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Martha Schwartz/Andrea Nussbaum
I am not a Gardener Martha Schwartz im Gespräch mit Andrea Nussbaum
Her métier is landscape architecture, but her language is that of art. She hates “fake nature,” and blames the romantic notion of landscape for the fact that we no longer understand the urban landscape nowadays. When she aims to make our cities more livable, Martha Schwartz knows exactly what she wants.
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Photos: Elena Henrich, antarama72
Interview
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Vesna Goldsworthy
Concrete Memories
It was the last Sunday in October. The clocks much as—on a different night, in a different street—it could be jasmine and had just gone back. Nadja stood on Prince Milosh Street, lime trees. Her homesickness was a complicated beast. ¶ The glare of waiting for the bus. She wondered if there was any point in headlamps made her turn her back to the road. She stared at the ruin of a familiar building. It used to house a shipping company. trying to get to her parents’ grave. It was barely four, yet darkA decade had passed since NATO’s bombs disemboweled it. ness curdled along the lines of headlamps, which glimmered like ropes of Christmas illuminations, red streams uphill, white downThe empty window-frames were blackened around the hill. The buses were full to bursting. They kept shuddering to a halt rims, like eyes of a blind panda. ¶ One summer in the in clouds of diesel fumes. Bodies swelled out of the doors and it took a late 1970s, she sat on the steps now ending in mid-air moment before one was released, like the first drop of water which and held hands with a boy who had, that night, breaks the surface tension. People apologized but forced their way out, deflowered her on the ottoman in her grandpartheir courtesy strained by years of hardship. ¶ Nadja left Belgrade for ents’ salon, while her grandmother slept two London in 1985, on a Foreign Office scholarship, planning to return when the doors away. On these steps, afterwards, they money ran out. In 1990, she took up a teaching job at Cambridge, and rented planned their shared future, too old-fasha flat above a bicycle shop. Her landlord called it a studio, but it was a kitchen ioned to conceive of sex without consewith a bed at the carpeted end and a bathroom carved out of a broom cupboard. quences. They talked about moving to Student chatter rose towards her windows in waves, and the spires of St John’s America as though the world was an College floated amid them like ship-masts. ¶ In 1991, during a short-lived maropen palm, one half of a scallop shell. ¶ riage to an Englishman, she moved to a village on the edge of the fens. He came “Massachusetts or Connecticut would from a people which liked their villages better than their towns. While her husband be great, if I can learn to spell the researched the book which was to make him famous and take him away from her, names,” the boy laughed. Nadja Nadja cycled through the marshland stretching out towards the North Sea. She talked about Arizona, Utah, Idaho, loved the plains a bit more each day, her husband a bit less. ¶ Eight years of war, Montana. She wanted the whiteness eight years of marriage: they overlapped almost to the day. There was the fighting, of desert sands, the shimmering the ceasefires, the negotiations, the feeling that things might, just, get better. The snow, the salt-lake beds, mile upon period was short lived, she now says, but it made a dent, it took its toll. She went sparkling mile. ¶ Neither of them had, into it at thirty, and re-emerged at thirty-eight, battle-scarred. ¶ When Michael at that stage, ever been to America. ¶ left, taking away half the library and half the music collection, Nadja bought a “Not this,” Nadja said, taking in one lock keeper’s cottage where the only noises were the cawing of crows and the sweep of her hand Prince Milosh Street, lapping of water. It was so quiet you could hear the sound of a falling star. The the soon-to-be-beheaded stone giants holdvillage and Cambridge were out there, London forgotten, Belgrade in a differing massive doorways, the chestnut trees ent universe. She was multiply exiled, but not unhappy, not at all unhappy. with their candelabra of blossom, “Certainly ¶ She hesitated. A taxi was a flick of a hand away but she felt no easy entinot this.” ¶ “No kidding,” said the boy, “Are you tlement to luxury. “Lord, how quickly it gets dark here,” a sentence from the girl who, on our school trip to the mountains, a novel flitted through her mind. She was writing a study on its author, complained about the absence of exhaust fumes? one of those academic pieces which would be read by no one but the You’d hate all that nature.” ¶ If he could see my cottage copy editor. The study, ostensibly, was the reason why she was in now, Nadja thought, my bicycle in the porch. If he could Belgrade, on the trail of the novelist’s first marriage, before he too see my muddy boots. If he could see my hands and my nails. went to exile, another marriage, and death in Paris. His Serbian ¶ Earlier that evening, they danced. The boy’s jumper smelled phrases punctuated her English thoughts like echoes of a forof sweat and pine needles. Nadja was not his type, he said, too gotten composition. ¶ The smell of coal fires hang in the clever by half, too fond of atonal music and unintelligible poetry, a air. It was for Nadja the fragrance of home, just as snob. Nevertheless, he pursued her with the eagerness of someone who 62 einundneunzig Grad
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Literature
had staked a large bet on her seduction. She had to admit, in turn, that she The vocative sounded familiar and warm. ¶ went to the dance only because she knew he would be there, propping “Of course I remember,” Nadja responded, up the bar with the mates from his basketball team. ¶ He bent typing an effusive message and then deledown to kiss her forehead. He was so tall that it required a ting everything but that sentence. She feared manoeuvre. “But our middles meet spectacularly,” he whisthat she could hurt him, even by Michael’s pered. She blushed to the roots of her hair and beyond. ¶ name which she kept after he had taken his Soon afterwards, he left to do his military service. Nadja books and his Philip Glass away. ¶ That collected his letters, their childish serifs and night, they tiptoed into and out of her grandcurlicues, the clichéd expressions of lust, of dismother’s flat. He stopped for a moment, she tance, of what was clearly not meant to be. ¶ She recalled. You should have told me, he said, remembered him when the war started. Then looking at her from above, half puzzled, half she forgot again. She was in love with Michael, lost in his own lust. ¶ “Of course I rememthe scientist, the interpreter of the world as it ber,” she tried again, “You hated all those is, without God. ¶ She later heard that the buildings.” In order to differentiate them boy claimed to be somebody else when the from those of the Eastern Bloc, Yugoslav edipostman tried to deliver his call up papers. fices were designed to resemble corporate “Tell your friend that I’ll be here tomorheadquarters of Western banks. In England, row,” the man winked. “I sure will,” the the works of Denys Lasdun and Erno boy responded. The following day he was Goldfinger seemed to her more like on the plane to Zimbabwe to join a small Belgrade than Belgrade itself. This was the community of Serbian draft dodgers. hidden paradox at the heart of NATO’s Even later he wound up in Siberia, on attempts at architectural criticism. ¶ “You the trail of the oil business. ¶ In 1999, are an architect. What are you doing on oil while Serbia was being bombed and she rigs when there is a city to rebuild?” ¶ was getting a divorce, Nadja received an Nadja’s e-mail bounced back several times. e-mail from him. He attached a picture of “Unknown host,” said her Internet provider. the shipping company HQ on fire. His mesShe gave up. ¶ “Of course I remember. I am sage, with its Russian address, languished a Trummerfrau, the sweeper of ruins,” she in her spam folder amid offers of fake Rolex echoed a decade later. She had found the watches, cheap sex, and Viagra. The subject German word in a book. Quotes gave voice to line—“hello from Boris”—was written in English. the pain she would otherwise have repressed. She had almost deleted it before she remembered ¶ The rain was picking up. Above her head, a drops of blood on threadbare brocade, and heard the hoarding of red-and-white canvas obscured sound of springs in an old-fashioned horsehair matone wing of the charred façade. It was advertress, the snoring of her long-dead grandmother, the tising soft drink. “Live your life,” it urged. An beginning of a road. ¶ “My web searches show you hadn’t elder tree was growing from a fissure in the reached Montana,” he made no attempt to account for eightgranite stair, pushing its fruit towards the een years of silence. “In fact, I am closer to it than you, my beaunight sky in palmfuls of dark beads. ¶ ty, progressing anti-clockwise. I can see the tips of Alaskan pines “Someone in this city must have his teleacross the Baring Sea. Do you remember this building?” ¶ He always phone number,” Nadja suddenly thought, called her Lepotice, my beauty, but it irritated her less in electronic form. “I should not have given up so easily.”
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Text Cordula Rau, Photos Margherita Spiluttini
From Gray to Green Faserzement „... man könnte es ohne weiteres essen“
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Eternal Business
Fiber cement tiles are made to last (almost) forever. Not only are they extremely weatherproof and durable, but they also age with dignity. Patina suits them. Yet, how does the material do in terms of environmental sustainability in construction?
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A familiy building
Ulrike Haele
Interview
Sie habe sich im Vorfeld sehr viele Häuser angesehen, aber besser hätte es nicht werden können, meint Bauherrin Margit Völker im Interview. No wonder, after all, her daughter, the architect, knew her client’s tastes and needs better than anyone.
Sie leben seit dem Frühjahr 2008 mit Ihrem Mann in Ihrem neuen Haus, haben alle Jahreszeiten einmal durchlebt. Ist das Haus am See ein klassisches Sommerdomizil? Also eigentlich sind alle vier Jahreszeiten in diesem Haus sehr schön, weil man von überall den Ausblick in die Natur hat. Aber der Sommer ist die absolut schönste Zeit, die Zeit, um den See zu genießen, man glaubt, man ist im Urlaub. Ist das Haus so geworden, wie Sie beide es sich vorgestellt haben? Ehrlich gesagt, anfangs fehlte uns die Vorstellung davon, wie es hier aussehen könnte. Ausgegangen sind wir ursprünglich davon, hier ein Badehaus zu bauen. Wir haben uns im Vorfeld sehr viele Häuser angeschaut und sind jetzt der Meinung, es hätte nicht besser werden können. War für Sie von Anbeginn klar, wenn, dann kommt nur meine Tochter Katja Nagy als Architektin in Frage? Das war auf alle Fälle die Voraussetzung. Wäre Katja nicht Architektin gewesen, dann hätten wir uns wahrscheinlich für ein Fertighaus entschieden und nachher wohl blöd geschaut. Was war für Sie das Besondere an der Doppelfunktion als Bauherrin und Mutter der Architektin? Meine Tochter kennt meinen Geschmack, sie wusste im Vorhinein, mit dem oder jenem muss ich meiner Mutter gar nicht erst kommen. Ich denke, es ist der Idealfall, wenn die Architektin die Vorstellungen der Bauherren so genau kennt und großteils auch teilt. Bewirkt die spezielle Konstellation, dass Sie nun doppelt stolz sind, zum einen auf Ihr neues Heim, zum anderen auf die Leistung Ihrer Tochter? (Lacht.) Ja, genauso ist es!
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You have lived in your new house with your husband since spring 2008. You’ve lived through all of the seasons. Is the house on the lake a classical summer residence? Well, actually, all four seasons are incredibly beautiful in the house because you can look out at the landscape from everywhere. To tell you the truth, summer is absolutely the most beautiful time, when you can enjoy the lake, it is as though you’re on holiday. Did the house turn out the way that you both imagined it? To be honest, at first we couldn’t imagine how it might possibly look here. Initially, we began with the idea of building a beach house. Beforehand, we looked at a great number of houses and we think now that it couldn’t have turned out better. Was it already clear to you from the start that if you were to build, then only your daughter, Katja Nagy, would come in question as the architect? That was one of the conditions, in any case. If my Katja hadn’t of been the architect, then we would have probably decided on a prefabricated house and looked rather foolish afterward. For you, what was special about your dual function as client and mother of the architect? My daughter knows my taste, she knew from the start that with certain things, she didn’t even have to ask. I think that’s the ideal situation, when the architect knows the client’s ideas so well and also shares them to a great degree. Does the special constellation now have the result that you are doubly proud: for one, of your new home, and for another, of your daughter’s achievement? (Laughs) Yes, that’s exactly how it is!
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Architecture 5
Ließen Sie Ihrer Tochter freie Hand oder brachten Sie ein paar unverhandelbare Vorgaben mit? Zum einen wollte ich eine Saunahütte im Garten, da hat uns Katja auf die Idee gebracht, das Ganze mit einem Gästehaus zu verbinden, was natürlich optimal ist. Weiters war mir wichtig, einen offenen Wohnraum zu bekommen, nicht fünf kleine getrennte Zimmer. Ja und manche Dinge waren auch echte Überzeugungsarbeit meiner Tochter gegenüber, meist, wenn etwas praktisch und nicht nur schön werden sollte. Was ist Ihr liebster Platz im Haus? Mein liebster Platz im Haus ist eigentlich am Esstisch. Man sieht so schön raus, zum See, über die Böschung, in alle Richtungen und man hat den Überblick über das ganze Haus. Im Sommer ist es draußen auf der Terrasse am besten, aber am Esstisch ist mein ganzjähriger Lieblingsplatz. Das Haus ist als Niedrigenergiehaus ausgeführt, wie sind ihre Erfahrungen damit? Im Vergleich zu meiner alten Wohnung haben wir hier immer eine konstante, optimale Raumtemperatur und der Verbrauch ist, würde ich einmal sagen, normal bis eher weniger. Was glauben Sie unterscheidet Ihr Haus von den Bauten der Nachbarschaft? (Lacht.) Es sieht total anders aus, obwohl alle Vorschriften erfüllt sind. Unser Haus ist zur Straße geschlossen, sonst überall hin offen, die anderen Häuser sind eigentlich rundherum geschlossen, mit nur kleinen Fenstern. Und natürlich unterscheiden wir uns durch die ganz andere Fassade ...
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Did you give your daughter a free hand or did you put a few nonnegotiable demands on the table? For one, I wanted a sauna shed in the garden, Katja gave us the idea of combining that with a guest house, which is, naturally, optimal. Furthermore, it was important for me to have an open living space, not five small, separate rooms. Yes, and some things were also genuine works of persuasion, usually when something was meant to be practical, and not simply beautiful. What is your favorite place in the house? My favorite place in the house is actually at the dining table. One has such a gorgeous view, out to the lake, across the embankment in all directions, and the overview of the entire house. In the summer, outside on the terrace is best, but at the dining table is my favorite year-round place. The house was built as a low-energy building, how have your experiences been with it? In comparison to my old apartment, we have a steady, optimal room temperature here, and the energy use is, I would say, normal to a bit less. What do you think differentiates your house from the buildings in the neighborhood? (Laughs) It looks totally different although all of the specifications have been met. Our house is closed in the front, otherwise it is open everywhere. The other houses are actually closed all around, and only have little windows. And, naturally, we are distinct with our entirely different façade …
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Dietmar Steiner
Cosmopolitan Bosporus Lokalaugenschein in Istanbul
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Elsewhere
Photo: Altantide Phototravel/Corbis
Die Boomjahre ab den 1970ern ließen Istanbul regelrecht explodieren. Heute leben zwölf Millionen Menschen in der Metropole und die Stadt pulsiert weiter. Doch die Frage, wie sich mit dem gigantischen urbanen Wachstum umgehen lässt, bleibt offen.
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Wojciech Czaja
Hundert Sch채fchen in der W체ste Watching Out for Ordos 100
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Construction Site
An architecture Mecca is meant to sprout in the Gobi desPhotos: Maurice Weiss/Ostkreuz
sert. One hundred architects from around the world are slated to build just as many luxury villas. The designs for the controversial project “Ordos 100” are complete. Nonetheless, progress is uncertain.
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Andrea Nussbaum
Hotels are My Hobby Die Kunst daheim unterwegs zu sein
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Leisure
Gary Chang spends more than 200 days a year traveling.
Photos: Almond Chu
In contrast to some other people who see the nomadic life as simply a tiresome duty, he loves to be on the road. The reason: Gary Chang is fascinated by hotels.
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Hotels are My Hobby
Andrea Nussbaum
Dass er es mit seiner Hotel-Leidenschaft ernst nimmt, bewies er kürzlich in New York: neun Tage New York – neun verschiedene Hotels. Wer die Hektik der Stadt kennt, der weiß, dass sich das Umziehen von Hotel zu Hotel niemand freiwillig antut, der nicht absolut von dieser Leidenschaft getrieben wird. Gary Chang gibt selbst zu, dass er nicht genug bekommen kann, wenn er einmal etwas fokussiert.
In New York he recently showed that he is serious about his hotel passion: nine days New York, nine different hotels. Those who are familiar with the hectic pace of the city know that unless someone is absolutely driven by this passion, there is no way that they would move from hotel to hotel voluntarily. Gary Chang admits that when he focuses on something, he can never get enough.
Doch welches Hotel in New York empfiehlt uns der Weltreisende? Seine spontane Antwort: „Mein alltime favorit ist das Mercer.“ – Kein schlechter Geschmack, auch was die Preise betrifft. Eine Nacht kostet 500 Dollar aufwärts, dafür logiert man mitten im Herzen von Soho, was aber auch seine Nachteile hat, denn Soho ist längst New Yorks größtes Touristenmekka. Kein Problem, denn die Lobby sei „cozy and timeless“ und nur für Hotelgäste reserviert. Das Mercer wurde schließlich von einem Hotelprofi entwickelt. Es gehört André Balazs, der auch das Chateau Marmont in Hollywood oder die Standard Hotels in downtown L.A., in Hollywood, Miami und in New York, letzteres eben erst eröffnet, betreibt. Auch das von Julian Schnabel neu inszenierte Gramercy Park Hotel in New York hat Gary Chang bereits bewertet. Das Hotel sei unüblich, die Bar exzellent, die Räume theatralisch inszeniert, das besondere Highlight aber der Schlüssel zum privaten Gramercy Park. Was er denn von den Kunstwerken halte, frage ich ihn. Er schaue nie auf die Kunst, die sei redundant. Grundsätzlich schneiden jedoch die New Yorker Hotels schlecht ab: Sie seien zu teuer und vor allem zu laut, egal ob günstige Touristenklasse oder teurer Luxus, die Aircondition sei immer störend. In Wien hat es Gary Chang in seinen sechs Tagen nur auf drei Hotels gebracht: die Pension Altstadt, wo er in einer von Matteo
But what New York hotel does the world traveler recommend to us? His spontaneous answer, “My all time favorite is the Mercer.” Not exactly bad taste in terms of price, either. A room for the night starts at 500 dollars. But for that, one is in the heart of Soho, which also has its drawbacks as Soho has long been New York’s biggest tourist Mecca. No problem, as the lobby is cozy, timeless, and reserved for hotel guests. The Mercer was, after all, developed by a hotel pro. It is owned by André Balazs, who also runs, for example, the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood and the Standard Hotels in downtown L.A., Hollywood, Miami, and New York. Gary Chang also recently reviewed the Gramercy Park Hotel, newly staged by Julian Schnabel. The hotel is unusual, the bar excellent, the rooms theatrically staged, the special highlight, however, is the key to private Gramercy Park. I asked him what he thinks about the art works. He never looks at the art, it’s redundant. Basically, however, New York hotels do not do so well: they are too expensive and, most of all, too loud, regardless of whether budget tourist class or expensive luxury, the air conditioning is always bothersome. In his six days in Vienna, Gary Chang was only in three hotels: Pension Altstadt, where he stayed in a suite styled by Matteo Thun, the
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Leisure
Unterschiedliche Raumerlebnisse, unterschiedliche Funktionen. Mit Hilfe von Schiebewänden und ausklappbaren Möbeln ist das Apartment jeder Alltagssituation gewachsen. Different spatial experiences, different functions. With the help of sliding walls and foldable furniture, the apartment is a match for any situation.
Thun gestylten Suite übernachtete, das Le Merdien und das Hotel Wein & Design. Über das Le Meridien meinte er nur lakonisch: „Ich kann nicht sagen, dass ich es mochte, auch wenn die Räume groß sind.“ Am zweiten Tag begann er die Möbel in der Suite umzustellen, das Bett kam näher ans Fenster und er kreierte eine, wie er sagte, „study-area“. Ob er nicht gerne einmal ein Hotel bauen möchte, wollte ich wissen. Er habe bereits an einem mitgearbeitet. Das Suitcase House an der chinesischen Mauer sei eigentlich ein Hotel, man kann es mieten und hier hat er wie schon in seinem Apartment verwirklicht, was ihm am Herzen liegt: Transformierbarkeit und Flexibilität. Der Schlafbereich ist wie andere Funktionen in den Boden versenkt und lässt sich je nach Bedarf aufklappen. Da Gary Chang viel reist, ist auch das Gepäck eine wichtige Frage für ihn. Auch hier ist er noch auf der Suche nach der perfekten Lösung. Er hasse diese Taschen mit den vielen Fächern, denn am Ende finde man ja doch nichts mehr. Das perfekte Gepäckstück sei zuerst klein und mutiere am Ende der Reise zu einen großem. Vielleicht wird er ja einmal selbst eines entwerfen. Perfekt für kleine Räume bzw. für das Reisen ist seine „Treasure Box for Urban Nomads“, ein kleiner Behälter, den man mit beliebigen kleinen Schätzen füllen kann; ein perfektes Reise-Accessoire, das in jeden Hoteltresor passt, denn dieses in limitierter Auflage für Alessi entstandene Schatzkästchen ist nicht ganz günstig und viel zu schade, um es zu verlieren.
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Le Meridien, and Hotel Wein & Design. About the Le Meridien, he simply laconically said: “I couldn't say I like it, even though the rooms are very big.” On the second day, he began to rearrange the furniture in the suite, the bed was put closer to the window and he created what he called a “study area.” I wanted to know if he would enjoy building a hotel someday. He has already worked on one. The Suitcase House on the Chinese wall is actually a hotel, one can rent it and here, like in his apartment, he has realized something close to his heart: transformability and flexibility. The sleeping area, like other functions, is sunk in the floor and can be swung open when necessary. Since Gary Chang travels a great deal, luggage is also an important issue for him. Here, too, he is also in search of the perfect solution. He hates those bags with so many pockets that in the end one can no longer find anything. The perfect piece of luggage starts out small and at the end of the journey mutates to become huge. Maybe he’ll design one someday. His “Treasure Box for Urban Nomads” is perfect for small spaces, that is, for traveling: a small case that one can fill with any treasure, a perfect travel accessory that fits in every hotel safe, as this treasure box, created in a limited edition for Alessi, is not exactly inexpensive and it would certainly be a shame to lose it.