INfocusTHE BOX on life stories
animated by architecture
IN THE BOX focus on life stories animated by architecture
Sylvia E. Kim Copyright Š 2010 Genoa Italy
PREFACE
Like the cigarette concession stand that becomes popular after tobacchi stores close in Italy, we sometimes miss the open hours in our lives and have to use the machine to get what we want. Variety of different types giving enlightenment and becoming a necessity as every little box including this vending machine adds color to our life and becoming part of architecture and completing the fabric of our lives.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX PREFACE 7 INTRODUCTION 10 BARCELONA mies van der rohe 16 GENOA rossi + piano 28 MARSEILLE le corbusier 34 NAPLES chris alexander 40 ROME julius caesar 46 FLORENCE michelangelo 52 ATHENS bernard tschumi 58 SUMVITG peter zumthor 64 VIENNA otto wagner 72 BILBAO frank gehry 78 MULHOUSE lacaton & vassal 84 WEIL AM RHEIN vitra campus 90 VENETO palladio + scarpa 96
CIGARETTE CONCESSION MEMORY OF A CITY THE POLICE STATION BARCELONA PAVILION AND THE BOY CITY OF STAIRS BIGO AND TEATRO CARLO FELICE BAGUETTES AND LE CORBUSIER WHICH HAS MORE LIFE? ROME IS JULIUS CAESAR! DUOMO AND MICHELANGELO AT EVERY CORNER ACROPOLIS IS THE BUILDING AND PLAKA IS THE CULTURE IT STARTS WHEN YOU SET YOUR FEET ON THE PLATFORM OF THE TRAIN STATION KLIMT’S “KISS” HAS ENCHANTED THE CITY OF VIENNA ACTIVATING THE CITY CREATING LIFE VIA ARCHITECTURE SUBURBAN GREY SCALE LIFE ARCHITECTURE DISNEY WORLD METICULOUS PERFECTION
INTRODUCTION
MEMORY OF A CITY
12
The Melancholy and Mystery of a Street by De Chirico
What is this world that we create? Being born into the world with thoughts, we start out by learning alphabets-A,B,C, etc. Then comes the words that are created by these alphabets: apple, mom, love, hate, and happiness. We learn these words and we also learn to create a "life" for ourselves. One is a healer, one is an artist, and one is an ARCHITECT. There are cities full of buildings, or buildings full of cities. What really makes a city come to life? Is it the people whom occupies the city or is it the buildings that animates these cities? Or is it the objects that makes up architecture that gives breath to the cities? Without people there are no buildings, but also without shelters people will not be able to survive. As Robert Venturi points out the many complexity and contradictions in architecture, our life is also full of contradictions that plays off each other. There is a major contradiction of the cities I visited as the cities were busy yet so silent. As illustrated by De Chirico in his painting The Melancholy and Mystery of a Street, there is a sadness or memory of the streets that we visit which might be crowded, but yet we feel somewhat like the girl in the painting, ALONE. My purpose for this box is to collect these contradictions, life stories, energies, and complexities that creates a city. And how do architects or artists change the world? We are all connected as one creates the other and life always travels in circle.
13
Also, as I was traveling throughout the country of Europe, I found that it was a contradiction itself that city full of most beautiful buildings and landscapes contain people whom loves paper money more than their history and architecture. I find it interesting that the cities less travelled are more unique than the ones frequently visited.
14
I would like to discuss what makes up each of the cities I visited and how architects and architecture continue to have greater influence in shaping its' culture, city, and life. What has Le Corbusier ignited that made Europe what it is now? How has Michelangelo influenced the streets of Florence and Rome? My focus of this book will be covering the main personalities that has affected a city and how the "architect" can become an ingredient in shaping a city. Concurrently, I would also like to share through photos and images the characteristics of the each city I have visited. Not just the buildings, but the surroundings, the leather bags that line up along the open market in Florence, the interesting alleyways that are found in Naples, the cigarette vending machine that activates at night, and most importantly the people that makes up a city. These are the investigations I would like to record in this box; box full of surprises, full of discoveries. As in Robert Frost’s poem, “I took the ones less traveled by and that has made all the difference.�
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN BY ROBERT FROST two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry i could not travel both and be one traveler, long i stood and looked down one as far as i could then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim because it was grassy and wanted wear though as for that, the passing there had worn them really about the same and both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black oh, i marked the first for another day yet knowing how way leads on to way i doubted if i should ever come back i shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence two roads diverged in a wood, and i, i took the ones less traveled by, and that has made all the difference
15
BARCELONA mies van der rohe
THE POLICE STATION
18
The space I remember most vividly in Barcelona. It wasn’t the wonderful Sagrada Familia nor the beautifully sculpted Gaudi Garden, but it was this room--with simple green doors, a row of chairs, smell of cigarettes, with anxious people waiting for their turn, sitting or standing by the black chairs and looking at the blackboard every minute to see if their number has come up. This was the police station in Barcelona. Barcelona has many traces of wonderful work that Gaudi left behind, or the Barcelona Pavilion that Mies van der Rohe realized. Casa Batillo, Gaudi Park, Casa Milla, and the Sagrada Familia, these are all monumental and iconic buildings of Barcelona. But why did I remember the police station so vividly? Just like a film going across my mind in full color. Was it the architecture of the space that intrigued me to sit there for over an hour? To me, Barcelona trip has been the one and only trip in which I became the victim of the crowd. Drifting with their cultural activity, I was the wounded and also the “it” of their destination. My second day in Barcelona was day with full memory of the rain, lost wallet, and my visit to the police station. The police station has served as an “iconic” place for me, a place of importance in which I will remember Barcelona by. It was not the Sagrada Familia nor the Gaudi park but this little box of a police station that has no visual interest nor architectural significance but rather the function that it served had greater importance
19
on me since reporting my wallet with all my money and identification documents stolen was a very important task for me. Concurrently, I throw this question, how is function related to the importance of a space? A place without functional importance, would it have a lasting imprint on a person? Mies Van Der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion was a contraction to this police station. It was the most wonderfully crafted place but did not serve any real important function to me.
20
Therefore, has the police station replaced my memory of the visit to the Barcelona Pavilion? The answer is no, the police station did not replace my memory of the Barcelona Pavilion, yet the crucial answer to this question is that the police station had equal importance in my memory. It is not aesthetics of the police station that I remember vividly but purpose it served. In conclusion, I feel function in architecture can never be undermined.
BARCELONA PAVILION AND THE BOY
21
24
There was a boy playing with water at the Barcelona Pavilion. There was no one sitting by the bench outside or anyone hanging out by the pavilion. Like myself, we all came here to take “important” architectural photography, to imprint the memory that we were here at Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. To me this boy is significant because he actually enjoyed the building and used it. Like someone using a pair of scissors to cut something, this boy was using the building. How important is function to a building? Would art undermine or underscore the function? This is the question that aroused when I felt and saw Barcelona Pavilion. With no bias on what the building serves or illustrates, there is always the “BUILDING.” The thing you call that has walls, doors, roofs, and windows. With the Barcelona Pavilion, there are no walls, doors, roofs, or windows. “The volume contained between them becomes a seemingly unlimited expanse of abstract, universal space. (Zukowsky, 43)” There are objects that seem to float about. That looks as if it were standing without any structure. Yet Mies uses columns that are disguised as mullions simply supporting a window, or misting the corner to make all things free from each other. As mentioned by Eisenman, there are absences of spaces, “when the corner disappear, the negative space is read as presence (even though void) (Zukowsky 93).”
25
There are no windows, yet one has exposure to everything around them. There are no doors thus one is going around and around within the space--never finding a starting point nor the end point. There are no roofs, but rather just a rectangular hat that seem to stop you from getting rain or wet from rain. And of course there are no walls, but rather partitions that divide yet only to give different perceptions but not to support. The building itself represents Mies van der Rohe’s ideas and concepts.
26
What he believes architecture is and should be. A thing of art--in which itself has no restrictions but is FREE. “Architecture begins when two bricks are put carefully together. Architecture is a language having the discipline of a grammar. Language can be used for normal day-to-day purposes as prose. And if you are really good, you can be a POET. (Mies van der Rohe).�
27
GENOA rossi + piano
30
CITY OF STAIRS BIGO AND TEATRO CARLO FELICE
Genoa is defined by the many steps that provides destinations for numerous homes and residences. As the narrow alleyways that are created haphazardly by disorganized urban landscapes makes the city interesting, one can not forget Genoa’s real character which are the ramps and steps to the top of the hill. Genoa is a harbor city that is surrounded by hills of mountains where sprawl of settlement occurs. The architectural element of Genoa are it’s STEPS AND NARROW ALLEYWAYS. Genoa was a city that has been created by unorganized urban planning--therefore there are the interesting alleyways that are evident every corner. There are several districts in Genoa; that of the harbour, the downtown, and the residential district on the hill. Many people come to downtown to work and climb up the steps at the end of the day to go home. As you climb the Genoa steps to the top of the city and look down at the city, you will notice two iconic buildings in the city which helps you to know where you are. They are Renzo Piano’s Bigo and Aldo Rossi’s new addition to Teatro Carlo Felice. Renzo Piano’s Bigo is on the port area next to the ice skating rank. As an iconic structure on the port, this structure acts as a compass to the city as well to provide an important community space. Since Genoa lacks many of the plazas popular in Italian culture, Piano wanted to create a gathering place which connects the city to the harbour (Futagawa 104). The Bigo and the surrounding
31
area has rejuvenated the harbor and enliven the lives of Genoa’s population as the space is crowded with residences on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
32
Concurrently, there is Aldo Rossi’s new addition to Teatro Carlo Felice. The building itself is an anomaly in that you are not aware of the opera house until you attend a performance and it is complete contradiction to the whole fabric of Genoa. The first time I was roaming about piazza De Ferrari, I saw everything else except the box of building standing tall behind the original building. “A physical, real, direct, non architectonic link as much as it sets two opposites in contrast with one another, which the architects wished, evidently, to keep stylistically distant. (Iovino 28).” Therefore, Genoa is a town full of the old and the new creating life of the city. The existing steps and alleyways, and the new Bigo and the opera house, this contrast is what makes the city interesting and unique. I feel that architecture is not always the new structure that is currently built but also the existing condition that creates life, culture, and history.
33
MARSEILLE le corbusier
36
BAGUETTES AND LE CORBUSIER
France is famous for its’ baguettes. On the first night of my short trip in Marseille, I came across a store full of people. They were all waiting in line for the fresh baguettes that were hot from the oven. There were hundreds of these long breads that french were buying. Nothing in them, on them, or with them-just the baguettes. Looking back, Marseille lacked something that other cities have, flavor or color? I can not identify or describe Marseille rather than my baguette experience. Marseille was a lukewarm city that is much like the baguette, yet very popular and crowded. To me Marseille was my first weekend trip away from Italy and just for that it had a special memory in my mind. Of course, there was also Le Corbusier and his Unite d’Habitation. Less informal and personal then the baguettes, this apartment complex was the first stop I made upon arriving from the train station. What exactly is Unite d’ Habitation? Did it make Marseille famous? Is it completely Le Corbusian? From his five points of architecture, placing the building on a pilotis provides free facades (non supporting walls). One can see how developed Le Corbusier was when designing this housing project. Unlike Villa Savoye, Unite d’Habitation is highly occupied and modular. There are boxes of units which were fitted into the whole complex like the shelves sliding into a drawer.
37
Looking out from the window from the 4th floor. You will notice a view to the mountains on one side and to the sea on the other. Le Corbusier’s focus on providing views to all occupants and each apartments gave direction as to which angle and which way the building should orient itself. The foremost interest on the building as one approaches it is the way it is placed on the site. Unlike other buildings on the boulevard that is either facing 90 or 180 degrees to the street, Le Corbusier placed it on what seem like a 30 degree angle off the road. Immediately, you know that this building is different.
38
A HOUSE IS A MACHINE FOR LIVING IN..
To the question if this building has made Marseille famous, Le Corbusier’s work is selective and known to artists and architects but not necessarily to the general public. It does not have the flashy curves like Gehry’s works or gigantic structures like Calatrava’s work. But Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation has influenced many different architects whom has followed his five points of architecture and created beautiful pieces of architecture. Therefore, Marseille was a trip that I will remember like tasting the fresh baguette for the first time, as I have met Le Corbusier for the first time.
NAPLES chris alexander
42
WHICH HAS MORE LIFE?
In Christopher Alexander’s book, “Nature of Order” He asks the question “Which one has more life?” Consequently, I would like to ask the same question to the two photos taken in Naples. When I was here 4 years ago with a tourist group, Naples was the only transfer place from bus to ferry to visit the renowned Capri Island. Therefore, my impression of Naples was this neat harbor city where one stops to catch ferries to other islands. How wrong I was and how colorful Naples actually was. I was walking through the streets of Naples and found that Naples had two faces. One from the port for tourists and visitors and the other face hidden within the streets of their daily lives. The second face is the true face where people were talking and gossiping in a grocery store; as its’ dirty and narrow streets, and worn facades all added to Naples’ interesting character, creating Naples as I have seen and walked the second time. Also, Naples was interesting because of its’ exposed streets, its’ history, the seaside, and what it all entails. I was fascinated by the alleyways, and what story it told. And the streets told its’ story for sure. There was Life in those streets. As it was also a wonder that the facades of these “houses” has so much life embedded in them, but you rarely had a glimpse of the owners or residences. There are rows of laundry, clothes, sheets, all being dried by the window, showing life, telling and yelling for attention, yet
43
I saw not one person looking out from the window onto the street. Maybe it is this stereotypical face that these people contain that makes them shy of their dwellings. But to me, it was the most interesting architecture that I have yet seen. The most interesting alleyways, the most lively one.
44
Looking for postcards that best fits Naples, one will find two types: one with the view of the seaside and one with the narrow streetscape. To me, it was an easy decision to grab the postcard, that was full of life and Naples that I beamed with satisfaction. There were other small parts of Naples that made up the city, the seaside, and the port in which there are boats and ferries that takes you to the luxurious and beautiful Capri, but rarely enough to characterize it. I am happy to have met Naples and been there the second time. The rudeness, dirtiness, and gloom will altogether make up the character of Naples and I will never forget this city. Truly, architecture is not just the building, but it is the courtyard, streets, spaces, the restaurants, and the people.
45
ROME julius caesar
ROME IS JULIUS CAESAR! 48
I would like to compare Rome to Julius Caesar. They are one. Everything in Rome is so big, monumental and in “ruins.” Even the trees seem to yell “BIG!” Also too many tourist, although I must admit, I was one of them, with camera in hand and busy taking pictures here and there. The Pantheon was spectacular. The geometry was enormous and perfect. The coliseum was very old--ancient! Actually everything in Rome is ancient! Although ancient, they are strong. The architecture in Rome is Julius Caesar and how he envisioned his “city” to be. Victorious, Courageous, and Grand. I could see Julius boasting about his buildings, his creation and dying away, as the city have just slowly died. We, people are reshaping the city, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worst. Sadly, Rome is turning into a touristic city where its’ history might be overwhelmed with tourists rather than historians trying to preserve it. Another friendly architect I met in Rome was Renzo Piano. I first met him in the new addition of the High Museum in Atlanta GA. The building was very light, bright, and cheery. Always in Renzo Piano’s building, one feels the comfort, the friendliness, the kindness of Piano. As mechanical the Pompidou Center was in Paris, it still had that hint of friendliness. Whenever I meet an architect, their personalities show through their work and again Piano’s friendliness can be felt through his auditoriums.
49
In his auditoriums, you will feel his warmth immediately. As shown on the picture on the left, it is this great atmosphere that is created from him with the wooden acoustical ceiling playing music with the instruments. A concert hall is all about two relationships. Relationships between the listener and the performer; the walls and the stage; the instrument with the musician, etc. All things blend together to make the most delicious strawberry banana smoothie for the visitors.
50
This is also the case with the movement throughout the three auditoriums. As you have to experience the music by being there, you also fully experience his whole site by movement and circulating about the auditorium, lobby, and the amphitheater. Piano made his mark in Rome and was successful doing it through music.
51
FLORENCE michelangelo
54
DUOMO AND MICHELANGELO AT EVERY CORNER
How tremendous it was to see Duomo hovering and watching over you at every corner of the street?! The CUPOLA and MICHELANGELO, with these two, how can I dislike the little but largely artistic city of Florence? In that sense we should all thank the Medici family for being based in Florence. They made a tremendous mark on Florence with their palaces, gardens, and artworks. It is very hard to miss their power when one visits the Boboli garden. This was again, my second visit to Florence and once I started to walk the streets, I realized the enormousness of the cupola. “Hey I have the Duomo at the end of my street!” The Duomo was a compass in the way I was orienting myself in Florence. Its’ power is so heavy that you know this city is special. Henceforth, there is also Michelangelo! If the Duomo is not enough, Michelangelo comes and leaves his masterpieces like David to stand firmly in the Accademia Gallery. I was truly inspired as an artist and as a designer. I know that my experience of meeting Michelangelo will change my architecture forever and ever! My first introduction to Michelangelo was in Vatican, when I saw Maria holding Jesus lovingly in St. Peters Basilica. The Pieta was one of Michelangelo’s earlier pieces and have shown Maria’s love for Jesus so tenderly. Yet, seeing David was a whole new experience for me in Florence.
I SAW THE ANGEL IN THE MARBLE 55 AND CARVED UNTIL I SET HIM FREE.
What was David thinking? Or rather, what was Michelangelo thinking about when he sculpted David’s face? There is conflict, pompousness, stress, and pain but also beauty. “..Michelangelo’s David is neither a triumphant hero flaunting the symbol of victory, nor a warrior seen in the struggle of battle; the huge figure is tense, concentrated, as taut as a spring accumulating tension to be released in a single movement which is latent in the statue. (Contardi, 7).”
56
You are standing in front of the huge sculpture of David, wondering about what he was thinking. Why David is not enjoying his victories or smiling for his audience but rather looking about in conflict. I think this is one of the true brilliance of Michelangelo’s sculpture. Like Mona Lisa is famous for her mysterious smile, David is famous for his complex gaze. Every muscles, veins, and form of his sculptural body shows a definite character of David.
ATHENS bernard tschumi
60
ACROPOLIS IS THE BUILDING AND PLAKA IS THE CULTURE
I climb up to the Acropolis and spend half of my day on the Acropolis. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day but lest no signs of rain. There were many restoration work going on the temples and since it was the carnival weekend and free entrance Sunday, there were many crowds including the Greeks. The climb up was pleasant passing by the old street ways of Athens and from the top, one can view the panoramic city view of Athens. I take a sit near the Temple of Athena, trying to breath in the air surrounding the Parthenon and to take in this big hill of rock that I was sitting on, thinking about how great of a project this should have been to build the temple for a God, Athena, and that it is still standing here, surviving. Thus, the new acropolis museum is built, to celebrate the Acropolis. I was introduced to Bernard Tschumi’s new museum in Athens through Architecture magazine and in which the article did a poor job of describing the building. My expectations of the building was lukewarm but since it was my first meeting with Tschumi’s building, I was happy. I came out from the Metro station and had hard time finding the building, since it was directly behind me. I turned the corner and the glimpse of the building came into view. Having been in a largely historical context throughout Italy, seeing this modern monument of a building right next to the Acropolis was a beautiful experience, better than I thought. The rectangular monumentality and bulkiness of the building mimics
61
the Acropolis sitting high on the rock. The building had an pompous air to itself, boasting and shouting, “hey look at me, I REPRESENT the Acropolis!� The plan of the building, the use of the oversized circular columns were all in reference to the Parthenon and my doubts of Tschumi and the mundane rectangular form of the building has shied away. The building took a modern turn on the Acropolis and it was working. The rock where the actual Acropolis was sitting on was the first two floors of the building and the upper most rectangle that was skewed in an angle was the Parthenon.
62
Along with the museum, one can not also disregard the life in the streets of Plaka, old streets of Athens. These streetscapes and the life in them is another site you do not want to miss out in Athens. Walking down the Plaka, one will feel the culture of the Greeks hitting you from all around you. The cute and romantic outdoor eating seating areas, people in carnival customs selling balloons, the storefronts full of stories to tell, the sandal and rug shops that decorates the facade of a building, and the people that creates movement through the streets, these were so much the atmosphere of Greece.
SUMVITG peter zumthor
66
IT STARTS WHEN YOU SET YOUR FEET ON THE PLATFORM OF THE TRAIN STATION..
The train ride takes exactly 1.5 hours from the city of Chur. The announcement is made for the stop at Sumvitg station and I get up to press the stop button. Since there are not many people getting off at the station, a stop request is crucial if you want the train to stop. The train slowly comes to a halt and I and only one other person gets off the train. When I step afoot on the platform is when my experience starts for Zumthor’s building. Upon getting off, I ask the other person whom got off for directions to the St. Benedict Chapel. With the language barrier, he points his hands to the sky. “Up” he seem to point. Therefore, my climb up to the mountain begins. It had snowed the night before and the landscape around me with the snow decorating the small town makes the climb pleasurable. The horses lining up to have their lunch, the dog barking at town kids playing outside, and the sound of calm mountains also activate my senses I reach the chapel. After 1 hour of climb, I finally reach the Chapel. Missing the paved road to the entrance, I take a side road in which adds to my experience of Zumthor’s building. I slid off the snow that has built up on the unpaved road and with another 2 minute climb, I finally reach the entrance of the Chapel--and then the bell rings. My hearing sense activates as I hear the bell and realize that the Chapel knows I am here. It is telling everyone about my arrival! Of course after a few minutes I also realize that it was 11:00
67
and the bell was ringing for the hour. But still I wait until the bell stops ringing and open the wooden doors when it is quiet. The space inside is truly amazing. Having activated all my senses through the one hour climb, I finally activate my architecture visual sense and walk around the interior of the building. And for few minutes, the sun shines brightly and the wall lights up with sunlight. The shadow or the light reflected through the glazing is amazing and I am so happy to be here right now.
68
After contemplating the peaceful Chapel for an hour, I start the climb down the mountains to the train station and anticipate my experiences with three other buildings in which I will be seeing: Vals Therme, Roman shelter and the Kunsthaus in Bregenz. I have never known that architecture can be so poetic. I knew architecture to be artistic, technical, structural, and colorful, but never have I thought that a physical shelter or building could produce such an poetic quality. In Switzerland, one can not avoid the mountains looming over everything you see. I can compare my experience of finding Zumthor’s buildings like the mountains in Switzerland. It has influenced me greatly as an architecture student and will always be the great experience that will loom over me forever.
VIENNA otto wagner
74
KLIMT’S “KISS” HAS ENCHANTED THE CITY OF VIENNA
The enchantment, the mystery, the love, the longing, the beauty, the embellishments. These are the words that activates when one views the painting by Gustav Klimt in Vienna’s Belvedere museum. To me my visit to Vienna was like “the kiss.” The architecture that I have experience through Otto Wagner, the flirtatious snow that occurred on my second day in which covered the streets of Vienna with haze, and walking through the gardens of the quiet palaces in the cold, yet warm in my thick scarfs, layers of clothes, and gloves all have made my stay in Vienna “warm.” Also, one can not ignore the musical side of Vienna. The opera house, the orchestra, the acts, the instruments, they are all embedded in the way the city is made, the way the buildings are laid out. Many of the buildings in Vienna illustrate nothing but music and play. Walking through the streets, I was dreaming of a fancy dress and a party and dancing to Mozart’s beautiful Allegro. Adding to this overall fanciness were the buildings of Otto Wagner. Wagner has a history of his feelings of love influencing his work in Vienna. Wagner once wrote to his wife which reads: “I would have written to you last night, but the work which I began was so interesting, and then--yesterday above all--it was so delightful just to think of you that there were times when I simply sat in a reverie for minutes on end without moving a finger. This work of mine, this gradual compiling and arranging of ideas, all of them permeated by my incomparable love for you and by the bliss of knowing myself to be loved in return, really did afford me
75
a divine joy, which could only have been increased if you had been sitting nearby playing the piano and had come in from time to time to kiss me. (Geretsegger 9).”
76
Wagner’s building displays a romantic flare that matches the city of Vienna and from many of his buildings I visited in Vienna, the one that is most memorable is the Steinholf church which concluded my visit to Vienna. Since the church is located some 30 minutes away from the city center, I take the local bus and find the entrance to the church. The church is located on a hill and when I reach the church, the doors are open for viewing--the German guided tour has just ended and the doors were open for an hour of free viewing. It was still snowing and visiting the church was dreamy with white snow falling down. Inside, there were moldings and details that were so meticulous and clean that you forget you are in a public area. As I view the church, I can not help notice the similarity between the gold colors in Klimt’s painting and Wagner’s own building. The light snow that were falling on the ground turns into a greater and bigger storm and I walk out of the church in a white canvas full of snow and the church is the subject of the painting.
77
BILBAO frank gehry
80
ACTIVATING THE CITY CREATING LIFE VIA ARCHITECTURE
Arriving Bilbao late at night, I take the metro to stop at my destination of Casco Viejo. Having the walking direction to the hotel from this metro stop, I come out of the metro and step afoot on the streets. From here on until I find my hotel takes around 20 minutes. I am amazed at the Spanish night life and how they activate the streets. I stroll around the old town of Bilbao, trying to find my hotel and my way around the crowds of people on the streets having a drink. As I was lost on the streets of the old town, I realize I was seeing the culture and the life of the Spanish people enjoying their Friday night out at bars and restaurants. What was interesting was that they were not inside the buildings, but the street itself had become their bar or restaurant. The streets that were abutted by the two facades of the building has become the bar for the people. They had a beautiful night skylight, and they were conversing and enjoying their night out. Of course, this made it hard for me to find my hotel, since my hotel was right off the streets of old town. But I do find my hotel with this awesome experience of the night life. This night life as the streets were activated by people mingling was not the only thing that was creating a culture for the city of Bilbao. There was of course, The Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry that has enlivened the city and made Bilbao one of the main tourist cities. What has the Guggenhiem museum brought to the city of
81
82
Bilbao? It brought Calatrava’s Campo Volantin Foot bridge, Isozaki Towers, Pilgrimage of architecture students and other tourists, and best of all it brought life to the city. Frank Gehry has brought a sculptural piece of architecture to the city and has activated the life in the city of Bilbao. As an architecture student myself, I would not have planned a weekend trip to Bilbao if it was not for Gehry’s Guggenhiem museum. The building is so different in form and so ostentatious in display that it became the “star” of the city. The Guggenhiem museum was like the celebrity of the city. Imagine that there was a celebrity named Guggenhiem in Bilbao. He was famous actor worldwide. He was handsome and attracted many visitors and took pictures with them. He had millions of money and was dressed nice every time to greet the visitors, yet he felt lonely inside. He was shallow inside. He was actually really sad. This little metaphor of the museum is my personal take on the Guggenhiem museum. It attracted many great visitors for millions of photos that it will produce with them, but as an architectural space, did it awed the visitors? As an architecture student myself, I only spent 30 minutes inside, since there was not the same spirituality I felt in one of Zumthor’s building. It was hollow inside. But all in all, the building was admirable for the purpose of creating life in the city and bringing about many other designs and art to the city.
MULHOUSE lacation + vassal
86
SUBURBAN GREY SCALE LIFE
Whether it was the rain with clouds or the chilly weather, my visit to the Mulhouse social housing projects consisting of projects by Lacation & Vassal, Jean Nouvel, and Shigeru Ban, seems to convey a grey scale life for the residences of Mulhouse. The greenhouse construction housing project achieved by Lacation & Vassal leaves the most grey scale impression on me as there were evidence of life left behind in these apartments. There was no doubt that life existed and was still present in the greenhouse apartments, and that the suburban district was not comprised of the most upper class of the society. The greenhouse housing has an important idea of morphing the inside to become the outdoor space. With limited space for the middle to lower class residences, L&V did a tremendous effort to provide a life that emphasizes these people’s way of living. My visit to Mulhouse was in the afternoon around 5pm. Due to the rain not many people were outside on the courtyards, nor could I hear or spot movement inside of the housing units. The conclusion was that the most of the residences were still at work and was not home. Which leads to the typology of the residences being middle class young singles or younger married couples with young children. I imagine the typical life in these apartments to be constantly moving and busy. The family wakes up and the parents are getting ready for work as the child is eating their cereal. Once the
87
five minute breakfast is over, the mother sends her child to her neighbor or a preschool where the child will stay all day. The parents, go to work and come back at night and reunite with their child.
88
The housing by L&V is interesting because of the fact that it accommodates, the daily life of the middle to lower class living. As much grey scale these lives maybe, the housing projects adds fun to the life by adding exterior courtyard that seem to function like the interior and each of these courtyards were personalize by the occupants. One courtyard contained BBQ burner with the charcoal left over on the side, the other a small playhouse for their children, a bicycle, row of pots of plants, and a cat. Each courtyard was very personal yet did not have any privacy. I was able to walk about the corridor behind the fences and view the courtyard and interior of their living space. I also feel that this lack of privacy is also the cause of our fast changing society where the conventional privacy of a house is becoming less evident in modern housing. Maybe it is our young freedom letting the house become free, and Lacation & Vassal successfully provides housing for the fast-paced group of people.
WEIL AM RHEIN vitra campus
92
ARCHITECTURE DISNEY WORLD
Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Herzog de Meruron, Zaha Hadid, Nicholas Cramshaw, Alvar Siza, Jean Prouve, and Richard Buckminster Fuller, these are some of the names of the famous architects whom have contributed to the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. In 1981 there was a major fire that has destroyed the factory for the production of vitra furniture and this is where the little architecture venture begins in Weil am Rhein. Vitra Campus is a small scale urban world for designers and architects. There are buildings that are all different types of forms, shapes, functions, materials, colors, and structures. Although, one small but very important element missing was “life.” The whole place was very plastic and quiet. It was not natural nor crowded, but man-made and slow. I felt like a girl visiting Disney World, Architecture Disney World. It was like the rows of great buildings, all different in character and representing some form of idea. Gehry’s museum was representing sculptures, Ando’s building contemplation, and Hadid’s angles. They were more for the fancy display rather than for high occupancy building. For example, the Vitra Haus was the epitome of them all, as it was completely recent and shinning like a new car waxed and reflecting in the sun. Being a new building, there was not enough fingerprints on the benches, not enough shoes that have crossed the walkways, and certainly not enough wear on the building by the
93
94
occupants. But it did however do a wonderful job describing what Vitra Campus was made for. The design of furniture produced in the factories, each room and each space illustrating the high living standards of the “rich and famous.” Anyone visiting the museum will get a glimpse of what it would be like to own a Vitra furniture. All the buildings that are on Vitra Campus create a village of small architectural Disney World and Ando’s Conference Pavilion is part of this village. There was an eerie sense that Ando’s building would not fit into the site since I knew Ando’s work to be very poetic and silent and the Vitra campus was anything but that. Vitra campus was very showy and ostentatious and surprising Ando’s building somehow fits into the site as it sits alone in the corner by Gehry’s museum separating itself by a long line of smooth concrete wall. Therefore, all these rarities and differences are what truly makes up the character of the Vitra campus as our guide shouts, “Next is a stop to the firehouse by Zaha Hadid.”
95
NEXT YOU WILL BE ENTERING THE VILLAGE OF JEAN PROUVE..
VENETO palladio + scarpa
98
METICULOUS PERFECTION
My experience of the Veneto region of Italy is all encompassed with Palladio and Scarpa. Venice, Vicenza, Treviso, Verona, and Possagno are some of the small towns of Veneto Italy in which their work is present. Championing their work from years back as an architecture student, seeing and feeling their work in person was an overwhelming experience. Of all the works of Palladio, Villa Emo has finally caught hold of me. Upon entering the gates of the villa, I am dazed and struck at the sight of the facade. Stepping back and standing at the center, you can not find one single flaw to the proportions of the building. You just have to stand there and take in the building. Take a deep breath and wait for all your senses to know that you are looking at a perfect or golden proportion and for sure one will stand in front of Villa Emo hours without getting tired. It’s like falling in love with a handsome boy. As our guide has repeatedly said about both Palladio and Scarpa, that “they are PERFECT.” I can not help to agreed with her at Villa Emo. Also, you will never forget the experience of the connection you have of the building to the natural landscape. The portals, doors, and windows that gives you control of the surroundings and connecting you spiritually and physically to the outside is an amazing experience. Many of Palladio’s villas works with the landscape and the building as La Rotando also plays with the landscape around it. Truly, you think the architect is a genius and is talking to God when you visit Palladio’s villas in Veneto area.
99
100
Another architect whom has colored my mind in white is Carlo Scarpa with his meticulous details and the white walls of Museo Canovia in Passagno. When I stepped into the white exhibition space for Canova’s sculptures, my mind also became white and I was speechless. How could Scarpa have imagined this beautiful space to capture the shadows, curves, and chisel marks of Canova’s sculptures? There are two exhibition spaces that are in the museum, one is the main space with a dome skylight and the other a very modern space with beautiful steel details and joints of Scarpa. You would have to think like a creator, an artist, a designer, to have executed the beautiful joints and from my background understandings, Scarpa was not really an architect, but he was an artist. With Palladio and Scarpa, Veneto region could not have been so beautiful. Their dedication to aesthetics have complimented the region and their legacy will continue forever in the school of architecture.
104
Architecture is learning through seeing and I have grown so much as a student of architecture through my travels and meeting different architects and their buildings. This book is a compilation of all the places I have seen and visited while studying abroad in Genoa, Italy. I will continue to get off the platform in search of my own style of architecture and to search for the life in architecture that are present in you, me, and the linens hanging from the balcony, the old man resting on the bench, and the cat looking for its’ home.. Sylvia Kim April 12, 2010
Bibliography Ackerman, James S. Palladio. Maryland: Penguin Books Inc., 1966. Choay, Francoise. Le Corbusier. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1960. Contardi, Bruno and Giulio Carlo Argan. Michelangelo. Firenze: Giunti Gruppo Editoriale, 1998. Corbusier, Le. Towards a New Architecture. London: Architectural Press, 1985. Futagawa, Yukio. GA Architect. Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Tokyo: A.D.A. Edita, 1997. Iovino, Roberto. The Carlo Felice Opera House two faces of a theatre. Genoa: Sagep Editrice, 1993. Koolhaus, Rem. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978. Marton, Paolo. Palladio The Complete Buildings. Koln: Taschen, 2008. Ramos, Fernando. Mies Van Der Rohe. Barcelona Pavilion. Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili, 1993. Tartuferi, Angelo. Michelangelo Painter, Sculptor and Architect. Rome: Francesco Papafava editore, 1993. Zukowsky, John. Mies Reconsidered: His Career, Legacy, and Disciples. Chicago: Rizzoli International
Publications Inc., 1986.