Up into the Unknown Peter Cook, Colin Fournier and the Kunsthaus 1 Thanks Neue Galerie Graz: Peter Peer, Gudrun Danzer, Patrizia Brumen, Brigitte Lampl, Monika Binder-Krieglstein Peter Cook Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Colin Fournier Foundation: Peter Bogner, Gerd Zillner, Jill Meissner Niels Jonkhans Marcos Cruz Anja Jonkhans Isa Rosenberger Peter Löcker Mischa Kuball Mathis Osterhage Anna Meyer Dietmar Ott Arthur Zalewski Christian Probst Jessica Hausner realities:united: Tim and Jan Edler, Charlotte Popp Vera Lutter SFL Technologies GmbH: Johann Höllwart, Martina Benedikt, Tina Fuisz The Archigram Archives: Dennis Crompton, Shelly Power Gernot Stangl Herwig Baumgartner, Iris Rampula Sigrid Brell-Cokcan Dieter Bogner Hermann Eisenköck B+G Ingenieure Bollinger und Grohmann GmbH: Klaus Bollinger, Susanne Nowak kadadesign: Alexander Kada, Barbara Reiter Centre Georges-Pompidou: Bernard Blistène, Herfried Peyker Frédéric Migayrou, Jean-Claude Boulet, Mélissa Ernst Pogöschnig Etave, Karine Jonneaux, Fatima Oussi Gerhard Wallner Frac Centre – Val de Loire, Orléans, France: Abdelkader Damani, Stephanie Dachary, Clémence Gabant, Samantha Noguès, Morgane HDA: Markus Bogensberger, Karin Oberhuber Stricot, Aurélien Vernant Künstlerhaus – Halle für Kunst & Medien: René Furer Helga Droschl, Sandro Droschl GrazMuseum: Otto Hochreiter, Franz Leitgeb; steirischer herbst: Veronica Kaup-Hasler, Stadt Graz: Anna König Martina Heil, Andreas Peternell Ertan Karaköse Lilli Philipp Robert Schnuderl, Christa Schnuderl Up into the Unknown Peter Cook, Colin Fournier and the Kunsthaus Anna2 Meyer, Haus Tier, 2017 2 Anna Meyer 4 Barbara Steiner Up into the Unknown 12 Ideas and Concepts 20 Implementation and Reality Katia Huemer 42 Impressing the Space 48 Isa Rosenberger Monika Holzer-Kernbichler 50 ‘... and what do you think about it?’ 54 Mischa Kuball 56 Arthur Zalewski 58 Appendix Up into the Unknown gutted and linked to the Kunsthaus. The Barbara Steiner listed façade and its cast-iron structure on the upper storey were preserved. The historical background In 1988, the state building authority held The call for tenders an Austria-wide architectural competition The object of the competition was ‘the for a ‘Trigon Museum’, with representatives construction of the Kunsthaus, a museum from the Trigon area also being invited to gallery with the incorporation of the listed participate. This area originally comprised Iron House.’ It was to accommodate ‘exhibi- art from Yugoslavia, Italy and Austria; later tion, media centre, a forum for photography, it was extended to include Hungary. When gastronomy, commercial amenities and the the provincial government changed in necessary side rooms.’ Attached to the call 1991, the plans for a ‘Trigon Museum’ were was a spatial and functional programme shelved—despite the fact that they were on for the Kunsthaus Graz developed by Dieter the point of implementation. Shortly after- Bogner in September 1999, commissioned wards the architect Klaus Gartler was com- by the City of Graz. missioned to carry out a study of possible sites, which he submitted in 1996. The jury and their reasons A total of 102 projects were submitted A second competition with international to the international competition. Nine of participants and based at the ‘Schlossberg these were deemed worthy of award and – Palais Herberstein’ site fell through as a from these one prizewinning project was result of a referendum conducted in 1998. chosen. On April 7th 2000, the jury voted Even before this, the then city councillor unanimousl y for Peter Cook and Colin for culture Helmut Strobl and mayor Alfred Fournier’s design. In February 2001 financ- Stingl began setting up a third attempt. ing was approved in the Styrian Landtag and The Styrian cultural advisor Schachner- in the Graz municipal council. Blazizek pledged his support. It was at The jury consisted of Odile Decq, Dietmar this point that the plot next to the Eiserne Feichtinger, Kasper König, Harald Szeemann, Haus came under the spotlight as a pos- Thorsen Kjetil, Dieter Bogner, Wolfgang sible solution. Coinciding with the city’s Lorenz, Klaus Gartler, Gerfried Sperl and application for European Capital of Culture Rudolf Schilcher; the chairperson was Volker 2003, the creation of a museum gallery, Giencke. Peter Cook and Colin Fournier’s but without its own collection, seemed to proposal was chosen because ‘the Kun- be within reach. sthaus is not a conventional building, not a building that should or could be compared The location with existing buildings. It evades current The Kunsthaus Graz has been situated in a architectural interpretations with bravura, in less privileged district of the city, opposite that it does not follow any prevailing trends, to the historic city centre. It was built on a but rather sets them. Its function as a mag- vacant lot between Lendkai and Mariahilfer- net for distinctiveness shows itself in the straße, directly adjoining the ‘Eiserne Haus’ playful lightness of artistic creativity.’ (Iron House). Once a modern department store built by the architect Josef Benedikt Withalm from 1846–48, the building was 4 Living City This Archigram show took place in 1963 at the ICA, London; it was designed and curated by Archigram. The exhibition layout features similarities with the floor plan of the geometric inner skin of the Kunsthaus. The periscope directed towards Piccadilly is repeated in a modified form in the opening pointed at the Schlossberg. Instant City Archigram’s Instant City can to a certain extent be seen as an initial blueprint for Graz: the airship arrives from outside, lands in an undeveloped part of a city and via Blob evolution, rendering: Niels Jonkhans (provisional) structures offers information, education and entertainment. Until the Kunsthaus was built, the Lend district was also a neglected part of Graz. Although the building certainly cannot be described as The reference projects provisional, the programme of the Kunst- The ideas for a living, communicative and haus and programmatic goals do constantly constantly changing site for contemporary change the building. art were born a long time ago in another Clearly standing out from its surroundings, place, and in the midst of an environment the unmistakable appearance of the Kunst- shaped by pop culture: 1960s London. Back haus gave it the nickname of the ‘friendly then, Peter Cook and the other members alien’ that has landed in Graz, inserting of Archigram were already thinking about itself into the structure of the city. periscopes protruding from buildings, space ships that alighted in sleepy towns, spongy, landscape-like zones and variable skins for buildings. Cook and Fournier’s first joint project, the Batiment Public in Monte Carlo, was intended as a platform for all kinds of activities: go-kart, a circus, chamber music and even ice hockey. For the project that foreshadowed the Kunsthaus, envisaged in and on the Schlossberg, the architects imagined a huge, vividly coloured tongue stretching out of the hill and down into Archigram, Dirigeable Instant City M3, 1969–1998, the street below. In the Kunsthaus many Collection Frac Centre – Val de Loire, Orléans features mentioned in the following can be found. 5 Archigram, Instant City, 1969, Collection Frac Centre – Val de Loire, Orléans Peter Cook, Colin Fournier, The Tongue, 1997 (sketches), Archive Neue Galerie Graz The connections to popular culture pro- of the ‘unknown’, of not knowing what posed at that time, and which are signifi- awaits you. The value of the unknown in the cant for Instant City, nowadays apply to experience of architecture also played an the building of the Kunsthaus itself. It has important role from the outset in the ideas become an iconic motif—constantly photo- for the Kunsthaus. graphed, published online and in hundreds of magazines and journals across the world. The Sponge Starting with the idea of peeling away the Bâtiment Public, Monte Carlo outer skin of existing buildings and substi- The tender called for designs providing the tuting this with a spongy, landscape-like option to stage banquets, variety theatre, zone, a variable skin, the aim is to create a circus and other public events. In 1973, a new type of building on the basis of an Archigram and Colin Fournier proposed a old one. The term ‘sponge’ is derived from space that could accommodate a go-kart a bath sponge and its capacity to absorb. track, circus elephants, chamber music and Many years after this idea was considered, even ice hockey, an architectural design in the Kunsthaus was set to be given a chang- which space was carved out according to ing, transparent outer skin. For reasons of the specific event, a ‘feature space’, a plat- building technology, budget and time, this form for all kinds of activities. Barely vis- could not be realised. ible from the outside, this space was to be underground, with six entrances, intention- The Tongue ally more than were needed. Above, In 1997 an international competition was the plan included a park directly next to staged for the Schlossberg site. Cook and the sea. Hidden power and telephone cables Fournier’s building was to be given a strik- in the ground offered further potential uses ingly vivid roof with organic-looking, shift- for various requirements. The idea was that ing ‘nozzles’, as if it were gushing out of the you could even use them to order a drink. mountain and onto the street below. The The plans show service nodes embedded title The Tongue refers to the shape of the in the ground and domed ceiling; equipped building; taking this association further, the with robot-like machines serving the vari- ‘nozzles’ are reminiscent of taste buds, too. ous functional requirements of the space There are also parallels to the Kunsthaus and producing structures for each applica- here relating to a double-layered skin and tion (plug-in principle). In this way a kind the spatial programme. In terms of ideas of stage space would be generated with about a multifunctional exhibition centre, permanently changing spatial, colour or its roofing solution, the polymorphous lin- acoustic features, drawing attention away ing on the inside and its bright colours, The from the architectural shell.