1:1 MODELL GOLFCLUBHAUS - KREFELD - Robbrecht en Daem

Robbrecht en Daem architecten

Mies van der Rohe 1:1 Modell Golfclubhaus - KrefeldPress release 23.05.2013

Robbrecht en Daem architecten are building a life-size model to a 1930 design by Mies van der Rohe.

In the rolling landscape around the former industrial German city of Krefeld, Robbrecht en Daem architecten realized a striking temporary pavilion based on a design for a golf course clubhouse by Mies van der Rohe dating from 1930, which was never built. Christiane Lange, art historian and curator for Projekt MIK, invited the Belgian architectural firm of Robbrecht en Daem architecten to create a temporary objet d’architecture using the series of historical sketches of the project that were discovered during research into the Mies van der Rohe Archive at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. The temporary installation by Robbrecht en Daem architecten is open for viewing from 27 May to 31 October 2013 at the original location of the project. The installation of 84 by 87 m is built primarily of wood. It is being conceived as a life-size model whose abstraction brings out the essence of Mies’s architecture and spatial concepts. Along with the two other famous Mies projects in Krefeld – Haus Esters and Haus Lange, characterised by their brick volumetries and classical plan – the pavilion serves as a lovely illustration of the evolution that Mies brought to Modernism.

Lieremanstraat 64 B-9000 Gent tel +32 9 216 26 30 fax +32 9 216 26 39

[email protected] www.robbrechtendaem.com

1:1 MODELL GOLFCLUBHAUS - KREFELD



Krefeld, an industrial city on the edge of the Ruhr area, already housed two masterpieces from the early European career of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: the twin project consisting of Haus Esters and Haus Lange, which date from 1927-1930. Those two projects, along with a handful of other project from Mies’s hand, an extensive collection of furniture, several exhibition scenographies and the corporate building Verseidag bear witness to the good contacts that Mies had with the textile industry in Krefeld in the inter-bellum period.

Art historian Christiane Lange – granddaughter of textile manufacturer Hermann Lange, for whom Mies built Haus Lange – has been heading up a research and art project into the creations that Mies did for Krefeld. The research project ‘Mies in Krefeld (Projekt MIK)’ has already seen two publications, an exhibitions and a documentary film around the theme. During research into the Mies van der Rohe Archive at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, Lange stumbled upon a series of sketches that Mies had made in 1930 for a pavilion at the golf course close to Krefeld, that had never been built.

The unique archive material for the clubhouse includes sketched plans and perspectives that, in spite of being only few in number, manage to give a good impression of Mies’s ambitions for the project. The design was to be part of a series of experiments into the spatial principles of the plan libre. The sketches show a spacious roof surface on slender columns, combined with a strongly rhythmical floor design and a few well positioned dividing walls that encapsulate the space. Along with the Esters villa and the Lange villa, known for their brick volumes and their open, yet classical plan, the clubhouse would have served as the perfect illustration for the evolution that Mies brought to Modernism.

For Christiane Lange, the unique archive material was the inspiration to curate an artistic project linking her historical interest in the persistent relation of Mies with the Krefeld based silk industry and its protagonists, with the broader question into the significance of Mies’s architecture for contemporary architectural practice. She challenged the Belgian Robbrecht en Daem architecten to develop a new interpretation of Mies’s design and to create an objet d’architecture to scale at the original site of the project.



The vision that Christiane Lange and Robbrecht en Daem architecten developed for this temporary installation, evolved from being ‘the impossible replica’ to a life-size model that will present their interpretation of the essence of Mies’s architecture. While staying within the confines of the source material by Mies, the team made deliberate choices about what would and what would not be shown, much as a restorer would go to work. The pavilion is built to the scale of the original project, but primarily of wooden plate material and stripped of its functional content and superfluous construction details. This strategy of abstraction, specific to the model, shows Mies’s economical precision in using material and detail, the specific spatiality of his plan libre and the strong relations with the surrounding landscape, which he intended. Just like an ancient ruin, the pavilion takes the viewer one step closer to the spirit and mood that Mies had in mind, while leaving a great deal to the imagination.

A large wooden roof surface with a canopy stands like a compass rose in the landscape. Along with several freestanding walls and a floor that flows from the inside to the outside, this gesture is sufficient to define Mies’s spatiality. The degree of detail of the large wooden model is only increased by three elements that Mies included specifically in his perspectives: the chrome, cross-shaped columns that he intended to create an explicit reference to other experiments with the plan libre, such as the Barcelona Pavilion or Villa Tugendhat. Or the minimal wooden frame that suggests the almost impossible ambition for the transparency of the large windows. But, above all, the strong grid of the floor that Mies used to impose compelling dimensions on his public spaces. In this model, too, the grid of the concrete floor tiles unites the indoor and outdoor public spaces. The model also serves as a legible scheme: The spaces that Mies placed in enclosed volumes at the end of the compass rose, are given neither floor nor roof. They are only encircled by vertical walls, which suggest not only their more classical plan, but also their more private character. The entire composition is constructed on a piece of farmland that is intersected by several hiking paths, making it possible for the viewer to study the pavilion from different elevations and approach it from different angles.



Christiane Lange had worked with Robbrecht en Daem architecten previously for the scenography for the exhibition entitled ‘Mies van der Rohe & Lilly Reich. Furniture and Interior’ (2007), during which furniture by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich were exhibited. Since its beginning nearly 30 years ago, the practice of Robbrecht en Daem architecten has developed an intense relationship with art and culture that led to many direct collaborations with artists such as Juan Munoz, Christina Iglesias, Franz West and Gerhard Richter. Robbrecht en Daem architecten have also been responsible for many projects of cultural infrastructure, such as the Bruges Concert Hall (Concertgebouw), the Whitechapel Gallery, and ‘Het Huis’, a pavilion for the Middelheim Sculpture Garden. In other projects, Robbrecht en Daem architecten developed their own position vis-à-vis historical creations of modernist masters, including the restoration project for the University Library at Ghent by Henry Van de Velde, and the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, a late project by Victor Horta.

‘Mies van der Rohe - 1:1 Modell Golfclubhaus’

From 26 May to 27 October 2013 at Krefeld, ‘Area of Protected Landscape Egelsberg.’

Commision: Mies van der Rohe in Krefeld e.V.

Curator: Christiane Lange

Artistic Director and Concept Architects: Robbrecht en Daem architecten

Execution Architects: Architektur Büro Ruhnau and DGM Architekten

Subsidies: Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Sparkassen Kulturstiftung Krefeld , Privat Donations

‘The 1:1 Scale Model – a Platform for Thinking, a Production, a Simulation’

IIn addition to the project, Projekt MIK is planning three scientific symposia that will take place in the model (in collaboration with the Zentralinsitut für Kunstgeschichte, München)

On 2 June 2013 ‘Touching Mies’, on the experience of contemporary practices dealing with the legacy of Mies (with the support of Gerda-Henkel-Stiftung). On 14 July 2013 ‘Remembrance and Identity’, on the meaning of ‘authenticity’ and ‘originality’ of built culture in the current condition of ubiquitiousness and placelessness, and in the context of contemporary large-scale restoration projects (supported by the City of Krefeld). On 15 September 2013 ‘Model’, on the effect and meaning of the model, in architectural practices throughout history, in the work of Mies and within contemporary art practices. Confirmed speakers and information soon on www.projektmik.com.

Confirmed speakers and information soon on www.projektmik.com

1:1 MODELL GOLFCLUBHAUS - KREFELD - Robbrecht en Daem

Documents

Transcript of 1:1 MODELL GOLFCLUBHAUS - KREFELD - Robbrecht en Daem