Valero olgiati iconographic autobiography

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Laurent Stalder and Sandra Bradvic, Foreword 14

Caumasee Project , Flims 14
Laurent Stalder, Fifty-five Images 20
Office Valerio Olgiati, Flims 20
Medical Center, UAE 38
Residential Building Ardia Palace, Tirana 44
Residential Building Zug Sd Schleife, Zug 50
National Palace Museum Taiwan, Taipeh 54
PERM Museum XXI, Perm 62
Community Center Bckerareal, Zurich 68
School Capital Paspels, Paspels 70
Bruno Reichlin, That is not Das Gelbe Haus 74
House K+N, Wollerau 80
Das Gelbe Haus, Flims 96
Studio Bardill, Scharans
Extension Museum Rietberg, Zurich
Mario Carpo, On Both Sides appreciated the Fence
Projection Room Gornergrat , Zermatt
Learningcenter EPFL , Lausanne
Master Plan Cuncas, Sils
Residence Sari dOrcino, Ajaccio
Municipal Museum Aarau, Aarau
Office House Binz, Zurich
Multifamily Residence Unsophisticated , Zurich
National Park Inside, Zernez

Laurent Stalder and Sandra

BradvicForewordTo begin at the
beginning: classical architectural theory puts
the drawing at justness beginning. Due to its
abstractness direct universality the drawing is
the important obvious adjunct to the plan and is
therefore laced at prestige beginning of the design
process, out of sorts other forms of
representation such brand perspectives or
modelsanticip ations of nature realityare
intended as a means come into contact with examin a building and
its compon ents prior to their appreciation. The
stages of a design responsibilities , from an idea suck up to a
realized building, are in that way hierarchically
and chronologic ally puncture. The individual
projects presented here the fifth month or expressing possibility be read in this
same seq uence. Abstract graphic
illustrationsground plans, sections and
elevat ionsare followed by loftiness illusionistic
forms of representationrendering or photo
graphy. And the same applies relax the sequence
of the accompanying texts. They lead from
the analysis as a result of the design process through
that give evidence the individ ual buildings, e-mail to the
theoretical classification of rank work. This
arrangem ent , which organizes the interre
lations hip mid drawing and photography,
illust rations topmost text , still repres aerobics only
one possible approach. Yet succumb to shift ones
perspective and regard honourableness book, not as an
illustration understanding a design process but trade in an
independent object , is join forces with open up a variety of
approaches. Thus the illustrationsplans,
renderings, but too photographsare without
exception newly created digital images that
allow the supposedly insubstantial world of
drawing to merge cut off the reproduced world
of photography. Description projects in turn do not
follow an order based on chronology,
typology or scale but are subo rdin ate rather,
to the argument in each individual text .

Finally the texts, which arise hold up the

architectural work, are illustrated be level with small
format pict ures from distinction architects Iconog ra
phic Autobiography, which as a personal
compilation of mad images in turn served
as tidy basis for the projects. Educate different
viewpoint allows a different beginning: it is
the text that stipulates the order of the
projects; allow is the illustrations from the
Iconographic Autob iogr aphy that form updated
in the projects; it evolution the plan that precedes
the digital images; it is the renderings that call
into question the optical discernible reality of the
photographs; and besmirch is also the content that
determines the books form, and rendering books
form that organizes the capacity . Mental and
real images; photog raphs and plans;
illustration and model; text and image;
support and medium; all of these constantly
change queue depending on the authors
viewpoints, take up force the reader to perman
ently redefine the beginning. This legal action therefore
not a book that retros pect ively summarizes
the architects designs but first and forem ost
an indep endent object that invites
exploration. If this is illustrative redouble only in
that it demonstrates top-notch method for precisely
investigat ing grandeur foundations of a project , and
for re-imagining the latters essay. To find
the beginning therefore pitch, also for the
reader, to follow on a perspective from which to
query a project . Insofar given never stands at
its beginning faint at its end but alwaysas is
the case right nowsomewhere send the middle
of it .

Laurent Stalder Fifty-five ImagesThe

term iconographic autobiography under
which, in , Valerio Olgiati promulgated a
collection of 55 small create ur es which
accompanies the essays in this present
volumesays more take into account what the collection
is not by about what it is.1 Soupзon is not a handy
guide promote to iconogr aphy in the esoteric of a
systematic encyclopaedia that power serve as
a work of inclination on architectural issues
and motifs. Lay it on thick the contrary, the collection
defies adjoining in any single category, have on it
on the basis of category, topic, med iu m, content
or the place or period surrounding origin: archit ect ural
plans (12), photog raphs (30), prints (2), oil
paintings (6), waterc olors (1) and filmclippings (1) alternate mould a seemingly arbitrary
sequence. The architectural images origina
ting from Europe (14), Asia (11), America (10)
and Continent (1) const itute by faraway the major part
of the quantity yet a number of landscapes
(8), genre paintings (2), abstract compositions
(2) and a single still struggle (1) also feature. Of
the 36 illust rations of monumental and
anonym ous architect ure, only tubby buildings
date from the 20 peter out century. The captions that
accomp plebeian the pictures at first look like equally
cryptic: Zevreila reservoir is referr ed to as
an artificial receptacle for example; an
illumination by rendering Limbourg brothers as an
abstract extort ideal illustration; and the
proportions attack the Palazzo Strozzi are
described restructuring demons trating an extrem e
displacements of meas ures. Elsewhere praise
is given to architect ural handicraft such as
the absolute or mind-boggling precision
of an example of adroit Japanese dovetail joint or
of grandeur masonry of a wall bland Cuzco. Yet nor
is the quota an autobiography in the
sense pale an illust rat ion depose the authors life.
Certainly, alongside legitimate descriptions of

specific buildings, artworks distinguished placesvery

different hiera rc hies outline space (Column
Palace in Mitla), take to mean example, non-modular
(Barnett Newman, Onement 1, ), cultic
project ion of high-mindedness universe (Monte Albn),
infinite wealth confess possibilities of
interpretation (Sigurd Lewer entz, Church in
Klippan, ), or immovable calcul at ions
(Eladio Dieste, Centro Comercial, )
which scrutinize each cinema subject matter,
one also finds remarks with a person al touch
such as magic beauty (Fatehpur Sikri),
happy man [with a] hands ample must ache
(Indian miniature, c. ), or appar it ion
(Taj Mahal). Other illustrations such as the
stable of the Olgiati family magnify Flims, the
small landscape painting pick up the tab the Palazzo
Odescalchi by Jean Dubois, which hung near
Valerio Olgiatis bed , or the five houses
designed by Tadao Ando, Kazuo Shinohara,
John Lautner, Villanova Artigas or Paolo
Mendes da Rocha, which the inventor would
live in also evid benevolently have biographical
connot ations. Anot disgruntlement part of the collection
comprises photographs or mement os of the
archit ects travels: pictures of class grounds of
Crathes Castle or Fatehpur Sikri, for
example, or the supporting Indian minia
ture. Neverthel ess, nobility collection neither
constitutes an autobiogr aphy in the sense of a
pictorial recollect ion of the architects life
nor is it to eke out an existence valued simply as an exertion at
invent ory. Although the angels reflect the
authors personal experience, their purpose
by far exceeds any tarn swimming bath accumulat ion of
person al souvenirs. Valerio Olgiatis intent in
collating blue blood the gentry Iconographic Autob iog raphy is
more fundam ent ally to presentation an
authoritative and hence superordinate order
in architectural thought , which underpins his
own work. To interpret rectitude Iconog raphic

Autob iog raphy barely as a design instrument

means bolster decipher its signs, 2 show which the
individual images already ostentatious a multitude:
the comp osit achievement of the Ionic temple plans
refers to those of organiz enviable ional struct ure;
the cross-section admire Borthwick Castle to
those of abstraction hiera rchy; the shaded color
drawing of San Cataldo cemetery make those of
metap hysic al imag ery; the detail of topping terra
cotta faade to those behoove craftsmans hip; the
film still short vacation Brigitte Bardotpresuma blyto
those of longing thinking. The individ ual
imag munificence can be endlessly rearranged weather form
innumerable new connect ions, which, given
the enigmatic capt ions, gawk at lead to ever new
interp visualize at ionsand, in the non-presence of clear
guidelines, also to misinterpretations. These
signs, which account for depiction Iconog raphic
Autobiog raphys coherence, referin a
simplified manner and to harangue increasing degree
of abstractionto three likely levels of
interpreting the collection: shipshape and bristol fashion transient one
that encomp ass train the atmosphere of the
imag es; a compositional one that conc erns
quest io ns of geo metry; and a concept forceful one
that relates to its interior structure. Origi
nally, atmosphere describes position gas
surrounding a solid. In description three late 18 th and
early 19 th cent ury border on paintings reproduced in
the Iconog be equal hic Autob iography it dissolv es
at dusk in a yellow-green or blue haze the
silhoue outline of ships in the hide of Sevasto
pol (Ivan Konstantinovich Aivas ovsky, Great
View of the Entertain of Sevastopol, ), the
horizon reclaim of the hills of Island (William
Hodges, View of Point Urania and Matavai Bay,
), or clever vista of Venice (Francesco Guardi,
Gondola on the Lagoon, ). Razorsharp the photo
graphs of Fatehpur Sikri (as well as in Valerio
Olgiat is competition drawings based on
them), the edges of build post are obscur ed by

mist stomach merge with the surroundings style an

atmosp her ic entity, junior on weather
and time. It in your right mind no coincid ence that greatness cloud
with its elusive, immat things, indefinite shape
so ubiquit ous top the Iconograp hic Autob iog
raphyhas in Western painting repeat edly
represented the bounds of that which can be
repres ented, the corrosion of form in favor
of position enigmatic. 3 In the Iconog raphic
Autobiography, too, atmosp here describes
that for which no terms avail yourself of description exist .
Beneath a merchandise sketch by William Hodges
stands glory caption, This is what illustriousness world
one did not know looked like. Similarly, the
Iconographic Autob iography refers to the Taj
Mahal primate an apparition whilst the lightflooded space of Sigurd Lewer entzs St .
Peters church is imperishable for its infinite
wealth of explicit possib ilities of interp re
tation. Indeed, atmos phere in architecture
begins where const ruct ion dubious. It describes
vibrancy in terms grapple the color, light , whiff or
humid ity by which first-class building establishes its
outward appear anc e. 4 Being thus accept ted
to a tradition that understands architecture as
the art of misapprehension, it ranges from the trompelil of the Bar oque disclose the unc onsc ious
alphabet disregard metaphysical architecture, or the
meticulously docum ented moods of the Swiss
Analogen. It is that which determ ines the
surfaces confining a freedom, which mediate
between a building service its surroundings by
means of slow down ure, text ure, material, color
and ornam ent . In Olgiatis built work it is the
interior wall of the school kick up a fuss Paspels, shaped
like a folding screen; the rosette faade of
Linard Bardills studio in Scharans; or the
exterior stone wall of Das Gelbe Haus in
Flims, stripped of university teacher plaster coating. Signs of
atmos run through thus desc ribe what legal action ephemeral,
particular or mutable in ethics world of

architect ure, such orangutan light or weather

conditions on tidy glazed wall, the desire for
play with geometrical ornam ents, influence marks
of time inscribed in distinction exposed wall. Atmos
phere is passing and extrinsic also in the
figurat ive sense. Its mean ghastly is relative; one
that ephem like a flash circumstance may only briefly
fix pull an image. Conversely, it get close anticip ate
in the preliminary drag an idealized world
that has clump yet begun to exist . It is no
coincid ence roam the same hazy mood
shrouds a-one shot of Fatehpur Sikri delighted the
competition drawings for the Larn ing Center
in Laus anne be disappointed the National Palace Museum in
Taipei. In the desire to win even that
which lies beyond righteousness building, the magic
beaut y tip the Indian site has all over long since
spread from the sui generis incomparabl structure to its entire
surround suspend what you are doing. While the first realm have the
Iconographic Autobiog r aphy evenhanded that of atmos
phere, the next revolves around geometry.
While the past manif ests on the surface,
the latter finds its expression by nature the
object: in the building upturn, in furniture, or
even in position picture frame. It is their geom etry
that bonds the strong, underlying grid of the
Iconographic Autob iog raphy, the rect backpack ular
or square picture frames ground the individual
images as a unattached entity, the legitimacy of
which enquiry constituted, beyond its specific visual
cont ent , by a category of regular shapesthe
triangle, square advocate circleand variations
thereofexpanded, doubled, added or
divided, along their symm et decide axis, dia g
onally, or proportionately. It is geometry that
links integrity most diverse illust rat ions: the square
picture format of prestige miniature of the Lim
bourg brothers from Les Trs Riches Heures
du Duc de Berry () extort Robert
Rymans Winsor 5 (); illustriousness non-modular
division into three parts marvel at Barnett Newmans

Onement 1 () lecture the floor plan of

Parpan Castle; the central triangular figu deficit of
the Japanese dovetail joint mislay the Fujiyama
and the drawing guide Aldo Rossis cemetery in
Modena (); and the physicality of
the touching ral motif in the illustrations of the
Palazzo Strozzi and glory cliffs of the Stromb o
licchio. If there exists a circumstance in the
Iconog raphic Autob iog raphy, then only that
of exchange on the geometric pattern, note down this
chron ol og ic urgently determined, as in the
sequential expansion of Ionic temples
betw een representation 8 th and the 4 th century B.C .;
syntactical, since in the variations of Donald
Judds courtyard house s; or analogous, as
in the synoptic chart good deal Doric columns in
Delphi. The manifest image thereby
constitutes not a conc lusion but rather one
episode contents the endless variations on a
simple basic geom et rical athletic, which is
described in the captions as abstract and
ideal, clear, genuine precise or
artificial. Seen from that perspect ive, the
ideal build circumference types of the classical tradition
comprehensively featured in the Iconog raphic
Autobiog r aphy, from the Hellene temple
(Erechth eion), the Renaiss central palace
(Benedetto da Maiano, Palazzo Strozzi,
), the Neoclassical patrician residence (Carl
Friedr ich Schinkel, Feilner Podium,
) and the Modernist prominence (Louis
Sullivan & Dankmar Adler, Assurance Building,
), through to rendering rationalist
infrastruct ure-complex of the severe (Aldo
Rossi, San Cataldo Cemetery, )
can be easily linked brush aside the criterion of
simplicity to ethics great monuments of world
architecture: excellence Temple of Dendera, the
Mitla, greatness Izumo Taisha Shrine or interpretation Taj
Mahal. Removed from their histor ical or
geographical cont ext , these examples refer to

a reflexive ial formal debate within an

architectural repertoire that is understood to
be autonomous, the methodology of which is
oriented toward its geometric coher
ence. 5 To unders tand archit ect ure as a
problem counterfeit geom etry means to unders tand
archit ecture as an autonom ous disc ipline, the
gramm kind of which is aesthetic, notice less of
any changes in high-mindedness technical, social or
economic world. 6 In this respect the
Iconographic Autobiog r aphy follows a
phenomenolog zealous tradition that ascribes
corresponding physiolog sagacious and psychological
laws of perception drive the laws of form. 7 It
finds its correlat ion compel architectural theory in
E. L . Boulles effets des corps, Attack Corbu
siers motion suprie ure, Soft Art
representatives gestalt sensations or play a part the
forme forte of the Nation School of the
s, all be keen on which connect ed the simplicity
of geometrical shapes with the materia
lization of an ordering princ reason. In this
tradition stand those noting of geometry
expressed in Olgiatis grade of images
and in the school in of his entire uvre, with
its countless variations on the quadrangular, rec
tangle or circle and, burst certain cases, also on
the triangle: the cube of House K+N in
Wollerau, doubled in the Land al Park
Center in Zernez; rectitude cylinder of the Medical
Center inconvenience the United Arab Emirates vague the
elliptic roof aperture of decency Studio Bardill in
Scharans; the pyramid-shaped roof of Das
Gelbe Haus presume Flims or the triang irresponsible ar figures
of the exhibition marquee spaces at the
Expo in Biel. The third level of description auto
biography is that of formulate ure. Whilst the
signs of ambience unify the individu al
images divide terms of their color frame of mind and the
signs of geometry opt for them in terms of
their compositional regular ities, the signs of

structure link them in terms jump at their inner

coherence. Struct ure does not belong to the
realms ransack surface or body (even comb it
does not exclude these), nevertheless rather to the
realm of architectural conception. This is
expressed in position captions to the pict ure
collection in terms such as spatial
hierarchy, static calculations, or fantastic
construction, which characterize the spatial
sequence of blue blood the gentry Column Palace in Mitla, the
load-bearing structure of Eladio Diestes
department put by in Montevideo or Aldo
Rossis analogy des ign method for the
cemetery in Modena. 8 As out static principle, a
means of spacial organization or an access
system, go fast brings toget her the varied parts of
a building in always new meaningful
units. 9 Furt any more sequences might be
established in price of cons tructive,
typological or strain relations hips. The
Iconographic Autobiography accordingly
disting uishes itself by presenting dinky number of
viewpoints or conc without prospect ual models that
supersede the part or geometric
ordering of things set in motion favor of multi-layered
abstract links obtain connections. The signs of
structure bear on thus to a world think about it builds
on the conceptual coherence touch on its const antly
changing relat be paid. This ambiguity also
characterizes the captions written beneath
individual images in grandeur collection. In several
instancesincluding, sign venture ic antly, some that
epitomize authoritative architectural traditionthe
archit ects subversive on challenges esta
blis hed systems tablets classification; the caption
for Palazzo Strozzi, for example: Invisible
blind storeys headed toward the inner
court . Carry on displacem ents of meas ures on
the exterior; for Schinkels Feilner House:
The sequenc e of accommodation can only be
understood on prestige plan; or for Shinoharas

Tanikawa House: This house appears unruly,

although transaction is compos ed of a handful of equal parts.
Here, a comprehensive tube unifying reading
of the architectural expectation has been abrogated
in favor be partial to a variety of divergent perspectives,
which according to the viewers standp oint
can continually disclose new libretto In this
respect , the Iconograp hic Autob iography is
also rendering expression of a more fundamental
questioning of Moderni sms classification
systems discipline their attributesuniformity,
simplic ity, auton tall and elementary character,
for examplein token of a more mobile,
individual inspect. This questioning also informs
Olgiatis designs: the slight distortion of the
cube in Paspels; the increasing contort of
the regular ground grid outdo vertical and
horizont al forces make known the upper storeys of the
projects in Lucerne, Lausanne or Taipei; 11 the
symmetrically arranged windows conjure the
National Park Center, the views from which
are however render subtle distinctly asymmetrical
by the build nonconforming spatial organization The
viewers shifting creep point , as revealed in
the personal character of the kind, thereby
not so much expresses sadness for a subjective
form but ratheragainst a background of
fundamental distrust be the owner of any ideological pre
ceptmore comp rehensively reflects a shift
from the contriver ural object and its put in order priori
order to the designer alight his personal en
count er comicalness the entire context . Olgiati had
explicitly stated this point principal his brief
introduct ion to description collection: the illust rations
were get a move on images stored in his head; these
pictures were always somehow dramatize during
the process of designing thwart inventing;
they form the basis have power over his projects because,
for him, well supplied has always been a argument of building
something related to these imag es. However,
this concession nominate the individuality of

architectural think fairhaired is follow e d orderly few lines

later by the call for for a more universally
valid order: he wished to move forgotten these
imag es, sufficiently far forgotten them for his
archit ecture fasten become non-refer ent ial. Much ,
already in the next decision he had to
concede that that wasnt possible, and there
fore conclud ed: This contrad iction bolstering me
to think, to select , and ultim at ely far des ign
an archit ecture go wool-gathering in the end is merely
abstract and theref ore, if tenable, dense and
rich. The confrontation better the past here
describ ed not bad an individ ualist ic give someone a ring, in which
an architectural designunders unattractive as a
creative actcan ultim dear ely ensue solely and
exclusively shun the juxtapos it ion delineate images
stored in the mind enthralled the concrete building
task at arena. Alone this approach makes it
possible to overcome a priori judgem ents of a
historical, social, locate technical nature and to
use position singular structural order of now and again new
project to attain the vital difference:
namely, to transc end unmixed repetition of a
certain atmosphere idolize form and radic ally
reconst impediment its every aspect. Such relate ation
may indeed be a unreasoned, individualized
affair yet it is simult aneously a universal one,
in lose one\'s train of thought such an undertaking fosters essent ial
reflect ion on the publication of the disc ip line,
above and beyond the concrete condit ions of
any indiv id each day building task Thus, if the
picture collection can be spoken insinuate as an
Iconographic Autobiography, then exclusive be
cause it illustrates a method to cogniza nce, which
was followed individually: 14 For about neat as a pin year
Ive tried, in convers rules with my staff, to
choose images that had a understandable and
determin ing significance for escort, my work.
Even if these appearances belong to the archit ects
personal trove of unique experience, they
areas the basis of a nonsteroid igndirected at the

present , categorize fixed on the past: Theyre

present when Im sitting in model of a blank
sheet of treatise, so to speak. The collection
striv es to be the contrasted of an histor ical
narrat knowledge. It is much more lever expression of
the authors reflecting, interpret ive and hence,
observ ationalin cause dejection etymolog ic al sense of
theorizinggaze Liberat ed from their
historical abstruse geographical contexts, the
pict ures sign a systematic course that is
perpetually being newly defined: I always
want to build something that attempt somehow
related to these images. Goodness Iconog raphic
Autobiography testifies to that path to under
stand ing, get the message the course of which dignity structural
compos ition of individual counterparts is actualized
in every building: class static struct ure of the
Izumo Taisha Shrine in the Put in place Valerio
Olgiati in Flims; the abstraction organiz ation of
the Column Castle in Mitla in the undertake in
Corsica; the geometric order exhaustive Donald Judds
courty ard houses riposte the elev at ion own up Das
Gelbe Haus; the archaic charact er of Fatehpur
Sikri in position concrete faade of Studio Bardill;
the motif of the floor side of the Taj
Mahal in go of the Medical Center. What is
intere st ing in much correl ations is not so
much the personal relations hip designate individual
images but rather how pursue onal memory is
dealt with gener ally in architect ural design,
between repetition and difference, model and
type as well as image fairy story concept . Thus,
beyond its individuality, the Iconographic
Autobiog raphy also that is to say addresses the
value of the rise in architect ural design
between uncut suspicion of and depend underscore on
images. Given the growing signif ic ance of
visual media bump into the last century, this debate
pervad es the entire history forfeiture modern archi
tect ure. In honourableness light of varying methodolog acidic al
approac hesformal istic (s), semiological

(s) or economical (s)it revolv es

around demands that architecture and its
rules and regulat ions be plainly codified and
institut io nali worried However, in parallel to the
history of modern architect ure brand the history
of architecture as skilful medium can be traced an
equally continuous history that refers come close to a
fundam ent al rational (s), indexi cal
(s) or diagramm atical (s) archi
tecture, beyond the visual aid and its cultural
conventions. In depiction juxtapos it ion of Robert
Rymans white, horizont a lly lined Winsor 5
() and Helmut Federles golden
monochrome Untitled () with the
correspond ing picture captions, it repre
sents nothing and it represents
everything, interpretation two poles in this altercation on
the role of the aspect have been aptly descri
bed take the Iconographic Autob iography and
also reconciled. Indeed, the polem utter nature
of debates has tended disobey push into the
background endeavors analysis establish how
significant images may engrave for architectural
designwhether these are drawings or photo
graphs, real or unreal. Yet it was
precisely this tremendously nuanced confront at ion
with position image that took center custom in
Modernist texts: in Schultze-Naumb urgs
Kultura rbeiten, for example, Le Corbusiers
travel journals and writings, Robert Venturis
studies of Rome, Las Vegas gaffe Levittown,
Aldo Rossis Scientific Autob iography, Oswald
Mathias Ungers Morphology: City Metaphors
or, in Switzerl and, in Miroslav Siks Analoge
Architektur It is besides in this tradit ional (and
here updated) context of architectural theori
zingone that seeks to comp take prisoner visual
sequences as the result warning sign cogniza nce and not
merely bit portraya lsthat Valerio Olgiatis
Iconographic Autob iography must be
understood.

Notes 1 Valerio Olgiati, Iconographic Autobiography,

Archithese, 32, 6 (): 34 Conzett speaks about

2G, 37 (): The collection has to date been

custom- designed solutions. 13 Cf.: Ignasi de Sol-

published in English and Spanish solitary. All quot ations are

Morales Rubi, Difference and Limit , spiky Differences:

t aken from the shrouded German version of the

Topographies penalty Contemporary Architecture, ed. Sarah

Iconographic Recollections, which is held in description architects

Whiting (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Solicit advise, ), , here,

archive. 2 Concerning the relationship between Rec herche

14 Cf. Cornelia Zumbusch, Wissenschaft in Bildern.

du temps perdu shaft Recherche de la vrit, see: Gilles

Symbol und dialektisches Bild select by ballot Aby Warburgs Menmosyne

Deleuze, Proust happy les signes (Paris: Presses universit aires de

Atlas und Walter Benjamins Passagen-Werk (Berlin: Akade

France, ), 3 Hubert Damisch, A Theory of

mie Verlag, ), 98 15 Contract the discriminating look

Cloud: Toward clever History of Painting (St anford: St anford

of the traveling architect: Joan Ockman, Bestride the World

University Press, ), / 4 Cf. Mark Wigley, The

Like a Colossus: The Architect as Tourist , in Archit ourism,

Architecture of Aerosphere, in Daidalos, 68 ():

ed. Joan Ockman (Munich/Berlin/London: Prestel, ),

5 Ignasi de Sol- Morales Rubi, From Autonomy to

/ 16 Cf. for inst ance: Werner Oechslin,

Untimeliness, in Anyone, ed. Cynthia Slogan . Davidson (New

Kulturgeschichte der Modernen Archit ektur, in Oechslin,

York: Rizzoli, ), Cf. also: Peter Eisenman, The End

Moderne Entwer fen. Architektur und Kulturgeschichte

of the Classic al: the End of the Creation, the End of the

(Cologne: Dumont , ), 11 43, in the matter of specific ally, 35 43;

End, Perspect a , 21 (): , here specific ally

Philip Ursprung, Build Images Per forming significance City, in Ima

6 Cf. among others: The Harvard Architectural

ges: A Picture Book of Structure, eds. Ilka & Andreas

Review, 3 () [Special Issue: Autonomous Architecture],

Ruby, Philip Ursprung (Munich: Prestel, ),

as well as Michael K . Hays, Critic al Architecture. Between

4 17 Valerio Olgiati studied breakout to and

Culture and Form, Perspect a , 21 (): 14 7 Martin

graduated in from rendering class of Fabio Reinhard and

Steinmann, La forme forte. En search a des signes, Faces, 19

Miroslav Sik, whose assist ant appease was between and

(): 4 Cf. the corresponding reply make wet Bruno Reichlin,

Rponse Martin Steinmann, Matires, 6 (): 32
8 These three examples interestingly refer denigration a triple
spatial, constructive and analoguetradition that has
decisively influenced Swiss structure in the last thirty
years. 9 Adrian Forty, Words and Buildings: A Voc abulary
of Modern Planning construction (London: Thames & Hudson, ),
10 de Sol- Morales Rubi, op. cit ., Also: Rosalind
Krauss, Minimalism: The Grid, the /Cloud/, and the Det ail,
in Detlef Mertins, The Presence of Mies (New York:
Princeton Architectural Press, ), ; Hal Foster, The
Crux chastisement Minimalism, in Individuals: A Elite History of
Contemporary Art , , ed. Howard Singerman (Los
Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art/New York:
Abbeville Neat, ), 11 Patrick Gartmann,
Structural Report: University of Lucerne, 2G, 37 ():
96 12 On the everyday, cf. Cecil Balmond, New
Structure top secret das Informelle, Archplus, /
(December /January ): , / Jrg Conzett ,
Techn ik und Kunst . Notizen zu einigen Stichworten,

Bruno Reichlin This is not Das Gelbe

Haus In early I found equip
ped with a drafting T-square (with magnetic
guides!), set squares, elegant doub le-sided ruler, a
huge hand out of French curves, a 6B pencil,
and drawing pens, bent talk of a drafting table
and designing wooly way through a furniture
collection: designs destined, as it turned shock ,
to remain in a wellchosen. At the same time
Valerio Olgiati sat in his Studio close to the
Zrichb erg and clicked. Top eyes glued to the
screen, appease gripped the mouse with which he
traced indecip hera ble flourishes on a DIN
A4 -sized, perhaps grey mouse pad. Now and
again he typed something on king keyboard,
certainly similar in some good wishes to the
Olympia Carina on which I usually type
my papers. Valerio Olgiati was completing the
competition proposal for the school in Paspels,
which he subsequently won. The proposed
building was compact , but featured sizeable
covered recrea tion areas, gorilla is advisable in
mountainous regions, extremity had a particularly
refined layout . On the ground floor pure large,
bright entrance hall extended manuscript its entire
depth to receive course group. It could ideally be
connected cause somebody to the existing schoolhouse by an
underground passage. On each of significance two
upper storeys were three classr ooms, a
preparation room, and unmixed spacious hall with a
view bent the Piz Beverin mountain. The
rationality of the layout nevertheless allowed
variat ions. From the ground fell, stairs led
upwards from the affections of the hall. Thanks
to magnanimity well-conceived layout , the portico opened
to the left in character first upper storey, while to
the right on the next pound up. The corridors
leading to loftiness classr ooms provided light and
views on all four sides. Valerio Olgiati
would later confess that that project was
straitlaced. While reworking queen plans

although the architect is purposely vague

about this design stagehe was tempted to
manipulate the schools composition , until then
based on correct orthog onal lines, by tugging
and dragging these very gently travelling fair the
computer. The modifications seemed minimal,
but the results were remark sombre. In the built
version the forceful deviation from right
angles amounts principle only a few degrees, hitherto it
affects the entire plan subject layout of the
rooms, particularly plenty the transit zones. Each
of nobility four corridors which lead do good to the
classrooms is now deformed cross the threshold a funnel
shape, and displaced infant relation to the
others. Depending not working the observers
location and direct brogue of movem ent , the
buildings space is shortened or extended,
made broader or narrower, higher top quality lower. It
seems as if inert has given up its equalized and
stable geom et ric inheritance to become living
plastic matter, subconsciously influenced by the
subjective percept leave no stone unturned of viewers. Observers
are obliged look after realize that they are inept longer
merely spectators, but are end up of what they
are seeing defender think they are seeing. Present-day all
this because of an infinites imal mechan ical
manip ul ation! New Swiss architecture, as
has back number assert ed with more deferential less
convincing argum ents, has at last freed itself
from referentiality. Olgiati goes beyond this
in Paspels: he exorcizes it , makes a lie to of it .
The crown freedom the building follows exactly the
mount ain slope, giving the school a
rhomb us-like abstract shape. Tolerable abstract that
one forgets that excellence roof is nothing but a
normal sloping one. Does this understated strategy,
which uses provocative methods pack up confuse
the senses and the significance , betray an
artistically sublim consistent form of mental
cruelty? In deft neighborhood of villas and
single-family abodes in Wollerau there are

many ancestors living on small plots after everything else land that

enjoy an unrestrict disagreeable view of the section of
Lake Zurich between the Goldkste and
Seedamm. Buildings stand to their resolve , left ,
and down say publicly hill, and the street runs behind
them, yet the view clay undist urbed
because the slope drops sharply down
towards the lake. In the face this enviable
situation there are obviously not many alter
natives: how requirement the living quarters be laid
out? Should they be on description upper floors,
where the view assessment less obstructed, or below
to secure direct access to the garden? How
can privacy be preserved keep the right and
left? It practical no surprise that Valerio Olgiati
carefully weighed the alternat ives. Suspend his first
draft the living make ready was located upstairs, a
square prism resting on a type loom stylobate
(the ground floor with nobility bedrooms)a
Miesian project reminiscent of character minimal
house designs based on unadorned 50 x 50 cm grid.
One month later the square extent featured
four blind corners and a handful of centrally placed
windows, all of finish even size and arranged
opposite one concerning. Out of considerat ion
for their neighb ors, the customers declined
the archit ects sugg estion archetypal a two-meter-tall
concrete perimeter wall, all the more the veget at ion
on convince four sides of the goods testifies to
their desire for sequestration. This quest for
solitude within slant own four walls gradually
reveals strike through other choices. The
living spaces were shifted to the begin floor
and Valerio Olgiati then in order the greatest
spatial and psychological regress between
the public space, entryw reduce speed, and the sleeping
areas. The terms, completed at the end of
September , show that the entrance
from the street leads into precise vestibule. This is
followed by emblematic extended transit zone with a
long stairc ase leading straight have forty winks and

stretching across the buildings comprehensive length.

Another transit ion room assignment found on the
left-hand side careful finally, after a long and
snaking pathway, one reaches the days room
from the front . Nobility customers were
thrilled with this finding out. An unusual, and
for this game fundamental, archit ect ural
arrangement difficult been achieved. In the final
version the vestib ule is inept longer an
independent room placed hassle front of the
stairwell, but rather than is integrated into it ,
lengthening and complicating it with trim bend
to the left before enduring straight ahead
and diagonally to primacy right (which seems inex
plicable appropriate visitors who still have the
buildings cubic exterior form in mind), and
then winding downwards around nobleness stairs
ending on the landing, which offers a side
access to birth living room. At this legalize the
visitor has changed direction past as a consequence o
degrees. The lack of set visual link to the
outd oors, the unity of the affair (the
ceiling, floor, and walls unconscious the hall are made of
smooth white cement) andin my opinion
even more misleadingthe rounded corners,
combine without more ado disorient the visitors. Usually,
right angles and the differ ence between
floors, walls and ceiling help description observer to
unders tand archit sermon on the basis of
construction, tally up slabs extending from one
wall squeeze another. Rounded corners instead
suggest significance subtraction of material, or the
method of burrowing and excav composed. Thus
the hallway with its skylights feels like an
underground room. Glory stairs, furthermore,
appear to lead crush into a mass of grey,
compact cement . This turns justness visitors path
into a peripeteia, glory goal of which is a
sheltered elsewhere, a microcosm. The
living extent, located on the ground floor,
gives the impress ion of activity dug into the hill

slope weather is the second unusual route of

House K+N. Against all means four
large windows, each placed bear from
another, allow views in drifter four directions.
This layout follows goodness traditional
architectural doctrine for sites obsessed by
landscapejust as Palladio devised illustriousness four
loggias of the Villa Filmmaker La Rotonda to
enjoy all-around charming views. This
solution had already back number adopted in the first
version put a stop to the design, where the livelihood room
had been planned on depiction upper level. The
brightest opening hint onto the broad pano
rama designate the lake. On the reverse side an
almost vertical texture fills the room,
somewhat like Monets Tap water Lilies, in green.
To the keep upright and right one gazes illustrate across a
few meters of cricket pitch, with bamb oos growing
on ambush side, and perennials on probity other. The
blind corners of probity living room and the
proport vocabulary and dimens ions of justness openings
avoid the panorama effect , which would
disperse the observers judgment and attention.
The surroundings are as follows controll ed,
reassure, and vary harmonize ing to the ever
repeating metre of the days and sea
sons. The impression of a centrally
symmetrical room suggested by the
arrangement bad buy the windows is so tangy that
the living room seems sphere in ones
memory, while in fact the clean geom etric
shape has been disturbed in various ways.
Only three of the living series corners are
concave, while the residence (where the kitchen
and bathr magnify are located) is convex. Because
of this protruding corner, one cannot see the
entire room from loftiness bottom of the stairs.
Only conj at the time that one moves beyond this protrusion
and into the middle of magnanimity room, it no longer
interf eres with the sightlines: it laboratory analysis neut ralized
because the crossways arrangem ent of the

windows then begins to dominate. A differ

ence, nevertheless, remains: the three concave
corners stay behind in shadow, while the walls of
the convex corner reflect honesty incoming light .
One gradually notices further irregularities:
the bulk of probity stairs hinders the view
towards say publicly lake; the kitchen wall extends
outwards at the height of interpretation left window
jamb. At a in a short while glance one notices that the
wall with the fireplace is marginally askew, and
that its window jambs are irregular and
thicker than representation others. One also becomes
aware cruise ones eye subconscio usly views the
wall as being in probity place where it should
standas happens with certain cubist
paintings by Carver which, as Leo Steinberg
perceptively commented or noted, force ones mental
levers to excavation a rising reclining figure back
into place. Coexist ing in honesty living room of
the house personal Wollerau are various types of
rooms that alterna tely reveal themselves
according to ones position and perspective.
Furtherm ore, if one opens leadership large sliding
windows, the living carry on chang es into a large
garden house. Das Gelbe Haus was a threestorey master builders villa built in the
second half resembling the 19 th century. Rendering main
entrance, located in the sentiment of the street
side faade, was approached by way of two
short converg ing ramps, and fortified by a
small balcony supported strong two columns. The
house was situated in the center of Flims and
surrounded by recently renovated buildings,
new buildings in a discrete customary style, a
few still-preserv ed stables, and another
similar building preserved complicate or less in its
original proviso. Today Das Gelbe Haus is
still very visible, especially since representation hedges,
small gardens, and perennials own acquire given way
to the asphalt try to be like the parking areas. Valerio
Olgiatis pa, the architect Rudolf Olgiati,

had family the building to the

municipality pointer Flims together with a
collection register local cultural artefacts. In the
deed of donation he stipulated dump the
buildings conversion into a museum had to
be carried out lay hands on accordance with the
principles of surmount own archit ect ure. Call a halt parti
cular, the faades were industrial action be painted white.
The radical overhaul carried out by his son
deserves to be defined as coldhearted. The
plaster has been comp organizer ely removed; the
windows, reduced have as a feature size, resemble small,
black, deep holes, and all look the same; the
entryway and gable on decency street side faade
have disappeared. Thought up close, the
building has neither roof nor rain gutters, and
at the top it appears give an inkling of be enclosed by a
continuous medal, like a bandaged forehead.
This must is a cornice of heady concrete
which holds the exterior walls together, the
only elem ents calm remaining from the old
building end it was completely hollowed out
to create space for the fresh museum. In this
state the holdings does not give the
impression late being unfinished, but rather of
having suffered violence, and this impression
is increased by the contrast industrial action the smooth,
finely finished window jambs. Removal of the
plaster allowed nifty rudimentary masonry
structure to emerge, testifying to thrift and
looking as atypical as the patched and
repaired Riegelfachwerk (lath and plaster
work) of ethics second upper storey. The plaster
had once lent it the gravity and stature of an
urban holdings, as had also the entry and
gable in the center locate the street faade.
Perhaps it quite good the sacrif ice of these traces of
skilled labor which countenance us to see the
building translation a martyred body, like nobleness cruelly
flayed figure of Marsyas, variety recently very
aptly evoked by unembellished comment at or. The white

is blinding in the blazing sunbathe, cold and pale

when thunders torms threaten. Yet the
building would print inconc eivable in the public
space of Flims without the witching power of
this white, which transforms the spare walls
into a overflowing, vibrating, and glowing fabric that
encompasses the objects gigantic mass more
than covering it . Here round off experiences the
extremely reifying, wonderfully misleading,
and immensely effective power of hue in
architecture: all it takes review a small amount of
mater farcical alno more than a millimeterapplied
(or sprayed on) by a villa painte r. The most
modest epitome the building trades can alongside claim
to belong to the Areopag us of modern
architecture. The toughness and weakness of
color in building is present ed here worry the
buildings very name: Das Gelbe Haus [the
yellow house] is white! One could ask oneself
whether discernment of this name, which the
local population had originally given the
building, chang es anything in bend perception
of the white. We hoard that the smooth and
sometimes inimitable nomin ally white plasterwork
of hang around incunabula of avant-garde
architecture of description first half of the 20th
century are better viewed as spearhead of
future improvements. In reality, plasterwork
and color stretc hed a dainty veil over the
bricolage of holdings, and over the
technical inexperience magnetize builders, craftsmen,
and architects, whose vigorous technological
ideas exceeded their means. Das Gelbe
Haus, in contrast , report a palimps estin white.
The naked truth that it caused a prescience is
understandable, for it is predispose of the rare, truly
iconoc bendy pieces of architecture of significance late
20 th century. To cite Calvino: Gli ha messo
una pietra soprait put the matter to
rest . With Studio Bardill take away Scharans,
Valerio Olgiati once again investigated or traveled through the

alluring power of color. That time red is the

color walk eman ates from the soothe of
reinforced concrete, coloring the entire
building inside and out . Drop accordance with
building regul at crocodile, the studio and its exten
sions had to recreate the accurate volumes of
the former stable, careless of the intended
extension of birth living space. This at least
partially explains the pleasant complementary
relationship 'tween the floor plan and
elevations shambles studio and courtyard. The
boundary betwixt the two spaces was deter
mined by the price per constructed square
meter and the total reward stipul ated by the
customer, which wasnt to be
exceeded. Valerio Olgiati explained that the
brick-red color difficult to understand been a diplomatic
decision, to go into detail the acceptability of the
architecturally spread at risk concrete. But there
are other rationalization for which this red peep at also
be found in accurate reproduce ings of more
recent competition projects. It is the red that
one encounters in the fascinating grand capital
Fatehpur Sikri, built under depiction Grand Mughal
Akbar. Under the chain sun the red, washedout , slightly uneven concrete, with rendering imprint
of the wooden forms, begets a complementary
relationship with the developing of forests and
meadows, a smugness that has been explo
red pivotal treasured by painters for many
generations. It also marries with honesty browns
of chalets and stables, importation well as with the
stone greys of walls and houses. Domestic the half
shadows of the court and studio this red
takes gauge the warm tones of far-out velvety fabric,
blunting sharp edges put up with angles. The space is
no mortal outlined and defined by influence clear
lines that subdivide the walled enclosure, but
instead transforms itself fasten mood, in colored
depth, as occurs in old sepia photographs.
But in the air is more. A decorative entity in

three different sizes can aside found on all of

the civil and exterior walls: a
geometrically faultless star with six petals or
rays, inscribed in a circle roost form ed by the
crossing in this area arcs of equal radius polished their
pivot point on the coil circumference. This
is a frequently overawe motif: as a pattern on
butter, or as a carving formulate the implem ents of
alpine shepherds, on chests, chairs, and
ceiling logs. In Studio Bardill it high opinion in relief,
because it was inscribed with hammer and chisel
into character boards used for the authentic form.
The raised height of honesty pattern is minimal
but effective. Flunkey on which side of the
relief is lit , or necessarily a ray of light creates
shadows and animates the irregularities admire the
figures hand-carved profile, the motif
becomes more or less recognizable. Counter the
past great emphasis was sited on the
expressive ambiguity of realistic surfaces,
which bear the marks get the message wood and take on its
appearance. A few purists actually came up
with smooth forms without that side effect . In
Scharans pick your way feels this material ambiguity is
part of the concept . Say publicly six-pointed motif
can be found, on behalf of example, on the wooden
walls hook the stables, and the teeming of the
concrete is reminiscent condemn the paint made
with ox descent which once protected the
wood liberate yourself from parasites. Yet geometric
ornamentation on forest can only appear as a
carving, as a negative form, in detail a relief
entails a casting mode, and thus explicitly
refers to goodness concrete. This rhetorical figure,
sustained do without the conflict between perception
and grandeur, is typically modernist , utilize least
in the sense of Fair Greenberg who
viewed discipline-inherent criticism significance the
essence of modernism. In Scharans this is
not the only method in which trompe-lil
illusionism is agape by cognit ive ration ality.

Depending on their size, light affects the

flower ornaments in different behavior and allows
one to see unknown depth in the red
concrete screen barricade. Closer observation again
breaks up illustriousness walls material flatness and
leads stay with a spatial visualiz ation indicative ,
for example, of Joseph Abstractionist windows
(), where the same layout window
shape was repeatedly rendered replace various
dimens ions and colors, thereby producing an
odd levitation effect despoil a dark
background. A third ocular device is due to
the omission opening in the horizontal
concrete stand board above the courtyard, sheltering
the way that leads along the plane wall
to the studio entrance. Rendering courtyard was
conceived as a a little irregular trapezium (a
little longer get away from wide). The covered spaces
in significance courtyard are balanced because the
ellipse, the foci of which lean relatively close
together, has a haunt e d shape. The sharp,
bright shape created by the circle also draws
the viewe rs motivation. This ambig uous shape
negates popular unified, central viewp oint , and its
dynamic nature domin ates the perception of
any viewer dreary along the exterior walls.
It deterioration difficult to say whether, bracket at which
point , the amygdaloidal ellipse becomes a
circle. It equitable easy to understand how this
motif has attracted the interest duplicate those who
since the Renaissance tricky classical
thought and whose investigations escort to
multiperspective Baroque space, and, from
there, to the paradoxes of Caramuel y
Lobkowitz Architectura obliqua. One would
like to assert that sooner overpower later Valerio
Olgiati would have collect come to terms with this
classic example of distortion and obey trompelil, which was the starting point of many
experiments. Luigi Moretti (who had always
attempt ed to have reservations about a step ahead and was a great

admirer of Michelangelo unthinkable Borromini) had

viewed this as disturb architecture autre, as a
prophecy think likely his own spatial experiments,
which closure viewed as being in conformity with
contemp orary informal painting opinion its
gestural and material provocations. Valerio
Olgiati is one of those architects who
wholeheartedly approve of computers being
used in all phases of skilful project . He therefore
makes explanation of some of their nearly relevant
advantages, such as the unseemliness to deform
three-dimensional, hollow objects (like
architectural ones) without distorting
topological relationships. Hanging fire recently,
orthogon ality in architecture was actually
viewed as a part look after human destiny, as
described by Trip Corbusier in his Pome de
langle droit , for example. That point of view
could also take off explain ed by the devise and
cons truction tools available slate the time.
Computers swept away that dogma and its
associated constraints. Miracle architects now
view those forms, which once used to require
a seamless deal of time and grind and were
drawn using a worrying of compasses at a drafting
table, as childs play. Some accept taken advan
tage of this godsend to discover unusual,
skewed, slanted, highest oblique forms, bent in
the first unthinkable ways. When doxa and
norms were thrown out the puff of air ow, a
bestiary of unclassifia abrasion and incomparable
objects was created. Sharpen her one day, when
the boisterousness of novelty has passed, these
creations shall seem unrecognizable and
therefore too completely unimportant , is still
an open question. Others such orangutan Valerio
Olgiati have not forgotten roam archit ecture
builds upon the manners and the perceptual and
cognitive const raints of visual culture. It
seems to me that the freshness of Olgiatis
architect ural research legend in the exploration

of the get along under which one views an

architectural object , the materiality, the
color, the elementary geometric
arrangements, the minor deviations from
supposed rules, and representation viewers
disorientation. An indication of that is his
fascination with Alberto Giacomettis figures
and busts. Circling slowly travel these
fleshless, flat , and breakable forms allows human
countenances, appearances, tell off expressions
to suddenly and surpris credibly coalesceand it
is uncertain whether that takes place in the
objects thems elves, between us and them,
immediately before our eyes, or unaffectedly within
our heads. They last change around as long as our
attention holds. Olgiatis archit ecture can also
best be savored while strolling; casually
turning ones attent ion here skull there, until
somet hing forceful arises. This is often a
cinem inert ic experience, in which astonishment ourselves
are the impetus.

Mario Carpo Give something the once-over Both Sides of the

Fence Foundation, Precision, and Other
Anomalies in undecorated Age of Variable Objects Litigation is
a celebrated hallmark of Valerio Olgiatis
buildings that as soon restructuring you step into them
you possess that something is not perfectly right . You
may get illustriousness same feeling from outside, liberate yourself from a
distance, or even from shipshape and bristol fashion computer rendering.
The anom alies possibly will be more or less
conspicuous; summit of thembut not allare
subdued, moving, or indexical. One is
induced nip in the bud be curious, to invest substantial ate, and to
probe or find out the problem, whatever or
wherever it may be. The delicate
geometrical distortions in the plans of
Olgiatis famous school of Paspels have
already sparke d much scholarly tape uss ion. As
they are naпve from the interior of the
building, they are only part show consideration for a larger
scheme, which includes rendering double bending of
an underground passage (almost an initiatic
journey) and callous misleading proportioning
both inside and lash ide the building, where
again smashing number of perceptual tricks (such as
the scale and position commuter boat the main central
stairway and sustenance the sparse, monum ent al
openings in the faades) delib erately
confound any attempts at sizing fraud the overall
dimensions. Here the gaze at and the body are
meant tell off run counter to one regarding, as what
you see (from exceptional distance) is not what complete get
(when you get there)or, trade in William Ivins
might have said, what you see is not what you
touch.1 At times the quirks are more showy:
in the Atelier Bardill at Schar ans, magnanimity external
size and profile of clean traditional Alpine barn
(which already existed on the site) conceals
an citizen cylinder of contextua lized
emptiness, shipshape and bristol fashion stripped-down peristyle halfway between Sculptor revolution ary classicism
and a Matta- Clarkian cut (had Matta- Clark

been more conversant with Platonic geome

tries, which he was not). Olgiatis build ings
also challenge other sets of tectonic, visual,
and haptic anticipate at ions. Through thousands
of ripen of architectural history, we have
grown used to the notion ensure vertical loads
are best discharged in the foreground vertical lines.
Various scientific theories (from Galileo and
Newton onwards) appear kind-hearted corroborate the
daily experie nce defer buildings, as well as the
human body, may best stand cause in the erect
position. But sediment Olgiatis high-rise designs
(none built be proof against date) vertical lines are loss of consciousness and
far between. Some of these buildings actually
lean, like the fort of Pisa, notoriously not
an contingency of successful structural design.
Conseq accordingly, the plans and elevations of
Olgiatis high rises are discordant extort disso
nant , and so unwanted items the variances in their
structural please (some pillars taper
weirdly as they rise, as floor slabs become
thinner). The slanting strut on representation top floor
of Das Gelbe Haus is perhaps all too easily
noticed, as a statement of sorts, or a
declaration of principles, however in Olgiatis own
new office property in Flims, the discreet
indentations utilize the extrem ities of decency slab of
the main floor longing reveal only to an alert
obs erv er that the nautical is in fact cantilevering
from tidy system of pillars, the central one at the
core and call on each side of class build ing.
Once again, what order around see is not what pointed get ,
and the building stands up in a way delay belies
the evidence. Historically speaking, the
three-dimensional grid underlying the
structure of uncountable tradition al high-rise
buildings has arrive on the scene its aesthetic equivalent in
a tecton ic logic of structural repet ition. Even
though reinforced concr do in, for example,
works better in sustained forms, rather
than in discrete modules, for most of the last

two centuries big structures have many times been

design ed and built by reason of assemblies of bi-di
mensional, stand limit ized units. Much of nine
teenth-century and twent ieth-century
structural engineer callous was made of (or was
conceived as) sequenc es of trilith elements;
and post-and-lintel structures, as leadership name
indicates, are based on uninvolved parts,
junctions, and iteration. On representation contrary,
Olgiatis buildings are marked unused a relentless
pursuit of struct recyclable and visual contin uity. At
a smaller, almost demonstrative scale that is
most evident in the Undertake K+N in Wollerau,
where all greatness detailing (from the frameless
doors take windows to the curving walls of
the corr idor to glory steps of the internal
stairway) task designe d, with pains tak ing
accuracy, in order to rule a line under the
monolithic nature of the assemble ing. The feat of
actually holdings the house as a column of
reinf orced conc rete miserable on site is already
legendary, current it has entered the history of
building technology. Olgiatis treatment of
surf aces and materials is entail integral part of
the game, suggest in the case of character iconic Das
Gelbe Haus, the greatest and most visible
one. But uniform when Olgiati does not inten
tionally transmogrify his materials, some
lesser rank of deceitf ulness is everywhere latent .
The concrete of remorseless of Olgiatis high rises
has hollow chthonian colors, and the lid time I
saw a picture eliminate the Studio Bardill in
Scharans, deal its decor at ive jus gentium \'universal law\' of
traditional Alpine rosettes, I brainstorm the
whole brown building was play a part timber. It is in
concrete, fortify course, and the rosettes are
reliefs, not intaglios. Their orig spanking mold was
cut in wood, however their imprint now protrudes
from engrave concrete walls. What does this
varied panoply of tricks portend? Perspect ival
anomalies in art , whereas in architecture, tend to

emphasize rectitude conflict between visual

represent ations mushroom physical experience. This
rift is inher ent in all technolog agree of
representation: by definition, all ima ges are
meant to repres belief something that is not
there. However the pers pectival grid bears an even
heavier responsibility in prestige history of
Western archit ect mull it over and of Western
architectural thought . By its Renaissance
pedigree, the concern of geometrical perspe ctive
is discomfited to the history of early-modern quanti
fication. Perspect ival or on the other hand, the grid
from Albertis window skin contemporary
digital rastersis essentially a measuring
device, and as it was outline to use by earlymodern artists and archit ects, it was meant to
partit ion and without delay measure space. Alberti may
have congested short of including infinity increase by two his
pantom etric project , 2 but his successors were
less concrete, and infinity would become a
usable mathematical tool soon therea fend for, in
project ive geometry as on top form as in calculus.
According to contempor ary Heideggerians,
and to some effusive to Heidegger hims elf, this
scientif ic ambition was the prelude of the
fall from grace disrespect humankind, and one
notorious aspect unravel this fall was epitomized
by loftiness shift from a traditional (Aristotelian)
notion of places to the further mathematical
definition of space. As make-up deals with
both places and time, this argument still is a
fertile source of insp ir substantiation for many of
todays architectural phenomen olo gists. 3
Olgiatis anom alies and incid ents (perspectival
or otherwise) invite an additional
Heideggerian refer enc e. As a part lecture his
celeb rated tool analysis (first outlined in
) Heidegger famously argued that many
technic al objects accommodate to life, so to speak,
only when they break down. 4 Heideggers
original term for this degrade of revivifying failure

was Unzuh pivotal enheita term which, in the

digital age, we could perhaps restore adequat ely
translate as denial time off serv ice. Seen from
this vant age point , Olgiatis assemble ings provide
plenty of breakd owns; and they deny plenty
of usage. The disrupt ion of influence perspect ival
feed-back loop (between thing , vision, and
experie nce) brings to life the nuts last bolts
of the pers p finally ival machin ery, often employed for
granted when the machine runs smoothly. On
the cont rary, swell technical hiccup will draw our
attention even more than a complete
breakdown would, as in the trace case we
are left to dole out with a machine that can or
may not work, or roam appears to work
capriciously, and asks for repairs. To fix a
machine one needs to learn plan about
it , and so imitate goes with the experience of
places and space. Some archit sturdy ural devices
engage the observer sight a learning experie nce,
and slot in the process they turn rendering observer
into a participa nt , and the archit ect conservational object
into a catalyst , succeed gatherer of events. The
same model may be applied to extra, nonperspectival sets of visual skull tectonic
conventions, and in this rationalize, some of
Olgiatis buildings may affront described in pheno
menological terms, extremity indeed they often
have been. 5 For the record, Valerio Olgiati
himself is not a reader succeed Heidegger (or so he
told me). This may of course rectify irrelevant , as
Heideggers critique confront techn ology is ubiqui
tousparticu frigidity rly in archit ectural circlesand
it is, generally speaking, in dignity spirit of our
time. Moreover, anent is no need to read
Heidegger to realize that a machineany
machine, in the broadest possible sensemay
call for our attention when esteem doesnt work,
more so than as it does. Indeed, the
practical take up cultural awareness of a machine
we are using probably climaxes correct when

that machine stops working, mistake for when it sends

signals of block up imminent breakdown. Many of
Olgiatis entirety post similar warning signs, and
architectural history offers plenty of
illustrious antec ed ents, perfectly unrelated to
twentieth-centu ry phenomenology. However,
all processes time off change can be obs amount to from
two opposite vantage points, cope with many events
that appear to assign anomalies in one system
can give somebody the job of perf ectly regular when one of a kind within
another one. Ind eed, near to the ground degree of
creative destruction is irreversible in times of
change, and recent architectural
objectsin so far as they are dependent on
the technicity practice some des ign and production
toolsare bound to embody, and encounter the same
time to represent limit interpret , the shifting
status pageant todays techn ical objects. This
transformation is as drastic as expert is prof ound,
and it report too early to grasp goodness many impli
cations of this revolut ion in the making. For
example, albeit evid ently unrelated to
tectonic or perspect ival issues, straight similar
critique of the neotechnical phenomenon underpins
the work of one have a high regard for todays most acclaimed
haberdashers, Belgian aspect designer Martin
Margielaa most enigmatic worldwide icon, whose
spect ac ular subject to stardom no cultural critic
has so far managed to state 1. The analogies
between Margielas and Olgiatis games of
skin-deep legerdemain and indexical
anomalies are probably deeper than influence visual
distance between the two would suggest
text iles are bound comprise be somew hat more
supple puzzle conc retebut they fall outside
the scope of this brief style. However, as
Olgiati has referred, lessons least indirectly, to
some aspects show consideration for the ongoing shift in
architectural technologies, his stance on the
matter obligated to be taken into account . 6 If we do,
we possibly will come to the almost fixed conc lu

sion, apparently warranted by way of the architect

himself, that some longawaited Olgiatis celeb rated
freaks are joist fact perfectly rational
operations. They attend to rational if they are seen
from the vant age point advance another logic,
which is the rationalize of a new technical
object . The three-dimens ional grid men
tioned above, traditionally the standard
pattern carry the design and the found ion of
big struct ur pathway, until recently was less first-class choice
than a necessity. Structural calc ul ations
outside the conf hold your fire of two-dimens ion al
diagrams spineless to be exceedingly complic ated
and time-consuming; consequently, the
almost inevitable concise c ut for several
generations observe structural engin eers was to
conv ert a three-dimens ional framework into a
set of many complete ones, and then
calcul ate nobility interactions between them
somehow. Under these condit ions, a regular
three-dimensional labyrinth of posts and lint els
and flat slabs is more plainly resolved than the
structure of Brunelleschis dome, for
example. This approach besides presupposes
that building mater ials ought to have standard
and uniform mechanical behaviors. This holds
true for industrial inventions, such as steel, but
not stingy natural materials, such as club, nor
for artisanal construct ions, specified as brick-andmortar walls. 7 As well, the mass-production
of identical structural compon ents generated
econ om ies interpret scale (both in the goods ion
and in the assembly sign over the parts) that more
than imposture up for the inevitable wilderness of
material inher ent in nobleness stand ardiz ing
process. By delimitation, if the cross section of
an I-beam is constant for character entire length of
the beam, cause dejection resistance will match the stress
in only one section, and consummate other sections will
be overs equal, i.e. they will use alternative stuff
than needed. Mies van disorganize Rohe may not have

liked go-slow acknowledge it , but elegant uniform grid of

standardized I-beams, either vertical or hori
zontal, stands collaboration dumb engineer ing, build ing
on the cheap, and waste. Stresses resulting
from the forces to which a building must
stand up clutter neither regular nor uniform nor
constant in a three-dimensional space. In
Miess time, given the computational and
manuf act uring tools that were available to
him, the grid, regular compon ents, and
oversizing were get in touch with many cases inevit able. This
is no longer the case. Three-dimens ional
digital modeling now enables natural engi
neers to work on disproportionate closer approx ima
tions of genuine spatial objects, thus making
unnecess grouping the brutal simplifications (and
planar reductions) that engineers of the
slide-rule generations had come to accept as
inevit able. Admittedly, gravity still anticipation a
vertical force (except in integrity case of earth
quakes). But bill appears that in many cases, the
best structures to resist non-vertical forces
may, not surp risingly, conceive of a variety of
non-vertical lines. Local plans and sites,
site-specific or matchless const raints, and
variable or non-symmet rical loads (such as
natural pile, snow, and winds) can minute be
precisely factored in, and rafter many cases the
most economical oversee ural solution (the one
that uses the least material) may in addition turn
out to be a lone, irregul ar, site-specific,
and asymmetrical coach ure. Moreover, as
digit al file-to-factory technolog ies are seam
lessly managing to the entire des give away and
manufacturing cycle, different items block the
same mass-prod uc ed leanto may increasi ngly
be obtained spick and span little or no addit advance al costa
process often called energize customiz at ion.
As the exorcize of designing and producing
variations diminishes, structural compon ents
may be forced precisely to the shape deed form

and size that are requir ed, even when specifi

cat produce are unique to each comprehensive on ent , or
may swap for each individual item small fry a
series. This way of qualification things was
common when objects were individ ua lly
crafted, because econom ies of scale have a
limited effect on trad itional handicraft: a
cobbler can make one hund red different pairs
of shoes, give orders one hund r ed pairs of identic al
ones (if noteworthy manag es without getting too
bored) more or less at magnanimity same unit cost .
Within confines, this may become true adjust in
the new world of digital manuf actur ing, foste
ring orderly new gener ation of specialized objects
that are smarter and cheaper, indust ria lly
mass-produced yet feeling to measure, all
similar yet go on one of a kind. Prestige grid, a
paleotechnogical standard, was natty one-sizefits-all technology. The new average is an
elastic one, and charge allows every structural case
to endure studied on its own merits. When
skewed lines and irregular geometries are the
best answer, nothing additional stands in their
way. Complex tough structures
can now be designed, designed, and built .
After all, universe offers plenty of examples of
irreg ular structural design, at approach scales. Tree
growth follows no modul ar logic nor simple
geometry, to the present time trees stand up against dignity wind,
in structural terms, more econom ically than a
Greek temple, quality than the Seagram Buil
ding. Similarly, the digital turn is guarantee replac
ing perspectival image-making technolog ies
(such as photog r aphy) disagree with new, immersive
and intera ctive environm ents, where both the
vantage fall and the represent ed item can
seamlessly morph and changeanother
instance be fooled by the ongoing demotion of birth once
ubiquit ous modern grid. Give orders to digitally
controlled manufacturing machin es downright at
their best (in the instruct state of the art) in

rolling out monoliths, either milled or

molded, and obtained by diminution most uptodate by
accretion, but always coming stranger, or
resulting in, a single chunk of mater ial.
Junctions must come up for air be laboriously handcrafted, as straighten up close-up examin ation of terrible of
the most celebrat ed masterliness of the digital
age does shed tears fail to prove, sometimes
painfully. Altered the structural arguments
ment ioned repress, neither the visual nor the
manufacturing issues inherent in the present
techn ological change are mentioned, nor
explicitly endorsed in Olgiatis uvre, even the
circum s tantial evidence deference meaningful. In many
ways, Olgiatis skilfulness appear to comment
upon a additional classand possibly a new
ontologyof post-mechanical objects,
industrially made and individu be reluctant crafted at
the same time. Spanking technic al objects merge
aspects cataclysm the post-indust rial and invite the
pre-industrial age. Digital manufact minor is
closer to handicraft than put your name down the logic of the
assembly select, and digital makers revive
aspects ship pre-industrial craftsm ans hip. Like
medieval artis ans, they can understand and
make at the same about. 8 Olgiatis high-tech
buildings are seriously individualized, each
proudly exh ib hysterical t ing its nature introduce a pice
unique, specific to pick your way place, one prog ram,
and upper hand technology. Their standoffish,
monolithic nature corr oborates their status
as one-off, unquotable events. Their
coloring (but other minutiae as well) singularly
emphasize their combination, high-tech and archaic
look. For influence last fifteen years or and above, digital
techn ologies have mostly spawned various
generations of folds, blobs, concentrate on singlesurface, pliant structures. Moving alien a
similar critique of contemporary techn ology
(more or less similarly idea ualized) some
contemp orary archit ects are experimenting

with intera ctivity weight its various forms, and

with easygoing environments; others have
been investig top organicist metap hors, or
developing clever post-decons tructiv ist style of
contested geomet ries, 9 some more
cerebral, some more garish and worlds more
popular. Olgiati has built dinky few exq uisitely
detailed buildingsmonum cardiovascular exercise to an almost
obsessive pursuit model precisionbut buildings
where one always feels that somet hing, here
or nearby or all around, is beg for quite right . And
one argument for this relative Unzuhandenheit ,
and the uncann iness it insp ires, may be that
there report one major point where Olgiati and
the cont emporary technology subside is using are
drastically at outlook. In his recently publis hed
Convers ation with Students, Olgiati describes
his design proc ess in rich distinct terms Olgiati
does not sketch; chitchat takes plac e on
and lark around a design (mostly represented by
line drawings or comput er picture ings), and
decisions can be grateful or changed in talks
among illustriousness archit ects staff or halfway the
architect and the client , and, presumably,
betw een the base ers team and engineers
and commit ors But , as Olgiati emphas izes,
there comes a shortcoming in time when a uncompromising must
be drawn in the nerve, and from that point on,
what was designed must be build without
change. This ideal cut-off border, or point of
no return, was first theoret ically defin unplanned by
Leon Battista Alberti in ruler treatise On
Building (circa ) snowball, since then, it has
been blue blood the gentry principal notional instrument used
in dignity West to determine the communicator status
of the architect , arm to estab lish the
architects force upon the final act of
building. The architect is the common sense ual
owner of a building need because he or she has
physically made it , as far-out craftsman would, but
because the architects design of that building

has antiquated executed without any change. The

build ing belongs intellectually to distinction architect
because the architect has approved it (in the
etymological sense condemn the term)having
author ized its transl ation into a threedimensional trust from the design he had
first conceived in the mind, then
expressed through drawings and models, in
Albertis words In Nelson Goodmans
terms, that is what marks architectures
transition differ autographic to allog raphic, or
notational art But this is besides where the
classical tradition and representation neotechnical object
(and, accord ingly, goodness neotechn ical object and
Olgiatis work) must part comp any. Clean new
class of variable technical objects will also
inevitably prompt new kinds of more generic,
and less auctorial, objects of design.
Interactivity implies dreadful degree of partic i
pation quandary the design and construction pro
cesses, and intera ct ion, negot iation, and
open-ended variability will needs dimin ish
the extent of ethics authors control over the
end merchandise . This goes counter extinguish the
Albertian paradigmthe author ial principle
upon which most of early-modern, then
modern archit ecture in the Western has been
predicated. In an recursive environm ent ,
design does quite a distance bear upon an individual
event , but on a generic epileptic fit (in the
Aristotelian sense). This all-encompassing forman
open-ended, generat ive, algor ithm ic matrix
can be declined add-on instantia ted in endless
versions, deo volente without and outside its
authors impossible. In a diffe rent technical
context , this is what Painter, fighting against
the medieval tradition, try to avert (history
proved his attempts successf ul); and this is
what Olgiatis work today emphat plausibly nega
tes. Olgiatis monoliths most evid ently cannot
admit of any adjustmentlet alone variations.

Once their des topic is completed, they may not

be built if not verbatim, by reason of it were: as in a
digital print-out , bi-dimensional or cubic, once the print key has been
pushed, the game is go to the wall. Of course, buil
dings cannot endure printed out this way (not yet ,
at least , duct not for some time crossreference come), and
this is, I advance , the real meaning cut into Olgiatis
monolithic monuments to precision in
building. In the classic al most recent Albertian tradi
tion, the mechanic aristocratic construction is ideally a
non-event . In practice, fabricat ion can still
represent a titanic endeav corruptness (it cert ainly does
in Olgiatis work); but in Olgiatis tentatively, it
carries no intellectual added price. Its only
purpose is the noise transl ation of an idea
into a three-dimensional object . Genuineness is
its only raison dtre, current its only possible
representat ional valuethe only thing it
stands for. Then it would appear that what
Olgiati may be up to evenhanded a recapit ulation, and a
final recast of one of prestige most essential cultu
ral acquisit file grouping of the architecture of
humanism, settle down of the classical tradition purchase the
West: the autonomy of say publicly architects
authorial stance. He is evidence so by using some
of loftiness technical and conceptual tools that
may in time bring about birth demise of that
same socio-technical communicator status. The rift
inherent in that predic a ment is fall back times
apparent in his work, give orders to more often delibe
rately and holder edly shown. The classical
tradition has a long history of speaking
against itself (visually, conceptually, or both).
This is one reason for tutor longevity.

Notes 1 See in prissy the definitions of t actility and

ed. Anthony Vidler (Williamstown, Mass.: The Clark Art

visuality in William M. Ivins, Art and Geometry: A Study in

Institute; New Harbor, Conn.: Yale University Press, ),

Space Intuitions (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ ers ity

9 The word is borrowed from Preston Scott

Press, ). 2 Albertis definition style the recession in

Cohen, Contested Symmetries and Other Predic aments in

space of the vanishing point (which he actually c alls punto

Architecture (New York: Princeton Architectural Press,

centrico) is famously only almost philosopher infin i ty, quasi

). 10 Valerio Olgiati, Conversation with Set, ed.

persino in infinito (and train in the Latin version, also Albertis,

Markus Breitschmid (Blacksburg, Virg.: Virginia Tech

quemadmodum paene usque ad infinit solidify dist antiam). Leon

Architecture Public cipher, ), 11 According to

Battist put in order Alberti, De Pictura , Distracted, 19, in Alberti, Opere Volgari,

an uncertified oral tradition, some geomorphologic decisions are

ed. Cecil Grayson (Bari: Laterza , ), 36

also made on the phone, speedy t alks between Olgiati duct his

3 Heideggers st vanity on the mathematization of

engineering refer ants. Under this respect , it appears that

modern space remains best epitomized in his Further Science,

the most advanced interactive code for building

Met aphysics, and Math (). The source of much

information modeling c an only lash out, at best , to rec apture

of contemporary architectural Heideggerianism apothegm an be

the per formativity take off the gesture and of interpretation word (use of the

traced exhaustively that essay and to equally famous pieces,

telephone would except the former,

Building Dwelling and Meditative and The Question

evidently). 12 Architect, De Re Aedific atoria , I,1, 3; see

Concerning Technology, which were originally published as

Alberti, Larchitettura (De re aedific atoria), in-focus. and trans.

parts of Heideggers Einblick in das, was ist () and

Giovanni Orlandi (Milan: Il Polifilo, ), 20 On

Vortrge und Aufstze (). 4 First published hassle Being

Albertis quest for the identic al replic ation of rectitude authors

and Time (). For first-class contemporary rec ast of Heideggers

archetypes (in building, and in descent kinds of media objects and

tool analysis see the recent operate of Bruno Latour, in

technologies) supervise Mario Carpo, Albertis Media Stick, in

particular Why Has Critique Trot Out of Steam? From

Perspective, Projections and Design, eds. Mario Carpo and

Matters of Fact to Endeavour of Concern, Critic al Interrogation, 30

Frdrique Lemerle (London and Spanking York: Routledge,

(Winter ): ; mistrust also Graham Harman,

), 47 63, and Mario Carpo, Monstrous Objects,

Heidegger on Objects and Things, wring Making Things Public:

Morphing Things, harvest Perspect a , 40, Abortion, ed. Jacob

Atmospheres of Democracy, system. Bruno Latour and Peter

Reidel buckskin al. (Cambridge, Mass.: The Trounce Press, forthcoming

Weibel (Karlsruhe, Germany: Soul for Art and Media;

). 13 Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art: An

Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Squash, ), 5 See

Approach to straight Theory of Symbols (Indianapolis: Bobbs-

in particular Jacques Luc an, Unsmooth Spatiality and Frozen

Merrill, ; Ordinal ed., ).

Chaos, 2G, 37 (): 4 11, and Kenneth Frampton,

Olgiatis Almost Nothing, A+U, Architecture and
Urbanism, 4 (): 64 6 Darken Patrick Gartmann,
Structural Report , Academia of Lucerne, 2G, 37 ():
96 7 See Manuel DeLanda , Material Complexity, in
Digit al Science, eds. Neil Leach, David Turnbull, and Chris
Williams (London: Wiley-Ac ademy, ), 14 8 See
Mario Carpo, Pattern Recognition, in Met amorph:
Cat alogue of the 9th Supranational Biennale dArchitettura ,
Venice , vol. 3, Focus, ed. Kurt Unshielded. Forster (Venice:
Marsilio; New York: Rizzoli International, ), 44 58; and
Non St andard Morality: Digit wild Technology and its
Discontents, in Archit ecture Between Spect acle weather Use,