Tschumi builds

Autor(en): Rappaport, Nina

Objekttyp: Article

Zeitschrift: Schweizer Ingenieur und Architekt

Band (Jahr): 115 (1997)

Heft 6

PDF erstellt am: 03.10.2021

Persistenter Link: http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-79200

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http://www.e-periodica.ch Architektur Schweizer Ingenieur und Architekt Nr. 6, 6. Februar 1997 102

Nina Rappaport, New York Tschumi Builds

Bernard Tschumi, architect and 110,000 square foot complex costing $25 Hoiv is this in-between area to be used? Dean of the Graduate School of million. The Center which combines education Architecture Planning and Preservation in visual arts, sound, TV, and media arts Between die two roofs the residual area at Columbia University, New as an (Electronic Bauhaus>, similar to the can be used for exhibitions and film viewing. York, has more projects under Karlsruhe Zentrum für Media und Technologie, It becomes a real space. Students can construction than ever before. Known will have the most advanced production sit on benches suspended from the roof. for his design of Pare de la Villette studios. It has been published and The in-between area is a landscape of its in Paris (1982-1995), he was exhibited widely but now it is becoming reality own. It has a stage set quality with ramps recently awarded the «1996 Grand with completion slatedfor Spring 1997. The and catwalks and spiral metal stairs. Or it Prix National d'Architecture» from existing building had been a 1920s can be compared to a backstage which is the French Ministry of Culture. He entertainment complex with cinema, dance halls tlien what it can become, the stage itself. also received two 1996 awards from and horseback riding which had severely You can wind around the ramps on top of the American Institute of Architects dilapidated. What are the most fascinating the old buildings to a roof garden terrace New York Chapter for the design of aspects about the new design? and elevators. The metal roof is cut with a the Paris Architecture School and number of semi-elliptical openings and

Le Fresnoy. The largest building is 100 x 100 meters and covered with glass to allow light to penetrate. was in a state ofruin with a rotten roof and unsafe conditions. All the other competition Bernard Tschumi discusses his current entries wanted to tear down the buildings. What are the street elevations like where the buildings in a November 1996 interview in But I felt that the old spaces were original building was partially demolished his open loft office space in Chelsea extraordinary, so why not leave them to accommodate the new offices? Manhattan. The lights are dimmed to keep the underneath: We created a huge roof that glare off the computers for the young forms the support for the building and an The corrugated metal roof folds and architects, huge computer drawings hang on umbrella over the old roof. The duct work, becomes the back facade, which is fairly walls, and a computer graveyard sits on stage mechanisms and mechanical systems enclosed on the north side because of the one side of the office, the result of the will be suspended from the roof in an in- noise from the highway. Sdii under the latest upgrade. berween space, between the old and the roof, but on the south side, we wanted to new. provide a transparent image to the main entrance facade. The roof is 90 feet high Projects in Europe How do you feel about restoration ofhistoric and has an amazing scale in relationship to buildings.' the two-story office spaces and their curtain Since you are halfSwiss, born in Lausanne, wall. your father was an engineer practicing in It depends on how and where, but at Le Lausanne, and you attended ETH, it is Fresnoy, you wouldn't be able to build How does your view ofcirculation differfrom interesting thatyou are working on a project in interior spaces like this today. I would rather the Modernists? Lausanne. keep the old and then add the new to it. The new roof supports the old building Their view of circulation only dealt with Yes, in 1994 I won the competition for the below so that there is a play between the routes and vectors. In this particular case Lausanne train station area. The Interface new and the old. the main difference is activities. One other Railway Station and Bridge, a $30 million example is the competition proposal project for the future master plan for the What is your concept of the box within the which we submitted for the Library of urbanization of the industrial valley which box? France, where we had the running track should begin construction in 1998, so we going through the library. In other words are currently working on final designs. The boxes of the old buildings are under complete interferences, a transgression of is Lausanne interesting to me because it is the new roof which is visible in the one program by the other. Modern movement a three dimensional city, with multilevels, exploded axonimetric drawing; the new- architects would keep those things since it is built on a hillside. The function building is a box in a box. We are leaving separate. I try through the movement of the new bridge connection is not only the existing untouched so it will unfold like pattern to activate a program, or transform a horizontal but to cross from below to a Russian Doll. program. As in Fresnoy, the contamination above and link all the levels of the buildings ofdifferent programs, the idea ofcross and the city. Is this similar to domes of cathedrals or La over of programs from one area to Scala in Milan which have spaces between another. But it is also pedagogical, the)- want You are also working on two buildings in the superficial structure and the interior the different disciplines to merge and the France whereyou became recognized after you structure? architecture helps that. The Bauhaus was de educational designed Pare la Villette. Both are not doing that, it had separated departments. institutions and both were invited Yes, or the space in Grand Central competitions. Le Fresnoy National Centerfor Station, between the two skins. It is the space Contemporary Arts in Tourcoing near Lille, not designed for the public, but happened a competition which you won in 1991, is a spaces. Architektur Schweizer Ingenieur und Architekt Nr. 6, 6. Februar 1997 103

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Your second project won through a limited very un-French: You can see inside the sat- or parties. This is the in-between space of competition in France is for the new Ecole dios as you walk past on the walkways; like sorts, a totally common space and common d'Architecture at Champs-sur-Marne in a show window of what is happening in denominator of design. My view is Marne la Vallèe. The school, to be build out the school. Everybody sees what everybody that if there is such a place to take over, side of Paris - near Euro Disney - is at a else is doing. For me that is important what ever the educational system, the scientific and technical campus similar to because the French have the tendency students will be able to transcend it. ETH in Zurich. The $30 million 275,000 to hide themselves - this will encourage square foot project for 1200 architecture debate. There will be blocks of double- What are the materials and some significant students will begin construction in the fall of height studios with seminar rooms design elements in the school? 1997. How did you approach this project in-between to encourage debate between which really did not have a well-defined design projects and history/theory. It is to be First the main void containing the café, the program? north facing for diffused light all opening exhibit spaces, the two public auditoriums out onto a main central space. Instead of is enclosed by the studios and by the I said, let's do it as we think a school should one classroom area they alternate with the research and administration offices. These be. I know almost too much about the studios so that the interrelation will are made of pressed aluminum panels and topic, being Dean at Columbia. So we did happen. That is my way to change the are located over the library which is poured a survey of other schools like Yale by curriculum a little bit. concrete (béton brut). The suidios have Rudolph and Cincinnati by Eisenman, a glass skin, somehow I am sure people will which are over designed. So the design was How does your concept ofmovement as a say, saying hello to Gropius and Dessau. to make the building as neutral as possible generator ofspace and events manifest itselfin The library will be crossed with ramps and for the age of mobility and the modem. this project? stairs for students to sit on and work on, that are both protected and isolated. The Although you are not involved with the To me the most important things in skin of the auditorium is expanded metal, program, the curriculum or the politics of the schools don't happen in the classrooms or namely, die metal forms waved, partially school, how does your design with its ramps the studios, they happen in the stairs and opened strips so that light doesn't totally and walkways, three auditoriums, library the gathering spaces. All the official penettate the space: The box will not be research areas, offices, multimedia facilities activities look towards the 25x100 meter fully opaque. You can see a red wall and cafeterias influence the educational semi-public tin-programmed space, which through it like a ghost, so that it has a activities in the building? is like an indoor public square. The mysterious effect. students can take it over and do what they First of all I designed something which is need to with it, whether it be exhibitions Architektur Schweizer Ingenieur und Architekt Nr. 6, 6. Februar 1997 106

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First project in the U.S. bric. I am not a contexrualist, however, we see projects which used this glazing so that Nowyou are working onyourfirstmajorproject will continue the McKim plan, but with a the}' could understand the concept. in the U.S., the AlfredJ, Lerner Student reinterpretation. The plan originally had a Engineer Hugh Dutton, of London, is working Center at Columbia University in association second row of buildings, Avery Hall was with us on this project as well as die with Gruzen Samton Architects, which the only one completed. So part of the new Paris School of Architecture. smaller student the replaces a center from building will continue that idea. We are If the two wings, one towards campus 1960s. Your new 220,000 squarefoot building following the solid-void-solid rhythm as and the other towards Broadway, are costing $68 million began construction in the a starting point. The elevation on die relatively contextual, I tried to push the limits fall and will be completed in 1999- The eight- Broadway side will have a brick facade on the ramps in-between. Columbia was story Broadway wing of the building will with a brick and granite base similar to the supportive and they were scared and house the bookstore, game rooms, computer adjacent McKim buildings making the new cautious, and rightly so. But then we went far center, meeting rooms, administrative offices building quiet on the outside and more because the relationship in the coordination and a 500-seat cinema. The four stoty wing dynamic on the inside. The part of the building between the glass and steel was very facing Butler Libraiy will include a 24- hour facing campus will be lower rise also unusual. In New York they are different entrance, a basement night club called the because the land changes height, so it unions, and glass usuali)' never supports Plex, dining hall, café and meeting rooms. In won't compete with the adjacent historic anything - but just put up within mullions the center there will be a glass atrium space, Butler Library. The Broadway side is half - so we had to develop that and it became facing campus, called The Hub - the main a story higher, in order to create a continuity a fantastic experiment and we were able to circulation area, from which one ivi11 be able we will use ramps, rather than the push it very far including the glass floor on to view the activities in the building with discontinuity of stairs. the ramps. pedestrian ramps linking the two wings of the building. This project has many What are some of the technological innovations interesting design and construction issues - but in the project? Theoretical and practical aspects first, what is your attitude towards the historic plan of the university? I am having good experience building at How does your theoretical work translate into Columbia, which is relatively conservative. the practice ofbuilding? This is a real challenge to create a new building The ramps will be glass, so that you the 1 within McKim Mead & White are walking on glass, and glass will support stopped drawing for 10 years in 1968 after a like the plan. In way Carpenter Center the facade. This type of structural glazing the protests in Paris and I developed questions by Le Corbusier which is on the historic will be the first to be used in New York. and conceptual diagrams. One Harvard Campus, against the original fa¬ We took the University trustees to Paris to constant throughout all these years is move-

8 Architektur Schweizer Ingenieur und Architekt Nr. 6, 6. Februar 1997 107

ment; architecture is space, movement and tive manner. In other words, when ever Your work was an example in the Light event and of course dieir relationship. The there is a place of a concept - in the Construction show at MOMA in 1995, how does notion of place as the space of movement Columbia project is the place of the ramps, in your work in deconstruction fit in with that and that is where events occur. That is the La Villette it was the place with the ofthe new technologies oflight construction? starting point. galleries and bridges - then I try to work with the best engineers so that the place of the It is hard to put one against the other, How has your attitude towards architecture concept is the place of technological except that you could say that deconstruction and design changed in both your theoretical invention. This comes almost every time without any doubt, found its origin in work and practice, now that you are building with a project: whenever it is a straight literary theory. It was something that had to more? forward architecture, it is straight forward do with language, while light construction engineering, whenever we are pushing the started with materials, that are lighter, that On the one hand they haven't changed at limits conceptually, we are using new are translucent. One is based on the world all. I am doing exacdy what I set myself to engineering with structural glass or using of ideas and the other materials - that they try to do. On the other hand, building, new ways of attaching steel members. meet is nice. constructing and dealing with the construction industry introduces a new dimension Is that conscious? What are you reading now and what that probably will need one da}' to be philosophers are ofinterest to you today? theorized. Funnily enough, at first you don't think of it, then you realize that, again I am going I still read ver)" much of the same writers Why hasn't your attitude changed, that in this direction, so yes, it is in a sense very and analysts, some like Paul Virilio, who is much? conscious. I find that fascinating because more a popular writer and touches on the dimension of the construction was one issues which I find are quite interesting. The My earl}' work had one obsession, that that was not integrated in my early work. question is that there has been entire architecture was something to be seen as For example, at Columbia it has been very departments at American universities who dynamic - not a static building, but a building hard to find the contractors who can do it. sort of take the work of French post-structuralists seen with the activities to take place within We went through a set ofinterviews. Now as a bible. One wants to be careful it and the movement of bodies that go we have selected Eiffel from France who not to make anybodv think that there is a through the building. There are three will do it, but we had to go as far across cause and effect relationship between the elements: space / movement / event. When I the Atlantic to find someone, so this is part writing of a philosopher and the architecture was doing the Manhattan Transcripts in of the endeavor. of an architect. They proceed so 1981, there were systems ofnotation where differently. But we are all part of the same I would show photographs of the action As Dean of Columbia University's architecture culture. with arrows and vectors showing movement program since 1988 what do you see as of the bodies in space. I was very important today in the teaching of architecture Does deconstruction still relate to your interested in this notion of the movement as to the next generation ofarchitects? current projects? one of the possible generators for architectural space. There are two things, one which is not Real deconstruction yes, the stylistic and difficult In projects that are being built at the to do in NYC: I want our smdents journalistic definition no, that was superficial. moment, like Le Fresnoy or the Columbia to be aware of contemporary culture in And in reality the only thing I could Student Center, the role of those vectors which they live. Architecture is always in give a definition to deconstruction that is of movement is absolutely crucial and in the making and always being reinvented, ofany interest, is that it questioned the idea many ways the relation of those vectors so I want the students to be aware of what of synthesis of globality, of unity and talks and movement with the overall space and is happening in music and film and thinking, about multiple layers. The work I do what I call the in-between, the free space from physics to math. w orks on different logic and independent between the functional constraints, always Then the other concept turns back to layers but it doesn't have to take a form of finds its origin in the early theoretical the issue ofconstruction, that we have really obvious things that look a sort of con- work. developed in the last few years. Besides structivist. The game which had been played that I have brought philosophers and thinkers bervveen the w ord deconstruction and What then has changed in your work and into the school, simultaneously we constructivism was, I always thought, a ideas? have developed our construction building journalistic game. technology programs. With a remarkable The logic of drawing when I was doing professor, Anthony Webster, he has been Does decoustructivism have relevance in pen on paper was 2-D and dealt with the able to bring people from Ove Arup to architecture today? sense of time and filming - it was demater- Santiago Calatrava to the students, so that said architecture is ialized. I have always that there a very serious discussion on how I don't think it has a hand, except that people is the materialization of a concept. Of things are built. My great criticism is that would associate you with that mode of course when you materialize it, it is not the students think that everything can be done thinking versus post-modernist. In reali tv, same if you do it with steel or with sheet with sheet rock, and it becomes a totali}' at the time, it was important because you rock. And here has been the great fascination gratuitous game, and now they are starting had the historists on the one hand and the of learning. Because I knew certain to understand how the forces work. Now contemporary on the other hand, and of things: I like working with structural my concern as a building architect is, how course, I like being on the side of the engineers, I like working with people who do you deal with the construction industry contemporary. develop new capabilities with materials which is awfully conservative in New York and therefore I also would like to push a compared to elsewhere, even in otherparts Address of the author: concept in a new constructive and inven¬ of the US. Nina Rappaport, art historian. New York City