Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret - The Indian Adventure

I guess not much has to be said about Le Corbusier, the Swiss-born god-like figure of modern architecture who is still ominpresent in every discourse of 20th century architecture, even 48 years after his death.
A chapter of Le Corbusier's professional life that has popped up in my mind from time to time is his design of the capital for the Indian states Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh. Initially planned by the American architect Albert Mayer, in 1951 Le Corbusier took over the role of chief architect in charge of both the urban planning and the overall architecture. Designed according to the principles established by the CIAM congresses, which provided for a separation of living and working quarters, Chandigarh together with Oscar Niemeyer's and Lucio Costa's Brasilia plan remains one of the two examples of truly modernistic urban experiments. The architecture of the city is in no way inferior to the ambitious town planning: Le Corbusier's spectacular designs for the General Assembly or the High Court still fascinate with their archaic, raw-concrete surfaces that are typical for the late work of Le Corbusier. But the true revelation of the book is the overall contribution of Pierre Jeanneret which I wasn't aware of until I read the book: not only did he contribute a large number of furniture designs for the many buildings at Chandigarh but he also contributed several housing designs that are no less interesting than those of cousin. The book provides a complete overview of all designs by both Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret for public buildings, private houses, works of art, as well as furniture and simultaneously clarify the different authorships. Due to the extent of the Indian adventure of the Jeanneret's, the book is a hefty volume: weighing some 3.5 kilos and comprising more than 600 pages, it is the book I had been longing for as it tells the story of Chandigarh and its designers in incredible detail.

Rudolf Schwarz (1987-1961)

Today I received a book that had been on my wishlist for quite a while: Rudolf Schwarz - Architekt einer anderen Moderne (Rudolf Schwarz - Architect of a different Modern). Although I initially wasn't very interested in religious architecture and mainly focused my interests on housing design, over time I got increasingly involved with churches and other buildings designed for religious purposes. Rudolf Schwarz, often called "der rheinische Mystiker" (The Rhenish Mythic), undoubtedly was one of Germany's most important master church builders and whose oeuvre comprises more than 20 individual churches, built between 1930 and 1966. Probably his most well-known design is the Fronleichnamskirche built in 1930 and in its formal purity groundbreakingly modern. But despite his predominant involvement with religious architecture he nonetheless left several secular landmarks, e.g. the former Wallraff-Richartz-Museum in Cologne (today Museum for Applied Art), that even today are being recognized as beautiful examples of modern German architecture. 

But back to the book: published in 1997 by Hatje Cantz, the book is the only career-spanning evaluation of Schwarz's work and thus was a must-have in my collection of architect's monographs. The texts included in the book have been written by renowned German architectural historian Wolfgang Pehnt and I am very sure that this book will give me an in-depth insight into Rudolf Schwarz's building principles.

Former Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (1957), image taken from Wikipedia

Fronleichnamskirche in Aachen, Germany (1930), image taken from Wikipedia

Arts & Architecture 1945-1954: The Complete Reprint

On Saturday I finally received my personal bargain of the year: the complete reprint of the first 10 years of the Arts & Architecture magazine which I bought at the online sale of well-known publisher Taschen at a 75% discount. Ever since the beginning of my love for architecture, the postwar architecture in the United States in general and the architectural idiom present throughout California in particular keep on fascinating me. Therefore I had to have the reprint of A&A!
As the title already indicates, the first 10 year's issues are accurately reproduced and housed in a folder for each year. Arts & Architecture is most famous for its Case Study House Program, initiated by founder edito-in-chief John Entenza, which initially sought to promote affordable housing for America's middle class but ended up as a series of single-family homes for the well-to-do's. Nonetheless the program has helped promote the magazine, modern architecture, and the architects involved with the program, among them Richard Neutra, Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, and Ralph Rapson. Its overall significance in promoting modern architecture, design, and lifestyle, cannot be underestimated and receives further evidence by the illustruous range of guest commentators which includes heavyweights of modernism like Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and Harry Seidler.

Unfortunately the pictures I took only provide a partial impression of the visual pleasure of the books...

Ernst Gisel (*1922)

Uninterrupted by the destructive forces and ideologies of WWII, modern architecture in Switzerland thrived continuously since the 1920s. A central figure of the Swiss architectural landscape after 1945 was and still is Ernst Gisel. Originally trained as an architectural draftsman, he studied architecture from 1940 until 1942 and in 1944 joined the atelier of Alfred Roth, the epitome of a modernist architect. In 1945 Gisel went on to establish his own architectural practice and from then on took a prominent stance in architectural discussions in Switzerland and beyond. His highly individual buildings have always been an expression of Gisel's current mindset and divest from an immediate attribution due to their stylistic variety. Especially his early houses and churches from the 1950s and 1960, which are reminiscent of brutalist architecture, immediately appealed to me and almost forced me to buy the book depicted below. It is the second edition of Werner Oechslin's monograph on Gisel, comprising more than 450 pages and 1000 images, which provide a very vivid account of the extensive work of the architect. To me the book definitely is a treasure and will surely remain in my collection for the coming decades.

Juliaan Lampens (*1926)

Due to my continuing fascination with brutalist architecture over the last 10 years I have accumulated a considerable amount of mostly monographs on architects that, based on their building style, can be termed brutalists. Besides popularly known proponents of Brutalism like the late Le Corbusier or Marcel Breuer, there are also a number of largely unknown architects that have adopted Brutalism as their architectural language. Among them is Belgian architect Juliaan Lampens whom I learned about in a very insightful article published by Domus Magazine: his buildings are highly individual both on the outside and the inside and not only challenge its spectators but especially its inhabitants who are forced to adopt to the outstandingly free floor plan. As can be obtained from the floor plan below, the interiors of Juliaan Lampens single-family houses are characterized by the complete absence of load-bearing walls as well as possibilities to retreat. The book features an interesting essay of Wouter Vandenhoute who spent his childhood in the Lampens' designed Vandenhoute House and gives a firsthand account of what it is like to live in such an environment.
As far as I know the book the book is the only English-language overview of Juliaan Lampens' small oeuvre but nonetheless is an interesing and comprehensive read that pays contribute to this little-known master of modern architecture.

The Vandenhoute House, image taken from domusweb.it

Interior of the Vandenhoute House, taken from domusweb.it

Floor plan of the Vandenhoute House, taken from Domusweb.it

Werner Düttmann (1921-1983)

Einer meiner Sammlungsschwerpunkte ist, wie man meinen bisherigen Posts sicherlich entnehmen kann, die Nachkriegsmoderne in Deutschland. Sie wird zur Zeit glücklicherweise wiederentdeckt, ist aber dennoch über Jahre vernachlässigt worden und allzu häufig der Abrissbirne zum Opfer gefallen. Ein besonders schönes Buch, das einen der führenden Protagonisten der deutschen Nachkriegsmoderne porträtiert, ist "Werner Düttmann - Verliebt ins Bauen": es versammelt eine breite Anzahl von Essays über und Projekte von Werner Düttmann. Werner Düttmann gehört sicherlich nicht zu den Namen, die dem Leser sofort im Zusammenhang mit Nachkriegsarchitektur durch den Kopf schießen, jedoch hat er über Jahrzehnte die Architektur in Deutschland durch sein Wirken als Lehrer und Präsident der Akademie der Künste geprägt. Das Buch lässt dementsprechend auch fachfremde Autoren zu Wort kommen und zeichnet so ein lebendiges Bild von Düttmann, der sich durch sein ausgleichendes Naturell Respekt und Zuneigung auch von Konkurrenten erworben hat.
Eines seiner bekanntesten Projekte ist in letzter Zeit häufiger in den Feuilletons thematisiert worden: die Kirche St. Agnes in Berlin. Sie ist nach ihrer Profanierung an den Galeristen Johann König veräußert worden und dient nun ausschließlich der Zurschaustellung bildender Kunst. Das Gebäude fasziniert mich seit Jahren, ist es doch ein herausragendes Beispiel des Brutalismus, das aufgrund des rohen Betons und seiner verschlossenen Fassade auch heute noch polarisiert. Auf dem zweiten unten angefügten Bild kann man vielleicht einen kurzen Eindruck von der archaischen Kraft der Kirche gewinnen.

Dieter Rams (*1932)

Undoubtedly, one of the seminal figures in the history of postwar industrial design is Dieter Rams. With his whollistic design approach he not only shaped the image of German design but has continued to influence generations of designer with Jonathan Ive of Apple being his most prominent disciple. Dieter Rams's work for the German company Braun, nowadays a subsidiary of Gillette, has become classic due to its formal reduction, attention to detail, as well as its overall user-friendliness.
The book "Dieter Rams: As little design as possible", written by Sophie Lovell, is a massive, career-spanning overview of Rams's design process and principles, the products he designed, and in the end an oral history of industrial design after WWII. The approximately 400 pages are an interesting read and provide the reader with a detailed analysis of Dieter Rams's ethos and approach to design.
Luckily the book also includes a photo essay on Dieter Rams's self-designed Kronberg house, completed in 1971: although originally trained as an architect, the Kronberg house is the only architectural project of Dieter Rams and in its formal purity both out and inside a built manifesto of his design convictions. Furnished with his well-known designs for the company Vitsoe, the house exudes a sense of quiteness and ease that can also be found in houses designed by architect Richard Neutra.
To cut a long story short: the book as must-read for everyone with at least a slight sense for design.