RSA Metzstein Architecture Discourse 2016 - Peter Zumthor - Part 1

good evening I'm Marian Smith secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy I'm delighted to welcome such a large audience to the RAC Mitch Stein architecture discourse 2016 this is the third discourse in the series founded to celebrate the memory of Azamat stain RAC above all the RAC mates they in architecture discourse celebrates Izzie's engagement with the discipline of architecture his insights scrutiny sense of humor and acerbic wet touched all those he talked beyond the university context he continued to mentor his past students and has been extremely influential to contemporary architecture practice in Scotland we are most grateful for the support of the Scottish government in presenting this series as he was a partner in the Glasgow practice of Gillespie Kidd and Koya here he walked with his long-term collaborator Andy Macmillan RAC earlier this year I was lucky enough to visit their masterwork sin Peters seminary card Rose as it was made accessible for a special event heralding the launch of the year of innovation architecture and design a testament knee to its significance as he taught at the McIntosh School of Architecture in Glasgow the University of Dublin and the architecture association in London he was professor of architecture here at the University of Edinburgh from 1984 to 1991 we are extremely grateful to University for its cooperation in the use of this lecture theatre previously we have been honored to host two eminent speakers alvaro see from Portugal in 2014 and Glenn Market crossing the globe from Australia and 2015 now at this point I would like to remind you to please make sure that you have your telephone switched off there is no fire alarm planned for this evening so if the fire alarm goes it is a fire and the exits are either side will you came in and on the half landing there are fire escapes there I'm now going to hand over to Charlie Sutherland RAC who will introduce the 2016 RAC met Stine architecture discourse [Applause] I'm very honored to be standing up here tonight to introduce to you one of the most influential and significant architects practicing in the world today Peter zoom tour was my immediate choice when it came to my turn to organize this event the third in the series of the Mets time discourses over the past 40 years the impact of his work from the modest studio and Halden Stein Switzerland has been extraordinary both in both its influence on the profession and generations of students of architecture globally the extraordinary diversity of has worked from landscapes to chapels old person's housing world-famous spa and now of course LACMA in LA all embrace a world of rich complexity and yet embody a profound simplicity touching the soul of all who engage with it he describes himself as an artist's architect I think it is simply that he is in the greatest tradition of the greatest architects who practice the art of architecture the thoughtful and precisely tuned reading and response to place insightful understanding and interpretation of use and a truly masterful command of materials in detail all conspire to conjure places of intense atmosphere and magic and magic and a process of design and making in what I can only describe as alchemy so when I wrote to feature mmm over a year ago a letter asking if he might come and visit our small country excuse me and speak in this series I don't I did not really imagine that he might amongst his enormous number of other invitations around the world accept this invitation however during a week-long tour of his buildings in March when I visited his studio in Helmand Stein I learned of the young Irish assistant in his office had seen the title met Stein discourse and promoted this floor for loan requests to the top of the pile and said to Peter you must do this one well I don't know his name but I think we are all tonight most grateful to him and to Peter in taking his advice as a token of our appreciation I have a book from Danny Mac's bond of the work of gkc a gift from Danny and his father and her family is his family who is sitting in the audience here tonight I'm also personally very grateful to Peter for making the time in this extraordinary busy schedule and come and talk to us here tonight this working life is busier than ever with commissions and competition wins recently all over the world and you can imagine Edinburgh is not really on his route anywhere when we chatted earlier this year he did say I hope it's a nice space it's really difficult talking about architecture in a bad space and despite the University of Edinburgh is very kind sport but the RSA with the free use of this room I was hopeful that we might be able to host this event in a more memorable architectural space at one point even card Ross seminary was rather optimistically considered well I hope the Peter King forgive us for common sense and pragmatism prevailing over poetic and a spheric in this instance and I'm sure most of you tonight they're probably very relieved we're not standing in the damp darkness or an autumn evening and card Ross mmm anyways search and tonight's format slightly different from previous years past two events we had Alvaro Siza he talked about his ideas through one single recent project and Glenn merket who discussed the environmental context as his muse and genesis of all that he does this evening it's going to be a little bit more in the spirit of the title of this event a discourse or conversation peter has invited a guest Marineland off to be a conversation partner for the next half an hour and then there is also going to be a lecture from Peter which actually was last minute surprised Russ he's going to talk about LACMA anyway Marion just to introduce Marion Lord offers the arts correspondent from them they forgive my pronunciation here the noise Zuka is vitamin Switzerland choosing choosing and reporting about a wide range of cultural subjects in theater to the arts exhibitions and cultural institutions our work involves conducting interviews and writing features and profiles on artists with trend reports book reviews and stories including film photography literature architecture and fashion she is the author and co-author of a number of films books among them Studies on the works of three Brinn well Ingmar Bergman and Robert De Niro for the annual retrospective section of the Berlin Film Festival and my own worked in the same function as an arts correspondent in London 2001 to 2004 for GPA the German press agency back then the fourth biggest news agency in the world and before that for 13 years she worked she was with the frankfurter Alamein as I cited in Germany as a freelance writer justice so Peter was slightly reluctant to to show any he said he's given up lecturing about his work many years ago but I think we're very very honored tonight that he's going to actually discuss his latest project in Los Angeles for LACMA I handover narrative Peter thank you very much indeed [Applause] thank you for your kind words thank you for the invitation to come here I've been here 55 0 years ago most of you were still up on a cloud waiting ok this is a I was last week maybe I'm not done talking at Rhys Art Fair because I thought I should go there that the team the topic is interesting spaces for art and since I'm struggling again with museums and so all there's a moment when I think I should go and see whether I can talk about what I'm doing so sort of like going out to work and see can I bring these two terms what I'm doing and look at the faces of the audience whether it's convincing or not ok so I decided this afternoon I dared to repeat this experience again for you so you forgive me it will come off to the Londoners but I didn't know I could have started here I'm sorry about that I do the same thing talking about one aspect of this lesson Los Angeles project which is what kind of spaces for art am I trying to do this thing here so what I have to do is encyclopedic Museum so you know what an encyclopedic Museum is a lot of objects in this case some saying something like a hundred and twenty five thousand different things most of these things are not paintings they're not made to hang on a wall like artists nowadays make contemporary artists make things which say I would love to be in a museum right so that they come from many many different places and from many different times that my personal conception of an encyclopedic Museum is it's sort of a fortunate failure the failure part is of course the idea you know that this comes from the 18th century enlightenment we collect the world right from north east south and west to east and over the whole timeline from ancient times to today catalog it and show it the encyclopedic kind of thing and there is the failure because we all know this is not possible we cannot catalog the world thank God it's a bit bigger let's get into catalog ok so but still we know these museums where we have a lot of objects and a lot of labels and they tell distance and then this is Southwest later photo that's this museum so what's the good part I think the weakness of the encyclopedic Museum is also its greatness because they're all incomplete they all being complete in a different way so you talk to museums director of an encyclopedic receive not only the V&A or the Met also smaller ones and they will tell you my collection is the best and unique in the world okay and they are always right because they this is like a you know this they're the collection they have in these museums this is like the contingency of life you know somebody praised something in and somebody brought this and then they're really strong on Asian art of 2000 before Christ and there's nothing about Mexico and so you know this so this is a it's beautiful that they're all very specific because it's accident which brought these collections together that's also the case in Los Angeles unique let's look at a few things they sort of of course my favorites Buddha I guess many of the objects are really small this is a big carpet famous one I think there's some Korean wrapping cloth artists you know this Korean tradition of this beautiful wrapping look at this guy it's something ritual or religious she I like her she's for PETA he's a poet of course they're real Estrada in California on things like that like this is from a project from Noah up from one house they have lots of furnitures and they have dresses and do different things I wonder what this is I have no idea it's about the size of a human being it's an American piece that's clear right I love the blue like everybody else photos big photos collection this is a early print technique once used of course great artists or this right they have a lot of costumes in their collection textiles okay collection spaces what kind of collection spaces do I want to make this is my ideal this is lots of Fortuna in Venice I know Pilate used as you can see for exhibitions and this kind of space so rich of light and shadow reflections on the floor historic feeling of history in the walls and so so do you think you can all put any kind of art there will look good because the environment is so good so if my machine would have maybe only half of this quality of this atmosphere I would be really happy of course history cannot be in imitated history that is this building has a history but to get there atmosphere of ice would be beautiful that's also their parity I can over you know the classes is Canova and I think he really likes the space party they can you see he feels at home right and I love this light from the side which produces the shadows and lights and it has this I think it has a nice domestic atmosphere that's what I like the most if you can see objects in a domestic atmosphere in a space which has where that I comes in and as deeply you go into the building the darker it gets and this is my task you see now he lost his home but what I have to do I have these many many objects there and they have lost their home they're actually in a little bit homeless right there there are subjects but in many cases not even the curators know exactly where they come from and where was the context it was what's the proper context and still they're there and I think this is my noble duty to create a beautiful new home for these things there as I told you most of the things that lost the context and are not paintings like a wall pieces the project when I look at the objects I think I would like to make spaces which are good for the object so they have a new home so they can be there and they can t be there curators put this and that together energies between the objects start to flow so from the objects but now a couple of remarks or two or three things to what do I want for the experience of us the visitors what should they experience and for me this is three things I would like to accomplish first a complete freedom of circulation and making a personal experience so this would be the opposite of a guided tour okay where somebody already knows everything I don't yet know but I won't you have to freedom to make own experience that would be nice so daya tactical things they should be there but they should be in the background not in the foreground you know you know maybe you share this feeling sometimes you see a group of people behind a guide you know and they sort of tiredly walk through the halls and listen at least not least and you have the feeling they don't even look anymore okay that's point one museum should enable a personal experience before somebody tells me what you think or feel second feeling for the depth of time I can look at objects like before and I think who made this what was this look at it and so all of a sudden I think there have been people before me have been many many people before me there have been cultures and so I don't understand but they speak to me the objects so the feeling of the depth of time that's I think a very noble kind of task and who seems my opinion machines should provide we should allow for and it's all clear what I'm saying okay okay so the third one would be is the experience of beauty I look at an object and I start to see its secret its beauty and so on and I would like to make a museum where this experience is possible because in many places where you have objects there is too much and too many explanations and you don't even see anymore the people around I myself do this sometimes to catch myself running around reading the tags next to the paintings instead of looking yeah you know what I mean so the experience of beauty the experience of art you can say the experience of world this is nothing objective it's subjective it happens in my heart and in your heart that's fine it's there it happens that's I think should be at the beginning of the experience in a museum so bottom line and their trust the object and you know maybe if you share this feeling as soon as I am touched by an object by a piece of art then I want to know more and then I go to the curate and say tell me what is distant what do you know about that song not the other way around okay this is my basic idea of my museum two levels okay one level floating above ground this is the exhibition level this is 15,000 square meters of encyclopedic Museum on one level no hierarchy the petty guys town the worst objects up all the same one level and then above a roof big overhang roof so everything is horizontal one level no hierarchy on the ground there's a park and there are all the other more profane commercial funny things and we see mass from restaurants to a theater and so on and so on what you expect they are on the park ground level which is completely transparent or not composure yeah it's open its open okay I'm not going to talk about that okay three types so you will see the museum has three types of spaces this checked central space has clerestory light and this baptized by my director Michael Kamen as chapel gallery it has this tall Cleary story light and then left and right let me see whether you're all architects you can read sections galleries looking out to the city or around so this class there runs around the building and it stand there and so so you'll see afterwards I'm not gonna talk about it to miss him on one level is soul eater building you know I think architects say it's like a flower or object it doesn't have a back like a class doesn't have a back-up plan right something like that like a flower okay so we have these things here they be called beyond the gallery and they have my beloved side light as you can see there there and why they called me hunter galleries you see in a moment and then between you have cabinet galleries and the cap Enoch galleries that maybe you can say this is the more sacred space this is the profane space and this is maybe 18th century I think there you will see afterwards they're put bit dark and there you can make collections like the curators can make cata can also use labels they have a big freedom and they are artificial light artificially lit let's see so this is the plan I'm not going to talk about the shape okay you just have to take it and accept Chappell gallery chapter gallery so in each cluster has a chapter gallery is surrounded by cabinet galleries and is surrounded by this meandering galleries here which have side light very light darker tour Qatar Qatar Qatar client okay so you have the whole range from shadow to light all the time and here is the principle of free circulation I love this you know nobody tells me we have to go I hate this I think if I have a corridor and I have to go there tour that so no period no sequence of period halls I find my own way I would love I think you should have all be should all have to frequently find our own way and the principle is maybe a bit like you walk in the woods and you go from clearing to clearing you never know exactly what happens or maybe a park is maybe a English landscape park is in a similar way organized the freedom so here you see them the chaplet gyrus the light ones with the clerestory light from high above the brown the cabinets with artificial light with the special dense atmosphere of a lot of collections and things and then here black DB under gallery and you can see the same plan you can always look out you never get lost as you wander around you can always look out all around so you're always in contact to the city at the moment I think they're a few five meters here before you see out there from there to there that's important orientation this is clear to us the orientation is important I should not get lost in my forest here and the other one is it's open the museum is open if you know the Baylor Museum in Basel I think the success of that machine is its openness to the landscape it's friendly and if you go there you don't think it's not a treasure box box made out of granite where you as a boy thing well to go in there you need a university degree or something so this is an accessible kind of very should be very accessible to everybody a palace for everybody openness Frank ury saw this is he that's a good thing it only has three details and it's open to the outside compliment from Frank three details he said you understand America circulation so you can then add these lines and you can imagine this with the coin getting into the clusters coming out at cetera chapter galleries here you see them huh okay so this one in front here this is a landscape project for Bavaria and the one there in the back these are my mountains and the other day okay but do these are the h tuples here one two three here they are I like to go home I get nostalgic when you see the space okay tomorrow I'll be there again one [Music] okay now let's see of course as you see they're all different they all have very small and big taller and a bit lower and so on okay soon be done right cabinet colors okay now the you can see their deformities clusters around the chapel galleries the Beyonder gathers the third type the profane where we think the direction that we think there could be lots of things happening they don't have to be so holy and so also the copy poetry takes people discussion kitties cussing children running around and so on here this is not this radish kind of thing [Music] the OSC out to the city look at this path transversal passages or then this along the facade these passages where you go into the cabinets go out so I don't think he is quite okay he starts to look happy but I'm not I'm not yet finished okay this is a picture of the inauguration of the building 2023 okay some time to go

Channel: Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture

Views: 1,927

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: architecture, peter zumthor, royal scottish academy, rsa, edinburgh

Id: G0Lor55YV_o

Length: 36min 30sec (2190 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2019