Another Architecture N°64 October — November 2016

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To the
Point
Everything you
always wanted
to know about
architecture

WHO WHY WHEN WHERE WHAT

killed architectural do urbanites live in did architects start do all the graduate is an anarchist
photography? tiny prefab boxes? to adore banali? architects vanish to? house?
CONSISTENT
Interior concepts obtain a
stringent design statement.
Realisable in the colours
of Le Corbusier and in white.
REDUCED
With LS ZERO the design
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JUNG.DE
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9.- 10.November
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3. Edition - 11:00-20:00

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Make Your Mark
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 Mark 64 October — November 2016 005

Plan 044

012 Notice Board

020 Cross Section

022 Andra Matin Jakarta

024 Dice
026 Terreneuve Aubusson
028 Sean Hargreaves
030 OMA Quebec
032 Jamie xx
034 Woods Bagot Melbourne
036 Next Beijing
038 Infographic
040 Code Gaularell Mountains
042 Radko Květ Pavlov
044 Vazio Belo Horizonte Vazio
House in Belo Horizonte
046 Dorell Ghotmeh Tane Tartu Photo Gabriel Castro

048 WMR Pichilemu

050 Gregory Barre
058

052 Pers ective

Modular Housing

054 Introduction
058 nArchitects
Stacking welded modular
housing units like Lego bricks.
064 Shedkm
Prefabrication that allows nArchitects
Housing in New York
for customization. Photo Iwan Baan

070 Finch Buildings

Developing a modular, eco-friendly
strategy for the housing market.
006 Mark 64 October — November 2016

084 Lon Section

076 Peter Grundmann engages in long 112

relationships with his clients.
090 Gens wants to let the architect’s
signature disappear.
102 Is there still room for architectural
photographers in a world of digital
cameras and online publications?
112 Z4Z4 Architects astonishes with a house
that contains countless quotations.
120 BIG’s first New York apartment building
is a formal experiment with plainly
appointed units.
128 Spaceworkers’ latest two projects share
one feature: they guide their users by
Z4Z4 Architects
organizing space in clever ways. House in Madrid
Photo Photo ImagenSubliminal (Miguel de Guzmán / Rocío Romero)
142 Patrick Seguin restores and sells
demountable homes designed by
Jean Prouvé.
146 Like many museums, SFMOMA and
Tate Modern just keep growing. But the 120
art and the visitors are more important
than appearances.
156 Henri Borduin's newest house was
made with a lot of patience and personal
carpentry.
164 Ensamble Studio created three concrete
structures for the newly opened Tippet
Rise Art Center in Montana.
172 Roberto Cremascoli talks about
curiosi, storytelling, and the hysteria
surrounding exhibition catalogues.

176 Tools

BIG
192 Exit Housing in New York
Photo Iwan Baan
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008 Mark 64 October — November 2016

Mark is published Cover photography

6 times a year by Sergio Pirrone

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 012
Mark 64

Notice
Board
 Notice Board 013

‘Once a ain,
Montrealers
will be iven
access to Provencher Roy on
the Iberville Maritime
Terminal and Alexandra
Pier project, page 015

their
beloved river’
014 Mark 64 Notice Board

Rendering by Zwartlicht

3
 015

1 e Smile
London – UK
Alison Brooks Architects and Arup
— A cross-laminated tulipwood
structure for the American
Hardwood Export Council, to
be exhibited during the London
Design Festival
Expected completion October 2016
alisonbrooksarchitects.com
arup.com

2 Haut
Amsterdam – Netherlands
Team V Architectuur and Arup
— 73-m-tall, 21-storey, timber-
structure residential tower with
55 apartments, an urban winter
4 garden and an underground cycle
and car park
Expected completion 2019
teamv.nl
arup.com

3 Parc Relais Cesson-Viasilva

Rennes – France
— Ateliers O-S Architectes
(Vincent Baur, Guillaume Le
Nouëne and Gaël Colboc)
Bus station and parking garage
for 800 cars
Competition entry, 1st prize
o-s.fr

4 Crown Sydney Hotel Resort

Sydney – Australia
WilkinsonEyre
— A 75,000-m2 scheme that
includes a six-star hotel,
restaurant, retail, casino, resort
facilities and luxury apartments in
5 a podium clad with a veil of white
marble and a glazed sculptural
6
tower rising to 275 m
Expected completion 2020/2021
wilkinsoneyre.com

5 Iberville Maritime Terminal

and Alexandra Pier
Montréal – Canada
Provencher Roy
— Redesign of the maritime
terminal and pier, including a
new tower with viewing platform
Expected completion 2017
provencherroy.ca

6 Open Gate
Suncheon – South Korea
Ma eo Cainer Architects
— Art platform with an art centre,
a visitor centre and the new
Yeonja-ru ci gate
Competition entry
maeocainer.com
016 Mark 64 Notice Board

Rendering by Tomorrow AB

Renderings by Sursur
1
3

1 Ci Blocks
Kista – Sweden
Dreem Arkitekter
— ree integrated ci blocks,
65,000 m2 in total, combining
residential, commercial and
public spaces for real estate
company Klövern
Invited competition entry, 1st prize
(ex aequo)

2 Latvian Museum of
Contemporary Art
Riga – Latvia
wHY and OUTOFBOX
Architecture
— A €30-million contemporary
art museum to be located in the
New Hanza Ci
Competition entry, finalist
why-site.com

3 Multinctional Centre
Brno – Czech Republic
PLUKK
— 3300-m2 communi centre,
including the existing town hall
of Kohoutovice, a suburb of Brno
Design proposal
plukk.cz
EuroShop
All Dimensions
ns
of Success
018 Mark 64 Notice Board

1 Youth Village + Farm Lab

Milan – Italy
DDS & Partners, MOA architects,
Jijakli Haissam and Klaus Ralph
— 12,000-m2 building with student
housing, urban farming, culture
and sports activities, local market
and retail
Competition entry, 1st prize
dds-partners.eu

2 West Half
Washington, DC – USA
ODA New York
— 11-storey mixed-use building
with residential units and two
floors of retail
Expected completion July 2018
oda-architecture.com

3 Tel Aviv Universi Centre for

Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Tel Aviv – Israel
wHY
— A 4,000-m² research and
education building, featuring 12
laboratories and facilities for up
2
to 120 engineers and researchers
Competition entry, finalist
why-site.com
3
 020
Mark 64

Cross
Section
 Cross Section 021

‘Am I
destined
to be
an armchair
architect?’
Gregory Barre, speculating
on his ture, page 050
022 Mark 64 Cross Section

Embrace the Trees +2

Andra Matin’s latest house in
Jakarta connects with nature.

Text Danny Wicaksono

Photos Davy Linar

When this project arrived at the

+1
office of Andra Matin, it was
accompanied by more than a
request for a specific number
of rooms and special features
intended to satis the client’s
lifesle. It also came with
several tall palm trees that doed
the building site. e owner,
who wanted a house ‘on the
ground’ aer years of living in
an apartment building, insisted
0
on keeping all the trees. e
architect’s response was to seek
out and fill the spaces between
trees, respecting the limitations
that their preservation entailed.
e distribution of trees
is responsible for the fragmented,
narrow form of the house, which
is composed of four elevated
Long Section
volumes. By raising the house
on columns, Andra Matin freed
the area beneath the main floor,
creating spacious zones around
the swimming pool and dining
patio – and among the palms –
for gatherings with family and
friends. All volumes have two
levels, and most of them are One tall palm tree is incorporated into the living room.
limited to a single programme.
ey are connected via an outdoor
circulation system that includes
an extensive ramp and a small
flight of stairs, which lends access
to the upper floors. Wooden decks
and corridors on the first floor
not only connect all volumes but
also provide seating areas for
enjoying nature.
e circulation system
adds to the feel of living with
nature. Moving through the house,
occupants experience a constant
flow of entering and exiting
nature as they go. It’s clear that
the house wasn’t designed to
shut out the natural world or to
constantly protect those inside
from Jakarta’s tropical climate.
e design allows its users to
live with nature, yet offers
places where they can escape
from the external environment.
andramatin.com
Andra Matin Jakarta — Indonesia 023
024 Mark 64 Cross Section

Ci of Mirrors
A communi of offGrid runners
fights corporate oppression in
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst.

Concept art for Mirror’s Edge Catalyst.

Text Oliver Zeller

Images Electronic Arts / Dice

In 2008 Mirror’s Edge let gamers Eight years later, Swedish cultured, with an emphasis on Edge architecture. Sla ed curtain
parkour first-person across developer Dice has released its personal space’. Anchor is ‘affluent walls rotate open as you dash by
the rooops in a virtual ci successor, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. and more vertical, with exclusive in close proximi, while coloured
of minimalist splendor – a e abstract metropolis of the shops and nightclubs’. S Ci, pipes that continually stretch into
near-ture utopic dystopia of original game – art directed by a self-sustaining ‘haven for the the distance and disappear around
modernist architecture combined Johannes Söderqvist – has given elite’ – situated on its own Burj Al corners draw you forwards.
with the artistic influences of Piet way to the ci of Glass, designed Arab-like man-made island just Ultimately, the ci is
Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich. by a team including architect offshore – incorporates a massive a tenuous façade, its virtual
Clean white buildings boasting and concept designer Nick Leavy integral turbine and enclosed s architecture a nonlinear, vertigo-
glazed façades and bold primary and lead level designer Sco gardens comparable to Gensler’s inducing obstacle course intended
colours, lit by a revolutionary real- Carpenter, who also holds a degree Shanghai Tower. to incite the player to find ever-
time global illumination system, in architecture. e angular forms Players arrive in the heart improving means of circulation.
produced the medium’s most and hypnotic sheen of Mirror’s of the ci, the Zephyr Transit Hub, Even network hubs and server
radical and stunning depiction Edge have evolved into a more home to an offGrid communi farms – so-called gridNodes –
of architecture. sophisticated manipulation of of runners fighting corporate become vertical architecture to
Its landmark, the Shard, light, space and materiali. oppression and hiding within be traversed and overcome.
an angular glazed sscraper and is ci eschews its its elegant infrastructure. e Catalyst’s real beau
hub of draconian surveillance, predecessor’s abstraction for Hub’s dynamic form, angular and lies in its transformation of
appeared like a mirror in the s a more formalized plan with elongated, recalls Zaha Hadid’s the inherently constraining
and, coincidentally, preceded distinctive caste-based districts. BMW Central Building or Studio qualities of architecture into
Renzo Piano’s London Shard. DownTown, ‘the old ci center’, is Libeskind’s Denver Art Museum a liberating metaphoric and
To this day, Mirror’s Edge ‘hip, cool and loud’. e waterside extension. It’s indicative of the physical experience.
remains timeless. View is ‘calm, inviting and momentum common in Mirror’s
Dornbracht
Culturing Life
Design Icons

dornbracht.com/designicons
026 Mark 64 Cross Section

Changing Its Stripes

Text Anna Sansom

Photos Daniel Rousselot

Terreneuve With its fabric façade of brightly

coloured vertical stripes,
renovation project involved
excavation that resulted in a new
in Limousin – the striped fabric
skin incorporates a solar filter that
clads a 1960s Terreneuve’s design for the Cité basement level and increased protects the tapestries inside the
Internationale de la Tapisserie in the size of the building. Of the building. e fabric’s pale-grey
building in a Aubusson references the town’s 5,000-m2 floor area now available, inner surface shields the interior
1,600 m2 is occupied by exhibition
coat of many tapestry-making tradition.
Aubusson is on UNESCO’s space and 600 m2 by a nave. Other
from the sun.
‘e building is a real
colours. Intangible Cultural Heritage list
in recognition of its artisanal
facilities include a documentation
hub, a space for contemporary
success,’ says Emmanuel Gérard,
director of the Cité Internationale
legacy, although the industry is creations and classrooms for de la Tapisserie. He says that the
now in decline: the central French training weavers. people of Aubusson, who used
town currently has fewer than e aim was to give a to hate it, seem quite pleased
150 people working in tapestry- ‘new visibili ’ to Aubusson’s with the metamorphosis. ‘Now,
making, compared with 2,000 a heritage, says Nelly Breton of it represents their ture.’ One
century ago, and unemployment is Paris-based Terreneuve. ‘All the sticking point is the car park
high. As a centre for exhibitions, ingredients were there to do directly in front of the centre and
conservation and know-how, something directly related to the next to a school. Curator Bruno
the Cité, which opened in July, image of tapestry,’ she continues, Ythier and Terreneuve hope to
is intended to reinvigorate adding that the designers had a have the car park relocated, a move
Aubusson, as well as the industry. ‘moral obligation’ to insulate the that will transform both the site
e centre occupies façade, originally constructed and its surroundings.
the former National School of with the use of asbestos. Within terreneuve.fr
Decorative Art, which was built its sla ed ‘cage’ of timber – made
in the late 1960s. e €8.5 million from Douglas firs grown locally,
 Terreneuve Aubusson — France 027

e building before renovation.

Photo Terreneuve
028 Mark 64 Cross Section

Yorktown exterior concept by Sean Hargreaves.

Beyond
the Horizon
Sean Hargreaves designed
the architectural star of
Star Trek Beyond. Starbase Yorktown, seen from space.

Text Oliver Zeller

Images Paramount Pictures

Star Trek Beyond ventures to the Canada, copper-hued architecture and from Deep Space Nine, a 1990s which are situated atop opposing
edge of Federation space, where is juxtaposed against the stark TV series whose eponymous structs and form intersecting
Captain Kirk and the crew of the grey and painted blues of the station features arched pincer-like horizons. e fantastical worlds of
Starship Enterprise enjoy liber strip-mined quarry. Unique docking arms. Upside Down, Inception and M.C.
on the new Starbase Yorktown. A structures jut from the earth. As VFX supervisor Peter Escher are here transformed into
rescue mission recalls the crew, Swarms of drones cling to flora- Chiang of Double Negative a convincingly astonishing feat of
who then find themselves waylaid like spires above ribbed buildings explains to HD Video Pro, ‘e engineering. A reali that cleverly
by an overwhelming swarm of that look like turistic yurts and base is constructed as a series of capitalizes on the Federation’s
drones under the command of hives. e overall aesthetic borders angled structures, set on these mastery over localized artificial
Krall. Forced to abandon ship, they on that of steampunk, yet its tones sea-urchin-like arms within a gravi while ‘maximizing the
crash-land on a mysterious and and seamless integration into the 16-mile-diameter sphere.’ A dense inner volume’ of the starbase.
hostile planet. landscape remind us of Renzo Buckminsterllerene force- Combined with its
In the third iteration Piano’s Tjibaou Cultural Centre. field structure surrounds the distinctively gyroscopic design
of the Star Trek feature-film e architectural star, starbase, providing the facili and multitude of artificial
reboot, director J.J. Abrams however, is Starbase Yorktown, with an earthlike atmosphere horizons, Starbase Yorktown
and production designer Sco designed by VFX art director that ‘is opaque during the day demonstrates an underlying
Chambliss cede their chairs to and senior concept designer Sean but becomes more transparent at principle in architect Neil Denari’s
director Justin Lin and production Hargreaves. It’s a unique departure night, leing the inhabitants see monograph, Gyroscopic Horizons,
designer omas E. Sanders from historical notions of space the stars outside’. in which ‘the physical earth as
(Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypto), stations made popular in the 1960s At times the chaotic datum or locus of experience’ is
who boldly explore new territory. and ’70s, yet the design remains design bears resemblance to a eliminated. It’s a reminder of how
In Krall’s efficiently consistent to Star Trek canon, manifold, an illusion manifested the synthesis of imagination and
devised colony, filmed at Pi with inspiration culled from Star by Justin Lin’s swooping camera technology drives architecture to
River Quarry in British Columbia, Trek’s (2009) spherical space dock amid s scrapers filmed in Dubai, the horizon and beyond.
 Presented at Centro Niemeyer in
northern Spain, the installation Los

Out Now Territorios Soñados by visual artist

Carlos Coronas is published in Frame 112.

The hospitality issue

Tailor-made hotel
concepts
for millennials

store.frameweb.com

Photo Marcos Morilla

030 Mark 64 Cross Section

Art OMA’s new museum

building in Quebec ties
Cascade together ci and park.

Text Laurence Ouimet-Vives

Photos Bruce Damonte

On the banks of the Saint Province asked for a building that the ci. On one side, visitors galleries and onto the terraces.
Lawrence River, in the ci of would respect the neighbouring are drawn into the building; on A stairway projecting from the
Quebec, the Musée national des Saint-Dominique Church, while the other, the roofs of the new façade gives them the impression
beaux-arts du Québec has been merging the presence of the volumes ‘continue the topography of walking outside while still being
extended with a new building Balefields Park (in which the of the park’, says OMA partner in the museum proper. e use of a
designed by OMA’s New York museum’s three existing pavilions Shohei Shigematsu. hybrid steel truss system allows for
office in collaboration with local are situated) with that of the ci. OMA’s interiors are a spacious interior, unobstructed
firm Provencher Roy. e imposing OMA’s proposal was for a building orientated towards the park. by columns. Mezzanines produce
glass structure is devoted to comprising three volumes stacked Slights and other openings numerous sightlines between
contemporary art, temporary one atop the other in a staered connect indoor spaces with different parts of the building.
exhibitions and Inuit art. e brief configuration, thus creating a outdoor surroundings. Circulation e extension, which
for OMA’s first project in la Belle cascade that links the park and flow directs visitors through the is called the Pierre Lassonde
 OMA Quebec — QC — Canada 031

In the park, behind OMA’s Pierre Lassonde

Pavilion, are the other three pavilions that belong
Long Section
to Quebec’s National Museum of Fine Arts.

Pavilion, increases the museum’s

exhibition area by 90 per cent. It
is connected by an underground
corridor to the museum’s Central
Pavilion in the park. is
130-m-long passageway houses a
monumental painting by Quebec’s
famous artist, Jean-Paul Riopelle,
who completed L’Hommage à Rosa
Luxemburg in 1992.
Jean-Paul Riopelle’s 40-m-long L’Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg is
oma.eu featured in the underground passageway that connects OMA’s
building to the rest of the museum complex.
032 Mark 64 Cross Section

Faking It
Text Sofia Borges
Images Apple Music

Industrialized China has become shots of the ci – an improbable

king of the knockoff. e Asian confluence of traditional European
superpower excels in everything ideals, incomplete cut-and-
Jamie xx’s music video, Gosh, from designer sunglasses to paste high-rises, parkland and

takes us on a jarring journey designer cities. e nation’s

masterl sleight of hand produced
dilapidated surroundings – create
an apt se ing for the song’s
through the dystopian ci of its most disconcerting result
in 2007, with the unveiling of
looping ‘oh my gosh’ refrain.
Filmed without the
Tianducheng, China’s ‘Lile Paris’. the ci of Tianducheng, China’s
simulacrum of Paris, currently
help of CGI, the video shows an
albino soothsayer and his equally
awaiting rther construction. arresting entourage navigating
Designed for a population the ci, aided by hundreds
of 10,000 on the outskirts of of identically sled disciples.
Hangzhou, the eerie reproduction A er occupying every terrace
remains largely abandoned less in an assortment of nondescript
than a decade later. Filmmaker s scrapers, the congregation
Romain Gavras chose the surreal streams down two grand
ghost town as the startling staircases flanked by cupolas and
backdrop for a music video of descending to a stately fountain
Jamie xx’s ‘Gosh’, a track from featuring sculptures of noble
the album In Colour. Transfixing steeds and mythical figures. e
name of this park, shown in red
Chinese characters, marks a tense
moment between East and West.
e swarm spills into a haunting
replica of Boulevard Haussmann
that culminates in a 1:3 scale
version of the Eiffel Tower. As the
leader and his followers regroup
at the foot of the tower for a final
synchronized reverie, the camera
zooms out to reveal the boundaries
of a carbon copy that may never
reach conclusion.
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034 Mark 64 Cross Section

Fluid Learning
Woods Bagot provides a girls’
school with a new heart.

Ground-floor breakout space.

Text Penny Craswell

Photos UA Creative

e fluid architectural form of the e overhang created by the

new Margaret McRae Centre at cantilevering floor above offers
Ruyton Girls’ School in Melbourne protection from the elements.
is synchronous with a progressive ‘We wanted to give
approach to education that puts something back,’ says Bruno
students at the centre of learning, Mendes, a principal of Woods
firmly rejecting the traditional Bagot, who explains that one
one-way teacher-to-student objective was ‘a central courard
pedagogy of the past. Replacing that would continue to be the
an existing building, the new social hub, with an external
Woods Bagot-designed structure theatre for multi-use activi’.
at the heart of the school campus Large floor plates and
shows the architects’ carel
consideration for both external
flexible rniture, used in
conjunction with the latest
- 1
and internal spaces. technology, promote task-
e building’s central orientated education with a
core, with its glazed façade, is focus on nurturing collaboration,
flanked by two wings, one on creativi and critical thinking.
either side. One wing features ‘e design is reconfigurable,’ says
a curved timber-clad exterior Woods Bagot principal Sarah Ball.
that cuts into the body of the ‘It supports the move towards
volume, reducing its footprint learning in the digital age and, in
at ground level but providing a the process, empowering students
multipurpose space that can be by giving them both formal and
used for student gatherings and as informal learning environments.’
a stage for outdoor performances. woodsbagot.com
 Woods Bagot Melbourne — Australia 035

0 +1 +2
036 Mark 64 Cross Section

Wallflower
Next Architects provided the Cross Section
Beijing Rose Museum with a
gigantic perforated steel façade.

Text Harry den Hartog

Photos Xiao Kaixiong

e Beijing Rose Museum was than 2,000 varieties of roses construction area in prefabricated and implies transparency and
specially built for the 2016 were to bloom. parts and welded and polished on accessibili simultaneously.
International Rose Exhibition, e lack of grip on the the spot. e building, 25 km south
which opened in May. Next programming and design of the ‘e perforated façade, of the Forbidden Ci, is now
Architects was given the interior made John van de Water which refers to the art of closed to the public; the flower
commission aer winning an and his Chinese partner Jiang papercu ing, seems decorative exhibition only lasted a few weeks.
invitational competition. Neither Xiaofei approach the museum and very Chinese, but is also But there is hope that the complex
the brief nor the budget were as a ‘closed box’ with a façade nctional and Western,’ says Van will be given a new nction
known, only a guideline for the draped around (and over) it. e de Water. is Western element due to developments in the area,
required floor space. Moreover, 40-cm-thick, 300-m-long, and, lies mostly in the zone between including the construction of a
there was no master plan for the on average, 17-m-high stainless the box and the façade, which can new airport.
100-hectare garden in which more steel façade was brought to the be used for different purposes nextarchitects.com
Next Architects Beijing — China 037
038 Mark 64 Cross Section

Slaughter Poultry | 1,500 m2 slaughter hall | 3,000 heads/hour

stainless steel
shackle
guide rails scalding loosens
feathers for

House can cause bruising

to feet and legs
jugular vein
and carotid
artery severed

circular knife
removal

water bath
Text and graphics eo Deutinger
and Liam Cooke

Americans guzzle an amazing that’s unlikely to happen in the

1.3 billion chicken wings – no, foreseeable ture. What we can
not annually, but on a single do is to make the process less max. 52°C
day in midwinter: Super Bowl brutal and stress l. e design 1 min. 125V 2 min. 32 sec. 2 min.
Sunday. So it should come as and layout of many of today’s
no surprise that satising slaughterhouses demonstrate
shackling water-bath stunning killing bleeding electrical scalding
the enormous appetite for the humane principles of a stimulation
meat means that worldwide highly respected professor
6,000,000 chickens are of animal science, Temple
slaughtered every hour, not Grandin. She designed curved
to mention millions of cows, chutes with high walls that
pigs and sheep. What’s more, prevent animals from seeing
the demand for meat their immediate surroundings Pig | 1,500 m2 slaughter hall | 250 heads/hour
continues to rise. or catching a glimpse of what electro-narcosis stainless steel main arteries
Livestock epidemics awaits them at the end of (alternative to gassing) shackle to severed
hind leg
(classical swine fever and their walk. A curved passage
avian flu) in the 1990s led is consistent with an animal’s brain

natural tendency to circle and captive bolt pistol

to regulations that made (alternative to stunning) blade of 12
it virtually impossible for return to the place it came cm or longer
average European butchers to from. is design component,
slaughter beasts themselves. along with others – solid sides,
ey are le with few solid crowd gate and reduced flag
alternatives to the large-scale noise at the end point – work
aba oirs – ‘killing factories’ together to encourage animals 60x80 cm

270
board
– with slaughtering lines to move forward.
capable of churning out per Admi edly, the final
90

hour the carcasses of 100 cows, result of a slaughtering line is

180 sec. 6 min.
200 pigs, 300 sheep or about invariably the same: a piece of
12,000 chickens. clingfilm-wrapped meat on a CO2
handling shackling bleeding showering
As cruel as it may polys rene tray. As Grandin gassing
sound, the situation is not has shown, however, a well- >70% CO2
going to change until our designed aba oir can give an
eating habits change – and animal’s death more digni .

| 1,500 m2 slaughter hall | 30 heads/hour

emergency condemned by-product offal hind feet removed joint severed with
WC office inspectors’ physically at tarsal joint hydraulic cuer
slaughter material storage room room destroyed
final position
product of captive
cold store dispatch

bolt pistol
stunning deboning/ hide peeled
packing away from leg
stick, flag or high-voltage
prod for moving and sorting cale
slaughter hall
lairage 270
freezing

livestock
external chilling
killing evisceration
450

receiving
treatment
area
footbath

staff block effluent

live animals treatment
arrive

slaughterhouse floor plan area depicted in visual 6 min.

stunning bleeding transfer re-dehiding

Sources:
hsa.org.uk / butina.eu / grandin.com
fao.org / use-poultry-tech.com / gov.uk
slaughterhousequipments.com
 Infographic 039

neck dislocated manual wings, legs and

prior to evisceration breast cut
head pulling scoop manually
rubber
plucking circular knife final product
n
fingers v-shaped plate cke
chi
pulls head deboning cone
downwards viscera

washable tiled air temperature 10-12°C

surfaces throughout

40 min.

0-4°C

smooth easy-to-clean floor (polyurethane resin or ceramic tile)

efeathering head visceration showering feet re-chilling deboning packaging
pulling removal

scalding with suspended from brisket opening

water spray hind legs on scraping/polishing to
or steam gambrel remove remaining hair

final product
k
incision gas flame care taken not por
scalding loosens made behind gambrel to puncture viscera
hair at follicle main tendon

chill for 12-16 hours to 6°C

air temperature 10-12°C
225

62°C
horizontal deboning
30 sec. 1,000°C
6 min. 5-10 sec.
smooth easy-to-clean floor (polyurethane resin or ceramic tile)
scalding dehairing suspensio finishin utchering packaging

neck muscles care taken not to sinks and sterilizers carcass is quartered final product
severed manually puncture viscera with >82°C water while hanging
required throughout

f
breastbone severed bee
head removed at electric
with electric saw saw
atlanto-occipital joint carried out on table

air temperature 10-12°C

chill for 28-36 hours to 6°C

hydraulic/
pneumatic
working
platform
350

>60

130 100

smooth easy-to-clean floor (polyurethane resin or ceramic tile)

front foot dehiding head breast bone visceration showerin ackaging
removal removal
040 Mark 64 Cross Section
Code Gaularell Mountains — Norway 041

Flying
Carpet
Code created a massive
concrete viewing
platform on the west
coast of Norway.

Text Marianne Lie Berg

Photos Jiri Havran

Norway’s National Tourist Routes To determine the ideal position

began as a test project in 1994. for their design, the architects
By 2024, Norway will have 240 travelled to the site with a hoist
new architectural constructions and surveying equipment. For
along 18 designated routes, which two days they were lied into the
crisscross scenic areas throughout air, directly over the 700-m-high
the countryside. mountain glen, to photograph and
When Norwegian analyse the various perspectives
architecture firm Code entered from which visitors could
a design competition for a overlook the environment. Once
structure meant to occupy a back in the studio, they developed
site at Gaularell in Sogn og their plan, which includes solar
Fjordane, which is surrounded by panels for energy.
1,500-m-high mountains, the team Two engineers were
realized that the platform would involved in what ended up as a
not only be seen and used, but 600-m3 triangle composed of 150
would also need to be a tangible tonnes of reinforced concrete.
part of the ru ed backdrop. To prepare for the challenge of
Featured in Code’s proposal was erecting the real cast-concrete
a thick concrete ‘carpet’ resting structure, the team had gigantic
calmly on the site, with ‘carpet models of the design built at a
ears’ curling up at three edges, different location. Today, visitors
each one offering visitors can drive safely all the way up to
a different spot for taking in and down from a platform that
the grandeur of nature. is invites them to enjoy views of
floor was presented as a plain Norway’s snowcapped Gaularell
construction, imbued with Mountains in all directions.
sereni and simplici . code.no
042 Mark 64 Cross Section

Emerging
History

Radko Květ imbedded a

museum of Palaeolithic
selements in the southern
Moravian ground. e building provides 500 m2 of exhibition space, combining contemporary
audio-visual technology with traditional museum displays.
Radko Květ Pavlov — Czech Republic 043

Cross Section

Plan

Text Adam Štěch

Photos Gabriel Dvořák

anks to a complex of prehistoric burial ground – is floor. Differences in ceiling

selements from the Palaeolithic imbedded in the earth, like the heights create the idea of a
era, the area of Lower Věstonice life of the Palaeolithic people that subterranean landscape. From
and Pavlov in southern it showcases. Local architects the main hall visitors can enter
Moravia in the Czech Republic Radko Květ and Pavel Pijáček smaller, o en deliberately
is one of the most interesting envisioned their project as a claustrophobic spaces that
archaeological sites in Europe. semi-buried space with several resemble caves, where exquisite
Many of these artefacts, concrete volumes, sharply-shaped archaeological finds are exhibited.
including the famous Venus of s lights and openings that An interactive digital
Dolní Věstonice, discovered in penetrate the ground, appearing exposition and animations
1925, can now be appreciated in in the landscape as a prehistoric by Brno-based graphic studio
the recently opened Archeopark architecture of dolmens Pixl-e are complemented with
in Pavlov. and menhirs. wall murals by Czech illustrator
e architecture of the Inside, this modern Michal Bačák and a relief by artist
new museum – its exhibits museum groo gives the Petr Písařík.
include many significant impression of a monolithic kvetarch.cz
archaeological findings and a concrete space with a wooden
044 Mark 64 Cross Section

A large amount of columns holds up the water basin on the roof.

is photo shows the house in its finished state, albeit without the
louvres.

+1 +2

0 Long Section
 Vazio Belo Horizonte — Brasil 045

Shuers with louvers of eucalyptus

wood shade the interior.

Cool under the Pool

Vazio uses a rooop water basin as a passive
cooling system for the rooms under it.

Text John Bezold

Photos Gabriel Castro

Misleadingly interlocked, instead an exemplar of local e interior is centred on the atop water. ‘New plywood panels
ostensibly cantilevered and crasmanship. Carlos Teixeira of core communal spaces of living rendered smooth concrete surfaces;
sumptuously textured; Cerrado the architecture firm Vazio chose room and kitchen, surrounded old, used ones were reemployed,
House is the 320-m2 weekend to leave the house’s hand-made by terraces, the largest of which irrespective of their shape and
and holiday oasis of a journalist methods of creation unabashedly extends toward the west and is condition,’ Teixeira explains. ‘e
couple, on Belo Horizonte’s outer evident. Poured-in-place concrete exposed to the exterior, below house’s workforce, including
edge – only 10 km from the small composes the structure; elongated the shallow end of the roof-top bricklayers and a carpenter, is
village of Moeda – in the Brazilian floor-to-ceiling mullions define pool – which, explains Teixeira, from a nearby village, and is quite
state Minas Gerais. e house is the glazing, in concrete’s absence; ‘also works as a passive cooling rough, compared to that of Belo
surrounded by vistas towards the louvers of eucalyptus wood, system for the interior rooms Horizonte. And so some errors and
Cerrado, a tropical savanna defined sourced from nearby plantations, right under it’. e floors of the contingencies of the materials were
by its sparse, rolling and humid shade the façades. Just under 400 interior are finished in the same accepted.’ e amateur-in sed
landscape. e isolated location new, native Vochysia thyrsoidea concrete, though treated with an building process unpredictably
ensures a night-time welkin trees dot the house’s 3-ha plot amber in sed colorant. Perhaps enriched, and refined, its result.
illuminated by only the moon while three logs of Schinopsis the most tactile aspects of the vazio.com.br
and stars. brasiliensis are stacked to create house are its concrete walls and
What initially appears to the kitchen table. Local crasman ceilings – its exposed structure.
be an abandoned bunker, hunched João do Ponto created the interior’s Planes of concrete appear
down in a desolate seing, is woven-leather benches. ‘wrinkled’, as ripples undulating
046 Mark 64 Cross Section

Historical Landing
Photo Arp Karm

Challenging the site

given in the competition
brief, DGT submied a
design for the Estonian
National Museum that
specified the nearby
grounds of a former
Soviet military base.

Text Juliee Soulez

Photos Takuji Shimmura

e new Estonian National 6,400 m2 of public space and enable visitors to start their tour
Museum opens its doors on 1 6,300 m2 of exhibition space. Its from galleries displaying the
October, more than a decade aer concrete roof features a gradual permanent collection or from
French firm Dorell Ghotmeh Tane incline, rising 3 m from the former the section that hosts temporary
Architects won an international runway at one end and reaching exhibitions. Exploiting the
competition for its design in 2005. a height of 14 m at the other. horizontali of the building to
e building sits on a former e building has an impressive its llest, the architects situated
landing strip that is part of Raadi, a 40-m-long, gravi -de ing offices and an auditorium on the
large military base on the outskirts cantilever. Beneath the cantilever, mezzanine level. Storage space is
of Tartu that is being converted on the west side of the building, a in the basement. Interestingly, the
into a theme park by Estonian monumental entrance conveys a museum bridges a small lake that
landscaper Kino Ou and Belgian sense of grandeur. is visible from the west entrance
landscape architect Bas Smets. e addition of an entrance hall. e view is a reminder of
e place is ideal for experimental on the east side was intended to Estonia’s Baltic coast, which has a
architecture. make a visit to the museum more length of 3,740 km and is marked
Entirely glazed – adorning dynamic and the building less by countless inlets and straits. e
the glass panels are screenprinted hierarchical. e two entrances, new museum is at once a poetic
Estonian traditional motifs – the which express the plurali and political manifesto.
355-m-long museum includes of Estonia’s national identi , dgtarchitects.com

Long Section

0
Dorell Ghotmeh Tane Architects Tartu — Estonia 047

e museum is helping to regenerate the

heavily charged premises of the former
Soviet military base.
048 Mark 64 Cross Section

Text and photos Sergio Pirrone

Extreme Cristian Merello is a professional

surfer. Born in Pichilemu, a beach
town in central Chile, Merello
e rectangular volume is supported
by a wooden structure composed of
V-shaped elements. It was designed

Dwelling rides 10-m-high waves and

zigzags between the infamous
rocks of Punta de Lobos. Having
to protect the house from damage
by tsunamis, like the one that hit
Chile in 2010. Occupying the ground
spent his life training in the floor are a garden, an outstanding
WMR designed the ideal waters of the South Pacific, he
recalls meeting the first Chilean
skateboard ramp and storage for
surfing equipment. e elevated
house for a professional surfer. surfers in the 1990s, when they
stayed at his mother’s hotel during
main floor houses an open kitchen
and dining room, a studio used
the championships traditionally by Cristian and wife Ixa Llambías
held in Pichilemu. To celebrate his to edit and promote their surfing
30th birthday, he decided to buy a videos, and a master bedroom. e
plot of land on the shore, directly circulation plan is simple, as are the
opposite the rocks that challenge materials used. Except for two walls
him daily. ‘I’d like a house that clad in a local green stone, WMR
is a five-minute walk from my used pine for all floors and walls.
waves, where I can feel the wind Glazed façades orientated south
and exercise on a skateboard ramp and west offer views of the se ing
when I’m not in the ocean,’ was sun and protection from strong
his request to the architects of coastal winds. e decision to use
WMR – windsurfers themselves – local materials and labour kept costs
who are very active along this part down. And because the architects
of the Chilean coast, where they admire Merello so much, they didn’t
have built literally hundreds of charge him a cent.
wooden houses. wmrarq.cl
 WMR Arquitectos Pichilemu — Chile 049

+1

Long Section

e design of WMR’s 220-m2 Casa Merello

revolves around a half-pipe.
050 Mark 64 Cross Section

What happens to a new graduate as he takes

his first steps into the practice of architecture?
Gregory Barre shares his experiences.

Beyond the
Armchair Architect

Text Gregory Barre

Earlier this year, I experienced a kind of quiet arrogance. It’s a elementary jobs that are a lile
a moment of disconcerting gi; young designers are eager removed from the grand sweep
precognition. While I was lost to bring the imaginary realms of ‘major’ design decisions. Mull
in speculation on the morning of academic design kicking over the deeper applications of
commute, it dawned on me and screaming into reali. e phenomenology and consider how
that I could very well end up recent graduate is encouraged one might insinuate Foucault into
in an odd position held in both to know no limits. Academic urban planning – in your free
grudging esteem and utmost awards showcase this facet of our time, of course – but at the end of
disdain by various parties within education, oen acknowledging the day casement windows need
architecture: what if I was conceptual ambition above work to be detailed, and somebody has to
destined to be the nonpractising, that demonstrates practical draw the damned things. All this
somewhat knowledgeable, always ‘buildabili’. Without a desire should not come as a surprise to
opinionated, armchair architect? to push the boundaries of how the recent graduate. It’s part and
How did it ever come architects think, we’d be without a parcel of the job; completing such
to this? smidge of understanding of what tasks to perfection precedes the
Be forewarned. My architecture borrows from other inevitable tangle of administration
original ambitions about my place spheres of study or practice from that leads to becoming a lly
in the industry have weathered which designers appropriate ideas. chartered architect.
something of a sea change since But the real-world skills ere’s a catch, however:
I le universi. Like others needed to produce drawings what a broad degree doesn’t
new to the workplace, I’m not that express bold ideas are always deliver, unless it’s your
alone in enjoying a trip along an uerly essential. Working particular interest (which it has
ever-vertiginous learning curve. through window schedules, never been for me), is a strict,
Don’t be fooled by the façade of drainage details and quick fix cast-iron, precise rigour to the
confidence; for many this is a visuals, a recent grad is safe in mechanics of drawing – to the
journey that is not spoken of. the knowledge that he’s been millimetre-perfect, quadruple-
But I’m going to speak ingrained with the basic skills checked draughtsmanship an
about it. required to get through the architect needs. A meticulous
Quite a few students nuances of architecture. It’s grist method of working and thinking
leave architecture school with for the mill, the catalogue of that is critical when it comes
 Gregory Barre 051

to actually building things. e natural environment. Crucially, passionate about at universi – I to our chosen concept. It’s an
fortunate have it inherently; most along the way I never once was in trouble. Aer so many education like no other and, as I
learn it; some relish it. thought that the fire strategy just years of focus and study, it was a was finally beginning to realize,
In my case, as I was soon might require a slight tweak to rather hey conclusion, difficult one that can lead to a myriad of
to learn, millimetre-perfect is not conform to building regulations, to come to terms with, making me places. Places beyond traditional
my forte. Oh dear, perhaps that and suddenly – what had I wonder why nobody ever really practice in the spectrum of the
armchair beckons? been thinking? – I recognized a talks about this dilemma? Since built environment, places where
How best to illustrate desperate need for a soil pipe in when did a view of a career in that armchair isn’t all that it once
my point than with work I know one corner. e final shot at the architecture, fed to us by higher- seemed to be. Just starting out,
intimately? e difference in final critique was eye-watering: ups and outsiders, come with I’m probably fortunate in having
thought processes is highlighted ‘Greg, how on earth do you switch obligatory rose-tinted glasses? plen of time to find my particular
in the dichotomy of the last two off from all this?’ To my horror, the armchair niche, or my particular armchair.
projects I was luc enough to be a ‘Oh,’ replied the visiting loomed closer. e study of architecture
part of: one as a junior member of critic, ‘he probably just reads I had to avoid it. Take nurtures passion. I’ve always
a design team working in practice another bloody book.’ another year, I was told. Work in worked beer with words than
and, earlier, my graduation project. Obviously, this endeavour practice longer. Learn these skills with quick wobbly diagrams and
e laer was a migraine on was worlds apart from eventual inside out. Make yourself think other technical aspects of my
tracing paper, overly ambitious, experience in practice. Fresh from in a different way. Not bad advice, chosen career. Many go straight
pretentious and thoroughly studying, I was a junior member of of course. Doing so would make into practice aer graduating
ludicrous. Nominated for an a design team undertaking a vast me a far more rounded practising because, well, that’s what they’re
RIBA award, the project managed master plan for one of the most architect in the long run. supposed to do. e goal of some
to unspool my mental faculties controversial, challenging and Here lies the crux: a – of most – is the act of creating
while effectively challenging my interesting sites in the country. practising architect. It’s then that buildings and streets out in
perception of architecture, guiding I arrived at the office just aer the revelation dawned. Maybe the real world and shaping the
me along new paths of interest. the main concepts for the design that’s just not what we are all physical environment. For others,
It was an exploration into the had been derived, and as low meant to be. it’s the thrill of understanding
relationship between built form man on the totem pole, my job ‘I have an approximate why we build and shape, and to
and time. I don’t think I picked was to produce drawings and knowledge of many things’ is a figure out how on earth anything
up a pencil to draw for the first models to get the project through call-out that adequately describes actually gets built. ere are
month, never mind precisely the rigorous strains of planning the position of an aw l lot of countless options beyond the
detailing a tric connection. permission. As I’d mentioned, this architecture students. We are drawing board. Perhaps I should

‘ere are countless options beyond the drawing board’

Instead, I read voraciously, wasn’t a great surprise to me. privileged to work in such a get moving, find the most
venturing into the cultural I was ready. Or so I thought. monumental field. Our courses comfortable armchair, swallow
landscape, the role of forgeing What did come as a straddle everything from the my pride and sele into it.
in memory, collective fiction, land surprise is that, despite all those 1970s spatial turn in French I hope my words convince
art, pouncing on every scrap of years of study, I wasn’t very well philosophy to the specific heat readers that I’m not consigned to
architectural and urban theory versed at this stuff. is time I had capaci of cladding materials. It’s the sidelines just yet. is learning
that I could find, hoping to push no idea to act as a shroud for my an incredible thing to find your curve and its valuable, oen
the concept and use the insights work – no theory in which to bury passion within this vibrant mix difficult, lessons will aid me on
gathered to build my eventual myself. ere’s no way to hide a of theory and realism and to be whatever route I decide to follow.
drawings, models and text. e rogue line on a drawing behind given the opportuni to pursue e experience, hurling me totally
interim critique was a particular French ethnology. it relentlessly (recklessly, in the out of my comfort zone, has been
highlight. A visiting architect from No theory to hide behind, case of most architecture students; what my father firmly refers to
a highly regarded London studio but possibly a comfortable we’re only as good as our best – while managing a straight face –
enquired (to laughter): ‘at’s all armchair to sit in? all-nighter story). Architecture as ‘character building’. It’s been an
very well, Gregory, but where Drawing methodology. and associated disciplines cover interesting ride so far, and as long
exactly is the architecture within Rigorous practice. Complete and a nebulous spread of tangible, as my ture doesn’t veer from
all this?’ total accuracy. In reali, I was concrete topics and endless architecture, I’m sure it will stay
By the end of the year, beginning to stru le and, aer debatable philosophies, all of that way.
I’d designed a distillery that a longer period, to wonder what which can segue into a student’s Right now, though, I’m
was founded upon the principle on earth I was doing. Whether particular umbrella of design. thinking of the visiting critic’s
of entropy. e building, if not or not the blame could be put Within academia, we mould response to ‘switching off’. It
maintained in line with a well- on a lack of abili to mask my every aspect of our proposals, might be the right moment to find
remembered memory, consumed shortcomings – those things that from regional studies of planning a decent armchair, nestle into the
itself, lost to an encroaching were shielding what I’d been so measures to brick specification, cushions and read another book.
 052
Mark 64

Per-
spective
 Perspective 053

‘Toda ’s
minimum
dwellin Piet Vollaard on the
current modular
housing hype, page 054

has been
reduced to
esterda ’s’
054 Mark 64 Perspective

Modular housing is conquering

the world, but it’s far from new.

Text
Piet Vollaard

Model
House

2016 – In Manhaan, a building crane lis

prefabricated housing units measuring 24 to
35 m2 into position on a ten-storey apartment
building. In Amsterdam, four prefabricated
complete housing modules with a 24-m2
usable area each are stacked on top of each
other for FabCi, an outdoor exhibition
about sustainable innovations in residential
construction. e initiators consider the
modules suitable for starters, students, the
elderly and people with a regee status, but
see opportunities for using them as holiday
rentals as well. In Manchester, a project
including 43 terraced houses that measure
46 m2 per floor is completed: a modular
construction technique is used and residents
get to choose from various housing pes.
Modular Housing Introduction 055

Designed by Joe Colombo in 1971, the Total

Furnishing Unit was produced the following
year by the Museum of Modern Art, New
York, for the exhibition ‘Italy: e New
Domestic Landscape’.
Photo Ignazia Favata / Studio Joe Colombo
056 Mark 64 Perspective

by the Second World War was What these manifestations also

largely solved by a combination had in common is that each and
of rationalized floor plans and every one of them failed. ey were
residential buildings along with rarely built, and if they were it led
the required legislation, drastic to disappointing results – with the
rationalization of the construction exception of one or two projects,
process and the industrialization such as Kurokawa’s Nakagin
of building component production. Capsule Tower. A er the first oil
But there are doubts about the crisis made megaprojects of this
quali of large parts of this nature impossible in any case,
e Total Furnishing Unit includes four blocks: Kitchen, Cupboard, production. CIAM’s division of Reyner Banham not undeservedly
Bathroom, and Bed and Privacy. e Bed and Privacy block contains
nctions has not only led to characterized the movement as
rniture for sleeping, eating, entertaining and privacy; the Cupboard block
can be used as a space divider. e unit was exhibited in a space of 28 m2. monotonous residential districts, ‘the dinosaurs of the Modern
Photo Ignazia Favata / Studio Joe Colombo the houses themselves do not Movement’ in his summary
make habitable dwellings Megastructure: Urban Futures of
simply because they comply the Recent Past
with minimum subsistence
standards, either. Meanwhile in Italy
In the course of the 1960s e mega trend also had its
a countermovement emerges followers among young architects
that, though it was also based in Italy, albeit later and of a
Flashback to Frankrt, 1929 the living area, the volume and on the liberating potential different nature and order. Around
e second CIAM congress, the window surface are indicated. of technology, replaces rigid 1970, various multidisciplinary
entitled Die Wohnung für das e average floor surface deemed Cartesian rationalism with a groups form to propagate, among
Existenzminimum (e minimum necessary for a single-family biological-evolutionary process many other things, a radical
subsistence dwelling), addresses dwelling hardly exceeds 50 m2, architecture and urban planning. blow-up of the megastructural
the problem of the production if that, and the show home for a is movement manifests itself philosophy in combination with
of affordable housing for the ‘single working woman’ has a floor in various ways on different an objectification of the
lowest incomes. A er the surface of 28 m2. Affordabili is continents: Metabolism in Japan, architecture. In projects such
congress, a travelling exhibition realized through rationalization megastructures in the USA and as Continuous Monument
and a catalogue of the same of the living space without the pop technology of Archigram, (Superstudio, 1969) and No-Stop
title are compiled, displaying compromising habitabili or the space frame structures of Ci (Archizoom, 1969-1972), the
a large number of exemplary hygiene. In an accompanying text, Yona Friedman, and the utopian/ earth is covered with an ultra-
floor plans. e many built and Le Corbusier draws a ention dystopian New Babylon by rational, objective-modular grid
unbuilt examples of different to another method to achieve Constant Nieuwenhuys in Europe. of built substance that people
forms of occupation and various affordabili and improve quali: What all of these megastructures can temporarily or permanently
numbers of residents are provided rationalization of the production have in common is their sheer occupy by pluing into a neutral
by an international group of process itself, particularly by scale, unlimited growth potential grid of necessary infrastructure
architects. A large number of a programme of extensive integrated in the system, modular (water, energy, communication).
them are from Frank rt, where industrialization of the production character, and separation into is magnification of earlier trends,
a social-democratic programme of houses or parts of houses. a permanent linear support this supermodular system of a
of standardized housing is is argument, however, remains structure in combination with a conditioned and air-conditioned
implemented under the guidance underexposed in both the book free, changeable interpretation of supersurface, liberates architecture
of Ernst May. and the exhibition. mostly prefabricated, plued-in of its oppressive artistic ties and
Size ma ers in this series, or clipped-on cells or capsules. prescribed model floor plans, and
since the programme largely Flash Forward to the Late 1960s But what they share first and residents of the need of a more or
focuses on the minimum space e welfare state – in Europe, foremost is an optimistic faith less permanent residence and of life
required for the basic nctions of o en under social-democratic rule in technology, in progress and in a living machine, determined by
living combined with the rational, – has all but completed the CIAM in a living environment beyond rational and nctional diagrams.
space-saving compression of programme launched in Frank rt. the subsistence level: in a ci of In 1972, these projects
these nctions. For each floor, e huge housing shortage created development and freedom. acquire an international platform
 Modular Housing Introduction 057

during the exhibition ‘Italy: covers 28 m2. Folded out and transformabili and mobili with good pensions that are
e New Domestic Landscape’ either connected or free-standing, and without the supergrid to plug nevertheless unable to afford
in the MoMA in New York, a host of configurations, interiors into at any location. e options to live in the metropolis and
which shows ways to actually and living environments can be of a family in Manchester include therefore trade in living space
occupy the objective, neutral created and easily rearranged in swapping the living storey and for affordabili.
supergrid, including a number of the course of the day. ough it the bedroom storey, arranging the Of course there is
customizable living modules by was not presented as such, the unit kitchen and the bathroom, and everything to be said for such
various Italian designers. Due to can be considered complementary choosing the colour and material a pragmatic aitude. In client-
both its scale and potential uses, to the neutral super surfaces of of the flooring. architect relations in general,
Joe Colombo’s Total Furnishing the Continuous Monument and Each of the three projects whether the client is of a societal,
Unit is given a prominent place No-Stop Ci. It is conceivable that described in this edition of Mark a corporate or a private nature,
among the ‘residential pieces’ at the new supernomads – relieved of reacts to an economic necessi. it may well be the only aitude
the exhibition. the need of a fixed abode – would Whether this involves the that is usel and practical with

e minimum dwelling is presented

as a liberation from overblown housing costs.

ough Joe Colombo (1930- carry their Total Furnishing Unit speculative forces that rendered regard to the general large-
1971) trained as an artist, from along on their travels and plug residential space priceless in scale production of affordable
the early 1960s he replaces his them in at ever-new positions of cities like New York, the lack of dwellings. Each in their own
artistic activities with product the supergrid. affordable dwellings for young way, however, these projects
and interior design. Apart from people in general and students in pretend to be more than a
a number of turistic interiors, Fast Forward to the Present particular in Amsterdam or the mere affirmation of a social or
he designs and produces various So here we are, back to square affordabili of social housing in economic status quo. Each in
modular, multinctional and one a century aer progressive Manchester, these projects are their own way, they are presented
transformable pieces of rniture, architects and urban planners in some respect the result of the more or less as alternatives, as
such as the Mini-Kitchen and formulated the minimum overheated neoliberal economy counterexamples, as liberations
the Boby Trolley, which stood conditions of subsistence and that created them, a situation even, albeit liberations from
next to every designer’s drawing initiated a rationalized pology these projects seem to want to overblown housing costs. New
table in the pre-computer era and production, almost half a acknowledge rather than act York’s micro-apartments even
and is still sold today. e Total century aer the radical Italians against. Despite the undeniably required an exemption to be
Furnishing Unit, introduced both celebrated and criticized improved quali, sustainabili, made to the rules concerning the
during ‘Italy: e New Domestic this rationalism. Today single communal facilities and options, minimum allowable floor surface.
Landscape’, is a modular system working women in New York and despite the obvious need In the architect’s project text, this
in which all residential nctions, and graduated academics in for affordable dwellings in an is celebrated as a victory. And this
including the necessary facilities Amsterdam, like their Frankrt insane real estate market, today’s compares rather poorly with the
and equipment, are integrated colleagues 100 years ago, have minimum dwelling has apparently radical liberation that Archizoom
in a total piece of rniture. e a standard living room (24 to been reduced to yesterday’s, the and Superstudio presented
system comprises four separate 28 m2) at their disposal for only thing changed is its target as a visionary utopia and the
units: kitchen, storage, bed and all their residential nctions: group, once the low-income concrete, immediately applicable
privacy, and bathroom. Folded the same surface as the Total working classes, now urban alternative way of living proposed
and linked together, the unit Furnishing Unit, but without its professionals or senior citizens by Joe Colombo. _
058 Mark 64 Perspective

e residences are unified

by a grey brick façade that
was applied on site.
Photo Iwan Baan
 nArchitects New York — NY — USA 059

1
Lower Costs
nArchitects stacked welded
modular housing units in New
York Ci like Lego bricks.

Text
Reed Miller

New York Ci has no shortage of team’s use of a prefabricated, contain within them the structural
strict zoning regulations. It has modular building system didn’t components required to support
no shortage of contentious land. simpli things as much as the building as a whole. (While a
It certainly has no shortage of one might expect. taller prefabricated building might
loophole-manoeuvring developers ‘It’s not necessarily rely on a site-specific structural
who manage to sidestep these that micro units and modular core to support individual
difficulties, realizing new construction go hand in hand,’ modules, Carmel Place’s modules
construction under unlikely says Eric Bunge, who founded are simply stacked and welded.
circumstances. But some designs nArchitects with Mimi Hoang. As Bunge puts it: ‘is is basically
simply aren't aainable without ‘If anything, they’re like a perfect Lego.’) Add to these challenges the
changes to current building storm. We skated so close to business of actually assembling
criteria. Carmel Place, barely regulation-minimum dimensions the tight-tolerance modules on
and famously executed thanks to make these apartments viable, a difficult site in the middle of
to several zoning variances and and on one hand, modular Manhaan and risks compound.
mayoral overrides, is currently construction helped ensure that According to Bunge: ‘Losing a
the tallest modular building in we met those regulations. On centimetre might have resulted
Manhaan and the only one the other, it added a new layer in losing an entire row of units
to exclusively offer apartments of challenges to the design.’ At a on this site.’
smaller than 37 m2, the ci’s conceptual level, for example, even A theoretical advantage to
minimum dwelling unit size. It the smallest adjustment to a single prefabricated housing is that large,
sits at 335 E 27th Street in Kip’s unit has to reverberate through repetitive components are built
Bay, occupying the entire 13.7-m the entire system, changing its remotely and transported to the
width and nearly the entire 32-m size and shape. Giving and taking construction site when needed. It’s
depth of its lot. Given this small centimetres, the architects had no wonder the humble shipping
footprint and the critical task of to design individual modules so container has become a sort of
delivering comfortable, marketable they would meet to form fire- mascot of modular construction
micro dwellings, the project rated assemblies on all sides and around the world. →
060 Mark 64 Perspective

Across the road from Carmel

Place is Bellevue South Park.
Photo Iwan Baan

When the Murphy bed is stored vertically against

the wall, a couch appears in front of it.
Photo Pablo Enriquez

e ll-size kitchen and bathroom allow for daily

use. When folded, the dinner table doubles as a desk.
Photo Pablo Enriquez

‘e constructive unit should

not be the building’s expressive unit’
nArchitects New York — NY — USA 061

Bunge believes that while the floor were built in situ, and the these processes took place within
distance between a modular warehouse in Brooklyn where 10 km of the construction site,
builder and a construction site identical modules were on view but it must have eased operations
is mostly an issue of budget and at varying degrees of completion. for the builder, Capsys, who by
schedule, it’s critical for a designer ‘It felt like how I imagine a Bunge’s assessment ‘had produced
to be able to personally oversee Model T factory might have felt,’ thousands of modular units
the manufacturing process. All of recalls Bunge. ‘As the modules throughout Brooklyn, but never a
Carmel Place’s 92 modules were are addressed by different trades, two-hour fire-rated building – a
fabricated in the Brooklyn Navy they’re moved down an assembly tall building.’
Yards – at walking distance from line. If you find a mistake, you Despite the difficul of
nArchitects’ office – giving the can basically walk back in time designing and building such a
designers an opportuni to make to the point where the mistake rigid system on an unforgiving
weekly site visits to two different was made and correct back to site, Carmel Place makes some
locations: the lot in Kip’s Bay that point. It felt very efficient.’ insightl contributions to the
where a foundation and ground It may not have been critical that growing discourse on modular →
062 Mark 64 Perspective

Long Section +7

15 13

16 13 13

14 15 15

+ 1 to + 6

13

13

0
‘e construction plant
felt like how I imagine 09
a Model T factory might 07 08 10
have felt’
11 12

-1
01 Utili
02 Bike room
03 Storage 06
04 Game room
05 Laundry
06 Vending machines
07 Porch 01 05
08 Lobby
09 Work zone 02 03 04
10 Bac ard
11 Gym
12 Café
13 Housing unit
14 Outdoor terrace
15 Private terrace
16 Communi room
 nArchitects New York — NY — USA 063

e location of Capsys Construction in the Brooklyn

Navy Yards gave the designers the opportuni to
make weekly site visits.
Photos nArchitects

housing, the first being that it units appealing, we felt compelled

doesn’t really look like modular to make some things quite big.’
housing. Rather, its residences are Here he outlines not only the
unified by a grey brick façade that firm’s interior design strategy, but
was applied on site. ‘e module also its ameni-driven approach
is effective as a constructive unit, to giving prefabricated dwellings
but we felt very strongly that this a sense of communi. e
constructive unit should not be building’s sprawling terrace wraps
the building’s expressive unit,’ around the eighth floor, offering
says Bunge. ‘e project isn’t just all residents outdoor space and
about these lile apartments ci views. Its lobby traverses
– it’s about the ci and how the ground floor front-to-back,
small, single-person households commanding enough space for
integrate themselves into it. We a building-wide anksgiving
wanted to express the scale of dinner. Shared laundry, exercise,
the ci.’ e façade was designed and recreation facilities make
to situate Carmel Place in New plen of room for the essential
York's lively history of brick activities that micro units simply
residential architecture, from the can’t accommodate. ‘We all realized
glazed white of its mid-century that you can’t ask people to live in
apartment blocks to the Housing smaller and smaller apartments
Authori’s deep brown. Its four without providing amenities far
shades delineate a microcosmic beer than those in a pical rental
sline of narrow, offset towers, building,’ says Bunge. At Carmel
equally expressed in the interior, Place, it was critically important
where materials sharply contrast to understand the intricacies of
along the same lines. modular construction, but it was
Standing in the bathroom no less important to name and
of a pe D apartment module design the other built features that
– spacious and bright by any turn a prefabricated system into a
standard – Bunge notes: ‘In order liveable residence. _
to make the smallness of these narchitects.com
064 Mark 64 Perspective

e three-storey terraced houses

on Keepers Quay offer a frontal
view of the canal.
 2
Shedkm Manchester — UK 065

More
Choice
In Shedkm’s terraced
housing, prefabrication
allows for customization.

Text
Giovanna Dunmall

Photos
Jack Hobhouse

For a nation simultaneously and well designed. Previously, the

obsessed with home ownership practice had reinvented rerbished
and caught in the grip of a 350 existing Victorian terraced
dramatic and chronic housing homes. Killick recalls ‘falling in
shortage, the UK has la ed love with the terraced form and
behind seriously in terms of wanting to do a modern version’.
innovation and design in the Budget constraints
volume house-building sector. led the architects to explore
Shedkm’s hoUSe is one of a modular construction techniques.
handl of emerging projects that Prefabricated homes have a terrible
provide a refreshing technology- reputation in the UK, Killick
and design-led alternative to acknowledges, ‘but the only way
the generic boxes offered by round that is to do it beer’. He
conventional builders. believes that prefabrication affords
e first thing the practice the best chance to achieve in-built
did was to counter the way people flexibili. ‘We wanted to make
usually talk about houses in the buying a home a bit like buying
UK. ‘We wanted to move away a new car. You choose the basic
from thinking about houses as model and then purchase
a certain number of rooms and the extras; it’s very much a kit
bedrooms,’ says Shedkm director of parts.’
Ian Killick, ‘and talk instead about e first incarnation of
how much space people were hoUSe has gone up on a soon-
geing, like they do in the rest to-be-completed 43-unit site
of Europe.’ flanked by two picturesque canals
e brief from in a former industrial quarter
Manchester-based developers just outside Manchester ci
Urban Splash was for a simple centre. e homes are elegant and
house that would be modern contemporary, with dark concrete →
066 Mark 64 Perspective

Clever interior configuration

allows owners to select
either ‘lo’ or ‘garden’ living,
which means they can opt
for the living room and
kitchen to be located at the
base or the top of the house.

‘We could have put no heating in the houses,

because heat generated from everyday use is enough’

cladding, bay windows, small proved popular in New Islington, takes just five weeks. e pods Lacking par walls, hoUSe also
balconies that double as porches too. ‘Of the ones that have been are made in a No inghamshire rates be er acoustically than
over front doors, and pitched sold so far,’ he says, ‘it’s about fi y- factory (owned by SIG Insulation), conventional terraces. ‘e houses
roofs that add rhythm, relief and fi y lo versus garden living.’ which is equipped with the same are made of separate pods that sit
character to the street. Several interior details sort of production line used next to each other but don’t touch.’
Buyers have a choice of make hoUSe more contemporary for cars. Two weeks later, each Ge ing to this point hasn’t
a two- or three-storey house and architectural than many one-storey, 17-tonne module is happened overnight, however. It’s
(providing a generous – for the similar possibilities on the market transported to the site individually taken the team at Shedkm five
UK – 92 or 140 m2 of floor space, at the moment, including prefab and assembled, along with one long years of work and research.
respectively) and a varie of houses. Ceiling heights are 265 or two other units, in a ma er of ‘We built a protope to test all
layouts with one to five bedrooms. cm (and 330 cm on the top floor, hours. ‘Quite a few can arrive on our ideas – how to make it and
ey can also opt for what the owing to the pitched roof) rather the same day,’ says Killick, ‘but move it.’ With 72 options available
architects call ‘upside-down than the more traditional 240 or they still have to be assembled to buyers, the architects also had
living’: a home with living and 235 cm found in mass housing; and waterproofed before the to figure out how to make each
dining areas on the upper floor there are shadow gaps instead services can be connected and plan fit with the others and ‘to
and sleeping quarters below. of skirting boards (‘You can just commissioned, which takes at ensure there were no anomalies’.
‘e idea came out of tuck your floor finishes under least two weeks – there’s no way A rther 100 units are currently
a scheme we did in Salford [in them; it’s nice and tidy’); windows round that.’ being built on a site two miles
Greater Manchester], where we are large; and ll-height doors So what’s it like to live away, in Salford, and there are
had raised gardens to the rear and, reach the ceiling. ‘It’s not about in hoUse? anks to exemplary plans to put up several hundred
quite sensibly, living spaces next rooms with holes in the wall but air-tightness and 400-mm- more on a new development
to the gardens,’ explains Killick. about something more open,’ says thick walls (of which 250 mm is in a historic shipyard in North
‘People liked living that way, so Killick. ‘You can remove all the insulation), the homes are warm Tyneside, just east of Newcastle.
we decided to take the idea and doors if you want subdivision but and energy-efficient. ‘We could ‘e challenge now that
offer it in these new houses.’ With not enclosure.’ have put no heating in the houses, we have a standardized project,’
be er views and greater ceiling But perhaps the biest because heat generated from says Killick, ‘is what bits do we
heights on the top floor, it’s no revolution is in terms of delivery everyday use or just turning on change in order to make the
surprise that the homes have to market. Building one house your TV is enough,’ says Killick. scheme unique for each location.’
 Shedkm Manchester — UK 067

ick-banded black window bays break

the uniformi of hoUSe’s grey exteriors.

Gardens and landscaping play a big

part in individualizing the homes,
as do cladding materials used on the
exterior. In the ture, gardens
will be planted and complete by
the time the pods are ‘dropped in’,
and boundaries will be planted
instead of fenced, providing
instant lush greenery.
‘Now that we understand
the technology, the idea is to
develop a range of pologies that
will be constructed in the same
way, rather than simply repeating
the initial pology,’ he says. With
that objective in mind, a canal side
parcel on the New Islington site has
been reserved for Mansion HoUSe,
a six-storey apartment building
also designed by Shedkm. It is to be
constructed off-site like hoUSe, but
will most likely be made of ultra-
sustainable CLT (cross-laminated
timber). e ture of hoUSe is
looking rosy. And the UK’s mass-
housing sector has received a much-
needed wake-up call as a result. _ e design features pitched roofs, with generous
shedkm.co.uk ceiling heights on the top floors as a result.
068 Mark 64 Perspective

Floor plan options for the Floor plan options for the
two-storey garden-living house two-storey lo-living house

+1 +1

up

0 0
up

Sections of the two-storey house

e homes are made of

volumetric timber pods
that are delivered to and
assembled on site.
 Shedkm Manchester — UK 069

Floor plan options for the three- Floor plan options for the three-
storey garden-living house storey lo-living house

+2 +2

+1 +1

0 0

Sections of the three-storey house

070 Mark 64 Perspective

3
Beer
Environment
Finch Buildings proposes a modular,
eco-friendly strategy that could help
solve pressing issues plaguing the
housing market.

Text
Izabela Anna

Two weeks before the official for a hotel room only a bathroom
launch of Finch Buildings’ first and for offices only a pantry. We
modular units in Amsterdam, I designed larger bathrooms for
visit architect Jurrian Knijtijzer. healthcare facilities. e result is
I haven’t made an appointment a selection of buildings that are
and it’s nearly dinnertime, but he’s always adaptable.’ He speaks fast,
still working and offers to show gesticulates and seems generally
me around. Together we inspect excited. e idea of adaptabili
four rectangular units, two next to is reflected in the company’s
each other and two stacked on top name, as Knijtijzer points out:
of those – for a total living area of ‘We called the units Finch
roughly 100 m2. Buildings a er Darwin’s finches.
Knijtijzer is currently When he spoed these birds on
testing his own creation; one of his trip to the Galápagos Islands,
the boom units nctions as he soon realized that even though
office space, while an exterior they had developed different
staircase spirals up to the young bodily characteristics over time
entrepreneur’s temporary home. – in order to survive – they were
What I see illustrates the main all related.’ One pe has a beak
point of modular construction: that allows it to crack nuts, for
Lego-like flexibili . ‘ e example. e specialized beak of
modules can be used for various another species allows the finch
purposes,’ he says. ‘We designed to pry insects from roen wood.
interchangeable interiors. For ‘ e birds,’ he says, ‘have adapted
student or regee housing you to their environments and are
need a bathroom and a pantry, also mobile.’ →
Finch Buildings Amsterdam — Netherlands 071

e first four model units were

launched in Amsterdam.
Photo Kees Hummel
072 Mark 64 Perspective

Interiors were designed by

Urban Echoes.
Photo Ben Verveld

Floor plan for a one-

bedroom apartment

A unit in the factory of construction company De Groot

Vroomshoop. Steel bars at the four corners of the unit serve as
liing points when it’s hoisted for transport or positioning.
Photo Finch Buildings

In most cases, a home on wheels Because the process churns out

is mobile, but we don’t normally only two units a day, production
put timber-framed houses numbers are far from those toed
into the same category. Finch up at a car factory. Even so, at this
Buildings’ dwelling is a hybrid. speed, the potential output is ten
e modules arrive in Amsterdam new homes a week.
on a truck from the Dutch town e system’s adaptabili
of Vroomshoop, where they were doesn’t stop there. Made entirely
assembled by a construction of cross-laminated timber, the
company of the same name. e units are defined by sustainabili Floor plan for a studio
timber comes from Germany and and energy-efficiency throughout
Austria. Panels and bathrooms their lives and beyond. Knijtijzer
arrive at De Groot Vroomshoop as internalized the importance of
semi-manufactures, where they sustainabili aer seeing projects
are assembled in an operation he had worked on being demolished
that Knijtijzer compares to an just a few years aer their
automotive production line, ‘with completion. During a visit to the
wooden panels at one end and Philippines, his disdain for debris
a finished module at the other’. spawned the realization of what
 Finch Buildings Amsterdam — Netherlands 073

e one-bedroom apartment on the first floor

comprises two horizontally connected units. Heating
elements are mounted on 2.80-m-high ceilings.
Photo Kees Hummel

‘Darwin’s finches developed different

bodily characteristics in order to survive’

‘negative environmental impact’ cannot be recycled. Knijtijzer DIY character. Designed by Urban until 2017 to take advantage of
can look like and of what a need mentions the timber industry’s Echoes, the unembellished interiors Finch Buildings’ modular system.
for housing really means. At that reduction of waste through the feature wooden walls and floors. e first projects scheduled for
point, he decided to take action. use of every by-product. Finch A ceiling height of 2.80 m gives realization are two large-scale
e outcome of his Buildings wants to run its the living space a loy feel. e housing schemes, a hotel and
decision is a circular approach business in the same way. dimensions of a standard unit are 361 student housing units in
to housing. ‘Everything can be Inside, neither 3.60 by 7.15 m, but buyers can opt Amsterdam. It is to be hoped that
dismantled and recycled,’ he says. sustainabili nor modulari for a smaller size, if they want to social and urban concerns will
‘It’s not only the module itself are immediately visible. Rooms integrate a patio on one side of the be treated with the painstaking
that can serve other purposes, flooded with light have the sense house. e simplici and plainness thought given to maers of
but also the materials. e units of permanence that is expected of the design is intentional. Instead sustainabili, in order to avoid
are assembled with screws and from a more traditional Dutch of falling into niche markets based stagnating monocultures of
are lly electric, thanks to solar home. Knijtijzer tells me about on sustainable or modular housing, similar age, background or
panels. No fossil els are needed a potential client who was in the company is targeting a wider status. Knijtijzer’s plans for the
for heating water or air. Most the market for a holiday home. audience, while aiming to make ture involve a different kind of
Dutch houses rely on natural gas.’ Aer viewing the model units, both ecological and standardized cultivation: he wants to plant a
Heating is provided by an infrared he concluded that they look ‘too architecture more mainstream. sustainable Finch Forest. _
heater, which is part of the mere much like a real house’; he’d Owing to high demand, finchbuildings.com
5 per cent of the dwelling that imagined something with a more private parties will have to wait
 074
Mark 64

Long
Section
 Long Section 075

‘Good
architecture
doesn’t correct
violations
a ainst
Peter Grundmann on
the value of complexi
and ambigui, page 076

a s listic
uri laws’
076 Mark 64 Long Section

Repeat
Offender
Peter Grundmann engages in long
relationships with his clients.

Text Photos
Florian Heilmeyer Ser io Pirrone

We’ve only just le Berlin’s ci limits behind says, ‘the old system of the German Democratic houses. Verheyen and Hansen developed most
us, siing in his car barely half an hour, when Republic was gone and the new one of the of the interventions in the existing space
Peter Grundmann starts to get ndamental. Federal Republic of Germany was not yet together with Grundmann, and a lot has
‘What is a good house?’ he asks rhetorically. established. ere were no fixed, standardized been implemented with DIY construction.
‘A house needs to make me mentally richer, rules of conduct, people allowed themselves It’s a wonderlly overgrown site with many
especially rich in experiences. If every day that more freedom, and you could do things without layers of interventions that can be perceived
you walk through the rooms of your house, constantly having to submit references. Nobody in their entire today, like the newest layer
you experience something new, then you’ll had any anyway.’ Grundmann started by with oversize windows, plywood fiings and
be happy there. Only new perceptions satis obtaining books about Le Corbusier and Mies translucent polycarbonate sheets.
humans and just like classical music or a good van der Rohe and sied through them. When he One of the three small pavilions was
book, architecture too can give us insights and started to study architecture in 1994 in Wismar, designed by Grundmann alone. e owners
therefore provide happiness. A house creates he was already working on the construction rent it out as Garden House Salix because
the scope for a dialogue between its inhabitants of his first two buildings. ‘ e architecture of the willows that grow around it, but
and the place. A good house nctions as a department at the universi had just been Grundmann prefers to call it House for an
machine of perception that activates all senses.’ founded, everything was rather provisional,’ Anarchist. It’s a single room on a square floor
I’m on the road with Peter Grundmann to see he remembers. ‘ ere was no sophisticated plan. e south façade is made entirely of
three of those ‘machines of perception’ that he curriculum, but instead there was a lot of polycarbonate and slightly buckles inwards.
completed recently. freedom for students and most people had, like e sun soly draws the moving shadows of
Grundmann has realized his projects to me, been doing something different before.’ the willows on the wall. Grundmann calls it a
date predominantly in rural areas, though not Grundmann has retained the qualities of the ‘poetic wall’ that offsets the compact interior.
intentionally. He comes from the countryside career changer and the autodidact to this day. One corner of the room can be folded away,
himself, born in Röbel an der Müritz, a lile We’re heading for a former evangelic opening up the whole lile room to the fields
town with hardly 5,000 inhabitants in the vicarage in the tiny village of Rutenberg, in the back. e entire pavilion is elevated, as
intense landscape of the Mecklenburg lake approximately an hour’s drive from Berlin and if it could be carried away at any time, and all
district. Initially, he studied shipbuilding: ‘I in the middle of nature reserve Uckermark of the nctions are housed in their own lile
began studying in East Germany and when I Lakes. Artists Marieke Verheyen and Martin cubbyholes, which protrude outwards from the
was finished in 1993 the German Democratic Hansen, a Dutch-German couple who moved walls: the bed is set in front of an oversized
Republic no longer existed.’ He worked at a here from Amsterdam in 2012, are gradually window as a pedestal, the kitchen is a long
shipyard in Rostock for half a year and then converting the spacious farm into a travel counter, the shower is a glass-panelled room
gave notice because he wanted to work more destination named Rehof. e stables have been that cantilevers into the branches of the cherry
freely. Coincidentally, he ended up practicing fied with holiday homes and the enormous trees. But what is anarchist about this? ‘ e
architecture: he first received a commission barn is now an event room. Slightly rther idea was to develop a room on the smallest
to build a residential building in Mecklenburg towards the back, barely visible through the possible surface, which can be used as openly
and shortly thereaer a commercial hall in thicket of willows, wild hops and blackthorn, as possible, without a preassigned nction,’
Neubrandenburg. ‘ ose were the wild days,’ he there are three pavilions that are used as guest says Grundmann. →
Peter Grundmann Berlin — Germany 077

Peter Grundmann.
078 Mark 64 Long Section

A narrow ramp leads to the entrance of the holiday home. Next to

the front door, the glass shower cubicle projects from the façade.

e polycarbonate wall can be folded away to open up the interior to the garden.

House for an Anarchist

Rutenberg—Lychen—Germany
2015
is low-budget house of 41 m² was built
for €25,000.-. e main space measures 6 ×
6 × 3 m. Facilities for sleeping, cooking and
bathing are added to the main volume in
the form of projecting cubes, so the central
space remains emp and free for any use.
 Peter Grundmann Berlin — Germany 079

Although Grundmann founded his practice 23 need? ese are my first questions, and projects is the only new element. Radical and crude
years ago, it’s easy to believe him when he says evolve from there. e budget was always too looking, it sits with rough-sawn raers above
that to him every project still feels like a stroke small. But that has never discouraged me from the shallow auditorium, every screw of the
of luck. Grundmann hasn’t realized many or searching for the best solution for the place construction visible up to the vertical timbres
exceptionally big projects in this time span, and for the task. Quali oen arises from a with which the roof is bolted to the sidewalls.
but every single project is so unconventional surplus of space and thus nearly all projects e high densi of the raers provides good
and individual that one sees immediately turn out bi er than the owners and I expect at spatial acoustics. It looks a bit like a bird’s
how much thought, discussion and doubt is the start.’ In order to achieve this, Grundmann nest. It’s an ambivalent construction of which
contained in his architecture. ‘It’s important concentrates again and again on the prime it is hard to tell whether it is old or new. e
to find out what the client actually wants,’ he objective: the pure space. e walls mostly stay new roof sits higher than the old one and a
says. ‘Many architects do not advise or counsel uncovered, unconventional but inexpensive circumferential band of windows lets light into
anymore, they immediately offer instant materials are used, much is self-built. the cinema. In the evenings, when the cinema
solutions: drywall, plastic windows, €2,000 In such transparent projects, the goes into operation and it’s dark outside, the
per square metre. In a flash, it’s done. ings construction plays a special role. We arrive at roof seems to disappear.
that everybody already knows don’t need be a cinema called Centre for Political Movies in Peter Grundmann is a repeat offender.
explained and discussed. But my question Falkenhagen, where Grundmann converted a rough the intensive dialogue of design and
is whether that’s also the best solution.’ former stable together with the client. e old building, an equally intense relationship with
Grundmann’s buildings are based on extensive roof has been completely replaced, the existing the clients evolves and thus small assignments
conversations. ‘What can the clients afford, four brick walls cleaned and consolidated. e oen turn into big projects that continue
what do they need and what does the place new roof with its particular wood construction over the years, as evidenced by the Rehof in →
080 Mark 64 Long Section

e bed is set in front of a large window.

0
03

02

01 04

01 Living room
02 Bed
03 Kitchen
04 Bathroom
 Peter Grundmann Berlin — Germany 081

‘Good architecture doesn’t

correct violations against any
slistic puri laws’

e kitchen offers an expansive view of the

garden. A wood stove is used for heating.

Rutenberg. is is also the case for the cinema thoroughly inspected the old tenement from an intermediate space that wraps around the
in Falkenhagen, where he first built a house the 1930s that stood directly next to the road, entire house like a veranda. e façade and
for client Ursula Weiler in 2004, followed by a and recommended that it be torn down. He wood construction do not follow any paern
sauna, aer which he converted the old farm convinced Neiling to build her new house other than their own system, which results
into a theatre and music space for her, and now around the former goat shed, instead. ‘e old in vivid superimpositions that give the new
has turned the old barn into a cinema. e next house was oriented towards the street, but to construction a worn and slightly used charm
project – a lile studio for an artist residency – make the best of this fantastic location the new from the very beginning. e glass façade
is already being planned. construction had to be built rther away from defines the heated areas of the house. e
e situation at the last stop of our the road, where it would offer beer views of veranda is a liminal zone of varying depth
lile tour, in Hoppenrade (barely 50 km north the landscape.’ us the landscape and the old that creates a distance to the landscape and
of Berlin), is similar. Grundmann built the first goat shed became the focal point of the design. generates a complex network of access and
house for Birgit Neiling here in 2005, which e carport, storage areas and ancillary sightlines in the relatively small house. ‘I oen
by now she has sold with a profit, allowing rooms are located at the front of the plot, separate the façade from the construction of
her to acquire a piece of land a few hundred by the street. Behind them, Neiling House II the house,’ says Grundmann. ‘If both systems
metres rther down the road on the southern really starts, stretching back 23 m. e lower are self-confident and autonomous, then
fringe of the village. ‘Ms Neiling had already floor is elevated 1.30 m above the landscape they are not hierarchical but equal, creating
said directly aer the first house: “Next time I and rests on a timber construction of posts suspense and friction. e buildings acquire
will build with you again”,’ says Grundmann. and beams like a shelf. Between the house’s complex narrative properties that stimulate
‘Now she’s carrying out that threat.’ He glass façade and the solid timber structure is various uses without dictating too much. →
082 Mark 64 Long Section

e new roof structure was built

on top of the existing walls.

Centre for Political Movies (Quillo Kino)

Falkenhagen—Uckermark—Germany
2015
A new roof structure was built on top of four existing brick walls,
in order to house a 182-m² cinema. e timber construction of
rough sawn beams remained in sight, up to the last screws and
bolts. is not only resulted in an open and heterogeneous ceiling,
but also improved the acoustics.
 Peter Grundmann Berlin — Germany 083

But it has to be an unobtrusive complexi, a way looks like a happily put together DIY materials collide with each other abruptly.
one that doesn’t demonstrate the intentions of replica of Farnsworth House. But it’s not that From their friction emerges the complexi,
the architect too obviously. As a resident you simple. If you try to pin it down, Grundman’s ambigui and diversi of a room.’
do not want to deal with your house in such a architecture evaporates, or turns into Ultimately, it’s an architecture that
pedagogical way every day.’ something so autonomous that the comparison does not reduce the complexi of a place but
By visiting three projects realized over with any role model is out of the question. enhances it – and thus creates a new place
the course of 12 years in one day, the elements ‘Form is not the most important thing in my at large. It will be exciting to observe how
and themes that Grundmann follows in his architecture,’ says Grundmann. ‘Architects Grundmann will pursue these topics now that
architecture become visible: ambivalence, aren’t designers. I prefer to try to increase the his projects are becoming bier and more
transparency, intermediate spaces, and the range of possible associations to the maximum urban: currently he’s working on a school and a
creation of connections between human, house for user and visitor through the collage and self-organized campus for working and living
and landscape. All this is supposed to create montage of various motifs and materials. at in Berlin, as well as a residential facili for the
a plethora of possibilities for the resident to also means leaving apparent formal errors homeless in Addis Ababa. _
discover. Sometimes you think you recognize visible, not correcting violations against any petergrundmann.com
a reference – Haus Neiling II, for example, in slistic puri laws. Contradictory forms and
084 Mark 64 Long Section

A continuous band of windows allows

for ample daylight in the interior.

Long Section 0

Cross Section
 Peter Grundmann Berlin — Germany 085

e high densi of the raers provides good spatial acoustics.

‘From friction emerges complexi,

ambigui and diversi’
086 Mark 64 Long Section

e covered entrance to the house doubles as a carport.

Neiling House II
Hoppenrade—Germany
2015
is low-budget structure of 110 m² was the
second house that Grundmann designed for
his client Birgit Neiling. e first, in the same
village, was completed in 2005, and pleased
the client enough to ask Grundmann again
for her new endeavour. e new house is a
simple structure of timber posts and beams.
Peter Grundmann Berlin — Germany 087

e ground floor is elevated

1.30 m above the landscape.
088 Mark 64 Long Section

e brick walls of a former goat shed

have been integrated into the design.

e custom-built kitchen is a
simple affair. Curtain railings
are mounted flush to the ceiling.
Peter Grundmann Berlin — Germany 089

‘Quali oen arises

from a surplus of space’

e bathroom and bedroom offer a wide

view of the beautil surroundings.

0 07
01 Carport
02
02 Entrance hall
01
03 Kitchen
04 Storage 05
06
05 Living room (black-coloured walls
03
correspond to original goat shed)
06 Bedroom
07 Bathroom

04
090 Mark 64 Long Section
Gens association libérale d'architecture Nancy / Paris / Toulouse — France 091

Common
People
French collective Gens wants to let
the architect’s signature disappear.

Text
Rafaël Ma rou

Photos
Ludmilla Cerveny

Mathias Roustang, Sylvain Parent, Jean- and extension instead of demolition and us, Barbara, Mathias and I, constitute the
Baptiste Friot, Guillaume Eckly and Barbara reconstruction – at the same cost. We included Nancy nucleus. We can either work together or
Fischer started working together under the detailed calculations to prove that it could separately. us, depending on their location,
name Gens (French for ‘people’) in 2009. All be done within budget. We won the ideas our projects can be managed by one or the other.
of them, except for Friot, studied at the École competition, but unfortunately the project ROUSTANG: Although it’s not a
nationale supérieure d’architecture of Nancy. hasn’t been realized because in the next phase conscious strategy, but rather the result of
‘Gens’ may be a weird name, but it makes of the competition the general contractor coincidences, being spread out also allows us
sense for this collective whose offices are resigned. to more easily broaden our field of action to
located in Nancy, Paris and Toulouse. Mark met ECKLY: e programme was based outside the Lorraine (where Nancy is located),
with Roustang, Eckly and Fischer in the one on a text wrien by Jean Nouvel about his as this region is quite pover stricken. On top
in Nancy, close to the popular Porte Saint- Nemausus housing complex, so we named of that, the debates we have about our common
Nicolas neighbourhood, two steps from the ourselves Gens Nouvels – a phonetic pun. Later, projects enhance the designs and help us find
famous Place Stanislas. e office reflects their we shortened it to Gens. beer solutions.
approach: a non-demonstrative architecture, ROUSTANG: We also considered the
but with presence and comfort. name ‘Geranium’, a common plant people Most of your projects are private commissions.
have on their balconies, a positive form of Is that a choice?
How was Gens born? ownership. ROUSTANG: e public competition is a
GUILLAUME ECKLY: It was in 2009. We delusional phenomenon: for, say, a small
finished the school and joined together to Is Gens an architecture agency, strictly communi centre there are o en at least
answer an ideas competition with the aim to speaking? 80 entries. e chances of being selected are
thermally reconvert a collective social housing ROUSTANG: Not exactly. We are a ‘collective’ virtually non-existent, also because we’re not a
block called Euclide in Tourcoing, in the north and we work together when the opportuni well-known firm. Nevertheless, we’ve worked
of France. We thickened the building in order to arises. Since none of us wants to work in a big in both the public and the private sector. Also,
enlarge the apartments with 20 m2, gave it an office, this way of working fits us well. we like to think that being situated out in the
insulated, wood-coated façade, and recomposed ECKLY: Considering the organization: country, so to say, provides opportunities. We
the general profile. we are scaered in three places, linked to have chosen to focus on countryside situations,
MATHIAS ROUSTANG: e our private courses: Sylvain lives in Paris, strengthening and revitalizing these areas that
project turned into a plea for rehabilitation Jean-Baptiste in Toulouse and the three of were hitherto neglected. →
092 Mark 64 Long Section

ECKLY: What helps is that we all share an on shared ideas – if we’d each make our own But you do want your architecture to be
interest in ‘banali’. at’s not a sensibili design, the results would be quite different. identifiable as contemporary.
that we acquired at the Nancy School of ECKLY: We think it’s interesting ROUSTANG: I don’t mean it should literally
Architecture where we studied, it’s just the to ‘camouflage’ our buildings by playing disappear. Of course we are interested in
result of the way we look at our surroundings. with architectural pologies. e house in the presence of the building, but it’s the
e last thing we want to do is try to be Zutzendorf replicates the steep tiled roofs of disappearance of the architect’s signature or
original. the area to blend in with the landscape. At the ego that we want to achieve. We don’t want our
ROUSTANG: We’ve developed a kind of same time, the timber roof frame provides the architecture to over-exist.
‘speciali’ in working with very small budgets. living area of the house with a high ceiling and ECKLY: It ma ers that people wonder
In all of our projects, the focus is on finding the shiing the volume of the ground level creates if a Gens construction is a new building or
place where the money should be spent, where a large covered terrace. It’s a multidirectional if it has been there forever. We don’t want to
it’s most needed. game between tradition and pastiche, copy, but to interpret, and in the best case to
ECKLY: It’s a very pragmatic approach, combining a modern cuboid base and a sloping find a building’s right l place in an existing
in line with the way Lacaton & Vassal or roof that refers to history. context. In Velle-sur-Moselle, we transformed
Patrick Bouchain work. It’s about including BARBARA FISCHER: In the House of a farm building in poor condition into five
people in the process. And don’t forget that Salt in Haraucourt, a museum dedicated to salt apartments. e northern façade was large,
we’re in the country of Jean Prouvé – before that we completed in 2011, the project took its with very few windows. We wanted to retain
the Nancy School of Architecture moved to form from the universe of the subterranean the ‘mute’ aspect of the building, but we also
the building designed by Livio Vacchini, it was industry and the orchard in which it is located. needed to provide the apartments with natural
housed in modular buildings in Villers-lès- e main façade is a minimalist glass sheet that light. So we cut a slice off of the southern part
Nancy, designed by the famous engineer. is both the display case of the salt mining- of the building and replaced it with a glass
related collection and a mirror reflecting the façade. We insulated the northern wall on the
Can you elaborate on the concept of ‘banali’? salt house’s environment. exterior and clad it with dark-coloured, fibre-
ROUSTANG: When we discuss projects we ROUSTANG: We always try to find cement slates that are commonly used in the
always try to avoid the temptation to produce a response that is appropriate. e building surroundings. e silhoue e of the building
more ‘baroque’ solutions. We try to get to the is a foreign element to the site, but it should hasn’t changed, but the slash makes the living
essence and ‘clean up’ the design by eliminating be accepted or absorbed quickly and sort of areas comfortable. _
subjective elements. Our buildings are based disappear. gens.archi

Disneyland
House
Zutzendorf—France
2015
In Zutzendorf, a village in
northeast France, Gens designed
a 114-m2 home for a pensioned
couple. Due to regulations the
architect had to give the house
a steeply pitched roof, based on
the roofs of neighbouring houses.
Because of the faux traditional
look this gave the house, the
project was named ‘Disneyland’.
Gens undermined the traditional
character by placing a relatively
small volume underneath the
e house is situated in an orchard. pitched roof. e ground floor is
a contemporary lo where kitchen,
living room and bedroom are
placed around a sauna. A small
mezzanine level can be used as
a guest room or study.
Gens association libérale d'architecture Nancy / Paris / Toulouse — France 093

e east gable is covered in larch planking.

Large shuers refer to nearby barns.
094 Mark 64 Long Section

e wooden framework supporting the roof has been le

open, allowing natural light coming through the window
in the east gable to filter down to the ground level.
Gens association libérale d'architecture Nancy / Paris / Toulouse — France 095

‘e last thing

we want to
do is try to be
original’

+1

09

0
01 Entrance
02 Kitchen
03 Living and dining area 01
04 Sauna 03
05 Bedroom
06 Bathroom
02
07 Storage 08
08 Terrace
09 Mezzanine
07 04

06 05

Cross Section e overhanging canopy provides shelter for the elongated terrace.
096 Mark 64 Long Section

A glass volume provides access to the studios on

the ground floor. e maisonees are accessible
via the adjacent town hall.
Gens association libérale d'architecture Nancy / Paris / Toulouse — France 097

An old barn was purchased by the town aer the death

of the owner and renovated into elderly housing.

Sud
Housing
Velle-sur-Moselle—France
2016
Velle-sur-Moselle is a hamlet 25 km south of Nancy. e
municipali commissioned Gens to remodel a dilapidated barn
next to the town hall into an apartment building. e social
housing scheme is designed to allow elderly people to remain in
the village once they are unable to care for their former homes.
e ground floor now offers three small studios and a common
room, upstairs there are two maisonees. To create an entrance
to the building and improve the light incidence, a slice of the
barn was removed on the south side. To make the volume blend
in with its surroundings, the architects covered it with grey
fibre-cement shingles, a widely used material in the region.
098 Mark 64 Long Section

+2

06 06

10 10
08 08

+1

09
09

Demolishing a part of the barn in Velle-sur-Moselle made it possible

07 07
to provide the maisonees with large glass windows facing south.
08 08

‘We all share an 0

interest in banali’ N

01

02

06 05 05 06 06 05

03
04 04 04

Long Section

01 Entrance to the maisonees

02 Entrance to the studios
03 Communal area
04 Studio
05 Kitchenee
06 Bathroom
07 Maisonee
08 Bedroom
09 Roof terrace
10 Void

On the inside of the elderly home, most of the rooms are white, but the hallway on
the ground floor that lends access to the common room features a blue leaf paern.
Gens association libérale d'architecture Nancy / Paris / Toulouse — France 099

Hangar Individuel
House
Pulnoy—France
2016
In a new district in Pulnoy, just outside Nancy, Gens realized
a house that they call an ‘architectural Janus face, vacillating
between normal and strange’. On the street side the house
has ‘normal’ proportions, but no windows. Façades are partly
plastered and partly covered in corrugated plastic. Half of the
roof is covered with tiles and half with polycarbonate sheeting.
Sliding doors made of corrugated metal sheets can be slid in
front of the big windows on the side of the building, giving the
house the character of a hangar.

e 121-m2 house was built for just €146,400.

100 Mark 64 Long Section

While the front façade is completely closed, the

side wall facing south has plen of windows.
Gens association libérale d'architecture Nancy / Paris / Toulouse — France 101

e double-height northern half of the house was

built with the ture in mind: extra rooms, which
could not be realized within the current budget,
can be added to the extra floor someday.

+1

08

08 06 07 06

04 05 02

01

03 07 06

01 Entrance
02 Garage
03 Living room
04 Kitchen
05 Pantry
06 Bedroom
07 Bathroom
08 Storage

‘e public Long Section

competition is
a delusional
phenomenon’
102 Mark 64 Long Section

Sergio Pirrone.
Photo Davide Pellegrino
 Architectural Photography 103

e
Architectural
Photographer
Is there still room for architectural photographers in
a world of digital cameras and online publications?

Text Ser io Pirrone

‘You should always keep in mind that your to these days? How can they make a living commercial centre where everybody can upload
passions should not lead you towards a life that now that the plethora of internet platforms and download images – just like we willingly
doesn’t make you happy.’ I lived in Too when I do not pay a single cent for their photographs? swallow any kind of colour l or junk food.
first heard this voice in my head. I was pursuing I wonder. You fill your tummy without realizing how!
my PhD in architecture and working at Shigeru e main thing to happen in the past ten Tens of thousands of images are automatically
Ban Architects. It was 2003 when I realized that years is the shi from the analogue world to the framed and can quickly be scrolled through in
rather than pursue a career in an architecture digital and how this has affected the profession. a stream that doesn’t leave many traces. e
office or at a universi, my real passion was to So many social changes have completely questions that consume me are these: Is it still
discover the world by means of a simple digital revolutionized communication, with new possible to recognize what professional quali
camera. Since then, things have developed at an professions popping up and the decline – is, and is it really impossible to be a recognized
overwhelming pace. if not the extinction – of others. e publishing professional architectural photographer without
I’ve oen wondered how other industry has entered an apparently irreversible being omnipresent in social media? at being
professional architectural photographers crisis due to the rapid increase in architecture said, sponsors have moved to wider networks,
started their careers and what pushed them websites, affecting many architectural many publishers have declared bankruptcy,
to take pictures of buildings. Whether they publishers adversely. e epochal migration others have had to modi their targets – as
work in their own countries or globetrot across of readers from the library bookshelves to did printers and distributors – and oen
the five continents, they tell the story of the the computer screen has made the access to editors have changed their job. So what has
changes in our built world, its inhabitants information about architecture so much more happened to the architectural photographers?
and their aspirations. When traveling from democratic: anyone can buy a digital camera Are they now an army of semi-professional
one photoshoot to another, I used to spend and, one second aer ‘clicking’, post their photos shooters, or rare and frustrated animals about
my waiting time before boarding looking for on some architecture website. And anyone can to become extinct? →
new publications and new contacts in airport enjoy architecture built anywhere in the world
kiosks. Now, those kiosks are oen devoid of by just looking at one of these many websites,
architecture magazines; they’ve been replaced from their sofa, for free.
by an overabundance of home-deco and luxury What was once a niche occupation, with
estate magazines. Who do the architectural photographers communicating with a bunch of
photographers I grew up with sell their photos architects and engineers, now resembles a large
104 Mark 64 Long Section

‘Architectural
photography
is no longer
a profession’
Duccio Malagamba (1960, Spain) isn’t happy with the
way in which architectural photography has developed.

You’ve photographed the work of many Spanish spend four to six days on each photoshoot, magazines is due to photographers who give
and Portuguese architects. What kind of and I still don’t manage to shoot a building away their photos free of charge to online
agreements did you have with them? in one day. publications?
DUCCIO MALAGAMBA: Renowned architects ey definitely have their part of the
rarely commissioned me to take photos, nor Online publications have become a responsibili. Many professional architectural
do I think they asked others. ey had several phenomenon that’s unavoidable in photographers have contributed to killing
photographers who spontaneously offered architecture. What kind of relationship do architecture magazines. Now they can get
their photos. My goal was to take the best you have with them? recognition faster, while before you had to
pictures, so that they would recommend mine A very bad one. ey don’t have any respect work your ass off. But what do they need such
to publishers interested in their work. Almost for photographers and I find it an insult to recognition for if nobody will pay for their
three quarters of my income was generated by our profession that photos are only published photos? is means hunger for everybody!
freelance work. But this doesn’t work anymore; if they don’t cost anything. My photos I have always tried to keep my photos off of
that source of income has just about dried up. have always been expensive because of the the internet, but in the last years I couldn’t
When I started out, there were only a handl dedication I devote to my work. I can’t give do anything against the blackmail by the
of architectural photographers in Spain. I them away for free. I have my principles, architects. ey demand the right to hand out
earned plen, though the costs were also very though I’m also frustrated. Pursuing my your photos to everyone. I have lost clients
high. In 2000, I splurged €45,000 to buy a profession had a deep impact on my lifesle. when I resed to accept that.
drum scanner to digitize my large-format films
and make editing possible . . . within a couple And what do you think of photographers who What’s your message for the new generations
of years it had become obsolete. constantly use online platforms instead? of architectural photographers?
I am outraged when professional I’m afraid ours is no longer a profession. I
e world has changed. From analogue to photographers have their photos published don’t see any bright ture for it. Architects
digital, from print to online, etcetera. How did on architecture blogs just a few weeks a er a will end up shooting their buildings by
you face the change? new building has been inaugurated. ey’re themselves. We’ve not been able to make it
In 2004, I bought my first digital camera and killing the projects, their work and their clear that our photos have an added value. We
stopped using my optical bench camera. But my colleagues. Magazines suffer too, because they are interpreters and critics, but it seems that
way of working hasn’t changed much. ough have no reason to publish a project that has nobody acknowledges this. I see a ture with
working digitally is faster, I like planning my already been seen by so many surfers. maybe five stellar architectural photographers
photos and preparing the right cut with the who will be lauded as idols. All the others will
correct light, and this requires time. I used to Are you saying that the crisis of print be starving. →
 Architectural Photography 105

Duccio Malagamba.
Photo Sergio Pirrone
106 Mark 64 Long Section

omas Mayer.
Photo Sergio Pirrone
 Architectural Photography 107

‘ings disappear, only

to come back again’
omas Mayer (1946, Germany) thinks the ture
photographer needs to collaborate and diversi.

Your career is long and heterogeneous. You’ve promote your work there? be popular, but when a copy of Mark or Detail
experienced various changes in socie and Yes, I like the possibili of being in contact comes out with their project on the cover, that’s
photography. with friends, architects and editors. I only use a different story. As young clients of mine told
THOMAS MAYER: at’s true, but my Facebook, by the way. It’s not a very serious me once: ‘Wow! Now we know how Naomi
approach has not really changed over the 50 means of promotion, but editors who are Campbell feels when she is on a cover!’ ey
years of my professional life. My photography Facebook friends can see some of my photos got new commissions because of that cover and
was never slish or mannered, but always there. en I send my newsleer. From time now they will always come back to me.
informative, and I was always hunting for to time I also look at Pinterest. ere are If you go to the bookshop at the
the right moments to capture. I’m interested very interesting pins about architecture and Düsseldorf train station, you won’t believe how
in social aspects and documentaries. In sometimes I get ideas from them. at was not many architecture, interior and decoration
architecture, besides iconic big buildings, my possible before, because magazines have always magazines there are. Definitely, some shut
interest lies in documenting well-designed been very selective. Now you can see anything; down, but others are coming up. I have realized
affordable housing. it’s a fantastic tool. I am open to this. in my career that lots of things disappear, only
Certainly, new technology makes things to come back again. It’s like fashion – people
much easier. Before one had to walk around Don’t you think that posting photos online are always looking for something new. is
with a Kelvin light meter, filters, different kinds decreases the chance of publishing and selling might also happen with magazines. And it
of lights, etcetera. Now all you need is a single them? also applies to architectural photography: I
RAW photo and some editing at home. No. Editors of print media know that internet wouldn’t be surprised if it will move back to the
is faster than they are. Unless the project is traditional way, without people in the photos,
But that editing is time-consuming, don’t you totally unknown, most projects are online for instance.
think? long before they can be found in print media.
Yes, that’s one of the downsides of digital Editors mind but they can’t do anything; it’s a What ture do you foresee for the next
photography. e time you spend at your desk fight against wind. I value print media more generations of architectural photographers?
is twice as long as the time you spend taking than online media, though. It’s nicer to be Quali will always be the keyword and
the photos. at used to be very different. printed and it has an impact that lasts longer. architects will always need professional
While traveling, in the evenings I would put the Also, the blogs should create a budget, at least photographers. But the number of
films in my suitcase and go out to have dinner for photographers who work freelance. ey photographers is constantly increasing and
with my wife and have a good time. Now I go offer to credit the images with my name, but it will need more outstanding talent to be
straight to my hotel room to download the my bakery doesn’t accept my name as payment successl. Film might become a normal
photos and to review and select them. at’s when I buy bread . . . addition to the work. Collaborations with
really a lower quali of life. My wife mostly people who share interests and visions will be
doesn’t join me anymore on my trips. She says: Many magazines are shuing down. Are there helpl. Exhibitions and the art market will
‘You only sit in front of a computer, why should chances for print magazines and books to become more important for some of us. But
I come along?’ I must learn from this and survive? staying curious and developing your skills will
change, and be more social. Yes, I think they will survive because they be essential – as it has always been. →
add a different value. Ask architects. It’s so
You’ve used the word ‘social’ a couple of times much more rewarding to be published in the
already. Are you into social media and do you print media. Design Boom or Architizer may
108 Mark 64 Long Section

‘Good
photography
always gets
a chance’
Brigida Gonzalez (1969, Germany)
hasn’t noticed much change in 15
years of architectural photography.

Have you moved from analogue to digital like I don’t think there has been a big change. faced difficulties, but I don’t know anyone
almost all architectural photographers? ough, in my opinion, publications have among my peers to whom that happened. Good
BRIGIDA GONZALEZ: No, I’m still working in become beer. When I look at digital and print photography always gets a chance.
both modes and my main equipment actually media, both of them are generally of very high
hasn’t changed at all. I use an analogue Linhof quali. Moreover, the information is reaching So you believe that, though ‘quanti’
camera, 4 × 5 inch, with Kodak Ektar 100 film, much wider audiences – which makes it in information about architecture has
and sometimes I add HMI Daylight lighting. even more important to present yourself in a undoubtedly increased, ‘quali’ will keep being
Besides that, I use a digital Leica SL. professional way. of the most importance in ture architectural
media?
Given your slender physique, that’s quite heavy Are you a ‘supporter’ of the many social In my opinion the individual sle of a
equipment. Do you have collaborators who help networks? Many architectural photographers photographer, his or her handwriting as it
you during photoshoots and post-production? accuse the internet of having killed their were, is becoming more and more important.
Yes, indeed. I usually have at least one assistant profession and eventually some of them had to e character of a building and, at the same
with me during the shoots. For the post- quit their job. time, its photographic illustration in the public
production, I have an excellent team that works Social media enable the quick dissemination realm is of crucial importance to architects. e
on the fine-tuning and they work exactly of projects and thus help them gain publici. topic of architecture, that is the environment
according to my instructions. And of course at makes them a very help l tool for both constructed for socie, is of increasing
there is a photo lab where the footage my clients and myself. Personally, my income significance, and with it also the media
is processed. has definitely increased, and I’ve also been coverage of it. e internet will always have the
able to live on my photography income since advantage of being able to react to new trends
In what way has the publishing world changed I started working as a photographer. I can in real-time, while magazines will always
over the last years, in your opinion? imagine that some colleagues might have deepen the topics. →
Architectural Photography 109

Brigida Gonzalez.
Photo Sergio Pirrone
110 Mark 64 Long Section

Bruce Damonte.
Photo Chris Talbo
 Architectural Photography 111

‘Controlling
one’s images
has become
challenging’
Bruce Damonte (1970, USA) saw the
publishing world turn into one big grey area.

How has our profession changed in the past ten Copyright infringement by editorial media is e good thing about the internet is that
years? something that you wrestle with all the time information about architecture has become
BRUCE DAMONTE: Ten years ago, film was as an architectural photographer, especially so accessible. How has this affected our
still common. Today, I think there are only a with online media. It’s a maer of picking your profession?
handl of veteran commercial architectural bales, realizing that there’s not much to gain I just hope that sharing ideas will lead to
photographers who shoot on film. Digital in most cases. more stimulating design for all, rather than
photography has made life both easier and the architecture becoming more homogenous.
more difficult: you can get more shots in a day Who are your clients? I imagine that the is has already happened with major cities
than you ever could when you needed to use percentage of income from architects and around the world becoming more and more
lights and gels to compensate for colour and media has shied. alike. But I think the ease to opine on the
contrast issues, fixing those things at your Architects make up 95 per cent of my clients. internet about various architectural stories is
leisure on your computer post-shoot. However, In the past ten years, the percentage of income interesting. Would Zaha Hadid’s To o stadium
therein lies the rub: instead of spending two from media has decreased a lot, but, in terms have been scrapped if not for the sort of global
days to get all the shots, you’re now doing of my total income, revenue from media has outcry that the web helped to facilitate? In the
them all in one day and spending a second day never been that substantial. I don’t think any past, you primarily had a handl of powerl
completing all the post-production. architectural photographer could make a architecture critics who decided what was a
living shooting editorial work alone. Editorial success or a failure. Now everyone has a voice.
is is in terms of tools and process. What has photography and photojournalism have always Is that a good thing or bad thing?
changed in terms of managing and publishing been challenging careers. It’s important work,
photos? and, yes, I fear for its ture. What will happen in ten years’ time?
Controlling one’s images has become much When I was a kid, I used to fantasize about
more challenging. Once a photo is published It seems you haven’t suffered from the shi how fantastical cars would be in 25 years. I
online, it invariably will be copied and appear from analogue to digital. Have the advances in have been very disappointed, with my favourite
in various blogs and webzines without your technology improved our profession? car still being the same [Porsche] 911 that I
knowledge. In those cases, I frankly just hope Actually, it has benefited me since I embraced loved then. Fads come and go, and technologies
they give me credit for the image. Even the digital from the beginning, whereas lots of change, but even with trillions of still images
beer-known design publishers and websites my more experienced competitors clung to being printed, posted and shared, some will
fail to do so occasionally. Also, maintaining analogue as long as they could. I’m not quite stand out ever so slightly from all the rest.
image rights is more complicated with sites down to shooting with a phone yet, but it is Architects will always want great photos of
like Houzz and Pinterest, which are based on going in that direction! at said, the evolution their projects so that they can get more work,
‘shared’ content. in professional-quali digital cameras has been publish monographs, win awards. _
is concept of sharing online much slower than in photographic technologies
introduces a lot of grey area for photographers’ for consumers. More megapixels doesn’t really
rights. In fact, it seems like the entire change things that much, other than creating
publishing world is becoming one big grey area. the need for more powerl computers.
112 Mark 64 Long Section

Anything
You
Want

Rafael Beneytez of Z4Z4

Architects astonishes
with a house that contains
countless quotations.

Text
David Cohn

Photos
Ima enSubliminal (Mi uel
de Guzmán / Rocío Romero)
Z4Z4 Architects Madrid — Spain 113
114 Mark 64 Long Section

e house is located on a south-facing slope.

architects take on the role of the medium

Many
in a séance when designing a work: in their
obsessive fascination for certain emblematic
works of the architectural canon, as well as
other cultural icons, they summon forth their
spirits for conceptual reincarnation. Few,
however, manage to convoke as many of these
ghostly apparitions in a single place as Rafael
Beneytez and his team at Z4Z4 Architects,
with their Toboan House, located in the
northern suburbs of Madrid. We can cite, for
starters, Mies, Corb, Philip Johnson and the
California Case Study Houses, and wrap up
with contemporaries such as Koolhaas, Moneo
and Dan Graham.
 Z4Z4 Architects Madrid — Spain 115

But even fewer manage to pull off such imagined the client living out certain fantasies When first encountering the Toboan House,
conjurations with this much originali and – presumably working with her in playl we see the three interconnected cylinders of its
aplomb. Beneytez describes the work as a collusion. He cites, for example, the scenario upper bedroom level raised above the sloping
‘postmodern exquisite corpse’ of citations and for ‘the grand entrance’, in which the client, site on a welter of struts and trusses. As we
set pieces. Holding the whole thing together is a dressed for the evening and arriving fashionably enter the grounds, we discover the below-
romantic narrative inspired by and dedicated to late, descends a spiral staircase from her grade living level underneath the cylinders. It
the client – or more precisely, to the person who boudoir to receive her guests in the living occupies a trench cut entirely through the site
took the leading role for the clients, a childhood room (Villa Savoye, Nude Descending a Staircase, and overlooks sunken gardens at either end.
friend of the architect who lives in the house etcetera). Beneytez collects the highlights of his Between these two levels, the space at grade
with her husband and three children. architectural and cultural training like a bouquet is almost completely open, with a driveway
In a design process that stretched out of exquisite flowers, in order to lay them at the that passes through the middle of the house
over seven years and four different project feet of his client and to invoke a playl fantasy. (Beneytez copied the drawings of cars on the
proposals, Beneytez created the house as As in the movies of Luis Buñuel and Pedro plans for – guess what – the Villa Savoye). e
a collage of different ‘cinematic scenarios’, Almodóvar, the house is a fetishized stage set, carport overlooks a double-height atrium, with
inspired by classic movies, in which he steeped in desire and seductive, campy wit. plants and palm trees, that divides the lower →
116 Mark 64 Long Section

‘e house is a fetishized stage set, steeped

in desire and seductive, campy wit’
 Z4Z4 Architects Madrid — Spain 117

Top e lower floor is contained between two

long concrete walls.

Le e three cylinders that form the top floor

are finished with reflective vinyl sheeting.

floor in two, and is shaded by the cylinders armature of steel struts, like the solar shields the form of a renunciation. Beneytez worked
overhead. e atrium separates the living area, on a NASA space probe. for seven years in the studio of Rafael Moneo,
including a bar, gym and Turkish bath, from e architectural references continue and wearied of an architecture he found all too
the dining area, kitchen and service spaces with additional direct citations: the plan of ‘massive’ and ‘material’. In reaction, he wrote
(the built work differs from the plans in many the ground floor, Beneytez maintains, copies his doctoral thesis on ‘e Representation of
respects). When the sliding glass walls of Mies van der Rohe’s Morris House (Weston, Atmosphere in Architecture’. He professes
the living room are open, the atrium creates Connecticut, 1955), and the cylinders invoke his fascination for an architecture that, like
a chimney effect for ventilation, while the the visual ambiguities of Dan Graham’s the work of Dan Graham, ‘dissolves into
concrete retaining walls even out temperature curving Pavilion pieces. At a more basic level, transparencies and reflections’. For him, the
changes. With its uninterrupted but articulated the sectional partí brings us back to Rem greatest feat of his design is ‘to dismount
spaces and its shaded, fractured and indirect Koolhaas’s 1998 Maison à Bordeaux, which in the centre of the house, its centre of gravi ,’
light, this level offers a contemporary update turn is a vertical pile of different spaces from citing the upper space of the atrium, ‘where
of what critic Luis Fernández Galiano has Philip Johnson’s residential compound in New everything happens though nothing is there’.
called ‘the enchanted forest’ of many organicist Canaan, Connecticut: the Glass Pavilion, the In this respect, the work reminds me of
houses built in the 1960s by Madrilenian matching, but windowless, bedroom pavilion another gravi -deing tour-de-force of recent
architects such as Fernando Higueras or and the underground Painting Gallery. years, Antón García-Abril’s Hemeroscopium
Javier Carvajal. While Koolhaas emphasized the solidi House outside Madrid (Mark 15, page 136).
Beneytez considers the top floor as of the elevated upper volume, Beneytez seeks Its structure consists of a spiral of giant
a completely different realm, like a second its dematerialization. He maintains that like highway bridge beams of every description,
house. e cylinders form a series of warm, its layered skin, the ‘heterogonous’ system of counterbalanced against one another around
enclosing spaces that open into one another support trusses ‘counterbalances gravi ’. To an enormous spatial void, in which the actual
via sliding pocket doors. e curving exterior this observer, however, Mies’s Farnsworth living quarters are something of an anecdote.
walls are continuously lined with lacquered House, with its regular white columns, has a In comparison, the Toboan House is quite
shelving and cabinets. ey are interrupted far lighter visual impact. To the stately, classical domestic and nuanced. But Beneytez shares
only by a single window-balcony in each space stride of the Farnsworth, Beneytez responds García-Abril’s ambition and macho exuberance,
that overlooks the sline of Madrid. On the with cacophonous improvisations, and with his bad-boy transgressive, aressive defiance
exterior, the architects sought to dematerialize such unbridled enthusiasm that a column ends of the profession’s staid norms of conduct. His
the volumes, finishing the heavily insulated up smack in the middle of the main flight of Toboan House confirms the old adage that
walls with reflective vinyl sheeting (‘Like a stairs, and another in the path of the rear door if you want to be anything in life, including
thermos,’ Beneytez says) and wrapping them, at (the architect a ributes these to client changes respectable, the first thing you’ve got to do is
a considerable distance, in a second, permeable a er construction began). grab everyone’s a ention. A er that you can do
skin of micro-perforated aluminium screens. But within this formal agitation we anything you want. _
ese extend outwards on an awkward find yet another ghostly presence, this time in z4z4.es
118 Mark 64 Long Section

e architect refers to the atrium as a

‘greenhouse-stage’, a space that lends
domestic life a cinematic quali.

‘e first thing you’ve got to

do is grab everyone’s aention’
 Z4Z4 Architects Madrid — Spain 119

+1

14 13

14 14
13
13

13 13
14

0
01 Living area
02 Turkish bath
10
and fitness centre
03 Kitchen
04 Dining area
05 Service space
06 Atrium
07 ‘Grotesque Garden’
08 ‘Garden for the Good Life’
09 Pool 12
10 Driveway
11 Carport
12 Entrance
13 Bedroom
14 Bathroom 11

10

- 1

04

05
01
07
09 08 06

03 05

02

Long Section
120 Mark 64 Long Section

Living in
a Diagram
 BIG New York — NY — USA 121

BIG’s first New York apartment

building is a formal experiment
with plainly appointed units.

Text Photos
Reed Miller Iwan Baan
122 Mark 64 Long Section
 BIG New York — NY — USA 123

Above e saw tooth brickwork in the

entrance lobby on street level alludes
to the sharply clad façades.

Since
Opposite e top ten floors are emp
shells and only serve to complete the
form of the building.

the first renderings of VIA surfaced early in a verdant cour ard. In reali , VIA’s skin is precarious stack of glass and aluminium blocks.
2011, many have ventured to describe its form. broken by complex and hierarchical textures. Its zigzag floor plates create kaleidoscopic
Aempts range from the easy ‘triangle’ or e most delicate is a mesh of offset seams reflections and multiplications that intensi the
‘pyramid’, to the mathematical ‘tetrahedron’ where steel panels meet. At the boom edge building’s essential contrast: while its smooth
or ‘hyperbolic paraboloid’, to the more poetic of each panel is an upturned cleat designed southwest façade suests a unified, sculptural
‘wing’ or ‘sail’. To me these first images didn’t to slow and disperse snowmelt; together the whole, the north and east façades reveal the
evoke any particular object as much as they cleats subtly add depth and contrast. Building parts that make it up. Approaching from this
did a set of commands – so I opened Rhino cleaners will soon descend VIA’s slope on a side, one sees the sweeping, curved façade for
(any CAD soware will do). I began with a series of parallel steel rails set flush with the what it (also) is – a roof.
rectangular footprint, added two triangular façade panels. ese pinstripes lead to the VIA is BIG’s first complete building
walls meeting to form a peak in one corner, surface’s upper reaches, where monorails for in the United States. Conceptually, it was
selected the four line segments that would maintenance vehicles trace VIA’s profile like conceived as a bridge between this new
become the edges of that mysterious curved heavy lines in a drawing. ese utilitarian territory and the firm’s native Copenhagen.
façade, and used them to ‘lo’ a ruled surface details actually make the surface’s curvature A whole chapter in BIG’s latest book – Hot
over the wire frame. It was a passable diagram, more legible, and to BIG’s credit, the building to Cold, published just over a year before
but it’s simpler to say VIA looks like a maintains its diagrammatic nature at ll scale. VIA’s completion – recounts early modelling
mountain, or the edge of a woodworker’s rasp. e firm’s founding partner, Bjarke Ingels, experiments that focused on a pical building
e 142-m, 709-unit building isn’t so takes pride in VIA’s apparent simplici and pe from each location. One diagram presents
simple. From the corner of 57th Street and the straightforward design process behind it. the project as a simple sum: American high-
West Side Highway, the building advances and He recalls: ‘We didn’t do much to arrive at this rise plus European cour ard block equals VIA.
recedes at the same time, pushing a gradient form.’ is equation also gave BIG a title for their
of light across its expansive façade. Early is view is half the story, though. From chapter on this project, the vexing portmanteau
renderings of this view show a seamless, near- the opposite corner on 58th Street between ‘courtscraper’, which somehow evokes neither
white surface punctured only by balconies and 11th Avenue and the highway, VIA is a neat, the image of a cour ard nor a sscraper →
124 Mark 64 Long Section

‘We didn’t do much to arrive at this form'

BIG New York — NY — USA 125

According to Bjarke Ingels,

the courard has the same
proportions as Central Park,
but 13,000 times smaller.

so much as a noisy piece of construction

equipment. Despite the nny name they gave
it, BIG’s concept is clear, and it ambitiously
promises a new building pe, equal parts
Manhaan and Copenhagen.
It’s safe to say VIA’s site presented
the first challenge. e building is located in
Hell’s Kitchen on Manhaan’s West Side. A
regular street grid, high-rise offices towers and
industrial blocks lining the Hudson River define
a neighbourhood so unlike Copenhagen that
outwardly channelling any Scandinavian charm
proved difficult. Between the window displays
and glossy logos of high-end car dealerships and
the hiss of traffic on the West Side Highway, the
approach to VIA feels distinctly automotive. e
building’s sharp, sculpted body of bead-blasted
stainless steel fits right in.
VIA is Manhaan-ready in its vertical
composition, too. Compare it to Mies’s Seagram
Building, the archepal modern American
sscraper that sits just ten blocks away
in Midtown East. Both rest on tall, glassy
platforms; both have finely textured middle
portions that house their habitable floors (nearly
the same number of them, in fact); and both
are capped by service spaces that screen their
mechanical equipment. roughout Manhaan,
these three ubiquitous elements recall a classical
order: base, column, capital. Here the order takes
on new proportions.
VIA graciously leans toward 58th
Street, as if to ask the neighbouring high-rise:
‘Am I in your way?’ It would be a remarkably
polite gesture were it not the case that the two
buildings share an owner, who no doubt wanted
to preserve the river views from his occupied
building. In introducing the project, Ingels
emphasizes the coevolution of VIA’s design and
his professional relationship with Douglas Durst
of the Durst Organization, a prolific Manhaan
developer behind residential and commercial
towers throughout the ci. e unobstructed
neighbour, called Helena a er Durst’s daughter,
is totally conventional in comparison to VIA, a
hint that Durst’s decision to hire Ingels was a
step outside the comfort zone in which financial
and commercial forces shape buildings.
e Danish influence – or at least the
BIG influence – comes through at the north and
east façades, where the sharply clad apartments
bring to mind many of BIG’s residential projects
in Denmark. eir VM Houses (Mark 2, page
60), e Mountain (Mark 15, page 102), and their
proposal for the Aarhus docklands, for example,
all rely on the same use of texture, marriage
of distinct building pes, and resemblance to
landform that make VIA stand out in New York. →
126 Mark 64 Long Section

Above e courard is for communal use.

It’s the courard, though, that theoretically a formal experiment, a ll-scale test of the idea Below Many apartments offer views
makes the building cross-cultural. At the that diagrams of two common building pes of the Hudson River.

time of writing, it is red with meandering can be crossed to form a new one that offers the
brick, green with young plants and brown best of both. e result is an iconic and exciting
with mulch. A lone tree reaches above the contribution to New York’s s line that in many
court’s walls, barely making itself visible ways is a product of its surroundings. Glimpses
from the street. e Manhaan-based of Scandinavian living appear at the hands of an
firm Starr Whitehouse completed the final architect with bold and recognizable taste. VIA
landscape design, but Ingels recalls his team’s is one part Copenhagen, two parts Manhaan,
characteristically playl inspiration for the three parts BIG. _
space. ‘We simply dropped an aerial image of big.dk
Central Park into the plan,’ says Ingels. ‘e
courard has the same proportions as the park
– it’s just 13,000 times smaller.’ BIG’s graphical
use of what is arguably Manhaan’s greatest
shared resource speaks to a Scandinavian
interest in creating residential space that is ‘not
public, not private, but communal’. However,
the very features that define many great 19th-
century parks – winding paths, naturalistic
terrain, water features – make VIA’s courard
feel like a miniature. It slopes into the building,
displaying itself rather than the riverfront. Its
proximi to the building’s screening, poker and
virtual golf rooms only strengthens the feeling
that it’s more an item on the list of amenities
than a defining urban feature.
Many of VIA’s apartments boast
fantastic views of both the courard and
the Hudson River. Still, many are necessarily
amorphous and may prove difficult to rnish.
Walking through the cleanly, plainly appointed
units, one gets the sense that they were
designed to be marketable and inoffensive,
that they don’t bear the conceptual weight
of the project. A er all, VIA is essentially
 BIG New York — NY — USA 127

+1 +3

‘VIA is one part Copenhagen, two parts

Manhaan, three parts BIG'
128 Mark 64 Long Section

Guiding Light
Spaceworkers’ latest two projects share one feature: they
guide their users by organizing space in clever ways.

Text
Ana Martins

Photos
Sergio Pirrone
 Spaceworkers Paredes — Portugal 129

Rui Dinis (le) and Henrique Marques.

130 Mark 64 Long Section

Architects
Rui Dinis and Henrique Marques set up
practice in their hometown of Paredes, a small
ci about 30 km north of Porto, in 2007. Aer
founding Spaceworkers together with Carla
Duarte, who is responsible for the studio’s
management and finance, the duo has been
working together from beginning to end in all
their designs. As they put it: ‘We don’t think
about projects unless we are thinking together,
sharing ideas and critiques.’
As we travel from their studio to
Cabo de Vila in Paredes, and then to the
Interpretation Centre of the Romanesque
in Lousada, a village nearby, they point to
several of their projects, some already built,
others whose first stones are being laid.
‘is crossroads is ours,’ they joke, speaking
of an area where on almost every corner
there is a house designed by them. e
conversation about Cabo de Vila and the
Interpretation Centre, completed in 2015 and
2016, respectively, continues throughout the
aernoon in the same lively tone. As they put
forward the concepts and stories behind the
two designs, a singular architectural language,
developed through a ‘form follows emotion’
maxim, begins to unveil itself.

What concepts informed the design of Cabo de

Vila House?
HENRIQUE MARQUES: e project can
be understood through two key premises.
First, the plot has spectacular views, so we
wanted every part of the house to have a direct
relationship to the exterior. We achieved this by
opening the house to the movement of the sun
on the eastern and western façades, and closing
it a bit more to the north. e house nctions
almost as an arrow pointing towards the valley,
and we really liked the idea of establishing a
contrast between the rural landscape and this
strange, contemporary object. Second, because
of the clients’ lifesle, it was paramount
that the house not have a conventional
compartmentalization. So we developed the
project around the idea of a house without an
end, in which spaces are well defined, without
needing doors to establish divisions.

How did you achieve this fluid partition?

RUI DINIS: A crucial role is played by the
courard. As the central element it ranks the
interior spaces, helping us separate the social
from the private areas. Around it we have
the kitchen, dining room, living room and
office, and then a curved wall that closes off
the house’s private spaces in such a way that
the fluidi of the social spaces is also present
in the private areas. en there is the idea of
giving back the outdoors when you enter the
house: from the moment you open →
 Spaceworkers Paredes — Portugal 131

e Cabo de Vila House offers a

magnificent view of the surroundings.
132 Mark 64 Long Section

e roof projects outward to provide protection

from the sun, while the base of the building
does the same, creating a terrace.

the main door, even though your back is to In many of our projects, we use concrete
the surrounding nature, that very nature is that still shows the imprint of the wooden
returned to you through the courard. formwork. By representing a natural material
through an artificial one, we return the
How did the clients’ personali play into the surrounding nature to the house in a figurative
design? manner. Other than that, clients want solid,
MARQUES: ey didn’t want a conventional durable materials that minimize the need of
house, they wanted a home that spoke to their maintenance, and concrete is a solution that
way of life. When we presented the project we answers all of these requirements.
told them: ‘Look, we don’t have a square here,
we have a thing.’ e house has a very peculiar Did you use it in the Interpretation Centre
shape, so we were afraid they wouldn’t accept for the same reasons?
it, but it was probably one of the factors that MARQUES: No, in that case, we wanted
captivated them the most. to build a parallel with the Romanesque
period, to reinterpret the feelings that the
e garage is radically different from the rest constructions of that era lend us, transposing
of the house’s pristine white walls and glass them to the stone, the scale, the light, and
façades. the technical capacities of our days.
DINIS: More and more people arrive at and
leave their homes through the garage, so in How did the project come about?
our projects, this area usually receives a lot MARQUES: In 2011, we designed the
of aention. We used corrugated aluminium Romanesque Route’s stand for BTL, an
sheets, the same material people around here international tourism fair held in Lisbon.
use to build garden sheds. rough a play of e budget was low, the deadline tight, but we
light and colour, and the reflection of the managed to comply with everything, as well
cars on the aluminium walls, this is a clean, as make something visible at a time when the
lively space. Route wanted to reaffirm itself. A er that, they
challenged us to design the Information Centre
And in the exterior, why did you use concrete? of the Romanesque Route [completed in 2013]
MARQUES: We like to play with its plastici. and the Interpretation Centre. →
 Spaceworkers Paredes — Portugal 133

Cabo de Vila House

Paredes—Portugal—2015
e 340-m2 villa has four slightly
concave façades and a central,
irregularly shaped patio. Large floor-
to-ceiling windows and sliding doors
offer views in all directions from the
streamlined interior. A huge garden
with a swimming pool completes the
luxurious picture.

e architects were also responsible for the interior design.

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What is the idea behind it?

DINIS: ere is great diversi in the civil,
military and religious architecture of the
Romanesque period, but within that diversi,
there is uni – we look at a building and,
given a series of characteristics, we are able
to identi it as a Romanesque construction.
is idea of uni within diversi informed
the theme of the Interpretation Centre. at
is where the seven concrete volumes, with
different ceilings, heights and compositions,
result from. Our idea was for the sensations
transmied by the centre to take us back
to what we feel inside churches and other
buildings of the Romanesque period, so each
volume reinterprets those sensations.

Why seven volumes?

MARQUES: ey represent the magic number!
DINIS [surprised]: What?
MARQUES [laughing]: No, the number of
volumes answers directly to the centre’s
operation programme, which is divided into e patio divides the house into zones and provides extra light.
seven units: a reception, a cafeteria, and five
thematic rooms.

How did you organize the spaces?

MARQUES: We want people to instantly
understand the path they should take, through
the organization of space, without the need of
doors or signs. →
 Spaceworkers Paredes — Portugal 135

0
01 Entrance
02 Living room
03 Dining room
04 Kitchen
05 Scullery
06 Patio
07 Garage
08 Master bedroom
09 Bedroom
10 Kitchen
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8.5
11 Storage 19

‘Light 03
02

defines
the path 10

to be 09

taken’ 10 08

Long Section

Cross Section
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Centro de Interpretação do Românico

Lousada—Portugal—2016
e Romanesque Route is a tour of 58 monuments in the north of Portugal,
along the valleys of three rivers: the Sousa, the Tâmega and the Douro. e
newly completed Interpretation Centre is a complementary structure that
provides background information about the Romanesque period and its
monuments. Seven volumes, each with a different pe of roofing inspired
by Romanesque architecture, are linked by a connecting corridor.
 Spaceworkers Paredes — Portugal 137

e entrance of the interpretation centre is a

reinterpretation of a Romanesque church gate.
138 Mark 64 Long Section

DINIS: Exactly, the cuts we inserted in each shadow are also important in the sense that
volume indicate the route to be followed. For they help us understand shapes and define
instance, the fact that the entrance volume nctional areas.
is missing a wall in the right corner, clearly DINIS: Yes, in the Interpretation Centre light
indicates the direction one should go in. is basically defines the path to be taken from each
happens in all of the volumes: the way the section to the next.
entrances and exits relate to each other ranks MARQUES: But we do this very naturally,
the spaces and guides the visitors. almost as an allusion to our most basic
instincts – for a man living in a cave, light
e dichotomies between light and shadow, indicates the way out.
exterior and interior play an important role in
both projects. What other concepts inspire your architecture?
MARQUES: Portuguese architecture is oen MARQUES: We like to have a negative to the
about the constant search for the balance shape, an emp space that helps us organize
between light and shadow, and how these the rest of the space. In almost all our projects,
factors affect the relationship between exterior we try to make a haven that we can control,
and interior. Even though we don’t necessarily that shelters the interior life from indiscrete
belong to a particular school, there’s a lot that looks and in a way helps us build a shape.
ends up influencing our work. Our projects In the Interpretation Centre, that haven is
are oen far away from big urban centres, so a covered street, in the houses it’s almost
for us it makes even more sense to intensi always a small courard, an exterior pocket
these relationships – we have interesting of decompression, like in Cabo de Vila. _
surroundings that we can explore. Light and spaceworkers.pt
 Spaceworkers Paredes — Portugal 139

‘Portuguese architecture is about

the constant search for the balance
between light and shadow’

‘Our idea was to recreate a medieval street, with all the

disorganization that that entails,’ the architects say.
140 Mark 64 Long Section

e corridor that runs through the building has a

glass roof. At night, LEDs inside the wooden beams
highlight the geometry of the glass structure.
 Spaceworkers Paredes — Portugal 141

0 +2

04

05
03

06

05

05

05

05

- 1 +1
01 Garage
02 Storage
03 Reception
04 Cafeteria
05 Exhibition space 02
06 Office

01

06
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Fix and Flip

French art collector In 1989, Patrick Seguin and his wife Laurence
opened a gallery in Paris, selling rniture and
Tuileries, on the occasion of the Paris art fair
FIAC. It is the biest building by Prouvé in
and dealer Patrick other objects designed by architects like Jean
Prouvé, Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier.
Seguin’s possession.
e buildings that Seguin sold earlier,
Seguin restores and Before this, Seguin ran in completely different
professional circles: for 12 years he worked
ended up in possession of collectors around the
world. ‘ e gallery works in collaboration with
sells demountable as a manager in various restaurants and various architects and collectors who adapt
nightclubs. ‘Our first purchases were a Jean these houses for current-day use,’ says Seguin.
homes designed by Prouvé Compas table and Standard chairs,’ ‘For example, Korean collectors adapted one as

Jean Prouvé. says Seguin, ‘and we were immediately excited

about him, even though many people weren’t
a teahouse in Seoul. French art dealer Enrico
Navarra uses two of them as guesthouses in
familiar with his work at the time.’ Without a the south of France. Proper investor Patrick
formal education, but with a trove of gradually McKillen, who owns a vineyard in the south
Text garnered practical experience, in the last 27
years the couple has managed to become one
of France, uses one as an art, architecture
and design library. Swiss art patron Maya
David Keunin of the most important dealers in French mid- Hoffmann and fashion designer Miuccia Prada
century design in the world. Prouvé is now an also collect Prouvé houses. Another fashion
established celebri of French 20th-century designer, Azzedine Alaïa, sleeps inside a Prouvé

Photos architecture.
Unlike most of his colleagues, Seguin
gas station that he bought from the gallery
over 15 years ago and installed in his Paris lo.
Galerie Patrick Se uin does not limit himself to rniture, but also
dabbles in architecture. Prouvé designed many
Painter and photographer Richard Prince has
one of these houses in his art hangar called
small demountable buildings that, generally, Body Shop in upstate New York. Two of our
were not very successl and, over the years, American collectors are currently readapting
were demolished or changed so much they their Prouvé houses: one in the Hamptons and
are now unrecognizable. Seguin tracks down one in Utah. A Japanese collector bought the
those that remain, transports them to his Jean Prouvé BCC House of 1942 for his art
workshop in Nancy (where Pouvré had his foundation in Too, Japan.’
studio), restores them and sells them. ese Seguin and his wife have kept one
buildings, designed for cheap mass production, building by Prouvé for their private use: they
sell for millions in his gallery. e asking asked Richard Rogers to alter the small house,
price for the most recent of these on offer, the measuring 6 × 6 m, for use as a movable
Maxéville Design Office from 1948, is €3.8 holiday proper in both the Mediterranean and
million. Seguin found the building, measuring the Alps – so it has to nction at temperatures
10 × 12 m (plus a canopy of 2 × 12 m) in late from -15 to 35 °C. Rogers designed two
2014, dismantled it in early 2015, restored it cylinder-shaped expansions with a kitchen and
in 18 months and presented the result during a bathroom and some trolleys that regulate the
Design Miami in Basel, last June. ‘We have two water supply and solar energy.
collectors that have shown serious interest in
it,’ says Seguin aer the exhibition. ‘But even We’re siing in the Maxéville Design Office in
if the collectors have a real coup de coeur for Basel. What do you know of its history?
these houses, buying a Prouvé house takes a bit PATRICK SEGUIN: It was named aer the
longer than buying a table and chairs.’ suburb of Nancy, where Prouvé had his studio,
Seguin’s workshop in Nancy contains, and served as an engineering office. It was
at this moment, 23 houses by Prouvé. Nine situated opposite Prouvé’s private office at the
are for sale; the others are in various states of entrance to the Maxéville plant. e premises
reconstruction. e next presentation on the had 11 buildings. ere was a mechanical
list is that of the Bouqueval School, also from workshop, a painting workshop, and so forth.
1948. e pavilion, measuring 8 × 24 m, will be Many models, drawings and proto pes were
reconstructed in October in the garden of the produced in this office. →
 Patrick Seguin Paris — France 143

Patrick Seguin inside his apartment

in the Marais district of Paris.
144 Mark 64 Long Section

e Maxéville Design office

aer restoration in Nancy.

Prouvé had an interesting philosophy. For Among other things, the overall shape of the instance, Belgium and many other European
both his buildings and his rniture, he used building gave it away. e Maxéville Design countries, had a Ministry of Reconstruction
technology from the car and airplane industry. Office has properties that are very similar to and Urban Development a er the war, but had
e portal columns in the middle of this space the Métropole House, which we had already already started thinking about the post-war
are made of 1 mm bent steel, they’re structural. restored. e only difference is the canopy, housing situation during the occupation. So
In 1936 he bought this huge Pels metal pressing which is the signature quali of the building. Prouvé said: ‘I’m a skilled architect, I prefer
and folding machine; the length of bend was e steel structure, including the roof, ready-made homes, I have my folding machine,
4 m. e columns we’re looking at were made was in very good shape. e wood that was and I will make a house that can be assembled
with that machine. Now, it’s welded and used for the walls and the floor was in less by three people.’ at’s it. But people weren’t
painted, so it looks solid, but it’s hollow. good condition. Prouvé was not a man of wood. interested in living in a barrack.
Prouvé le his company in 1953. We did make a few repairs to the steel structure
Aluminium Français had brought in capital in here and there. For instance, an electrici So they were made for regees in emergency
1949 and from that moment onwards owned socket was built into one of the portal columns situations. e intention was to mass produce
the majori of the factory. ey didn’t agree on at one point. We have mended that. e steel them as cheaply as possible. How do you
company policy. Prouvé was very economical structure has stood the test of time though; it’s reconcile the idealistic principles behind
in his use of aluminium. e way he dealt 70 years old and looks fantastic. Prouvé’s work with trading his pieces for so
with air conditioning in the Maxéville Design much money?
Office, for instance, is very low-tech. It has What did Jean Nouvel do to the building? Jean Nouvel once said to me: ‘Either these
sliding shu ers with ventilation vents that When we found it, it was comprised of a houses die, or you give them a second chance to
are extremely lightweight. Why use 50 kg of ground floor built of brick, with the steel live again.’ at’s what we’re doing.
steel when 2 kg is enough? Aluminum Français structure as the first floor on top of it.
joined the company in order to urge Prouvé to Ferembal, a building we did before, had the In a way you make the houses more successl
sell more aluminium, but Prouvé had goals that same setup. Masonry is not demountable, now than they ever were in the past.
were opposite to that. and I would never be able to build a brick Prouvé had good intentions. He said, for
When Prouvé slammed the door construction on a trade fair like this, or in the instance: ‘No camps. e trauma of the war is
behind him and le , the site was abandoned. Tuileries, or in any museum on the planet. So enough for now. So if one house is destroyed in
His buildings were never liked. Most of the I went to see Jean, and I told him: ‘It’s crazy. It a village by a bomb, we’ll build one house. We’ll
buildings on the plant were destroyed. Only takes a month to rebuild the masonry, which build another one 6 km down the road. But we
one remained, but nobody knew because it is not even by Prouvé – I’m talking about don’t do identical structures in rows.’ In spite
was altered beyond recognition and eventually Ferembal now – and then a day to build the of that, the Prouvé family archive holds a le er
even used as a swinger’s club called e Boun . house itself.’ So Nouvel came up with the from a man who wrote to the architect: ‘I’m
When we found it, there were TV screens idea of Ductal, a concrete reinforced with sending you back the key, because I don’t want
on the walls, and I can tell you they were aluminium fibres by Lafarge. He reduced to live in a barrack like this.’ Designing houses
not used for watching CNN. e owners had the 3.5-m-tall masonry to a demountable for emergency situations is very difficult, even
covered those beautil portal columns with foundation of only 70 cm. at’s what we need today. I remember seeing the house Shigeru
sheeting because they didn’t like them. And an architect for. Ban did for the a ermath of the earthquake in
they had made a false ceiling and a bar. It was Kobe. It looked very pre y, but the practical
unbelievable. For what purpose did Prouvé originally design usabili eventually almost always turns out to
these houses? be limited. _
How did you recognize it was a building e 6 × 6 m and the 6 × 9 m houses were built patrickseguin.com
by Prouvé? as post-war emergency housing. France, as, for
 Patrick Seguin Paris — France 145

e Restauration of the
Maxéville Design Office
Patrick Seguin knows a lot about Jean
Prouvé’s designs, but he is not an architect.
For the architectural aspects of the
restoration of the buildings by Prouvé he
regularly (but not exclusively) works with
the office of Jean Nouvel. e office that, in
this case, designed the foundation of the
house, consisting of stacks of tiles to equalize
the surface, and the stairs to the raised
ground floor. When Seguin discovered the
building in Nancy in late 2014, it consisted
of a ground and first floor, but the columns
holding up the veranda and parts of the
veranda itself hadn’t survived. Nouvel’s office
also designed a very thin isolation layer for
the roof, just a few centimetres thick, so that
it would not show on the outside. e steel
support structure has been le untouched
where possible. All layers of paint added
aer the original finish have been removed
e Maxéville Design Office in its original
and the original conserved. state on the Maxéville plant site.
e building was built on a grid of
1 × 1 m and most panels have that width. e
modulari makes it possible to rearrange
the façade elements. For example, the front and two smaller ones on the right; aer the
originally had a wide window on the le restoration the wide window was placed
between the others. is flexibili is, at least
according to Seguin, inherent to the ideas
and methods of Prouvé. An eventual buyer
‘Either these houses can rearrange the façade elements according
to his or her own wishes.
die, or you give e steel was still in excellent
condition. A hole was sawed in one of the
them a second two portals to accommodate an electrici
socket. at was fixed. Several steel jambs
chance to live again’ in the rear façade were damaged and partly
corroded on the bo om. e corroded parts
were cut off at an angle and replaced. Other
than that, all of the steel, including the roof
e Maxéville Design Office as found in late 2014.
construction, is completely original.
e openings in the rear façade of the
building are fi ed with sliding windows
and shu ers. Underneath each window,
incorporated in the façade, is a mechanism
comprised of two sets of two springs: one
set for the sliding window and one set for
the sliding shu er. ese were also almost
complete when found, with just a few small
parts in need of replacement. All of the wood
of the floors and walls, which was in a very
bad condition, has been replaced with pine
treated to be as close in colour to the original
wood as possible.
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e San Franciso Museum of Modern Art.

Photo Jon McNeal / Snøhea

Growing
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London’s Tate Modern.

Photo Wade Zimmerman

Organically
Like many museums, SFMOMA and Tate Modern
just keep growing. But the art and the visitors are
more important than appearances.

Text
Michael Webb
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e addition is clad with rippling panels

of fibre-reinforced polymer.
Photo Henrik Kam / SFMOMA

For
sharks, moving forward is the key to things, a lack of adequate gallery space. Both
survival, and art museums share some of are stacked ten storeys tall and located to the
that compulsion. It’s a race to keep up with rear, conducting a dialogue with the original
the proliferation of new work, to satis block and the streets behind. e geometry
donors, and boost aendance. Increasingly, and skin of the new contrasts sharply with the
this obsession with growth has distorted orthogonal mass of the old, and the interiors
and diminished the art-viewing experience. are fluid and insed with natural light. In
Shopping, eating and rentable event spaces each, the display of art is the central concern,
oen take precedence over galleries, and with varied, free-flowing galleries at the heart
the architecture of additions becomes more of the addition.
show than substance. New York’s Museum In San Francisco, Snøhea was
of Modern Art is in the midst of its fourth challenged to create a sense of spaciousness on
major expansion and already has the frenetic a confined site behind Mario Boa’s pompous
bustle of an airport terminal, as does the block. at was built in 1995 as an anchor for
Louvre pyramid. the area south of Market Street, long before it
Happily, two recent additions – to became a booming tech hub, and the museum’s
San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art and showy façade was wrapped around an atrium
London’s Tate Modern – are models of how an with galleries shoehorned in back. e rear
institution can be expanded and enriched. Each site was cluered with loading docks, access
is an inspired architectural solution that gives a ways and dilapidated buildings, all of which
li to the existing building and helps to remedy had to be cleared or buried to make room for
its shortcomings – in both cases, among other a new structure. e architects’ big move was
 Snøhea / Herzog & de Meuron San Francisco — USA / London — UK 149

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e newly opened Switch House is a folded

and tapered tower with a perforated brick skin.
Photo Wade Zimmerman

to reduce the footprint of their competition- experimented with different tones and mixes, improve its efficiency and pull in more light
winning design, pulling back from the eastern incorporating locally sourced sand to add a from the oculus. ere’s a seismic separation
boundary line to open up a narrow plaza that sparkle. e panels were clipped to standard between the two buildings so that, when the
links a network of walkways within the block curtain wall frames, delivered to the site, next earthquake hits, each can rock separately
to the nearest street. In this booming location, craned into place and bracketed to the concrete on their shared foundation.
that is sure to encourage cafés and shops to floor slabs. e first two floors are open,
move into boarded-up storefronts and animate Traditionally, museums have been admission-free spaces where art works can
what was formerly a dead zone. organized horizontally, with one or two be displayed to lure lunch-time viewers and
at pull-back allowed Snøhea to floors of galleries for ease of access. Snøhea encourage casual visitors to explore rther.
create a bowed façade with terraces at several has turned the verticali of its addition to Five levels of galleries are stacked above, and
levels, blurring the boundary between inside advantage, just as in the entry court. As project the different heights and ceiling treatments are
and out. Rippling panels of fibre-reinforced architect Lara Kaufman explains: ‘We always geared to the scale and character of the work
polymer dematerializes the mass, and considered this to be a social experience, so we on show, from big canvases to small, light-
catches the light, making the rear entry more didn’t want escalators to be the primary means sensitive photographs. To compensate for the
welcoming and intriguing than the formal of moving through the space. In addition to narrowing of the footprint, the same concourse
portal to the west. e architects chose this the six elevators, there’s a network of stairs at is used for transporting works of art and public
new material, first used in sailboats, for its the heart of the building that helps you take a circulation. is is located at the front of the
texture, lightness, toughness and ease of break between the different levels, energizing addition, where deep window reveals double
moulding. Each panel is unique because it your body and readying you for the next as benches. e present layout of galleries
proved less expensive with digital modelling encounter.’ e new spaces flow into the third- emphasizes openness and diagonal axes from
to use cheap moulds once, rather than durable and fourth-floor galleries of the Boa building, one room to another, but the column-free floors
moulds for multiple casts. e design team and the staircase in the atrium was rebuilt to can easily be reconfigured. →
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e first two floors of SFMOMA are open,

admission-free spaces where art works can
be displayed to lure lunch-time viewers.
Photo Henrik Kam / SFMOMA

In London, Herzog & de Meuron has completed is a trio of underground tanks, oil-storage weathering properties of the custom-made
a long-planned extension of the Tate Modern. containers that HdM remodelled as galleries brick. It’s a new way of using one of humani’s
eir radical remodel of the Bankside Power aer the facili was decommissioned. e oldest building materials: the openings filter
Station was a huge popular success from the power company still has a foothold here, but light like a masharabiya and glow from
day it opened in 2000. Crowds assemble in the rest of the site, in front and back, has been within at night. Across the river, Tuomey and
the gued Turbine Hall and can overwhelm landscaped, and a new entry has been added O’Donnell have employed a simpler version of
the galleries in the former Boiler House. As to the existing three. Vertical slits in the base the same idea for their recently completed LSE
in San Francisco, the museum (along with the of the Switch House echo the mouldings on student centre.
Globe eatre next door) was a catalyst for the the Boiler House, and deep horizontal cuts pull e tanks were remodelled to serve
redevelopment of a depressed neighbourhood, light into the upper levels. as performance and video spaces in 2012,
especially aer Norman Foster’s footbridge A total of 336,000 extra-deep bricks and are accessible at basement level from the
provided a direct link to the Ci of London connected with neoprene bushes were used for Turbine Hall, whose raw, industrial character
across the river. Glass-walled office and the carapace, arranged in a Flemish bond with they share. e exposed concrete walls and
residential towers sprang up on neighbouring header spaces le clear. Almost no mortar was cross beams set the tone for the Switch House,
sites, and, in response, the architects decided to used and this outer skin is pinned back to the which is as monumental in scale and detail
change the cladding of their building, from cast concrete frame with a series of corbels that inside as out. e architects have used the same
glass to masonry. compress the bricks and emerge as lightning unfinished oak floors as in the old building.
e newly opened Switch House is a plates. It’s the first time such a system has Four levels of galleries of varied height line up
folded and tapered tower with a perforated been employed and the architects collaborated with those in the Boiler House and are linked
brick skin – a counterpoint to the monolithic closely with structural and production by bridges that cross the turbine hall at the
block and chimney of the old building – and engineers. Sections were mocked up to confirm first and fourth levels. A broad spiral of stairs
it shis shape as you walk around it. Beneath stabili, and to check the play of light and winds up from the concourses at each level, →
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e Tate Modern’s addition houses

a new entry, as well as a gi shop.
Photo Wade Zimmerman

‘Both museums were catalysts

for the redevelopment of
depressed neighbourhoods’
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Deep window reveals double as

benches. In the foreground Untitled
by Joel Shapiro (1989).
Photo Iwan Baan / SFMOMA
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e extension adds 60 per cent

more gallery space to Tate Modern.
Photo Wade Zimmerman
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Top e different heights and ceiling treatments

of the galleries are geared to the scale and
character of the work on show.

Right With its 15,820 m2 of exhibition space,

SFMOMA is the third largest art museum in the
world (aer the Hermitage and the Louvre).
Photos Iwan Baan / SFMOMA

encouraging energetic visitors to ascend on one

side and descend on the other.
Elevators rise to educational, staff and
members’ areas on the upper levels, with a
handsome restaurant on the ninth floor. Jasper
Morrison provided the rnishings, here and
throughout the new spaces. e tenth-floor
viewing gallery is likely to rival the Pompidou’s
upper deck in populari for its rooop
perspective of St Paul’s and the ci – all the
more since admission to the Tate is free.
e additions of both Tate Modern
and SFMOMA represent architecture in the
service of art and users, rather than a display of
virtuosi for its own sake. In both instances,
the new is a radical contrast to the old, but
the scale, modelling and forms complement
the existing building – you feel an organic
connection, and the old building seems to open
up and become something more than it was. _
snohea.com
herzogdemeuron.com
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Top One of Tate’s new galleries, featuring

work by Tony Cra and Donald Judd,
among others.

Le e circulation spaces of the Switch

House are characterized by the inclined
walls of the pyramidal structure.
Photos Wade Zimmerman

‘Moving forward is
the key to survival’
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Precision

It took a lot of patience and personal carpentry, but the care and
aention that was put into Henri Borduin’s newest house is visible
in every aspect of the final result.

Text Photos
David Keunin Jeroen Musch
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is Prime

e original barn consisted of an internal space

delimited by brick walls (le) and an exterior space
covered by a roof (right). e exterior space was
added to the interior space during the renovation.
e farmhouse with a thatched roof that is visible
in the background is the client’s parental home.
158 Mark 64 Long Section

e entrance to the house is through

the kitchen. e ceiling above the upper
cupboards is a good example of the precise
dimensions incorporated in the design.
 Border Architecture Breda — Netherlands 159

e bookcase in the living room and

the service hatch to the kitchen were
handmade by the client and the architect.

Henri
Borduin is an architect who leaves lile architect’s design. ‘When the light catchers But remodelling the barn into a house was
to chance. In a discussion about the right were built but not yet plastered, I sat down in not that easy. Acquiring the right permits for
moment to take pictures of his newest project, the living room, looked up, and thought: this is residential use took seven years. ‘ e barn was
a barn converted into a house in the Dutch not going to work,’ she says. ‘To me, they also built during the reconstruction period in 1953,’
countryside, he informs me that the sun will seemed to be very impractical: we lose a lot of says Borduin. ‘Before that there was a Flemish
rise at 5:39 a.m. and set at 9:35 p.m. on the space on the first floor because of them.’ But barn in the same place, which was bombed
day of the chosen deadline. ‘I put the façade now that the house is finished she’s very happy in the Second World War.’ Various visits by
orientation in a sun path diagram,’ he writes. with the results: ‘Every room is different. At experts on monuments were needed to get the
‘Until just aer 8 a.m. the sun will be on the night the blue light of the moon is beauti l. right paperwork.
front façade (at an angle of 35˚) and aer 6 Sunrise, storm, snow, rain and sunset, we In the meantime, the family had plen
p.m. the sun will be parallel to the façade with experience all forms of weather more intensely of time to think about the layout of their ture
a height of approximately 15˚ relative to the than in our old home.’ home. eir corner apartment in Amsterdam
horizon. Aerwards, the sun will rotate to at old home was in Amsterdam, had lots of windows. ey wanted the same
shine on the façade again, but of course it will where the architect and client played volleyball thing again. ‘ e clients required securi ,
also be seing.’ at the same sports club: he was her coach. To her protection and shelter, but also lots of light,’
It is a remarkable email that, during a the ci was a fantastic place to live, but with said Borduin. ‘At first that seems contradictory.’
joint visit to the residence, becomes completely a husband and two growing kids, their single- Large glass sliding doors were not only
understandable: the angle of the sun is the floor living space began to feel more cramped by undesirable due to privacy. ‘We know the area
key factor of the design. Seven ‘light catchers’ the day. Her parents still lived on the old farm and in the winter, the yard is a quagmire. We do
provide the rooms on the ground floor with she grew up in, several kilometres from Breda not want to be looking at a black hole for half
daylight. Borduin placed them in various in the province of North Brabant. A barn also of the year.’
directions, each at a different angle, to provide stood on the proper , a barn her parents – both e family also wanted a house with
different kinds of daylight in different rooms at psychologists – used as their practice and that lots of rooms. ‘We have many relatives in
varying times of the day. at one time in the past also housed a few horses. Belgium and they come over regularly,’ says the
e client, who wants to stay e rural lifes le was calling, and the family client. ‘ e dimensions of the living room are
anonymous, at first had her doubts about the decided to relocate in 2007. based on the length of three dining tables.’ →
160 Mark 64 Long Section

e grey tiling in the stoeamer

(parlour) indicates the position of
a former door.

e house also has a room that, in Belgium and us a new drawing, the hatch was gone again,’ omi ed are n. For example, the blue-grey tile
the southern Netherlands, is called a stoeamer: she says. Eventually, aer much insistence, work in the bathroom has a specific pa ern,
a beautil room that is only used on special they decided on one with many compartments, but anyone who pulls open a cabinet will see
occasions. Residents and visitors enter the based on the same measuring system that a random pa ern in the back. ‘We told the
house through the kitchen. e large U-shaped characterizes the rest of the design. Several tiler: go crazy on those,’ says Borduin. ‘But
kitchen is positioned in the centre of the house rectangular ceiling lights are also the result of apparently that was hard to do.’
and is lit up by one of the light catchers. home cra. e client’s father provided brass e two most important themes of
e precision with which the plates that the architect put together. ese the design of this house – zenithal daylight
architect studied the light incidence was also lamps also connect to the proportions that and mathematical precision – are not new to
practiced on the dimensions of the design. form the basis of the design. Borduin’s work. ey can also be found, for
‘e cross section of the barn is very precise Borduin’s precision created many instance, in the house in Leeuwarden that
mathematically,’ he says. ‘e angle of the roof critical places where various lines cross each he designed for his parents in 2004. In this
is exactly 45˚ and the raers and braces form other in the exact same spot. For example, introvert, 11 × 11-m bungalow, five rectangular
a square on its side, with the lowest point just six angle sections come together above the s lights, placed above divisional walls made of
touching the ground.’ is square has sides of kitchen, which gave the plasterers headaches. cupboards, are the primary source of daylight.
5.2 m, and that size was the starting point for ‘At first the workmen thought these precise Mirrors on the reveals enable light to bounce
many of his modifications. For example, six of lines to be ridiculous,’ says the client. ‘Anything around the room. No less than 18 sliding doors,
the seven light catchers have a base of 2.6 × 2.6 from Amsterdam is rejected anyway in rural placed in a strict formation, make a flexible use
m, which is also the height of the rooms on the Brabant, and this design really threw them of the modest space possible.
ground floor. Borduin also applied the golden for a loop at first. But somewhere along the Border Architecture, the name of the
ratio in various places, like the bookcase in the way they started having n with it and office that Borduin founded in 1999, is not
living room that he made with the client. eventually they were explaining to me why just a reference to his own surname, but also
at is not the only piece of rniture it was so important for everything to be in applies to the design principles that he finds
that the architect and the client personally the right spot.’ most important. Isn’t it time to approach his
created. ey also made the service hatch e execution succeeded wonderlly. commissions less rigidly? ‘On the contrary,’
between the kitchen and the living room. e proportions are more than just an Borduin says, ‘I’m ge ing stricter. Daily life
e client knew about such a hatch from the intellectual game: In the perception of the space develops best within a strict framework.
Belgian summers of her childhood and really they play a discreet but important role. e Freedom abounds within set limits.’ _
wanted one for herself, but the architect did not house gives a thoughtl impression. ose few borderarchitecture.com
think it was a good idea. ‘Whenever he showed spots where the precision was intentionally
Border Architecture Breda — Netherlands 161

e light catchers in the living room have

a base of 2.6 × 2.6 m. is measurement
corroborates with the height of the space.
Henri Borduin poses in the kitchen.
162 Mark 64 Long Section

e ceiling lamps in the stairwell

(and other places) were designed
and executed by the architect and
the client’s father.
 Border Architecture Breda — Netherlands 163

Model of a preliminary sketch that comes close to the final

design, showing the position of the light catchers.

0 +1 Cross Section

03 08
08

04
06 08
02
08

01 08

09
06 05 06

07
08
08

e client’s daughter in her bedroom on the

first floor. Her high sleeper is built on top
01 Entrance of the parlour’s light catcher. e kitchen’s
02 Kitchen light catcher is visible on the right. Because
03 Stoeamer (parlour) the original truss was in the way, the
04 Living room construction of both of the aic rooms was
05 Bathroom modified. e lower diagonals are new.
06 Bedroom
07 Practice
08 Light catcher
09 Storage space

‘Freedom
abounds
within
set limits’
164 Mark 64 Long Section

Arts in the
 Ensamble Studio Fishtail — MT — USA 165

Wilderness
Ensamble Studio created three concrete structures for
the newly opened Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana.

Text Photos
Michael Webb Iwan Baan

e Olivier Music Barn (le) marks the

entrance to Tippet Rise Art Center.
166 Mark 64 Long Section

Montana
is one of the largest and least populated states
in the USA. Barely a million people live in
an area larger than Germany, and most are
concentrated in a few cities. at allowed
Peter and Cathy Halstead’s foundation to
assemble a ranch of 4,600 hectares from 13
summer pastures and create Tippet Rise, a
unique stage for the arts that opened to the
public this summer. Inspiration came from
Storm King sculpture park in mid-state New
York and music festivals around the world,
but the Halsteads were also determined to
preserve and enhance the extraordinary beau
of the grasslands and canyons that roll away
to the Beartooth Mountains. To the south is
Yellowstone National Park with its geysers,
rushing streams, wolves and bison. As the state
license plates proclaim, this is Big S Country.
‘We are in love with nature,’ says
director Alban Bassuet, ‘so we thought hard
for five years about architectural interventions
on the land. What, where, how many? We
considered many options on siting to be sure
that we didn’t turn the wilderness into a
garden. It was a virgin site with no buildings,
roads or utilities. We generate solar power
for electrici and to pump the water we’ve
collected – a zero-carbon operation that has a
minimal impact on the land.’
Before moving to Montana, Bassuet
worked for Arup in New York, creating
performance spaces with Sound Lab director
Raj Patel, and they collaborated on the master
plan for Tippet Rise, laying out gravel roads,
constructing underground geothermal and
hydrology systems, siting sculptures and
designing concert venues. Four architecture
firms were invited to compete for new
structures, but their proposals seemed too
conventional, and the choice fell on Ensamble,
the Madrid-Boston firm headed by Antón
García-Abril and his wife, Débora Mesa. ey
became part of the team, designing a series
of cast concrete structures that would reflect
sound and serve as markers in the landscape.
Domo, largest of the three that have been
realized thus far, shelters recitals for audiences
of a hundred or more. →
Ensamble Studio Fishtail — MT — USA 167

Beartooth Portal, like Inverted Portal, is a

cast concrete structure that reflects sound
and serves as a marker in the landscape.
168 Mark 64 Long Section

‘We didn’t want to turn

the wilderness into a garden’

Tippet Rise is a cultural resource for residents

and a destination for arts lovers, who fly to
Billings, drive at great speed on the interstate
freeway, slow down on winding roads and
trails, before coming to rest behind a grassy
berm. ey glimpse the roof of a barn, clad
in Corten, rising beside a black steel Calder
stabile. Within the familiar form, Bassuet has
distilled the essence of legendary recital halls,
from the Maltings Snape for which Benjamin
Brien was impresario, to the music room of
the Esterhazy Palace in Hungary where Josef
Haydn was resident composer. Rough-textured
posts and beams support walls and a stepped
ceiling vault lined with smooth larch boards
that feel and sound like the inside of a musical
instrument. Clerestories pull in light to either
side, and a picture window to the south frames
a stunning view while releasing low-frequency
sounds. e Olivier Music Barn is a masterpiece
of understatement – warm, reverberant and
luminous – providing ideal acoustics for
performers as well as an audience of 150 on
director chairs and wall benches.
Off to one side are accommodations for
visiting artists, and Tiara, an outdoor recital
space comprising a lightweight wood frame
and plywood sound reflectors. It’s a concert
shell stripped to its essentials. Site-specific art
works – by Patrick Dougher, Stephen Talasnik
and two heroically scaled steel constructions by
Mark di Suvero – are strategically positioned
off the 14-km trail that leads to Domo. is is a
three-le ed monolith that grew from the seed
of Truffle, a tiny guest cabin of roughly poured
concrete that Ensamble created near Santiago
de Compostella in 2008 (Mark 27, page 44). at
first experiment was conceived as a dialogue
between architecture and nature, rooted in the
land. e tilted slabs of Inverted Portal and
Beartooth Portal develop that idea, serving as
markers in the much grander expanse of Tippet
Rise. Domo is part structure, part sculpture,
evoking a rock outcrop that has been carved
and polished by wind and water. e western
deserts are ll of such natural phenomena, and
Ensamble has channelled their organic shapes
and textures. →
Ensamble Studio Fishtail — MT — USA 169

Inverted Portal.
170 Mark 64 Long Section

‘Part structure, part sculpture,

Domo evokes a rock outcrop,
carved and polished by
wind and water’

e construction of Domo demanded a mix

of hand-modelling, digital scanning and
heavy liing. Bulldozers compacted a block
of gravel and earth, 4 m high. A back hoe
excavated three hollows, and a cage of rebar
was assembled within each. Plastic blocks held
the rebar clear of the earth before they were
craned out and linked together. e design
team draped the hollows with folds of plastic
sheeting, replaced the armature and poured in
pigmented concrete. When this was set, the
gravel and plastic were removed to reveal an
uneven polished surface that distributes the
sound in every direction, allowing an audience
to move around the performers, rather than
face them head-on. e undulations pull in
light and frame a panorama rimmed with
snow-clad peaks and studded with the black
specks of cale grazing far away. Grass has
begun to sprout from the rough concrete top,
making it an integral extension of the ground
it sits upon. ‘ere’s nothing sadder than
an emp building,’ says García-Abril. ‘Our
structures are never emp – you can people
them in many different ways. ey are
viscous and tactile, which changes the
perception of scale.’
Architecture that engages the landscape
enriches the experience of music-making and
art, aracting a wide range of talent and loans
from major museums. Tippet Rise is open to
the public four days a week for hiking and
tours in electric vans. e first seven weekends
of music were sold out, mostly to locals, and
programming is likely to expand in the years to
come. Ensamble has planned an ambitious new
structure, and there will be more art works
and educational activities. For the Halsteads,
this is the culmination of a lifetime of travel,
creativi and support for the arts. She paints,
he has played piano since he was five (though
his father hated music and turned his first
piano into a desk while the boy was away at
school). Now he collects vintage Steinways,
including Vladimir Horowitz’s favourite, and
the hills of Montana are alive with the sound
of music. _
ensamble.info
Ensamble Studio Fishtail — MT — USA 171

e three-leed monolith Domo shelters

recitals for audiences of a hundred or more.
e uneven polished surface distributes
the sound in every direction, allowing the
audience to move around the performers.
Photo André Constantini
172 Mark 64 Long Section

Roberto Cremascoli.
Roberto Cremascoli Bookmark 173

‘e atelier
is a lab of
competences
that go
beyond
architecture’

Roberto Cremascoli talks about

curiosi, storytelling, and the hysteria
surrounding exhibition catalogues.

Text Photo
Ana Martins Rita Burmester
174 Mark 64 Long Section

A
relentless itch for all-round knowledge the a empt of telling a story about the depths give shape to a place, and to do that, you need to
characterizes both the education and career of his architecture, while allowing the public to think about people. Why are we so comfortable
of Porto-based Italian architect Roberto understand who he was as a man. here right now? is is a space of happiness,
Cremascoli. Aer three years of studying designed for people. What curatorship brings
science at high school, a fascination with the How do curatorship and architecture relate to architecture, and vice versa, is the realization
complexi of the built environment and its to each other? that you have to simpli things from the
effect on people and scenery led him to switch It’s always a question of organization. Just beginning, otherwise it won’t work. Another
to arts, specializing in architecture. Later, he like curatorship has to do with organizing a important thing is that it is not essential to
benefited from the theoretical curriculum at narrative into an exhibition or a catalogue, understand everything a priori. Just like in
the Polytechnic Universi of Milan, as well in the studio we organize space. Also, for curatorship, in architecture you trace a route to
as the hands-on approach of the Facul of be explored, to be discovered li le by li le, to
Architecture at the Universi of Porto, where be questioned. is is the most important thing
he completed his thesis, co-tutored by Álvaro in art in general, to make people think. We
Siza and Pierluigi Nicolin. cannot be lazy before a work of art.
As a curious student, Cremascoli
came to Porto to be close to Siza. As a zealous Speaking of laziness, do you think there is still
professional, he stayed for the same reason and space for text at exhibitions?
collaborated with him for over five years. Yet, We had a huge discussion in Lisbon about
craving a different approach to the profession this before the Biennale. Nuno Grande, Edison
he spent a year at João Luís Carrilho da Graça’s Okumura and I were looking at the texts
studio in Lisbon, before co-founding atelier for the walls with the printer, and I said: ‘So
Cremascoli Okumura Rodrigues with partners
Edison Okumura and Marta Rodrigues in
‘A good much money spent and no one will read this.’
Nuno said: ‘You cannot think like that, people
May 2001.
Recently, he co-curated, with
Portuguese architect Nuno Grande, the
first book cannot be lazy . . .’ But lately I’ve been dealing
with museum directors who limit me to just
four or five lines on the wall to explain what
Portuguese exhibition at this year’s Venice
Biennale: ‘Neighbourhood: Where Álvaro Meets
Aldo’. ese days, Cremascoli divides his time
to read is the exhibition is. Because everything has a
cost – vinyl, the space – and people oen don’t
pay a ention to it. So I don’t know, I’m a bit
between architecture, curatorship, writing, and
an unquenchable love of books. Si ing in the
Architecture divided on this ma er. I think maybe we have
to contradict this tendency to keep things short
grass by Siza’s Museum of Contemporary Art
in the Serralves Foundation in Porto, we talked
about these subjects.
Without and concise.

Where do exhibition catalogues stand in

Your first venture into curatorial work was

Architects’ this scenario?
ere’s less and less money for catalogues these
‘Remade in Portugal’, a yearly exhibition days, but they are very important, they are the
of Portuguese eco-design developed in exhibition that prevails. ere’s the hysteria
collaboration with the EDP Foundation. that the catalogue needs to be at the start of
What made you want to continue working the exhibition, but I like to publish it at the
in this field? end because I think it’s important to leave a
ROBERTO CREMASCOLI: I had a primary testimony, not only of what the exhibition was
school teacher who told us there’s always about, but also of how it was experienced. e
a story to tell. You put together le ers to Canadian Centre for Architecture does this,
make words, words make sentences, and so the catalogue becomes an integrated part
sentences make a story. To know how to of the exhibition. is works and it’s important,
build a narrative is the basis for everything. architecture you need a programme, without but you need good logistics and money to
is is why I like curatorial work, it’s about it everything is random. In curatorship it’s the achieve it.
storytelling. For instance, telling the story of same way, a programme is the story you tell is year’s exhibition at the Biennale,
Alcino Soutinho's ‘Comfortable Realism’ [the from beginning to end. ‘Where Álvaro Meets Aldo’, is organized in
first major exhibition dedicated, not only to five stages, so we have five booklets that, put
the architectural work, but to the ventures into Is there something in your work as a curator together, make up a guide of the exhibition.
design, figurative art, teaching and activism that you feel you can take back to the practice We also have the will, but not yet the money,
of the late Portuguese architect] in 2014 gave of architecture? to write up the entire experience, from
me tremendous joy. His work is crossed by a I don’t understand why we always complicate the preparation of the exhibition to the
myriad of themes, dramas, family and friends. things so much. It’s so simple to do things well. inauguration and its entire duration. All this
So the success of the exhibition was, I think, Take this museum. To create architecture is to should be the catalogue.
 Roberto Cremascoli Bookmark 175

You are almost 25 years into your career. Knowing this, if students still wish to dive into which it transpires, but because he manages
Having practiced both as an architect and the discipline, how should they approach the to fabricate an entire fictional world around
curator, how has your perspective on the literature in the field? a real event and poses a critical perspective
profession changed? Students need to be curious. If they can, they on history through fiction. is is something
When I finished school, I didn’t know how to should travel with a good book, a good guide, as that amazes me and makes me a bit jealous.
do anything. In my first day at Siza’s office, I Fernando Távora used to say. ey need to learn I really like to write. I would like to be able
didn’t even know how to fold the project sheets how cities are made in other places. A good to write more.
in the right format. It’s sad, but true. When I first book is Architecture Without Architects by
first went to architecture school, the idea of Bernard Rudofs . So you’re interested in writing fiction?
being able to alter a situation fascinated me, but I don’t know, writing is what takes the toll
I didn’t really understand what it meant. Aer Your thesis project was for Milan’s on my time, it is very hard. To write anything
over 20 years of practice this still continues municipal library. you need the right rhythm, you have to seduce
to captivate me, but now I’m lly aware of It was about what Milan’s municipal library readers from the first second. When I write, I
the responsibili of an architect. We deal ought to be. Libraries are a fascinating theme. leave the text for hours and come back, re-read,
with places, scenery, but also with people. e ey have changed a lot, because the internet and always take something out, there’s always
way Siza interprets architecture, doing it a bit introduced a whole new paradigm, but their something that is in excess. A good text doesn’t
like a doctor or a social assistant, as someone atmosphere, like that of museums, was what have too much, nor too li le, it is just right. If
who puts his knowledge into trying to be er really fascinated me. I spent my universi it works it cannot be redundant, but it’s hard
people’s quali of life, for me that’s what it and high school years studying in places like to arrive at this balance. I don’t know if I’ll
means to be an architect. e exhibition at the Biblioteca Sormani. Its iron columns, the have time for it, not if I want to keep doing
Biennale directly addresses this theme in Siza’s room with thousands of books around you, architecture. But I do have plot notes lying
architecture. the silence, it was like studying in the middle around. Maybe someday I will publish a novel
of a church. I think libraries will convey this under a pseudonym – so I cannot say much
In an article for online publication P3 about atmosphere and scenography more and more. more, otherwise people will know it’s me. _
‘Object aer Objects’, the exhibition that We can search for a book or a subject from
signalled the Portuguese presence at Milan’s home now, so the physical movement of
Design Triennial, you wrote: ‘We need to people to a library needs to be justified
put the human being back in the centre of some other way.
the universe. . . . We need to reconsider the
professional role of the architect, and consider How do you organize your own library?
architecture as a tool to face social problems.’ at’s a desperate subject. Last week I le
Do you think there’s still a part to be played by home thinking I need to change my life. It’s
architecture publications in fomenting the role something that really bothers me now, all the
of architects as instigators of social change? books sca ered around the house with Post-
Writing as communication and as reflexion on Its, it’s a symptom of how my head is at the
a problem is always important in any activi, moment. I need time to archive my thoughts
especially at a time when we are witnessing a and my books.
growth in the importance of form and image
over content. To make architecture, we need How does this translate into your reading
to look at the whole picture, we cannot lose habits?
sight of the fact that the puzzle behind the I’m a compulsive reader. I jump around and Roberto Cremascoli’s
programme is not only a formal and aesthetic I have this need of accumulating books;
nightstand pile
one, but goes beyond that. I think there are still my nightstand has a heap of them now. I
architects, critics and teachers who make us usually read two or three at the same time. I Umberto Eco, Apocalypse Postponed,
think and open up much needed discussions, need to stop being anxious about it because Indiana Universi Press, Bloomington,
1994 [Apocaliici e integrati: comunicazioni
which in turn helps us stay grounded. it’s impossible, we’ll never be able to read
di massa e teorie della cultura di massa,
everything we want. Bompiani, Milano, 1964]
Is there something missing from these Recently, I bought Rolland Barthes’s A
discussions? Lover's Discourse and Camera Lucida, which are Flavio Caroli, Il volto dell'Occidente: I venti
capolavori che hanno fao l'immagine della
We should tell first-year students that waiting for me. I wanted to come back to the
nostra civiltà, Mondadori, Milan, 2013
beginning an architecture degree does not French philosophers, but ever since Umberto
guarantee that they will become practicing Eco died, I’ve been revisiting his books. At the Jorge Figueira, A Periferia Perfeita: Pós-
architects. In our atelier, for example, we have moment I’m reading three great classics, bit by modernidade na Arquitectura Portuguesa
Anos 1960-1980, Caleidoscópio, Casal de
had so many great interns and collaborators bit: Eco’s Apocalypse Postponed, omas Mann’s
Cambra, 2015
who are not practicing architecture now. ey e Magic Mountain, and Marcel Proust’s In
are doing photography, or teaching, working in Search of Lost Time. ey are huge. Mann took Diogo Seixas Lopes, Melancholy and
public relations, and they are doing that with over ten years to complete this book, with Architecture. On Aldo Rossi, Park Books,
Zurich, 2015
great enthusiasm. e atelier seems to nction the First World War nctioning as a hiatus
a bit as a lab of competences that go beyond that completely changed his discourse, this John Cheever, Bullet Park, Alfred A. Knopf,
architecture, because we work on so many fascinates me. New York, 1969
different kinds of projects.
Harold Bloom, e Western Canon: e Books
Of course in part it’s because of Has there been a book that made a lasting
and School of the Ages, Harcourt Brace, San
the economic situation: there are too many impact lately? Diego, 1994
architects and not enough work. But I Two books that have had a huge effect on
don’t think that’s the only reason. I think me recently are e Elephant's Journey and Steve Biddulph, e Secret of Happy
Children: Why Children Behave the Way ey
architecture opens up to a lot of other e History of the Siege of Lisbon, both by José
Do – and What You Can Do to Help em to
disciplines, it opens the imagination to other Saramago. Especially the la er, not so much be Optimistic, Loving, Capable and Happy,
professions and this may be positive. because of the incredible part of history in Bay Books, Sydney, 1984
176 Mark 64

Tools
 Tools 177

‘We need
to deliver
somethin
ins irin
for all
of the
Hendrik Müller on designing
showrooms for Gaenau, page 182

senses’
178 Mark 64 Tools

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 Sanitary 179

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design options: high gloss, chrome-plated finish or stainless steel. and reduced to the precise rim that, at the transition between
hewi.com the cool, smooth ceramic and the natural structure of the wood,
feels uniquely pleasant to the touch. However, the ‘c-bonded’
solution does not just look and feel impressive: DuraCeram®,
the patented ceramic that makes this precision and moulding
possible, is particularly wear-resistant. Duravit has used
c-bonded technology in the Darling New designer series and the
L-Cube rniture programme.
duravit.com

Washbasins and accessories

Franke
Completely coordinated washbasins and accessories
characterize the new EXOS line by Franke Water Systems.
Depending on the space and colour concept, designers and
architects can select different front panels for soap dispensers,
paper-towel dispensers and waste bins: either stainless steel
with InoxPlus surface refinement or black or white tempered
safe glass. ere is also a large selection of washbasins. ese
elements can be interchanged retrospectively without problems.
But that is not all: with the conversion kits, soap dispensers can
be converted from mechanical to electronic operation or from
liquid soap to foam soap.
franke.com
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Easy-to-clean shower toilet

VitrA
Developed by VitrA: e most advanced personal hygiene system
available. e V-care Rim-ex WC pan is easy to clean and keep germ-free
thanks to its rimless design. is remote-controlled VitrA innovation
offers the ultimate in sanitation and comfort with its self-cleaning bidet
nozzle, auto open-close, adjustable water temperature, different washing
options, air-drying and odour absorption features. V-care is available
in Basic and Comfort models, with a range of features that can be set
to personal preference over a remote-control handset that is easy to
operate via its hand-fiing ergonomic form and user-friendly interface.
vitraglobal.com

Shower toilet
GROHE
Grohe’s Sensia® Arena shower toilet is all about
personalization. All seings can be adjusted – from spray
strength to spray position, from water temperature to
cleansing cycle duration. e toilet houses its own instant
water heater to supply unlimited amounts of warm water.
e spray pe and the spray mode can also be selected to
suit personal preferences. From a standard shower to a lady
shower or a twin shower, from oscillating to massaging
spray action – every user can customize a refreshing
cleansing routine to meet their personal needs.
grohe.com

Sanitary ware
Antonio Lupi
Designed by Daniel Debiasi and Federico Sandri, the
Cabo sanitary series offers a sculptural form made of
sinuous and continuous surfaces. e refined silhouee
lly uses the potential of the ceramic material and
expresses a feeling of lightness. e series is available
in both a suspended version and in a floor version.
Antonio Lupi produces unique and surprising sanitary
ware that anticipates living trends, combining
nctionali and beau. e precise geometry of the
Cabo series is the result of carel design: wc and bidet
have a front overhang that conceals the underlying
volume. e surfaces are available in high gloss or
mae finish.
antoniolupi.it
 Sanitary 181

Bath tub dressed in fabric

Bee
Steel/enamel specialist Bee and the Tesseraux + Partner
design studio introduced a bath dressed in fabric at the
international Salone del Mobile design fair in Milan. is
was made possible by a new generation of nctional fabrics
that are just as appealing as those used in the living room,
but which are also extremely robust, easy to care for, and
water, mould and climate resistant. e main use for these
fabrics so far has been in the latest outdoor rniture; now
the Bee design concept is demonstrating the possibilities
that this opens up in the bathroom as well. In the bath
shown, the bath body was made quite traditionally from
fine steel/enamel, while the bath apron was cushioned
and covered with woven fabric by the fabric specialist JAB
Anstoetz in its Bielefeld workshops – just like a cosy sofa.
bee.de

Dry floating experience

Starpool
ZEROBODY®® offers the benefits of an immersion tub without
having to get wet. Wrap yourself in the heated waterbed
maress: you’ll feel as if you’re suspended, as if you were
floating on a cloud. During the floating experience the body
ceases to regulate its own temperature and gravitational
alignment, two activities that alone absorb up to 90 per cent
of our resources. e body is now free to produce endorphins,
substances associated with well-being. ZEROBODY®® is suitable
for use at home, at work, in the spa and in the gym.
starpool.com

Marble sanitary ware

Neutra
During the Milan Design Week 2016, Neutra introduced
a brand new natural material: Star Gold. Star Gold is a
prestigious, ivory-coloured marble with grey and brown
veins, carelly selected by the company for an audience
in search of a classical, elegant and sophisticated s le.
is new material is going to complete the existing
Neutra stone collection composed of eight natural stones,
characterized by ‘neutral’ colours and homogeneous
textures that are the constant trademark of the essential
and elegant Neutra s le. Star Gold is polished finished,
while all other stones in the collection have always been
honed finished.
neutradesign.it
182 Mark 64 Tools

Showtime showrooms are public walk-in

destinations, open for private
customers; others mainly address
I also do research on benchmark
projects in retail, restaurants and
cultural buildings to get a beer
business clients who come in by understanding of the context and
Gaenau has opened three appointment. e main difference
I see is the cultural context,
history. Upon my return I share
my impressions and inspirations
new showrooms this year, which starting from the behaviour of
interaction with the client and
with the team in the office and we
start working on the design.
happens to be the company’s integrating pical elements from
the regional culture into the How do you express the brand
333rd anniversary: in Munich, showroom design. We always try Gaenau in your design?

London and Vienna. Next up, to create a handshake between the

brand identi of Gaenau and
In some countries, like China,
it’s quite important to create
in 2017, is Chicago. the local culture. an understanding of the brand.
Gaenau is exceptional in many
Can you give an example of that? ways, starting with its history of
In China, professional visitors 333 years and a name that refers
with an appointment will oen to a small village in the Black
bring a present. In the showroom Forest. Both of those aspects play
in Beijing, we created a place to an important role for the brand
exhibit all the presents. CEOs of identi and are expressed in
Chinese companies oen have a the showrooms by the so-called
shelf in their room with objects heritage wall, which is made of
that represent their personali, reclaimed wood from the Black
Gaenau, which started as are in easy reach for our so Chinese customers understand Forest and equipped with small
an ironworks company in the professional partners and their what these displays represent. showcases and peepholes where
eponymous town in Germany’s clients. On the other hand, in In the Gaenau showroom, the information, imagery and exhibits
Black Forest in 1683, is now London, we’re located in Wigmore shelf stands for the quali of the from the brand’s history are
a global manufacturer of Street, the so-called kitchen alley relationship that the brand has exhibited.
professional-grade kitchen in the direct vicini of Oxford with its clients.
appliances that are known for Street. At the beginning of 2017, Another example is What do you think visitors expect
both their sleek design and their we will be in the Merchandise London. Here, the connection to from a Gaenau showroom?
high nctionali. e same zeal Mart in Chicago, the world’s local culture is somewhat more A quote from David Chipperfield,
for quali is reflected in the largest wholesale design centre literal but still very successl. e my tutor at the Universi of
company’s showrooms, three of and one of Chicago’s premier showroom has two levels – ground Stugart, has remained with
which opened or were rernished international business locations.’ floor and basement – that in the me over the years. He said:
earlier this year: in Munich, Hendrik Müller started old situation had a rather old, ‘Design and architecture are
London and Vienna. Developed working for Gaenau almost and therefore unstable, staircase. very important, but they won’t
together with the Munich-based ten years ago. ‘We created a set Customers avoided descending save any lives.’ is is true of
architecture firm einszu33, for a major product launch in into the lower level. We designed showrooms, too. More than
headed by Hendrik Müller, the London under really challenging a solid volume that incorporates anything else, I think clients are
spaces are a place of inspiration conditions,’ he says. ‘e event the entire staircase and covered looking for personal engagement
rather than display. ‘Only the took place under London Bridge. it with pical London red brick. with Gaenau representatives.
relevant appliances are displayed,’ e risk of failure was very high – ese bricks are usually laid What they will certainly expect
says Juliee Gygi, responsible we had 48 hours to install a venue horizontally, but here they’re laid is a manifestation of the brand
for implementing the global of 2500 m2 – but we managed it.’ vertically, to add a difference. with an emotional impact. What
showroom concept world-wide. e successl project turned out Elsewhere in the showroom, they see, feel, touch, smell and
‘Rather than show row aer row to be the founding stone for his we also used materials that taste is what they will remember
of appliances, we want our visitors first long-time engagement with British people are familiar and aer their visit, so we need to
to experience the different options a leading brand. So far, he has comfortable with, such as the deliver something inspiring for
of an oven, for example. Gaenau designed 25 showrooms original London tube blue station all of their senses. e presence
is about exclusive culinary culture for Gaenau. tiles. e rerbished showroom of a product display is self-
and enjoying a sophisticated is a stark contrast to the previous evident, but what Gaenau
lifesle, and that’s where Gaenau has showrooms all over corporate design sle. offers in addition to that is to
we differ.’ the world. How do you straddle experience our appliances live at
e choice for the location the line between brand identi How do you tackle a design cooking and culinary events in
of a new showroom is based and local influences? commission for Gaenau? our showrooms. In that sense, it’s
on many factors, says Gygi. ‘In HENDRIK MÜLLER: Each of the First of all, I pay a personal visit to similar to driving a car. You can
China, for instance, we focus on showrooms we design comes with each location to see the building talk about the physical qualities
the project business aimed at a particular context in terms of and its neighbourhood, to get a of a car forever, but you only get
professionals. Our showrooms culture and architecture. e brief feeling for the local identi and a real impression when you take
in Guangzhou and Shanghai as well as the requirements for to listen to the local Gaenau a test drive. _
are in business districts, and each project are different. Some office to understand their needs. gaenau.com
 Gaenau Germany 183

1
Munich
Bogenhausen in Munich houses 220 m2 of
Gaenu’s authentic, uncompromising and
extraordinary nature, laid out in emphatic
sle. Tree trunks stretch from floor to
ceiling representing, quite literally, the
brand’s Black Forest roots. e warmth of
the organic wood contrasts with the clean
lines of steel, dark anthracite rniture and
glass of the built-in appliances. e new
showroom offers individual consultation for
customers, designers and architects, to help
them visualize their exceptional kitchens and
support their appliance planning. Incredibly,
it is also Gaenau’s first flagship showroom
in its native Germany.
184 Mark 64 Tools

2
London
In London’s Wigmore Street, affectionately
known as ‘kitchen alley’, Gaenau’s
rerbished showroom stands out. A two-
storey space in a Grade II listed proper, its
interior design pays homage to the capital.
e local ubiquitous red brick is used in
the sle of the London Underground tiling,
seing the tone of the room; meanwhile
high ceiling racks, integrated into the open
space, display selected material, products
and manufacturing details, revealing the
exceptional quali of the materials used
by Gaenau. roughout, the mix of brick,
stone, wood, steel and glass presents tactile
variations that invite the visitor to touch
as well as gaze at the latest array of ovens,
cooktops, cooling and dishwasher appliances.
 3
Gaenau Germany 185

Vienna
Vienna is another example of
Gaenau’s sophisticated lifesle
architecture whereby the ci’s coffee
and wine culture are interwoven into
the showroom’s design. e 133-m2
space is divided into three sections. e
Masterpiece Area imparts a sense of
Gaenau’s history via the heritage wall
and forms an exhibition space for like-
minded, cra -orientated, traditional
brands, currently silversmiths Robbe &
Berking. e next room is dedicated to
fine wine with wine climate cabinets
built into a limestone wall. For the final
room, a parquet oak floor, hand-finished
stucco ceiling and elaborate ten-arm
Maria eresa chandelier of Swarovski
crystals signifies entry into the unique
coffee houses of Vienna.
186 Mark 64 Tools
 LAMINAM Fiorano Modenese — Italy 187

Above e South Beach Hotel in Singapore was designed by

Foster+Partners, with interiors by Philippe Starck. LAMINAM
Oxide Grigio was chosen for the wall covers on the 18th floor.

Opposite e Ruby office building in Mumbai, India, was designed

by Access Architects. Applied on the façade are slabs in the
LAMINAM Oxide Moro series.

Photos Andrea Garuti

By the Book LAMINAM, specialist in the

production of large-size ceramic
slabs of minimum thickness for
participating in an impressive
series of international architectural
projects: innovation, cuing-edge
exteriors and interiors, presented technology and creative qualities
LAMINAM, the Italian the World Atlas Book at the
15th International Architecture
make LAMINAM applicable all
over the world, in public and
manufacturer of ceramic Exhibition – La Biennale di
Venezia. is limited edition
private buildings from the centre
of Too to the Chamber of
slabs, has published the architecture volume contains Deputies in Mexico, from the
the most exciting images of School of Moscow to Fluxmans
World Atlas Book. buildings world-wide realized Building in South Africa, from
with LAMINAM products. Panmure Station in New Zealand
For over a year, photographer to Bloor East in Toronto.
Andrea Garuti travelled the five e book was unveiled
continents to create a reportage during the round table discussion
combining architecture, portrait ‘e Planet on the Surface’
and travel photography, expressing promoted by LAMINAM on 26
LAMINAM’s architectural May in the Biennale’s Library, in
innovation through images and the historical Central Pavillon at
life stories. the Giardini venue. Author and
Its brief history has film director Raffaello Fusaro
not hindered LAMINAM from introduced and moderated some →
188 Mark 64 Tools

is commercial building on Plaza Mayor in Leon Guanajuato, Mexico,

was designed by Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos. e ventilated façades
are covered with the LAMINAM Collection Bianco, 1000 × 3000 mm.

influential voices from the world 40 plinths for Anupama Kundoo’s the designer). e central piece,
of contemporary architecture, installation Building Knowledge: integrating the two processes
such as architects Gianluca Peluffo An Inventory of Strategies at on either side, is a ll-scale
from Italy, Anupama Kundoo the Arsenale. is installation construction of an affordable
from India, Zhang Ke of ZAO / investigates the processing of Ferro cement housing unit, the
Standardarchitecture from China, knowledge behind the act of Full Fill Home.
and Humberto Campana from building. A ‘forest’ of LAMINAM Specializing in the
Brasil. Also present was Giuliana surfaces of various heights production of large-size,
Bruno, professor at Harvard creates a landscape displaying the minimum-thickness ceramic slabs
Universi in the USA. inventory of its most innovative for architecture, interiors, design
e participation projects, shown on one hand as and rnishings, LAMINAM
of LAMINAM at the 15th the ‘fruits’ of its investigations has lly industrialized the
International Architecture (as 1:50 sectional models), and on manufacturing process. e
Exhibition – La Biennale di the other the ‘roots’ of research company’s production embodies
Venezia also took a concrete and experimentation (the 1:5 scale two souls corresponding to the
form by supplying 3-mm-thick tectonic models alongside actual two sizes of its slabs: 1000 × 3000
Calce Tortora slabs to create material samples that distinguish mm in 3 and 5 mm thickness ideal
four benches and more than the architectural vocabulary of for floors and indoor and outdoor
 LAMINAM Fiorano Modenese — Italy 189

walls, and 1620 × 3240mm in 12 properties, these large-size,

mm thickness for the horizontal minimum-thickness ceramic
surfaces of tables and kitchen slabs are the natural choice
and bathroom tops. LAMINAM for applications in interiors,
was founded in 2001, when exteriors and rniture; with
engineer Franco Stefani had the a catalogue of over 100 surfaces,
idea of patenting the technology LAMINAM offers a wide range
of this innovative product and of options designed to satis
imagining how it could be all tastes and s les, with so,
used. e ceramic surfaces are natural colours and ultra-modern,
produced using cu ing-edge industrial and three-dimensional
machinery created by System textures. It exports to Europe and
Group, of which LAMINAM is North America, the Gulf States,
part. e main factory, in Fiorano Russia and the Far East, and its
Modenese, Italy has been joined products are distributed in all five
by two new facilities set to triple continents. LAMINAM boasts
the production capaci : one in an extensive portfolio of projects
Borgotaro (Parma, Italy), dedicated created all over the world, and has
entirely to 1620 × 3240-mm-sized established a number of important
slabs (12 mm thick), and another partnerships, in particular with
in Russia, located in Balabanovo, the Japanese giant Toto Ltd, thanks
not far from Moscow, reserved to which LAMINAM is also able to
exclusively for 1000 × 3000-mm offer the innovative photocatalytic
slabs (3 and 5 mm thick). treatment Hydrotect®, which
Perfectly flat, extremely makes the slabs self-cleaning. _
light and with excellent material laminam.it

e Sydney Universi Australia was designed by Woods Bagot.

On the floors is LAMINAM I Naturali Pietra di Savoia Grigia.

e ventilated façades of the Kasumigaseki MH

towers in Too are covered with LAMINAM
Oxide Grigio and I Naturali Basalto Vena Scura.
190 Mark 64 Tools

FSB
Uncompromising Design and Quali

Winner of the Iconic Award 2016 profiles that can be cut to length deploy the different colours as
in the ‘Best of Best’ category, on site. Completing ErgoSystem® a sle tool. Components can be
ErgoSystem® A100 is proof A100 is a range of accessories nimbly adapted to the colour,
that nctional and ergonomic geared towards almost any pe of finish and sheen of tiling and
products can also look good. application. solutions devised whereby
What’s more, the newcomer to ErgoSystem® A100 can products discreetly merge with
the ErgoSystem® range is also be custom-adapted to specific their background. ough they can
particularly easy on the pocket. interiors and se ings by dint of be taken for granted as part of a
ErgoSystem® A100 its variable colour constellations. given spatial configuration, they
combines a diagonally aligned e colours of brackets/structural nevertheless have a strong identi
oval rail cross section with parts and hand/grab-rails can of their own, adding a bespoke
added gripping space: brackets be freely combined, facilitating touch to any interior.
set at an angle to the wall make contrasts for the purpose of fsb.de/ergosystem
taking hold of a rail particularly optimum visibili and readabili,
straightforward. e system is for instance. Anyone laying
based on randomly configurable less store by explicit contrast,
handrail combinations involving on the other hand, can simply
192 Mark 64 Exit

Exit
Mark 65
Dec 2016 – Jan 2017

Maison Edouard François

Urban ecology, the science that studies
nature in our cities, is relatively
young; in fact it only got going in
the 1970s. So-called nature-inclusive
design, a design approach that sees
(urban) nature as an integral part of
architecture and urban design, has
an even shorter history. It is, in fact,
a ‘pioneer profession’, not unlike
sustainable design was in the 1960s and
1970s. Solutions are not self-evident
and have to be searched for; knowledge
is scaered and either hidden in boring
scientific publications or simplified in
books and on websites meant for the
general public.
No wonder then, that there are
very few architects that manage to
combine nature-inclusive design with
really good architecture. Paris-based
architect Edouard François is one
of them. Recently he finished a new
project, M6B2 Tower of Biodiversi in
Paris, which takes the so-called ‘green’
or ‘living’ façade to the next level.

Also
Zaha Hadid’s Port House in Antwerp
Wang Shu’s Wencun Village in
southern China

And
Interviews with Marcio Kogan
and Rick Sommerfield

e trees in the façade of M6B2 Tower of Biodiversi are rooted in storey-high steel
tubes – a solution inspired by trees that grow in narrow cavities on mountainsides.
Photo Pierre L’Excellent
RO OM
FOR THINGS
OF
E V E R D AY
LIFE

The various storage elements can be used as a

highlighting stand-alone piece of furniture or move
towards the background as part of an ensemble.

K I N – S T O R AG E S Y S T E M
D E S I G N BY M AT H I A S H A H N , 2 016

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