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Architecture

Architecture – when Marseille 2013 showed in an exhibition in J1 the works of Le Corbusier 1, it was considered to be a major contribution to the history of architecture. Yet it is filled with variations of genius and criminal strokes. This is said because Bauhaus architects admitted architecture can end up being a crime, especially if it forces people into 'living machines' which impose atrocious living conditions.

Janusz Korszak emphasized the importance of a well designed school building for even the best teacher cannot correct the mistakes if an architect designed a school badly. Looking at many schools in which children and youth have to spend their times, one can draw but a sad conclusion about these buildings since devoid of nature and light.

More troublesome in modern times are lobbyist who want more skyscrapers to be constructed even though everyone knows any house above tree height goes beyond human proportion and ends up creating an unhealthy environment.

So to come back to Le Corbusier, he dreamt as well of doing such a skyscraper in Algiers but he never succeeded. Instead his dream has been realized at the port of Marseille with a new skyscraper marking the horizon along the harbour front. Similar plans are under way by an international consortium which wishes to erect on the old airport in Athens the tallest building in the Mediterranean. If that is a measure of success, and CNN praises this as 'one square meter' more, no wonder if cities and their environment go astray for the majority of people is then forced to live under conditions which exclude both nature and the social question. Dubai is a good example of such an artificial environment.

The architect Jürgen Eckhardt would admit all along architects have always claimed they would be concerned about the social question, but they have never fulfilled it.

Le Corbusier did arrange himself with Hitler and his regime. After the war he did some urban projects in India and inspired the construction of special housing estates throughout Europe. Apparently some architects or artists can stay independent of political conditions and in their self sufficiency claim 'greatness'.

However, Picasso did not stay in Spain once Franco ruled and never allowed his Guernica mural to be returned to Spain as long as that dictator was in power. And when the Gestapo came to his atelier and upon seeing Guernica, they asked who did this, Picasso answered: “you did it!”

There was the 'Charter of Athens' signed in 1933 which led among others to Brazilia: an entirely new town and now the capital of Brazil. Thus if Le Corbusier praised light and designed buildings accordingly, it is time to reflect what could be a revival of the Mediterranean style of architecture?

Naturally with space having become scarce and yet everyone wishing a view of the sea, over building and loss of nature as consequences have become a huge problem. Architecture does have a lot to do with a wise use of space yet few architects seem to realize that. It should make living together much easier if they did. Le Corbusier designed the children's room at such a scale that they had to move out once they outgrew the dimensions he had allocated for them.

Interestingly enough when Gothic churches were build, the architect and artisans became the first independent voters who derived their voting rights not from property, but from being able to gain an independent income. That altered the voices in need to be heard within the city's municipal council.

Hatto Fischer

Athens July 2014

Footnotes

1Hatto Fischer (2013) Le Corbusier exhibition in J1. Athens: Poiein kai Prattein. http://ecoc.poieinkaiprattein.org/european-capital-of-culture/Marseille-2013/le-corbusier-exhibition-in-j1/

 

Antwerp '93

For a City Culture: Urban Development and Architecture
 
Open City, ANTWERP 93’s Urban Development and Architecture programme, focussed on
the concepts of ‘city’ and ‘urbanity’. The programme aimed to concentrate the thoughts
of a wide public on the urban phenomenon, to encourage international exchange, to
escape the disciplinary straitjacket of urban planning and architecture and conversely to
work towards achieving a city culture.
 
In Open City Studio young European researchers from various disciplines spent nine months
working intensively alongside academics, field-workers and critics from home and abroad.
Open seminars examined various aspects of a city culture.
 
Open City Forum comprised three series of lectures and four colloquia.
 
The real city of Antwerp served as the starting point and touchstone through the entire
Open City programme. It tried to let people experience the reality and potential of the
problem areas of the city, by means of the photographic exhibition (Sub)urban Landscapes,
a series of peeping boxes, and above all the tremendously successful City Trails (3.121 walks).
 
In three international colloquia, Open City also drew attention to the problem of intolerance with regard to minorities and immigrant groups.
 
 

Weimar 1999

Weimar did a lot of restoration of the old city. Here the key buildings like the Amalia Library were given a new surrounding by upgrading the streets all free of any advertisement.
It had the Bauhaus exhibition to remember it was in Weimar that this famous school of architecture was founded.
 
 
 

Marseille 2013

 
Marseille undertook a lot of efforts to revamp the city and created thereby new public spaces near two iconic buildings, the villa Mediterranea and the Museum for Civilization from Europe and Mediterranean.
 
                
                 Bridge linking MUCEM to Fortress                                       @hf 2013

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