Gerald Zugmann Blue Universe Architectural Manifestos - by Coop Himmelb(l)au:: books at arcspace.com

"Gerald Zugman's architectural photography reveals the invisible, lends reality to the possible, and makes a place for longing."
Peter Noever

Gerald Zugmann was at the MAK Center in Los Angeles for the presentation of his new book "Blue Universe" Architectural projects by Coop Himmelb(l)au.

With his precise and individual visual language Gerald Zugmann has established an entirely new generation of architectural photography. His intense commitment to contemporary architecture discloses the architect's intentions and the character of the individual building and its inherent statement.

Photo: arcspace

The book documents the long-term collaboration between Gerald Zugmann and Coop Himmelb(l)au (Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky). It visualizes the biographical data of numerous models in different experimental stages as well as architectural vita of the architects.

Photo courtesy Gerald Zugmann

Moving beyond the merely documentary, his photographs are interpretive yet uniquely expressive of the architects' intentions, revealing the singular charracter of a particular building or project.

Photo courtesy Gerald Zugmann

Zugmann's photographs do not regard the architecture in its functional capacity. Instead, he searches for the perspectivethat reveals the essence of a project. Using lighting and focusing on salient details, he "materializes' the idea of the architecture in dramatic images that have been likened to still lifes.

Photo: arcspace

After an introduction by MAK Program Coordinator Lou Anne Greenwald, famed LA photographer Julius Shulman talked about the Shindler House, the importance of architectural photograpy and his admiration for Zugmann's work.

Exhibition
"Blue Universe"
Architectural Manifestos by Coop Himmelb(l)au

An exhibition of large images of several models in different experimental stages was on view at the MAC Center for Art and Architecture during the summer month.
The exhibition closed on September 8, 2002.

The MAK Center for Art and Architecture is located at the Schindler House on Kings Avenue in Los Angeles.

Gerald Zugmann
Blue Universe
Architectural projects by Coop Himmelb(l)au
Edited by: Peter Noever
Publisher: Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany 2002

email: makcenter@earthlink.net

Photo: arcspace

Rudolph Michael Schindler's Kings Road house stands today as an icon of early modern architecture, equalling - if not surpassing - in sheer inventiveness the contemporary work of other architects. The house is also the birthplace of the southern California modernism we celebrate today.
Here in the twenties Shindler, working alone and also with his erstwhile partner Richard Neutra, created a body of work as vital today as it was incomprehensible to the East Coast establishment seventy years ago.

Photo: arcspace

The house was designed and built between November 1921 and June 1922. Schindler used a system of "Slab-Tilt" construction, which he neither invented nor credited to any other designer.
The pinwheel plan of the house was designed to accommodate two families; the Schindlers and Clyde and Marian Chace. It compromises four studios, a communal kitchen and a separate guest apartment for a total of approximately 3,500 square feet. The studios are arranged in two L-shaped pairs opening onto patios.

Photo: arcspace

The garden is an integral part of the plan, a virtual extension of the living space. There are seven fireplaces including two outside where he created a series of outdoor rooms articulated with hedges and changes in ground level.
On the roof he designed sleeping porches with canvas awnings.
He called it "a real California scheme".

Photo: arcspace

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September 9, 2002