Number 10: Legend | Spring 2011
ISSN 1746-8086
Legend Contents Architecture Literature 100 Label Words by Phil Sawdon 104 Kerouac’s Gray America Words by Derek Horton
054 Legend: Le Corbusier Words by Gordon O’Connor-Read Photographs by Ken Mcckown 058 The Balancing Barn Words by Rose Cooper-Thorne
108 MAKING-TOWARD-ART’S-(LEGENDARY)-BODY Words by Michael Phillipson
062 A Walk in The Clouds: The Making of a Legend in Herzog & De Meuron’s Actelion Business Centre Words by João Paulo Nunes
Fashion
Music
016 κυπάρισσος Photographer Panayotis Mina Fashion Editor Christos Kyriakides
078 Hank Wangford Interview by Hannah Yelin
040 Agnosco Veteris Vestigia Flammae Photographer Harris Kyprianou Fashion Editor Andreas Koumas
084 Gaggle Interview by Hannah Yelin
Art
Photography
028 John Latham Interview with John Hill by Helen Kaplinsky
066 In a Different Light Images by Zoe Childerley
034 Cheggers, Obbers, Roggors and the Seductive Allure of Academia on the Hoof Words by Annie Davey
088 The King of the Blinds Images by Marco Ambrosi
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Editor in Chief Jack Boulton jack@stimulusrespond.com
Contributors This Issue
Editors - Literature Phil Sawdon and Marsha Meskimmon phil@stimulusrespond.com
Literature
Editor - Fashion Christos Kyriakides christos@stimulusrespond.com Contributing Fashion Editor Matthew Holroyd Editor - Art Christopher Thomas christopher@stimulusrespond.com Editor - Architecture Rose Cooper-Thorne rose@stimulusrespond.com Editor - Music Hannah Yelin hannah@stimulusrespond.com
Cover image by Eley Kishimoto
Michael Phillipson Derek Horton Phil Sawdon Fashion Panayotis Mina Ilona Garamvolgyi Christos Kyriakides Angelos Pattas Harris Kyprianou Andreas Koumas Marios Neophytou Tania Larina Vins Steinburg Elena Vafea Ashley Nash Architecture João Paulo Nunes Gordon O’Connor-Read Ken Mcckown Rose Cooper-Thorne Art
For advertising opportunities, please contact the editor-in-chief at the address above. We welcome unsolicited material from our readers. If you would like to make a contribution to future issues then please email the editorial team at the addresses above. Stimulus Respond is published by Jack Boulton. All material is copyright (c) 2011 the respective contributors. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior consent. The views expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors and are not neccessarily shared by the magazine. The magazine accepts no liability for loss or damage of manuscripts, artwork, photographic prints and transparencies. ISSN 1746-8086
John Hill Helen Kaplinsky Annie Davey John Latham Music Hank Wangford Gaggle Hannah Yelin Photography Zoe Childerley Marco Ambrosi
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A Walk in The Clouds: The Making of a Legend in Herzog & De Meuron’s Actelion Business Centre Words by João Paulo Nunes
Contrary to public perception, legendary architects or buildings emerge into the collective unconscious with unyielding public iconic status only very rarely. Of those privileged professionals who attain the legend status, Herzog & de Meuron are undoubtedly worthy of the moniker. Pierre de Meuron and Jacques Herzog joined creative forces in Basle, Switzerland, in 1978 and became Herzog & de Meuron in 1997. Over the years, they have garnered the most prestigious awards available throughout the world to premiate architectural talent, including the Pritzker Prize in 2001 and the Praemium Imperiale and the Royal Gold Medal (by the Royal Institute of British Architects) in 2007. Their highly accomplished buildings are scattered throughout the continents and include the Tate Modern museum and the Laban
Centre in London, the Allianz Arena football stadium in Munich, the CaixaForum building in Madrid, and the ‘Bird’s Nest’ Olympic stadium in Beijing. To this list of legendary buildings, Herzog & de Meuron have now added what can be confidently described as one of the most successful office buildings that the Western world has witnessed in recent years. After three years of complex engineering development, and 130 million Swiss francs later, architectural practice Herzog & De Meuron have completed the Actelion Business Centre in Allschwil, Switzerland. The building provides office space for 350 employees of Actelion Pharmaceuticals and features different areas cantilevered over one another, providing a sense of floating rooms, some of which are covered with roof terraces. Several design measures were
incorporated with the intention to contribute towards developing the building’s effective carbon neutral performance: the glass facades of the upper floor offices have been conceived downwards, allowing the building to self-shade and reduce the heat generated by the sun, and the triple-glazed windows feature louvers that adjust automatically to provide shade according to the sun’s position. The building also incorporated photovoltaic cells in its design in order to generate part of energy it needs. Function follows form in this building as the x-shaped steel bars used to bear its load structure also become appealing components of the design’s identity internally, a strategy used to great beauty in the Bird’s Nest. Despite the rigid geometric shapes required by the structural engineers involved in this sophisticated project, this is a seductive building that suggests
qualities of abundant lightness, greenness and space owing to its cantilevered perspectives and multilayered shapes and angles. In addition, each floor is laid out differently despite their core areas for accessibility and social involvement: kitchens and breakout areas coexist next to lifts and escalators, allowing for fluid communication to develop organically between employees. As office spaces go, these are ingredients that simultaneously secure individuality, well-being, and appreciation of working space. The fact that this is a reasonably low-rise building with only six floors above ground that are so well integrated into the surrounding landscape makes the Actelion business centre a most definite legendary building in the making. Photographs courtesy of Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd.