It Was a Moment of Immediate Inspiration
GH You once pointed out that you have always been interested in probing the two extremes of the ancient and the ultra modern in one site With this challenge in mind, the langenlois project must have been the ideal project for you. How did you feel about the site when visiting it for the first time in March 2001? What were your first ideas?
SH Actually this drawing is a key drawing. It was made in the middle of the night after I first saw the site.On 6/11/01 I went to the site for the first time. The clients, Tuula and Gerhard Nidetzkv, took me through the old vine vaults, and I saw a wondsrful map of this strange morphology, the shapes of these vaults. I immediately had this idea of making this almost weird language, almost a kind of new alphabet of shapes, the link between the old and the new. By cutting a simple cube of space [the wine or vtsitors'center] via these subterranean shapes they becorne the source of the light, whereas in the vaults they are dark And then rnaking the hotel may be in response as weil as in an inversion. So it goes from the cellar to the wine center to the hotel And one is under the ground, one is in the ground and one is above the ground. It was a moment of immediate thinking, of immediate inspiration.
Strange, I would have thought this was the first sketch you drew for the langenlois project
Oh, you are right. But this one, dated 03/14/01, only shows the three parts of the vaults. There already is the old morphology, thc cube of the wine center and the hotel, which is all part of the program. But the buildings don't have articulated forms. And this sketch does not contain the idea of the under, the in and the over. But the sketch, dated 6/11/01, is the one that became the idea. So it took me three month to develop the idea. This means, sitting here and talking to you, I realze that over the years, one's idea of what happened becomes different from what actually happened. (laughs)
How did you proceed after you had sketched out the final idea?
From the watercolors we always go to the models, and we always make many models. This process can be quick, but sometimes it takes a long time. The hotel took a very long time to develop; we have a lot of models that show how we struggled trying to make it. The wine center was much quicker. This was because the hotel was more complex-there were a lot of different programs and I wanted the rooms to float over the public space. I think that many architects who are really searching for something-they have to struggle This balance of program, form and composition is a struggle; it takes a long time to get everything to come together. There are a lot of buildings built in the world and some of them have this intensity. And usually, if you go deep into where they came from, they came from someone struggling, like myself.
I would strongly argue that both the wine center and the hotel are well integrated into their surrounding landscape. Could one relate this homogeneity to the design process in which you profoundly explore the specific qualities of any site you work on?
First, this is nice to hear. And yes, on 6/11/01 we had a concept. We had a theme: the link between something modern and something very old. But it was also a shock to me, because when I made these sketches I thought, I should not make them recall this old architecture; that would be too disrespectful of the old. I have to make something of the twentyfirst century. So when I presented this at Langenlois for the first time I said quite clearly that, even if this has a relationship to the shapes of the vaults underneath, this is something new and in complementary contrast. The mayor was in this meeting and said: 'We are going to build this wine center and the hotel as weil.' And little did I know that that was a building permit. But that meant that I could not move the building later on, because based on my original drawing they issued a zoning envelope that fits that new space for the new buildings and I could no longer go outside of it.
Could we return to the question of homogeneity?
Yes, I think it really is related to the vault system then to the fact that these are compact geometries. There is for example the fact that this void equals this solid (the hotel court geometry equals the wine center volume). and the fact that they are related on the surface of the earth under, in and over. So I think the possibility of these connections in four different ways allows for the architecture to be something quite new and quite different, but it is grounded in the earth and in the history of the place. It is the deep connection to something that I read out of the site. The workers on the site, the builders and the constructors-they all understood this idea immediately. They accepted it, even though they had never built a building Iike this before.
As you have explained, the first sketch of the Langenlois project was based on the three typological parts under, in, and over. How would you explain that this motif, which you applied early on in your work, reappears here in this project?
It is not really a typology, but rather a zero ground thinking about the earth and buildings. It is this notion of the surface of the earth and that all architecture is in relation to this surface: it only can be under, in or over. This is an idea of relativity to the earth not really a motif as it could be any geometry or form.
So, it is a sort of universal approach?
The first time 1 established this as a kind of manifesto was in 1986 in my book Anchoring in the Milan Porta Vittoria project. So, rather than having a style that I carry and try to put down on all these different sites. I try to have a new architecture for each site. 1 try not to have a personal style. This makes it difficult for any client, because I am unpredictable, I am dangerous for the clients. They dont know what concept they will get. It is very hard for me to be selected through a short-list. It is easier for me to win a competition as a way of getting a project.
I have always been intrigued by your comparison of the geometrie spacing of the vineyard rows with 'the grid of the city.' Because in Langenlois, we are out there in this rural landscape ...
But this landscape is not rural. It is man-made. The geometry of the city forms space. As you walk through the city grid and look at the sky, the space of the sky is cut in a geometric pattern. And equally, when you walk between the rows of the vineyard, the space of the sky is cut through the geometric pattern of the vineyards.
There is this relationship between the way we experience space and the geometric rigor of something. It does not matter if the grid or rigid geometry or the parallel strips of space are between buildings or between green rows. It is definitely a man-made kind of spatial experience here in Langenlois, which is very beautiful. When the vineyards are full, there is nothing more beautiful. And it was very interesting that the old city, the wine center and the hotel could enter into this rigorous relationship. Thus the newly planted lines of vines between the wine center and the hotel have to run in exactly the way they are today in order to connect these parts. It was also very important that the new vines be planted as close to the edge of the hotel as possible, so when you are in the cafe, restaurant or spa. you can see these vines coming right up to the glass. That is a unique experience.
You have always kept close ties to Europe, starting with your early studies in Rome, then with several competitions, and last but not least with the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki. Wh at did it mean for you to build in Austria?
It was a very good experience. The local architects, Irene [Ott Reinisch] and Franz [Sam], became very important. They did all the hard work, all the detailing. I only did the sketches. And that is how I could work, because I did not understand the Austrian method. And I think one reason why we achieved what we did was that they knew exactly what was important; they had all the necessary expertise
This is what made the project so special-all the people involved gave a lot of energy. Also from my side, Christian Wassmann, the project architect, gave his all. All the craftsmen and all the other people working on the project were very good. I would love to build something else in Austria. I like the sense of craftsmanship and the hard-working nature of the people.
How well did you know Austrian wine before?
I knew a little about it. I knew the Grüner Veltliner, this wonderful, dry special wine. But I didn't realize the depth, the variety and the quality. There are 60 different varieties of Grüner Veltliner-I had never imagined that there could be so many varieties! And all the care the winegrowers take to ensure the variety of the wines. They are so involved. It is wonderful.
Let's turn to the design of the furniture. How could you create such a coherent atmosphere even though the furniture is composed of several individually designed pieces?
They all came out of the same set of concerns. The bed has a bedspread with the morphology of the vines. They made that out of woven material, black and yellow. And the chairs are related to the vines too, as you can see from these^lines that are curving around. But the design of this chair also originated during a particular time in my life when my back was hurting very badly. I wanted to call it the Loisium Lumbar Chair. So I took the position of this ‘lumbar-push-on-the-back’ as the beginning of the design. And it works as a regular dining chair. The light fixtures, the door handles-all these shapes were related to the vaults. It is like a piece of music, where there is some thread of a theme that connects things. I was very happy that the Nidetzkys would allow us to do this. They were very supportive. Again, that was what made the project so special: everybody made such a huge effort to make this work though we had such a tight deadline. Actually, in an ideal world, I would have saked for one more year.
So let's make this the final question: What would you have changed if you had had another year?
Who knows, I might have worked on the furniture more, on proportions on shapes and colors. But this idea of one more year results from the fact that as an architect, there is always a desire to enjoy the process.
Quelle: HATJE CANTZ; steven holl-world of wine LOISIUM; S.: 72-82; text: Gudrun Hausegger
Fotos: Margherita Spiluttini, Lukas Wassmann, Yukio Futagawa