•NOTE "ARCHITECTURE IS VESSEL OF LIFE", IN THE MEMORY OF SOHEILA BESKI ..............................2 •CRITIQUE & THEORY THE MECHANISM OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF ALDO VAN EYCK/ HERMAN HERTZBERGER ........................................................................................................3 VAN EYCK, ACCORDING TO PICTURES .............................................................................................9 TRAVELS IN SEARCH OF THE ELEMENTARY/ ROBERT MCCARTER ...................................... 11 MARTIN VISSER HOUSE ADDITION, BERGEYK, 1967-69 ..........................................................13 VAN EYCK, PLAYGROUNDS, AMSTERDAM, NL,1947-78 ............................................................15 HUBERTUS HOUSE, HOME FOR SINGLE PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN,AMSTERDAM, 1973-81 ...........................................................................................................................................18 OUR VITAL DEFECTS AND DEFICIENCIES/ ARASH OKHOVAT .................................................22 BAHONAR HOUSE, MALAYER, REZA KOULIVAND, MEMAR AWARD 2019, 1ST PLACE/ TEXT & PHOTO: KEYVAN SALIMI ...............................................................................................................24 •FROM IRAN SHOKATIEH SCHOOL, BIRJAND/ ZOHREH BOZORGNIA ...........................................................30 DEZFUL, FORGOTTEN ANCIENT CITY/ SARA ATTARROSHAN/ PHOTOS: MOHAMMAD AZARKISH......................................................................................................................................34 •PROJECT RAMSES WISSA WASSEF ARTS CENTRE,GIZA, EGYPT, 1974, RAMSES WISSA WASSEF ....38 HALAWA RESIDENCE, AGAMY, EGYPT, 1975, ABDELWAHED ELWAKIL, FOLKSTONE, ENGLAND, MASTER MASON: ALADDIN MUSTAFA .............................................................................................40 STONE BUILDING SYSTEM, DAR'A PROVINCE, SYRIA, 1990, RAIF MUHANNA, ZIAD MUHANNA, RAFI MUHANNA ......................................................................................................................42 PANAFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT, QUAGADOUGOU,1984, ADAUA BURKINA FASO ...............................................................................................................................................44 WENDELL BURNETTE ARCHITECTS, ARIZONA .........................................................................46 •MEMAR AWARD PROJECTS, 2019 ............................................................................................50 •BOOKS & MAGAZINES ATTUNEMENT, ARCHITECTURAL MEANING AFTER THE CRISIS OF MODERN SCIENCE/ ALBERTO PEREZ-GOMEZ .................................................................................................................70 • Editorial Director: Reza Amirrahimi • Editorial Staff (In alphabetical order): K. Afshar Naderi, M. Alizadeh, Z. Bozorgnia, A. Dror, N. Hakim, A. Izadi, H. Madjdabadi, M. Mohammadzadeh, B. Zirak • Cover: Aldo Van Eyck, Roman Catholic Church, The Hague, Netherland, 1963 -1969 Readers of the English texts, please notice that, according to Farsi writing, the pages are to be turned from right to left, but the order of the columns is in accordance with the English writing. Tel & Fax: 0098-21- 26400980-82 P. O. Box: 15875-7151/ Tehran, Iran/ E-mail: info@memarmagazine.com www.memarmagazine.com ISSN: 1684 -7490 Memar Channel: @memarnashr
Iranian Bimonthly on Architecture and Urban Design June - July 2020
Published books by Memar Publishing Institute. To obtain these books, please contact the Memar magazine office.
"Architecture Is Vessel of Life" The publication of this issue of Memar magazine coincides with the fifth anniversary of Soheila Beski's absence from among us. May her memory be honored. The expression "architecture is vessel of life" is inspired by a text that Ms. Beski wrote for a short film screened at the opening of the 2009 Memar Award ceremony. In this text she wrote: "Buildings and cities are vessels of life, but unlike all other vessels, which give shape to their contents, here it is the contents that give shape to the vessel, and with such swiftness and imperceptible and astonishing delicacy that it seems the vessel is not made of concrete and iron and stone, but is a soft-bodied cell that multiplies, breeds, fragments, and at every moment takes on a new form and color; like algae that multiply in water and can dry up a sea; like the red tide of the Persian Gulf that has turned the sea dark blue. This vessel, in a land whose inhabitants have long been warned against the scourge of falsehood — for like drought and famine it withers life — whether we like it or not, is truthful and outspoken. It is more conspicuous than the rooster's tail and the camel's hump, for the poor creature cannot walk in disguise. Therefore, it cannot be concealed in the labyrinths of debate and discourse and opinion and mystical and non-mystical illusions. It strips away pretense, and of course, if someone is willing to open a window in their mind, it reminds them of self-evident truths — things that are like the potholes in the streets of our cities: if we do not watch our step, they break our heads." Of course, such an interpretation is not new. From the ancient sages of Iran, China, and India, to Persian-language poets such as Khayyam, to modern still-life painters such as Morandi, and modern architects such as Le Corbusier, the vessel (the measure, the jug, the pitcher, the vase...) was seen not merely as a functional object but as a path toward deep contemplation of humankind and nature. Le Corbusier explains this understanding clearly: "Architecture is a vase. My reward for eight years of effort (at La Tourette) is seeing the most sublime things that grow and develop within the vase... [The monastery] does not speak of itself. It lives within itself. It is within that the essential happens." That which Le Corbusier called the "poetic reaction." Soheila Beski draws upon the expression "buildings and cities are vessels of life." But the profound statement of Aldo van Eyck, the eminent Dutch architect, that "a house is a small city" reminds us that the house, the neighborhood, the city, and the village all belong to a single category: architecture, whether the product of architects or built without them. Editorial Director Footnotes: 1- "From Hosseinieh Ershad to the British Embassy Garden" — the full text appears in Memar 57. This short film is available on the Memar channel @memarnashr. 2- See: Still Life, by Morandi, in the book Mind in Architecture, page 70, Memar Publishing Institute. 3- The book Interior Space, Memar Publishing Institute, page 13, citing Le Corbusier and Jean Petit, Un couvent de Le Corbusier (Paris, 1961), p. 20. In the Memory of Soheila Beski
The Mechanism of the Twentieth Century and the Architecture of Aldo van Eyck Images added at the selection of the magazine. Among the countless Dutch architects who strove toward what they called "Nieuwe Bouwen," Van der Vlugt, Duiker, Rietveld, and Van Eyck were more passionate and more poetic in what they built than all the rest. Each in their own way, with transparency, optimism, and a true sense of responsibility, they attended to something I call "the particular mental mechanism of the twentieth century." In the story of the Van Nelle Factory, the Zonnestraal Sanatorium, and the Schröder House, the primary colors become manifest. Though they possessed self-confidence, they were unaware of the extraordinary importance or the breadth of their influence. Yet, as later became clear, they had viewed the matter more simply than it actually was. Later, Bakema and Van Eyck, respectively, expanded and deepened the thought latent in modern architecture. They played a pioneering role in Team 10, and thanks to them, the characteristics of the old CIAM acquired meaning for the postwar generations. The Team 10 book (1953-1962) clearly demonstrates the extent of Dutch influence, and also that it was certainly Van Eyck who bestowed upon it something resembling a conscience. The first issue of Forum, which Van Eyck had single-handedly compiled three years before it went to press, contained portions of the views of CIAM and Team 10 — a merciless narrative of how the ship of CIAM was destined to sink and how Team 10 was abandoning it, so that, in an era of different constraints and opportunities, room could be made for new ideas. The book argues with unparalleled clarity about the inevitability of a transformation beyond what CIAM had envisioned. When I first joined, what astonished me was how modern architecture had been classified within the force field of twentieth-century art — which, incidentally, also encompassed the so-called "pre-Renaissance" paintings. Only in the works of Le Corbusier does this matter seem conclusive. — the greedy collector — what the world has in store — This first issue was enough to turn Forum essentially into the Van Eyck cause. Though I wonder whether anyone has actually ever taken the trouble to read "The Story of Another Idea," which is not easy but is candid. On the surface, it seemed to be generally about a kind of humane architecture. But slightly below the surface, one could discern that it was a story about another preoccupation, a kind of universal utility. The "idea" was meant to demonstrate that opportunities associated with change and those based on permanence are not necessarily in opposition, but on the contrary can reinforce one another. Forum endeavored to encourage architects to do their proper homework for once — which, as is now evident, was an overly optimistic goal. Encouraging architects to extract something definite from the commonplace is no easy task. They tend instead toward the reverse procedure. During the Forum period, the Orphanage gradually took shape. For the first time, Herman Hertzberger / Translated by Reza Amirrahimi Forum
We can see that Van Eyck's formulations in language and in architecture correspond to and reinforce one another. In most cases, the relationship between a building and the story latent within it — like the relationship between harsh reality and dream — is ignored. With Van Eyck this is not so: he resolves this contradiction in a remarkable manner, arriving at a unity of extraordinary equilibrium in which the building shows and is shown by the reciprocal relationship between form and content. In his arguments, which are shrewdly reasoned, the questions are the answers, and they are simultaneously so penetrating and so expansive that one truly needs an eagle's eye to find a way out. Ostensibly, there is generally one way, and he employed that as well: like a composer who knows better than anyone how to fill the improvisational space left in a cadence. Van Eyck's remaining space is his own space. We are truly compelled to see the world through his eyes, just as we might view the Provençal landscape through eyes conditioned by Cezanne's works. This is how artists change the world. Van Eyck's buildings approach poetry, not because they are poetic but because of the precision with which they have been assembled. They are like sentences in which every word and its exact position matter, where the slightest displacement causes the meaning to shift. Such exquisite architecture is condemned to rapid disfigurement (or, at best, gradual decline). Only under the best circumstances, as with the Schröder House, can it be liberated from this fate — and only so long as the attention and love of those who have fully experienced it and participated in its entire process of creation sustain it. Although the latent mechanisms even in the most delicate buildings may be cruder than those dependent on the more balanced materials of poetry and music, paradoxically the latter are not so vulnerable and therefore do not deteriorate in the inevitable manner of other buildings. Duiker's Open Air School is a good example of how small changes made with the best of intentions can lead to the fundamental decline of a building. The replacement of window frames alone has inflicted irreparable damage on this structure — they became slightly thicker and slightly displaced. Though these changes were made for practical reasons and executed with care, all that remains of this delicate building is an old photograph. Until people attend to their houses with the same care they give to their clothing, the outlook for the small collection of singular buildings that represent the mechanism of the twentieth century — in which Aldo van Eyck played a major part — appears bleak. I am not a historian and can only speak of Van Eyck and his works in relation to myself, through a personal selection of moments that were of great importance to me because of the associations they awakened. My understanding of them, my private selections, are in reality a critique of myself. Of course, one can always offer criticism, even of Van Eyck's works. People like to fell the tallest trees. But today, this vague luxury is less permissible than ever. As the illness afflicting architecture spreads like an epidemic, my suggestion is that from the material wealth of Aldo van Eyck, Van Eyck, playground, Zeedijk: murals by Joost van Roojen