design roxx

One of my favorite experiences on my recent trip was discovering the Bruder Klaus Kapelle by Swiss Architect Peter Zumthor, recent winner of the Pritzker Prize, one of the highest honors for an architect. Since 1979, Zumthor has run a small practice in a remote village in the Swiss mountains and takes on very few commissions.

The chapel was definitely off the beaten path. T did quite a bit of preliminary research to find the chapel’s location and even with the wonders of Google Earth, we still ended up driving into a field and running into some tractors before finding how to get to it! The chapel is located on a farm in the tiny town of Wachendorf in Mechernick, Germany, near Cologne. On the google map (below), it lies in the fields between In der Rüsche and RissdorferWeg. The access road to a parking area is near In der Rusche.

The approach to the Chapel is part of the experience. After parking, you walk about 20 minutes on a dirt path through fields. The building reveals itself as you approach and are led around it. At first you see only one side, then the light gradually reveals that the structure is a parallelagram. On the final approach you see the triangular steel entrance door and small cross above that indicates its function.

The Chapel, completed in 2007 and dedicated to St. Nikolaus von der Flüe, was commissioned  by farmer  Hermann-Josef  and Trudel Scheidtweilerand built by them with friends and acquaintances. It carries on the tradition of chapels built on private land and it’s construction is fitting for its setting. The interior was formed by 112 tree trunks configured as a tent.

The exterior is “rammed concrete” — layers of concrete, each 50 cm thick, were poured over the wood structure for 24 days. Once the concrete was set, a fire burned for over 3 weeks inside to remove the tree trunks, leaving the concrete shell. You can still smell the burnt wood inside giving the chapel the feeling of  age and history. A portion of the ceiling is open to the sky and small pinholes are cut in the concrete to provide light inside. The only other source of light comes from the dramatic opening and closing of the steel triangular door. The floor was covered in lead melted on site and hand ladled on to the floor. The roughness, quiet and scale of the interior is a surprising contrast to the smooth light exterior and suggests  a place of quiet and contemplation. Truly a wonderful experience.

“[Zumthor's] buildings have a commanding presence, yet they prove the power of judicious intervention, showing us again and again that modesty in approach and boldness in overall result are not mutually exclusive. Humility resides alongside strength. While some have called his architecture quiet, his buildings masterfully assert their presence, engaging many of our senses, not just our sight but also our senses of touch, hearing and smell.” (Pritzer Prize committee)

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We were lucky to visit another of Zumthor’s works in Cologne, the Kolumba Diocesan Museum.
The Kolumbia was build in 2006/2007 around the remains of the Gothic St. Koluma Church which was destroyed in World War II. In this work, you can definitely see Zumthor’s celebration of the essence of materials whether concrete, steel or burled wood. As an art historian, I was also impressed by the curatorial decisions in displaying the collection. Medieval relics were successfully displayed next to contemporary pieces. Zumthor successfully brought together 2,000 years of art, ruins from a gothic church and contemporary concrete and steel in a very complex, exquisitely detailed and crafted space. The scale is very different from the Klaus Chapel, but even amongst the complexity, the sense of quiet remains.

Ever since the film, My Architect, came out in 2003 I have been wanting to visit Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX. The fact that it was located next to Tadao Ando’s recent Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2002) was just too much good architecture to pass up… so MY architect and I made a plan… we couldn’t rationalize the expense or time for an extended trip so we decided to see what we could do in a day…

Monday
We left Boston at rush hour on a Monday and arrived In Dallas a little after 8pm. We picked up our rental car and headed to the very hip Belmont Hotel. After some good people watching and a couple beers at the hotel bar we hit the sack to prepare for a full day of museuming (is that a word?).

Tuesday
8:56 am: on our way to Fort Worth.. first stop the Kimball Art Museum. While bold in personality this small gem is everything I hoped it would be. The use of natural light inside the galleries is clever and stunning. The clean classic lines of the interior and the use of concrete creates a wonderful backdrop for this amazing art collection.

11:03 am: still on schedule… walk across the street to The Modern. Wow. Designing a building next to a Kahn masterpiece is no easy task, but Ando delivers. Using a similar vocabulary of concrete and repeating forms Ando’s work is distinctly modern, but it also emphasizes how timeless Kahn’s building is.

Noon: lunch at The Modern cafe overlooking the reflecting pool.. excellent food and spectacular view. We even got entertainment… the maintenance crew donned waders and seemed to be changing light bulbs or something or other in the reflecting pool (how many maintenance guys at The Modern does it take to….)

1:12 pm: The light is good so we need to take some more exterior shots of the Kimball.. then get in the car and head to Dallas.

2:09 pm: After a quick stop at Dealey Plaza on the way in to Dallas, we head to the Nasher Sculpture Center designed by Renzo Piano. Another excellent use of natural light, this time controlled by a cast aluminum sunscreen. The outdoor sculpture gallery is fun and varied.

4:37 pm: Almost time to head back to the airport, using Google and the trusty iPhone GPS we find the new Theater in the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts which is under construction. Designed by Rem Koolhaas, the theater is set to open in September 2009. While still under major construction, the vertical “pipes” which make up the dramatic exterior space are in place.

Four major architects and three museums in 24 hours… not bad for a day’s work!  I am overwhelmed with the amazing spaces and quality of detail I have seen.