richard meier - beyond autonomy (1)

7/30/2019 Richard Meier - Beyond Autonomy (1)

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Meier Beyond Autonomy


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Richard Meier Who is he?

Born in 1934, he graduated from Cornell University in 1957.

Started his own practice in 1963 having worked for both Skidmore, Owings and

Merril and Marcel Breuer

One of the New York Five, together with Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves,

Charles Gwathemy, John Hejduk. The five had a common allegiance

modernism, harking back to the works of Le Corbusier in the 20s and 30s.

In 1973 in an essay entitled Five on Five the Grays (Romaldo Giurgola, Allan

Greenberg, Charles Moore, Jaquelin Robertson and Robert Stern) attacked the

whites on the grounds that

The pursuit of the pure modernist aesthetic resulted in

unworkable buildings that were indifferent to site,

Indifferent to users and divorced from daily life.

He was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1984 and the won the gold medal from

the Academy of Arts and he is a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council.

50 years and more than one seminal building a year.

Famous works include: Douglas House

Ghetty Centre

The Atheneum

Barcelona Museum of Modern Art

Frankfurt Museum of Decorative ArtsStadthaus, Ulm


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As Alberti says beauty consists in a rational integration of theproportions of all parts of a building in such a way that every part hasits absolutely fixed size and shape and nothing could be added or takenaway without destroying the harmony of the whole.

My rigor also is a search for clarity.

This search, for me, begins with the plan. The plan, which seems tohave been neglected of late, is in fact the key. The two dimensionalimage contains within it instructions for the three dimensional objectthat is the building. Together with the section, it generates thebuilding. While elevations pictorialise, the plan and section speak tothe architect about spatial ideas

Meier on his work method


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Museum of Decorative Arts Frankfurt 1979 - 1985

Stadthaus -Ulm 1986 - 1993

City Hall and Library 1987 - 1994

Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) 1987 - 1995


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Analyse and determine the cube, multiply by four and twist through 3.5


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"Urban form evolves between type and incident,

fabric and discontinuity, history and the moment ofdesign. This dialogue strongly influenced the design of

the Museum for the Decorative Arts in Frankfurt. The

parti developed out of a notion of context that takes in

not only geographic features but also historical and

typological ones. In this sense, and in contrast to some of

the earlier buildings for more rural or less historic sites,the museum is emphatically a public and an urban

institution, a rejection of the modernist isolation of the

building as a free-standing object distanced from its

surrounds. The scheme here is meant to connect: to

respond to, enlarge, and reinforce the public context and

the urban fabric."

Meier on Frankfurt Museum of Decorative Arts


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Museum of Decorative Arts Frankfurt

First seminal project in Europe and the most significant of the 1980s

Deeply routed to site by the integration of the Villa Metzler and the

overlaying of its grid, with a rotated grid aligned with the adjacent River Main

Analysis of the near perfect cubic form of the Villa (17.6m) repeated to form

the primary ordering of the plan and then in elevation, determining the key

proportions of openings and fenestration.

Rotation is articulated through the use of circulation and elevational

treatment.

Its emphatic contextualism is one of the first examples of a rejection of the

modernist ideals of the isolation of architecture as a free standing object.

As a result, the building enlarges and reinforces the public context and urban

fabric; building and urban form are one.

The complex occupies just one end of the site, the rest been given over to

open public green space in order to connect two previously poorly related

parts of the city. This provides a further, cultural connection


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Stadthaus -Ulm

Complex urban problems posed by Munsterplatz. Quoted as being one of

the most problematic sites in the country [Germany]

Ulm Munster Cathedral dominates the space and remains one of the few

historicically significant buildings following the 1944 bombings

More than a century of failed competitions (17 in total) and lack of public

support preceded Meiers design.

Critical appraisal of site lines, vistas and routes help to establish the critical

elements of the building

The new exhibit and assembly building has demonstrated how design and

building expertise, focused on one site-specific work, can completely

metamorphose the city and mediate modern form with historic contextMeier on Stadhaus, Ulm

The self-contained authority of this work derives from the way in which it

provides a modulated entry into the Munsterplpatz, in part through the

rhythmic syncopation of its mass running down one side of the cathedral

square, and in part through its tri-gabled glazed roof that caps the mass with a

profile reminiscent of Gothic form

Framption on Stadhaus, Ulm


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City Hall & Library, The Hague Netherlands 1986 - 1994


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By virtue of its extensive transparency the city hall reveals


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By virtue of its extensive transparency the city hall reveals

not only the structure of its organization but also the

essentially open character of the citys form of governance.

The building expresses civic dedication through contrasting

spatial and tectonic elements that shift constantly between

public and private, formal and informal, light and dark, solid

and void

Meier on City Hall and Library, The Hague

Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) 1987 1995


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Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) 1987 - 1995


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Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA)

A further development and departure of the modernist ethic, the design

responds to a number of views, vistas and routs, fitting tightly into an historic,

dark neighbourhood.

By contrast to the dark facades and labyrinthine street plan of the Barri

Gothic district, the museum stand s out as a symbol of rejuvenation and the

utopian dream, whilst, through its complexity it retains the character of the

area.

The glazed circulation zone forms both a barrier between the city and the

exibit, but also an intense dialogue between the historic forms of its context

and the building itself.

This building organises circulation in relation to its urban location. The Raval

district historically has been a subject of discussion and controversy, as it is an

area of enormous density with a high land occupancy rate. The design was

seen as a way to inject new life into a rundown district, for by being oppositeless elegant surroundings the museum openly connects with nearby structures.

I began the design of the museum by looking closely at the possibilities offered

by the site within this fabric of dense strets characterized by skewed sections

and ancient church domes. The compressed, low-scale mixture of commercial,

institutional, and residential buildings offered few spaces for pedestrian

activity [a cultural activity in Barcelona known as paseo]. There was no place

where people could meet, talk, sit, read, watch children play, or walk theirdogs. I wanted to create an open pedestrian plaza in front of the museum that


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richard meier - beyond autonomy (1)

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