Peter Märkli - Drawings - lecture and exhibition in České Budějovice
Date: October 12 - November 19, 2017
Opening: October 11, 2017 at 7:00 PM
Curator: Michal Škoda
Admission: free
Author's lecture: on Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 5:00 PM at the Student Church of the Holy Family, K. IV. Street 22, České Budějovice
We are honored to be the first in the Czech Republic to present the work of renowned Swiss architect Peter Märkli.
Last year, Adam Caruso, who is also exhibiting here, described Märkli as a nonconformist who sees his role in architecture as a conversation with a 2500-year-old history.
Märkli's buildings are created slowly, with great deliberation, and are characterized by a distinctive poetics. He is convinced that the principles of classicism and proportion express revolutionary ideas and knows that being an architect is not merely acquiring knowledge at university, but a process that must be internalized, along with the entire burden of history that must be preserved. He once described his approach as if he were designing a square in which one of the corners is slightly incorrect – it is not perfect, but just perfect enough to express everything he needs to say about the square. He aims to imitate the proportions and spaces of classical orders and believes that rules exist for a certain reason. "If I am going to create a door, it is not just a door. I know you want to go in and out, but you also look at the measurements and meaning of the door and everything around it. That is a larger part of the profession."
Beatrice Galilee, in relation to Märkli, states among other things: "Swiss architects have been particularly adept at embracing modern materials and ancient monumentality. Märkli's entire logic is based on the idea of architecture as a continuously evolving canon of law that cannot be discarded. However, in Switzerland, you feel that it has not been discarded. Switzerland, despite its diversity of languages and cultures, has never had to deal with the rapid industrialization, wartime devastation, or social engineering experiments of the 1960s and 1970s that other countries faced. The reason why young architects are emerging and building quickly, whom Märkli criticizes, is that the demand is high, materials and production processes are advancing rapidly, and they are molding themselves into what their clients want."
One can consider Märkli's groundbreaking building to be the remarkable house > La Congiunta < for the sculptures of Hans Josephson from 1992 in the canton of Ticino. Since then, larger buildings and complexes have gradually appeared. Notable examples include the Novartis Visitor Center in Basel (2006) and the New Synthes building completed in 2012 in Solothurn. Additionally, he is the author of several residential and family houses and has participated in a number of exhibitions, such as at the Venice Architectural Biennale 2012, Architecture Gallery Berlin 2005 and 2008, Museum of Art Tokyo 2008, Architecture Museum Basel, Gallery A4 Tokyo 2012, Betts Project London 2016 and 2017…
Peter Märkli (1953) studied architecture at ETH Zurich, where he later served as a professor (from 2002 to 2015). Even in high school, he met architect Rudolf Olgiati (father of Valerio Olgiati), who became his friend and mentor, and it was from him that he learned to recognize the fundamental elements of architecture. Later during his studies at ETH, he became acquainted with sculptor Hans Josephson, who taught him how to look at sculpture and painting, and they undertook several trips together to Italy. In 1978, he established his own studio in Zurich. A significant influence on Märkli was his visit to Saintonge in France and a journey he took through Palladio's country houses.
Drawing plays a very important role in Peter Märkli's work. It is not just a matter of design drawing, but primarily a fundamental study for his work. These drawings mostly do not represent Märkli's executed buildings, but they possess a distinct graphic quality, a very personal handwriting, a poetry full of emotions, and the ability to reveal the author's vision and inspirations. He himself believes that architecture is an art category. He accepts that, as an architect, he has stricter expressions, but he addresses the visual impact of his architecture in the same way he analyzes the mass of a sculpture or the composition of a painting.
Märkli's drawings are mostly created in his small Zurich studio. Primarily abstract motifs, landscapes, and ideas about facades become the basis for later projects. Although many drawings are not associated with any project, their existence is essential for the author's creative process itself. He does not focus at that moment on materials or shadows, but essentially only on proportions. After final consideration, he resolves the floor plan with strong line drawings at a scale of 1:100, creates a section at 1:20, and sends the drawings to his employees in a separate second studio, who prepare technical drawings and the project for construction.
The drawings selected from the period spanning from 1980 to the present are also the basis for the České Budějovice exhibition, which thus offers a convincing image of the architect's way of thinking, drawing us into his poetic world…
Märkli himself says of his drawings: "A sketch is the germ of an idea that does not yet contain details. A sketch should be created in small sizes to prevent the development of certain details. It's like when a writer comes up with the idea for a novel. They may have clarified that there will be three main characters in the novel, but they do not yet know how the plot will develop. Whenever you have a motif or an idea, there is a lot of drawing ahead of you before you work them out to the end. You could do ten of them and look at it, and suddenly at that moment, you realize you already know enough, and the thing is ready. You can then return to such a series even much later. That is quite possible. Twenty years after I created a series of facades composed of squares – different squares, not regular ones – I built a house using the same motif. That building, the situation, and the landscape all needed that facade."
More information >
Opening: October 11, 2017 at 7:00 PM
Curator: Michal Škoda
Admission: free
Author's lecture: on Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 5:00 PM at the Student Church of the Holy Family, K. IV. Street 22, České Budějovice
We are honored to be the first in the Czech Republic to present the work of renowned Swiss architect Peter Märkli.
Last year, Adam Caruso, who is also exhibiting here, described Märkli as a nonconformist who sees his role in architecture as a conversation with a 2500-year-old history.
Märkli's buildings are created slowly, with great deliberation, and are characterized by a distinctive poetics. He is convinced that the principles of classicism and proportion express revolutionary ideas and knows that being an architect is not merely acquiring knowledge at university, but a process that must be internalized, along with the entire burden of history that must be preserved. He once described his approach as if he were designing a square in which one of the corners is slightly incorrect – it is not perfect, but just perfect enough to express everything he needs to say about the square. He aims to imitate the proportions and spaces of classical orders and believes that rules exist for a certain reason. "If I am going to create a door, it is not just a door. I know you want to go in and out, but you also look at the measurements and meaning of the door and everything around it. That is a larger part of the profession."
Beatrice Galilee, in relation to Märkli, states among other things: "Swiss architects have been particularly adept at embracing modern materials and ancient monumentality. Märkli's entire logic is based on the idea of architecture as a continuously evolving canon of law that cannot be discarded. However, in Switzerland, you feel that it has not been discarded. Switzerland, despite its diversity of languages and cultures, has never had to deal with the rapid industrialization, wartime devastation, or social engineering experiments of the 1960s and 1970s that other countries faced. The reason why young architects are emerging and building quickly, whom Märkli criticizes, is that the demand is high, materials and production processes are advancing rapidly, and they are molding themselves into what their clients want."
One can consider Märkli's groundbreaking building to be the remarkable house > La Congiunta < for the sculptures of Hans Josephson from 1992 in the canton of Ticino. Since then, larger buildings and complexes have gradually appeared. Notable examples include the Novartis Visitor Center in Basel (2006) and the New Synthes building completed in 2012 in Solothurn. Additionally, he is the author of several residential and family houses and has participated in a number of exhibitions, such as at the Venice Architectural Biennale 2012, Architecture Gallery Berlin 2005 and 2008, Museum of Art Tokyo 2008, Architecture Museum Basel, Gallery A4 Tokyo 2012, Betts Project London 2016 and 2017…
Peter Märkli (1953) studied architecture at ETH Zurich, where he later served as a professor (from 2002 to 2015). Even in high school, he met architect Rudolf Olgiati (father of Valerio Olgiati), who became his friend and mentor, and it was from him that he learned to recognize the fundamental elements of architecture. Later during his studies at ETH, he became acquainted with sculptor Hans Josephson, who taught him how to look at sculpture and painting, and they undertook several trips together to Italy. In 1978, he established his own studio in Zurich. A significant influence on Märkli was his visit to Saintonge in France and a journey he took through Palladio's country houses.
Drawing plays a very important role in Peter Märkli's work. It is not just a matter of design drawing, but primarily a fundamental study for his work. These drawings mostly do not represent Märkli's executed buildings, but they possess a distinct graphic quality, a very personal handwriting, a poetry full of emotions, and the ability to reveal the author's vision and inspirations. He himself believes that architecture is an art category. He accepts that, as an architect, he has stricter expressions, but he addresses the visual impact of his architecture in the same way he analyzes the mass of a sculpture or the composition of a painting.
Märkli's drawings are mostly created in his small Zurich studio. Primarily abstract motifs, landscapes, and ideas about facades become the basis for later projects. Although many drawings are not associated with any project, their existence is essential for the author's creative process itself. He does not focus at that moment on materials or shadows, but essentially only on proportions. After final consideration, he resolves the floor plan with strong line drawings at a scale of 1:100, creates a section at 1:20, and sends the drawings to his employees in a separate second studio, who prepare technical drawings and the project for construction.
The drawings selected from the period spanning from 1980 to the present are also the basis for the České Budějovice exhibition, which thus offers a convincing image of the architect's way of thinking, drawing us into his poetic world…
Märkli himself says of his drawings: "A sketch is the germ of an idea that does not yet contain details. A sketch should be created in small sizes to prevent the development of certain details. It's like when a writer comes up with the idea for a novel. They may have clarified that there will be three main characters in the novel, but they do not yet know how the plot will develop. Whenever you have a motif or an idea, there is a lot of drawing ahead of you before you work them out to the end. You could do ten of them and look at it, and suddenly at that moment, you realize you already know enough, and the thing is ready. You can then return to such a series even much later. That is quite possible. Twenty years after I created a series of facades composed of squares – different squares, not regular ones – I built a house using the same motif. That building, the situation, and the landscape all needed that facade."
More information >
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