Architecture and References in VALERIO OLGIATI
Nowadays we begin to suspect that the exceptionality of architectural production is becoming extinct. Over the last two centuries architectural production has been increasingly referential, with clearly defined architectural lineage apparent in most projects. Yet, contrary to this tendency, Valerio Olgiati’s deep architectural thought seeks to eliminate any kind of direct references to his buildings by proposing a new image for architecture. In his work, Olgiati has abandoned references to both classicism and modernism. Nevertheless, such an attitude has not left him away from Giorgio de Chirico’s or Aldo Rossi’s thoughts, or even, conceptually, from Kazuo Shinohara’s. Such influences have led him to project a singular architecture that aims to be provocative.
1. Introduction
This article arises from investigations carried out in our dissertations entitled: “The constructive system as a conceptual expression: the Neues Museum in Berlin, the Baths of Vals and the Yellow House” and “From the aesthetic experience to the creative process in architecture.” In both cases, we studied some of Valerio Olgiati’s works such as the Yellow House (1999-2007) and the Auditorium Plantahof (2008-10), which manifest a particular character that reveals his attitude towards architecture. We include a third project, the residential building in Zug (2006-12) as an additional example of this particular character, wherein the color of the materiality express a clear idea about his aesthetic architectural solutions.
Architects’ activity has determinant roles in human life. The practice of architecture faces diverse problems that present both impressive difficulties and reveal great challenges. The architectural object is a product of its time and this artifact stands to represent that moment of its production. Architecture, while a direct consequence of the architect’s mind, is greatly influenced by social, political and economic structures and issues. The reasons that led a society to produce a certain kind of work might be able to clarify and help architects on understanding the true meaning of their present or future creations.
Architect’s knowledge should be built upon history, technique and technology and also on research into directly architectural issues. In his work, Olgiati acknowledges these prerequisites, but he clearly denies influences from music, painting or literature. Thus, Olgiati proposes to assume architecture as the only true, direct and effective way for the creative process.
2. (A)context
At a conference in 2010, Valerio Olgiati said: “I am convinced that it is possible to make architecture that is not primarily contextual. […] I believe that architecture can develop from an idea, a concept, and that these same ideas and concepts have nothing to do with the context. “(Olgiati, 2010, p. 40)
According to this idea, Olgiati is conscious of his practice and architectural values. He challenges contemporary architectural discourse. He is not biased by the imposition of certain contemporary projects. He examines the buildings and tries to dispense all extra interpretations such as philosophical, religious or social contexts. He looks directly into architecture, to the essential elements that constitute it: “I just want to do unique things without being forced to establish or explain my work as a style.” (Apud Olgiati Ferreira, 2012, p. 130)
Olgiati tries to convince us that we can create architecture without being directly contextual. In this way, the architectural object arises from intrinsic idea rather than investigating characteristics such as the spirit of the place. The architectural idea as an autonomous thing is the essence of his architecture. Obviously, Olgiati does not close his eyes to physical constraints of the site where his buildings are placed. In fact, he shows great sensitivity when addressing all problems of architectural construction.
For Olgiati, buildings do not tell us about traditions just by themselves. After having been born in an environment full of traditions and prejudices, he grew to oppose all labels and stereotypes in his work. According to Valerio Olgiati’s view those preconceived convictions are dispensable.
3. Architecture of Objects
“Present arguments that claim that one should not make architecture as objects are wrong. In architecture, objects are the ones that have some value.” (Olgiati, 2010, p. 40)
For Olgiati, his works are a reflection of the experiences and ideas of what architecture should be. The force of autonomy that architectural objects represent is the most distinctive attribute of his work. The idea of object is his primary architectural justification.
His argument of a TEMPLE is that of a sole object that emanates beauty and interest and holds various layers of comprehension. For him, architecture should not immediately reveal all meaning, but rather establish a dialogue with the person who experiences it. It should be an intelligent dialogue and a constant fascination leading to the discovery of its meaning.
Supporting the object-architecture implies two main conditions, the first is its constitution and the second its appearance. These conditions are implicit in all Valerio Olgiati’s oeuvre. He always takes the arduous path to concentrate a maximum potency in his works. His intentions are to create intellectual and aesthetic pleasure in each creative act.
Thus, Olgiati seeks to stimulate a person who experiences his architecture by directing attention to concise attributes. His buildings are complex, but not complicated. That is, each element that constitutes his architecture is positioned consciously, intentionally, and rationally planned to create sensual experiences.
Olgiati does not acknowledge additive architecture. For him, such architecture is composed in a very naive way. According to Olgiati, to make additive architecture makes architects’ choices intuitive rather than rational, and from that moment architects cannot further justify their choices of design. The architecture loses the consistency of a strong idea, and the clarity of the idea is diluted.
The precise order in his work creates a singular architectural presence. Olgiati’s architecture is divided rather than additive. This is why he materializes his work solely in concrete. Concrete is the material that adapts to any shape and allows the object to have material consistency. The idea rendered in form is absolute. In a classroom in Mendrisio, Olgiati once said “(…) good architecture is one that you cannot remove a part and maintain the strength of the architecture…it breaks up into pieces and stops making sense. Architecture is like reading a work of Nobel [literature], if a piece of the story becomes decontextualized, all the rest lies without this piece and stops making sense.”
4. Built Architecture
Valerio Olgiati proposes an architecture far from its context with abstract ideas that can be classified by the color of their materiality. His first phase is characterized by natural gray color of concrete as seen in the Auditorium Plantahof. Despite being constructed after the two initial stages, this project takes up the idea of returning to the origins and authenticity of the material.
The second phase is characterized by white colored concrete. Natural and physical materiality encourages many references that compete with or diminish the conceptual meaning of a project. Removing these attributes further clarifies the architectural construct. White represents the maximum idea of abstraction.
The Yellow House is a particular example of this phase. In the restoration of this structure, the building form was clarified by painting the existing material construction white. The building is perceived as a perfect object—as a temple.
The third phase is the red-pigmented concrete construction. The reddish hue of the concrete implies a connection to idea of ground and land. It is an architecture that creates sensitive environments, an iconographic built form that is referential to a context other than the specific building site.
“I learned that my buildings have to be attractive, captivating and, somehow, figurative as well for people to get involved with them.”(Olgiati, 2011, p. 24)
For Olgiati, contemporary society shows a great disposition to accept “perverse” forms easily, if it is relatable to the person. Thus, a question arises, how should an architect work if his aspiration seeks to at once provoke the public and make the public question architecture, but also be palatable enough that the public would entertain the provocation? Currently, it is extremely difficult to design something new that makes sense.
The use of the term “novelty” in architectural discourse may provoke controversy, but according to Olgiati’s point of view, that is a virtue. When something is new and the public does not yet understand a work, there is a certain amount of time that must pass for it to be comprehended. This is the limit to which Olgiati works and revises his architecture. Thus, his projects make people think because they are confronted with something that they have not yet met before and inevitably experience curiosity from his designs. Only something different that is made with deliberate care causes such demand of mental aspiration.
5. Invented architecture
“[…] I like to work in the same way as the Mayans. I’d like to do something radically new, something that is invented.” (Olgiati, 2011, p. 17)
Olgiati makes an important differentiation between invented architecture and abstract architecture. This distinction is a key attribute of his work. As already mentioned, Olgiati’s architectural production shows an a-referential architecture (or invented architecture). The consequence of this principle is to carry out the possibility of full abstraction. According to his understanding, this result is only achieved with a clear starting point—one idea. This has nothing to do with the idea of archetype—an invention is divergent from canon—but instead the architecture as a new idea.
Resorting to the past, Olgiati exemplifies invented architecture in the example of the Mayan temples of Guatemala City. They are a-referential architecture par excellence. For Olgiati, the pre-Colombian temples are a pure example of a product that came from the imaginative faculties of those people, who showed that the mind is able to be inventive in full abstraction. Hence, his phase of white concrete creates abstraction.
Olgiati also refers to the Temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. This kind of temples are opposed to the idea of the Mayan Temples because they take almost direct reference to the silhouettes of the surrounding mountains, the peaks of the Himalayas, and also Buddhist morality. (Olgiati, 2011, p. 17)
Therefore, Olgiati demands to approach the attitude of Mayan civilization by virtue of its idealization and abstraction of the creative act and show independence from any direct or figurative reference. His architecture always tries to be a pure intellectual projection without figurative origins. It should arise from pure imagination on the fringes of what happened with the pre-Columbian temples.
This enigmatic architect does not want referential architecture. This creates a kind of dilemma because he is totally aware about the intellectual and mental formation of any person. He recognizes that our cognitive structure does not allow us to think on completely abstraction. Our memory, knowledge, training and experience of the creative act are never completely free of references. Thus, he claims that scientifically he is not a-referential, but his attitude and practice deny this structure that inhibits an autonomous and innovative architecture. (Olgiati, 2011, p. 17)
6. Valerio Olgiati’s Thought
Over the course of two years, Valerio Olgiati has made an Iconographic Autobiography to clarify represent his thoughts. He selected images that were deeply personal to him. These images are the foundation for his architecture. This collection makes the task of understanding easier for an architect and helps to clarify his thoughts and ideas about architecture. These images represent themes and ideas. Olgiati does not see this collection as a manual, but as a reflective project that helps and represents values that he seeks to preserve. Olgiati has exposed parts of this collection in his conferences because he believes that they concisely transmit his aesthetic values.
Olgiati concludes that the reasons for working on this collection stems partially from his experience living abroad in Los Angeles. This passage led him into introspection and he found that not everything in life comes down to traditions. Despite that, his collection images mostly represent old buildings, because for Olgiati, antiquity is a pure expression of architecture, not necessarily a catalogue of tradition. When he looks on buildings he removes them from time and from their context. They are simply seen as mere architectural objects.
However, the projects of this Swiss architect have a strong physical-site presence. Furthermore, they also reveal a paradox of architecture through the metaphysical paintings of Giorgio de Chirico’s influence. That architecture is an abstract thought but a concrete reality. Olgiati’s architecture seeks for a “new rationalism” as opposed to old values. His architecture rejects the possibility of composing or repeating such as suggested by the philosopher Paul Valéry’s concerns about Classicism in which each figure is a proposition that can be composed with others. (Valery in Porphyrios) These values of classicism are opposed to the thought of Valerio Olgiati. To deliver a new perception is something that transcends the physical reality of the object. Through his philosophy, Olgiati aims to create new appearances with different systems such as on the case of Bardill’s Studio or on the School in Paspels.
The figurative and intellectual character of his projects is able to touch and envelope people in the experience of a new architecture. “I would rather fail at producing something difficult than to produce a trivial architecture.” (Olgiati, 2011, p. 28)
Bibliography
BENCHECI, Natalia (2012) – From the aesthetic experience to the creative process in architecture. Lisbon : University Lusíada of Lisbon. Master Thesis.
CECILIA, Fernando Márquez; LEVENE, Richard (2011) – Nº157 Valerio Olgiati 1996-2011. Madrid : El Croquis.
FERREIRA, Renato Alexandre Coelho (2012) – The constructive system as a conceptual expression: the Neues Museum in Berlin, the Baths of Vals and the Yellow House. Lisbon : University Lusíada of Lisbon. Master Thesis.
OLGIATI, Valerio (2007) – Conversation with students. Virginia. Virginia Tech Architecture Publications.
Authors: Renato Alexandre Coelho Ferreira and Natalia Bencheci
Editor: John David Wagner
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