Editorial

Shrinkage and progress

Travelling by train through Switzerland recently, I happened to pick up „Le Matin Bleu“, one of those free tabloid newspapers that Europe abounds in nowadays. My eye fell on what in newspaper jargon is known as an „infographic“ comparing the birth rate in Switzerland with that in EU countries. The latter varied from an average of 1.99 children per woman in Ireland to 1.23 in Poland and the Czech Republic. Switzerland turned out to be a middling performer in the reproductive stakes, with a rather meagre 1.5. The fact of Europe's ageing populations has been frequently trumpeted and is sufficiently well-known by now, so the paper was not reporting anything new. But the implications of such birth statistics were tellingly summarized in Le Matin Bleu in one of the two sentences that made up the „article“: 'With 1.5 children per woman, the population will decline by one-third within the span of four generations.

The decline in population that Europe is already experiencing and that it can expect to experience in the future, has been raised in various ways in recent years. But that single, stark sentence brings home to us the consequences of shrinkage, for society as a whole, and for architecture, which has always been inextricably linked to the fast forward condition of growth and progress. If current trends continue, this fast forward will be economically and demographically unsustainable and an end will come - will have to come - to the as yet unabating flow of construction. What this requires of the entire construction industry, and of architects, is a radically different mentality, one that seems unnatural at the present moment when all our thinking is still so apparently logically geared to growth.

Architecture always has collective relevance; buildings are made not solely for the client or for the greater honour and glory of the designer, but also for the city and for subsequent generations. That collective relevance is often lost sight of because a great many buildings satisfy instant needs here and now, and construction work is expected to deliver instant profit. In European society, where the ideology of the free market prevails, people will undoubtedly keep on building until there are no more needs and there is no more profit to be made. Anyone who, having noted the already dwindling European population, clear-sightedly decides to stop or reduce construction as of now, can rest assured that there will always be someone willing to profit from this by jumping into the „gap“ they have left in the market. And this is bound to remain so as long as growth and progress are coupled together, and shrinkage and decline are regarded as their unattractive opposite. Perhaps it would behove all of us, architects included, to abandon this automatic coupling and take a keener look at the shrinkage that is inherent to growth and to think about how we might link shrinkage and progress - for a start, by looking at how shrinkage can literally and figuratively generate space. (Hans Ibelings)

Inhalt

On the spot
News and observations
• Hotel Marqués De Riscal in Elciego is Frank Gehry’s second building in Spain
• Three shops, one client, one architect: three new shop interiors in Graz (AT) by purpur
• Le Corbusier’s Saint-Pierre church has been realized posthumously in Firminy (FR)
• In Szugló (HU), a suburb of Budapest, one of the country’s largest snooker and pool establishments recently opened its doors
• Francesca Ferguson has been selected as the new director of the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel (CH)
• Reality check: kindergarten with multi-purpose hall, Outgaarden (BE)
• and more...

Start
New projects
• Zurich architects Isa Stürm and Urs Wolf have designed a museum in Teufen (CH) where cars are exhibited in dynamic racing spaces
• A creative use of voids gained architects Dinko Peracic and Roman Silje the first prize in a competition for the new building of the Civil Engineering Faculty in Osijek (HR)
• The Kopernik Research Center in Warsaw (PL) by RAr2 Architecture Laboratory is an elaborate example of „architectural erosion“
• FBW Architects’ design for the „Omnizorgcentrum“ in Apeldoorn (NL) offers the promise of a better life for the have-nots for which the buiding is intended
• In their design of a cultural centre in Soignies (BE) L’Escaut Architecture once again prove that contemporary architecture does not have to mean a break with the past
• Three new housing projects in Bratislava (SK) show how young Slovakian architects are managing to skate over the difficult terrain of housing production in the Slovak capital

Interview
Global provincials 5+1
One of the upcoming Italian architecture firms of the moment is 5+1 of Genoa. A10’s Daria Ricchi spoke with two of the partners, Alfonso Femia and Gianluca Peluffo, about their work and architecture in Italy.

Ready
New buildings
• Drozdov&Partners' sushi bar in Kharkov (UA) is a fascinating play of light and glass
• In Stockholm (SE) Johan Celsing has designed a transparent envelope for Sweden’s largest publishers
• Peter Barber has created an eclectic marvel with his Donnybrook housing scheme in London (UK)
• G.A.S. Architekten make personal space more collective and vice versa, as shown in their housing project in Eysins-Nyon (CH)
• In Jurmala (LV), young architects Infinitum designed a wooden gymnasium that blends well with its surroundings
• Randic and Turato’s school in Krk (HR) is the result of a happy synergy
• The precision and commitment G+W arquitectos expended on the design of a kindergarten in Madrid (ES) extended to helping to build it
• Is the Gruta das Torres Centre on the Azores (PT), designed by architects SAMI, the new gateway to Atlantis?
• The houses in Witbrant-Oost – a suburb of Tilburg (NL) – by Erna van Sambeek and Jacq de Brouwer, display an unusual inversion
• With the extension of a primary school, AAC’s Marc Belderbos and Marc Vande Perre have inserted a foreign object into the cityscape of Brussels (BE)
• Unhindered by the restrictions that applied to the exterior of a mixed-use building in Prague (CZ), Zdenek Franek let himself go in the courtyard.
• PLAN01 has created a museum in Les Lucs-sur-Boulogne (FR) which meets the client’s wish that the building should blend into the landscape
• In Ljubljana (SI), Bevk Perovic challenge the conventions governing the single-family house
• With a limited number of highly focused interventions, Louis Paillard has transformed a former steel industry building in Valenciennes (FR) into an arts school
• In Sipoo (FI), Sari Nieminen designed a school that is a village in itself

Section
Analysing specific aspects of contemporary architecture
Glass’s role in architecture is unique: while concrete, wood and steel fulfil the most elementary function of a building in the form of space-defining constructions and loadbearing walls, glass connects the interior and exterior of a building. For architects, the realization of that connection is a perpetual quest for the right balance between light, views and warmth in relation to a particular place, orientation and climate. An inspiring quest revealing the relation between the production process, the properties and the application of glass

Eurovision
• Focusing on European countries, cities and regions
Vesna Vucinic explains why Belgrade today is unlikely to attract any attention for the quality of its urban design or new architecture
• A building boom is currently turning classical Vienna into one of Europe’s must-see cities for anyone interested in contemporary architecture. An architectural tour of Vienna with A10’s Oliver Elser
• Office: Rothuizen van Doorn ’t Hooft’s fortified office in Breda

Instant history
Buildings that already get their share of media attention
UN Studio’s Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart is anything but a pointlessly spectacular sculpture, as Ursula Baus writes. „Its expression suits the purpose of the building, which is about the interplay of technology and design.“ Moreover, she praises it as „an incisive structure on the outside, a thoroughly informative, entertaining, yet not overloaded exhibition scenario inside“

Sushi bar, Kharkov

Drozdov&Partners cut the Gordian knot of history with a fascinating play of light and glass.

Drozdov&Partners claim that their projects are wholly contextual. But in the case of the Yaske sushi bar, the relationship between the building and its location at the beginning of Leninsky Avenue is not so easy to define. In the 20th century this area became a major architectural battlefield between Russian constructivism and Stalinist socialist realism. Standing near the new bar you can see the side elevation of the famous Gosprom building: a classic example of constructivism, it was intended to serve as the powerful engine of modernization that would give birth to the New City of Kharkov. In part it did: in the late 1920s serried ranks of grey concrete housing blocks arose behind the Gosprom’s vast back. In the 1930s this advance was abruptly halted and even distorted as pompous decorations appeared on many of Kharkov’s constructivist buildings, symbols of the change of political regime. Yaske stands on the scar left by this fierce battle, in the open corner left between two pseudo-classical giants, facing the unadorned facades of the smaller-scale buildings on the other side of the road.

It seems that the architects did not look for compromises here. Instead they illuminated the historical confusion with powerful gestures that take Yaske from the pragmatic level of „edifice“ to the poetic category of „sculpture“. They started off with the old modernist idea of the total penetration of internal space into the exterior. „We tried to leave this corner open, as it was before construction. Integrating the interior into the exterior was also an attempt to give quite an expensive sushi bar a more public character,“ says Oleg Drozdov. What lends Yaske landmark quality, however, are not the fully glazed facades of the rectangular, ground-floor volume (toilets, kitchen and service rooms are the only interior areas hidden from view), but rather the striking contrast between the gentle transparency of this volume and the monumental impenetrability that characterizes all the surrounding buildings, regardless of style.

This total transparency – extending to the smallest detail in the interior including plastic stools and the almost invisible needle-like legs of the tables – turns into something completely different with the coming of evening, as the internal space of the sushi bar is flooded with the bright light of the lamps. Then the glass walls turn into screens which reflect every thing and person inside the bar as well as their slightest movements. Watching these multiple projections, clients are seduced into narcissistic self-contemplation, while outside the surrounding buildings turn into indistinct masses so that only the bright Yaske firefly seems to live in the darkness of the night.

The second defining feature of Yaske’s striking appearance is the karaoke room on its upper level. This ellipsoid volume, raised on three slanting piers, is conceived as a contrast to the lower regular volume, not only in the sense of form but also because of its more private character. The only transparent detail of this part of the building is a horizontal window, a kind of a porthole intended for controlled observation of the outside world. The privacy of the karaoke room is further emphasized by its deliberately limited accessibility. An elegant spiral staircase leads to a narrow hole through which visitors pass into the cabin one by one. Unlike the solid and smooth furniture in the bar, the furnishings of the karaoke room appear to be made of soft and tactile fabric. The cool halogen light on the ground floor is exchanged for a warm, soft pink glow.

At night the ellipse undermines the modernist honesty of the building: its supports vanish so that it appears to hover in clouds of light. The literal obscurity of the karaoke room also has a metaphorical dimension that is not unambiguous. Oleg Drozdov sticks by his claim that his work is contextual: according to him the elliptical form was a reaction to the nearby crossroads as a space of permanent movement and change. This explanation does not prevent one from seeing in it a prototype of a Chinese traditional lantern or, alternatively, a variation on the popular high-tech spaceship theme. To an orthodox Christian the upper part of Yaske might bring to mind a church dome – an association which gives this supremely secular building a faint aura of sacrality.

A10, So., 2006.05.21

21. Mai 2006 Kseniya Dmitrenko


verknüpfte Bauwerke
„YASKE“ Sushi Bar

Gruta das Torres Visitors’ Centre

Is the Gruta das Torres Centre, designed by architects SAMI the new gateway to Atlantis?

The existence of the „Lost City“ of Atlantis has never been confirmed. It was first mentioned by the Greek philosopher Plato who related the legend of a great civilization engulfed by the ocean after an earthquake around 9550 BC. According to Greek mythology, when the gods divided up the earth, Atlantis fell to Poseidon, the god of the sea. He fell in love with the beautiful mortal girl Cleito. She gave birth to Atlas, who later gave his name to this civilization.

If we are to believe Plato, Atlantis was situated somewhere between Europe, North Africa and Central America, exactly where today we find the Canary Islands, the Madeiras and the Azores. These islands are located above the Atlantic Ridge, one of the world’s most seismically unstable regions. This is the mythically charged setting for the Gruta das Torres Centre. Among the Azores, a mainly volcanic archipelago, is Pico Island, the second biggest of the central group and the youngest (only 300,000 years old). Its youth and volcanic origins are the reason that this island has the biggest number of volcanic caves in the Azores. The Gruta das Torres was discovered in 1990. It is located in Criação Velha and at 5150 metres long and 17 metres high, the biggest cave. Entering the cave is a magical moment. A natural skylight – the result of a ceiling collapse – affirms nature as the forceful agent in this unique landscape.

When the regional authorities decided to open the Gruta das Torres as a tourist attraction, they commissioned architects Inês Vieira da Silva and Miguel Vieira to build a Visitors’ Centre to inform and support the tourists and at the same protect the fragile skylight.

The architects were faced with an unusual brief: the site was in the middle of nowhere; their principal reference was underground; the building, which would only be used regularly during the summer months, had to be vandal-proof and, because of financial constraints, relatively inexpensive. Perhaps because of these preconditions, the project revealed itself in a simple way. The architects came up with two main elements: a circular sweep and a linear spatial organization – a sequence of programmatic spaces that prepare visitors for the natural spectacle below.

Inês and Miguel explain their approach to architecture as follows: „We try to understand the logic of traditional construction, its application, scale and proportions, in an effort to re-use it in a contemporary and integrated way. In the presence of a strong landscape like this, we aimed for the integration of the building, never refusing to design it as the architectural shape it is.“

Arriving at the Visitors’ Centre of Gruta das Torres, after a long ride through the blue, black and green landscape on Pico Island, one finds a patio acting as buffer between the vast natural scenery and the protected interior of the centre. One passes through a waiting room, before attending a short and clear briefing in the auditorium, where visitors are equipped with helmets and headlamps for their journey into the cave. Once outside, they descend a solid rock staircase, leading through a lava tube along a 40 m walkway above the untouched rock slides. Visitors are allowed no more than 200 metres inside the cave, getting only a small taste of the magnificent interior and the potential of unvisited spaces. They return to the waiting room via an external ramp that keeps arriving and departing flows separate.

The construction is a reinterpretation of local building techniques. The „currais de figueira“ structures („fig tree walls“) on Pico island have been recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Once built to protect vineyard cultures from wind and seawater damage, here it naturally became the south facade of the building. Originally about 1.80 metres high, the stone wall has been extended into a 3.5 metre-high enclosure. The openweave structure allows light to infiltrate the entire building, simultaneously avoiding the necessity for windows or any other kind of apertures.

Many centuries after the Plato story, Belgian comic strip hero Professor Mortimer was holidaying in the Azores. While exploring the „Hole of the Devil“, he finds an unknown metal with strange radioactive and luminescent properties, probably the legendary Orichalcum mentioned in Plato’s story. He calls his friend Blake to join him. Suddenly, a strange flying machine speeds crosses the sky, disappearing into the dark night. Curious, they decide to look for it and descend into the cave, finding there the lost city of Atlantis.

A10, So., 2006.05.21

21. Mai 2006 Carlos Sant’Ana


verknüpfte Bauwerke
Gruta das Torres Centre

Housing, Tilburg

The houses in the suburb of Witbrant-Oost by Erna van Sambeek and Jacq de Brouwer, who also designed the spatial masterplan, display an unusual inversion.

Witbrant is an area the city of Tilburg had set aside for the Floriade horticultural exhibition which it hoped to host in 2000. When it became clear in 1995 that this was not going to happen, the council decided to use the site for an exceptional residential development. The spatial masterplan for one of the neighbourhoods, Witbrant- Oost, was drawn up by Jacq de Brouwer, an architect who has made a name for himself with his aloof, introverted brick architecture in and around Tilburg and who also designed one-third of the houses in the adjacent Witbrant-West neighbourhood.

De Brouwer is one of the principals of Bedaux De Brouwer of Goirle, a suburb of Tilburg, in the south of the Netherlands. Bedaux De Brouwer is the continuation of the architectural practice established here in the 1930s by Jos Bedaux and eventually taken over by his son Peer Bedaux. De Brouwer starting working for the firm in 1978, first as draughtsman, then as architect, becoming co-director in 1996. Peer Bedaux and De Brouwer have each in their own way followed in the footsteps of the firm’s founder, whose work ranged from abstract traditionalism to restrained modernism.

As well as the masterplan for Witbrant-Oost, De Brouwer designed 214 of the 286 houses. The remaining 72 were designed by Amsterdam architect Erna van Sambeek.

Witbrant-Oost consists of long, flat strips of patio dwellings in a strictly orthogonal arrangement. It is the largest concentration of patio dwellings in the Netherlands. The only houses of more than one storey are along the edge of the neighbourhood where they act as a buffer against the noise of passing trains. The choice of low-rise development was motivated by the desire to integrate the neighbourhood as much as possible with the surrounding woodland which is indeed still visible from every house. The front gardens and the public green space will eventually contribute to the sense of a natural setting.

As so often in the architecture of Jacq de Brouwer, the sober exterior betrays little or nothing of the interior world. Behind the predominantly closed facades lies a variety of housing types of differing widths and depths, with one or more patios and occasionally a walled garden. Indoors, enclosed outdoor space and beyond merge in a symbiosis comparable to that between the neighbourhood as a whole and the surrounding woods.

Six strips of housing in Witbrant-Oost were designed by Van Sambeek who, rather than resisting De Brouwer’s starting points – a variety of patio houses and maximum contact between inside and outside – pushed them to their limits in houses with two and sometimes even three patios.

In Witbrant-Oost – and to that extent it can be read as an implicit criticism of the preoccupation with design in Dutch suburbs – architectural and urban design are kept to a minimum. Nor is there any attempt to pander to the current dogma that every house should express the individuality of its occupants. The coherence and consistency of the neighbourhood as a whole weighs more heavily than individual expression. And because the residents park their cars between the extended walls rather than on the street, the overall impression is one of serenity, an impression that is reinforced by the almost complete absence of colour. All in all Witbrant-Oost exudes an unaccustomed tranquillity and restrained beauty.

A10, So., 2006.05.21

21. Mai 2006 Hans Ibelings


verknüpfte Bauwerke
Dwellings Witbrant-Oost

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