Electric Spool, by Herzog & de Meuron
The Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron designed two service-buildings for the Swiss railway. Both building are clad with copper strips, that are locally twisted at the places where windows are located. The iconography is that of the electric spool - an appropriate one since the buildings houses primarily transformators.
Herzog and de Meuron
[ArchIdea #15, 1997]
Simple, rectangular and austere in outer shape, and very concrete in materiality. It is this combination of features, which characterises the architectural work of the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. In their work they expose the materials of the building in a very pronounced way, as if they want to say: "This is made of plywood, this of stone and that of copper". According to Herzog this "exposing", as he calls it, is an essential part of the artist's or architect's job. The materials should be exposed as clearly and simply as possible, without commentary, and without too emphatic references.
He admits that references in itself are unavoidable.
A building always evokes images, calls forth associations. Herzog and De Meuron seek to steer these references. However, they are not interested in historical references, which would be understood only by those who have the relevant historical knowledge, but in the collective memory, shared by all people. They want to appeal to this intuitive knowledge, present in all human beings, which provides a kind of global language for the understanding of such concepts as big, small, thin and cold as well as of basic forms such as a door and a floor.
This approach clearly shows the architects' affinity with the German artist Joseph Beuys. Jacques Herzog worked with Joseph Beuys on a project in Basel. The latter taught him that essential knowledge is present in every human being and not in historical or educational codes.
Espero comentários,
João Pernão
1 comentário:
A premissa inicial da abordagem à materialidade suscitou-me interesse por este projecto. Acho particularmente interessante não só a linha de pensamento inerente ao seu conceito, mas também o aspecto final do edifício. Uma intervenção num edifício deste género nem sempre tem que possuir um carácter demasiado conservador...Herzog e de Meuron provam que pode ser uma oportunidade para alguma experimentação a nível de conceito com resultados bastante interessantes.
Ainda, após uma rápida pesquisa, encontrei este texto que, penso, ajuda a uma melhor compreensão do objecto em questão:
"(...) Herzog & de Meuron wrapped the concrete structures in copper coiling, creating an external expression of the buildings’ contents. The sleek copper is also an ideal solution for protecting the equipment from lightning, since it conducts electromagnetic energy away from the interior of the building and into the ground. The solid copper forms rise up as an elegant contrast to the jumble of iron tracks that spread around them horizontally.
Having become symbols of Basel, they provide visual markers for travelers entering the city, or for those returning home."
- http://hdm.walkerart.org/ -
Existem mais fotos no site, contendo mais informação, a propósito...
João Pereira
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