Left off at Stuttgart and am now in Vitra's Boisbuchet (www.boisbuchet.org) meeting with Alexander von Vegesack (aka alexander the great). Alexander deserves the moniker 'alexander the great' as he sold a portion of his design collection to purchase an estate in the south of france and transform it into a retreat for design + architectual innovation. It is over 300 acres and includes a chateaux, stables, outbuildings, lakes and specimin trees. Each week in the summer young designers from around the world (around 40 each week) come together to take workshops lead by master designers - this week is Aldo Cibic (Italy) and the the campana brothers (BraZil). Funny thing is I ran into eames dimitrios' sister who is here at the workshop.....Anyhow - many partnership opportunities for GH and the trust as we move more deeply into modernism and toward the cultivation of talent.
I didn't finish my full Berlin travels - so I should regress a bit and finish up. After Stuttgart however we really only had 1/2 day on our own. Of course yours truly went to the galleries and was trapped in some adorable stores. Don't know how that always happens. But it was sunday and so I did have the weekend off. So now I am the proud owner of 2 flapper hats and a berlin nutcracker for my son..... The evening was spent at the pergamon musuem - which if you are a modernist you might overlook but DON'T. It is a series of 100-600BC temples and buildings which were excavated by the german archaeological armies at the turn of the century. When you walk into a babylonian fortress from 600 BC, in Berlin, it is a bit breathtaking.......For our young modernists looking to learn from the past I can hardly begin to point to all of the architectural and design antecedents - but everything from the arcades, to the spaces designed to evoke a sense of grandeur could spawn from here. I have to say that saying goodbye to all of the SAH people was quite sad - our little community of compatible interests really had a wonderful time.
Tomorrow I'm off to paris to meet Mattia Bonetti who was a great friend of David Whitney and is in our collection - then home. More from Paris.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
I'm a day behind - so again I'm going to merge two days. I know armchair travelling - and keeping up with this veneer of an intellectual discourse - is challenging. But stick with me here as we are wrapping up at the best sites of all.
The high level? Obviously it takes a group to define a movement - of course this is a repeated phenomenon seen here with Gropius, Mies, Klee etc at the Bauhaus or with "the kids" at the Glass House.
So our morning is spent driving to Dessau to see the Bauhaus. Breathtaking. This school moved in 1925, giving it a unique opportunity to build their building + housing in a style evocative of the new movement they were defining. New technical maneuvers (glass curtain wall suspended in front of the load bearing framework) and new functional order (separating workshops from classrooms from office all have distinct visual translations.). May all seem standard practice to us by now but even the view of art, architecture and design together was entirely unique.
Of course Mies didn't design the Bauhaus - Gropius did, as he lead it and then later came to America to head Harvard into the modern movement, which we all know is where our friend PJ went. (Excuse the shorthand as I'm typing this on my backberry so you are all sympathetic).
Mies did, however, lead the Bauhaus later, and then coming to America lead IIT's program and designed much of that campus. We visited the Bauhaus masterhouses - where such people as Kandinsky, Klee, Schlemmer and Feininger lived. Also visited the Kornhaus, steel house, then Gropius' Torten estate (Levittown for germany in the 1920s) and employment office (which uses this brilliant full skylight ceiling (also 1920s).
Light on details but I'm getting to a highlight whcih was a boat tour of the Woerlit gardens. SPECTACULAR. Phyllis Lambert said that this 18th century landscape and its many follies was much loved by PJand was a source inspiration for the Glass House site's follies such as the ghost house, the lake pavillion and the Kierstein tower. Not a surprise as it was captivatingly beautiful, at each moment of just recovering from one beautiful folly another one would reveal itself. Little hamlet bridge, landscape, glorious castle in the distance, more landscape, another hobbit type bridge, landscape, tyrolean stick bridge............
The boats had an oarsman - our was lucas the near olympic rower - and a table set down the center. Outside eating we drank every bottle on our boat and had the inkling of capsizing another boat as they were so much slower on the draw. Two glasses went sideways which is a near miracle given the tenderness of our vessel - but sweet lucas told us that was rare (he must have meant our rare form).
A stumble to the room only to wake about 4 hours later to get on the plane to Stuttgart. Sheer dedication. Our first stop was the Mercedez Benz museum designed by UN studio. Not Mies - just fantastic. The connection might have been use of materials and of course using the new technical tools of the time (or engineering concepts) to interpret space. Second stop was werkbundausstellung weissenhofsiedlung (yes I checked the spelling and think that is right - and of course saying this just sounds as sexy as marbles). For those of you who are modernist junkies this is heaven: JJ Oud, le Corbusier (I should have listed him first!), mies, gropius, sharoun, behrens and taut. A sick list for sure. This german werkbund was founded in 1907 by 12 artists and 12 firms to increase the collaboration between artists, craftsmen and industry to increase the quality of germany's products, buildings and overall design. Mies was the director of this werkbund in 1927 when this experimental settlement was designed. This "new dwelling" has an attmpt at slight community design but is overall more of a showcase for these architects who would exhibit this new "international style."
This community was denounced by the nazis and slated for demolition as they preferred the classic pitched roofs - but the war got in the way - some were damaged and a number remain and are beautifully restored.
We left to go to the Staatsgalerie designed in 1977 by James Stirling and Michael Wilford. Postmodern even turning Schinkel's Altes museum inside out or reversing the sequence and leaving the rotunda (Schinkels point of arrival to the art) as an empty center (a loss of the center - much debated in texts). By now we are so damn tired that we tell our leader that the CIA recently released a report where lack of sleep and forced marches qualify as torture. And in true stockholm syndrome of course we all love our torturer.......
The high level? Obviously it takes a group to define a movement - of course this is a repeated phenomenon seen here with Gropius, Mies, Klee etc at the Bauhaus or with "the kids" at the Glass House.
So our morning is spent driving to Dessau to see the Bauhaus. Breathtaking. This school moved in 1925, giving it a unique opportunity to build their building + housing in a style evocative of the new movement they were defining. New technical maneuvers (glass curtain wall suspended in front of the load bearing framework) and new functional order (separating workshops from classrooms from office all have distinct visual translations.). May all seem standard practice to us by now but even the view of art, architecture and design together was entirely unique.
Of course Mies didn't design the Bauhaus - Gropius did, as he lead it and then later came to America to head Harvard into the modern movement, which we all know is where our friend PJ went. (Excuse the shorthand as I'm typing this on my backberry so you are all sympathetic).
Mies did, however, lead the Bauhaus later, and then coming to America lead IIT's program and designed much of that campus. We visited the Bauhaus masterhouses - where such people as Kandinsky, Klee, Schlemmer and Feininger lived. Also visited the Kornhaus, steel house, then Gropius' Torten estate (Levittown for germany in the 1920s) and employment office (which uses this brilliant full skylight ceiling (also 1920s).
Light on details but I'm getting to a highlight whcih was a boat tour of the Woerlit gardens. SPECTACULAR. Phyllis Lambert said that this 18th century landscape and its many follies was much loved by PJand was a source inspiration for the Glass House site's follies such as the ghost house, the lake pavillion and the Kierstein tower. Not a surprise as it was captivatingly beautiful, at each moment of just recovering from one beautiful folly another one would reveal itself. Little hamlet bridge, landscape, glorious castle in the distance, more landscape, another hobbit type bridge, landscape, tyrolean stick bridge............
The boats had an oarsman - our was lucas the near olympic rower - and a table set down the center. Outside eating we drank every bottle on our boat and had the inkling of capsizing another boat as they were so much slower on the draw. Two glasses went sideways which is a near miracle given the tenderness of our vessel - but sweet lucas told us that was rare (he must have meant our rare form).
A stumble to the room only to wake about 4 hours later to get on the plane to Stuttgart. Sheer dedication. Our first stop was the Mercedez Benz museum designed by UN studio. Not Mies - just fantastic. The connection might have been use of materials and of course using the new technical tools of the time (or engineering concepts) to interpret space. Second stop was werkbundausstellung weissenhofsiedlung (yes I checked the spelling and think that is right - and of course saying this just sounds as sexy as marbles). For those of you who are modernist junkies this is heaven: JJ Oud, le Corbusier (I should have listed him first!), mies, gropius, sharoun, behrens and taut. A sick list for sure. This german werkbund was founded in 1907 by 12 artists and 12 firms to increase the collaboration between artists, craftsmen and industry to increase the quality of germany's products, buildings and overall design. Mies was the director of this werkbund in 1927 when this experimental settlement was designed. This "new dwelling" has an attmpt at slight community design but is overall more of a showcase for these architects who would exhibit this new "international style."
This community was denounced by the nazis and slated for demolition as they preferred the classic pitched roofs - but the war got in the way - some were damaged and a number remain and are beautifully restored.
We left to go to the Staatsgalerie designed in 1977 by James Stirling and Michael Wilford. Postmodern even turning Schinkel's Altes museum inside out or reversing the sequence and leaving the rotunda (Schinkels point of arrival to the art) as an empty center (a loss of the center - much debated in texts). By now we are so damn tired that we tell our leader that the CIA recently released a report where lack of sleep and forced marches qualify as torture. And in true stockholm syndrome of course we all love our torturer.......
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Since we have been keeping the hours of 8am-10pm I am merging two blogs from the days. I have been capturing some of the hilarious quotes (which may be conveyed quite flat outside of context) as well as my amateur observations about the Schinkel, Behrens, Mies trilogy.
First let's just start with a bit of description of our group - the Society of Architectual Historians. As mentioned an esteemed group of herding photographers and intellectuals. Never have I been crowded out of a shot of doorhardware until now. A searing gaze from an SAH member as you step near the corner features of a drain pipe can literally set one back 2 years in esteem (if you were so fragile). Of course like any travelling band of marauders we have developed our own sense of family, community and characteurs. Frasier is the photog - first on the scene at the hardware, corners and vistas; Phyllis is the barb; 4 long-married couples who gently play off one another; Monty is the hip young talent, Mr Ed is the eager intellectual, Brian the man with the dry humor zingers- the list goes on and on. I'm sure I'm the caffeinated lurker as I try not to ask too many questions as each house our leader gets peppered with: is this more Persius or Schinklesque? Who owns the note on that development? What was the rate on the note? Etc etc.....
But at this point our little community is saying stuff like: "not another damn pergola" "imagine that - another excedra" "seen one mies you've seen them all" - which was a starting quote but now clearly not true as we have been exploring the early Mies's and he clearly didn't pop out of the womb as a modernist (or execute in that exact style).
In the past 2 days we have seen a number of the earliest Mies homes - including his very first professional commission - Haus Riehl. This home is in the section outside of berlin which was separated to the east and is only now undergoing its renaissance at the assistance of resident "investors". (Taking 2-10 years to research and restore their homes). Mies was 21 - and given his young position and lack of experience, the Riehls sent him to Italy to look at the work being done. As in the other dozen early commissions, Mies has a very trational style (eyebrow windows, shutters, classical axes) but is working out the use of geometry for order and embellishment, sharp insets for bookshelves, windows and other features, and creating a space which extends to the edge of the land - creating a near premontory. This house is english country charming with the whisper of other ideas in its bones.
All in all once you see house Riehl, house Mosler (his largest commission - and still very traditional), house Urbig (also traditional), house Eichstaedt (traditional), house Werner (yep you guessed it - traditional), and house perls (can you believe we have seen all of these?).
What is interesting, it seems, is that Mies is accommodating his clients traditional needs, doing what he knows, and the work which inspires him toward the modern is - oddly - Schinkel. It is Shinkel's stark classicism and formal set-up which simplifies Mies' outside pillars and sets up his symmetry. Namely the new pavilion at Charlottenburg (Schinkel) which is a square, with inset balconies, strict symmetry and continuous movement between inside and outside spaces.
That single fact - the relationship between nature and living - defines Schinkel's sans souci Charlottenhof Palace - which is later emulated in both Behrens and Mies. Thus the trilogy. The living/dining room extending from inside to the veranda, on axis to the fountain and excedra (aka curved bench) - all at Schinkels palace - would be found at nearly every early Mies home we have seen. So there you have it armchair travellers - inside, outside, down the line to a cap. It has worked for years.
Some of the other extraordinary buildings we have seen - which advise the context of the time - are: the turbine factory by Behrens in 1909 (artistic sucess in steel and glass construction and reshaping use); villa wiegand by behrens (so you know he was Mies' employer and a design bridge from schinkel to mies' emerging modern style); to Mendelsohn's einstein tower from 1921 (and amorphic telescope observatory set into a surprising landscape).
So one of the funnies was the discussion about what Frank Lloyd Wright was doing at the time of all this transition toward modernism - and we figured he was off with his mistress in europe. One of the wise cracks being "yes that is a new service being built into the standard architectural contract."
First let's just start with a bit of description of our group - the Society of Architectual Historians. As mentioned an esteemed group of herding photographers and intellectuals. Never have I been crowded out of a shot of doorhardware until now. A searing gaze from an SAH member as you step near the corner features of a drain pipe can literally set one back 2 years in esteem (if you were so fragile). Of course like any travelling band of marauders we have developed our own sense of family, community and characteurs. Frasier is the photog - first on the scene at the hardware, corners and vistas; Phyllis is the barb; 4 long-married couples who gently play off one another; Monty is the hip young talent, Mr Ed is the eager intellectual, Brian the man with the dry humor zingers- the list goes on and on. I'm sure I'm the caffeinated lurker as I try not to ask too many questions as each house our leader gets peppered with: is this more Persius or Schinklesque? Who owns the note on that development? What was the rate on the note? Etc etc.....
But at this point our little community is saying stuff like: "not another damn pergola" "imagine that - another excedra" "seen one mies you've seen them all" - which was a starting quote but now clearly not true as we have been exploring the early Mies's and he clearly didn't pop out of the womb as a modernist (or execute in that exact style).
In the past 2 days we have seen a number of the earliest Mies homes - including his very first professional commission - Haus Riehl. This home is in the section outside of berlin which was separated to the east and is only now undergoing its renaissance at the assistance of resident "investors". (Taking 2-10 years to research and restore their homes). Mies was 21 - and given his young position and lack of experience, the Riehls sent him to Italy to look at the work being done. As in the other dozen early commissions, Mies has a very trational style (eyebrow windows, shutters, classical axes) but is working out the use of geometry for order and embellishment, sharp insets for bookshelves, windows and other features, and creating a space which extends to the edge of the land - creating a near premontory. This house is english country charming with the whisper of other ideas in its bones.
All in all once you see house Riehl, house Mosler (his largest commission - and still very traditional), house Urbig (also traditional), house Eichstaedt (traditional), house Werner (yep you guessed it - traditional), and house perls (can you believe we have seen all of these?).
What is interesting, it seems, is that Mies is accommodating his clients traditional needs, doing what he knows, and the work which inspires him toward the modern is - oddly - Schinkel. It is Shinkel's stark classicism and formal set-up which simplifies Mies' outside pillars and sets up his symmetry. Namely the new pavilion at Charlottenburg (Schinkel) which is a square, with inset balconies, strict symmetry and continuous movement between inside and outside spaces.
That single fact - the relationship between nature and living - defines Schinkel's sans souci Charlottenhof Palace - which is later emulated in both Behrens and Mies. Thus the trilogy. The living/dining room extending from inside to the veranda, on axis to the fountain and excedra (aka curved bench) - all at Schinkels palace - would be found at nearly every early Mies home we have seen. So there you have it armchair travellers - inside, outside, down the line to a cap. It has worked for years.
Some of the other extraordinary buildings we have seen - which advise the context of the time - are: the turbine factory by Behrens in 1909 (artistic sucess in steel and glass construction and reshaping use); villa wiegand by behrens (so you know he was Mies' employer and a design bridge from schinkel to mies' emerging modern style); to Mendelsohn's einstein tower from 1921 (and amorphic telescope observatory set into a surprising landscape).
So one of the funnies was the discussion about what Frank Lloyd Wright was doing at the time of all this transition toward modernism - and we figured he was off with his mistress in europe. One of the wise cracks being "yes that is a new service being built into the standard architectural contract."
Monday, August 20, 2007
A good night sleep--thank god. Today was another whilrwind of 7 sites, some by Mies and some by a contemporary of Mies, Hans Scharoun.
Thinking about how this modernist travel blog was born, out of the desire to connect classic sites with young, computer arm-chair travellers, I realize that one might learn about both sides of the modern spectrum today. Mies, who is technical, minimalist and a master of simplicity; and Scharoun who organizes design from the inside out and organically.
Mies:
Afrikinische Strasse housing complex (1925-27) Mies is 31 / Haus Lemke (1932) Mies is 38 / Neue Nationalgalarie (1968) Mies is 76
The first - a housing project is the first project where Mies realizes that he can really begin to interpret his new vision of modernism. The result is a simple execution of affordable housing. The second was a family home created on a small budget - 1400sf of beauty and modernism extending into nature. The third is the nations art gallery and a technical feat in engineering.
(Photos forthcoming)
Scharoun:
Philharmonie (1960-63) / Private home (1932)
The Philharmonie is the nation's philharmonic concert hall and is located next to Mies Neue Nationalgallerie. Frank Gehry stated it was his inspiration for the Disney Concert Hall in LA. It is organized from the outside in, focusing on circling the audience around the orchestra and establishing pitches to create the appropriate acoustical pitches.
The private home - simple on the outside - unfolds to reveal an organic interior with crazy amazing details. From hand crafted built-in spice racks, to ceiling lights out of reverse arm lamps, swooping bannisters and flwright like built-in furniture. Outside modern, inside fiesta.
For our arm-chair travellers - like all of these sites, it can hadly be captured in pictures. And how we access technical feats such as Neue Gallery or the details of Scharoun's private home can only be by memory.
-Christy MacLear
Thinking about how this modernist travel blog was born, out of the desire to connect classic sites with young, computer arm-chair travellers, I realize that one might learn about both sides of the modern spectrum today. Mies, who is technical, minimalist and a master of simplicity; and Scharoun who organizes design from the inside out and organically.
Mies:
Afrikinische Strasse housing complex (1925-27) Mies is 31 / Haus Lemke (1932) Mies is 38 / Neue Nationalgalarie (1968) Mies is 76
The first - a housing project is the first project where Mies realizes that he can really begin to interpret his new vision of modernism. The result is a simple execution of affordable housing. The second was a family home created on a small budget - 1400sf of beauty and modernism extending into nature. The third is the nations art gallery and a technical feat in engineering.
(Photos forthcoming)
Scharoun:
Philharmonie (1960-63) / Private home (1932)
The Philharmonie is the nation's philharmonic concert hall and is located next to Mies Neue Nationalgallerie. Frank Gehry stated it was his inspiration for the Disney Concert Hall in LA. It is organized from the outside in, focusing on circling the audience around the orchestra and establishing pitches to create the appropriate acoustical pitches.
The private home - simple on the outside - unfolds to reveal an organic interior with crazy amazing details. From hand crafted built-in spice racks, to ceiling lights out of reverse arm lamps, swooping bannisters and flwright like built-in furniture. Outside modern, inside fiesta.
For our arm-chair travellers - like all of these sites, it can hadly be captured in pictures. And how we access technical feats such as Neue Gallery or the details of Scharoun's private home can only be by memory.
-Christy MacLear
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