-
Bregenz-Hérémence-Chur-Paspels-Scharans
Alright it’s about time I catch up here before I head off for Barcelona. The same weekend we went to Vals, we were close enough to Bregenz, Heremence, Chur, Paspels, and Scharans to get to some specific buildings we wanted to see as a group. Our professor was pumped to have a day off, so he let us figure out directions, meals, and timing. For us it was a fun change of pace.
We stopped in Bregenz before Vals to see Zumthor’s Kunsthaus. It’s a really interesting art museum that at the time didn’t have the most interesting art. I imagined something better when I saw pictures of it, but with places like this you never know what you’re gonna get. The exhibition spaces were transformed into mini-theatres with projection screens and headphones, and the videos were for the most part SUPER boring. The exhibits are constantly changing here and although this rotation kinda blows, there’s bound to be some sick ones in the future. Anish Kapoor did one at some point, and then went on to design the bean in Chicago, so it’s a big deal to have work in there.
After another dose of Zumthor at Vals, we saw the Heremence Church. It’s a monster of brutal and cold concrete on the outside that is remarkably non-foreboding on the inside. I had never heard of the building or the architect before going there. There are a lot of voids and some mean angular blocking going on, but the detailing is really nice. The inside is like a warm cave that people wouldn’t mind as a modern site for Sunday mass. I know I wouldn’t.
Next stop was Chur, where we saw some more Zumthor. He designed a building to preserve the Roman ruins there, so it was a unique program. He really just surrounded the remains of the walls with his own, then ran a bridge over them where you could step off to get closer and learn more.
The skylights, walls, and windows here are just additions to a running list of reasons to learn from his mastery of light. When we finished up here we grabbed a kebab and hit the road. On the way home we saw two of Valerio Olgiati’s buildings in Paspels and Scharans. It was ironic to find the school in Paspels in such a beautiful site after learning about his buildings without context.
It looked like he plopped a spaceship with windows on the set for the Sound of Music. The House for a Musician he designed in Scharans is a lot cooler in person than in the drawings and photos. It’s made of entirely red concrete with the negative extrusions of these handcrafted ornaments all over the place. I loved the little courtyard past the entrance, with the not-quite circle cut from the ceiling. That was all we could see, but the vivid contrast between the walls and grass was pretty enough to make the visit worthwhile.
It was a packed weekend, but we had a blast, and since then we’ve been working like dogs to move forward with our projects. We’re nearing the end, so before it’s all said and done, we’ve got to have a complete design presentation for a student housing project behind the villa. Add to that a book compiled with 48 of our seminar essays and you’ve got some semi-stressed architecture students - semi because we’re in Europe, and everythings too awesome to get down about work. Tomorrow we head out for our last class 10-day to Lyon and Barcelona. Once we break off we’ll head to Monaco, then shred the gnar in Tignes - WOOOO
