ROOTED IN THE REAL
Fantastic articles as constructions, as reconstructions of ways of thinking.
Extremely smart, full of irony that cannot be measured... carpet bombings of
idealisation and speculation — Rem Koolhaas
Writings on Architecture by
Geert Bekaert
Geert Bekaert is the Houdini of architectural criticism — Arjen Oosterman
ROOTED
IN THE REAL
Writings on Architecture by
Geert Bekaert (1928) is the most important architecture critic
in the Dutch-speaking world. He has written extensively since
the fifties on architectural oeuvres, theoretical issues, and
the history and criticism of architecture and the arts. He has
held teaching positions at the universities of Eindhoven, Ghent
and Leuven, among others, and has lectured all over the world.
He was editor-in-chief of the international architecture journal Archis . In 1988, he was awarded the Rotterdam-Maaskant
Prize for architecture.
This anthology collects, for the first time ever, 32 of Bekaert’s
most important essays in an English translation. Included are
his writings on architects and designers such as Rem Koolhaas,
Frank Gehry, Aldo Rossi, Le Corbusier, Toyo Ito, Maarten Van
Severen, Wiel Arets, Charles Vandenhove, Bob van Reeth, Xaveer
De Geyter and Stéphane Beel. The book is illustrated with many
never-before-published photographs from the author’s private
collection.
Geert Bekaert
Christophe Van Gerrewey
Editor
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A chance of survival. Introduction — Christophe Van Gerrewey
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Architecture devoid of shadow [22] — The real of the discourse. Eupalinos
ou l’architecte [40] — Dante and architecture [58] — Ô ma fille tu es trop
belle! [75] — Quel nom est architecte? [81]
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Belgian architecture as commonplace. The absence of an architectonic culture as a challenge [90] — Stéphane Beel against the fury of disappearance
[97] — Luc Deleu. A self-power man [106] — The memory of what never
was. Bob van Reeth [121] — Bob van Reeth and the demands of architecture
[128] — Incantation. Charles Vandenhove [133] — Hors d’âge. On the work
of Maarten Van Severen [154] — The uneasiness of André Verroken [193] —
The origin of geometry. Paul Neefs [198] — Design experience. Xaveer De
Geyter Architects [204] — 51n4e Space Producers [214] — Happy anniversary. Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen at the 11th Venice Architecture
Biennale. [230] .
.
.
.
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Back to the train. Calatrava’s TGV station in Lyon-Satolas [242] — A Versailles for Dutch Architecture. The Netherlands Architecture institute by Jo
Coenen [246] — Norman Foster’s Carré d’Art in Nîmes. L’Ivresse du Réel
[253] — Sant Pere de Rodes. The uncomplicated architecture of Elías Torres
Tur and José Antonio Martínez Lapeña [260] — Passages. A memorial for
Walter Benjamin by Dani Karavan [266] — An architecture parable. Toyo
Ito’s kindergarten in Frankfurt [271]
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The odyssey of an enlightened entrepreneur. Rem Koolhaas [278] — The
analogue of a proletarian architecture. Notes for an article on Aldo Rossi
[298] — The relevance of Le Corbusier [352] — The myth of the banal. On
the work of Frank O. Gehry [380] — Une mise à nu de l’architecture par ses
adorateur, même. Maurice Culot and Léon Krier: a forgotten episode [396]
— The stranger. Tadashi Kawamata [420] — Japan [430] — Ce qui arrive.
On the work of Wiel Arets [448] — Dealing with Koolhaas [477]
.
.
277
About Geert Bekaert
505
Credits & Colophon
511
Credu
7
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22
Architecture
devoid
of shadow
– 1986 –
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Architecture, contrary to appearances, is not innocent. Talking about
architecture involves, and always has done, an element of controversy. The
reasons are twofold, threefold, perhaps even fourfold. A good illustration is
the manner in which everyone gives an opinion about architecture as though
he were somehow a participant in its existence and therefore an expert on
the subject (this cannot be said of literature or science), and, at the same
time, everyone finds it a bit ridiculous and, in any case, totally superfluous,
to waste time talking about architecture. If there’s one thing in this world
that’s obvious, it’s how architecture is supposed to look!
As an historian, I can cast an additional light on this exposure of architecture’s secret polemic character. Never, in the history of mankind, has
architecture been discussed in a calm, matter-of-fact fashion. It seems as
though architecture must constantly be defended, not only from the public,
but to a large extent from its creators, the architects themselves.
The definition of architecture as found in Flaubert’s Dictionnaire des
idées reçues may be taken for granted: ‘Tous imbéciles. Oublient toujours
l’escalier des maisons.’ And in Brussels, one must keep in mind that ‘architect’ is hurled as the final obscenity, when all other invectives have been
exhausted.
Architecture has indeed led many an architect to wrack and ruin. In Belgium there was Appelmans, who plunged to his death from the spire of
the Cathedral of Antwerp. As far back as in the days of ancient Greece,
there were stories of architects who took their lives to erect a column in
exactly the right place. Still others met their deaths when, for the sake of
architecture, they dipped too deeply into public funds, leaving an insufficient
amount for equipping the country’s army. Even worse, architects in ancient
times were condemned for the fraudulent use of public funds for their own
private purposes.
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Belgian architecture
as commonplace.
The absence of an
architectonic culture
as a challenge
– 1987 –
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To concoct an article on contemporary architecture in Belgium is a real test
of the imagination, especially if it has to be general in scope. The geography
of the architecture has a tendency to come out in cliches anyway, but in the
case of Belgium this cannot be helped. Belgium is the ultimate commonplace,
where people build and live without giving it a second thought, doing things
one way today, another way tomorrow, if needs be, not allowing their lives
or their moods to be disrupted, and without getting overexcited.
A few years ago Carlo Ginzburg, the famous historian from Bologna,
paid a visit to Leuven. His fascination·with as yet undefined marginal phenomena automatically led the conversation to contemporary Belgian architecture. Ginzberg’s curiosity made him ask the spontaneous question: ‘Where
can I find some examples of this architecture?’ The conversation halted. No
one was able to show Ginzberg the way. Certainly, Belgian architecture had
proved its existence, but it was nowhere to be seen. It was faceless. There
were no paradigms which could serve as an example. In a manner of speaking, all one had to do was open the door and go out into the street.
In an article in wonen-TA/BK from 1983, titled ‘Bouwen op Belgische
gronden’ [‘Building on Belgian soil’], I already drew attention to the empty
space Belgium is on the map of contemporary architecture. Yet it also questioned the existence of a country without architecture. Perhaps contemporary Belgian architecture can best be described in terms of absence. The
complete absence of all elements which make the architecture of today so
exciting mark it as the commonplace.
Even in the present period of regionalism – which, for that matter, is of
a cosmopolitan nature –, this complete absence makes a bad impression.
Today numerous attempts are being made to discover national identities in
architecture. It is impossible to keep up with the special issues focusing on
the architecture of a particular country. Even Belgium cannot escape. But
any attempts to analyse the architectural output of the various countries lead
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1
1.
1-7. Office 50, After the Party, Venice Architecture Biennal, 2010
3
2
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An Architectural parable.
Toyo Ito’s kindergarten
in Frankfurt
– 1994 –
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A long way from the architectural epicentre of Frankfurt with its display
of masterpieces by Hollein, Ungers, Meier, Kleihues, Behnisch, Peichl,
Jahn, etcetera, in the for Frankfurters unfamiliar territory of Eckenheim,
at the Sigmund Freud stop on the U5-Bahn, the Japanese Toyo Ito has built
Kindertagestätte 117 for the Magistrat Stadt Frankfurt. An almost impossible commission. What can you do in that vast scattering of huge blocks of
flats from the sixties amid spacious but indeterminate green? Surrender to
the surroundings is impossible, but so is resistance to them. Architectural
manifestoes, such as in the centre, inevitably seem ridiculous here.
Toyo Ito simply pretends these surroundings are not there. And precisely
because of this negation he succeeds in giving them a face. With his naive
kindergarten he shows that there are people living in this architecture of
blocks. His project is no more than a civilized form of what has come into
existence spontaneously in some of the neighbourhoods: an allotments culture which turns the emptiness into an appropriated and lively place. The
fences around his kindergarten make the fragility of his approach especially
visible. The vulnerable life that unexpectedly emerges here, like a flower
among rocks, evidently needs protecting. From the surrounding blocks of
flats there is a clear view, as if from a ringside seat in a circus, of the spectacle
taking place in the kindergarten.
The fact that a children’s world is involved is symptomatic, but not essential. While what one sees happening on all sides is that the child’s world
is being isolated from the world of the adult, Ito treats the world of the
child as part of the real world. His kindergarten is not fictive but reveals
a repressed dimension of the big world around it, the world which Albert
Camus describes in his posthumously published book on his childhood, Le
premier homme, as ‘affreuse et exaltante’, the repudiated world of poverty.
This world is treated with dignity in Ito’s brilliant kindergarten.
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It is as if Toyo Ito was predestined for this task. As in his museum in
Yatsushiro, he begins by throwing up a high bank of earth on the north side,
the street side, to protect his building which does not want to be a building
or architecture but a collection of places in natural surroundings. He himself
sees a growing resemblance between natural and urban settings. In this bank
the taut entrance opens up obliquely. One turn leads to the round hall that is
entirely hidden within the earth and lit by a dome, the mysterious heart. But
you walk past it to the light, open space of the colourful court, which is not
closed off but extends, unhindered by the fence, to the part of the surroundings where the buildings are low-rise and friendly.
The interior is all light and colour, even the closed corridor running behind the crèche on the left. One space merges into another to the rhythm
of the undulating roof. The steel structure of oblique props remains visible
everywhere, as if this were a provisional structure. The rest of the colourful
interior retains a similarly provisional air despite its sophistication. It looks
every bit a nomads’ encampment that has nestled briefly round the open
court and against the protecting hill. Three small rooftop houses, one of
which is distinguished by its roof design, give the position of the three classrooms each with this upper level.
The open court is the real issue, given shape by the surrounding buildings.
It takes symbolic form in a mysterious, octagonal timber-clad tower that
serves – as the arbitrary positioning and size of the windows indicate – both
as watchtower and refuge. This effect is reinforced by the metal steps and
canopy reminiscent of a drawbridge. The tower outside echoes the round
hall sunk into the earthen bank.
This architecture succeeds in an extremely direct way in itself being a toy
and in giving free rein to the imagination, as an escape from the oppressive
surroundings, or rather as a way of dealing with them. As a result this unpretentious play area has evolved into a true architectural parable.
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1
2
3
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1-4.
1. Public kindergarten, Frankfurt (Germany),
1988-1993
4
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The Odyssey of an
enlightened entrepreneur.
Rem Koolhaas
– 1982 –
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On demande un Colbert.
– Le Corbusier
La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même.
– Marchel Duchamp
Rem Koolhaas established OMA (the Office for Metropolitan Architecture)
in Rotterdam. It wouldn’t have been possible anywhere else in the Netherlands. Everything has to fit perfectly into the discourse. The precision of its
internal coherence is the source of its reality, and its power of fascination
derives from the real itself. De la séduction. A city such as Rotterdam, suffering from chronic imagelessness and constantly in search of an identity
(which, by the way, is a concept he detests), has the potential, like New York
or any other metropolis, to absorb many stories. Stories about Amsterdam
are all fairly similar. The same could never be said of Rotterdam. Besides,
Rem Koolhaas did not just settle down in any old Rotterdam location. And
has he really settled down? He occupies a floor, a loft, in an office building in
the old harbour district, with a view of what remains of the old Willemsbrug
(he’d like to do something with that). A white oasis in the midst of activity
and colour. A void that exists by virtue of what surrounds it. A secret headquarters in a strange, disorganized territory where everything is one great
writhing mass. Coherence is elsewhere. In the white office, perhaps? Any
given floor has no idea what is happening on the next one up or down. Even
the doorman doesn’t know. ‘Delirious’ is a strong word, but there is plenty
of technology and congestion, and the imagination runs free. And there is
not a trace of social stability. There are no crèches or homes for the elderly
in the neighbourhood (though Koolhaas’ new design for the area envisages
some nearby), no shelters for single mothers. In the end, everyone stands
alone.
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