PROJECT MANAGEMENT Florian Kobler, Cologne - IDATBCN

6
Peter Zumthor, St. Niklaus von Flüe
Chapel, Mechernich-Wachendorf,
Germany, 2003–07
7
Peter Zumthor, Kolumba Art Museum
of the Archdiocese of Cologne,
Cologne, Germany, 2003–07
fully examining the daily routines of the nuns, the architects managed to devise simple, economical solutions to their needs, while bringing
forward unexpected ideas such as the refectory, where the nuns are all aligned on the same side of the table (“like Leonardo da Vinci’s Last
Supper,” according to the architects), looking out at the countryside. The remote location of this convent, but also its dedication to simplicity
combined with an openness to an architecture that does not imitate the past, allows it to generate a sense of spirituality that does not depend
on any cliché about religious architecture. It is modern but respectful of its function in the best sense of the terms.
BURN BABY BURN
Perhaps inspired most by contemporary art that has long since assumed the beauty of the ephemeral, architecture, too, has accept-
ed and even sought out the virtues of the temporary. Naturally, burgeoning new cities, perhaps first amongst them Los Angeles, gave rise to
admittedly short-lived buildings that had no pretense to the kind of permanence to which architecture long aspired. In previous editions of
the Architecture Now! series, works of art have figured prominently. Volume 3 had an image of Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project (Turbine
Hall, Tate Modern, London, UK, October 16, 2003–March 21, 2004) on its cover. The relation between an architecture-related work of art and
some obviously ephemeral buildings is not a negligible aspect of the evolution of contemporary architecture. Ideas that emerge at the border
between art and architecture often go on to influence more durable types of buildings in a substantive, or sometimes only aesthetic, way.
Arne Quinze is neither an architect nor really a pure artist. Rather, he is a self-educated designer of some importance. His elaborate instal-
lation for the 2006 Burning Man Festival, Uchronia: Message out of the Future (Black Rock City, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, page 412), was
intended from the first to be burnt to the ground after a week of festivities. A movie and a book chronicling the construction (and destruction)
of the open pavilion is the only remaining trace of its existence. Some may liken Uchronia to an art event as opposed to an architectural real-
ization, but its function as a dance or party locale clearly places it in the realm of buildings. The collective nature of its realization and its
meandering, almost organic structure make Uchronia aesthetically interesting, and, indeed, Arne Quinze has since built a less fleeting ver-
sion of this design in Brussels.
6
INTRODUCTION
Shipping containers have enjoyed something of an architectural fashion in recent years with such striking (temporary) realizations as
Shigeru Ban’s Bianimale Nomadic Museum (Pier 54, New York, New York, 2005). The Brazilian architects Bernardes + Jacobsen used such
containers to create the location of the TIM Festival 2007 in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, page 108). Using no less than 250 six-
and 12-meter-long containers, they created the essential structures for a popular music festival that lasts only two nights. Shipping contain-
ers were standardized as of 1956, based on the ideas of the American Malcom McLean, and have become a frequent fixture of a contem-
porary architecture that has admitted it can (or should) be ephemeral. The TIM Festival is a case in point of the need for rather substantial
architectural elements that can be easily moved into place and removed just as readily. In this instance, it is more the realm of industrial
design and transportation that shapes architecture, but just as art can play this role, so, too, it seems, can more practically oriented disciplines.
Works of art often verge on the architectural, just as some architects aspire to the status conferred to their less down-to-earth friends
in the art world. The German artist Thomas Schütte has shown a frequent interest in architectural forms in his varied production. One of his
7