During the late 1980s, the debate in The affinity for the use of essential Christopher Woodward architecture was dominated by the emer- architectural means and the realization gence of deconstructivism. A version of that this design attitude often ‘seemed postmodern architecture, deconstructivism reserved for assignments that reminded presented itself as an alternative to archi- people of essential matters of life and tectural postmodernism. Both formulated death – churches, cemeteries and cremato- BAU, a criticism of modernist architecture and ria’ brought the editors of OASE 45/46 to its dogmas such as purity of form, truth to entitle the issue ‘Essential Architecture’. materials, and form follows function. Post- Although the questions that the modernist architecture did this through editorial raised – ‘What happens when the conscious and sometimes ironic reori- the often religiously motivated rejection BAUKUNST, entation towards earlier historic periods of architectural rhetoric mutates into and a renewed interest in decoration, while a design strategy in the non-committal deconstructivism exercised the distortion context we live in today? What meaning and fragmentation of form, space and does architecture have that aims at creat- surfaces and therefore developed complex, ing authentic experiences when this is ARCHI- if not complicated geometries. used as one of the many possibilities to In the lee of this debate, an architec- distinguish architecture on the vanity fair? tural approach developed that is often And is architecture in a position to fulfil associated with the notions purity of form this need – an experience that really has and truth to materials, but nonetheless is the power to move – or will the inevitable TEKTUR not a rectilinear continuation of modern- result be one style among many, a lifestyle ist ideologies. variant?’ – remain largely unanswered, Instead of the truth of materials, this it is the merit of this issue that both the position explores the richness of materi- close reading of the works of Lewerentz, als. It does not attempt to reveal a single Schwarz and Bill, and the reflections on The Work of truthful essence of construction, but it this work by a younger generation of rather considers construction to be an architects nonetheless give an understand- essential means of architecture that can ing of an attitude and modus operandi, narrate the rise of an edifice in various which achieve magnificent architectural ways and in multiple layers. It is not qualities that range outside the reach of Max Bill interested in having the form of structures labels such as minimal architecture. FIRST PUBLISHED IN OASE 45/46 follow the lines of their load-bearing func- Christopher Woodward is well-dis- tion alone, instead it considers the form posed towards the work of Max Bill, who of load-bearing structures to be just as of the three discussed predecessors still important in relation to the articulation operated most of all within the ideological of space and how it is experienced. legacy of modern architecture. Woodward Architectural practices that are sympa- sees in the Hochschule für Gestaltung at thetic to this approach came to be labelled Ulm Bill’s theories of artistic, industrial as ‘minimal’ in the mid 1990s, because of and architectural design aligned in a their formal similarities to the well-known building that proved to be influential for art movement of the same name. This is a generation of architects that reoriented perhaps the reason why the equally, if itself through the serious consideration of not more, important orientation towards robust building techniques, processes of architectural examples that diverged from production, and the thoughtful assembly the dogmas of the International Style in of material and components. the period before and directly after the Second World War, remained much less Udo Garritzman discussed. The work of architects Sigurd Member of the editorial board Lewerentz, Rudolf Schwarz and Max from OASE 42 to 53 Bill belong to these precedents, to which Translated by Laura Vroomen OASE 45/46 draws attention.

264 pliances, was forthright,itsdetailedlanguage tough,thedistribution Braun’s ap- inarchitecture theequivalent of although notexactly intheEnglish-speakingworld, ing by of MaxBill,thenunheard We were entertainedtoteainhissmalldesigningcutlery. build- The therainwhich was fallingoutside. orthepossibilityof gravity of components whose clever universal junctions ignoredthedirection Herbert Ohlconductingresearch into‘ideal’prefabricatedbuilding via Stuttgart toUlmandvisitedtheHochschule where we found withtheirwoodplayers veneer-clad sideelevations. We traveled desirable,nently althoughwe theluxuriousrecord couldnotafford andallemi- afamily appliances, by variousdesignersbut all of Braun thefullrange of GuteFormdisplaying an exhibition of we found tofindout.InDüsseldorf toGermany students setoff the characters Jules inTruffaut’s etJim(1961),Iandthreefellow originsandauthorshadtobeinvestigated.sign. Their like Rather Britain’ which stillinfectedBritishindustrialde- 1951 ‘Festival of the therococo impulsesof textures andfinishes, endof andthefag and‘real’ forms British architecture withitsemphasisoncraggy challenged form Their boththethenacceptedwilledplasticityof abrick. were sleekandrectangular, andaboutthesizeof palegrey objects:new turbofanheatersmadeby Braun.These extraordinary byPrice) was two inacoldatticneartheAAandwas heatedonly Cedric school office(now inEastLondon.The thatof secondary sistant forColquhounandMillerpreparingadoorschedule fora thewintervacationsworked asas- School inLondonandoneof 1960sIwas astudentattheArchitectural Association In theearly

Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm (The Ulm School of Design), patio with a south-facing view (1956) . This art, systematicandobjective art, andusing which isessential.This representation;an art contaminated by therequirementsof tional dutysothatitcould promote andserve spiritualends. itsrepresenta- of group’s aim wastoridart Carlsund. This Van which included Art Concretgroup Doesburg, Hélionand theParis been usedpolemicallyin1930themanifesto of Read from word 1934.The hadfirst inhisArtandIndustry dered inEnglishasabstract itwassopropagated by Herbert – abstractandconcretecanbeantonyms –but mostsimplyren- konkret presentsdifficulties. term theorist. The Untranslatable Billthe he gave of atitsopeningsuggest stirrings thefirst Kunstmuseum, Basel. It’s title, Konkrete Kunst,andthelecture MarcelBreuer. teachers, of particularly hisBauhaus followedthat thedesignclosely theexamples of thiswork suggest black-and-white of temporary photographs the MilanTriennale (ashewasagain later, con- in1951).The from Switzerland’s todesignthecountry’s architects exhibit at marketing must have beenexcellent, for in1936hewaschosen asapainterwell asasculptor. His already saw himself servicesinproduct designandadvertising.but offering He notjustasarchitect inZurich, In 1930Billsetupinpractice hislaterdevelopment. mayschool have much of determined the Gropius’ organization of architecture, andof of practice overwhelming, andtheirpowerful and ideasinboththetheory ers, onavery young Swiss must theireffect thenhave been theseteach- of thelatercareers hindsight, what we know of painting. Even with stage design,andGeorg of Muche mer of themetal workshop, Oskar were Schlem- Albers incharge of Hannes Meyer andMarcelBreuer. MarcelBreuer and Josef Walter Gropius, MiesvanderRohe, Ludwig Hilberseimer, during which Billstudiedthere, wastaughtby architecture forhe leftSwitzerland theBauhaus, Dessau.Intheperiod from andin1927 to transfer silversmithing toarchitecture the youngLe Corbusier in1925persuaded attheschool Bill Switzerland’s activities. artistic German Alectureby of ers thecent- Winterthur andtheoneof of to hisbirthplace at theKunstgewerbeschule thenearestlarge inZurich, town seven. Aged16,in1924Billenrolled inthesilversmith course threeyears earlier,had beenborn andKonrad Wachsman as didEnricoPeressutti Speer andGordonBunshaft.Albert with theBritishknightsFrederick Gibberd andLeslieMartin, Winterthur’s hisbirth stationmaster, sharedtheyearson of of architects. MaxBill, 1908 wasafecundyear for of thebirth it. mealsoff I stilleatmy Roericht andnow indesignmuseums displayed allover theworld. designedatUlmby Nick thestacking cateringcrockery TC100 of knew nothinglikeit.Laterwe awholesale ordered consignment romantic. itshillwildly England itspartsaround thesummitof of Bill alsousedtheword un- todescribeanewplasticart In 1944,Billwasinvited toorganize anexhibition atthe 267

BAU, BAUKUNST, ARCHITEKTUR CHRISTOPHER WOODWARD OASE #75 mathematical methods, would not aspire to the transcendental The extreme puritan and iconoclastic position, to which but, cleansed of among other things associations with earlier Bill as practitioner of the fine arts could have subscribed,

ideologies, would serve particularly the democracy of Switzer- had been adopted by Hannes Meyer in a Bauhaus lecture OASE #75 land and, Bill must have hoped more generally, the new Europe published in 1928 as Bauen (Building). This text was saturated which might emerge from the World War then in its final with anti-art rhetoric: ‘all art is composition and therefore stages. The lecture proposed an analogy between such a plastic unsuited to achieve goals. . . . architecture as emotional act of art and the formal structures of music without, however, con- the artist has no justification.’ It concluded: ‘building is noth- sidering that the composing of and listening to music might be ing but organization: social, technical, economic, psychologi- culturally circumscribed. He implies that the music of Bach, cal organisation.’ for example, is in some way absolute and affects our sensory Bill himself seems clearly to have understood the differ- and perceptual apparatus in the same way that, say, a painted ence between designing a spoon, a building or a painting. red square might. One needs to listen to a classical Japanese Nevertheless, he never made the case for the similarity be- composition alongside a work by Bach to conclude that, apart tween utensils and buildings as types. In his production of the from the most rudimentary rhythms, the analogy was false. plastic fine arts he allowed for the ‘flash of inspiration’ or for The case for the konkrete art or design was supported by an using the work of earlier artists as a jumping off point, and he appeal to the design of utilitarian objects (quite often spoons) accepted that his mathematical and geometrical methods could which at its most successful could be imagined to be free only be used once a type or kernel existed. of ideological associations. The idea that utilitarian objects In the same year that Bill gave this lecture he started should be designed at all had been proposed and to a certain teaching design (‘Form’) at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, extent practiced by William Morris and his associates. It was and four years later, aged 40, he lectured for the first time out- taken up at the end of the nineteenth century by the English side Switzerland, at the Technische Hochschule at Darmstadt. Arts and Crafts movement. The Deutsche Werkbund had been On Bill’s initiative, the Musterausstellung at Basel in 1949 established under its influence, which also pervaded the early included an exhibit about design, ‘Gute Form’, sponsored years of the Bauhaus. Morris intended to bring that beauty al- by the Swiss Werkbund. ready available to connoisseurs to mass consumers, or at least In 1949 Bill was asked to participate in setting up a the British middle classes. Volks hochschule, a centre for adult education, in the South- BAU, BAUKUNST, ARCHITEKTUR BAU, BAUKUNST, CHRISTOPHER WOODWARD

Max Bill in 1949 Stackable tableware TC 100, design by Nick Roericht Example of a painting cited by Herbert Read in Art and Industry (1934)

Philip Webb’s ‘Sussex Chairs’ in the Morris and Co. catalogue, ca. 1860. When designing their chairs, William Morris and his friend Webb would often hark back to older designs from the English countryside 268 269 of Germany passedfrom commanderto acivilian Germany itsmilitary of intheirnewinstitute. himtogoUlmasateacher persuade metMaxBillfor andAicher time.Scholl thefirst They triedto von Industrieprodukten intheSwissmagazine Werk . InZurich, impressed by Bill’s Erfahrungen beiderFormgestaltung article for hadreadandbeen adulteducation.Aicher arrangements andAicher, Scholl cluding tostudy visitedSwitzerland the Axonometric projection oftheSchoolDesignfeaturing theoriginalplansforthree towerblocksforstudents historian. a Swissarchitecture onMaxBillKonkretedissertation Architektur? ByHansFrei, early years isfully documentedinthehighlyrecommended Ulm’s itsoutstandingbuildings. of story The produced oneof patronage inEuropean twentieth-century architecture, andit themostremarkable episodesof post-war years isoneof speaker,German cultureinthe tohelprehabilitate German invitation Ulm.This toBill,aneutral town of German ern uie fNaziideology. purified of andpolitics’,devotedart tore-establishing culture aGerman Romano Guardini,aninstitute, ‘anactive for school science theCatholictheologian amongothers theideasof fluence of conceivedthe warIngeScholl astheirmemorial,underthein- They were basedinMunich. bothkilled in1943.After group theWeisse Rose,ananti-Naziresistance of student members young Ulmresidents. Scholl’s brother andsisterhadbeen Hochschule wastaken by andOtlAicher, IngeScholl two In 1949 the administration of the American occupied zone theAmericanoccupiedzone of In 1949theadministration In 1948adelegation from theUlmVolkshochschule, in- 2 1 The initiative The tofound the in a traffic accidentin1991. in atraffic and publications. Hewaskilled used for thepractice’s buildings nowand designedthetypeface Foster Norman andPartners toSir he becametypographer Olympics in1972.Inlaterlife designfor theMunich graphic the subsequent careerincluded in1952andhis married Scholl studiothere.graphic Heand and from hisown 1947ran inUlm wasborn Otl Aicher (Baden, 1991). tur? ÜberMaxBillalsArchitekt Hans Frei, Konkrete Architek- 2 1 n h alyo theDanube. and thevalley of Ulm aformerlyfortified hilllooking away from thecity of of got thecommissiontodesignbuildings. tojoinUlmonthespot.Atsametimehealso Bill agreed proposed andmoreacceptable Billasanalternative candidate. themeetingswithAmericans, IngeScholl during oneof but McCloy found move uncongenial.Inadramatic Richer Richter, appointed apoliticalandscientificprogramme, torun ignated Rector for theinstitutewasauthorHansWerner itsfinance. andinarranging the school Atthistimethedes- inpropagating theideaof her institute, andinvolved himself McCloy, who by wastouched herenthusiasticpetitioningfor for anduniversities.tion’ programme highschools met Scholl McCloy administeredaUS-sponsoredfund for a‘re-educa- theBundesrepublik in1952. recognitionthe international of High Commissioner, John J. McCloy, who governed ituntil and wasperhaps influencedby thepainter’s working method. Klee, admirerof was beingconsidered:Bill wasadeclared into fortifications. Somethinglessutilitarian andmorepoetic buildings areplacedwasflattenedwhen the hillwasterraced theremainderonwhich theresidential ably slope, much of thesiteundeni- description isinadequate:while of This parts isthatthebuildingsesque practice ‘follow thecontours’. other.relation toeach geometry, areskewed from designstheparts thevery first in employWhile theindividualparts conventional orthogonal were isolatedtothewest. flatsandhousesforseparate staff built), theirrooms steppedonplantoprovide views. Finally, theproposed threewas which onlyoneof five storeys (of of studioflatsandstumpy residential‘towers’ of ing terraces over thevalley. alternat- To anecklace theeastwasstrung of thehillandlooked out platform extended from thesideof standingona thisthesocialfacilities attic. To thesouthof tilated by courtyards andacontinuous glazed smallinternal workshops waslitandven- a two-storey rectangularblock of Wright andMiesvanderRohe. to orignoredby except architects mostmodern Frank Lloyd Schinkel, wasunknown sicism, mostnotably inthework of neoclas- method arose from theearlypicturesquestages of in his‘pinwheel’ designfor theDessauBauhaus. this That over thesymmetrical.Gropius hademployed the method which CIAMpromoted to theasymmetricalarrangements compositional methods, much liked becauseiteasily gave rise thecanonicalmodern isoneof circulation.This elements of fromrated itsneighbours, but reconnected tothemby neutral appropriatethen housedinitsseparate sepa- formandclearly function composition:each isidentified and a ‘functionalist’ demonstrate earlyschemes The present formwasconfirmed. layoutthe first for thesiteandby August 1952the designinits iewsfudo h ot-aigsd fthesummit A sitewasfound sideof onthesouth-facing The usualexplanationThe for from thisdeparture Schinkel- thesite, andtoits‘back’, of Placed onthehighestpart 3 ByJuly 1950Billhadprepared 271 school laterdeveloped.school when frictionbetween cityand the citycouldhave beennohelp nificant, but itsdistancefrom may have sig- beendeliberately city the contaminatedruined thesitefrom isolationof The 3

BAU, BAUKUNST, ARCHITEKTUR CHRISTOPHER WOODWARD OASE #75 OASE #75

View of the south façade of the School of Design, featuring the three tower blocks and the communal fa- cilities and the school and workshop buildings at the back

General plan School of Design A. communal facilities B. school with workshops C. tower blocks for students (partly realized) D. teachers’ accommodation and studios (partly realized) BAU, BAUKUNST, ARCHITEKTUR BAU, BAUKUNST, CHRISTOPHER WOODWARD

West façade of the school and communal services building. The impact of the rolling landscape is quite obvious here

Cross section of school building, Floor plan tower block featuring the entrance hall at the centre 272 273 Housing block (1956) Entrance façade (1956) ealdsar onc w eeso thesocialfacilities. connecttwodetailed stairs levels of the doubled-height lobby withitsangledwalls. Rudimentarily andmasterlycirculationspaces including the extraordinary thesocialfacilities. produced This between them elements of main orthogonal onthesite, sub- andtwo differently-angled between thepreviously workshops separate which setupthe resultingfrom thecompression design wasthe‘train-crash’ passing through theothers. couldbeenteredwithout itsparts unobtrusive, andmany of isremarkablythese: theHochschule open,its‘front door’is trances, theirreformingsuccessorcoulddemonstrably ignore thosebuildings obvious hadrather en- by Reich. theThird If (degenerate) and organic suppressedas‘entartet’ architecture theexpressionist be aconsciousorunconsciousevocation of the previous regime itspower, todemonstrate theanglesmay and irresistiblerightangleshadbeenusedinthebuildings of readingmightsuggestAn alternative that,sinceaxialplanning building continuum appears asanamorphous from adistance. parts, thedifferent while theplanemphasizes the reading of ing studioapartments, opentotheair. indoors, but some, like thebeautiful stoasundertheoverhang- events, architectural mostly toprovideparts varietyof arich thebuilding promenades itsway through thevarious tion of To theextent thatithasone, themainandcontinuous circula- h otrdcladfia hf ntedvlpeto the andfinalshiftinthedevelopment mostradical The of theskewing arethata paradoxical consequencesof The Stairs connecting the school and workshops Fragment of the façade Fragmentofthefaçade Stairs connectingtheschoolandworkshops 275 Detail stairs 4 less deliberately clumsy.less deliberately more elegantly resolved, plans, but hisjunctionsare to develop angledorganic such Hans Scharoun wasstarting At about thesametime, 4

BAU, BAUKUNST, ARCHITEKTUR CHRISTOPHER WOODWARD OASE #75 P C. ground floorworkshopsandlaboratories B. ground floorteachingarea A. ground floorentranceandcanteen Floor planscentralbuildings romenade through thebuilding(1955)

BAU, BAUKUNST, ARCHITEKTUR CHRISTOPHER WOODWARD OASE #75 The double-height hall connecting the school and workshops (1955) Promenade through the building, where the gallery meets the assistants’ studios (1956) teshddfie stenwsyeo democracy. haddefinedasthenewstyleof others werechitecture beingre-educatedintoacceptingwhat Billand finematerialsorfake regional folk decorated ar- bombast of architectural bourgeoisie,The fedfor twenty years onadietof appropriatethe reticencewasparticularly tothecircumstances. Bill’s theoretical position,but general here of part course of designed by Bill. was thefurniture thefittingsandmuch of surfaces. Many of wereriors andstillarestrikingly withfew decorative Spartan, isevident. brightly litinte- theframe The tectonic plasticityof quality.and constrained Intheinteriors, by thefull contrast, where theframe possible, ontheexteriors ataut conferring of elementsaresetflushwiththeoutsidesurface and masonry from by separated theframe clearly narrow recesses. Glazed concreteorrenderedmasonry exterior isfilledwithpanelsof the Wherenotglazed, vertical divisionsandthreehorizontal. four of exposed andsubdividedonasimplescheme frame squareformatplacedbetween the height glazingunitsof theexterior instorey- isclad restricted repertoire. of Much smooth in-situconcrete. usedanextremely Billdeliberately flooring unitsfor theregular parts, of parts andtheirregular profiled andbeamssupporting precast slim columnsorpiers reinforced concrete, building industry, of German aframe of there-emerging south the timehave of beenaheroic effort The unwillingnessThe tobeinvolved in ‘representation’,was wholeThe complex by isconstructed, what must for Cross sections andfloorplansassistants’studios 279

BAU, BAUKUNST, ARCHITEKTUR CHRISTOPHER WOODWARD OASE #75 This suggestion finds a curious coincidental echo in England: the exactly contemporary secondary school at 5 Mies van der Rohe was the only

Hunstanton designed by Alison and Peter Smithson and built architect of the earlier genera- OASE #75 between 1949 and 1954 was a similar reaction to the empty- tion who was prepared publicly headed attempted prettiness of much British architecture to admire the building as one of the best in post-war Germany. immediately after the war. Its similarly ‘brutally’ exposed Bill wrote in 1976: ‘It could structure and services offered its pupils Spartan surroundings not have been cheaper or more without conventional architectural finishes. It differs in its primitive. One had reached ab- solute rock- bottom. The only simple Palla dian plan and organization. enjoyment available to me as Stung by the critical reception of what was seen as the architect was in the arrange- building’s extreme and deliberate truculent lack of cosiness, ment of the ensemble on the site; the harmonisation of the its willed austerity, and by the distaste of some of his former internal functions of the various teachers at the Bauhaus including Walter Gropius, Bill disin- parts; the choice of a sensible genuously replied that the budget was very tight.5 but primitive means of con- struction; the choice of robust, The building was formally opened on 2 October 1955. cheap materials whose natural The curriculum devised by Bill was an idealized and gen- qualities complemented each eralized version of the many phases of that of the Dessau other and which produced the much-mocked puritan beauty. Bauhaus. A general foundation course was taught in the first The reproach that everything year, followed in the second year by specialization in urban was intentionally austere can be planning, industrial design, architecture and ‘information’. countered by replying that noth- ing else would have been possi- Freie Kunst (liberal arts), which to Bill was the essence of any ble: for the money available one creative activity, was part of the curriculum. Its position, how- could only today build a slightly ever, had always been subject to discussion. Bill regarded the better villa.’ Max Bill, Vom Bau- haus bis Ulm (1976), 18-19. arts lessons (which only the best students should be allowed 6 to attend) as a laboratory for the creative process as such, free European politics and economic of the limitations usually brought about by practical needs circumstances had, however, changed considerably since the and requirements. Aicher, who during the 1950s had started last remnants of the Bauhaus Ulm School of Design, lecture hall Ulm School of Design – stool, design by Max Bill, Hans Gugelot, to take a more critical attitude towards the role of the arts at were extinguished in 1933, and Paul Hildinger Ulm, strongly disagreed with Bill. A conflict about the ques- by the mid 1960s the theoretical work of some of the teachers at tion whether to keep the arts in the curriculum resulted in Ulm, including that of Thomas Bill’s resignation as director. Only one year later he left Ulm Maldonado, was beginning to for good. The school was subsequently run by a triumvirate expose the contradictions in 6 the role of designers and their of Gugelot, Maldonado and Aicher. education in an increasingly Bill was never again challenged by the client’s programme affluent economy coming to be and site or the extraordinarily charged events at Ulm. He dominated by mass consump- tion: were designers and ar- returned to Zurich where he reopened his architectural and

chitects to be the autonomous ARCHITEKTUR BAU, BAUKUNST, CHRISTOPHER WOODWARD design practice and resumed his hobbies of painting and critics of industry or its serv- sculpture: in 1952 he had been awarded third prize in the ants? Along with examples of the work of staff and students, international competition to design a monument for the Un- these debates were widely dis- known Political Prisoner. The architectural work of the office seminated in the school’s beau- consists of one-family houses, small office buildings – mostly tifully produced but short lived magazine Ulm. The increasingly in economically comfortable Switzerland – and tends to be eccentric and arid theoretical quiet and unremarkable. The largest commission of his later position of the teachers led to years in practice was an extension to the building of Radio correspondingly shrill politi- cal criticism and agitation by Zurich carried out with Willi Roost from 1965. both staff and students, similar By then an internationally known figure and Switzerland’s to that pertaining beyond the honorary federal architect in all but name, in 1964 Bill was school in Ulm, Germany, the Ulm School of Design – door handle, design by Max Bill rest of Europe and in North appointed designer for temporary buildings for the Landes- America, and which led to the ausstellung (Swiss National Exhibition) in Lausanne. The événements of ’68. Its hand bit- loose arrangement of pavilions which nearly coalesce into a ten by the school it was feeding, in that year the exasperated singly entity continues the theme established at Ulm, but with Landtag of Baden-Wüttemberg an orthogonal geometry, and their casually ‘poor’ prefabri- voted to close it.

280 281 cated materials – an exposed slim steel frame, folded metal roofs and corrugated plastic siding – continued its theme of 7 7

austerity. In 1967 he took up teaching again as Professor of OASE #75 Environmental Design at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst Bill as exhibition designer contributed the interiors and in Hamburg. In the same year he was elected as federal coun- displays of the pavilions of sellor to the Swiss Parliament. He died in 1994 aged 86. ‘Art and Life’ [Kunst und Leben], The building for the Hochschule für Gestaltung remains ‘Painting and Design’ [Bilden und Gestalten] and ‘Radio and an outstanding and singular achievement both in Bill’s work Television’. and the architectural production of the post-war years. Out- side Switzerland none of Bill’s industrial designs has yet be- come available to be consumed as a ‘classic’; his paintings and sculptures occupy a small respectable niche in the art markets but the Hochschule für Gestaltung is firmly embedded in Alison and Peter Smithson, Hunstanton Secondary Modern School (1949-1954) any canon of European twentieth-century architecture. The product of very particular circumstances, its wilful layout and austerity have had no direct progeny. But as the product of what must be seen as Bill’s idiosyncratic attempt to align theo- ries of artistic, industrial and architectural practice (produkt- formen), it undoubtedly and explicitly influenced that genera- tion of architects now in their fifties and sixties – particularly in Britain – who began their careers by attempting to wrench architecture from gentility (Architektur) and art and towards a robust employment of technique (Bau) and the serious consid- eration of the production and thoughtful assembly of materi- als and components: Baukunst.

Max Bill, a monument to the unknown political prisoner, competition 1952, second prize BAU, BAUKUNST, ARCHITEKTUR BAU, BAUKUNST, CHRISTOPHER WOODWARD

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, home for private collec- tion in Munich, Max Bill, Swiss Regional Exhibition Lausanne 1964 1989-1992

Team 4, Swindon Reliance Centre 282 283