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ON THE TRAILSA long lasting OF relationship FRIENDSHIP between Macedonia and Switzerland CONTENT Introduction 3 Skopje Today 7 Alfred Roth 13 A brief biography 17 At the Weissenhof Siedlung 24 Roth’s “Fellowship Home” 27 Excerpt: Die Realität der neuen Architektur 32 Roth’s legacy 37 The Pestalozzi School 39 “Johan Hajnrih Pestaloci” 41 Roth and Skopje, a Conversation 53 The New Furniture 65 Mapping the objects 66 Roth’s AR1 Barwagen 96 INTRODUCTION “On the Trails of Friendship” is a brief book about the relationship between Mace- donia and Switzerland, a sort of manual of a localized history. The Swiss Confederation – Bundesamt für Bauten und Logistik – rents its residences to private individuals, i.e. Swiss ambassadors, but remains responsible for the fur- nishings of the representative rooms. In 2017, we HHF architects were commissioned to furnish those suites of the Swiss Residence in Skopje. In the last ten years, the effects of politics nearly erased one of the most interesting periods of Skopje: the age of modernization. Therefore this seemed to us like a perfect moment to write a sort of manifesto of Macedonian and international Modernism centered on a single connection that seemed to exist between Switzerland and Mace- donia: the Pestalozzi School, built in Skopje in the 1960s by Alfred Roth. Roth, a Swiss architect with broad activity and connections who triggered interests and was agent of modernization, may be considered the protagonist of this project. 3 We HHF followed his lead as interdisciplinary liason, searching for all possible con- nections, collaborations, and friendships between Roth and other architects, artists, designers. The research led us in the choice of furniture pieces. Alfred Roth designed some furniture himself such as a bar trolley, the prototype of a wonderful steel and wooden chair and a bed, which was for a long time thought to be designed by Le Corbusier. The main “art piece” we chose for the residence is his Atelier AR1 bar trolley. Supposedly loaded with bottles and glasses at one time, we instead decided to load it with books related to the history of Modernism, to Alfred Roth, to Switzerland and Macedonia. A future addition to the book collection will be this manual, a limited edition publi- cation that attempts to explain the team’s design strategy: telling the story of Alfred Roth and his international friendships and “mapping” the objects we chose for the Swiss Residence in Skopje. Alvar Aalto Artek A331 ceiling lamp A808 and A809 floor lamps 4 Atelier oi Allegro assai ceiling lamp HHF architects Parking & More posters Bachmann coffee table to Food Shop Sport Kinder Bar Club Tanz INCH furniture Motel Burger Kultur View Park Garten continu Health Claudiabasel Client: CMS, Basel; Graphic Design: Intosens, Intep, Glaser Saxer Keller; Project: HHF mit Topotek 1, WMM, Loro side table Platz be Nacht ed ... Gaillard & D’Esposito D-Tour floor lamp Max Ernst Haefeli Embru 1020 chair Charlotte Perriand Karl Moser Nemo appliques à volet pivotant Diploma professor at ETH Zurich Cassina LC9 stool Le Corbusier Thonet 209 chair, chosen by LC for the Weissenhof Siedlung ALFRED ROTH AR1 Barwagen 5 Müller–Hess Konstruktive Gebrauchsgrafik Max Bill silk-screen prints about Lohse Roth’s books graphic design: Die Neue Architektur Das Neue Schulhaus Richard Paul Lohse 15 systematische Farbreihen silk-screen prints 7 SKOPJEFrom TODAY a Swiss point of view 8 View on Skopje, photograph by Simon Hartmann, 2017 9 View on Skopje, photograph by Simon Hartmann, 2017 Laura Sattin (L): Why Skopje? Simon Hartmann (S): For almost ten years I have been participating in many academ- ic initiatives in former Yugoslavia: it is an interesting place, showing us how things work when they are not regulated and when they run naturally. L: When they are not regulated by the government? S: Yes, by the government and the department of urban planning: what happens when no one is able to say yes or no at the level of public authority. In the Balkans we understand what the natural forces of today’s society are. This reality has been very important for me in the last ten years, but I had difficulty bringing it into our office, HHF architects. Therefore, in 2016, we decided to organize a trip to the Balkans with HHF. Maroje Mrduljas agreed to join. We initially intended to go to Belgrade, but for Maroje that was not the “hot” destination from a cultural point of view. When I asked him “Where would you go?”, he replied “Skopje”. This was the beginning. L: How and why did it continue? 10 S: Then I met Vladimir Deskov, who was the one who introduced me to Skopje more closely. “My Skopje” was initially that of Maroje and Vladimir and it became more “mine” through my teaching experience at the University American College Skopje, where I realized that the metabolist architecture, which for all of us architects is the true heritage of Skopje, should also be seen in a different light. The metabolist Skopje was not accepted by many people. Beyond the initiative SK2014 wanting to reinvent the identity of the city and the nation, there already existed a previous discomfort towards the post-earthquake metabolist buildings. L: What about the modernist legacy and that of SK2014 from the last ten years? S: What I see is that it is not enough for a generation of architects, even if very talent- ed, to design and build significant buildings to “spread” culture in a society. People did not identify with the modernist buildings built after the earthquake of 1963. Now, with SK2014, they did all these pasticci and built a fictitious Skopje that never existed before. What is interesting and matters now is that you cannot go back if you do not want to be like the ones I am criticizing. The story over the last ten years has changed again. The “second earthquake” that has happened will be equally difficult. L: Is Skopje an exceptional case? S: In Skopje I see a real impact of architecture and urbanism on the city and the soci- ety: it is obvious, but in our cities we lose sight of how these disciplines can influence the society. In Skopje it is clear how this ten-year stage has completely transformed the city and, looking at the city as something that develops over hundreds of years, is impressive. There are certainly not many cases in Europe where a city has fundamen- tally changed its face in the last ten years. I do not say that it is unique in the world, but it is a project with a strong impact. The right wing has chosen to return to some- thing that has never even existed: the capital Skopje. It’s scary, but it’s an intervention that could be realized everywhere, wherever people do not recognize themselves in the urban structure that surrounds them. If people think and feel that the city does not belong to them, everything is possible. L: How would you describe Skopje to one of your students? What can one learn as an architect? S: We consider architecture and urban planning as disciplines, therefore we must study before we can make decisions. Everyone can criticize, but not everyone can make decisions: there are experts in the field. There are places where disciplines are not respected and where it works almost as a tribal system. 11 L: Skopje has actually experienced both situations. S: Yes, Skopje once experienced some kind of disruption made by urban planners not “held back” by politics and society and then lived ten years in which politicians inexperienced in the matter made town planning choices. It is an actio–reactio, one of the most obvious stories. Skopje is a place where the two extremes are clearly visible and this is educational for everyone. L: If there was Skopje 2030 what would be your slogan? S: I hate slogans, but I hope for Skopje that history does not repeat itself. The last period was governed by the idea of deleting or hiding everything that was not “beau- tiful” and responding to the current “vision”, but if you look at the city as something to “clean” it can not age, mature, can only become “anti-urban”. For Skopje 2030 I hope that it will not be said again “no, the true identity was before”. They are two different legacies: the modernist and the one of the last ten years. To move forward means to face these existing realities, even if we do not like them. How to have an intelligent cohabitation of these two periods would be the question on the table... And I would like to sit at that table! 13 ALFREDThe protagonist ROTH of this story 1935-36 1963 Mehrfamilienhäuser Doldertal Skopje in Zurich by Alfred & Emil Roth earthquake together with Marcel Breuer 1927 1948 1957 Prototype of a steel bed Book “Die neue Architektur” House of Henry Van de for the Swiss brand Embru Les Editions d’Architecture, Velde designed together with Erlenbach-Zurich Herny Van de Velde Book“Zwei Wohnhäuser von Le Corbusier und Pierre Jeanneret” 1900 1920 1940 1960 14 1903 1922-26 1932 1951-71 ‘60s Alfred Roth was born Architecture studies at ETHZ Founding of Zurich office Full Professor at ETHZ School buildings in in Wangen an der Aare, Diploma work with with his cousin Emil Roth St. Louis and Kuwait Switzerland Prof. Karl Moser Construction of Siedlung Wohnhaus Howald Neubühl in Zurich-Woll- in Wangen, Switzerland ishofen, Switzerland 1927-28 1939 1950 Collaboration at the atelier Bungalow for Marie Book “Das Neue Schul- of Le Corbusier & Pierre Meierhofer in Oberägeri, haus” Girsberger, Zurich Jeanneret in Paris Switzerland, later house of Henry Van de Velde 1966-69 1988 Construction of Pestalozzi Autobiography School in Skopje “Amüsante Erlebnisse eines Architekten” Ammann, Zurich 1973 1985 Book “Begegnung mit Book “Architekt der Kon- Pionieren” Birkhäuser, tinuität” Waser, Zurich Basel/Stuttgart 1970 1980 2000 2020 15 1966-68 1981 1998 2018 Hochhaus Schönbühl Project proposal “Addi- Alfred Roth died HHF furnishes the rep- in Luzern, Switzerland, tions to the Weissenhof in Zurich, Switzerland resentative rooms of the with Alvar Aalto settlement in Stuttgart” Swiss Residence in Skopje 1970 1984 Banque Sabbag Honorary member at the in Beirut, Libanon State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, Germany 16 Alfred Roth Kurzbiografie, excerpt from Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, Nr.

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