aarhus town hall, aarhus, denmark, 1937-1942.
architects: arne jacobsen, 1902-1971 with erik møller, 1909-2002.
portrait of a staircase...
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Tags: arne jacobsen architecture design designer detail house building staircase stairs århus aarhus rådhus town hall city denmark danmark modern modernist modernism arquitectura dansk danish nordic scandinavian architektur bygning arquitetura Architectuur Architettura gebäude haus gebouw bouw batiment maison edificio huis casa arne jacobsen seier+seier creative commons CC
aarhus town hall, aarhus, denmark, 1937-1942.
architects: arne jacobsen, 1902-1971 with erik møller, 1909-2002.
portrait of a staircase...
Tags: arne jacobsen architecture design designer detail house building staircase stairs århus aarhus rådhus town hall city denmark danmark modern modernist modernism arquitectura dansk danish nordic scandinavian architektur bygning arquitetura Architectuur Architettura gebäude haus gebouw bouw batiment maison edificio huis casa arne jacobsen seier+seier creative commons CC
alléhusene housing, jægersborg allé, gentofte, 1949-1953.
architect: arne jacobsen, 1902-1971.
(auto-stitch).
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link to full size photo.
aarhus town hall, aarhus, denmark, 1937-1942.
architects: arne jacobsen, 1902-1971, with erik møller, 1909-2002.
portrait of a staircase...
the influence from asplund on jacobsen was never more obvious than in aarhus town hall, the first of his many town halls and a competition win from 1937.
the building is one long tribute to asplund's law courts in gothenburg completed the same year and like the law courts, the town hall is a riot of modernist details, a collage of highly individual elements brought together under a great skylight.
the staircase connects main hall and basement. because of a change of level, the basement becomes a regular office floor further down and jacobsen needed a dignified connection. by placing its negative shape as a kind of geometric ornament in the floor, the staircase becomes the view from the surrounding balconies of the atrium, in effect making the floor an interior facade.
the exceptional floor in the main hall shown here is bog oak - oak trees several thousand years old, dug out of swamps and dryed very, very slowly. the wood is nearly fossilized and extremely strong and heavy. since it is difficult to obtain and work with, bog oak is usually only used for ornamental work. it was used here because of wartime shortages in place of a hardwood floor.
together with the extensive brass detailing, the beech and birch wall cladding, the bog oak floor makes for an interior of warm colours, kept in check by the white concrete skeleton.
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Tags: arne jacobsen arne jacobsen architect architecture design designer detail house building staircase stairs århus aarhus rådhus town hall city denmark danmark modern modernist modernism arquitectura dansk danish nordic scandinavian architektur bygning arquitetura Architectuur Architettura gebäude haus gebouw bouw batiment maison edificio huis casa bog oak floor jenskristianseier seier+seier creative commons CC
olivetti showroom, venice 1957-1958.
architect: carlo scarpa, 1906-1978.
one of the greatest twentieth century staircases, carlo scarpa's neo-plasticist essay in stone and brass. I built a model of this as a student, still love it. it was a high point in three dimensional neo-plasticism, even if it was also a kind of swan song.
the movement or language was long gone when scarpa designed his olivetti showroom - mies had returned to classicism, wright had apparently left the planet for his final UFO shaped monuments, and rietveld had lost his position as one of the masters of modern architecture, although we mustn't forget his late masterpiece, the pavilion in arnhem, a very personal development of de stijl ideas completed three years prior to the olivetti.
scarpa's strength, or one of them, was to return neoplasticism to its painterly roots. he had recently arranged an exhibition, the plan of which was one of mondrian's compositions and he made it work. it gave him a freedom which pinwheel based compositions had otherwise lost, reduced as they were to site plans and at best the free standing wall in front of a theatre wardrobe or bathroom core.
scarpa's use of modern painting as a source for his designs also shows in the floor which quotes from paul klee. klee's surface treatment, despite his bauhaus creditials, owned something to the byzantine surfaces of the vienna secession, in turn inspired by the gain and loss of venice as a austrian province, and scarpa can be said to be completing the circle by returning his pattern to st. marks's square.
the carlo scarpa set.
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