GROUNDSCAPES

Table of contents:



Introduction



Lifted off the ground
         Lacaton and Vassal, House in Lège, Cap-Ferret, France, 1998
         Herzog and de Meuron, House in Leymen, Ht. Rhin, France, 1996-1997
         Eduardo Souto de Moura, Two Houses in Ponte de Lima, Portugal, 2001-2002
         Bernard Tschumi Architects, Factory 798, Beijing, China, 2003



Embedded in the ground


         Dominique Perrault, Villa One, Côtes d'Armor, France, 1992-1995
         Future Systems, House in Wales, United Kingdom, 1994
         André Poitiers, Sports hall, Halstenbek, Germany, 1993
         Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós, Igualada Cemetery, Igualada, Spain, 1985-1991
         Kolatan MacDonald, Raybould House and garden, Connecticut, USA, 1997
         Bernd Kniess Architekten und Stadtplaner, Sonic Polder, Cologne, Germany, 2001
         NL Architects, BasketBar, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2000-2003




Raised ground
         Dominique Perrault, Velodrome and Swimming Centre, Berlin, Germany, 1998-1999
         West8, Schouwbourg Plein, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1992-1997
         Jones, Partners: Architecture, Sub'burb 2025, USA, 2000
         Smith-Miller Hawkinson, Colorado Springs Academy School District 20, Colorado, USA, 2003
         Next Enterprise, Lakeside Baths, Caldaro, Italy, 2003-2006


Stacked ground
         MVRDV, Pig City, study, The Netherlands, 2000-2001
         Pich-Aguilera Arquitectos, Garden Towers, Barcelona, Spain, 2001
         TR Hamzah and Ken Yeang, The Nagoya Expo 2005 Tower, Seto City, Nagoya, Japan, 1997
         EM2N Architekten, Schreberkicken, study, Zurich, Switzerland, 2003
         MVRDV, Metacity/Datatown, The Netherlands, 1998-2000





Inflated ground
         Zaha Hadid Architects, Cardiff Opera House, Wales, United Kingdom, 1994
         Sadar Vuga Arhitekti, Potsdam Speicherstadt, Potsdam, Germany, 2002
         MVRDV, Silicon Hill, competition for the Sweden Post Headquarters, Stockholm, Sweden, 2000
         Jean Nouvel, Museum of Human Evolution, Burgos, Spain, 2000
         Wingardh Arkitektkontor AB, Landmark for Northern Europe, Östersund, Sweden, 2003
         Wingardh Arkitektkontor AB, Öijared Executive Country Club, Lerum, Sweden, 1986-1988
         R and Sie, Asphalt Spot, Tokamashi, Japan, 2003




Vectorial ground
         NL Architects, Parkhouse/Carstadt, parking ramp, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1995
         EM2N Architekten, Hardbrücke, Zurich, Switzerland, 2002
         J Mayer H, Seasonscape, Ascona, Switzerland, 1997
         Reiser+Umemoto, East River Corridor Project, Manhattan, New York, USA, 1998
         FOA, Ewha Women's University Campus Centre, South Korea, 2004






Carved ground
         Christian Kerez, Extension to Freudenberg Canton School, Zurich, Switzerland, 2002
         MVRDV, KM3/The 3-D City, research and design for 3D city, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1999-2002
         Ashton Raggatt McDougall, Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, Australia, 2003
         The Next Enterprise (+ Florian Haydn), Private indoor swimming pool, Vienna, Austria, 1997-2001
         José Antonio Martínez Lapeña, Elías Torres, Escalators, Toledo, Spain, 1997-2000



Exposed ground
         Eduardo Souto de Moura, Stadium in Braga, Portugal, 2000-2003
         Vicente Guallart, Denia Mountain project, Denia, Spain, 2002
         Herzog and de Meuron, Schaulager, Basel, Switzerland, 2003
         Zaha Hadid Architects, The Peak, Hong Kong, China, 1982-1983
         Tezuka Architects, Natural History Museum, Matsunoyama, Japan, 2001-2003
         Dominique Perrault, French National Library, Paris, France, 1989-1995



Inscribed ground
         Zaha Hadid Architects, Hoenheim-Nord Terminus, Strasbourg, France, 2001
         West8, Landscape design for the eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier, The Netherlands, 1990
         Caruso St. John and Eva Löfdahl, Stortorget, Kalmar, Sweden, 2003
         RCR, Tussols-Basil athletics track, Olot, Spain, 1991-2001
         Allmann Sattler Wappner, Headquarters of the Employers Assoc. Metalworking Industry, Reutlingen, Germany, 2001
         Peter Eisenman, City of Culture of Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, 1999
         The Palm, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2005

Photographic credits


Acknowledgements

Groundscapes analiza el reencuentro entre la arquitectura contemporánea y la idea de suelo. Con el declive del heroico movimiento moderno al término de la década de 1960, los arquitectos de la nueva generación, deseosos de descubrir aquella tierra prohibida, iniciaron una 'reterritorialización' de la arquitectura que continúa hoy en día. Como consecuencia, entendemos que el espacio construido y el espacio del suelo no son elementos antagónicos en el cuerpo arquitectónico, sino iguales.

Groundscapes explores the 'comeback' of the idea of the ground onto the scene of contemporary architecture. With the decline of heroic modernism in the late 1960s a new generation of architects eager to discover this forbidden land initiated a reterritorialisation of architecture which continues today. As a consequence, we can understand built space and ground space no longer as opposites but as equal elements of the architectural body.

Ilka Ruby is an architect and Andreas Ruby is an architectural critic and theorist. Since founding their office textbild in 2001 they have been committed to a cultural engineering of the discourse on contemporary architecture, writing texts, designing books, curating exhibitions, consulting architects and organising architectural symposia for a wide array of cultural and corporate clients. Their publications include Images. A Picture Book of Architecture (Prestel, 2004), The Challenge of Suburbia (Wiley-Academy, 2004) and Hans Scharoun: Haus Moeller (Walther Koenig, 2004). They have been teaching architecture at a variety of universities in Europe. Currently they are visiting critics at Cornell University. For more information see www.textbild.com