T·E·M·P·O· HERZOG & DE MEURON - MUSÉE UNTERLINDEN - COLMAR LSA - DH - JAN 2020 James George Clark
T·E·M·P·O· HERZOG & DE MEURON MUSEÉ UNTERLINDEN COLMAR
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION - Herzog & de Meuron, Unterlinden Museum
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HERZOG & DE MEURON - Practice Lineage, Swiss Architects - Practice Base, Basel - Practice Work, Key Projects, Themes
4 6 7
UNTERLINDEN MUSEUM - Site in Colmar, Competition - Urbanistic Architecture, User Experience - External Form, Simulation in Topography - External Decorum, Simulation in Materiality - Museography, Conservation, Internal Materiality, Form
8 9 10 12 13
TEMPO
15
BIBLIOGRAPHY FIGURES
16 17
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
HERZOG & DE MEURON, UNTERLINDEN MUSEUM
Herzog & de Meuron expanded on Aldo Rossi’s interests in subjects of atmosphere and mood, in the relation between intangibles and construction, in the multiple meanings of the Italian word ‘tempo’ − time, weather, musical beat’.1 ‘They dedicate their work to enlarging experience where others would flatten it, and heightening the specifics of a place when there are pressures to erase them. They are champions of nuance’ ‘they like to build with substances that are delectable, perturbing, earthy, ethereal but in all cases fascinating and engaging’.2
Fig. 01. Senior Partners, Jacques Herzog & Pierre De Meuron
Over two decades of built projects from the practice forming in 1978, the practice managed to build in various scales and typologies in different continents, winning the Pritzker prize in 2001. The practice is well celebrated for delivering an exceptional level of wide-ranging project types, especially larger scale cultural projects both internationally and locally where they combine the specifics of the context with a wider cultural resonance, usually adding public space which is usually not part of the brief.3 In January of 2016, the Swiss Basel firm completed a six-year long extension of the Unterlinden Museum in nearby Colmar, France, 70km from Basel, in collaboration with architects of the French national heritage department. One of the main challenges of the project was to honour the original architecture, Jacques Herzog states, “without falling into the trap of postmodern kitsch”.4 The project takes themes from some of their locally built projects, including experimentation in form, sensitivity between old and new, urbanistic architecture and museography. I visited the museum extension and renovation in December, where I found it to be remarkable both externally as a microcosmic urban scheme and internally as a sensitive cultural project, both dealing with notions of history and modernity, in a clever response whilst guiding the user through the building. I stayed in Basel, where I was able to visit many of the practice’s local projects prior to experiencing the project in Colmar.
Fig. 02. Ackerhof building, Unterlinden Museum, Colmar
DH JAMES CLARK
1 Architectural Review, Two decades of Herzog & de Meuron, 2015 <https://www.architectural-review. com/architects/herzog-and-de-meuron/two-decades-of-herzog-and-de-meuron/8678985.article> (accessed 22.12.19) 2 ibid. 3 Jacques Herzog & Peter Eisenman – A conversation moderated by Carson Chan (Cornell University), 2013, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdomEmYiw8g> (accessed 28.12.19) 4 Architectural Record, Musée Unterlinden, Medieval Makeover: With a few carefully considered interventions, Herzog & de Meuron expands a storied museum, 2016, <https://www. architecturalrecord.com/articles/11643-musee-unterlinden> (accessed 18.12.19)
HERZOG & DE MEURON MUSEÉ UNTERLINDEN
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1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
Jacques Herzog & Pierre De Meuron
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2010
2001 Herzog & De Meuron awarded the prestigious , highest architectural award, The Pritzker Prize
1970-75 Both studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) with Aldo Rossi and Dolf Schnebli
Jacques Herzog born on 19/04/1950, Pierre De Meuron born on 08/05/1950, Basel
2000
1978 Jacques and Pierre form the Practice Herzog & De Meuron
1999 - Both professors at the ETH Zurich 2001 Herzog & 1994 - Both De Meuron awarded, Prix visiting professors at de l'Équerre the Harvard d'Argent Prize University 2003 Herzog & Graduate De Meuron School of awarded, The Design Stirling Prize
Next page shows selected buit works timeline
Herzog & de Meuron
San Cataldo Cemetery
Aldo Rossi Robert Venturi
Marcel Breuer
Christian Kerez
Ronchamp
Roger Diener
Le Corbusier
Bernard Tschumi
Kimbell Art Museum Peter Zumthor
Louis Kahn
Valerio Olgiati
Luigi Snozzi
Max Dudler
New National Gallery Mies Van der Rohe
Mario Botta
Modernist and Swiss Architects
Theo Hotz
Periods of Practice, Not Lifespan
Philip Johnson
Donald Judd
MINIMALISM
INTERNATIONAL STYLE
ART NOUVEAU
DE STIJL EXPRESSIONISM Paul Klee
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
AMSTERDAM SCHOOL Alberto Giacometti Architectural and Artistic Theory and Ideology
DH JAMES CLARK
1966 Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture Published
BAUHAUS
Ai Weiwei Rémy Zaugg
DECONSTRUCTIVISM Gesamtkunstwerk
BRUTALISM 1962 Intentions in Architecture Published
Walter Gropius
2003 Light and Gravity Published
1998 Thinking Architecture Published
POST-MODERNISM
HERZOG & DE MEURON MUSEÉ UNTERLINDEN
2002 Natural History Published
ARTS & CRAFTS
1957 The Poetics of Space Published
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
1966 The Architecture of the City Published
MODERNISM
1972 Learning from Las Vegas Published 1978 Delirious New York Published
1961 The Death and Life of Great American Cities Published
1923 Toward an Architecture Published
Rem Koolhaas
Joseph Beuys
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PRACTICE LINEAGE
HERZOG & DE MEURON
SWISS, NORTHERN EUROPEAN THEORY The attitudes of Swiss architecture are framed by 1970’s theoretical discourse, specifically ETHZ, the neo-rationalism of Aldo Rossi and the neo-realism of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.5 From 1970 to 1975, both Jacques Herzog and Pierre De Meuron studied under Aldo Rossi and Dolph Schnebli at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ). Three years after qualifying, the pair started Herzog & de Meuron, in Basel. Where Kenneth Frampton sees Swiss architecture as a clear and defined meaning, as a “basic minimalist parti pris”,6 Irina Davidovici argues that this is solely based on aesthetics, and proposes for the validity of shared circumstances in which aesthetics became common part of assessment, in a wider cultural, professional and theoretical context, as a cultural phenomenon.7 Concerned with buildings as physical embodiments of a concept, physical presence and effect, in the aspiration of architecture of simply ‘being.’8 One could argue that the practice is emphatically non-stylistic, nor appearing to be high-tech, nor postmodern, nor deconstructivist, but contemporary and archaic, somewhat timeless.9 There are many inspirations for the practice, of whom Jacques Herzog a former artist, like 1970’s Deconstructivists Foucalt and Derrida, who explored breaking down vocabulary and language into meaning, to artists like Giacometti who used humans in the study of space, to their hometown of Basel. The partners use their will to build to establish architectural syntax, from sketch to site, the practice is founded on a gestural practicality.10 Like Friedrich Nietzsche, a previous Basel University Professor of Greek in the 1870’s, Herzog & de Meuron seem to point to pre-Victorian values of body in architecture, suspicious of complicated art, form and content being equal. Like Ancient Greeks, their architecture originates in a primal gestural move, marking the site, using contemporary movements like modernism and minimalism by experimenting with methods to expand on primal forms like the shed or the box.11 It is this unique sense of an innate understanding to history and processes which fascinates myself as an architecture student, in an overly commercialised, homogenous urban landscape with a vast disregard to context.
Fig. 04. Top left: Aldo Rossi Fig. 05. Middle left: Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown Fig. 06. Bottom left: Jacques Derrida
Fig. 03. Previous page: Practice theory lineage timeline Fig. 09. Below: Some key practice projects, key museum projects highlighted in a timeline
2020
Theatre Stadium Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, Kensington Gardens, London, UK
Residential
Museum
Stadium
Walker Art Center expansion, Minneapolis, USA
Unterlinden Museum Extension, Colmar, France
Pavilion
Museum
Beijing National Stadium, Beijing, China
M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, California, USA
HERZOG & DE MEURON MUSEÉ UNTERLINDEN
1111 Lincoln Road (parking garage), Miami, USA
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford, UK
Grand Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
Museum
Tate Modern, London, UK
Education
Library
Mixed Use
Office Apartment buildings, Rue des Suisses, Paris, France
Tate Modern, Switch House, London, UK
Elbphilharmonie concert hall, Hamburg, Germany
Allianz Arena, München-Fröttmaning , Germany
Edifici Fòrum, Barcelona, Spain
Museum
Residential
Museum
Museum Museum
Caixa Forum, Madrid, Spain
IKMZ der BTU Cottbus, Library at Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU), Cottbus, Germany,
Services
Museum
Parrish Art Museum, Long Island, New York
Stadium
Laban Dance Centre, London, UK
Roche Pharma Research Institute Building, Basel, Switzerland
Central Signal Tower, Basel, Switzerland
DH JAMES CLARK
2015
Retail Dominus Winery, Yountville California, USA
Stone House, Tavole, Italy
5 Davidovici, I, Forms of Practice, German-Swiss Architecture, Zurich, Gta-Verlag, 2014, p.15. 6 Frampton, K, Minimal Moralia: Reflections on Recent Swiss German Production, Cambridge, Scroope Cambridge Architecture Journal, 1996, p.326. 7 Davidovici, I, Forms of Practice, German-Swiss Architecture, Zurich, Gta-Verlag, 2014, p.14. 8 Zumthor, P, Thinking Architecture, Basel, Birkhauser Verlag, 2006, p.16-17. 9 Herzog & de Meuron, Urban Projects. Collaboration with Artists. Three Current Projects. Tokyo, TN Probe, 1997, p.5. 10 ibid, p.7. 11 ibid.
2010
Prada Boutique Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan
Rudin House, Leymen, France
Ricola-Euope SA Production and Storage Building, Mulhouse-Brunstatt , France
Goetz Collection, Munich, Germany
2005
Education
Ricola Factory Addition and Glazed Canopy, Laufen, Switzerland
2000
Museum
Residential
1995
Winery
1990
Blue House, Oberwil, Switzerland
Residential
Residential
1978 Jacques and Pierre form the Practice Herzog & De Meuron
1985
Factory
1980
Factory
1975
Fig. 07. Top right: Jacques Herzog, Pierre De Meuron Fig. 08. Bottom right: Friedrich Nietzsche
56 Leonard Street (“Jenga Tower”), New York City, USA
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HERZOG & DE MEURON
PRACTICE BASE, BASEL
Fig. 13. Schaudepot, Weil am Rhein
Fig. 12. Vitrahaus, Weil am Rhein
Fig. 11. Meret Oppenheim, Basel
PRACTICE ROOTED IN LOCAL PLACE
Fig. 10. The practice’s Basel projects
Rem Koolhaas identifies Basel as an ‘inbetween’ city, a centre for the chemical industry and pharmaceuticals, with a pertinence in change and alienation with disparate features that otherwise seem irreconcilable.12 Perhaps their sensitivity to irreversible, entropic processes, favour in products that “harden into a useless degenerated state in a dump or a depot.”13 The City borders Germany and France, an amalgamation of various places and cultures, located in the vastness of the Jura Hills and the curve of the Rhine.14 Romain Rolland describes Basel, ‘an old town, full of intelligence and vitality, but also full of patrician pride, self-satisfied, and closed on itself. A bourgeois aristocracy with a taste for work and the higher culture, but narrow and pietistic, was quietly convinced of its own superiority… These influential houses, possessing fortunes generations old, felt no need to show off their wealth… Millionaires dressed like humble shopkeepers, they spoke with their own raucous dialect, and went conscientiously to their offices every day of their lives.15 Perhaps this unique sense of place from early on has inspired the practice to create a unique relationship between architecture and perception, whereby the society must approve or tolerate the architecture, where the practice becomes non-dogmatic and intensive, where each project takes its own design methodology of programme or conditions; at a time where globalization turns each place into a homogenous place of material and form,16 much like Aldo Rossi expounded in Architecture of the City favoring the messiness of city.17 The practice has over 60 projects in the Basel region. 12 Herzog & de Meuron, Natural History, Baden, Lars Muller, 2002, p.2. 13 Western culture “is a culture of blending and mixing substances until they are unrecognizable. These substances are a part of that matter which, according to a basic law of physics, is never lost. However, in innumerable products of our industrial age, these substance, this matter, can only reenter a natural cycle with great difficulty. This means that after they are scrapped, they harden into a useless degenerated state in a dump or a depot.” In architectures of Herzog & de Meuron, n.p. 14 Herzog & de Meuron, Urban Projects. Collaboration with Artists. Three Current Projects. Tokyo, TN Probe, 1997, p.21. 15 Rolland, R. Jean-Christophe, quoted in Gossman, Basel in the Age of Burckhardt: A Study in Unseasonable Ideas, Chicago, Chicago Press, 2000, p.105. 16 Herzog & de Meuron, Urban Projects. Collaboration with Artists. Three Current Projects. TN Probe, 1997, P.13. 17 Rossi, A, The Architecture of the City, London, MIT Press, 1982.
DH JAMES CLARK
Fig. 14. Basel City, typical topography
Fig. 15. Joseph Beuys, with the “Old Ways” carnival group, Basel - a key cited influence
Fig. 16. Herzog & de Meuron urban sketch
Fig. 18. Aldo Rossi’s La Finistra del Poeta
Fig. 17. Herzog & de Meuron’s 1999 Schlauger project
Fig. 19. Aldo Rossi’s 1971 San Cataldo Cemetary project
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HERZOG & DE MEURON
PRACTICE WORK
KEY PROJECT, KEY THEME
Fig. 20. Signal Box, Basel
Fig. 21. Herzog & de Meuron sketches
Fig. 22. Frohlick House, Stuttgart model
SIGNAL BOX
SIMULATION IN FORM
A key project in the practice’s early career highlights a conceptual shift in how form making would progress. The more open attitude on form, expression of form where orthogonal form to freer form can be seen shifts from a box type topography in the Signal Box, completed in 1991-94 to a morphed box form in the Central Signal Box, realised in 1998-99.
Rudin House in Leymen, Ht. Rhin, France takes an archetypical form of a house, steep roof, large chimney, windows, like a child’s drawing. The concrete building appears light on a supporting plinth.18 Whereas, the Frohlich House in Stuttgart, Germany from the outside the house looks heavy and compact, like a medieval shrine, the façade walls and roof has no distinction, windows follow seemingly random positions in the façade.19
Fig. 23. Schaudepot handcut Gima bricks, Weil am Rhein Fig. 24. Practice experiments in form and material
VITRA
MATERIALITY AND FORM
The Schaudepot, a gallery, storage and warehouse building for modernist furniture is in a typical house or shed like form, with no windows, modelled in clay brick masonry like the adjoining sawtooth warehouse factory building dating from 1963, offering an indigenous and unpretentious expression of function. The hand cut bricks are stacked, each visible and distinctive due to unique fractured pattern. The corner bricks were split on the header and stretcher sides to match the appearance on the corners.
Prada Flagship Store in Tokyo resembles a more elaborate experimentation in both form and tectonics, decorum. The form seems to change shape depending on where viewing from, the rhomboid façade clad with convex, concave sheets of glass, intended to eliminate the separation between inside and outside.20
18 Wang, W, Herzog & de Meuron by Wilfried Wang, Basel, Birkhauser Verlag, 1998, p.150. 19 ibid, p.144. 20 Hofmeister, S, Herzog & de Meuron. Architecture and Construction Details, Munich, Detail Magazine, 2017, p.160.
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MUSEÉÉ UNTERLINDEN
PROJECT PLACE, COMPETITION COLMAR, UNTERLINDEN MUSEUM COLMAR
FREIBURG
70km
BASEL
Fig. 25. Colmar town location
Fig. 27. Unterlinden Museum site plan
nicus
nicus
Chapelle
Ackerhof Canal
Cloitre
Piscine
La Maison
Gallerie Fig. 28. Unterlinden Museum isonometric Existing renovated in red, new buildings in blue
Fig. 26. Colmar town topography photographs
The City is so picturesque due to its trading wealth, its past as an economic powerhouse in the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries. There is a clear topography of architecture with pitched roofs with timber frame and terracotta tiling being typical. The Museum is part of the Country’s Contrat de Projects Etat-Region from 2007 to 2013, a seven-year planning agreement between the French state and the Alsace region, as a cultural initiative to expand the galleries and exhibition spaces of this museum. Colmar City being the principal financial backer of the project, with additional backing from private sponsors. The 83,000 sq.ft. project cost was 54 million Euros.21 The project seeked to firstly restorate the basilica with medieval and archeological pieces, to freshen up and bring back life to spaces in the monastery that had deteriorated, add new gallery spaces for transitioning periods of art and museography, to add contemporary art museum extension. 21 Architectural Record, Musée Unterlinden, Medieval Makeover: With a few carefully considered interventions, Herzog & de Meuron expands a storied museum, 2016, <https://www.architecturalrecord. com/articles/11643-musee-unterlinden> (accessed 18.12.19) Fig. 30. Above: Ground floor plan Fig. 31. Below: Lower ground floor plan
Fig. 29. Unterlinden Museum competition visuals
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URBANISTIC ARCHITECTURE
MUSEÉÉ UNTERLINDEN
PUBLIC USER EXPERIENCE
Fig. 32. Underground connection from each side
Fig. 33. Sketch, improved public realm
After the extension, two building complexes, physically connected by an underground gallery, face each other across Unterlinden Square. The medieval convent consisting of a church, a cloister, a fountain and a garden stand to one side. On the other side of the square, the new museum building mirrors the church’s volume and, together with the former municipal baths constitutes a second, enclosed court.22
Fig. 38. La Maison lightwell into gallery
Fig. 34. Urban public space transformation
Fig. 37. Children playing in public space
Between the two museum complexes, Unterlinden Square has recovered its historical significance, recalling the times when, across from the convent, stables and farm buildings formed an ensemble known as the “Ackerhof ”. The bus stop and parking lot existing prior to the museum’s renovation have now become a new public and urban space. The Sinn canal, which flows under Colmar’s old town, has been reopened, becoming the central element of this new public space. Close to the water, a small house marks the museum’s presence on the square: its positioning, volume and shape are those of the mill that once stood there. Two windows allow passersby to look downwards at the underground gallery connecting the two ensembles of buildings.23 22 ArchDaily, Musée Unterlinden / Herzog & de Meuron, 2016, <https://www.archdaily.com/782168/ musee-unterlinden-extension-herzog-and-de-meuron> (accessed 12.12.19) 23 ibid. Fig. 35. Previous street with bus stop
DH JAMES CLARK
Fig. 36. Opening up canal, new pedestrianised public space
Fig. 39. Canalside steps
HERZOG & DE MEURON MUSEÉ UNTERLINDEN
Fig. 40. Courtyard, attention to detail of material
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EXTERNAL FORM
MUSEÉÉ UNTERLINDEN
SIMULATION IN TOPOGRPAHY The new extension is based on conceptually simulating an architecture which previously stood on the site, but as ‘abstract monuments that can be located in space but not in ‘time’.24 The little house building is inspired by the small outlet building that stood in the same place that was the entrance gate that was the former Ackerhof that was a farm to support the convent. It forms a link between these two elements, breaking down the scale and periods of the buildings on each side. The practice took joy in reconceptualising a simulation of a setting, as Aldo Rossi states, ‘the idea of history as the structure of urban artefact is affirmed by the continuities that exist in the deepest layers of the urban structure, where certain fundamental characteristics that are common to the entire urban dynamic can be seen.’25
Fig. 41. Previous little house building and gate leading to previous Ackerhof farm building
Fig. 42. Model of previous 13th century convent buildings which stood on the site
Fig. 44. View across from canal
The Ackerhof building has a copper slate sloping gable end of 11.5m,26 seamless in materiality from the roof, a unique geometric take on a Swiss pitched roof and reflects the proportions or volumes of the Dominican church standing opposite. Like the nearby roofscape surrounding the site, the form echoes in materiality and sloping form. Like the Schaudepot, the building is a minimalist façade, with only one lancet window and a ground floor lancet shaped entrance door from the courtyard. The large blank brick façade evokes a unique sense of place and history of the site, with its ominous presence on the site. The building is unique, highly executed in concept to built- form, a highly creative intervention as a response to the context, modern but seemingly traditional. The La Maison folly building has a copper sloping roof. The walls convex into the centre creating interest in the large windows with timber framing. It is a meeting point before going to the Ackerhof, but it is also a big skylight which allows light to flow into the below gallery which links across underground. It acts like a paver, where the visitor can see in and out of the museum. The gallery below is very carefully curated by art curator Jean Francois Chevrier.27
Fig. 45. Ackerhof building with roofscape topography
Fig. 46. Ackerhof building facade and lancet windows, creating timeless architecture
Fig. 47. La Maison building, convent in background
Fig. 48. La Maison building roof, directing walls to window
Ideas of simulation were explored by testing many variations in simple forms with a very strong potential, Jacques states, ‘not as a trademark but where it makes sense.’28 Rather than a Hollywood simulation the building form takes inspiration from but does copy a historic archetype. 24 Arquitectura Viva, Continuity and Invention, Herzog & de Meuron in Colmar, Madrid, London, 2016, p.19. 25 Rossi, A, The Architecture of the City, London, MIT Press, 1982, p.128. 26 ArchDaily, Musée Unterlinden / Herzog & de Meuron, 2016, <https://www.archdaily.com/782168/ musee-unterlinden-extension-herzog-and-de-meuron> (accessed 12.12.19) 27 Jacques Herzog ‘hardly finished work’, 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mgPQlrfJYYo&t=3473s> 28 ibid. Fig. 43. Sketch, view across from canal
DH JAMES CLARK
Fig. 49. La Maison building model ground, -1 floor Fig. 50. La Maison building form process models
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EXTERNAL FORM
MUSEÉÉ UNTERLINDEN
SIMULATION IN TOPOGRPAHY
Fig. 51. La Maison elevation
Fig. 52. View through wall window to Ackerhof
Fig. 53. Roofscape
Fig. 54. La Maison roofscape
Fig. 55. Minimal floodlight
Fig. 56. La Maison window skylight
Fig. 57. La Maison roof to Piscine
Fig. 58. La Maison
Views from canal
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EXTERNAL DECORUM
MUSEÉÉ UNTERLINDEN
SIMULATION IN MATERIALITY Like the earlier Shaudepot project, The Ackerhof and La Maison buildings as well as the enclosing courtyard wall are of irregular, hand-broken bricks by Gima,29 entering a dialogue with the convent facades of quarrystone and plaster, that were redone many times over the centuries creating a pastiche affect. The blank wall on the other side, connecting to the Piscine also uses the copper slate creating a threshold from the old and new. Like Colmar town, the new courtyard is paved in sandstone, as is Unterlinden Square. At the heart of the courtyard, an apple grove— the “Pomarium”—arises from a platform made of stone and brick.30 Jacques Herzog states, ‘We were looking for an urban configuration and architectural language that would fit into the old town and yet, upon closer inspection, appear contemporary.’31
Fig. 59. Varied periods of stonework
Fig. 60. 13th century Chapelle Tower
Fig. 63. Museum Unterlinden dominant material finish Fig. 61. Sensitive materials between the old
Fig. 62. Copper facade between Piscine, Ackerhof
Terracotta tile Masonry Terracotta tile White render Copper Hand cut brick White render
The practice demonstrates that instead of blocking the evolution of new forms, typologies can be employed to generate them.32 As Aldo Rossi states, ‘type is thus a constant and manifests itself with a character of necessity; but even though it is predetermined, it reacts dialectically with technique, function, and style, as well as with both the collective character and the individual moment of the architectural artefact.’33 Where the practice simply adds to the old convent by adding stonework and timber doors to the old architecture, the practice uses a different strategy in the new, simulating the traditional lancet window, in a unique way, experimenting with a minimal form which transforms inside into a rectangular inset into the wall. 29 Architectural Record, Musée Unterlinden, Medieval Makeover: With a few carefully considered interventions, Herzog & de Meuron expands a storied museum, 2016, <https://www.architecturalrecord. com/articles/11643-musee-unterlinden> (accessed 18.12.19) 30 ibid. 31 ibid. 32 Herzog & de Meuron, Natural History, Baden, Lars Muller, 2002, p.346. 33 Rossi, A, The Architecture of the City, London, MIT Press, 1982, p.41.
Key:
Fig. 68. Hand broken Gima bricks used for facades, wall and street
Fig. 64. 13th century convent building and courtyard
Fig. 65. Sketch, 13th century cloister lancet window
Fig. 69. Wall mock up
Fig. 70. Interpreted lancet window mock up
Fig. 66. New entrance to museum, to cloisters
Fig. 67. Lancet window, stone of varied periods
Fig. 71. Exit courtyard
Fig. 72. La maison threshold between canal
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MUSEOGRAPHY
MUSEÉÉ UNTERLINDEN
CONSERVATION, MATERIALITY, SIMULATION IN FORM Chapelle
Cloitre
Gallerie Fig. 73. Internal spaces diagram Fig. 74. Cloisters with lancet windows
Fig. 75. Matthias Grunewald’s Isenheim altarpiece
Moved to the centre of Unterlinden Square, facing the canal, the entrance to the expanded Museum leads to the convent, whose facade has been delicately renovated and new flooring replaced with Topcer tiling and Singer Parquets.34 Museological components from the recent past were removed and the spaces restored to an earlier state. The church’s roof has been renovated, with a new timber floor installed in the nave where Grunewald’s Isenheim altarpiece stands in the focal point, ‘the hallucinatory masterpiece of agony and exaltation that is one of the greatest works of Germanic renaissance art’.35 The ceiling around the courtyard of the cloisters is very interesting because in the medieval times, the timber had been reused which had been found from different buildings, creating an amazing piece of architecture previously hidden behind the ceiling. Formerly blocked windows have been reopened, looking out on the cloister and the city.36 Fig. 76. Gallery space showing 15th Century art
Fig. 77. Sensitively considered doorways
Fig. 78. Protective glazing over window lintels
Fig. 79. Curved timber doorways inset into wall
Fig. 82. Arched plaster corridors
Fig. 83. Sculptural staircases, minimal furnishings
Fig. 80. Rediscovered timber ceilings, topcer tiling
Fig. 81. Minimal furnishings and handles
Fig. 84. Black ceiling finish, careful lighting
Fig. 85. Glazed elements, careful lighting showing the Mosaïque de Bergheim
Fig. 86. Centrally positioned art pieces on plinths
Fig. 87. Inset pullable doors flush with wall face
Visitors walk down a new, cast concrete spiral staircase leading to the underground gallery that connects the convent with the new building. The renovation works were carried out in close collaboration with the architects of the French national heritage department, notably Richard Duplat and the museum curated by Jean-François Chevrier and Élia Pijollet.37 Collaboration is a key part of the success of the project, like Ruskin the practice would precept that the worth of architecture proceeds partly from the quality of labour expended upon it and the value of craftsmanship.38 34 Architectural Record, Musée Unterlinden, Medieval Makeover: With a few carefully considered interventions, Herzog & de Meuron expands a storied museum, 2016, <https://www.architecturalrecord. com/articles/11643-musee-unterlinden> (accessed 18.12.19) 35 The Guardian, 2016, <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/may/15/herzog-de-meuroninterview-tate-modern-switch-house-extension> (accessed 02.01.19) 36 Jacques Herzog ‘hardly finished work’ <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgPQlrfJYYo&t=3473s> 37 ibid. 38 Saint, A, The Image of the Architect, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1983, p.64.
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MUSEOGRAPHY
MUSEÉÉ UNTERLINDEN
CONSERVATION, MATERIALITY, SIMULATION IN FORM
Piscine
Ackerhof
Gallerie Fig. 88. Internal spaces diagram Fig. 89. La Piscine, parquet timber flooring
Fig. 90. View from window out onto courtyard
Fig. 96. 1. Gallery space
Fig. 97. 2. Gallery space
Fig. 98. 3. Gallery space, sculpture is Jean Dubuffet’s Don Coucoubazar
Fig. 99. 4. Gallery space
A new underground gallery links to the new exhibition building, the Ackerhof, which present the 19th- and 20th-century collections, along contemporary, abstract lines. The space on the second floor is dedicated to temporary exhibitions.39 The tension between the Ackerhof and Gothic chapel is so robust that the Art Nouveau 1906 former baths building is embraced, fitting well into the ensemble.40 The central space of the former municipal baths, or La Piscine, is now connected to the new exhibition spaces, serving as a venue for concerts, conferences, celebrations and contemporary art installations. The other spaces of the former baths house the administration of the museum, a library, a café facing the new courtyard and the Colmar Tourist Office facing Unterlinden Square.41
Fig. 91. Sculptural staircase landing, lancet window Fig. 92. Sculptural staircases, minimal lighting alcoves creating warmth of space
1. 2.
3.
4.
Fig. 100. Model showing Ackerhof on three levels
Fig. 93. Sculptural staircase
The deep cut arches inside create a sense of oneness between what is old and what is new, it eases the transition. What is so special about the transition between what is outside and inside, is the simplicity of colour and texture in white render which smoothes over the sculptural interior forms which directs the user around the building. Sensitive lighting by Artemide, Regent, Salvi, Flos42 allows for the spaces to feel warm and allows for the space to be simple for the exhibitions to breathe in the space.
Fig. 94. Minimal, senstively considered signage
DH JAMES CLARK
Fig. 95. Model showing staircase on three levels
39 ArchDaily, Musée Unterlinden / Herzog & de Meuron, 2016, <https://www.archdaily.com/782168/ musee-unterlinden-extension-herzog-and-de-meuron> (accessed 12.12.19) 40 Arquitectura Viva, Continuity and Invention, Herzog & de Meuron in Colmar, Madrid, London, 2016, p.19. 41 ArchDaily, Musée Unterlinden / Herzog & de Meuron, 2016, <https://www.archdaily.com/782168/ musee-unterlinden-extension-herzog-and-de-meuron> (accessed 12.12.19) 42 Architectural Record, Musée Unterlinden, Medieval Makeover: With a few carefully considered interventions, Herzog & de Meuron expands a storied museum, 2016, <https://www. architecturalrecord.com/articles/11643-musee-unterlinden> (accessed 18.12.19)
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TEMPO
TEMPO
INFLUENCE It is interesting that the same practice completed a modest museum renovation and extension, using ideas on simulation in Colmar in 2017, after which the previous year completing the second phase of a £260 million major museum extension in the Tate Modern Switch House, a vastly different project in scale and intent; but sharing similar themes. Both projects attempt to answer somewhat the two partners’ belief that “the middle class is disappearing” and the loss of possibilities of common ground, of cultural experiences shared by different people.43 The built project is a successful urban intervention which succeeds the sense of place before it. The role of the architect has been to sensitively improve the conditions of the site and architecture in a top down approach, considering the bottom up movement of the user and the way the project will be used, creating an attention to detail on both inside and outside spaces and this relationship. Jacques Herzog states that both a top down approach where control is maintained by management and the architect’s authority, collaborating with other specialists, and a bottom up consideration of the user experience are necessary for great architecture, whether the architecture is ideologically based or concept-based will be found to be successful only if, visitors use the built project. He also insists that a practice should always consider seriously the importance of public scale, including an inserted public space, even if not included in the brief. This allows for the people to use the space and make sure the building stays as an important part of the city, it is not something you can parametrically develop; it is part of your experience and knowledge.44
Fig. 105. Switch House bricks in facade
Fig. 107. Jamie Fobert Halle St Peter’s extension
Fig. 109. Caruso St. John’s Newport Street Gallery
DH JAMES CLARK
Fig. 106. O’Donnell + Tuomey LSE Student Centre
Fig. 108. David Chipperfield Neues Museum restoration, remarkable sensitivity to old
Fig. 110. Sergison Bates Workhops, Factory London
Fig. 101. Sketch, Switch House decorum, 336,000 bricks used in facades to simulate original infrastructure
Fig. 102. Sketch, Switch House external form, distorted pyramid tower form
Fig. 103. Sketch, Switch House urbanistic architecture, staircases as nodes, meeting points
Fig. 104. Sketch, Switch House urbanistic architecture, walkway as link between buildings
Peter Eisenmann argues that there is a fundamental difference philosophically in material between a northern and southern based education. Eisenmann is more influenced by Alberti, who argued that space has no colour, no material. Material is treated differently in the northern world, as opposed to spacium, the latin word in the Italian world, from architects like Alberti, Palladio, Moretti.45 Jacques states that the northern position is a romantic, holistic dream of bringing many themes together, fascinated by architects like Novalis, Pallasmaa rather than Nobert Schultz, a much more diluted version. He disagrees that space is purely an abstract phenomenon, as even Palladio needed finely treated material to make that space available. Rather, space and architecture is great when it reacts to the five senses, as a physical entity. He does not give value to the inherent material, but only to the holistic space. Jacques also reverts back to the importance of teacher over matters of northern and southern theory, in the foreground were Masters like Aldo Rossi and Lucius Bocart, left wing Communists, with Rossi adamant that a designer should do architecture and architects should express their criticism through the work themselves through their building, rather than writing. In the background were American Modernists and the New York architects, which were not explored as students but only until the 80s when they had created Herzog & de Meuron.46 As Jane Jacobs writes, ‘why have cities not, been identified, understood and treated as problems of organized complexity?’47 Architects, rather as Robert Venturi states, can act ‘by modifying or adding conventional elements to still other conventional elements they can, by a twist of context, gain a maximum of effect through a minimum of means. They can make us see the same things in a different way.’48 Typical museum restorations and extensions are being built with a real sensitive appreciation of their existing counterparts, working with the specifics of cultural history, using materials which do not pretend to be original, allowing the history to be celebrated. London practices are taking inspiration from northern European practices, two key London Swiss firms being, Caruso St. John and Sergison Bates. Much like Herzog & de Meuron, Sergison Bates’ architecture channels on an oscillation between a formal and tectonic emphasis, using established ordinary typologies through abstraction and distortion.49 Recently, the ‘style’ ‘new London vernacular’ generally favours the interplays of brick coursing, usually with a concrete or steel frame,50 perhaps in a search for a more holistic approach to material integrity, appealing to the senses, which may be lacking in development of the city. 43 The Guardian, 2016, <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/may/15/herzog-demeuron-interview-tate-modern-switch-house-extension> (accessed 02.01.19) 44 Jacques Herzog & Peter Eisenman – A conversation moderated by Carson Chan (Cornell University), 2013, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdomEmYiw8g> (accessed 28.12.19) 45 ibid. 46 ibid. 47 Jacobs, J, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, New York, Modern Library Ed. 2011, p.567. 48 Venturi, R. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1966, p.44. 49 Davidovici, I, “Tectonic Presence” in Buildings. Sergison Bates Architects, Heinz Wirz, Lucerne: Quart Verlag, 2012, p.9–13. 50 Financial Times, Is a new architectural style emerging in London – Brickism? 2016, <https://www. ft.com/content/61ea50cc-d0d4-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377>
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BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS
INTERVIEWS
Davidovici, I, Forms of Practice, German-Swiss Architecture, Zurich, Gta-Verlag, 2014 Jacques Herzog & Peter Eisenman – A conversation moderated by Carson Chan (Cornell University), 2013, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdomEmYiw8g> Davidovici, I, “Tectonic Presence” in Buildings. Sergison Bates Architects, Heinz Wirz, (accessed 28.12.19) Lucerne: Quart Verlag, 2012 Herzog & de Meuron, Natural History, Baden, Lars Muller, 2002 Herzog & de Meuron. Urban Projects. Collaboration with Artists. Three Current Projects. Tokyo, TN Probe, 1997
Jacques Herzog ‘hardly finished work’, 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mgPQlrfJYYo&t=3473s>
Jacobs, J, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, New York, Modern Library Ed. 2011. Rolland, R, Jean-Christophe, quoted in Gossman, Basel in the Age of Burckhardt: A Study in Unseasonable Ideas, Chicago, Chicago Press, 2000 Rossi, A, The Architecture of the City, London, MIT Press, 1982 Saint, A, The Image of the Architect, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1983 Venturi, R. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1966 Wang, W, Herzog & de Meuron by Wilfried Wang, Basel, Birkhauser Verlag, 1998 Zumthor, P, Thinking Architecture, Basel, Birkhauser Verlag, 2006
ESSAYS Frampton, K, Minimal Moralia: Reflections on Recent Swiss German Production, Cambridge, Scroope Cambridge Architecture Journal, 1996
ARTICLES ArchDaily, Musée Unterlinden / Herzog & de Meuron, 2016, <https://www.archdaily. com/782168/musee-unterlinden-extension-herzog-and-de-meuron> (accessed 12.12.19) Architectural Record, Musée Unterlinden, Medieval Makeover: With a few carefully considered interventions, Herzog & de Meuron expands a storied museum, 2016, <https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11643-musee-unterlinden> (accessed 18.12.19) Architectural Review, Two decades of Herzog & de Meuron, 2015 <https://www. architectural-review.com/architects/herzog-and-de-meuron/two-decades-of-herzogand-de-meuron/8678985.article> (accessed 22.12.19) Financial Times, Is a new architectural style emerging in London – Brickism? 2016, <https://www.ft.com/content/61ea50cc-d0d4-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377> The Guardian, 2016, <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/may/15/ herzog-de-meuron-interview-tate-modern-switch-house-extension> (accessed 02.01.19)
MAGAZINES Arquitectura Viva, Continuity and Invention, Herzog & de Meuron in Colmar, Madrid, London, 2016 Hofmeister, S. Herzog & de Meuron. Architecture and Construction Details, Munich, Detail Magazine, 2017
DH JAMES CLARK
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FIGURE REFERENCES Fig. 01. ArchDaily <https://www.archdaily.com/370152/happy-birthday-pierre-deFig. 62. Author meuron> Fig. 63. Author Fig. 02. Pinterest <https://www.pinterest.de/pin/576460821022916464/> Fig. 64. Author Fig. 03. Author Fig. 65. Author Fig. 04. Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Rossi> Fig. 66. Author Fig. 05. ArchDaily <https://www.archdaily.com/903226/robert-venturi-and-theFig. 67. Author difficult-whole-how-architectures-enfant-terrible-changed-design-forever?ad_ Fig. 68. Jacques Herzog ‘hardly finished work’, 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/ medium=gallery> watch?v=mgPQlrfJYYo&t=3473s> Fig. 06. The Imaginative Conservative <https://theimaginativeconservative. Fig. 69. Jacques Herzog ‘hardly finished work’, 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/ org/2019/04/madness-jacques-derrida-josh-herring.html> watch?v=mgPQlrfJYYo&t=3473s> Fig. 07. ArchDaily <https://www.archdaily.com/370152/happy-birthday-pierre-deFig. 70. 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Pinterest <https://www.pinterest.com/pin/340444053062606756/?lp=true> Fig. 82. Author Fig. 19. Zero <https://zero.eu/en/luoghi/76574-cimitero-aldo-rossi,modena/> Fig. 83. Dezeen <https://www.dezeen.com/2016/02/12/herzog-de-meuronFig. 20. ArchDaily <https://www.archdaily.com/256766/flashback-signal-box-herzog- subterranean-gallery-extension-musee-unterlinden-colmar-france-concrete-staircase/> de-meuron> Fig. 84. Author Fig. 21. Herzog & de Meuron, Natural History, Baden, Lars Muller, 2002 Fig. 85. Author Fig. 22. Herzog & de Meuron, Natural History, Baden, Lars Muller, 2002 Fig. 86. Author Fig. 23. Author Fig. 87. Author Fig. 24. Herzog & de Meuron, Natural History, Baden, Lars Muller, 2002 Fig. 88. Author Fig. 25. Author Fig. 89. Author Fig. 26. Author Fig. 90. Author Fig. 27. Author Fig. 91. Dezeen <https://www.dezeen.com/2016/02/12/herzog-de-meuronFig. 28. Author subterranean-gallery-extension-musee-unterlinden-colmar-france-concrete-staircase/> Fig. 29. ArchDaily <https://www.archdaily.com/240219/musee-unterlinden-expansion- Fig. 92. Dezeen <https://www.dezeen.com/2016/02/12/herzog-de-meuronherzog-de-meuron> subterranean-gallery-extension-musee-unterlinden-colmar-france-concrete-staircase/> Fig. 30. Le Moniteur <https://www.lemoniteur.fr/article/herzog-de-meuron-museeFig. 93. Dezeen <https://www.dezeen.com/2016/02/12/herzog-de-meuronunterlinden-colmar.1098334> subterranean-gallery-extension-musee-unterlinden-colmar-france-concrete-staircase/> Fig. 31. Le Moniteur <https://www.lemoniteur.fr/article/herzog-de-meuron-museeFig. 94. Author unterlinden-colmar.1098334> Fig. 95. Jacques Herzog ‘hardly finished work’, 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/ Fig. 32. Author watch?v=mgPQlrfJYYo&t=3473s> Fig. 33. Author Fig. 96. Dezeen <https://www.dezeen.com/2016/02/12/herzog-de-meuronFig. 34. 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Jamie Fobert Architects <https://jamiefobertarchitects.com/work/halle-stFig. 45. Author peters/> Fig. 46. Author Fig. 108. David Chipperfield Architect <https://davidchipperfield.com/project/neues_ Fig. 47. Author museum> Fig. 48. Author Fig. 109. Alex Upton photography <https://www.alexuptonphotography.com/newportFig. 49. Jacques Herzog ‘hardly finished work’, 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/ street-gallery/8> watch?v=mgPQlrfJYYo&t=3473s> Fig. 110. Sergison Bates architects <http://sergisonbates.com/en/projects/dwelling> Fig. 50. Jacques Herzog ‘hardly finished work’, 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mgPQlrfJYYo&t=3473s> Fig. 51. Author Fig. 52. Author Fig. 53. Author Fig. 54. Author Fig. 55. Author Fig. 56. Author Fig. 57. Author Fig. 58. Author Fig. 59. Author Fig. 60. Author Fig. 61. Author DH JAMES CLARK
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