M9 TransforMing The CiTy - FondazionediVenezia · Valerio Zingarelli and to all the Fondazione di Venezia and Sauerbruch Hutton staff. The catalogue of this exhibition is one of the

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Marsilio

Giuliano SegrePresident

board of governors

Ignazio MusuVice president Giampietro Brunello Massimo Lanza Maria Leddi Cesare Mirabelli

general council

Antonio FoscariVice president Giorgio BaldoVasco BoattoRiccardo CalimaniAlessandra CariniCarlo CarraroFranco GalloAnna Laura Geschmay MevorachGiorgio PiazzaAmerigo RestucciFranco ReviglioPaolo RubiniMaria Luisa SemiGianni Toniolo

audit committee

Renato MurerPresident

Diego CavaliereCarlo Pesce

Gianpaolo FortunatiPresident

board of governors

Plinio DanieliCEO and vice president

Giampietro BrunelloMarino FolinLuigi MenegattiIgnazio MusuLorenza Pandiani

board of statutory auditors

Renato MurerPresident

Diego CavaliereCarlo Pesce

advisory board coordination

Giuliano SegreCoordinator

Plinio DanieliAB Building

Cesare De MichelisAB Museum Contents

Francesco KarrerAB Urban Regeneration

Paolo LucchettaAB Innovation Retail

Mario PellegattaAB Communication

Valerio ZingarelliAB Innovation Technology

project team

Guido GuerzoniProject Manager

Fabio AchilliDirector Fondazione di Venezia

Antonio RigonDirector Polymnia Venezia

for Fondazione di VeneziaBeatrice MezzogoriSilvia PellizzeriValeria Alemà RegazzoniGiuliano Sergiofor Polymnia VeneziaClaudia BiottoSilvia CarraroErica MolinFederica Zia

Venice, Fondazione di Venezia07.06 / 28.09.2014

Collateral Event to the 14th International Architecture Exhibitionla Biennale di Venezia

Exhibition created and promoted byFondazione di Venezia

curated byLouisa Hutton Matthias Sauerbruchfor the architecture section

Fabio AchilliGuido Guerzonifor the other sections

General CoordinationSilvia Pellizzeri / Fondazione di VeneziaCaroline Wolf / Sauerbruch Hutton

Organisational coordinationAdriana Stradella

Exhibition managementMAP Studio - Magnani Pelzel Architetti AssociatiSauerbruch Hutton/Caroline Wolf

StagingMichele Tosetto s.r.l.

Graphic design and image coordinationCamuffoLab

Picture research Alessandra GiniBeatrice MezzogoriGiuliano SergioSauerbruch Hutton

Videos Helena Giuffrida Digital Tales s.r.l.

Mobile application designIvo Wessel


Press officeValeria Alemà Regazzoni

TranslationsSimonetta BertonciniBarbara Fisher

TransportArteria

Technical supportGianluca Vianello

Cultural mediatorsUniversità Ca’ Foscari Venezia

We thank the following for their supportRegione del VenetoComune di VeneziaSoprintendenza per i Beni Architettonicie Paesaggistici di Venezia e Laguna

Our heartfelt thanks to Francesco Dal Co

Special thanks toGrisWine

We also wish to thankAlberto Abruzzese, Michele Bettio, Angela Bianco, Francesco Bogoni, Jane Breske, Giorgio Camuffo, Marco Camuffo, Alessandra Chemollo, Renata Codello, Arianna Cremona, Silvia Dainese, Cesare De Michelis, Davide Favaron, Stefano Gris, Isabelle Hartmann, Paolo Lucchetta, Bettina Magistretti, Francesco Magnani, Andrea Martinoli, Thomas Meyer, Francesco Palazzo, Alessandro Pedron, Traudy Pelzel, Alessandro Perria, Francesco Sbetti, Alba Scapin, Paolo Scibelli, Sruti Thakrar, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Caterina Vettore, Markus Weber, David Wegener, Valerio Zingarelli and to all the Fondazione di Venezia and Sauerbruch Hutton staff.

The catalogue of this exhibition is one of the stages on the path to the realisation of M9, the urban regeneration project designed, funded and implemented by the Fondazione di Venezia. A new exhi-bition centre on the ‘short twentieth century’, a cultural centre with an international, multi-faceted and multi-coloured atmosphere, flexible and eclectic, a ‘knowledge factory’ which will provide a stage for the fundamental 100 years that have revolutionised the world: the great social, economic, demo-graphic, cultural and environmental transformations that characterised the twentieth century.A brick of paper and not of clay with which the Fondazione demonstrates that the project undertak-en is taking the form of something that is not a mere architectural structure or bold urban design, but a complex and articulated research laboratory. A centre of cultural production and a tool for the dissemination and sharing of knowledge, which will be channelled through technologies and formats in constant evolution.Hence the desire to provide substance to the slogan that accompanied the evolution of the Fon-dazione over the past decade – “from giving to doing” – and that marked the transition from its beginnings as a disburser to its nature of today: an entity with stand-alone projects, a talented staff, its own programme of interventions, research and activities.As part of this design, and in particular in the area of interventions in the cultural field, M9 pre-sents a unique opportunity to experiment with innovative solutions and reflect on what it means to produce culture and which are the ideal places to do so, in the knowledge that post-2007 the global crisis has changed, perhaps forever, the agenda of politicians, foundations and museums, leading them to think responsibly about the challenges that the third millennium poses and imposes, from sustainability to digital, from the involvement of public to accessibility, in sign of a new culture of design and management of which foundations like the Venezia are convinced standard-bearers.Therefore, to imagine, conceive and carry out the M9 project of urban regeneration, it was natural to look beyond our borders to see what is going on in the world, what are the emerging trends, the most interesting designers and novelties, organising an international architectural design contest, which was won by the Sauerbruch Hutton studio.Following the public exhibition held in Mestre in August 2010 that coincided with the opening of the 12th International Exhibition of Architecture, the Fondazione di Venezia has sought to docu-ment the evolution of the planning activities relating to the area of M9, staging a new exhibition that illustrates the maturing and final outcome of the architectural and urban planning project, which has finally come to its moment of construction, while work continues on defining the contents of the permanent exhibitions and the planning of the exhibits.An important opportunity to learn and share a significant stage of the process of realisation, in the name of the idea of sharing knowledge and participating in the experiences that form the basis of the M9 project.

giuliano segre

President of the Fondazione di Venezia

© 2014 Fondazione di Venezia

Production Marsilio Editori® s.p.a.in VeneziaFirst edition: May 2014

Editorial project Fabio Achilli

Editorial CoordinationBeatrice Mezzogori

Texts by Cesare De MichelisGuido GuerzoniLouisa Hutton and Matthias SauerbruchPaolo LucchettaJürgen Tietz

Translations Contextus s.r.l., Pavia, Italy (Martin Maguire)Richard Toovey

Photo credits© CamuffoLab© Paolo Lucchetta© Sauerbruch Hutton

Fondazione di Venezia apologises in advance for any photo credits unintentionally omitted

The metropolitan city and urban redevelopment of MestreCesare De Michelis

Contents and methods of using the exhibition spaces of M9Guido Guerzoni

The architecture of M9Louisa Hutton, Matthias Sauerbruch

Innovation in the retail spaces of the M9 City DistrictPaolo Lucchetta

Interaction. City and architecture in the work of Sauerbruch HuttonJürgen Tietz

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CONTENTS


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The urbanisation of the territories of the Venetian area began in Roman times and was then consolidated in the feudal Middle Ages, in an extraordinarily rich and varied polycen-trism that still favoured the autonomy and self-sufficiency of each municipality, often en-closed within walls that emphasised their separateness from the rest of the world. Modernity, which arrived late in these parts and in generally weak and contradictory forms incompatible with the pre-existing organisation, therefore had little impact, insinuating itself where it was not perceived and feared as an engine of radical change.This went on, with no real changes, until the early twentieth century, when in the Futurist excitement of the country’s transformation, the construction of the new industrial port of Marghera was conceived with a number of plants for the production of raw materials for the manufacturing companies.This was a real triumph and within a short time Marghera developed into a massive indus-trialised area, served directly from the sea, with docks right in the factories, and which em-ployed more and more workers, thousands and tens of thousands: occupied with non-fer-rous metals, glass, shipbuilding etc, right up to the oil facilities and the chemical industry.Porto Marghera had become already by the thirties, and later in the fifties and sixties, a decisive pole of basic Italian industrialisation, and around it grew just as rapidly a series of large working-class neighbourhoods that dragged the entire city of mainland Venice – Marghera, Carpenedo, Favaro, Chirignago, Zelarino etc. – into a development spiral that was as rapid as it was disjointed and irrational.The modern, therefore, acted without rules or planning, spreading like a stain, overcoming resistance and obstacles, blissfully ignoring any notion of aesthetics or functionality: the re-sult is there for all to see, the first new city of the Veneto, the largest and most populous, that became a conglomeration of residential homes distinguished by their poor quality and ser-vices. It had confused and precarious road system, split in two by the railway, which only an overpass could overcome; while growing discontent led to four referenda to separate it from the island of Venice, and by the seventies, it began to appear like a sort of unfinished busi-ness that ought to be redeveloped and freed from such polluting and degrading bondage.

A new cultural institutionIt took forty years for the Passante road to divert a portion of the traffic from the ring road and slightly less to double the railway line, while the tram system is still under construc-

The metropolitan city and urban redevelopment of Mestre

Cesare De Michelis

tion; in the meantime the new Piazza Ferretto appeared with its controversial external staircase to the tower, the never completed Candiani Centre, the San Giuliano park and the new Dell’Angelo hospital, the Laguna Hotel, the reopening of the Marzanego canal as well as all the projects that so far have remained on the drawing board: the construction site for the new Mestre seems to be infinite. As work continues, a not always linear discussion continues on the future of the new town: another piece of historic polycentricism, separat-ed from the island city and competing with it, or part of a much larger metropolitan reality, that could have – or should have? – included Padua and Treviso and beyond as well, which would have filled a void in the area, providing it with a centre, a point of reference, which would have dragged it beyond the last remnants of feudalism, into a dimension that was finally both modern and postmodern.It is in this context, both dynamic and contradictory, fervent and uncertain, that, a few years ago, on the initiative of the Fondazione di Venezia the project emerged to build a new “mu-seum” structure in the centre of Mestre, in front of the Duomo and square. Beginning by acquiring one property, then another, until an entire block of about one hectare was bought up, it was then decided to demolish the most run-down buildings to make room for a new purpose designed building to be selected through an international competition, while for the other parts of the area complete restoration was prepared. In the meantime the entire area was conceived of as being for cultural, but also commercial and office activities, with the intention of having converge around it a multiplicity of interests sufficient to initiate that process of urban regeneration that became the premise of an effectively metropolitan destiny for Mestre. This city which, among other things, already had the airport, the port – now moved to the mainland in order to have the large space needed for its development – two poles of tourist attraction, such as Venice on one side and the Adriatic coast on the other, was able therefore to aspire to become the heart of the entire metropolitan area.

An urban redevelopment plan for a new citizenshipThis was not just about launching a different sort of town planning that in an illuminated way hoped to redistribute the people or their mobility in the territory, but rather an in-tervention aimed at gathering in one place, which for some time had already been at the centre of an established urban structure, functions hitherto neglected, in the belief that by offering new opportunities for learning and entertainment, the long wave of attraction,

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especially if able to integrate a variety of opportunities and functions, would have set in motion processes of transformation and redevelopment of the area according to a newly established hierarchy of values and interests.The challenge was ambitious, because it did not start from the need to fill an institutional gap – the absence of a museum in a large town – but, on the contrary, from the search for a more coherent redistribution of functions in the territory, conceived on a grand scale to allow a redistribution of existing resources capable of improving overall not just the area directly affected by the intervention, as important and large it was, but the entire city and metropolitan centre, activating processes of long-term and far-reaching penetration, that at least in part were neither predictable nor imaginable.

The system of interconnectionsThe interconnection of different functions had ensured, on the one hand, the construction of an economically self-sufficient system, taking into account the historical difficulty of ensuring the self-financing of any cultural institution and the consequent need to allocate to its business the income of an integrated and contiguous real estate portfolio, and, on the other, the development of a cultural proposal which, in order to become the driving force for a profound urban and civil renewal, could not simply replicate historically established patterns, which in the meantime had become frayed and worn, such as “museums”, but rather, right from its conception, announced the starting point of a novel adventure, and was capable therefore of bringing about radical change, because the goal which was being aimed for was unequivocally “metropolitan”, in the sense that the urban scale would have had to expand far beyond any municipal dimension.M9, which meanwhile is taking shape, is precisely this: a large-scale metropolitan urban intervention that foresees the establishment in via Poerio of a multifunctional complex, in which co-exist – integrated in social, economic, and cultural terms – a shopping centre, management offices and a structure that is architecturally qualified by a contemporary and strongly authored design, intended for edutainment, that is still rarely witnessed in Italy.Visitors to M9 will not see, therefore, a representative collection of works documenting episodes of human creativity, but, using the extraordinary opportunities offered by new technologies, will be confronted with patiently rebuilt images of the transformations that have characterised the fulfilment of modernisation in our country, with particular attention

Veneto, a European logistical and infrastructural interchange point

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being paid to this territory, but also in the knowledge that what has happened is not con-ceivable outside the western and wider international scene.

Beyond traditionNor will M9 be a historical museum according to the models that we are used to seeing, in the sense that, while not renouncing following the chronological sequence as an ordering instrument for knowledge, it will line up alongside it the no less meaningful thematic se-ries, in an attempt to make clear the radicalism and complexity of the transformation that took place in every aspect of social and individual life and the profound consequences it has produced, so that the visitor can confront the interpretation and judgment of modern-isation with a more mature awareness and without ready-made solutions, bearing in mind that the process is still in progress, and not at all complete.

ConclusionsWhile in our contemporary times, the founding values of the emergence of the modern creak feebly, above all as regards the certainty of uninterrupted progress, not only techno-logical but social and even moral, or regret and nostalgia seem to gain strength for a more or less remote past, to which, in any case it is impossible to return, except with the imagi-nation, a responsible and informed comparison with the events of the recent past, not yet completely forgotten, because clear evidence of them persists in experience and memory, can become at the same time educational and surprising, spectacular and documented, also promoting dialogue between generations and different family traditions.Culture, economy, study and leisure will help to identify a place in a metropolitan city that is not imagined as a “centre” or the top of a rigid and durable hierarchy, but rather puts itself forward as an autonomous entity proposed by a “private” organisation that is strongly linked to the territory, of whose wealth accumulated over time it is the heir, and as a recognised opportunity, or at least recognisable, in competition and contest with the many other diversities that grow elsewhere: even more so in an area that has already been urbanised for centuries, the new metropolitan reality cannot mean starting from scratch, but it will have to be realised by integrating the existing settlements and redeveloping these in a system in which the inhabitants can move easily and freely in the search to meet their specific needs.

the metropolitan city and its infrastructure

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With M9, the Fondazione di Venezia is seeking to create a cultural institution with an inter-national atmosphere and vocation: it is not a museum understood in the usual and traditional sense of the term, nor is it a mere container for exhibitions. For this reason, by virtue of the complexity of the undertaking, the plurality of chronological areas involved and the multiplici-ty of the activities carried out and the issues involved, it was decided to name the entire project with an alphanumeric code that is capable of incorporating and expressing the variety and wealth of the various constituent parts. The M9 coupling thus summarises the thematic areas of the institution and its geographic location, its principal activities and the characteristics of its staging, the area of incidence and the services offered, where “M” stands for museum, exhibitions (mostre), mall, mediathèque, multimedia, multisensory, Mestre, Marghera and metropolis, while “9” (nove), contains the root of “novelty” and the “Ve” of Venice, also taking in the Novecento (the twentieth century), the time span covered by the permanent exhibition.The mission of M9, since its conception, has always been declined through all chrono-logical themes, putting itself forward as a way to raise awareness of the past, understand the present and trust in the future, encouraging visitors to feel like active and responsible members of the communities in which they live. These objectives have been associated with the three main areas that, from the architectural point of view, gave order and shape to the tripartite division of the cultural project of M9, namely:– M900: the permanent exhibition of M9, located on the first and second floors of the new building, describes the process of modernisation that has occurred in Italy over the last two centuries; it is a museum journey through the 1900s that is open to the future, of the twentieth but also the twenty-first century, in which the history of Italy is placed in a global perspective, with particular attention to the comparative dimension, not forgetting, whenever is reasonable and practicable, the paradigmatic experiences that unfolded in the territory – the area around Venice – where M9 has its seat.– MAMA: an acronym that includes a double-height 200-seat auditorium between the basement and the ground floor; a mediathèque located on the ground floor; a large hall (that can also be divided into smaller spaces) on the second floor to accommodate training activities and workshops;– M000: the multifunctional, innovative and cutting-edge exhibition space, located on the third floor of the new museum building, which will host temporary exhibitions of various kinds. The intention is to stage three exhibitions a year, with different investments, audiences,

Contents and methods of using the exhibition spaces of M9

Guido Guerzoni

vocations, budgets and strategic positions, relating to the more neglected fields of knowledge, such as, for example, science, technology, ecology and energy, urban planning, architecture and design, the creative industries and fashion, media, publishing and communication, pop-ular culture and lifestyles, not to mention exhibitions for children and school groups.For the educational offer of M9 anticipates specific programs for education and training (from professional courses to lifelong learning), aimed at both schoolchildren and adults. Services, workshops and educational laboratories will find a home in the large glass-en-cased hall on the second floor of the museum, which can be easily adapted to form multi-ple units of different sizes. The breadth and diversity of the functions described combine the desire neither to create a traditional museum nor to establish an institution dedicated to the celebration of local traditions. On the contrary, the staging of the permanent exhibi-tion, the temporary exhibitions and the cultural programme are strongly oriented towards understanding the present and thinking about the future. M9 is a centre of interpretation, a living centre of cultural production, an active subject, that is capable of assuming and defending intellectual positions that are also uncomfortable, of producing new content, of suggesting scenarios and visions, of stimulating critical thinking, of proposing interpreta-tions of what is happening today and what might happen tomorrow.

The contents of the permanent exhibition The storyboard of M900 is inspired by the international experiences of the “historical muse-ums of narrative”: it tells a “national” story, unitary in its conception and staging, but plural and pluralist in the construction of its narrative paths that develop physically over two floors of the museum, following a defined route with a beginning and an end, an entrance and an exit. The exhibition layout is divided into nine sections: eight thematic sections arranged spa-tially in sequence, and a chronological section that traverses all of these. Each thematic section includes subsections that illustrate, through one or more installations, specific topics, while respecting the chronological principle and ordering the contents in a diachronic sense, from past to present, with dedicated chronologies.There is no underlying unambiguous and ideological interpretation of the history of the twentieth century: the exhibition is divided into paths that stimulate reflection in the visi-tors, inviting them to form their own opinion with independent judgments, whose expres-sion is solicited, collected and reprocessed through specific interactive tools. The aim is to

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the storyboard of the permanent exhibition

5. Lifestyles: habits and consumptions5.1 Dailyroutinesandsocializing

5.2Fromhungertoabundance: howfoodforgesidentity

5.3Hygieneandpersonalcare

5.4FromSundaybesttoMadeinItaly

5.5Livingsolutions

5.6Deprivationandcomfort

5.7“Asoundmindinahealthybody”: sport

5.8Leisure-timeandthegrowth oftourism

5.9Theentertainmentsociety

1. Demographics, social structures and roles 1.1Anthropometry:theItalians’ weight,sizeandphysiognomy

1.2 Demographics

1.3 Lifeexpectancy,longevity andcausesofdeath

1.4Age,ritesofpassage andsocialroles

1.5 Familyframeworks

1.6Evolvingfemaleroles

1.7 Marriage,partnerships, separationanddivorce

1.8Emigration&Immigration

2. The State, institutions and politics2.1Frommonarchytorepublic

2.2Totalitarianism

2.3Italyatwar

2.4TheStateandlocalauthorities

2.5TheChurch-Staterelationship

2.6Widespreadunlawfulness

2.7Rights,dutiesandequality

2.8Ideologyandparties

2.9Tradeunionsandassociations

2.10Class,groups andsocialmobility

3. The Economy: work, production and incomes3.1Fromfarmtofactory

3.2Womenintheworkplace

3.3Industrialization: factoriesandworkers

3.4Manufacturing:artisans, entrepreneurs,districts andnetworks

3.5TheEntrepreneurialState

3.6Workplacestrugglesandrights

3.7Services,whitecollarworkers andthepublicsector

3.8Richandpoor:income,salaries andpurchasingpower

3.9Assets,savingsandtaxation

3.10IlWelfareState

7. Culture: education, training and information7.1Literacyandilliteracy: compulsoryschooling

7.2Fromdialects toanationallanguage

7.3 Studyprogrammes andprofessions

7.4Thenewsmedia

7.5 Acculturationandcultural consumption

7.6Themediumisthemessage

4. Spaces and landscapes: city and countryside4.1Landedproperty,agricultural reforms,mechanization

4.2Naturalresources: successesandneglect

4.3Thechanginglandscape

4.4Urbanization

4.5Pollution,waste andlandexploitation

4.6Environmentaldisasters andtheeco-conscience

8. The Italian identity8.1Municipalismandtraditionalism

8.2NorthandSouth

8.3Thelandofbeauty: theculturalheritage

8.4Antagonismandviolence

8.5Religionandlaity

8.6Leadingfigures

8.7Italianstyle

8.8Howweseeourselves andhowothersseeus

6. Science, technology and innovation 6.1Researchanditsoutcomes

6.2Technologicalexcellence anditsdemise

6.3Resources

6.4Theinfrastructuresystem

6.5Meansoftransportandmobility

6.6Masscommunication

6.7Health:medicaltreatment anddrugs

6.8Mentalillnessandaddiction

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provide a consistent selection of themes, ideas, information and perspectives, which en-courage critical reflections and interaction with other educational subjects – school, family, the media and so on – to provide an educational and informative service capable of offer-ing, thanks to the way it is used and staged, an enjoyable but intelligent entertainment. The twentieth century was the century of totalitarianism, world wars and planetary ideologies, collective movements and cultural standardisation, the mass media and social uniformity, but it was also the century of the exaltation of the subjective and the celebration of individu-alism, the recognition of personal freedoms and rights, the affirmation of personal choices and destinies. This second dimension is crucial if we wish to explain the uniqueness of Italian history, the particularism and the fragmentary nature of its social, political and in-stitutional structures, its individualism and behavioural antinomianism. The staging of M900 gives equal weight and dignity to both narrative perspectives: the importance attached to the individual sphere, the perception of gender, the subjective di-mension, the everyday life of people that is equal to that granted to major events, the lead-ing personalities, and the institutions that were the protagonists of the main changes. The family, home and affective dimension, daily rituals, rhythms and gestures, material culture, little habits, anonymous faces and the hushed voices of ordinary people are as important as the epochal facts, fateful dates, symbolic objects, great characters, the temporal macro scan-sions. The use of two dimensionality enables a dialogue that can overcome the limitations of nineteenth and twentieth-century museums, which celebrated the histories, memories and legacies of the winners, focusing on isolated events and eminent personalities, advanced civilizations and famous works, in a representative logic that was officially scientific, based on visible objects, clear histories, certain judgments and immutable hierarchies that have formed the cornerstones of the traditional forms of museum staging, narration and rep-resentation, and set the standards for intergenerational transmissibility: what was judged unworthy of being preserved, disappeared, often forever, from the horizons of knowledge and memory. M900 wants to allow everyone to know their roots, to find their identity, to re-read their own history, to place them in a wider perspective and project them into the future.

The methods of using the exhibition spaceFrom the architectural point of view, spaces were conceived – in their dimensions, technical characteristics and functions – building on the experience gained at international level in the

field of architectural and exhibition design over the last 20 years; the multi-volume sizing and functional zoning (permanent and temporary exhibitions, services to the public, workshops and stores, back office, etc.) were derived from the analysis of a sample which, initially re-stricted to a few cases, was increased to include more than 650 international examples. The museological principle is that of edutainment: the path is configured as a playful adventure, an exciting exploration, an educational but engaging trip through the periods of history.M900 is aimed in the first instance at the three main targets identified in the various market analyses and feasibility plans developed from 2006 onwards: schools, families and tourism, paying particular attention to foreign tourists staying in Mestre and on the mainland (more than 1.2 million people in 2013, with 22 hotels of 3 or more stars within 3km of the museum). For each target group, journeys are designed of different duration, complexity, language and commitment; in this sense, the exhibition is designed to enable both free and personalised visits: anyone can plan their personal journey before visiting, dictated by specific interests and curiosity, since they are able to download various materials (textual, photographic, au-dio-visual) during the visit for further investigation and contributions/donations of materials by the visitors themselves, physical and remote. Similarly, interactive tools and multilingual staging solutions are expected to be integrated in the exhibition, with specific attention being paid to the public with disabilities, in order to plan simplified and practicable itineraries.M900 is constructed by editing the “cultural heritage” produced in the 1900s, that is, paper and print materials (newspapers, magazines, posters, promotional materials, postcards, books, prints, engravings, maps, etc.), photographic material, sound (radio recordings, radio docu-mentaries, oral histories, interviews, radios, recordings of sounds, voices and noises, etc.), audiovisual material (documentaries, private films, television programmes, materials produced by companies and trade unions, film, news bulletins, etc.), supplemented by items, originals or reproductions (models, machinery, scientific instruments, everyday objects, animated and 3D reconstructions, reproductions of various types, etc.) to achieve immersive reconstructions of spaces and environments, interactive and olfactory, sonic and sensory installations.The centrality of content in digital format (still and moving images, 3D reconstructions, aug-mented reality, sounds and voices, etc.) will allow periodic updating and modification of the installations, which may be supplemented and enriched by visitors through web 3.0 tools, in order to offer an approach to knowledge that is pluralistic, multi-disciplinary, multi-sensory and interactive, that stimulates critical skills, curiosity and the desire for knowledge.

sauerbruch hutton lehrter strasse 57, 10557 berlin [email protected] www.sauerbruchhutton.com t + 49 (0) 30 39 78 21 - 0

M9 museo del novecento, mestre / M9 museum, mestreM9V_prospettiva / perspective

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Integration into the urban fabricM9 forms an important complementary element for the city of Mestre that is intended to deliver two results: to serve as a catalyst in the regeneration of the surrounding city and to bring new meaning to the existing historical fabric. Further, M9’s cultural offer enriches local life in a significant way, and - acting as a magnet for citizens and visitors - it offers an important stimulus to the economic activity of the city. At the heart of the project lies a new and compact museum building that will sit well in the dense urban fabric of Mestre. But M9 involves not only the construction of a new museum, but also the refurbishment of the former Convento delle Grazie, as well as the renovation of a 1960s office building. These three buildings, together with the newly conceived public spaces between them, form a new entity – a ‘City District’ - whose key location within the city enables the enlargement and upgrading of Mestre’s pedestrian network. The new pedestrian link between Piazza Ferretto and via Cappuccina, passing via the for-mer convent on via Poerio, was designed as a distinctive diagonal space with its “museum piazetta” that will attract visitors and encourage them to pass through the entire complex. This urban strategy informed subsequent design decisions: the diagonal division of the site gives two separate museum structures - the first and grander one on via Brenta Vecchia houses all the main cultural activities, while the second, overlooking via Pascoli, contains retail spaces, offices, as well as back-of-house functions.

Outdoor spacesThe diagonal route that cuts between the pair of museum buildings is defined by the pair of facades that flank it, one of them giving directly onto the foyer and auditorium. Approach-ing the museum and its piazzetta, the visitor’s attention is focused on the diagonal cut in the main volume that leads to the entrance as well as on the slanting ribbon window that signifies the main staircase. The ground floor of the museum is almost entirely glazed, re-sulting in a high degree of transparency that gives visual continuity from the route through the foyer, bookshop and auditorium to via Brenta Vecchia beyond.Shops and restaurants line the new museum piazzetta - the focal point of which is a large tree. Shop windows on the ground floor brighten up the small passage to via Brenta Vec-chia. The intimate and engaging ambience of Corte Legrenzi is thus reiterated in a dense fabric of multiple and diverse spaces with changing nuances.

The architecture of M9

Louisa Hutton, Matthias Sauerbruch

M9, birds view


M9 museum, mestre / M9 museo del novecento, mestreground floor / piano terra

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M9 museum, mestre / M9 museo del novecento, mestrefirst floor / primo piano

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M9 museum, mestre / M9 museo del novecento, mestresecond floor / secondo piano

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ground floor first floor



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M9 museum, mestre / M9 museo del novecento, mestrethird floor / terzo piano

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second floor third floor

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museum facing south (via Pascoli)

museum piazza

museum building, via Brenta Vecchia

museum building, main entrance

M9 museum, mestre / M9 museo del novecento, mestresection bb / sezione bb


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All pedestrian routes in the M9 district form a single, stone-paved surface on which pas-sers-by and visitors can move about in an uninterrupted space that also continues into the ground floor of the museum building. Equally, thanks to the projecting architectural massing, the new buildings offer pedestrian shelter on all sides, just as the porticoes in via Poerio do.

The aesthetic presence of the museum buildingThe main building that houses the M9 exhibition spaces features complex massing that has been determined by urban and functional demands, such as the diagonal cut through the site, the three-dimensional integration of the structure into its context and the accessi-bility of all the components of the programme. The museum’s idiosyncratic appearance results from interpretation of the legacy of the twentieth century. The aim is to achieve harmony between the form of the building and the content of the permanent exhibition, dedicated - uniquely in Europe - to the history of the twentieth century. The building shares with Italian Futurism a fascination with move-ment and speed as key components of the contemporary horizon of perception, as well as a pre-occupation with art and modern architecture and the targeted application of colour as a medium of spatial perception. Added to this is an awareness of the values of “sustainable continuity” that is fully integrated with the building’s urban design.

Interior spacesThe museum’s foyer, auditorium, mediathèque, bookstore and coffee shop are all loca-ted on the ground floor. A generous staircase with four flights, approximately 50 metres long and lit by a continuous ribbon window, draws the visitors’ gaze to the diagonal space outside the museum and gently steers them towards the foyer and exhibition areas. The permanent exhibition spaces are to be found on the first and second floors, conceived as versatile black boxes spread over approximately 1,500 m2 in each case. On the second floor, at the top of the main staircase, visitors cross an elongated space that contains information panels and display cases illustrating the temporary exhibitions on the floor above. This space, leading to the staircase to the third and uppermost floor, is illuminated by sky-li-ghts, providing a foretaste of the natural lighting found in the exhibition spaces above. Approximately 1,200 m2 in extent, these have a north-facing shed roof, in clear contrast to

museum building, sections

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view of the auditorium, exterior

museum building, third floor, interior

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museum building, staircase with view

museum piazza, view of the cafeteria

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the artificial lighting on the lower exhibition floors. The third floor has been conceived as a large white box that can be darkened, offering access to a terrace as well as generous views to the surrounding city through large windows.All exhibition levels are based on a 9m x 12m structural grid. In the standard museum configuration, the gallery has 6m x 9m rooms with a minimum area of 54 m2. This module allows all the museum floors to offer flexible configurations as continuous, compartmen-ted spaces or as single, undivided areas.

The façadesThe polychromatic tile cladding on the facade is the distinguishing feature of the building, its tones creating a harmony between the new museum and existing structures in the old city centre of Mestre. The entrances and all recessed areas are in fair-faced concrete. This material is also present in the upper part of the museum building, reinforcing the volu-metric articulation that integrates the structure with the various scales of its surroundings. Finally, strategic individual window placement forges privileged visual relationships with the city.

The architectural design for the former conventThe former Convento delle Grazie complex dates from the 16th century and has frequent-ly been altered and converted over time – at one stage even to a military barracks. The building is currently in a state of abandon having lain empty for several years. The urban regeneration project refurbishes and integrates it into the City District with new shopping facilities that includes the pair of small buildings of the former riding school, and that re-late in concept and scale to those of the neighbouring Corte Legrenzi.

Renovation of the historic buildingsThe architectural project features the conservative restoration of the whole, in particular the façade that fronts via Poerio, where the main innovation is the addition of large ground floor shop windows. The integrity of the existing building is safeguarded, as the only works planned are those necessary for structural consolidation: all floors are being reinforced to increase load capacity, while lifts, escalators and fire escapes are being added to guarantee accessibility. The architectural design favours a clear distinction between existing and new

City District, retail spaces on via Poerio

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via differentiation in the material palette. For example, new openings in support walls are high-lighted by a steel frame, while steel has also been adopted for the (visible) con-struction of the stairs as well as for the load-bearing structure of the lift shafts. All of these interventions have been conceived in a manner that gives legibility to the new and that does not detract from the building’s original character.

The covering of the courtyardIn accordance with its public and retail functions, the primary space of the cloister is en-closed by a roof that allows it to be used not only as a place in which to stop for a rest, but also as an event venue - even in adverse weather conditions. The roof was conceived to be as light as possible, in contrast to the heavy masonry of the historic convent, the lightness being achieved through an irregular surface formed by a primary steel structure with tran-slucent panels in between. The geometry of these emphasises the diagonal crossing of the courtyard and ensures good acoustic dispersion. The light filtered by the translucent mem-brane provides a soft atmosphere protected from the sun, while the light reflected from the roof of the surrounding convent penetrates the courtyard through the edges of the cove-ring, increasing the plasticity of the roof surface. The new roof is about 15m in height, set above the eaves, resting on eight columns that are irregularly distributed. The roof collects rainwater channelled through several downpipes concealed in the columns that in turn convey the water to an underground cistern. During the evening and night-time hours, the courtyard may be illuminated from above with spotlights placed at the top of the columns.

The principles of sustainabilityThe new museum buildings were designed to incorporate a substantial number of active and passive steps that reduce energy requirements, CO

2 production and the ecological

footprint and that employ natural and renewable sources, eco-friendly raw materials and construction methods.These steps include, in particular, the compact design of the main building and its intelli-gent mix of closed and glazed surfaces; the innovative application of mass activation; the careful choice of façade materials and envelope design solutions; extensive recourse to geothermal science; additional energy production from photovoltaic panels on the roof; rainwater recycling; and lastly the systematic sourcing of construction materials and pro-

City District, covered courtyardof former convent

M9 museum, MestreM9V_31_EnergyCircle_eng

© Sauerbruch Hutton

sustainable urban regeneration

preservation and re-use of historic building structure

enhancement of the city’s pedestrian network

creation of attractive public spaces and squares

flexible layouts for a multitude of uses

ground floors open to various public uses

energy concepts adjusted to each building’s

structure, uses and needs.

minimising heat load

compact form of new building

high degree of thermal insulation

naturally shaded public spaces

exterior sun-protection to minimise heat penetration

green (flat) roof and light-reflecting (shed) roof

to avoid “heat islands”

minimising primary energy demand

for building operation

optimised use of natural daylight in public/service

areas and temporary exhibition spaces

use of geothermal heat via heat pump

thermo-active building system

natural ventilation in the public and service areas

natural ventilation (convection) of the Corte Convento

further ecological measures

photovoltaic electricity generation

minimised use of materials containing

high degrees of grey energy

recycling of historical structural building components

for the Convento

rainwater collection for optional use of grey water

lighting with LED lights

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cesses that comply with LEED principles. These solutions are proof of a common purpose on the client and architects’ part to save energy, water and raw materials, both during construction and throughout the lifecycle of the complex. In addition there is concern for both stakeholders and the environment, expressed via a focus on the health and safety of workers and visitors alike and via a commitment to the reduction of polluting emissions and the amount of waste that requires disposal.

1 sustainable urban regeneration 1a preservationandre-use ofhistoricbuildingstructure1b enhancementofthecity’s pedestriannetwork 1c creationofattractivepublicspaces andsquares1d flexiblelayoutsforamultitudeofuses 1e groundfloorsopentovarious publicuses 1f energyconceptsadjustedtoeach building’sstructure,usesandneeds

2 minimising heat load2a compactformofnewbuilding2b highdegreeofthermalinsulation2c naturallyshadedpublicspaces2d exteriorsun-protectiontominimise heatpenetration2e green(flat)roofandlight-reflecting (shed)rooftoavoid“heatislands”

3 minimising primary energy demand for building operation3a optimiseduseofnaturaldaylight inpublic/serviceareasandtemporary exhibitionspaces3b useofgeothermalheatviaheatpump3c thermo-activebuildingsystem3d naturalventilationinthepublic andserviceareas3e naturalventilation(convection) oftheCorteConvento

4 further ecological measures 4a photovoltaicelectricitygeneration4b minimiseduseofmaterialscontaining highdegreesofgreyenergy4c recyclingofhistoricalstructural buildingcomponentsfortheConvento4d rainwatercollectionforoptionaluse ofgreywater4e lightingwithLEDlights

energy concept

sauerbruch hutton lehrter strasse 57, 10557 berlin [email protected] www.sauerbruchhutton.com tel + 49 (0) 30 39 78 21 - 0

M9V_30a_M9 City QuarterM9 Museum Venice-Mestre

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In his famous book Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, Marc Augé defined the aesthetics of social and commercial spaces as one of the future rep-resentations of our ability to express a civil society. If we can define the city as “our best col-lective creation” (Ricky Burdett), if buildings “represent us more than we imagine” (Wim Wenders) and the ability of retail is to ”generate urban substance” (Rem Koolhaas), the design of the “M9 City District” project finds its very basis in these assumptions.The challenge for this new district is that of providing an identity to all the commercial and social spaces present in the new architecture of M9 in Mestre, an ecological city with substantial social capital (for example, there are about eight hundred associations active in the fields of sport, culture, environment and solidarity), and opposing the decline of the historic centre brought about by the establishment of a belt of shopping centres of great attraction that have weakened the socio-economic fabric. The inspiration for the “City District” is suggested by the study of Sauerbruch Hutton, who designed a space strongly oriented to connections with the fragmented urban context, the opening of spatial relations between the gaps that bind existing structures and new buildings, in which the centrality of the museum function is supported in a manner compatible with urban functions aimed at the overall programme of upgrading the historic centre.

But why a “City District”?The model of the so-called city districts has emerged thanks to new entrepreneurs search-ing for spaces that are not banal but are diversified and cost-effective compared to those offered in urban and suburban shopping centres, often supported by visionary developers and illuminated institutions. The example of the High Line in the Meatpacking District of New York is the most convincing demonstration of this. This is a 2.33km section of the West Side Line in New York City built in the early thirties of the twentieth century and then abandoned in the eighties. Friends of the High Line, an association of residents, was formed in 1999 to develop a programme of cultural and social activities, in opposition to the hypothesis of demolishing the infrastructure, often raised as a possibility, suggesting its conversion into an urban park dedicated to biodiversity.The project for the green promenade, designed by the architects Diller Scofidio+Renfro and the landscape architecture studio James Corner Field Operations, was approved by Mayor Bloomberg’s administration in 2002. Work began in 2006 and the park was opened to

Innovation in the retail spaces of the M9 City District

Paolo Lucchetta

M9 City District

piazza ferrettothe“civilsquare”

piazza ferrettofood,localheroes

via brenta vecchiabooksandrecords,localheroes

candianicinema,multiplex,booksandcafés

piazzetta toniolotheatre,foodtheatrerestaurants

corte legrenziurbanfashiondistrict

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City District concept

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these areas, but also because it is here that young entrepreneurs base themselves, those who possess the culture, ideas and energy to anticipate the business trends of the future. Trying to oppose the identikit of suburban projects and those architectures that are often lacking in imagination, these spaces are home to models of development that are visionary, as it were, where passion, innovation and social conscience come together in harmony.Following this conception of the contemporary city and creating a network of testimony about the models of socio-economic fruition of urban contexts, the “M9 City District” project offers a specific spatial organisation and governance. In particular, in the buildings of the M9 district there are various groups of entrepreneurs who can be placed in the following conceptual cate-gories: new entrepreneurs (small business start-ups), local entrepreneurs who first supported a visionary idea of independent quality retail (local heroes), entrepreneurs who carry out their activities and organise their events in spaces set up temporarily (pop-up stores).In the building of the former convent that comprises three levels, on the top floor beneath the wooden trusses that is dedicated to local food. Here there are preparations by a rotat-ing team of up-and-coming chefs, a cooking school as well as educational spaces for the promotion of the regional food and wine heritage (according to the by now well-known motto “Buy, eat, learn”), in which it is possible to organise events and host international productions. The first floor of the building is reserved for local and artisan products of new design (the makers) and provides space for the production of services in support of the so-cial, commercial and cultural relations of the whole complex: creative industries and areas for co-working, open to emerging talents and digital cultures (high quality, good living, low price). Finally, other activities related to edutainment, bookshops, laboratories and offices, more closely integrated with the cultural functions of the exhibition spaces can be found in the new building. All of these spaces together form a multi-channel mall, where it is possible to buy and share products and services (buy & share) in the physical space, online and using mobile devices.The boundaries of the concept of a district are difficult to define and have to be governed by an entrepreneurial vision and collective creation, constantly aiming to grasp the dynamics of a society that is in constant evolution and closely connected. Many believe that it is also on this that the fate of our town centres hangs, in search of new projects that will consoli-date their role in the construction and growth of civil society.

the public in 2009. At the same time, a company was established for its management, in accordance with the principles laid down by the Friends of the High Line, for the running and enhancement of the schedule of activities and events that take place over an area of 20 blocks and are open 24 hours a day. Fashion and graphic designers, architects, artists and galleries joined the programme and moved their bases and businesses there, creat-ing a community that is internationally recognised for innovation in the fields of design, food, and the cultural and creative industries; thus, the Meatpacking District has become an epicentre and gatherer of activities without losing its original character, mixing in the pedestrian area the community of residents and businesses, tourists and hotels, cultural centres (such as the Whitney Museum) and the “Park in the Sky”, an elevated green area built over the rails of the abandoned railroad.Various social players, multinational corporations and non-profit organisations involved in trade and culture, development and a sense of belonging to communities that produce innovation: these are the ingredients of the models that are in opposition to commerce interpreted and lived as an activity divorced from its territorial context.The global map of fashion, design, food and art is becoming more and more interesting thanks to the success of cities that are considered as fertile ground for new businesses and retailers. Testimony of creative transformation of urban spaces, of unusual planning within integrated programmes of commerce and culture, new architecture and functional recoveries of existing buildings: these virtuous examples form their identity on sharing the demands of educational institutions and civic associations, with the promotion of the products and knowledge of the man-ufacturing and crafts districts, but also on the convinced vision of culturally diverse cities, capable of combining talent, knowledge, experience and background connected to global networks.“City Districts” are now recognised as the ideal places for the development of “small cre-ative businesses”, distinct from the traditional models, able to inspire a search for their own identity. Some examples are Kødbyen in Copenhagen, the Central Eastside Industrial District of Portland or similar cases in the centres and suburbs of Tokyo, Buenos Aires or Auckland, often in urban configurations even more complex than those in this study.

The city district of M9 in MestreIt now seems clear that independent retailing based on new enterprises and craft skills is vital to urban economies, not only as technological and innovative products are present in

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Cities are colourful and noisy. Their structures are complex and often complicated too. They have a logic of their own and are shaped by a broad variety of functions and needs – be it as a tourist destination, a home or a place of work, or a stage for living and loving. The history of the city as such is one of unresolved contradictions – and not just in modern times. In its forms and development, the city is characterised by the attempt to accommo-date its inhabitants’ diverse requirements and to provide them with a suitable environment in which to live. From the nineteenth century onwards, accelerating processes of urban transformation in-creased the challenge of creating a structural balance between the ever more clearly dif-ferentiated interests of all those who lived or had business in cities. Tensions developed between change and preservation, between urban continuity and discontinuity. Given these conditions, how can urban qualities be formulated today so as to meet the continually shifting demands that are made of the city? A single solution does not seem feasible, as each of the various neighbourhoods and dis-tricts of a city demands answers of its own that have to address - in addition to require-ments of any particular design brief - its respective social, cultural, spatial and ecological context. Matthias Sauerbruch has considered a possible solution in his essay on the Eng-lish landscape garden: “While the countryside is becoming more and more urbanised in an ever denser network of urban structures, many inner city areas (such as those in London) are being transformed into new, highly artificial landscapes by the decline of traditional infrastructures and the su-perposition of heterogeneous systems. When the traditional identity of a place disappears, so does any kind of idiosyncratic iconography. The question of the physical and cultural context of an architectural intervention must be asked and answered anew in every case.” It is in the concept of the genius loci, which has been returned to many times since Vitruvi-us, that he sees the key to choosing among the idiosyncracies and demands of a place, its users and its residents in order to establish a starting point: “This is the main lesson that we learn from the landscape garden: taking a flexible ap-proach to a place, whatever it may consist of, and finding and refining the genius loci. A strategy is needed that creates places with identity and energy in the uninterrupted contin-uum of an (architectural) landscape without violating existing patterns or having to sup-press conflicting claims.”

Interaction. City and architecture in the work of Sauerbruch Hutton

Jürgen Tietz

Cities and architecture of modernityIn their designs, Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton leave no room for doubt that they continue to work on the project of modernity, on the city of modernity. Outwardly, the most obvious motif in their buildings is that of colour and this lends their work a distinc-tive voice in the world of international contemporary architecture. Yet colour defines only one aspect of the architectural agenda of the German-British duo. As a principle of urban design, they reject so-called ‘critical’ reconstruction (in the sense of merely completing or re-establishing city blocks that has only the past as reference) in favour of Modernism 2.0: a dialogue with the place itself that enables them to formulate confident answers and that promotes a high degree of sustainability. The goal of their architecture is to develop the spatial environment of a building and its surroundings by noticing what is already there and working with it. This allows them to create new urban landscapes with places that surprise and delight the passer-by. The high-rise headquarters building for GSW, with which the young architects made their breakthrough at national and international level in 1999, immediately became a striking landmark within the skyline of Berlin. In addition to its sustainability concept that was highly innovative at the time, the design of the GSW ensemble is notable in the way that it is integrated with its heterogeneous surroundings on many different levels. It enters into a forward-looking dialogue with an urban fabric that bears many traces: of its origin in the Baroque period; of its densification in the late nineteenth century as well as of its more recent transformation within the mind-set of post-war modernism.This endeavour to formulate architecture for a specific location, that respects the urban context while remaining expressive and sustainable, is evident in all of Sauerbruch Hut-ton’s designs. For instance, the form of the KfW Westarkade in Frankfurt am Main (com-pleted in 2010) takes account both of the spatial characteristics of its surroundings as well as of the prevailing wind direction, so that the dynamic, double-envelope, ‘pressure ring’ facade can exploit the wind to ventilate the offices naturally. The multifaceted facade of Museum Brandhorst in Munich (opened in 2008) not only plays with our visual perception – in allusion to the contents of the museum – but also absorbs noise from the street, to the benefit of local residents. A further interface between the structure and its site lies concealed underground: for heating and cooling, the building

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City dress, 10th International Architecture Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia (2006)

makes use of the groundwater that is warmer than average owing to heat rejected by the neighbouring museum. In this way the project taps a locally available source of free energy while correcting the temperature of the local groundwater. The unusual footprint of the Jessop West building for Sheffield University (completed in 2008) and its differentiated range of heights are similarly a consequence of tailoring the design to the location. Both are responses to the heterogeneous pattern of building in the area and to the line of the main pedestrian route for students. Sauerbruch Hutton’s master plan for the Jessop campus mediates between divergent urban structures in its definition of new public spaces. Integrating the existing urban fabric into a spatial and aesthetic whole, the form of the new building unlocks the potential of the site both for present use and future development. Saint-Georges Center in Geneva (completed in 2012) expresses the regeneration of a city quarter in its use of colour and its generous, rhythmical fenestration, while inserting an organic note into the conventional sequence of linear street fronts with its gently curving facade. The design for the Ministry of Urban Development and the Environment in Hamburg, which contributes to the sustainable development of Wilhelmsburg as part of the 2013 In-ternational Building Exhibition (IBA), carefully positions a major new entity in the district, consisting of a high-rise with lower wings. The curved outlines and the lively use of colour articulate the large building volume and give it a human scale. With the offices for the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau (completed in 2005) the architects have transformed an inner-city wasteland - the site of a former gas appliance fac-tory set in extremely heterogeneous surroundings - into a high-quality urban environment that stimulates further development. The building’s meandering footprint was generated by a sophisticated concept of interaction between townscape, landscape and interior space that enabled a new public park to extend through the site along a former railway line. The park’s landscape quality continues indoors for the full length of the central space, while the cranked form of the building prevents its large volume from being perceived in its entirety from any single viewpoint. In a city such as Dessau, with a heritage of destruction from the Second World War and neglect from the communist era on one hand, and the legendary Bauhaus on the other (the Masters’ Houses by Walter Gropius are not far from the site), the Federal Environmental Agency is a statement of particular significance. Building on

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the legacy of modernism in terms of the interplay between interior and exterior space, it interacts meaningfully with the urban context while raising ecological considerations and the energy balance to the status of central design criteria.The growing importance of the transformation and improvement of urban space at various levels is reflected in the architects’ proposal for the Immanuel Church that was constructed in 2013 for the Brückenschlag parish in Cologne. It gives the surrounding areas of frag-mented, heterogeneous housing a local highlight, creating a focal point for the community. The carefully considered arrangement of church, tower and chapel spares a group of ma-ture trees that contribute to the aura of the ensemble, reinterpreting their enclosed space as entrance to and extension of the church. With the bell tower as a striking feature on the street front and the timber construction of the church, Sauerbruch Hutton open up a new perspective both for themselves and for the location. The Immanuel Church also beauti-fully illustrates the fascinating artistic power that Sauerbruch Hutton can conjure from an interior, in the way that the altar screen, composed of coloured wooden battens, rises at the end of the rhythmically structured nave to dissolve in light as it nears the roof.

The city as landscapeThe ‘dictatorship’ of the perimeter block that began to dominate urban redevelopment in Europe during the 1990s threatens to reduce awareness of the diversity of the city as a (spa-tial) experience that reflects the variety of its uses and residents. Louisa Hutton and Matthi-as Sauerbruch propose a contrary model: that of the city as landscape. Their buildings not only work as special stand-alones, but also possess strong urban qualities that continue the narrative of their surroundings. “Without violating existing patterns or having to suppress conflicting claims,” they engage with the specific nature of the existing context in all its aspects and infuse it with new content to create an autochthonous urban quality.

Museum Brandhorst, Munich © Annette Kisling

Reproduction and printingGrafiche Veneziane, Venicefor Marsilio Editori© s.p.a in Venezia

Up to 15% of this book may be photocopied for personal use by readers provided they pay the SIAE the fee established by art. 68, clauses 4 and 5 of Law no. 633 of 22 April 1941. Photocopies for professional, economic or commercial purposes or in any way different from personal use may be made, but only after obtaining specific authorization from the Centro Licenze e Autorizzazioni per le Riproduzioni Editoriali (CLEARDI), Corso di Porta Romana 108, 20122 Milane-mail [email protected] and web site www.clearedi.org

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Documents

M9 TransforMing The CiTy - FondazionediVenezia · Valerio Zingarelli and to all the Fondazione di Venezia and Sauerbruch Hutton staff. The catalogue of this exhibition is one of the