoolscapes“
• In designing a private house in Epalinges (CH), nb.arch hovered on the borderline between simplicity and austerity
• A69 architects have made a strong statement in nondescript surroundings with their design of a private house in Frantiskovy Lazne (CZ)
• Gernot Hertl has created a generous allotment garden house in Steyr (AT) for his uncle Alfred
• Sporting transparency: Emmanuel Saadi's gymnasium in Paris (FR) is open to all
• Radu Teaca's private house in the suburbs of Bucharest (RO)
• Hotel Sotelia in Podcetrtek (SI) by Enota hovers between building and landscape
• Skater/architect Stefan Hauser has designed and built an undulating skatepark in the harbour of Malmö (SE)
• The human scale of Josep Llinàs irregularly faceted Jaume Fuster Library in Barcelona (ES) seems out of step with its urban context
• Poetry by numbers: Gianni Botsford's design for a private home in London (UK)
• Two non-identical twin high-rises by ARCHES bring change to Klaipeda (LT)
• The first major building by feld72 is located in Kaltern/Caldaro (IT), a town which offers an unusually high density of good architecture
• In their design of a church in Rome (IT), Sartogo architects fracture the traditional vision of the divine
Eurovision
Focusing on European countries, cities and regions
• The Centre for Central European Architecture (CCEA) and Wonderland are two organizations that are mindful of the new conditions confronting (young) architects in today's Europe. Two reports by insiders of both organizations
• On the occasion of the tenth issue of A10, many of A10's correspondents have contributed to a Europe-wide collection of projects that in some way or other mark a New Beginning
• Home: Olavi Koponen's spiralling seashell house in Espoo (FI)
Instant history
Buildings that already get their share of media attention
Sophie Roulet reports on Jean Nouvel’s latest building in Paris (FR), the Musée des Arts Premiers, which houses a collection of 300,000 objects from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania. The main building, a footbridge on pilotis with 10,000 m² exhibition space, and the enormous green facade next to the 1.8 ha garden, make this museum a spectacle and a curiosity in itself
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