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Jacques Herzog: Re-Use — Transcript

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4:11I begin with
4:13structures, transforming structures.
4:18Whenever an architect, can I have less
4:22light please?
4:23Whenever you as an architect, you start
4:26a project,
4:27um mostly something exists.
4:32Al- almost always something exists.
4:36Um you don't live in a world with no
4:40precedents. You don't live in a world
4:43with no
4:44givens.
4:46Uh architecture is made by people for
4:50people.
4:52Um
4:54This is of of course especially obvious
4:57when you
4:59um work on an existing on a pre-existing
5:03structure.
5:05Um
5:06certainly one of our most um typical
5:10examples
5:13for this fact is Tate Modern.
5:17But also for instance
5:19uh
5:20the CaixaForum
5:21that was mentioned before in Madrid.
5:25This is how Tate was looking when we
5:29first saw it. It was like
5:32a hidden castle.
5:34It was at the same time monumental
5:38and made to be seen with a fact with
5:41this huge chimney which lies right in
5:45front of St. Paul's Cathedral.
5:48As much as it is a hidden away kind of a
5:51castle which tries to keep everybody
5:54away from the building.
5:56So a kind of a paradox. You can see here
5:58that um
6:02that the architect of Tate Modern, Sir
6:05Giles Scott, a famous a then famous
6:08British architect, he's also known for
6:11designing the famous telephone cells,
6:14telephone cabins.
6:16Right in across St. Paul's which till
6:19the day today remains the most important
6:23building in a city which is more more
6:25surrounded by cheap architectures. Just
6:29a second. I have to
6:48Was Pierre de Meuron calling me?
6:52Um
6:55So you can see here before the
6:57intervention that this building being so
7:00monumental, surrounded by mediocre
7:03neighborhood, but totally inaccessible.
7:07And now the bridge by Foster,
7:11the building, the museum which is now
7:14creating a neighborhood which is
7:16growing, growing, growing and this has
7:18become the most visited museum in the
7:21world for modern and contemporary art.
7:25More than 5 million every year.
7:28Double as much as the Museum of Modern
7:30Art for instance in New York.
7:33So from hidden away totally changed the
7:37psychology of the neighborhood of the
7:39building to a totally open platform for
7:42everybody. This was also
7:45perhaps the most important um the safio
7:50the the challenge to to
7:53to to make it really to make it really
7:57um
7:58something for everybody so that you go
8:01there with a friend,
8:03maybe just to drink a coffee or to use
8:06the park around it which is of course
8:09something
8:10you couldn't do in Switzerland because
8:12nobody would sit on the grass, but in
8:14England, so you have to bring
8:18you have to open it in a way that people
8:20also like it even if they are not
8:22attracted only by art.
8:25Inside the building was like this when
8:28we found it. It was an industrial
8:30building. The architect, you could see
8:32that the will of the architect was
8:33already then to make it more than just
8:36an industrial building. He wanted this
8:37building to be monumental, important
8:40like a cathedral. And we,
8:42talking about reuse, not only the
8:45structure was interested for interesting
8:48for us, but the intention of the
8:51architect. We somehow reused the
8:54intention of the architect in that we
8:57were digging out everything and made it
9:01even more monumental. We increased the
9:04existing
9:06given.
9:08All the other architects that were
9:09invented to do the competition, we were
9:12at that time the youngest and least
9:15known from
9:17all the the list or more or less least
9:20known,
9:21they destroyed a lot of the existing
9:24building. We didn't destroy anything. We
9:27just dig out and go down on the very
9:30ground. The existing level was outside
9:33and we wanted to dig out everything so
9:36we would see the entire structure and
9:39not create a sotano and the upper part.
9:42You can see that here. This is the given
9:45street level and we went down so that
9:48once you're inside, you would see all
9:51of what will be a museum. That was the
9:54former boiler house. That was the former
9:57switchhouse, and that is the Turbine
9:59Hall. That became one of the most famous
10:02public spaces, not only in England.
10:06That was then, of course, not filled
10:10with turbines and machines, but with
10:12art. And it became, indeed, the popular
10:16space that we hoped it would become, but
10:19of course, we couldn't know to which
10:21degree the English
10:24uh and the foreign tourists would use
10:27and populate that space. It became a
10:29popular space, as I said, for people who
10:31just want to go there and meet, but also
10:35a challenge for artists to create works
10:39of art that they wouldn't do or wouldn't
10:42have been able to do in any other museum
10:45space. The Turbine Hall
10:48invented a new kind of gallery type,
10:51which was uh attracting people, of
10:53course, but also um giving artists
10:58unexpected um
11:00unexpected challenges.
11:04As here, you can see um
11:06this huge installation by um Anish
11:10Anish Kapoor
11:12uh on the ramp that has a tectonic um is
11:16a kind of a tectonic um element, or the
11:19sun the sun project by Olafur Eliasson.
11:23This kind of artwork, which is, of
11:26course, very attractive, um but also
11:29opens up new dimensions in uh how art
11:33can be um
11:36brought into cities and bring and
11:39interest other layers of the population
11:42is certainly one of the great merits of
11:45the Tate as an institution.
11:47So, the Tate as an institution grew
11:50through this building
11:52as much as
11:54we as architects could learn from this
11:56experience of reusing and taking a
12:01benefit of when you use it. We were not
12:04working against the building, but we
12:07used the building to do something that
12:10we as architects could never have done.
12:12We could never have invented such a
12:15space, which would give artists, like
12:18here Salcedo, a Spanish um
12:21Spanish architect um artist,
12:24um give this um opportunity to do
12:27life installations of such a dimension.
12:34But also in the more classical galleries
12:36that we um
12:38that we built in this building, like
12:40this one here, has a dimension, a scale,
12:43and a robustness that would have been
12:46difficult to find before in England.
12:48England, in fact, did not have any
12:51modern art museum before the Tate.
12:54England was never really a place for
12:57modern art, but it became it through
12:59Tate Modern. England was very much,
13:02let's say, um
13:04reclined to its own um
13:08to its own traditions of painting and
13:10especially sculpture, and far less open
13:13to contemporary and modern uh works of
13:16art. And maybe the Brexit will um again
13:20push back Britain into a kind of a more
13:23isolated uh country, maybe also for the
13:26arts. So, in that respect, the Tate um
13:31and especially Tate the expansion
13:33project that I will also show, is one of
13:36the
13:37of the monuments of England being part
13:40of a much more open and wider market,
13:44also art market. This is just to show
13:46you that the diversity of galleries that
13:49we wanted to bring in this reused
13:52building. This here, with this very
13:54ephemeral
13:56light,
13:58zenithal light is is right under the
14:00light beam. So, we use the building like
14:02a topography, which offers different
14:05types of galleries.
14:07The top one, with this very ephemeral
14:09light, the Turbine Hall in its huge
14:12gigantic dimension, before the one with
14:15the side windows, where we used the
14:18existing preexisting windows to give a
14:20more traditional way
14:22out from the galleries.
14:25And of course, views from balconies into
14:27the Turbine Hall.
14:30And across the city.
14:34The before-mentioned ramp, which
14:37connects the existing street level with
14:39the preexisting lowest level of the um
14:45former power station, gives access is
14:48one of the main accesses. Here, this is
14:51a moment where phase two does it not yet
14:54exist, but you can see that this
14:56monument of brick, we even added brick,
15:00we wanted to make what we found even
15:03more powerful, more strong.
15:07This section shows the addition, the
15:10second phase. It shows again the Turbine
15:12Hall and the boiler house, and it again
15:15shows how important it was to dig out
15:18this lowest level, so it connects over
15:21to this area, which was also
15:23preexisting. This is the area of the
15:26former oil tanks, from where we then, in
15:29contrast to the
15:31first scheme, which has a more linear
15:34organization, we display the more freer
15:37organization across the phase two. So,
15:40phase one and phase two are very
15:43important in two things.
15:45First of all, they are
15:48making one organism, and not one and two
15:52in that the architectural ingredients,
15:55concrete and brick, remain the same, but
15:58the spatial sequence is different. One
16:01is more linear and more traditional, the
16:03other is freer and more organic.
16:07Again, we start from a given space,
16:10which is a strong foundation, the oil
16:13tank area, from where then this stair
16:16winds its way up through the building.
16:19We wanted to turn these
16:22oil tank area into galleries for
16:25performing arts and video art that also
16:29no other museum would have in the world.
16:33That found space, industrial spaces,
16:37rough spaces are now a big thing
16:39everywhere, but very few buildings have
16:42the potential to find it on their own
16:46ground. This is how the top tanks looked
16:50like before, and this is after the
16:53intervention for instance, this display
16:56here, which is a music and a dance
16:58performance.
17:00But also uh
17:02other another the other oil tank has a
17:05different structure. We had to fix the
17:07ceiling, but also here it's rather
17:10focused on
17:12public and performance.
17:14Whereas smaller areas are used for
17:17cinema and video and um installation
17:21art.
17:23This is the area of the oil tanks, where
17:26existing structures and new structures
17:29come together and make for one thing. We
17:32penetrate, literally penetrate the
17:34preexisting thing with something that a
17:37non-architect would not immediately
17:39perceive as something different, but
17:42yes, if you look closely, you can see
17:44the difference. This shoots up all the
17:46forces vertically into the extension.
17:50And from where also the stair winds its
17:53way up through the building, and brings
17:56you up all the way through
17:59um
18:00the tower,
18:02which has this strange form
18:06that I will briefly talk about not
18:09linear, as I said, but it is like a
18:12landscape, has something tip
18:15topographical,
18:16uh and sometimes the floor is slightly
18:20inclined, so people are so aware of the
18:23that part being more like a piece of
18:26landscape between outside and the
18:29galleries.
18:31Like here,
18:33this space here
18:35has, of course, material
18:37analogies to the first phase, but
18:40specially has a freer um a freer
18:44arrangement, and also allows for the
18:47curators and the artists to use those
18:50in-between spaces in a slightly
18:52different way.
18:57Since the museum is so heavily visited,
19:00it is also important to create spaces
19:03like this one, which breaks down the
19:05scale and the materiality, and gives
19:07people a possibility for a more intimate
19:11um
19:12place to stay and to find people, like
19:16points, like uh niches, like in nature,
19:21if you sit under a tree and are not
19:23always exposed to the open landscape.
19:30This is also where people are being led
19:32through, so the way we bring people
19:35through the building makes them
19:36experience the building from different
19:38angles,
19:40till they finally reach the top floor
19:43with the views, which are, of course,
19:45amazing. And if you look outside here
19:48only, you can see how London has
19:51literally dramatically changed, more
19:53than any other city that I know in
19:55Europe. It's surrounded by mostly ugly
19:58towers. It's like a sea, an ocean of
20:02towers. If you compare this to
20:05the mid-90s when we started the project
20:07where literally it was a kind of an
20:09innocent innocent
20:12silhouette.
20:18The form
20:20is
20:22rising up from the given land parcel
20:26which it has this irregular form
20:29and reaches the top which is a
20:31rectangular form which is very much in
20:33line with the existing geometry of the
20:36industrial building. So, we brought this
20:39form into this form which creates this
20:43um
20:44kind of pyramidal shape.
20:48So, we maximize the envelope. We bring
20:51in program. We create voids. We create
20:54boulevards. We create structure and we
20:57create an envelope. We had a moment when
21:00it was a glass pyramid and it was very
21:03advanced and we felt uneasy. We felt
21:08not good and the very last moment we
21:11changed it all
21:13and was very complicated but we are so
21:15relieved we did it because
21:19for the for the for the
21:22for the sake of making the whole thing
21:25uh
21:25one one organism, it was
21:29very important to bring the material
21:32structure, the brickwork which is so
21:33typical, which is so important for the
21:37gravity of the building
21:38uh
21:40to to make that also to extend that also
21:42into the extension. So, that was a
21:44really a big relief.
21:48Again, this promenade through the
21:50building with gallery floors here on
21:54three levels like here with a bridge
21:58connecting the two sides just once. That
22:00was also a big discussion. This one
22:02connecting bridge is really interesting
22:06since it brings together the two sides
22:09of the building.
22:13That's the entrance from the plaza. You
22:15can see that now with the extension the
22:17south and the north are connected. So,
22:20we cross the turbine hall and make the
22:23turbine hall even more an important
22:25urban space.
22:30The galleries
22:33which are offering very different
22:36um
22:37spatial conditions and the tower the
22:40plan of the tower which is getting
22:42smaller more you get up which contains
22:46school room education, member rooms,
22:49many public spaces. So, the tower is
22:51being inhabited by everybody literally
22:54to the very top.
22:57The bridge which connects the two sides
23:00and offers other views
23:03uh
23:04into the turbine hall
23:08and the galleries in the new part
23:12which of course have a different flavor,
23:14a different atmosphere but remain part
23:18of the same organism.
23:25The brickwork, as I said, was important
23:28for the second phase but we wanted to
23:30alter it to give it a different flavor
23:33and we developed this transparency which
23:36is like lace which is both robust and
23:40hermetic and powerful and traditional as
23:43it is ephemeral
23:46and allows for views across the building
23:48from inside out and outside in and gives
23:51the building a kind of a
23:54lightness, transparency
23:57but still maintains
23:59a solidity.
24:01These are all details how we managed to
24:05do this and how we could attach it to
24:08the very heavy concrete structure which
24:11is like a structure of bones behind.
24:20You can also see that we flattened this
24:22structure so people wouldn't climb up in
24:24the lower part
24:27and you can also see how we use the edge
24:30where the two sides come together
24:33to create this kind of porosity
24:37which defines or reveals also the
24:40construction behind it. It's a simple
24:43but important detail for how we use
24:47construction as part of the idea of the
24:49whole building.
24:57And
24:58the two structures side by side and you
25:01can also see which something that we
25:04always find very important, more let's
25:07say the neighbors were doing glass
25:09buildings, more we became aware that we
25:12could not do a glass building. We could
25:14do we should do something which is an
25:16institution which is a public building
25:19and is not a bank or an office building
25:21or
25:23a housing scheme.
25:25It has these towers
25:27outside the Tate. Whenever you visit it,
25:29you will immediately understand what we
25:32mean. All these glass buildings which
25:34have been uh
25:36going up in the last years as a result
25:39of the success of the Tate as a real
25:41estate bubble.
25:44The second building in this
25:47first part, I will show four projects
25:50is this concert hall, Elbphilharmonie,
25:53which also is based on an existing
25:56structure which also would not be the
25:59kind of project without us
26:03let's say um
26:05uh
26:07insisting on making the existing part a
26:10very powerful ingredient.
26:13This is a building that looks older just
26:16like also the Tate was actually built in
26:19the '60s only. Late '50s, early '60s the
26:23the the power station but looks like
26:2519th century and this is a listed
26:27building uh
26:29from the
26:31early '60s that we liked also for its
26:35robustness and roughness. It was a
26:38lagerhaus, a warehouse for chocolate,
26:41cafe, etc. etc. And was especially
26:44located in a part of the city which was
26:46port and industrial and was totally away
26:49from the
26:50traditional city of Hamburg which was
26:53rather is a very beautiful city but
26:56rather flat
26:58uh no towers or very few and only
27:02the church
27:04uh the clock towers going beyond that
27:07height. So, somehow this height is
27:10standard for Hamburg and only because
27:13this part
27:15opens up a new chapter in the urban
27:19evolution of the city
27:21we thought that we could do a building
27:24that would dramatically be a different
27:27scale because the traditional city of
27:29Hamburg, the Alster being here, was its
27:32focus on itself whereas this here opens
27:35up into a totally different urban space
27:39much larger, much vaster and more
27:42dealing with water and industry and the
27:46port than the
27:48the city of
27:50uh
27:51the citizens.
27:54You can see that here. Behind is the
27:56traditional city and in the front is the
27:59water city, the Elbe city.
28:05And this is the level of the top of this
28:08existing storage building from where you
28:11can see that more or less you
28:13most of the buildings have the same
28:15height and only the clock towers like in
28:17a medieval veduta can be seen.
28:21And we very much like that
28:23and we only
28:25went up because we saw some so so to
28:28speak the building
28:31opens up a new chapter in this city.
28:34This is one of the first sketches. So,
28:36somehow very
28:37soon it was clear that we wanted to put
28:40the concert hall
28:42on top and not sink it into the building
28:45as it was planned by the developer that
28:49came to see us.
28:51We then developed it relatively fastly.
28:54That was a after a few months we came up
28:57with this building, this kind of
28:59conceptual design
29:02that
29:03we did not know whether it would have
29:05been
29:06whether it could be a success or not
29:09because it was not based on a
29:10competition but a
29:12a friend of us
29:13came up and said, "Instead of developing
29:16this in a commercial way, there was a
29:18project that was on the verge of being
29:20built, a tower and
29:22some
29:23loft transformations as ubiquitous
29:26project as it could be in any other port
29:29city.
29:31We came up with this design and it was
29:33winning a lot of attention with the with
29:37the newspapers and this title says
29:40because it was politically not yet
29:42accepted, everybody we we want to see we
29:45want it.
29:46We wanted and
29:48the pressure was so big on the mayor and
29:51the politicians that it created a kind
29:53of a enthusiasm in the media that
29:55supported that project. So, the
29:58interesting thing why I say this is that
30:00this is
30:01an elitist project, a concert hall, a
30:04philharmonic hall, but it was supported
30:07by
30:08the people. The people wanted it. It's
30:10not some rich person who donates it and
30:13then maybe they like it, they don't, but
30:15the people said we want to see.
30:17And at the same time
30:20the same media a few months later
30:24said this because it became a people
30:28became aware through media reports and
30:32through official numbers that the
30:34originally fixed price or the originally
30:37communicated price was far more was
30:41going beyond time and money was a real
30:44disaster. And it was worse and worse.
30:48And at the end it was around six or
30:50seven hundred.
30:52But this is like a story in itself, but
30:55I think it's important to mention it in
30:57a architectural presentation that today
31:01as an architect, if you are involving
31:03yourself in big public project, this is
31:06not just you make a nice design and it's
31:09good or it's less good, but it's so
31:11heavily political and in a democracy and
31:14in a bottom-up
31:16democratic city you cannot not expose
31:20yourself to such a debate. And it's very
31:23important that architects who do such
31:25projects
31:27are well
31:28structured in how they process, how they
31:32deal with these things to make contracts
31:35of is more more very very complicated.
31:39And to do contracts especially which
31:42make you survive after project are very
31:45complicated.
31:48Um
31:49Anyway, we survived it and the project
31:52became
31:54a huge success as you may know
31:56um despite this huge battle and the
31:59building was really the project was
32:00really on the verge of not being built
32:03half finished because of the financial
32:06and time uh disaster.
32:10Now I explain briefly in which way we
32:12use it, the existing and the existing
32:16and the new are in a dialogue.
32:19The first element that we introduced in
32:22this plinth which we transformed into a
32:25silo in a lager house in a warehouse for
32:28cars instead of chocolate beans is this
32:32kind of um
32:34escalator.
32:37We as I said we transformed the the
32:40warehouse into a garage with the same
32:43robust tile kind of architecture
32:48which expresses being expressed also at
32:51the outside in a relatively unchanged
32:54envelope with this
32:57entrance where we cut away some of the
32:59socket so that people would walk in very
33:02easily and then find
33:04the escalator
33:06which brings them up through this plinth
33:10into the main building. You can see that
33:13the escalator is slightly curved. Why
33:15did we do this? We wanted to make this
33:20transition from the street to the
33:22building a a ride into
33:25not an unknown, but a somehow
33:28um
33:29undisclosed
33:31part. We wanted to make to express this
33:35transition in a spatial way, in an
33:38architectural way. So, we want to
33:41slightly curve it to bend the stair that
33:45brings people up so that as you can see
33:47here you don't see exactly where you
33:49land.
33:52And this is true
33:54for everybody.
33:58That finally they reach the balcony from
34:01where they have a view
34:04through an existing window
34:06onto the waters outside
34:10and the plaza. This is the plaza level
34:13which is the former roof of the existing
34:16plinth which is of course using the same
34:19brick as for the facade.
34:24You can see where the
34:25escalator is landing
34:27and from where then you have views
34:29across
34:30the port
34:32but also on the city. And from this
34:35level the way leads to up into the foyer
34:38spaces.
34:43On this level
34:45it has of course
34:46maybe I can
34:49quickly go out here.
34:55That
34:56you find yourself on this platform from
34:59where the way then leads to up into the
35:03uh foyer that surrounds
35:06uh the main concert hall. You can also
35:09see that it has apartments and hotels
35:11around uh the concert hall. I especially
35:15talk about that plinth, about the
35:17escalator, about the plaza and then
35:20about the foyer and finish with the main
35:23hall.
35:32Which starts here and
35:34you can see here that this space that is
35:37around it
35:39is
35:40in contrast to
35:43the escalator which is a very clear one
35:46form that you can have in your mind as
35:49an architect and then you technically
35:51draw it up and resolve it. You can also
35:56develop this relatively
35:58straightforwardly.
35:59You can also even the
36:01the main
36:02concert hall is one kind of a sculptural
36:05piece that follows a plan. Whereas this
36:09space in between has a different method
36:13methodolo- methodology as an architect.
36:15Here we were
36:17we were forced to work very analogically
36:21like um bricolage like uh you work uh
36:25have been working always as an architect
36:28in that you change, you cut out, you fix
36:31it again. So, very traditionally. I like
36:35this model very much because it's
36:37demonstrates this working method. This
36:40is a non-digital
36:42kind of working method. You could not
36:44design that space purely on the
36:46computer. You would totally go wrong.
36:49You cannot imagine this space because
36:51you don't have any distance. And it's
36:53also much faster to do it this way. We
36:56change it many many way many times
36:59so that finally we could test every
37:02proportion and every cut that is leading
37:06people the way up that is detaching or
37:10connecting this with the main core. This
37:14here is the outer form, the outer skin,
37:17the outer shell of the concert hall.
37:22I think is perhaps also the most
37:24successful space in the whole building
37:27because you could you cannot show this
37:29in slides because every every time that
37:32you walk up and down you have really
37:34different spatial conditions. It's again
37:36a bit what I said about the Tate. We
37:39wanted to have spaces which are very
37:42tall and we want to create spaces which
37:45offer you much intimacy. And everybody
37:48who visits the building can find his or
37:51her preferred
37:53part.
38:00Always this is being used to find the
38:04way into the main concert hall. Like
38:06here you come from the foyer into the
38:09main concert hall and then also here you
38:12have this kind of lower scale niche kind
38:16of things before you then enter your
38:18specific balcony.
38:23You can already see here the crust that
38:26is attached to the wall which is yeso,
38:29which is gypsum. And it is like a shell
38:33of a sea animal. And it is also
38:36repeating the form that you see we see
38:38outside. So, it's a kind of a
38:40self-similar form that is purely driven
38:43by acoustic reasons. Each of the these
38:46forms is here to focus the sounds uh
38:51according uh a pattern.
38:56The main concert hall, these are all
38:58studies. How do we do this? What were
39:02our
39:03references? Talking about reuse. What is
39:07a philharmonic hall? We all know the
39:09Berlin example, the Scharoun building
39:11which is still perhaps the most perfect
39:14model
39:15that we of course didn't want to copy or
39:18didn't want to take as a model because
39:20all the
39:21models that uh all the um
39:25architectures that use Scharoun as a
39:27model were at the end of the day less
39:29good. And why? Because the Scharoun
39:32building is in itself already perfect.
39:34So, we wanted to have other
39:37other
39:38influences. We wanted other sources that
39:42would make that would give this
39:45Philharmonic Hall, this concert hall
39:47a very powerful
39:49original
39:52um character.
39:55One is the Greek theater, the antique
39:59theater. Why? Because it's so simple and
40:02because it is carved out of the ground.
40:05So, somehow even if we are in the air,
40:08this moment of being rooted and connect
40:13the space with its materiality, its its
40:17built materiality
40:19was very important. That's why the
40:22acoustic crust that I showed you has a
40:25very physical component,
40:28very decorative, but at the same time
40:30something which is almost has a tectonic
40:32quality. So, we
40:34find a lot of of interest in this kind
40:38of
40:40foundation.
40:41But, we also like this very urban and
40:46very vertical dimension of the Scala. I
40:49think this is a fantastic that
40:52the spectators themselves are a kind of
40:56a space-making element like in a soccer
40:59stadium. As you know that we we've also
41:01done football stadiums and we always
41:05wanted the people to be as close as
41:08possible
41:09uh near the scene, near the actors, near
41:12the
41:13musicians in this case. So, the people
41:16would be a much more interesting
41:18spatial element than any architectural
41:22feature.
41:24The third element that we like is, of
41:27course, the tent-like festive kind of
41:31character that is expressed in this
41:33um
41:34um
41:37image here from
41:39uh
41:41um
41:43Bayreuth Bayreuth um
41:45which is a very German, very um
41:49Wagnerian kind of a
41:52concept that we think
41:56is interesting because most of the
41:59Philharmonic Halls, if you look at the
42:01at the ceiling,
42:03the architect seems to have lost the
42:05inspiration and very often the ceiling
42:07has something technical and many
42:09chandeliers sort of not not finish the
42:14space
42:16uh at the very top. The very top here is
42:20very interesting because I guess this
42:23has also acoustic functions, but
42:24especially it
42:26it gives those people, if you think back
42:29of the Greek theater, it gives these
42:30people that sit down on the ground, are
42:32in touch with the ground, something at
42:34the top which has an equivalent, but
42:37more ethereal kind of a character.
42:42This is a model that is was made to test
42:45acoustics with Pierre and Ascon
42:48who were working together on this
42:50project with me.
42:52We tested here in the center, there was
42:54a microphone and the interesting thing
42:57for you here is that if you test the
43:00space acoustically, you can scale down a
43:03space and the sound that you bring into
43:06this reduced space is can be tested
43:10equally. So, you can scale this the the
43:13the sound as much as you can as much as
43:15you can scale down a space.
43:20And
43:21what you can see here is the finished
43:23space and after, of course, many
43:27changes we've done, we wanted, as I
43:30said, to make the people surround the
43:32space. But, we of course didn't want to
43:34make them surround it like in the Scala
43:37in a regular way, but in a irregular
43:40more dynamic way. On the other hand, we
43:41didn't want to make this dynamic too
43:43much going in like a spiral in one
43:46direction, but it goes in two
43:48directions. As soon as you go somewhere,
43:51it loses itself and you go it goes in
43:54the other direction. So, it has a
43:56dynamic, but also a static function at
43:59the same time. At the end of the day,
44:01the result is something where you can
44:04find your way
44:05all the way down. You can walk through
44:07the whole space all over, but it's not
44:11obvious and it was not so easy to make
44:14that work, so it's not unstable or too
44:17dynamic.
44:20You can see the surfaces here. We all
44:23use them
44:24for these acoustic measurements. Also,
44:27the old concert halls that you may have
44:30seen with these baroque ornaments, the
44:32the the gypsum, the yeso has a very
44:36powerful way to support the
44:40the way acoustic flows in the space.
44:44Our solution for the roof is this huge
44:47mushroom-like chandelier that can be
44:49brought up and down that is at the same
44:52time a chandelier for light, but also
44:55regulates acoustics. And originally, we
44:57planned to even bring people uh into
45:01that space. But, you can see that the
45:04way that people can go very high up and
45:07all almost mix themselves with the
45:09technical insulation at the very top.
45:12So, literally the ideal was to make
45:15people surround literally the whole
45:18space.
45:38Here you can see that it has different
45:40scales because we were given a pattern
45:43by the acoustician,
45:45Toyota
45:47who is a
45:48very famous Japanese acoustician. And we
45:50also created transparent versions, so we
45:53would make the whole space one thing.
45:55Also, I think what is worth mentioning
45:58is how we integrate the organ into the
46:02main hall. These are samples of those
46:05gypsum boards
46:09and how the construction of this
46:11mushroom-like piece out of this
46:14central hole.
46:20This is, of course,
46:22digitally produced
46:24and you can see that at the opening,
46:27Mrs. Merkel also liked it very much.
46:35That's where you can see how the organ
46:36is is integrated in the main space.
46:40We didn't want to make it a central
46:41piece that would dominate or a hierarchy
46:44too much of a hierarchy in in the space,
46:46which very often the organ is.
46:51Here you can see what I mentioned before
46:53that it has, of course, a symmetry, but
46:55the symmetry is not so obvious.
46:59From outside, this piece is glass, but
47:04it's not
47:05like the office towers around. It has is
47:08bulging. It has a um um
47:11um
47:12a moving surface which is cut vertically
47:16or horizontally according to the use as
47:19a window in a hotel or a balcony in the
47:22part where people have apartments.
47:26We also repeat this dancing form. This
47:29is remindful of waves or of
47:32movement
47:34of any kind, but also, of course, has a
47:36very strong structural component. We
47:40take that those lines to literally
47:45support the roof that you see inside.
47:47So, there is a connection between the
47:50form inside and the form outside. Those
47:53pill-like elements
47:55uh we chose them because they allow more
47:58easily to be arranged within these very
48:02irregular forms.
48:05Those are cuts which bring daylight into
48:08the part between the main central music
48:11hall and the layers around, which are
48:15housing and hotel.
48:18This is what I said before. Of course,
48:20we did many of those drawings and models
48:22which are testing the or optimizing the
48:25structural lines.
48:28We Of course, with this glass on top of
48:32this brick
48:34planes, this is in a traditional way
48:36kind of a dialectic opposition, but
48:40each, you know, they are penetrating
48:43each other as I showed with the
48:44materiality and also the spatial
48:47continuity. And what you can see here is
48:51that the appearance of the building
48:53looking very differently at different
48:55seasons and different hours of the day.
48:58This is certainly something we like in
49:00architecture to
49:03confront people in a city with their
49:06main buildings in an each time slightly
49:09differently looking building. So, this
49:12building has sometimes very dark
49:15appearance, sometimes very light.
49:17Sometimes it's very clearly
49:19can be seen very clearly as an object
49:21and sometimes it even vanishes,
49:24which may have a kind of a romantic
49:27roots,
49:28uh which I would not deny, but this
49:32change in how something appears
49:35uh is certainly a very important um um
49:39obsession we follow in our work.
49:42And you can see here, of course, in
49:44making the surface so irregular, you
49:47enhance all these
49:50these processes of changing appearance,
49:54which is inherent in glass, but much
49:56more so with this kind of surface.
50:05And I like this also for that very
50:08reason. This has a very romantic um
50:11um
50:12look, but this is a real image uh and
50:15not a fake. So, it has a almost a
50:18a kind of a Turner-like aspect.
50:23When we speak about reuse, it's not just
50:27a literally reusing something material
50:30that exists or preexists, but also that
50:32we rediscover forms uh that have been
50:35forgotten. Like uh
50:37the archaic house form, as you may know,
50:39we've done it and we've used it many
50:41times, but in a very
50:44um
50:45powerful way, I guess, in the for this
50:48project in Berlin, which I will briefly
50:51present. Uh the We won the competition a
50:54year ago and we will now, in these
50:56months, start the ante proyecto, the
51:00project which takes it further after
51:03many debates. And I will assist another
51:05one uh this Wednesday, uh so tomorrow,
51:09actually. Uh no, the day after No,
51:11tomorrow evening. Um
51:13because, of course,
51:15the proposal has been seen as a polemic,
51:18which, of course, it is not, but, of
51:20course, it's a provocation. Sometimes,
51:22to use something which is so obvious and
51:24so simple is something that offends
51:26people.
51:28A brief history of the site. This is
51:32the Berlin area. That's the Tiergarten
51:34for those who are a little little bit um
51:37um
51:38knowledgeable about Berlin,
51:40Landwehrkanal, and that's the famous
51:43Matthäuskirche, Matthäikirche, and
51:44that's where now the Mies van der Rohe
51:47building is and the Scharoun building in
51:49a formerly uh totally um
51:53classical blockrand kind of uh city
51:56situation. The war has changed
51:58everything. That was around 1920,
52:01Matthew Matthew Church.
52:04Um
52:05a brick church. Uh
52:07then, the Nazis planned to destroy some
52:11of this area in that they bring in uh
52:13Germania uh
52:15a main axis um
52:19for um
52:20their
52:22um empire eternal empire that gladly did
52:27never happen.
52:28But, they started already to destroy
52:31some of that area. They have
52:34built this building.
52:36So, part of the neighborhood was
52:39destroyed even before it was bombed out
52:43by the allies in um
52:47um 1944 and 1945, I think. So, this is
52:52That's the first building of the Nazis
52:55in That was in in uh invading already
52:59this kind of preexisting neighborhood.
53:04And the church after the bombing and
53:07after the reconstruction.
53:09And the dream of the Berliners was to
53:11create their own cultural forum since
53:14the the
53:15um segregation or the separation or the
53:18division of the city between East and
53:20West. Uh the cultural forum, the
53:23cultural center was in the East on the
53:26Museumsinsel, and so the plan was to
53:29create their own uh cultural forum. And
53:33Scharoun was one of the main um
53:36actors, not only as an architect, but
53:38also as an urbanist, and the dream of
53:41something that would be totally against
53:45um
53:46uh the classical city in a freer dancing
53:49form was suddenly interesting and
53:52logical and also psychologically
53:54logical, but, of course, also created a
53:57huge fuss and a huge disorder because,
54:01as much as Scharoun uh as Mies did uh
54:06suddenly a nice building and Scharoun,
54:09all these
54:10objects are totally autistic. They are
54:13totally
54:15remaining in themselves without any
54:17dialogue to the outside or to the
54:20neighbors.
54:21Whoever has visited this, this is a main
54:24gesture for that Mies did, but all the
54:26galleries are hidden in the ground. And
54:30this place, which has the potential
54:33potentially is open and the forum,
54:36nobody is ever there.
54:38And the same thing is actually also true
54:40for this kind of very interesting
54:42architecture. It is interesting
54:45specially, but you can see all this this
54:48uh
54:49this kind of stuff here doesn't allow
54:51for people to go outside, to be in
54:55contact with somebody. It's not really
54:58uh an architecture that was made or was
55:01intended
55:02to go outside the institution. The
55:06institutions also are not really in
55:08touch with each other. So, the dream of
55:10the cultural forum as a place
55:13where people would come together, speak,
55:17be in touch, as I tried to explain with
55:19the Turbine Hall, is actually
55:21non-existing. Plus, it has this big
55:24street, this kind of uh highway crossing
55:29uh the city that cuts apart the library
55:33and
55:35that side. So, the street passes by
55:37here.
55:40Scharoun himself made a proposal for the
55:43space between the Nationalgalerie and
55:46the Philharmonie Hall. So, with this uh
55:49building, I don't know how good this
55:51building would have been. He at least
55:53said, "Yes, this side can be built."
55:55because that's where the competition
55:57proposal uh
55:59uh
56:00is made. That's where the Museum of the
56:0320th 20th and 21st century, our design
56:07will go. So, it will fill out the gap
56:10between all these buildings.
56:12Because there were other buildings that
56:14have been added, not only the
56:17Nationalgalerie
56:19and the um
56:21music hall, but also here, this whole
56:23part was built
56:25with
56:26galleries and museums.
56:29After quite mediocre designs that were
56:31never really realized, but you can see
56:34that the spirit of Scharoun has not only
56:36had
56:38good influences.
56:41And that was a Hollein proposal that
56:44turned the back to the East because at
56:46that time, that was before the fall of
56:48the wall, that was meant to be the kind
56:51of a back or the end of um space rather
56:55than the center.
56:58Again, Hollein.
57:00And a competition for the center, a
57:03garden, a landscape concept, which, of
57:06course, will be destroyed if we do the
57:09museum because this concept was, of
57:10course, never realized, but it was I
57:13just show it as part of demonstrating
57:17the uncertainty of the debate around
57:20this area. That is because, of course,
57:23Mies and Scharoun are being considered
57:25as heroes and very important um icons,
57:29which they are, but
57:32it's also making people blind for what
57:35actually the potential is of this site
57:37and the necessity to bring these things
57:39together.
57:41That's another proposal of uh I think
57:44Kleihues, which is
57:46trying to connect the museums behind
57:49with this area. So, that's a proposal
57:52for this site between Mies and Scharoun,
57:55but you can see already on this design
57:58how mediocre these designs are and how
58:01difficult it is to be between the purity
58:04of Mies and the playfulness of Scharoun
58:07with an a typology that survives and
58:11exists without being rivaling
58:14or at the same time be be without also
58:17being totally uh
58:20uh
58:21too too modest and too undecided. So,
58:24the challenge to do something here is
58:27really very difficult, and the result of
58:29the competition
58:30was demonstrating how
58:34many architects just went underground.
58:36Some copied Mies, some copied Scharoun,
58:39some tried something else, but to create
58:43uh something
58:44uh that has its own identity and somehow
58:48becomes part of this game of individual
58:51objects
58:53was the real
58:54uh desafío.
58:56And here here is the site. Here is the
58:59site for that was given to the
59:01competitors. And for us, it was very
59:04clear from the beginning, very soon,
59:06that only this very simple house form
59:10could be a sovereign form and at the
59:14same time very simple and not a form
59:17that would
59:18rival that would be Miesian or would be
59:21Scharounian, but at the same time has an
59:24openness and
59:27I explained it also in a text
59:29that um
59:31tries to give the jury a guideline what
59:34this could be and how in fact open the
59:38form is. And the interesting thing of
59:40this house form is that it's so
59:44powerful symbolic in the mind of people,
59:47everybody
59:49immediately has a approach to this form
59:53and at the same time it can be
59:56it can be very important buildings as it
1:00:00can be very modest and and low-key kind
1:00:04of
1:00:05places.
1:00:06Anyway, I don't ask you to read all
1:00:09this, but I give you examples that we
1:00:10also showed to the to the jury.
1:00:14In fact, the proportion of our building
1:00:16is exactly that. We just cut away this.
1:00:20So, we took in fact exactly that. The
1:00:22jury just said no that. This is the
1:00:24first National Gallery. That's the
1:00:26National Gallery before Mies did his
1:00:29building.
1:00:30Which, and I explain this in the text,
1:00:32the purity of Mies cannot be
1:00:36made more and the playfulness of
1:00:40Scharoun, not even Gehry could do
1:00:43something that would survive next to
1:00:44Scharoun because it's two models that
1:00:47express an extreme.
1:00:49So,
1:00:50somehow going back historically or going
1:00:54beyond this kind of typology was our
1:00:57approach. And we found this temple-like
1:00:59structure by Stüler, is is a pupil of
1:01:04of Schinkel.
1:01:06Or then this
1:01:08factory or this
1:01:10barn outside Berlin
1:01:13uh
1:01:15is also an ingredient because we said
1:01:17these are not just models, but what we
1:01:20like is also the content. We like the
1:01:23museum to be like a temple, but we also
1:01:25like it to be like a farm like a farm.
1:01:28So, it is producing something. It's also
1:01:32feeding. Museums are producing and
1:01:35feeding. They're also places to have a
1:01:39kind of a spiritual moment. They also
1:01:41are placing like I found this image when
1:01:44I last was in Moscow.
1:01:46Um this is the Manege was a places for
1:01:49horses. Now, they turned it into museum.
1:01:52So, somehow they did what we do in
1:01:54Berlin.
1:01:55This also is in scale and proportion
1:01:57quite similar to what we propose.
1:02:01We also like the hangar aspect of it
1:02:06or the train aspect of it. The openness
1:02:08and the transitional moment.
1:02:12And of course, we've used it ourselves
1:02:14in the case of the Parrish Museum
1:02:17uh we've used it in a more barn-like
1:02:20surrounding
1:02:21but also we've tested it as places for
1:02:25galleries
1:02:27and for public spaces.
1:02:29And we've tested it as a possibility,
1:02:32and that's very much what we do in
1:02:34Berlin, as places where you can sit
1:02:37outside, where you can have from the
1:02:39beginning a being in touch with the
1:02:41building, in touch with the neighbor.
1:02:46We have done
1:02:48this house, as you may know,
1:02:51which looks very simple and very
1:02:53innocent, but in fact, when you look at
1:02:56from another side, you discover that it
1:02:58is in fact not sitting on the ground,
1:03:00not so innocent, but has other sides.
1:03:03So, we like in the archaic form the
1:03:06subversive moment the archaic form also
1:03:09has. The archaic form is not just
1:03:12tranquil or is not just quiet, but it
1:03:16opens up it opens up spaces and
1:03:19potentials that we are interested as
1:03:22architects.
1:03:26We used it also as a material
1:03:30powerful material
1:03:33exercise or ingredient as part of larger
1:03:36architecture like in this case for the
1:03:38Schaufler Lager
1:03:39as a space, as a transition space
1:03:43and as an object of orientation.
1:03:48Since the beginning, we knew that we
1:03:50wanted also not only this form, this
1:03:53house form, but we wanted to make it a
1:03:56kind of a cross thing between
1:04:00existing buildings here would be Mies
1:04:02and Scharoun and the galleries in the
1:04:04north and the library. So, it would be a
1:04:06place where you would walk through,
1:04:08where you would meet, where you'd find
1:04:10other people. We've made it that's the
1:04:13very first model that of course would
1:04:16would have been we would have been
1:04:17kicked out immediately because it was
1:04:19far too high, but we liked at the
1:04:22beginning the the house form just as a
1:04:24roof under which then you would organize
1:04:27different forms. We then later come came
1:04:29back and made it lower and we made it
1:04:32much integrated, but we oriented it
1:04:35first in a different way towards the
1:04:38street
1:04:39and only later we reoriented it so that
1:04:43it would be open to Mies and to
1:04:45Scharoun.
1:04:48That's an earlier model.
1:04:54And that's what the rendering shows. We
1:04:57will not do this curve, by the way. It
1:04:59shows also
1:05:01a translucency
1:05:03a bl- out made out of bricks very
1:05:06similar to the Tate, which probably we
1:05:08will not do, but we like the lumin-
1:05:11luminosity from inside out and also the
1:05:15fact that it assimilates um
1:05:18light from outside in. This is an
1:05:20example of the Tate that we've seen
1:05:22before.
1:05:25And inside, you can see that here too we
1:05:28have in a smaller scale we have a public
1:05:31central space that is composed of
1:05:33different elements like the stair that
1:05:36brings people down from the street,
1:05:38which at the same time is a kind of an
1:05:39auditorium
1:05:41that then connects down. We also like
1:05:44the fact that all is visible. The lowest
1:05:47floor, the main floor, the top floor and
1:05:50the outside. Everything comes together
1:05:52in this central space. We want this to
1:05:54be a real forum for the different
1:05:58institutions that's around the building.
1:06:02This is an example of Miami Art Museum
1:06:05where we used the stair in a similar way
1:06:08as a main axis element, but also as an
1:06:11auditorium.
1:06:14And of course, the Tate, which does the
1:06:16same thing.
1:06:17So, we try to give that space in the
1:06:20center of the Berlin Museum a similar
1:06:23character.
1:06:27We also like the galleries is to have
1:06:30different conditions under the under the
1:06:33ceiling
1:06:35living with daylight from the top
1:06:38or with artificial light.
1:06:44To have galleries which have a defined
1:06:47and a less defined
1:06:49spatial sequence. So,
1:06:52going out and you know, being in between
1:06:56spaces. So, it's not a fixed frame of
1:06:59galleries.
1:07:01And with the views outside.
1:07:04And with niches.
1:07:06And the lowest floor, which connects
1:07:08over to Mies, you know, to make it not
1:07:11just a corridor, but to make it a
1:07:14promenade for art and for different
1:07:17kinds of spaces, sunken spaces like this
1:07:19is a a kind of a space that is made will
1:07:23be made to house
1:07:25Joseph Beuys' Das Kapital.
1:07:28Not dissimilar to the oil tank area
1:07:32or the Schaufler Lager in Basel, where
1:07:34this installation is permanent
1:07:36installation is one of these examples
1:07:39where a museum has permanent spaces
1:07:41which are
1:07:42too difficult to move and which give
1:07:45each museum a kind of
1:07:49give in museums create kind of
1:07:51chapel-like areas where you would always
1:07:53find
1:07:55uh
1:07:55something not dissimilar to religious
1:07:59places like this famous installation by
1:08:01Bob Gober.
1:08:03And where you would also like in the
1:08:05Schaufler Lager see down onto the lowest
1:08:09floor so that each floor would be having
1:08:12equal importance.
1:08:17And spaces outside that really are made
1:08:20to
1:08:21which are acogedor, como se diría en
1:08:24español.
1:08:26Like here. And I think this moment of of
1:08:29acogedor is very is a very good word for
1:08:33what we want to
1:08:35want to do in buildings and use the form
1:08:38of the building to create that.
1:08:42Like here is again
1:08:43the Parrish Museum in New York, where
1:08:46this area of the benches makes sense
1:08:50because it's it offers people a contact
1:08:53to the landscape, which can be a park.
1:08:56This is Berlin, where you can sit, where
1:08:58you can be in touch with the surrounding
1:09:01landscape or with the surrounding
1:09:03buildings. And I mention especially this
1:09:06church because the interesting thing
1:09:08about this church is not just a nice
1:09:10monument, but it is not used for
1:09:13religious ceremonies anymore, but is a
1:09:15so-called open church.
1:09:17And um
1:09:19which sits here.
1:09:21It's sits in a park-like area, which as
1:09:25this is our plan for the landscape where
1:09:28the Tiergarten somehow extends back to
1:09:30the Landwehrkanal even if it's far less
1:09:33dense because it has so many buildings,
1:09:35but it has trees which invade the built
1:09:38area not dissimilar to this earlier plan
1:09:42where you can see that the trees become
1:09:44fewer but they have the kind of
1:09:46Tiergarten
1:09:47extends to the Landwehrkanal invading
1:09:51also the church.
1:09:53That's what we try to do
1:09:56in all these areas
1:09:58a bit
1:09:59like here.
1:10:01But also around the church and the
1:10:04church should be an important ingredient
1:10:07for this encounter because this is when
1:10:10I visited the church and I found in a
1:10:13totally unexpected way the most radical
1:10:15contemporary art exhibition by Gilbert &
1:10:18George, very polemic British artists.
1:10:22And to find this art in the former
1:10:24religious
1:10:26space on a Sunday where at the same time
1:10:29there was a concert.
1:10:31Uh
1:10:32as you can see here just two or three
1:10:33musicians in this space.
1:10:36Uh
1:10:38while you were watching
1:10:40the artworks
1:10:43in this
1:10:44formerly religious context was a very
1:10:46interesting art experience and
1:10:48especially and kind of a contemporary
1:10:50art experience that we believe is an
1:10:53very interesting
1:10:55way to show how the museum in the future
1:10:58can work especially the one a one that
1:11:01calls itself Museum of the 20th and 21st
1:11:03century.
1:11:05Now the last project is
1:11:08about reuse of waste, rainwater and
1:11:11earth. It is a project
1:11:14that we have been working on since two
1:11:16years.
1:11:17Radical project I would say for the
1:11:18Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles. It
1:11:21is an amazing site right behind right
1:11:25behind the um
1:11:27uh
1:11:28the Getty Center here.
1:11:30It is
1:11:32on Sepulveda Boulevard. It's in the
1:11:34hills of
1:11:37Los Angeles on this
1:11:40moun- mountain
1:11:44um ridge here. In fact, it is two ridges
1:11:47but we mainly occupy this one and you
1:11:50come up from this other side. Los
1:11:53Angeles is here in the back. um from
1:11:56Sepulveda
1:11:57uh
1:11:58highway
1:12:00and this is what we will do. So we
1:12:02occupy the whole ridge
1:12:05uh
1:12:06in different sequences. You come up here
1:12:11and on one side you will then in the
1:12:13center will have the institute.
1:12:17But you will namely arrive in the
1:12:20scholars village and at the end here you
1:12:23find the terms residence and I will
1:12:26briefly explain how this kind of reuse
1:12:29extends into all these parts.
1:12:33It's a relatively dry area which is
1:12:36affected by drought which makes it
1:12:40very important for us to as Europeans
1:12:44namely to say hey water is a key thing.
1:12:47How could we bring in gardens not using
1:12:51water from the tap? How can we bring
1:12:54energy up there in a climate where
1:12:55there's so much sun? How can we bring in
1:12:58something which is sustainable without
1:13:01falling in the trap of this kind of
1:13:03normal sustainability discussion?
1:13:06We also
1:13:07had
1:13:09uh references that we liked very much
1:13:11for the gardens because of course the
1:13:13Arabs knew how to do gardens that would
1:13:16um
1:13:17uh do that which would collect water and
1:13:20especially what we we like in
1:13:23in in uh uh Arab gardens and in gardens
1:13:27in the past is that
1:13:29and I think that's the key message here
1:13:31the form
1:13:33the symbol
1:13:35and the
1:13:37structural func- functional
1:13:40um
1:13:41givens have to go together. It It would
1:13:44be useless to design something and then
1:13:48to feed it with kind of what to hold it
1:13:50in place with kind of structure and with
1:13:53ecology discussions. So the
1:13:55infrastructure is like a bone
1:13:58that supports the form and vice versa.
1:14:03The water is being collected.
1:14:06The
1:14:08monastery is the Now I might jump. So
1:14:12that's true for the for the for the
1:14:14garden and the water collection and I
1:14:16will come back to that when I explain
1:14:18the scholars village. The other
1:14:20ingredient
1:14:22that we find very important for the
1:14:25institute part is the monastery. The
1:14:27client said he wants something
1:14:30for his institute which is an institute
1:14:32you have to imagine about um
1:14:37politics
1:14:41agency
1:14:43peace democracy
1:14:46how could countries be organized in the
1:14:48future is one of these institutes where
1:14:50these issues are being discussed.
1:14:53Whether it's will be fruitful and
1:14:56helpful is another question but it's a
1:14:58place where
1:15:00this kind of um
1:15:01uh
1:15:02this kind of um
1:15:04very origin matters
1:15:07have a very professional
1:15:09side and and many scholars, professors,
1:15:12students will permanently and
1:15:15semi-permanently be installed there.
1:15:16That's why the monastery comes from the
1:15:19client as kind of inspiration he wanted
1:15:22to bring to that side. So this idea this
1:15:25form of collectivity is at the center of
1:15:29uh the project. Another thing is the
1:15:32water tanks. We said we don't we are
1:15:36we refuse to use the huge amount of
1:15:38water that you need for his gardens
1:15:41without making a whole infrastructure of
1:15:44water collection and so we like these
1:15:47kind of water tanks and especially of
1:15:49course the sphere because I had the
1:15:51sphere in my mind for a different reason
1:15:53because I wanted to besides the
1:15:55monastery to have a sphere as kind of a
1:15:59one iconic element which would be of
1:16:02course iconic but not in a traditional
1:16:04or symbolic way without having a true
1:16:08sense or a true
1:16:11uh functional background. So we at the
1:16:13end used two two spheres.
1:16:17One is
1:16:19simply a water tank so it's almost in a
1:16:21pop art way that we use it because it's
1:16:24a found form that we bring onto the the
1:16:28site
1:16:29for the simple reason that it collects
1:16:31the water at the highest point and
1:16:32brings it down with enough pressure so
1:16:34we don't need tap water.
1:16:37Of course it has other water tanks you
1:16:38will see that later. But also I was we
1:16:42were always attracted by the sphere as a
1:16:44pure form as a spiritual form and the
1:16:47sphere has these different sides. It has
1:16:49something almost stupid, banal
1:16:53and something perfect. It's so perfect
1:16:56you can see that on this sculpture. It's
1:16:58so perfect because as it was always
1:17:02attractive also for
1:17:05the 18th century for the when
1:17:07absolutistic power was finding form in
1:17:11especially France but also in Spain and
1:17:13Italy. um
1:17:16But the sphere being the most perfect
1:17:19form is what
1:17:21we were fascinated for a long time but
1:17:23never found a way to deal with it and it
1:17:27is indeed difficult to find
1:17:31a reason to use it which also allows you
1:17:35to be so pure because of course
1:17:38spheres have been interesting for
1:17:40Boullée, Ledoux Ledoux for many
1:17:43architectural generations also for
1:17:47Buckminster Fuller but we wanted to find
1:17:49a different way. We wanted to keep its
1:17:54perfect perfection without giving it any
1:17:58effort of
1:18:01um
1:18:02a with in a kind of a effortless way. We
1:18:04didn't want to reveal any structure or
1:18:07any
1:18:09sign of
1:18:11of um
1:18:14structural intervention in its most
1:18:17purest innocent form.
1:18:21We also like this purity here but
1:18:23especially like the smartness in
1:18:25Versailles and other
1:18:27places. We like the mixture between
1:18:30geometry and nature
1:18:33that some of this is brought back to
1:18:35this mountain ridge. You can see here
1:18:39the scholars village in the center from
1:18:41where the street you wind up your way
1:18:43and you land in the central part and
1:18:45then you find the
1:18:47uh
1:18:48the institute on one end and the and the
1:18:51residence on the other end.
1:18:55All these areas are heavily gardened and
1:18:59the gardens are inspired as I said by
1:19:01the sunken gardens that we found in the
1:19:04Alhambra and other places and especially
1:19:06we like the fact that this plan reveals
1:19:09it. What is blue is of course not a
1:19:11water basin that shows open waters but
1:19:15they are collecting water. You can see
1:19:17the
1:19:18main tank for which is bringing water
1:19:21under pressure down into the institute,
1:19:23but all these other places are sometimes
1:19:26flooded in the year, but otherwise are
1:19:28sunken gardens. And there's a
1:19:30complicated system of collecting waters
1:19:33that is giving the shape to these
1:19:36uh to this whole neighborhood including
1:19:39the residence here, which is in three
1:19:42bands, a gatehouse, a main residence,
1:19:45and the children's pavilion.
1:19:50The scholar village, we arrive here from
1:19:53Sepulveda area and then it has a main
1:19:55boulevard and the buildings are actually
1:19:57as objects not really visible. It's just
1:20:00a garden landscape and sunken sunken uh
1:20:05gardens where the plants and all the
1:20:08first thing is sorry before I explain
1:20:10that.
1:20:12Uh the first element before we explain
1:20:14the water is the waste, the energy.
1:20:17We discovered that there is a huge
1:20:20energy
1:20:22um
1:20:23hidden in a waste deposit on that side.
1:20:27This here, which seems so natural, is in
1:20:29fact part of this was refilled in the
1:20:32'50s, '60s, '70s and contains a huge um
1:20:38uh deposit of methane that is being uh
1:20:43released during the year and which goes
1:20:46just in the air as CO2. And our concept
1:20:50is now to suck out this methane and use
1:20:53it in the next 30 years.
1:20:56Uh it can feed the whole uh
1:20:59energy consumption of the of the um
1:21:02whole
1:21:04uh area. That's the the landfill
1:21:08emitting methane and I don't want to
1:21:10explain all the diagrams, but I just
1:21:12mentioned this that the kind of
1:21:16reuse of something which in fact was
1:21:19made to
1:21:21to um
1:21:22destroy the landscape and to hardly
1:21:25refill it will be landscape, but at the
1:21:27same time we use uh its energetic um
1:21:31potential.
1:21:34The second reuse, as I said, is the
1:21:37water and it explains also quite uh
1:21:41impressively how uh we collect with all
1:21:44these basins, we collect the water that
1:21:47comes down and we can calculate quite
1:21:50precisely that we can collect even more
1:21:53than we need and can supply some of the
1:21:56water to the neighbors. Of course, this
1:21:57is a question of how much uh the client
1:22:00is willing to invest in the
1:22:01infrastructure. But all this is in fact
1:22:05an infrastructural form. It is a
1:22:08symbolic form, but it is also uh
1:22:11functional form.
1:22:17This is the chairman's residence with
1:22:19these three layers again with a kind of
1:22:21water supply that is being fed from this
1:22:24central collecting basins. Uh
1:22:27I will just briefly show some images of
1:22:31what we try to do this kind of um system
1:22:34of clusters and loft and cave like
1:22:38typology. Uh
1:22:40This is the children's wing.
1:22:45Children's wing, which will be built or
1:22:48basically we use only concrete and
1:22:51especially earth from the place. Some of
1:22:53the refill will be used to build those
1:22:56structures.
1:23:00And the main house with its huge uh
1:23:04rooftop
1:23:06which um
1:23:07you can see here, you enter through a
1:23:09patio, you go up the roof. Uh this is a
1:23:11place where the client, of course,
1:23:14welcomes his uh his uh friends from all
1:23:17over the world and professors when there
1:23:19is a uh in the institute um
1:23:22um
1:23:23uh an event, he will suddenly some of
1:23:25the client for of the guests will also
1:23:27use his own place. He's also uh
1:23:30aficionado del cine, so he will um
1:23:34project uh films.
1:23:37Uh this is Los Angeles in the
1:23:38background.
1:23:41Um
1:23:42Finally, the scholar village
1:23:44is defined by these sunken gardens and
1:23:46by these very simple structures.
1:23:49Um
1:23:52That in the section is like this
1:23:53following the gravity of the water being
1:23:56collected by these sunken gardens, which
1:23:58are flood every once in a while and the
1:24:00plants, the vegetation is made in order
1:24:03to
1:24:04uh support this whole concept. So, the
1:24:07plants is not just uh made there to
1:24:10smell, which is also true here and to
1:24:13give all these different century central
1:24:15experiences, but also
1:24:17uh will be carefully selected to um
1:24:20support this um
1:24:22this uh to fight the drought.
1:24:25That's the main way through the scholar
1:24:27village
1:24:30into the sunken parts where the scholars
1:24:32live.
1:24:34Which is basically almost no
1:24:36architecture as a let's say a form
1:24:40in contrast to the house form before or
1:24:42the sphere before. This is a kind of a
1:24:44non form kind of architecture basically
1:24:48defined by
1:24:50patios
1:24:53vegetation and material. Like this is an
1:24:56example of the Ricola that a herb um
1:25:00um
1:25:02storage where we tested for the first
1:25:04time uh Adobe earth in very large scale.
1:25:09As you can see here with these thin
1:25:11layers of cement which keep the wall
1:25:13from erosion.
1:25:16Finally, the last uh part of the um
1:25:19institute is the institute itself with
1:25:21this frame that is oriented, of course,
1:25:23according to not only views, but also to
1:25:26not
1:25:28destroy or to um
1:25:30dig into this uh complicated landscape,
1:25:33which is defined partially by
1:25:35protected landscape and by poisoned
1:25:38landscape, this kind of refill where the
1:25:39methane is being sucked out.
1:25:42And the landscape concept, which also um
1:25:46follows the same um thinking as I
1:25:48mentioned before. This is where you come
1:25:51in under the
1:25:52the
1:25:53the kind of floating uh frame, which
1:25:56offers the views of freeze the views and
1:25:58then it has a double height
1:26:00um frame with with um school rooms and
1:26:05also living
1:26:06units
1:26:07and the main axis. One sphere is the
1:26:11main auditorium and one sphere is the
1:26:14water tank. The water tank and the
1:26:17auditorium both use exactly the same
1:26:19form with a with a totally different
1:26:21program. One has this kind of spiritual
1:26:23side and the other has this kind of
1:26:26ecological or popular side.
1:26:30This is from where the water is pumped
1:26:32up and then is being used to feed all
1:26:34the taps in the institute.
1:26:41And these are some sketches where we
1:26:43show where I show how much we were
1:26:47interested and also making it
1:26:51a a huge
1:26:53way through how to use spheres and to
1:26:58then leave them untouched. We wanted to
1:27:00do a kind of a anti Buckminster Fuller
1:27:03concept where Buckminster Fuller tried
1:27:06everything to make it pure but
1:27:09structural. It's a work of engineering
1:27:11art and we wanted exactly not that. We
1:27:14wanted the a sphere almost like a
1:27:17Christmas ball, like a something that
1:27:19would be a
1:27:22pure and just cut through
1:27:25almost like one of these um
1:27:28um
1:27:30uh objects that we find in the in the
1:27:32universe. So, we wanted to underscore
1:27:35its use as really um
1:27:38a pure space and a pure form. Also from
1:27:41outside, we want to make it white
1:27:45not polished, not too technical, a
1:27:48little powdery, but not too much. So,
1:27:50it's very interesting also thinking of
1:27:53all these ingredients from the form,
1:27:55from the structure to the surface
1:27:57treatment. Whereas the other one, we had
1:28:00three at the beginning, we made it into
1:28:02two because the two are really saying
1:28:05what we want about this kind of
1:28:06opposition of the form.
1:28:10The aula
1:28:11here that is being accessed from the
1:28:13main floor
1:28:18by means of these two
1:28:20um
1:28:22um gates.
1:28:30And the piece that feeds the water
1:28:33that then is feeding all the elements.
1:28:38That's a old version of the gardens. We
1:28:41want this part be more like exotic and
1:28:44jungle like.
1:28:48And um
1:28:50the foyer with views to the city before
1:28:54entering the
1:28:55auditorium. This is an old image.
1:28:58The auditorium will not have seats in
1:29:01the classical way. It will be all just
1:29:04slightly carved out of the same
1:29:06material. It's a kind of a one thing
1:29:10kind of an object. It's more like this,
1:29:11but also that is already an older
1:29:14version
1:29:15of the inside.
1:29:24I think this is the last one.
1:29:27Now, again, this you see the two
1:29:29spheres, you see the village,
1:29:32and you see then further down the
1:29:35um residence. Uh well, that's
1:29:38that's it. Thank you for your attention.
1:37:44NO, GRACIAS, UH RAFAEL.
1:37:47SIEMPRE ES UN placer
1:37:48tus comentarios. Y ya sabes que hablamos
1:37:52mucho en el pasado y
1:37:55seguimos hablando
1:37:57hoy mismo, esta noche. Me alegro mucho y
1:38:00cada vez es un interesante, pero es más
1:38:03un comentario. No quiero comentar el
1:38:04comentario de Rafael.
1:38:08Lo de Berggruen, yo pienso que será muy
1:38:10interesante, pero es más complicado. De
1:38:13momento, se trata de reuse esas tan de
1:38:16maneras tan más urgente, yo pienso.
1:38:19Um porque lo del waste y del agua es
1:38:23interesante y quiero demostrarlo porque
1:38:26se trata de una escuela a los alumnos
1:38:29um
1:38:30que
1:38:31una forma de un arquitecto
1:38:34tiene que ser más que una forma de
1:38:37placer o de de tengo la inspiración. Las
1:38:40inspiraciones muchas veces son nada.
1:38:43Pero, claro,
1:38:45de vez en cuando hay que utilizar la
1:38:48inspiración para conectar justamente
1:38:51lo necesario, lo esencial con lo no
1:38:55necesario. Una una bola, una esfera no
1:38:57es necesario, pero es muy interesante y
1:39:01siempre
1:39:03les interesa
1:39:06les interesó la la la la esfera la
1:39:10esfera a los arquitectos de todas las
1:39:13generaciones.
1:39:15It's very bad K.
1:39:18Kasi.
1:39:19Kasi.
1:39:21Noon guy functional. Okay, when I swear
1:39:24at the men are going to open a stupid
1:39:26pocket stand perfect cannot say for the
1:39:29entire.
1:39:30Come on come on a fair window antenna on
1:39:32a porta.
1:39:34Come on my dinner in no es picado in
1:39:38West Castle la ultima esfera is coming
1:39:42in a billiard table para ese.
1:39:46Um Baja no. Para ese.
1:39:50Desaparecer is tiene un momento
1:39:53peligroso tiene. Cosas muy
1:39:56arquitectonica que que no se interesa
1:39:59mucho y cada vez que hacemos un proyecto
1:40:02hay que verlo al final hay que ver. Si
1:40:06funciona o no porque lo bueno de la
1:40:08altura lo difícil es que son ideas pero
1:40:11por fin al final hay que funcionar y hay
1:40:15que funcionar siendo físico siendo aquí
1:40:19presente delante del.
1:40:23The T.
1:40:27Yeah.
1:40:35Gracias.
1:40:36Al. Al venir una vez más a esta escuela.
1:40:39Con esta conferencia.
1:40:41Gracias.

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Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

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YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.