Two days in Hamburg, Germany...
Photo: Kirsten Kiser
Rickmers Reederei Headquarters.
Took the Copenhagen - Hamburg train for the inauguration of the new Richard Meier building for the Rickmers Reederei (Shipping) Headquarters. The evening before Meier spoke at the Freie Akademie der Kunste about his latest work . The "not even standing room left" lecture was organized by the Hamburgische Architektenkammer and introduced by Dr. Ullrich Schwarz.
Photo: Kirsten Kiser
Dr. Ullrich Schwarz introducing Richard Meier.
After the lecture we were invited to a reception at the exquisite, recently restored, Jenisch House in Hamburg-Altona. The original plan for the house was by the architect Franz Gustav Forsmann (1795-1878) but, because of the owners admiration for Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1782-1841), who had become famous because of his Glienicke Schloss for Prince Karl of Prussia, it became a collaboration between the two architects between 1831 and 1834. The Jenisch House has been a museum since 1927.
Photo: Kirsten Kiser
The Jenisch House
Photo Kirsten Kiser
Architect Hadi Teherani, Documentary Producer
Anne Gyrithe Bonne and Meier partner Bernhard Karpf in the Music Room.
The new Station Center in Hamburg -Altona, that will define a new scale for future projects in the area, is being designed by Berger+Parkkinen Architekten from Austria.
They designed the common building, the copper band, the landscaping and the underground facilities and also developed the urban design and the coordination for the Nordic Embassy Complex in Berlin.
More about both projects and others by the great team Berger+Parkkinen very soon.
Photo courtesy Berger+Parkkinen Architekten
The Hamburg - Altona Station Center.
We ended the first evening at the jammed opening of SIDE; Hamburg's latest Design Hotel. The symbiosis of architecture and interior design was a close collaboration between the offices of Hamburg architect Jan Störmer and Milan architect Matteo Thun. Robert Wilson developed a lighting concept for the atrium which makes the interior of SIDE a spatial experience.
Photo: Kirsten Kiser
A view down the 24 meters atrium, with the Robert Wilson lighting design, in the SIDE Hotel.
The next morning Meier gave a tour of the building for about 80 colleagues. Bernhard Karpf, the Meier & Partners architect in charge of the project, joined Meier for the tour.
It is a superb building with a very happy client who's biggest problem right now is keeping the crowds away. I will tell you all about the building in a feature next week.
Photo: Kirsten Kiser
Richard Meier in the double height lobby of Rickmers Reederei Headquarters with Bernard Karpf.
After the tour we went to see the "HYPERMENTAL" exhibition in the"Cubistic" addition to the Hamburger Kunsthalle designed by O.M. Ungers in the late 1990's.
The exhibition was about the adventures that take place in our heads, about realities we experience every day and about how both meet up in art.... There were works by Duane Hanson, Salvador Dali, Barbara Kruger, Meret Oppenheim, Jeff Wall, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons and many more.
Photo: Kirsten Kiser
The Hamburger Kunsthalle designed by O.M. Ungers.
Photo: Kirsten Kiser
"Small Vase of Flowers (1991)" by Jeff Koons on a "cube" in Ungers"cube".
Then a short rest before the inauguration of the Meier building to which the invitation, because of the client being a shipping magnate, read like an invitation to a "Maiden Voyage" on the MS RICKMERS. Three hundred people from Hamburg and around the world were packed into the 3000 square meters space.
Photo: Kirsten Kiser
The Cuban band on the upper terrace getting ready for the crowd.
Kristin Feireiss and her husband Hans Jürgen Commerell drove from Berlin for the inauguration. Kristin will be leaving her job as Director of the NAI in Rotterdam to join Hans Jürgen Commerell in the management of the Aedes East and West galleries in Berlin.
The big Richard Meier exhibition, organized by LA's Richard Koshalek, has just closed at the NAI. Aaron Bedsky who is currently curator of architecture, design and digital projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will become the Director of the NAI (Netherlands Architecture Institute) when Kristin leaves in June.
Photo: Kirsten Kiser
Kristin Feireiss and Hans Jürgen Commerell from Aedes Galleries on one of the many terraces.
The next morning, inspired by Barbara Kruger's painting "I shop therefore I am", I went with my friend, documentary producer Anne Gyrithe Bonne, to Georgio Armani and a few other places before getting on the train back to Copenhagen.
I AM Tired!
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"I shop therefore I am"
by Barbara Kruger.
