Editorial

When Rem Koolhaas published his epoch-making book „Delirious New York“ in 1978, he called it a „retroactive manifesto“. According to the author, most manifestos lack evidence to support their claims, whereas Manhattan, the object of his analysis, was „a mountain range of evidence“ which lacked a manifesto. Koolhaas supplied this manifesto; and today, we are aware that is was not only retroactive for a city district but rather had a visionary effect on global architectural production. But they do exist, manifestos on the delirium of new York - we have only to think of the descriptions witnessing the shock of the first encounters with the New World (which almost always took place in New York) and their literary or pictorial interpretations. One such example is Erich Mendelsohn's „America. Picture Book of an Architect“, whose publication in 1926 met with a tremendous response and which, with its suggestive visual language accompanied by direct, pithy texts certainly had the character of a manifesto. Mendelsohn was captivated by America, being both attracted and repulsed by the heights and depths of the American metropolis. Naturally, his fascination with the new, dynamic and unbridled predominated. Mendelsohn assimilated and integrated this new phenomenon. He gave it an architectural form, not the sober one of his contemporaries from „Neues Bauen“ but something far more imaginative that was free from dogmatic reservations towards the world of merchandise and consumption. Mendelsohn regarded the „corporate identity“ of the commercial buildings he designed as part of the architecture long before the term even existed. His commercial buildings are carefully developed with regard to their and public impact; light and lettering are an integral part, including the graphic image of the company and even the design of the site boarding and scaffolding, whose conspicuous design helped to restrict the fall in turnover caused by the building work. In this context, we can regard Mendelsohn's elegant trade buildings as ingenious, as it were implicit pre-forms of what is being built today in an explicit and cruder form, now that architecture has become a part of corporate identity rather than the other way round. Rem Koolhaas continues to provide the theoretical superstructure to the topical development - to whom, incidentally, Mendelsohn provided the dramaturgically conceived early form of the functional mix: his WoGa complex in Berlin, an ingenious combination of entertainment, shopping, culture and living accommodation. The links between the most recent developments and supposedly out-dated history are manifold. They show once again how well worthwhile historical research is. The Editors

Thema

Tanja Herdt
Mendelsohns Metropolis | Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin

Martin Tschanz
Für eine Gemeinschaft von jungen Persönlichkeiten | Mädcheninternat «Unterhaus » in Disentis von Gion Caminada

Ilka und Andreas Ruby
Bewohnbare Atmoshären |Zwei architektonische Interventionen, von 51N4E Space Producers

Ole W. Fischer
Über die Melancholie des Gegenständlichen| Renovation und Erweiterung des Landesmuseums Liechtenstein in Vaduz, von Brunhart Brunner Kranz

Martin Tschanz
Weiterbauen an einer Modellschule | Erweiterung und Adaptierung Bundesschulzentrum Wörgl im Tirol, von Peter Märkli und Gody Kühnis

Walter Zschokke
Reinheit der Farbe – Reinheit des Lebens | Mauthausen Besucherzentrum Gedenkstätte KZ Mauthausen in Oberösterreich, von MSP-H Architekten

Forum

Kolumne:Wolfgang Ullrich
Wettbewerb:Etnographiemuseum und ethnologisches Institut in Neuenburg
Texte original français
Bauten:Geschäftshaus Vadianstrasse, St.Gallen
Bauten:Zwei Schulen – zwei Umgebungen
EFH:Einfamilienhaus Carillone, von Buchner Bründler Architekten
Bücher: Die Campi Venedigs
Innenarchitektur – VSI..ASAI: Take-away menü 1
bauen +rechten
Architekturausstellungen | Veranstaltungen |Wettbewerbe
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werk-Material

Klein Bonaudi SARL:Ecole du cycle d ‘orientation du Gibloux, Farvagny FR
Frund Gallina Rey architectes SA:Collège des Alpes – construction d ‘un centre scolaire, Pully VD