Posts Tagged Guardian Weekly
Symbols of hope for better times ahead
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on December 13, 2011
No building summed up 2011 quite like the Shard, a sky-high hymn to optimism
Work on the Empire State Building began on St Patrick's Day, 17 March 1930, just months after Wall Street crashed and the world was plunged into a decade-long recession. Talk about bad timing. This was far more than a run-of-the-mill office block; it was the tallest building in the world. The first with more than 100 floors, it was a brilliant Art Deco design by William F Lamb (1883-1952), of Shreve Lamb and Harmon, spiring up into the Manhattan skyline and symbolising what was meant to be the crowning might of US capitalism and the prosperous American way of life. When it opened on 1 May 1931, New York was down on its uppers. Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney caught the mood of the time pitch-perfectly with Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, the anthem of the Great Depression. Harburg was a New Yorker. Was he looking at the Empire State Building when he wrote these lines: "Once I built a tower to the sun/Brick and rivet and lime/Once I built a tower, now it's done/Brother, can you spare a dime?" Yet the Empire State Building was also a highly visible sign of how to build out of a recession, of better time some way ahead. It cost $41m, or about $500m in today's money, and first turned a profit in 1950. Today, the skyscraper is a commercial success and one of the world's most famous and best-loved buildings.
Late this summer, I sat with the architect Renzo Piano at Ronchamp in the shadow of Le Corbusier's haunting pilgrimage chapel of Notre Dame du Haut; beneath the chapel, Piano and his team were completing a low-budget, yet intelligently planned and beautifully resolved convent for the Poor Clare sisters, dug out of sight into the hillside. The convent, a highlight of my 2011, might be taken for the apotheosis of recessionary design, a perfect symbol of our need to cut our coats according to our cloth. But I was talking with the same Renzo Piano whose Shard London Bridge – Britain's tallest building – has been shooting above the skylines of Southwark and the City of London this year as the British economy tumbles deeper into recession. Construction work on this $700m, 95-floor tower began in March 2009 as financial markets stumbled. It is due to open in May 2012. The timing seems unfortunate. Whatever you think of the design of the Shard, though, and its impact on London's skyline, perhaps it is an Empire State Building for our times, a symbol of daring and optimism in a year that has seemed so dispiriting. There it shines, a great blade of steel, concrete and glass pointing the way to the good times to come. Maybe.
That time with Renzo Piano at Ronchamp said so much, to me at least, of how 2011 has tugged us in apparently contradictory directions. The convent for the Poor Clares is ascetic and quietly beautiful architecture dug into the earth and realised on a budget as modest as those who live and pray there. The Shard London Bridge is bravura design, all show and skyward-soaring energy. Here, boiled down from all the buildings I've seen and experienced this year, is a pair framing optimism and suggesting hope. We need both God and Mammon, or spirit and money, to make sense and to create ease in our messy world: 2011 offered monuments to both as the Empire State Building (left) had done 80 years ago.
National museum lauds patriotic China
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on May 10, 2011
Almost as big as the Louvre, the new exhibition space overlooking Tiananmen Square is very selective in its history
The new National Museum of China occupies a huge building with a colonnaded facade overlooking Tiananmen Square, opposite the Mao Zedong mausoleum. After three years of renovation and extension work, its 192,000 square metres of exhibition space is supposed to give the People's Republic a museum in keeping with its international standing. Only the Louvre in Paris (210,000 square metres) is larger.
It opened to the public in March, with free admission, but only 8,000 visitors a day are allowed to see the permanent exhibition. So the Chinese turn up early in the morning to see the rooms devoted to national resurrection, ancient bronzes, Chinese porcelain and statues of the Buddha. The rooms on ancient China have just opened.
The task of converting this gigantic Stalinist structure, dating from 1959, and redesigning its entrance hall and exhibition spaces, was given to a German firm of architects, Gerkan, Mark & Partners, better known for railway stations, airports and sports stadiums. History museums all over China have been pressed to dispatch some of their greatest treasures to the capital.
But despite its facelift the institution's prime mission is still patriotic education, fashioning and interpreting Chinese history to serve the party line. A perfect illustration is the permanent exhibition entitled The Path to National Resurrection. It starts with the period of humiliation to which western colonial powers subjected China, highlighting the steps on the way to nationalist reawakening and modernisation, with the foundation of the first republic.
The sections focusing on the People's Republic, established when Mao seized power in 1949, take visitors through the key moments in the history of the Communist party, culminating in the economic achievements of recent years, with the conquest of space, fast trains to Tibet and the Olympic Games.
A smiling Mao appears in just one photograph, talking to party members in 1961 after the disastrous experiment with the Great Leap Forward, which caused the deaths of millions of Chinese. Two others allude to the Cultural Revolution, but fail to mention its atrocities. The only picture relating to the events of 1989, in the square outside, is dated 9 June and shows Deng Xiaoping congratulating the troops enforcing martial law.
"I was surprised to see there is so little detail," said a young biology student, Li, born in 1987. "Some of our teachers talk about Tiananmen and we all look on the net," she added. This mutilated history "infuriates" Yang Jisheng, a former journalist at the Xinhua news agency and author of a monumental study of the great famine, which is banned in China. "Those of us who are familiar with the history avoid this sort of museum. Historical facts have been perverted. The refusal to talk about the past is a bit like plugging your ears while you steal a bell, convinced that no one else will hear," he said.
The concepts of reawakening and regeneration are particularly upsetting, Yang adds. "They refer to periods when China was supposedly glorious. But which period should we consider: the first emperor, the Tang or the Qin dynasty? And which aspects should we retain of these periods, which were after all dictatorships?"
In these days of keen rivalry between the world's great museums, the Beijing show highlights a contradiction deep-rooted in the People's Republic: the first exhibition loaned by a foreign organisation is devoted to the Art of Enlightenment. Thanks to this master-stroke of German diplomacy, Chinese visitors can enjoy 600 works of 18th-century art from museums in Berlin, Munich and Dresden.
At the opening of the exhibition on 1 April, the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, spoke of the ideals expressed by art, such as respect for human dignity, the rule of law and individual freedoms. Such ideas, he added, led to the fall of the Berlin wall, but the Chinese media made no mention of his comments.
Other museums in Europe are thinking about staging shows here too, and the Louvre is already involved in a joint project. The luxury goods group LVMH has started talks about an exhibition on the Vuitton brand and travel. It is slated to occupy four rooms and last two or three months, according to the LVMH spokesperson in Shanghai.
With its prestige, ambitious aims and vast exhibition space begging to be filled, museums from all over the world are courting the Chinese mogul. But this may not be a simple task. As one expert said: "The editorial line of Chinese museums is not always crystal clear."
This article originally appeared in Le Monde
Stolid Stuttgart’s citizens give the German city a whiff of Paris in 1968
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on September 8, 2010
Germany's middle classes are out in force to prevent the demolition of Stuttgart's venerable railway terminus
Sybille Adler, a pharmacist, heads for the north wing of Stuttgart station every Monday evening to join the protests against its demolition. Weather permitting, her 84-year-old mother will go along with her; she was born when the station was built. The natural stone building, and with it the park that borders the station's south wing, are Stuttgart's pride and joy.
"This is my native town," said an elegant white-haired woman. On the shoulder strap of her bag she has a "Stuttgart 21" sticker with a red cross, the badge worn by opponents to a project launched by the city's conservative mayor, Wolfgang Schuster. She too, makes a point of joining the protest every Monday, "I'm prepared to throw stones if necessary," she said. "It's an uprising," said another protester.
The protest is mobilising more and more people and has been gathering momentum in the past weeks. Stolid Stuttgart is acquiring the air of Paris in May 1968.
Stuttgart is the capital of Baden-Württemberg, a state that is home to companies such as Mercedes and Porsche, and represents the innovative, prosperous side of Germany, the side that wins contracts in China and the US. Here, engineers feel at home, work is a cardinal virtue, and protest a superfluous, imported product. So when the middle class teams up with ecologists and between 30,000 and 50,000 demonstrators take to the streets, it's a major event in Catholic, conservative southern Germany.
The Stuttgart 21 protest is not minor. For nearly 20 years, the town hall and Deutsche Bahn, the German rail operator, have wanted to convert the city's terminus into a through station to speed up international train lines, notably for the forthcoming Paris-Budapest route, as well as to improve airport access. The project was put to tender in 1997 and the jury selected a bid from Düsseldorf architect Christoph Ingenhoven out of the 190 submitted.
The advantage of this project for the city is that it can recover about 100 hectares of land in the historic centre, enough to build approximately 10,000 new homes and generate between 10,000 and 20,000 lasting jobs. However, it means the construction of 117km of new track and 63km of tunnels.
In July 1999, when the cost was estimated to be around $6.4bn, the then Deutsche Bahn boss put the project on hold. When it was resurrected under his successor, that estimate was revised to $5.8bn. But opponents are certain that it will cost at least twice that. Katharina Ungerer, a teacher, says: "Ten billion [euros]! When you think they can't even afford toilet paper in my kid's school."
Discussions are friendly at the gathering, even though some of those present actually support the project. "You were against the TV tower, against the new trade fair centre, you're just against everything," says one man, setting off a new round of rebuttals: Stuttgart 21 is too expensive, too opaque, will destroy too many trees, it's a major project requiring colossal work.
Opponents are planning the next stage. Since the destruction of the 280 trees in the neighbouring park would mark a defeat, they are organising to protect the trees. On the protest website, sympathisers are invited to choose between three levels of mobilisation. Green represents speaking against the project (19,000 people have committed to that). Orange means showing up whenever people's presence is needed (8,100 volunteers), while red is for those prepared to form a human chain around the trees (1,809 volunteers).
However, this mobilisation comes late in the day. "The European Parliament, the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, the regional parliament and the town hall have all approved this project in recent years." And each time they had a majority of around 75%, according to the mayor.
"Stuttgart 21 is legal but it is no longer democratic," was the answer of Boris Palmer, the Green mayor of nearby Tübingen, who is demanding a referendum.
As to the cost of the estimated outlay, $1.8bn will be paid for by Deutsche Bahn, $1.5bn by the German government and the European Union; $1bn by the state and $257m by the city, which is scarcely more than the share that will be paid by the airport authority.
But the mayor admits that he is having trouble convincing his citizens. According to a recent poll by the local daily paper, Stuttgarter Nachrichten, 63% of locals oppose the project. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) is now also divided on the issue. Just six months away from the regional elections that could mean another defeat for Angela Merkel's party, the SPD does not intend to leave much room for the Greens, who can already claim 20% of votes at national level.
Clearly this has not escaped the attention of the opponents to Stuttgart 21.
This article originally appeared in Le Monde
Futuristic Bellegarde is the shape of French rail stations to come
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on July 6, 2010
Bellegarde station is the prototype for a key French Rail project aiming to put stations back at the heart of communities
With a transparent dome made of plastic tubing, the circular building that welcomes travellers arriving in Bellegarde, in the foothills of the French Alps, resembles a moon base rather than a railway station. Combining advanced technology and bioclimatic architecture, the national rail operator SNCF's most recent creation reflects the publicly owned company's determination to boost the environmental awareness of its buildings and make its stations an emblematic feature of tomorrow's sustainable cities.
"Bellegarde is a prototype for what we plan to do with our biggest stations. Thermal and environmental performance are at the top of our list of target specifications," says Sophie Boissard, who heads Stations and Connections, the business unit set up by SNCF a year ago to operate and capitalise on its 3,000 stations.
Substantially larger than Bellegarde, the new TGV high-speed stations further north at Besançon and Belfort will go even further along the same lines, deploying solar panels, Canadian wells, geothermal energy and a hi-tech bioclimatic hothouse. Nor will this policy only affect new stations. The rail operator intends to enlarge and refurbish at least 100 destinations over the next 10 years, investing some $6bn.
One priority is to improve conditions in buildings that tend to be freezing in winter and baking hot in summer. But there is no question of turning them into air-conditioned coolers all year round. "It isn't financially possible for us and it makes no sense in environmental terms," says Boissard.
Etienne Tricaud, the deputy-head of Arep, SNCF's design subsidiary, says: "What is at stake here is making travellers comfortable without it costing the earth." This is where the bioclimatic systems experimented with at Bellegarde will come into play. The dome is made of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a tough, lightweight polymer derived from Teflon, which is cost-effective and recyclable. It forms a hothouse above the wooden cupola that covers the station. In winter, low-speed fans pump hot air from this cavity into the hall below, maintaining a temperature of 16°C without consuming additional energy. In summer the hothouse produces a chimney effect, drawing off the heat which is replaced by cool air at 10°C rising from a Provençal (or Canadian) well. "This system alone results in 40% energy savings," says Tricaud.
Such "ecologically correct" comfort is all the more important because, according to SNCF's long-term strategy, tomorrow's stations should become "a pivotal point in the sustainable town". On top of being hubs for all forms of public and private transport (main and regional rail links, trams, buses, cars, bicycles), they are set to become mini-town centres, combining offices, business centres and shops, healthcare, childminding and collection services.
"This is definitely the model I want to promote: it is a response to the need for greater density, multiple functions and easy mobility," says Boissard, adding: "This approach makes sense, particularly for our 40 regional [mainline] stations."
Another advantage of such diversification is that it is highly profitable, contributing to the modernisation of railway infrastructure. Without the 10,000 square metres of retail space grafted on to the original project, it would have been difficult to find the means to renovate Gare St Lazare in Paris, due for completion next year. In many towns, the area round the railway station, long abandoned by all but sex shops and shady hotels, is now the focus of a new urban and economic dynamic. "The decline of stations and surrounding neighbourhood was due to the dominance of private cars. The drive to bring business back into town centres and the resulting upturn has reversed this trend," says Boissard.
A similar pattern is apparent elsewhere. In Japan, where transit operators are also property developers, stations are an essential component of town centres, uniting retail and business services. And in Switzerland the federal rail operator SBB decides which businesses can be located near stations to achieve the right urban mix.
This article originally appeared in Le Monde