POPPO PINGEL
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AUROVILLE ARCHITECTS MONOGRAPH SERIES
POPPO PINGEL
MONA DOCTOR–PINGEL Foreword by Balkrishna V. Doshi
Mapin Publishing
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First published in India in 2012 by Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd 502 Paritosh, Near Darpana Academy, Usmanpura Riverside Ahmedabad, 380013, India T: 91 79 40 228 228 • F: 91 79 40 228 201 E: mapin@mapinpub.com • www.mapinpub.com Simultaneously published in the United States of America in 2012 by Grantha Corporation 77 Daniele Drive, Hidden Meadows, Ocean Township, NJ 07712 E: mapin@mapinpub.com
Distributed in North America by Antique Collectors’ Club T: 1 800 252 5231 • F: 413 529 0862 E: info@antiquecc.com • www.antiquecollectorsclub.com Distributed in United Kingdom and Europe by Gazelle Book Services Ltd. T: 44 1524-68765 • F: 44 1524-63232 E: sales@gazellebooks.co.uk • www.gazellebookservices.co.uk Distributed in Southeast Asia by Paragon Asia Co. Ltd T: 66 2877 7755 • F: 66 2468 9636 E: info@paragonasia.com Distributed in the Rest of the World by Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd
Text © Mona Doctor–Pingel Photographs © as listed under ‘Image Credits’ on p. 200 All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN 978-81-89995-51-5 (Mapin) ISBN 978 -1- 935677-11-6 (Grantha) LCCN 2012930167 Copyeditor: Nandini Bhaskaran / Mapin Editorial Editorial support: Vinutha Mallya, Aruna Raghuram / Mapin Editorial Design: Nidhi Sah / Mapin Design Studio Production: Paulomi Shah / Mapin Design Studio Processed by Reproscan, Mumbai Printed by Aegean Offset Printers, New Delhi
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Cover (front): Afsanah Guest House Cover (back): Clockwise from top-left: Udavi School; Fraternity workshop; Shubha and Mauro House; Quiet Healing Centre Page 2: Aquarelle, 1988 Page 6: Beyond Dimensions, ink on paper, 1977 Page 7: Cultivating Clouds, ink on paper, 1977 Page 9: Brush Strokes, ink on waste paper, 1977
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This book is dedicated To the pioneers who came to Auroville in those early years ... and to the many unnamed craftsmen who are helping to build Auroville
Symbol of Auroville: The dot at the centre represents Unity, the Supreme; the inner circle represents the creation, the conception of the City; the petals represent the power of expression, realization. – The Mother, 16 August 1971
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CONTENTS Foreword Balkrishna V. Doshi
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II Selected Works
Author’s Note
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Village Houses in Rammed Earth
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The Context: Auroville—Unfolding of a Vision
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Fraternity Workshops and Kindergarten
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Miraonevi Nivas
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Mukuduvidu and Studio Naqshbandi Durganand Balsavar
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I From Germany to India Cacatum non est aedificatum
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Udavi School Durganand Balsavar
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Formative years and early influences
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Quiet Healing Centre and Apartments
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As a carpenter apprentice
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Afsanah Guest House Poonam Verma Mascerenhas
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Studying and working
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Suryamandalam: Tamil Heritage Centre and Museum
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Coming to India
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Architect-artisan
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Archaeology
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III Personal Perspectives
Chronology of Works
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Poppo: The development worker Franz-Joseph Vollmer
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Contributing Writers and Image Credits
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From part to the whole Preeti Chopra
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Bibliography
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Poppo: The anecdotal man Suhasini Ayer–Guigan
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Acknowledgements
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‘My Material Guru’: Poppo and Hugo Kuekelhaus Elmar Schenkel
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Unfamiliar messages—Architecture between Intuition and Craftsmanship Brigitte Jacob & Wolfgang Schaeche
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FOREWORD
When a Zen archer confronts a blank paper with an ink-filled brush in his hand, suddenly, as if by magic, there appears a series of strokes expressing his innate skills, incongruous at first glance, but creating varied images in the mind of the viewer and eventually satisfying the senses. This is how I have known Poppo Pingel, the German architect and Aurovillian, since 1984. Trained as an architect and specialised in wood craftsmanship, Poppo, for the last 40 years has been fulfilling ‘The Mother’s’ vision in Auroville through his architectural, archaeological and calligraphic work. Through his works he attempts to express this vision of a new, diverse, multinational experimental community rooted in the soil of south India, for both young and old, with minimum possessions. Naturally, these creations are a synthesis between Poppo’s life and his wideranging, well thought-out interests and stillness. Thus, his meticulously documented architectural buildings and complexes express a connection between earth, water and sky, between craft and technology and between within and without. Poppo’s architecture, like his lifestyle too expresses this inherent nature. Through interconnected passages, varied scales, volumes and spaces, his hovering buildings give a unique identity to his landscapes of waterbodies, rocks and greens as if in a silent dialogue.
Balkrishna V. Doshi Ahmedabad, March 2010
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Monograph series on Auroville Architects—The Pioneers—emerged from a deep sense of gratitude. Gratitude towards Auroville—that it exists, after 40 years, through all its struggles and limitations, and continues to do so as an ideal, a concept, a city in the making, nurturing the lives of those who converge here from all over the world. Gratitude also for those pioneers who came to a barren red plateau and had the conviction to follow a dream, giving their youth to make it what it is today—a green haven with opportunities for all. These pioneering architects—Roger Anger (1923–2008), Piero (b. 1935) and Gloria (b. 1933) Cicionesi and Poppo Pingel (b. 1942), come from completely different backgrounds in Europe—France, Italy and Germany respectively. While they have chosen different ways to express themselves, their commitment and dedication to Auroville through a major part of their lives and careers cannot be doubted. Their humility, simplicity and straightforward approach to life and work, which I discovered in the course of my research, left me moved. Work for them, in these 40 years at Auroville, has been a product of their life’s inner aspirations. “It is through work that we can detect and progressively get rid of the feelings and movements that are contrary to the yogic ideal—those of the ego,” Sri Aurobindo
With no pre-defined laws nor conventions to conform to, they gave vent to a multitude of expressions as natural extensions of their quest for the new, both within and without. Over many years of living and building in Auroville, I have come to appreciate the value of the foundation laid by these pioneers. They established certain values in the Auroville work culture and set standards from which all of us who came later could profit. Those early years were tough for young aspiring architects. There were no qualified structural engineers, contractors or supervisors. Skilled masons, carpenters, painters or barbenders were almost non-existent. Building materials available in Pondicherry, 10 km away, were rudimentary, and Chennai was 160 km away. Yet, the buildings that came up in those early years still inspire many—be it Roger’s buildings with their curvilinear, earth-hugging innovative shapes, Piero & Gloria’s ‘Aspiration’ 1 huts, using local know-how in a modern way, or Poppo’s low-cost ‘Fraternity’2 workshops, inspired by Japanese simplicity and detailing. Today, in Auroville, we often take for granted the workmanship of different roofing and flooring possibilities, the quality of exposed brickwork or precast concrete, the ability of the local unqualified, but enterprising, supervisors and contractors to read and understand drawings, their willingness to experiment and learn from mistakes. The average mason or carpenter is proud of the work he does in Auroville. A building construction crew with “Auroville experience” commands respect and is welcomed in cities, like Bangalore, Chennai or Hyderabad. Such changes do not come about in a day. The manner in which the pioneers 10
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Auroville, 1968
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persevered against all odds to achieve a perfection that is so much a part of the Integral Yoga of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo3 —seeds sown way back then—has enabled us to enjoy the benefits now. The experiments, from innovative spatial design, using appropriate building materials and technologies to questioning the user’s lifestyle, environment-friendly building infrastructure and cost-effective solutions in a tropical hot-humid climate to research on the relationship between the human organism and built form, continue to attract visitors from all over. Now, there is a sufficient body of projects in Auroville that demand serious documentation and analysis to ascertain the areas of replicability and relevance, not only for Auroville’s own further development, but also for the rest of India and the world. Every year several hundred architects visit Auroville searching for inspiration. They look for professional literature on Auroville architecture. Yet, nothing comprehensive that has been written by architects, particularly Auroville architects, exists. These three Monographs are an attempt to fill this lacuna. They start by reviewing the works of Auroville’s early pioneers who contributed to the spirit of innovation, experimentation and perfection that has become synonymous with Auroville’s architecture scene today. The series will also seriously archive their early works, some of which are rapidly deteriorating, and put on record their views. It is hoped that different authors will write on other Auroville architects, contributing to an authentic documentation of the significance and influence of Auroville’s architectural projects, bringing together the achievements made possible in this unique laboratory situation for architectural education. Mona Doctor–Pingel
Auroville 10 km north of Pondicherry and 160 km south of
Chennai on the Bay of Bengal Climatic zone tropical hot-humid Latitude 11°55’ N, Longitude: 70°52’E Altitude 50 m above mean sea level Average Annual Rainfall 1300 mm Average Relative Humidity 70-80 % Annual mean minimum temp 22°C Annual mean maximum temp 43°C Annual mean temperature 27°C Annual global solar radiation 439 cal/sq cm 1 Name of a community within Auroville. 2 Another community within Auroville. 3 Integral Yoga stresses a double movement: an ascending
FACING PAGE Aquarelle, 1989
Aspiration and a descending Force. The aim is the divinisation of life, a transformation of mind, life and body. Working with spirit and matter, bringing about a perfect balance between the two is one of the challenges of such a transformation.
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THE CONTEXT: AUROVILLE—UNFOLDING OF A VISION
THE CHARTER OF AUROVILLE • Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness. • Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress and a youth that never ages. • Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all the discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations. • Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity. The Mother 28 February 1968
This Charter was given to Auroville as one of its main guidelines by the founder, French-born Mira Alfassa, known as The Mother, who, along with India’s great philosopher-yogi, Sri Aurobindo, initiated Integral Yoga. She joined Sri Aurobindo in 1914, and in 1926, took charge of the fledgling community growing around him that came to be known as The Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, south India. Auroville is conceived as an urban experiment to undertake the work of the ‘evolution of consciousness’, in a society that would concretely experiment with the challenges of economy, sociology, environment and culture while seeking spiritual life. When the foundation stone of Auroville was laid on 28 February 1968, there were great expectations of building ‘The City of Dawn’, ‘The City of the Future’. The ground reality was a barren plateau of red laterite earth with a few palm trees, peanut fields and deep canyons caused by gradual erosion. There was hardly any skilled construction labour available in the sleepy little villages, where bullock carts, sheep and goats lived amiably, braving dust storms, the scorching sun in summer, and the monsoons when the sea became red from the water runoffs. The very first settlers were adventurers, who believed in a new world order and that Auroville was a necessity to evolve a new species, the next step in the evolution of humankind, where a rich collective life was a prerequisite for the individual to progress towards that end.
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THE CITY MASTER PLAN The extraordinary Galaxy Master Plan of Auroville which evolved from a sketch made by The Mother in 1965 has been an inspiration for many. It came at the right time: the youthful idealism of the 1960s was strong and change was in the air—the hippie culture, the students’ revolution, the heroic period of the Modern Movement was coming to an end. Young people were searching for new forms to embody a new consciousness. However, the land designated for the city and the surrounding green belt needed to be purchased. The vast funding required for this and construction of the Galaxy did not materialise immediately. As the first Aurovilians began to trickle in and settle down, they learned about the rhythms and culture of the people around them in the villages. They began planting millions of saplings simply as a measure of self-preservation from the dust storms and the heat of the vast barren plateau. By and by, the Galaxy plan, with its huge multistoreyed buildings, monorails and moving sidewalks, appeared more like a distant dream which would take its own time and course to take shape. Problems and awakenings at a global level led to greater awareness—the oil crisis of the early seventies and the accelerating environmental movement brought new insights into such Ideal City planning. Thus, inevitably Auroville began to grow slowly, organically in a piecemeal manner. Small-scale, labour-intensive construction along with cultivation, reforestation and various specialised cottage industries seemed more appropriate and sustainable. Moreover, The Mother passed away in November 1973. It was another milestone for Auroville. Roger Anger, the architect who was faced with the responsibility of manifesting the City as envisaged, became increasingly frustrated. To avoid getting drawn into a power struggle which was then enveloping the township and its residents,1 he resigned from the main organising committee in 1974 and ultimately left for France in 1976, returning in 1985 to play an active role once again.2 In the interim, the difficulties that arose seemed sometimes to question the very existence of Auroville. Nevertheless, it managed to survive in spirit and grow on a material level. Auroville, even today, remains an arena of experiment and transformation at all levels of life and humanity, and this is probably the real challenge of its architecture and planning. It continues to draw people. Some leave in the face of the difficulties of pioneering something new, others because of the seemingly chaotic system of governance and decision-making in the absence of a hierarchical structure. Too much idealism can wear off or get eroded by the day-to-day, practical difficulties of people from different cultures living together where nothing belongs to anybody in particular, but to the collective as a whole. Some stay, never giving up, believing this to be their Karmabhoomi,3 believing in the impossible, giving it all they have and, in the process, moulding themselves, defeating inherent inertia, jumping over their own shadows; trying, experimenting with ever new vigour, sometimes with wisdom, at other times with naivete. And so ‘The City’ builds itself. 15
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Foundation ceremony of Auroville, 28 February 1968
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LEFT Galaxy plan of Auroville, 1967. The final circular Galaxy plan of 20 sq km is based on a spiralling galaxy divided into four zones with Lines of Force (low to high rise buildings in a curve), accentuating the galactic movement, and Matrimandir at the centre. It includes a greenbelt and five existing villages (not shown here). RIGHT Sketch given by The Mother, explaining the four zones of Auroville: residential, cultural, industrial and international
Its envisaged population in 1968 was 50,000. Forty years hence, Auroville has a population of approximately 1600 adults and 450 children from 40 different nations. The villages in and around Auroville have grown in size, and approximately 5,000 villagers are employed in Auroville activities. The relationship with the local people and those who come from elsewhere to make Auroville their home continues to be a complex theme. However, there seems to be more that unites than divides those that reside on and around the Auroville plateau. There is a strong bond born of shared memory, endeavour and a very particular spirit of the place. Not surprisingly, every architect, town planner and, in fact, every Aurovilian begins, at some point, to ask her/himself: “How does one merge the Galaxy concept with the ground realities without losing its essence? What should the process of its building be? Are we going in the right direction? What is our role in the region, in India and the world? What is, in fact, the raison d’etre of Auroville? Is this why I came here?” And there are as many answers as there are Aurovilians, and each one has a place in the total puzzle that is Auroville. Finally, it is not only the ‘finished product’ but the ‘process’ followed, both within and without, that is important. It is about living in the present and yet aiming towards a future which seems impossible. Ideally then, the process of building becomes a means of learning and experience where all aspects of man’s nature— physical, vital, mental as well as the spiritual—are developed and perfected. To live in Auroville is an act of faith. When one lives longer in Auroville, experiencing the ups and downs, the idealism and illusions being confronted, checked, reformulated through life experiences, many existential questions arise—how has such an experiment been allowed, nurtured and actively supported by the Indian government on Indian soil? One begins then to understand that Auroville will BE what it is meant to be, in spite of—or because—of all our combined efforts. 1 Auroville underwent a protracted period of difficulties with the
original nurturing body, the Sri Aurobindo Society in Pondicherry. This culminated in intervention by the Government of India in 1980 and the passing of a special Auroville Foundation Act in the Indian Parliament.
2 Extracts from “The Auroville Experience”, Auroville Today, 2006 and
Auroville Architecture—towards new forms for a new consciousness, Prisma, Auroville, 2003.
3 Sanskrit word meaning ‘Field of action’.
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Acrylic on board, 2002
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FROM GERMANY TO INDIA
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CACATUM NON EST AEDIFICATUM
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Poppo’s architecture lies between the plastic and the elemental, the sensory and the rational. His background in carpentry gives him a strong base in materiality, yet his aspirations and nature lead him to go beyond purely rational processes. He is a person who allows things to evolve as they come. In Auroville, he believes, one evolves according to inner capacities and needs, not desires. The external built forms grow out of the evolution of the awareness of one’s own nature and the world around. His designs, like him, are simple and straight forward. There is a rustic quality, a sense of playfulness, poetry and element of surprise that are a trademark of his nature. For him, design is not a participatory process. It is very personal and individual. You cannot have too many cooks. “It is like asking Ravi Shankar for a solstice Raga and then consulting J. Sebastian Bach’s opinion, finally, including a piece from Mozart, and to top it all, a Rimsky Korsakov finale.” Poppo likes to remain master of his own time, limiting his commissions and commitments to invest his energies in activities besides architecture that enrich and empower him to grow. Archery, archaeology, painting, calligraphy, health and healing are all pursued with a Teutonic zeal and depth. Simultaneously, his attempt is to apply in daily life the writings of great masters, like G. I. Gurdjieff or Carlos Castaneda, Hugo Kuekelhaus, and of course, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, to a point where they form part of his total world view, and thereby, his work.
Poppo enjoys, most of all, his own company and Nature’s. In his own unique way, he defies the trends of the day: he does not have a phone, let alone a cell phone nor computers. He still does things in the old forgotten way, recycling discarded bits and pieces that people throw away in an often wasteful lifestyle. Yet, there is an order and the discipline to find what he needs at the right time! His buildings unfold gently. Often, a meandering path invites one to get ‘lost’, connect to the spirit of the place and root in the landscape, before arriving at the ‘source’. He believes that one has to ‘work’ and ‘prepare oneself’ in order to ‘receive’. So a question put to him will usually not solicit a simple, clear-cut answer. Objects, history, events, stories, provided in his narrations give us the ‘whole’ picture. Along the way, there are vistas, pauses, surprises, obstacles—all interlinked, purposely, to give a taste of the ‘largerreality’, leading eventually to a harmonious sum total. In this sense he makes a good teacher, since he does not offer ready-made solutions, but lets one discover the hidden potential within. One is free to arrive at one’s own interpretation. His work has been compared to Geoffrey Bawa’s, the Sri Lankan architect (1919-2003). This is perhaps apparent in the treatment of outdoor-indoor space, of the garden as a series of rooms, each with its own character, surprise element, and of course, approach to design. Design for both men, while being practical and honest, is an internal process.2 Bawa describes architecture as a rational process of giving presence to both form and function. However, he goes on to say that there are
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Samothrake, Aquarelle, 1999 23
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other considerations, where no rules can guide, or if they could, would not perhaps always give the right answer[…]“It is in this realm of part emotion, part thought, that the rest of the way must run, and it is at this stage that the architect steps, from the relative security of known and learnt things, into the world of intuition, inspiration, talent, gift—call it what you will, a world inside his head and far outside it at the same time—almost sub- or super-conscious. This may seem extravagant when written down but it is the unknown factor. I suppose it is here that each one of us has a separate and personal impulse—the point at which, although surrounded by the fact and reality of a project, one is alone and must make a decision to do this and not that, to do what seems at the moment inevitable.” In Poppo’s own words: ”Explaining architecture —the process and the building—is sometimes like wiseacring…pouring from the void into the empty… some things cannot be satisfactorily explained rationally. I come from the School which is very practical and straightforward, where the aesthetic is developed from the material and not the other way round. Art or architecture that is not rooted in, or honest to the material and its craftsmanship—form for the sake of form—does not excite me. My terms as an architectural recipient are: clarity in design—clear overview of design as in a single brushstroke; honesty in the structure—everything is revealed, nothing is hidden; spaces related to the human scale, nurturing the senses, giving the spirit space to breathe, and if the project allows, pointing to the spirit itself in its simplicity and playfulness. If most of these are achieved, beauty comes by itself, spreading subtly serenity and well being. Dirty corners are not allowed. All are observable elements; even brooms and tools which help manifest the spirit on the ground are, to me, sacred.
I am not a heavy thinker or talker. Architecture, for me, is like planning and non-planning at the same time, letting the unknown come in. The New Year message of The Mother in 1969 was “Don’t talk, act” and this has been the leitmotiv of my work all these years in Auroville. Here, competition has no meaning for me. The project comes to me and not the other way round. Often I am just a well prepared receiving station. The ideas sometimes come early morning in the form of visualisation in the forehead while the eyes are still closed. Or it’s as though the IDEA was already there from a need, the evolution of a process of solving a problem. Afterwards, a project comes where the idea gets manifested, the Quiet Healing Centre being such an example. It was the evolution of a problem that I had been trying to solve—in this case, taking the next step in working with domes and vaults, keeping intact in the background all the ideals of creating buildings that enhance health and well being. It is a to-and-fro from the inside to the outside and vice versa. The outside manifests in the evolution of a built form and the inside involves the evolution of my awareness, my own nature and the world—the creation as it is and the way I am placed in it. The whole process is a simultaneous whole—a reflection of myself and the elements. Sketching comes later and as a tool to manifest these ideas aesthetically into a built form—sketching only as a search for form without ideas is foreign to me. Sometimes, ideas present themselves of their own accord in alignment with the scale, nature of material, climate, craftsmanship, functions on the site and the cosmic power of money, evolving eventually into a harmonious whole. Aesthetics is the result of the ‘seeing eye’ as an organiser, discriminator, discerner—simultaneously active during this creative process. Detailing plays an important role— even in the initial stages—for the totality of the design. It is again a constant to-and-fro from the smallest detail to the larger plan. Detailing is nothing but accumulation
FACING PAGE
The Kyudo Dojo, Mukuduvidu
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LEFT Illustration from ‘Die Gartenlaube’, late 19th century RIGHT Radha and Krishna, Indian miniature on ivory
of life experience. Models and working drawings are then only for others to visualise and build. I still don’t believe in computers, insurances, televisions, telephones…I believe rather in my fountain pen, my Leica, and health ‘ensurance’. You need to find the security within. You can always perform an action as long as you believe in your own force. As soon as you understand your limitations and doubts, I believe it is important to leave space to cultivate intuition and patience instead of overloading our thoughts and systems with electronic conveniences. Hugo Kuekelhaus and Baubiologie strengthened my belief in how our senses in modern life atrophy by simply not using them. As no changes of sense stimuli are provided, our senses are subdued and our health endangered, rather than enhanced, through our built environment. This slowly affects the human organism, and in the long run, leads to physiological and psychological stress and disease, especially in the young generation, often growing up in a sensorily deprived world. Architecture derives primarily from the human need for shelter, covering a multi-cultural span from cave dwelling to skyscraper. It has always to be seen in this existential light, not just in itself but with the whys, for whats
and wheres. If we lose this perspective we enter fashion. The result is egocentric, away from timelessness and Spirit. The Spirit is not Matter, it is behind it, within, around it. This is not the exposition of an individual architectural philosophy, but rather a vision and the result of an evolving contact with the ever-changing world of space and matter, its natural conditions and consequences, its relativities, and its time-bound demands for absoluteness. It is a search, an aspiration, and at the same time, a dedication to the Infinite where the mundane and sacred lose their separateness.” 3 FORMATIVE YEARS AND EARLY INFLUENCES Born in 1942 in a 200-year-old, timber-framed house, Poppo spent the first 11 years of his life in a small village, Oestinghausen, near Soest, a medieval town in north-western Germany. Life was simple in the scarcity of post-war times but full ofnature’s riches. It was ideal for improvisation, play, imagining and dreaming, the very environment that nurtured his unique sensitivity to nature and materials as an architect. Poppo would spend time alone, looking for unusual pebbles, admiring the 1,000-year-old oak
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tree or the willow thickets along the rivulet and climbing the bell tower of the old Romanic church in the village. His grandparents’ house was a fundgrube, a treasure house, where he spent hours going through the attic, old cupboards or his grandfather’s painting studio where there was always something his grandmother was happy to get rid of! By the age of eight, he had acquired a reputation for collecting things that to others appeared ‘useless’. His eye could appreciate the beauty of a not-in-fashion, hence discarded, antique. Being born into a family of maler und schlossermeisters, master house painters and locksmiths, helped him understand the spirit of craftsmanship, and served also as an inspiration for his own forays into painting. Relationships, those that were formative, left a lasting impression. These included the pastor who ran boy scout camps in the forests; the village doctor who practised Chinese acupuncture at a time when Eastern medical systems were less known and his uncle Heinrich Schenkel who introduced him to the Upanishads,4 the Samurai tradition, Japanese archery and Hugo Kuekelhaus.
Later, he moved to Muenster, the capital of Westphalia, Germany, when his mother remarried. His stepfather was an architect.5 Poppo remembers how the loamy soil there was different in composition from the clayey one of his village. A ‘slow developer’, as he calls himself, he was still building sand castles at 14! Yet, what was vital for him was to have a table in a room where he would create his own environment with his collection. This is a trait that has persisted: when he stays long at a place, he puts out roots and establishes his world. AS A CARPENTER APPRENTICE In retrospect, the three years—1957–60—that Poppo spent as a structural carpentry apprentice6 were the most formative. Those years, tough though they were, taught him to value materials, the importance of detail, respect for experience and instilled an appreciation for the workers on site. For instance, a minor mistake in a joint one day and his attempt to gloss over it with a “No one will see it” earned him a stern look from the master carpenter. Pointing a finger at the sky, he said to the boy, “He will see.”
LEFT Pink Mountains, Nicholas Roerich RIGHT Istanbul, Hans Doellgast
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Poppo loves recounting this anecdote to clients, or architects who try to hide their mistakes or dirty corners. There are no ‘backs’ to any of his buildings. After passing the carpenter’s apprenticeship exam, Poppo had to complete six months of drafting in an established office, followed by six months as a trainee for masonry and concrete works on a site to enter architectural school. Those three years as a carpenter had made his hands like ‘mumpties’ (Tamil for spades) he would say. His first drafting job was to measure and draw a façade of an old building to be restored in 1:20. He struggled long with clumsy hands until one morning he found the task on his table, all drawn up by the boss! Architects Baak and Broeskamp were famous in Muenster for an interesting partnership where one specialised in restoring churches, the other, historical pubs. Young Poppo was taken with Herr Baak, who would come into the office, put on his white kittel, overcoat worn by architects with a bow-tie, light a cigarette, blow a perfect circle of smoke into the air and start the day’s work. Cigarette in left hand and a thick 6B in his right, he would draw with fluidity and elegance. To this day, some of his sketches hang in Poppo’s studio. “They were masters in drawing,” Poppo always said, an influence that had him turn to sketching and calligraphy. He would come home and try and achieve the same curves on his own until he was satisfied. Growing up in Muenster was an experience in itself. The 1,200-year-old town then was still being reconstructed after the Second World War with 60 percent having been reduced to rubble. Experiencing how a society rebuilt itself after losing two World Wars made keener in Poppo the need for security, peace and order.
STUDYING AND WORKING The three-year architecture course at the Architecture Department of the State Engineering Institute for Building Sciences,7 which Poppo began at Muenster and finished at Aachen, adopted a practical approach, the aesthetic developing from the material and not the other way round. After graduating in 1964, he joined the reputed firm of Pantenius in his hometown. Architects Ruth (1922–2011) and Wolfgang Pantenius (1911–1992) came from the Stuttgart School8 which was influenced by Paul Bonatz (1877–1956) and Paul Schmitthenner (1884–1972). Bonatz believed in “the importance of giving a clear understanding of that which is necessary, to show the structure in a pure manner, […] at the same time differentiating between Form and Function, so that even a layperson can understand”. Wolfgang Pantenius had been head of the Planning Department of the city of Muenster for some years after the war and was known to follow the tradition of Bonatz. His architecture was defined by his rather strong engineering leanings and an extensive use of exposed RCC frame structure. Working with Pantenius for two years made it possible for Poppo to further refine his sense of materiality, order, perfection and detailing. He also discovered what he did not want to do: manage an office where he would have one foot at the drafting table, the other permanently in the lawyer’s office, running around for insurances, employees, tender contracts and producing books on ‘bill of quantities’. This did not suit his temperament. Until then, his training and exposure had been rather insular, mainly within the German-speaking milieu. It was the only language he knew. A friend who had backpacked round the world on foot seeded in him the idea to travel. He was urged by a family friend to join a development organization
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Oestinghausen with the house where Poppo was born, postcard, 1907 29
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Brush Strokes, ink on waste paper, 2008 FACING PAGE
Brush Strokes, ink on handmade paper, 1986 30
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“His well documented architectural
buildings and complexes express a connection between earth, water and sky, between craft and technology and between within and without.” —Balkrishna Doshi in his Foreword
ARCHITECTURE AUROVILLE ARCHITECTS MONOGRAPH SERIES
POPPO PINGEL Mona Doctor-Pingel
204 pages, 229 colour photographs 113 black & white drawings 9 x 9” (229 x 229 mm), hc ISBN: 978-81-89995-51-5 (Mapin) ISBN: 978-1-935677-11-6 (Grantha) ₹1950 | $50 | £35 2012 • World rights