David Chipperfield; Alexander Schwarz; Martin Reichert; Christoph Felger; Eva Schad; Harald Müller
When David Chipperfield asks of architecture what it should feel like, he is confirming the total impact that architecture has on the citizens of this world. He describes the beauty of a 14th-century painting depicting Siena as being “spatial and normal” and critiques much of contemporary architecture, especially city development, “as something that happens to us”. In the making of architecture, he masters idea and construction in the production of contemporary work. As the curator of the 2012 Biennale Architettura under the theme Common Ground, he encouraged participants to declare their sources, to find what is shared. It seems fundamental to the work of his office, that a deep understanding and respect for the past form the springboard to a new view of modernity. Dialogue is seen as an inclusive process, collaboration as being critical to the production of architecture. Building on history, not erasing it, communicating, listening, enriching the physical quality of space: these are values confirmed by his work. In David Chipperfield’s response to FREESPACE, the Karl Friedrich Schinkel drawing of the Altes Museum becomes a focus on generosity of space and public building. The James-Simon-Galerie, which is under construction on Berlin’s Museum Island, becomes the vehicle to discuss and describe the values of developing a civic language.