Earth, Water, Air, Fire. The Four Elements and Architecture

The four Elements and Architecture

Earth窶ジater窶アir窶ェire

Josep Lluﾃｭs Mateo & Florian Sauter (Eds.)

Editor Chair of Architecture and Design Prof.

Dr. Josep Lluís Mateo Editors-in-Charge Josep Lluís Mateo and Florian Sauter Team Soraya Barbero, Andrea Cavelti, Isabel Concheiro, Maria Güell, Anna Hotz, Till von Mackensen, Cecilia Obiol, Chasper Schmidlin, Ramias Steinemann Translations Elaine Fradley (Richard Scoffier) Ingvar Milnes (Marcel Meili, Claude Lichtenstein) Isabel Concheiro (Iñaki Ábalos) Florian Sauter (Peter Zumthor) Transcriptions James Yeo Proofreading Elaine Fradley Graphic design Folch Studio, Barcelona Creative direction in production Folch Studio, Barcelona Printed and bound in Barcelona Distribution

First published in 2014 by ACTAR-D, New York Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of images published herein. The publisher would appreciate being informed of any omissions in order to make due acknowledgement in future editions of this book.

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consensus of the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-940291-46-8

Participating students Earth Fall Term 2012 Agustoni Fabio; Arvinte Eugene; Bühler Yannick; Bühlmann Ole; Fuchs Corinne; Fuhrmann Jan; Gfeller Mathias; Holl Pierre-Jean; Käser Cenoz Nadine; Knecht Severin; Kretz David; Ladda Alexander; Lagler Caroline; Lieb Lara Maria; Lojero Ibarra Jose Alberto; Martinec Alexandra; Michel Daniel; von Moos Dominik; Müntener Claudia; Murer Lukas; Pennisi Fiammeta; Ramseier Isabel Andrea; Roos Stefan; Sanchez Rosales Cesar Alberto; Sarda Fuster-Fabra Alvaro; Stäheli Lena; Steffen Angela; Turnovski Christian; Vogler Jan; Weber Anina; Weiss Nathanael; Widmer Christina; Wulf Gabriel; Zellweger Florentin; Ziegler Melanie Water Spring Term 2013 Alhanko Christophe; Bachmann Georg; Bachmann Lorenz; Birchler Simon; Braun Sibylle; Brunner Marisa; Bucher Lucas; Bundi Dario; Crameri Valentino; De Giorgi Gino; Didisheim Sophie; Engel Roy; Genhart Pascal; Giger Christoph; Hasler Stefan; Jasarevic Kenan; Läser Nico; Linhoff Leif; Mistry Unnati; Neurohr Semian; Reichert Fionn; Renuka Makwana; Ruckstuhl Pascal; Schenker Rahel; Schillinger Caroline; Sigrist Marion; Stadlin Gabriel; Soukup Ondrej; Valsangiacomo Pablo; Vima Grau Sara; Wyss Niccolò; Zihlmann Jeannine Air Fall Term 2013 Bachmann Michael; Caccia Cosimo; Cattaneo Filippo; Cerfeda Melina; Collu Valentina Dohner Beatrice; del Don Fernando; Egge Svenja; Gerth Mirjam; Grabar Nina; Imfeld Melanie; Inauen Nicole; Kostezer Daniel; Kundig Romain; Kuonen Muriel; Lo Priore Serena; Maag Géraldine; Meuli Mauro; Nef Flavio; Neusch Jonas; Pannatier Benjamin; Pfaff Petra; Reif Andreas; Rippstein Christian; Rosset Quentin; Schiemann Robert; Schneider Lena; Schöttler Simon; Steiner Flurin; Toscano Nicola; Wanner Céline; Zalyesna Zoya; Zesiger Eva; Zugliani Cyrill; Zürcher Katrin Fire Spring Term 2014 Andronescu Daniela; Augugliaro Giulia; Barras Sarah; Chaillou Stanislas; Crepaz Manuel; Felder Andreas; Flühmann Hans; Häfliger Dimitri; Hendry Silvana; Iorno Martino; Jäger Jonas; Jain Neel; Krieg Tobias; Lopatka Piotr; Michel Simone; Miseri Jasmin; Oertel Anja; Ohnuma Yukari; Rechsteiner Andreas; Richter Jannik; Saruhan Selin; Signer Fabio; Singhvi Rini; Takamura Togo; Zahler AnnaKatharina; Zingg Christoph

Acknowledgements Earth Water Air Fire is the last issue of the Architectural Papers series edited by the Chair of Josep Lluís Mateo. We want to express our thanks to the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich for continuously supporting the project over the last 12 years. In this time-span we produced 9 printed publications and several digital issues with the aim to cover a wide range of topics related to teaching architecture and architectural culture in general. The discourse set out to critically discuss and reflect on the contemporary architectural condition – one informed by a new, digital wave of Globalization, a major economical crisis that strongly targeted the debate on iconicity, and a time of ever increasing attention being paid to questions of sustainability and identity. Having said that, this is also the place to thank Josep Lluís Mateo for his driving energy to uncover many yet hidden or neglected voices, giving them, but also many of us a platform to speak, if not at least to distance oneself temporarily from the material production of buildings and engage in the theoretical construction of a more analytical framework for these.

In that regard, the final thanks go to all the contributors, a proud list of builders and thinkers, and their willingness to share their time and knowledge with us.

The four Elements and Architecture

Earth窶ジater窶アir窶ェire

Josep Lluﾃｭs Mateo & Florian Sauter (Eds.)

Architecture and the Elements 4

The four Elements and Architecture Today Josep Lluís Mateo

6

Limits to Architecture Philip Ursprung

8

Aristotle Barefoot Florian Sauter

14 16 19

Cosmos vs. Chaos Interview: Kenneth Frampton Earth Water Air Fire Interview: Tadao Ando Micro- and Macrocosm Michael Jakob

20 Pragmatic, Poetic, Sacred

Rahul Mehrotra 22 Beginnings

Krunoslav Ivanisin 27 Cartography of the Elements

Ramias Steinemann

Identity and Modernity 158 Water 160 Water

Josep Lluís Mateo 166 Palafitic 166 Surrealism 166 Bunkers 170 Bunker Archeology

Paul Virilio Richard Scoffier 182 Panta Rhei and Plato’s Revenge

Michael Hampe 182 On Roofs

158 Earth 160 Earth

Josep Lluís Mateo 166 Field Work 170 Cave 170 Ruins 176 The Origin of the Work of Art

Martin Heidegger 182 On Foundations

Agustí Obiol 182 Earth and Mountains

Michael Jakob 182 Can Tacó

Toni Gironès

176 On Ventilation

Günther Vogt 182 Piscinas do Atlântico

Paulo David 182 Termas Geométricas

158 Air 160 Air

Josep Lluís Mateo

Iñaki Ábalos 176 Blur Building

158 Fire 160 Fire 166 Journey into the Fire

Claude Lichtenstein

nese language’ to ‘read’ the Chinese way of design” Kevin Sun

176 Fusion of the Senses

Interview: Juhani Pallasmaa 182 The Context of the Context

Chasper Schmidlin 166 166 166 166 166

Danger and Debility Sublime and Picturesque Infrastructure Strombolicchio Lava

166 Across the Land and the Water

W. G. Sebald 166 Light and Heat

Interview: Rahul Mehrotra

On Teaching Josep Lluís Mateo 186 187 188 190

Teaching Architecture Discovering and Sharing Pedagogical Ambition Building and Teaching

Manfred Sigrist 166 On Energy

Wilfried Wang

166 Bruder Klaus

182 Postscriptum: Fuller and the Elements

170 “First of all, we need to use the ‘Chi-

Josep Lluís Mateo

170 Universal Architecture

Interview: Juhani Pallasmaa

you, you never become the center because you give up your own voice” Li Xiadong

Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio

166 Fire and Light

176 Fusion of the Senses

166 “When you copy the things around

176 Thermodynamic Materialism

166 Painting with Air 166 Castles and Rocks 166 Platonic Solids and Archetypes

Richard Buckminster Fuller

Josep Lluís Mateo

Jan Carmeliet

Marcel Meili 182 Water and Landscape

160 Identity and Modernity

Heini Wernli

176 Postscriptum: Virilio and the Elements

Germán del Sol

Earth Water Air Fire

176 Weather, Clouds and Aerosols

Stan Allen Peter Zumthor 170 Hola

Kevin Sun 176 Fusion of the Senses

Interview: Juhani Pallasmaa 182 The Context of the Context

Interview: Rahul Mehrotra

Appendix

Architecture and the Elements 4

The four Elements and Architecture Today Josep Lluís Mateo

6

Limits to Architecture Philip Ursprung

8

Aristotle Barefoot Florian Sauter

14 16 19

Cosmos vs. Chaos Interview: Kenneth Frampton Earth Water Air Fire Interview: Tadao Ando Micro- and Macrocosm Michael Jakob

20 Pragmatic, Poetic, Sacred

Rahul Mehrotra 22 Beginnings

Krunoslav Ivanisin 27 Cartography of the Elements

Ramias Steinemann

Identity and Modernity 158 Water 160 Water

Josep Lluís Mateo 166 Palafitic 166 Surrealism 166 Bunkers 170 Bunker Archeology

Paul Virilio Richard Scoffier 182 Panta Rhei and Plato’s Revenge

Michael Hampe 182 On Roofs

158 Earth 160 Earth

Josep Lluís Mateo 166 Field Work 170 Cave 170 Ruins 176 The Origin of the Work of Art

Martin Heidegger 182 On Foundations

Agustí Obiol 182 Earth and Mountains

Michael Jakob 182 Can Tacó

Toni Gironès

176 On Ventilation

Günther Vogt 182 Piscinas do Atlântico

Paulo David 182 Termas Geométricas

158 Air 160 Air

Josep Lluís Mateo

Iñaki Ábalos 176 Blur Building

158 Fire 160 Fire 166 Journey into the Fire

Claude Lichtenstein

nese language’ to ‘read’ the Chinese way of design” Kevin Sun

176 Fusion of the Senses

Interview: Juhani Pallasmaa 182 The Context of the Context

Chasper Schmidlin 166 166 166 166 166

Danger and Debility Sublime and Picturesque Infrastructure Strombolicchio Lava

166 Across the Land and the Water

W. G. Sebald 166 Light and Heat

Interview: Rahul Mehrotra

On Teaching Josep Lluís Mateo 186 187 188 190

Teaching Architecture Discovering and Sharing Pedagogical Ambition Building and Teaching

Manfred Sigrist 166 On Energy

Wilfried Wang

166 Bruder Klaus

182 Postscriptum: Fuller and the Elements

170 “First of all, we need to use the ‘Chi-

Josep Lluís Mateo

170 Universal Architecture

Interview: Juhani Pallasmaa

you, you never become the center because you give up your own voice” Li Xiadong

Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio

166 Fire and Light

176 Fusion of the Senses

166 “When you copy the things around

176 Thermodynamic Materialism

166 Painting with Air 166 Castles and Rocks 166 Platonic Solids and Archetypes

Richard Buckminster Fuller

Josep Lluís Mateo

Jan Carmeliet

Marcel Meili 182 Water and Landscape

160 Identity and Modernity

Heini Wernli

176 Postscriptum: Virilio and the Elements

Germán del Sol

Earth Water Air Fire

176 Weather, Clouds and Aerosols

Stan Allen Peter Zumthor 170 Hola

Kevin Sun 176 Fusion of the Senses

Interview: Juhani Pallasmaa 182 The Context of the Context

Interview: Rahul Mehrotra

Appendix

Earth, Water, Air, Fire: The four Elements and Architecture Today Josep Lluís Mateo

Whereas in our recent past the paradigm by which architecture was measured was the city, now, the collective reference surrounding our design activity is the relation with nature.1 Sustainability as an economic but also a moral and political argument is clearly a consensus in our societies. It is a frequently abstract, formless argument with religious overtones (appealing more to faith than to reason), utilizable in political verbalism and which drifts easily towards engineering technocracy.

In this context, a vindication of the presence of the four elements (earth, water, air, fire) by means of which the preSocratic philosophers envisaged humankind’s relation with nature seems extremely useful to the discipline today.

The elements relate us to nature as a physical phenomenon that can be experienced with the senses and is therefore directly connected with architecture, which, as we know, addresses the real construction of the world, the alchemic operation that turns concepts into material.

The elements save our activity from the pure mathematic abstraction on which technology is based.

Our activity, at a primitive, archaic but present level consists in modelling the earth to geometrize its surface or piercing it to build foundations, erecting walls and roofs that protect us from rain and snow, and using the energy of fire as light and heat that make the resulting space habitable.

In the present-day state of globalization, in which the identity-modernity equation is appearing in a new light, the

6

elements reproduced in all cultures as an initial moment with which human construction activity is related form part of a general vocabulary of common arguments.2 Having ruled out modernization as the uncontrolled application of the tired old prototypes of the metropolis, the intelligent, sensible manipulation of the elements provides the basis for specific projects that are, at once, rooted and globally comprehensible.

At an initial stage of project development, the relation with the elements as the origin of the project refers us to archetypes: pure protection, the bunker (echoes of Paul Virilio) or the cave. At the other extreme, the fragile tent of the nomad (remember Buckminster Fuller and the dabblings of the 1960s).3 In the Romantic tradition (on which all of this argumentation is based), the ruin and, in general, the expressive value of the unfinished, of what has been undone yet is still to be done, also emerges as a possibility.

This is a book produced in the warmth of the teaching experience, which uses this ephemeral (and, for the student, initial) encounter with the project as a material which, divested of the anecdotal, can be elevated to category.

1

2

3

The urban condition is now omnipresent. After Rossi and Koolhaas, a manifestation of the operational impracticability of nostalgia or delirium, the city appears as a second nature, the product of processes other than the purely architectural. To regard the city, too, as nature, is to confirm the argument put forward here.

In all cultures, the act of building has been based on rituals that tend to celebrate and pacify the relation between human works and nature. Hence the Inca rituals still conducted in the Andes to ingratiate themselves with Pachamama (Mother Earth) before digging foundations and the collective celebrations when work is completed on the roof of a building, which, though still unfinished, now provides protection from the exterior.

Titus Burckhardt, in Art of Islam (1976), differentiates between solidity and fragility: “If the sedentary knows the value of things, the nomad, for his part, is acutely conscious of their fragility.”

7

Earth, Water, Air, Fire: The four Elements and Architecture Today Josep Lluís Mateo

Whereas in our recent past the paradigm by which architecture was measured was the city, now, the collective reference surrounding our design activity is the relation with nature.1 Sustainability as an economic but also a moral and political argument is clearly a consensus in our societies. It is a frequently abstract, formless argument with religious overtones (appealing more to faith than to reason), utilizable in political verbalism and which drifts easily towards engineering technocracy.

In this context, a vindication of the presence of the four elements (earth, water, air, fire) by means of which the preSocratic philosophers envisaged humankind’s relation with nature seems extremely useful to the discipline today.

The elements relate us to nature as a physical phenomenon that can be experienced with the senses and is therefore directly connected with architecture, which, as we know, addresses the real construction of the world, the alchemic operation that turns concepts into material.

The elements save our activity from the pure mathematic abstraction on which technology is based.

Our activity, at a primitive, archaic but present level consists in modelling the earth to geometrize its surface or piercing it to build foundations, erecting walls and roofs that protect us from rain and snow, and using the energy of fire as light and heat that make the resulting space habitable.

In the present-day state of globalization, in which the identity-modernity equation is appearing in a new light, the

6

elements reproduced in all cultures as an initial moment with which human construction activity is related form part of a general vocabulary of common arguments.2 Having ruled out modernization as the uncontrolled application of the tired old prototypes of the metropolis, the intelligent, sensible manipulation of the elements provides the basis for specific projects that are, at once, rooted and globally comprehensible.

At an initial stage of project development, the relation with the elements as the origin of the project refers us to archetypes: pure protection, the bunker (echoes of Paul Virilio) or the cave. At the other extreme, the fragile tent of the nomad (remember Buckminster Fuller and the dabblings of the 1960s).3 In the Romantic tradition (on which all of this argumentation is based), the ruin and, in general, the expressive value of the unfinished, of what has been undone yet is still to be done, also emerges as a possibility.

This is a book produced in the warmth of the teaching experience, which uses this ephemeral (and, for the student, initial) encounter with the project as a material which, divested of the anecdotal, can be elevated to category.

1

2

3

The urban condition is now omnipresent. After Rossi and Koolhaas, a manifestation of the operational impracticability of nostalgia or delirium, the city appears as a second nature, the product of processes other than the purely architectural. To regard the city, too, as nature, is to confirm the argument put forward here.

In all cultures, the act of building has been based on rituals that tend to celebrate and pacify the relation between human works and nature. Hence the Inca rituals still conducted in the Andes to ingratiate themselves with Pachamama (Mother Earth) before digging foundations and the collective celebrations when work is completed on the roof of a building, which, though still unfinished, now provides protection from the exterior.

Titus Burckhardt, in Art of Islam (1976), differentiates between solidity and fragility: “If the sedentary knows the value of things, the nomad, for his part, is acutely conscious of their fragility.”

7

Limits to Architecture: Between the Human and the Non-Human Philip Ursprung Again, the air in the realm of culture is thick with heavy words. “Fundamentals” is the topic chosen by Rem Koolhaas for the 2014 Architecture Biennale, and Gravity was among the most successful films in the autumn 2013-spring 2014 season. How can we explain this cultural trend towards the essential, the basic, the roots? Is the call for solidity in art, architecture and film a reaction to the disintegration of the welfare state and the rising inequality between social classes? Is the interest in the primordial in the realm of visual culture an echo of the political shift to the right? Can we link the trend towards fundamentals in academe and culture to the rise of political fundamentalism?

Of course, architecture is never completely independent of economic and political trends.

However, I would argue that the two phenomena are not related. Certainly, the work of Martin Heidegger, for decades ousted because of his sympathies with National Socialism, is back on the reading lists. But so are the texts of Karl Marx and, more recently, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014), a study of the inequality of the distribution of wealth.

Certainly there is interest in a mutual basis, a common ground – this was the theme of the Architecture Biennale in 2012 – but there is also a big appetite for critical dissent, for manifestos and revolutionary pamphlets.

Peter Zumthor’s thermal baths in Vals (1996), with their spectacular emphasis on the elements, mainly water, stone and air, may still be a key reference for essentialism in architectural discourse, almost twenty years after their completion. But in the light of the controversy about land use in the Alps, subsidies from the Swiss Federal Government and the role of the tourism industry, this project is also seen as a radical political statement and an instrument that helps a remote commune to survive economically and shape its own future. Architecture practices in southern Europe are shutting down, and young professionals have no choice but to move to the busy construction sites elsewhere around the globe. They have every reason to feel bitter and look back in nostalgia. Yet the atmosphere in the field of architecture seems to be optimistic and speculative. In other words, the reactionary move in politics has not led to a rappel à l’ordre in architecture.

So, how should we interpret the renewed interest in the issue of the essential? And essentials are, of course, also the concepts of the elements: earth, air, fire and water.1 The definition of these essentials goes back to the sixth century BC. At that time, these categories enabled humans to make sense of the world and imagine an inner logic that went beyond mythology.

Since Antiquity, and particularly since the Enlightenment, scientific knowledge has moved elsewhere, and the meaning of the elements has changed. From the viewpoint of current architectural discourse, the elements are no longer categories that organize the phenomena of the world. Rather, I would argue, they evoke the limits of architecture, the difficult zone of transition between what is architecture and what is not. This makes them fruitful concepts, at least from my point of view, because they help us to focus on the borderline between what is fabricated and what is not – in other words, the relation between the human and the non-human.

Seen from this viewpoint, the discussion of architecture and the elements is a way to approach new paths. In particular, I consider the choice of these terms an alternative to the mainstream of architectural discourse, which relies on binary models such as city versus landscape,

8

Manolo Laguillo, Diagonal, MACBA Collection, 1988-1989

9

Limits to Architecture: Between the Human and the Non-Human Philip Ursprung Again, the air in the realm of culture is thick with heavy words. “Fundamentals” is the topic chosen by Rem Koolhaas for the 2014 Architecture Biennale, and Gravity was among the most successful films in the autumn 2013-spring 2014 season. How can we explain this cultural trend towards the essential, the basic, the roots? Is the call for solidity in art, architecture and film a reaction to the disintegration of the welfare state and the rising inequality between social classes? Is the interest in the primordial in the realm of visual culture an echo of the political shift to the right? Can we link the trend towards fundamentals in academe and culture to the rise of political fundamentalism?

Of course, architecture is never completely independent of economic and political trends.

However, I would argue that the two phenomena are not related. Certainly, the work of Martin Heidegger, for decades ousted because of his sympathies with National Socialism, is back on the reading lists. But so are the texts of Karl Marx and, more recently, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014), a study of the inequality of the distribution of wealth.

Certainly there is interest in a mutual basis, a common ground – this was the theme of the Architecture Biennale in 2012 – but there is also a big appetite for critical dissent, for manifestos and revolutionary pamphlets.

Peter Zumthor’s thermal baths in Vals (1996), with their spectacular emphasis on the elements, mainly water, stone and air, may still be a key reference for essentialism in architectural discourse, almost twenty years after their completion. But in the light of the controversy about land use in the Alps, subsidies from the Swiss Federal Government and the role of the tourism industry, this project is also seen as a radical political statement and an instrument that helps a remote commune to survive economically and shape its own future. Architecture practices in southern Europe are shutting down, and young professionals have no choice but to move to the busy construction sites elsewhere around the globe. They have every reason to feel bitter and look back in nostalgia. Yet the atmosphere in the field of architecture seems to be optimistic and speculative. In other words, the reactionary move in politics has not led to a rappel à l’ordre in architecture.

So, how should we interpret the renewed interest in the issue of the essential? And essentials are, of course, also the concepts of the elements: earth, air, fire and water.1 The definition of these essentials goes back to the sixth century BC. At that time, these categories enabled humans to make sense of the world and imagine an inner logic that went beyond mythology.

Since Antiquity, and particularly since the Enlightenment, scientific knowledge has moved elsewhere, and the meaning of the elements has changed. From the viewpoint of current architectural discourse, the elements are no longer categories that organize the phenomena of the world. Rather, I would argue, they evoke the limits of architecture, the difficult zone of transition between what is architecture and what is not. This makes them fruitful concepts, at least from my point of view, because they help us to focus on the borderline between what is fabricated and what is not – in other words, the relation between the human and the non-human.

Seen from this viewpoint, the discussion of architecture and the elements is a way to approach new paths. In particular, I consider the choice of these terms an alternative to the mainstream of architectural discourse, which relies on binary models such as city versus landscape,

8

Manolo Laguillo, Diagonal, MACBA Collection, 1988-1989

9

Earth

39 Earth

52 Earth and Mountains

Josep Lluís Mateo

Michael Jakob

“The earth is our support, our base – the root that will, eventually, allow us to fly.”

“There is always a system, and you cannot understand one element – the mount – without its ‘other’, the hole.”

42 Field Work 44 Cave 46 Ruins

58 Can Tacó

Toni Gironès “The new platforms intervene in a minimal way as backfill to the Roman relics, serving to improve the content (the space) and highlight the container (the walls).”

48 The Origin of the Work of Art

Martin Heidegger 50 On Foundations

Agustí Obiol Michael Heizer, Double Negative, 1969 Moapa Valley on Mormon Mesa, Nevada Photo: Gianfranco Gorgoni

“In return for our demands, the site requires us to meet its own physical and mechanical laws.”

Earth

39

Earth

39 Earth

52 Earth and Mountains

Josep Lluís Mateo

Michael Jakob

“The earth is our support, our base – the root that will, eventually, allow us to fly.”

“There is always a system, and you cannot understand one element – the mount – without its ‘other’, the hole.”

42 Field Work 44 Cave 46 Ruins

58 Can Tacó

Toni Gironès “The new platforms intervene in a minimal way as backfill to the Roman relics, serving to improve the content (the space) and highlight the container (the walls).”

48 The Origin of the Work of Art

Martin Heidegger 50 On Foundations

Agustí Obiol Michael Heizer, Double Negative, 1969 Moapa Valley on Mormon Mesa, Nevada Photo: Gianfranco Gorgoni

“In return for our demands, the site requires us to meet its own physical and mechanical laws.”

Earth

39

Cave The most obvious yet hardest to believe is pure excavation as a way of generating space: building a cave.

Accessibility, technology and breathing as issues to be addressed in this pantheistic fusion of architecture and rocks.

Gabriel Wulf

46

Earth

47

Cave The most obvious yet hardest to believe is pure excavation as a way of generating space: building a cave.

Accessibility, technology and breathing as issues to be addressed in this pantheistic fusion of architecture and rocks.

Gabriel Wulf

46

Earth

47

Water 39 Water

58 Water and Landscape

Josep Lluís Mateo

Günther Vogt

“Formless. Colourless. Tasteless.

– Necessary to life.”

“Water today is super politicised; it is the gold of the future.”

42 Palafitic 44 Surrealism 46 Bunkers

58 Piscinas do Atlântico

Paulo David “Working in a space as sensitive as this, the project reconstructs part of this telluric seascape.”

48 Bunker Archeology

Paul Virilio

58 Termas Geométricas

50 Postscriptum: Virilio and the Elements

Germán del Sol

Richard Scoffier

“The constant movement of water and fire that always change, but go nowhere, appears in all its natural splendour, seducing everyone into a calm spirit.”

“It was caves, those hostile spaces dug into the ground, that provided effective refuge for the victims of a totally deregulated world.”

50 Panta Rhei and Plato’s Revenge

Michael Hampe “If you cut this building into two parts, you do not get two buildings; you get a broken building.

Conversely, if you cut water, you get water.”

52 On Roofs

Marcel Meili

Eva Afuhs, Wasser I (‘Water I’), photographic study, 1994-1998

“The roof is an integrative element, where things are summarised as an aggregate. In contemporary terms, this means seeing the project as a ship that can contain the whole world.”

Water

69

Water 39 Water

58 Water and Landscape

Josep Lluís Mateo

Günther Vogt

“Formless. Colourless. Tasteless.

– Necessary to life.”

“Water today is super politicised; it is the gold of the future.”

42 Palafitic 44 Surrealism 46 Bunkers

58 Piscinas do Atlântico

Paulo David “Working in a space as sensitive as this, the project reconstructs part of this telluric seascape.”

48 Bunker Archeology

Paul Virilio

58 Termas Geométricas

50 Postscriptum: Virilio and the Elements

Germán del Sol

Richard Scoffier

“The constant movement of water and fire that always change, but go nowhere, appears in all its natural splendour, seducing everyone into a calm spirit.”

“It was caves, those hostile spaces dug into the ground, that provided effective refuge for the victims of a totally deregulated world.”

50 Panta Rhei and Plato’s Revenge

Michael Hampe “If you cut this building into two parts, you do not get two buildings; you get a broken building.

Conversely, if you cut water, you get water.”

52 On Roofs

Marcel Meili

Eva Afuhs, Wasser I (‘Water I’), photographic study, 1994-1998

“The roof is an integrative element, where things are summarised as an aggregate. In contemporary terms, this means seeing the project as a ship that can contain the whole world.”

Water

69

Water and Landscape Günther Vogt Interview with Anna Hotz

GV

First of all, I think we have to recognise that architecture and landscape architecture always deal with culture. This means that we only see what we know. Without knowledge, you cannot perceive or value the landscape. In this way, architecture and landscape are similar. Here, of course, we are referring to culture and to specific cultures, which is particularly apparent in Switzerland, in the Alpine region, where there are different types of architecture and landscape. The Wallis canton has spread-out villages, built on the slopes of the landscape, and it becomes more and more specific the higher up you go.

Perhaps because we live mainly out of the water, it is regarded as the real natural element. As of its perception, we always see people looking at, feeling, touching water; it is a global sign of nature. The water in Engadin is very special, mostly because it completely changes from winter to summer. In summer, you have a regular landscape of small lakes – quite a Romantic landscape, which the English loved for its picture-postcard appeal. Then, in winter, the lakes are large, everything is white and almost like an urban plaza, because you can walk on the frozen lakes, like Jesus.

In practical terms, we first of all try to deal with rainwater, making sure that rather than disappearing into the sewerage system, it returns to the landscape, not just for irrigation, but to the ground, for the processes of the landscape’s natural system. In the urban situation, we try not to waste water. Nowadays, water is privatised, and the younger generation carries around water in their rucksacks; they pay for it, which changes it in a political sense. We always try to make water available for free, because you can survive for some weeks without eating but not without drinking. In this sense, water today is super politicised; it is the gold of the future. It is already apparent that energy and oil crises are not such big issues – the real problem will be water. For instance, in the Middle East they have oil, so they have the energy to desalinise seawater, which means it is less of a problem. But it will be increasingly problematic, especially in countries like Switzerland, which is known as the water castle of Europe; even here, in the recent past there have been problems providing enough drinking water. The knowledge that we are running out of water is more pressing in Middle European countries such as Germany and Switzerland. I don’t know why it is a significant problem – we transport drinking water across the oceans, packed in huge bags; California buys water from Canada.

Everyone can see it, but somehow it’s not up for discussion.

In the cities of the past, fire was the most dangerous element, but now water is much more dangerous because of problems of floods and

96

Lake of Silvaplana in summer and winter time Photos: Cecilia Obiol

Water

97

Water and Landscape Günther Vogt Interview with Anna Hotz

GV

First of all, I think we have to recognise that architecture and landscape architecture always deal with culture. This means that we only see what we know. Without knowledge, you cannot perceive or value the landscape. In this way, architecture and landscape are similar. Here, of course, we are referring to culture and to specific cultures, which is particularly apparent in Switzerland, in the Alpine region, where there are different types of architecture and landscape. The Wallis canton has spread-out villages, built on the slopes of the landscape, and it becomes more and more specific the higher up you go.

Perhaps because we live mainly out of the water, it is regarded as the real natural element. As of its perception, we always see people looking at, feeling, touching water; it is a global sign of nature. The water in Engadin is very special, mostly because it completely changes from winter to summer. In summer, you have a regular landscape of small lakes – quite a Romantic landscape, which the English loved for its picture-postcard appeal. Then, in winter, the lakes are large, everything is white and almost like an urban plaza, because you can walk on the frozen lakes, like Jesus.

In practical terms, we first of all try to deal with rainwater, making sure that rather than disappearing into the sewerage system, it returns to the landscape, not just for irrigation, but to the ground, for the processes of the landscape’s natural system. In the urban situation, we try not to waste water. Nowadays, water is privatised, and the younger generation carries around water in their rucksacks; they pay for it, which changes it in a political sense. We always try to make water available for free, because you can survive for some weeks without eating but not without drinking. In this sense, water today is super politicised; it is the gold of the future. It is already apparent that energy and oil crises are not such big issues – the real problem will be water. For instance, in the Middle East they have oil, so they have the energy to desalinise seawater, which means it is less of a problem. But it will be increasingly problematic, especially in countries like Switzerland, which is known as the water castle of Europe; even here, in the recent past there have been problems providing enough drinking water. The knowledge that we are running out of water is more pressing in Middle European countries such as Germany and Switzerland. I don’t know why it is a significant problem – we transport drinking water across the oceans, packed in huge bags; California buys water from Canada.

Everyone can see it, but somehow it’s not up for discussion.

In the cities of the past, fire was the most dangerous element, but now water is much more dangerous because of problems of floods and

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Lake of Silvaplana in summer and winter time Photos: Cecilia Obiol

Water

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Piscinas do Atl창ntico Paulo David Atlantic Swimming Pools and Salinas Promenade C창mara de Lobos, Madeira 2004

Solarium with retaining wall harboring all seafront facilities Photo: Pedro Kok

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Water

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Piscinas do Atl창ntico Paulo David Atlantic Swimming Pools and Salinas Promenade C창mara de Lobos, Madeira 2004

Solarium with retaining wall harboring all seafront facilities Photo: Pedro Kok

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Water

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Air

39 Air

52 On Ventilation

Josep Lluís Mateo

Jan Carmeliet

“If architecture is, ultimately, solid, here we have to interact explicitly with the gassy, kinetic conditions of the medium.”

“Ventilation prevents excessive humidity and is a primary measure against mould growth and surface condensation.”

42 Painting with Air 44 Castles and Rocks 46 Platonic Solids and Archetypes

58 Thermodynamic Materialism

Iñaki Ábalos “A decisive moment came when, a long time ago, the architect became a professional detached from physical construction.”

48 Universal Architecture

Richard Buckminster Fuller

58 Blur Building

50 Postscriptum: Fuller and the Elements

Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio

Claude Lichtenstein

“Blur is an architecture of atmosphere – a fog mass resulting from natural and man-made forces.”

“As Fuller saw it, air was the characteristic element of modernism, though not air alone: air interacting and in combination with economically applied matter.”

50 Weather, Clouds and Aerosols

Heini Wernli J. M. W. Turner, Sun Setting over a Lake, ca. 1840

“Air not only consists of gases; it also contains tiny invisible particles called aerosols.”

Air

117

Air

39 Air

52 On Ventilation

Josep Lluís Mateo

Jan Carmeliet

“If architecture is, ultimately, solid, here we have to interact explicitly with the gassy, kinetic conditions of the medium.”

“Ventilation prevents excessive humidity and is a primary measure against mould growth and surface condensation.”

42 Painting with Air 44 Castles and Rocks 46 Platonic Solids and Archetypes

58 Thermodynamic Materialism

Iñaki Ábalos “A decisive moment came when, a long time ago, the architect became a professional detached from physical construction.”

48 Universal Architecture

Richard Buckminster Fuller

58 Blur Building

50 Postscriptum: Fuller and the Elements

Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio

Claude Lichtenstein

“Blur is an architecture of atmosphere – a fog mass resulting from natural and man-made forces.”

“As Fuller saw it, air was the characteristic element of modernism, though not air alone: air interacting and in combination with economically applied matter.”

50 Weather, Clouds and Aerosols

Heini Wernli J. M. W. Turner, Sun Setting over a Lake, ca. 1840

“Air not only consists of gases; it also contains tiny invisible particles called aerosols.”

Air

117

Platonic Solids and Archetypes At the limit, archetypes appear. The sheltering tent of the nomad, its textile origin recalled in modern times by Buckminster Fuller (1) and the Platonic solid, the sphere, the ideal recipient for fluids with constant pressure both on and from its exterior (2).

The tent as a light, transportable structure that supports a skin. Cables that are anchored by points to the ground, like the pegs that support the climber.

The sphere levitating, shining in space, a technical – that is, abstract, form. A geometry of limits to which all Platonic solids tend.

(1) Lena Schneider

(2) Benjamin Pannatier

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Air

127

Platonic Solids and Archetypes At the limit, archetypes appear. The sheltering tent of the nomad, its textile origin recalled in modern times by Buckminster Fuller (1) and the Platonic solid, the sphere, the ideal recipient for fluids with constant pressure both on and from its exterior (2).

The tent as a light, transportable structure that supports a skin. Cables that are anchored by points to the ground, like the pegs that support the climber.

The sphere levitating, shining in space, a technical – that is, abstract, form. A geometry of limits to which all Platonic solids tend.

(1) Lena Schneider

(2) Benjamin Pannatier

126

Air

127

Fire

“It is the thunderbolt that steers the course of all things.”

Heraclitus, Fragment 64 (transl. John Burnet) that was also attached to the door of Martin Heidegger’s Hut in Todnauberg

39 Fire

50 On Energy

Josep Lluís Mateo

Wilfried Wang

“Out of a river of fire, all manner of shapes later materialize and solidify.”

“In so-called primitive times, when energy was not easily available, people had to devise ways of using a minimal amount of material to try to capture and stabilise the energy from climatic variables.”

50 Journey into the Fire

Chasper Schmidlin “The boat bore the name Eraclide. It made us think of the philosopher’s doctrine, according to which fire was the reason for the existence of all things; a fire which, like the sun, continually rejuvenates and dies.”

52 Fire and Light

Stan Allen “Without light, there is no definition of form.

Light itself has many forms, and it is the infinite malleability of light that is so extraordinary.”

42 Danger and Debility 44 Sublime and Picturesque 46 Infrastructure

58 Bruder Klaus

Peter Zumthor “With time, the design became clear and elemental: light and shadow, water and fire, matter and transcendence; below, the earth, above, the open sky.”

44 Strombolicchio 46 Lava 48 Across the Land and the Water

W. G. Sebald 50 Light and Heat

Manfred Sigrist Walter de Maria, Ligthning Field, 1977 Catron County, New Mexico commissioned by the Dia Center for the Arts

“For natural scientists, fire is the release of stored chemical energy in two ways: one is light, the other heat.”

Fire

155

Fire

“It is the thunderbolt that steers the course of all things.”

Heraclitus, Fragment 64 (transl. John Burnet) that was also attached to the door of Martin Heidegger’s Hut in Todnauberg

39 Fire

50 On Energy

Josep Lluís Mateo

Wilfried Wang

“Out of a river of fire, all manner of shapes later materialize and solidify.”

“In so-called primitive times, when energy was not easily available, people had to devise ways of using a minimal amount of material to try to capture and stabilise the energy from climatic variables.”

50 Journey into the Fire

Chasper Schmidlin “The boat bore the name Eraclide. It made us think of the philosopher’s doctrine, according to which fire was the reason for the existence of all things; a fire which, like the sun, continually rejuvenates and dies.”

52 Fire and Light

Stan Allen “Without light, there is no definition of form.

Light itself has many forms, and it is the infinite malleability of light that is so extraordinary.”

42 Danger and Debility 44 Sublime and Picturesque 46 Infrastructure

58 Bruder Klaus

Peter Zumthor “With time, the design became clear and elemental: light and shadow, water and fire, matter and transcendence; below, the earth, above, the open sky.”

44 Strombolicchio 46 Lava 48 Across the Land and the Water

W. G. Sebald 50 Light and Heat

Manfred Sigrist Walter de Maria, Ligthning Field, 1977 Catron County, New Mexico commissioned by the Dia Center for the Arts

“For natural scientists, fire is the release of stored chemical energy in two ways: one is light, the other heat.”

Fire

155

He hisses, puffs, snorts and gurgles: Stromboli is a very active being – and its ascent not for the faint-hearted. The conquest of this ‘Lighthouse of Antiquity’ takes about four hours. In the afternoon, we set out. In the narrow streets of the village, lined by simple white cubic houses, everyone greets everyone, because everyone knows everyone. Multi-coloured flowers and lemon trees light up the palm gardens with yellow and orange hues. From down here, the volcano looks quite harmless. Left, past the church, we continue on a paved winding path and then stomp through a dusty ravine. The first few hundred metres, we are surrounded by tall bamboo. We can no longer see the volcano, but we can still hear and smell it. Above the vegetation line, the path steeply climbs the hill’s edge. The volcano greets us with cool air and a more intense smell of fire. The higher we climb, the more glorious the view back towards the village and the sea; a view over flowering gorse and cistus on the steep lava flanks. At sunset, we reach Hell’s Theatre lodge, close to the peak. The last few metres lead over bare, grey ash fields. One can perceive white fumes, dust and an ever intensifying hiss. The dull thunder of the eruptions sounds threatening; the smell of sulphur is intense. Finally, we emerge into a natural spectacle with the sun, the sound and reflection of the blue sea, the coloured clouds and the sparkling fire, this elemental force and the protagonist of the place.

162

The sun burns. The clouds reflect its light in the sky. Flaming colours match its rays; they stretch out to the horizon until the horizon engulfs the shining disc. The red fire of the volcano grows more intense as the sun descends, its glowing beauty more visible in the gathering darkness. Red and yellow like the unquenchable force of the earth, the volcano spits and smokes with rhythmic motion, the lava that is thrown up landing just in front of us. Large fire fountains shoot out of the crater at fifteen minute intervals, the lava brimming over its rim. Dark by now, the stars shine above us, while the hardened lava rock on which we sit is pleasantly warm. Every few minutes, a further eruption quenches our thirst for this ember rain. We wrestle with words, so powerful is the spectacle before us. I realise that magma is the synthesis of everything. The fire of the sun appears in the fire of the volcano. The light of the fire is offset by the darkness of the night and sea. Eventually, the fire fountains calm down, the clouds of smoke dissipate and a wonderful silence returns. We take a different route back to the valley, one straight down a lava field towards the sea.

Fire

163

He hisses, puffs, snorts and gurgles: Stromboli is a very active being – and its ascent not for the faint-hearted. The conquest of this ‘Lighthouse of Antiquity’ takes about four hours. In the afternoon, we set out. In the narrow streets of the village, lined by simple white cubic houses, everyone greets everyone, because everyone knows everyone. Multi-coloured flowers and lemon trees light up the palm gardens with yellow and orange hues. From down here, the volcano looks quite harmless. Left, past the church, we continue on a paved winding path and then stomp through a dusty ravine. The first few hundred metres, we are surrounded by tall bamboo. We can no longer see the volcano, but we can still hear and smell it. Above the vegetation line, the path steeply climbs the hill’s edge. The volcano greets us with cool air and a more intense smell of fire. The higher we climb, the more glorious the view back towards the village and the sea; a view over flowering gorse and cistus on the steep lava flanks. At sunset, we reach Hell’s Theatre lodge, close to the peak. The last few metres lead over bare, grey ash fields. One can perceive white fumes, dust and an ever intensifying hiss. The dull thunder of the eruptions sounds threatening; the smell of sulphur is intense. Finally, we emerge into a natural spectacle with the sun, the sound and reflection of the blue sea, the coloured clouds and the sparkling fire, this elemental force and the protagonist of the place.

162

The sun burns. The clouds reflect its light in the sky. Flaming colours match its rays; they stretch out to the horizon until the horizon engulfs the shining disc. The red fire of the volcano grows more intense as the sun descends, its glowing beauty more visible in the gathering darkness. Red and yellow like the unquenchable force of the earth, the volcano spits and smokes with rhythmic motion, the lava that is thrown up landing just in front of us. Large fire fountains shoot out of the crater at fifteen minute intervals, the lava brimming over its rim. Dark by now, the stars shine above us, while the hardened lava rock on which we sit is pleasantly warm. Every few minutes, a further eruption quenches our thirst for this ember rain. We wrestle with words, so powerful is the spectacle before us. I realise that magma is the synthesis of everything. The fire of the sun appears in the fire of the volcano. The light of the fire is offset by the darkness of the night and sea. Eventually, the fire fountains calm down, the clouds of smoke dissipate and a wonderful silence returns. We take a different route back to the valley, one straight down a lava field towards the sea.

Fire

163

Identity and Modernity

At the present time of globalization, the identity-modernity dialectic reappears, though in a different way to how it was addressed in our recent past.

On the one hand we have the defence of the specific, the local, of landscapes that are perhaps not so diverse but, like the climate, permanently variable; sometimes remote cultures and histories that continue and develop.

Places, materials, hands and heads that work with them, physical and sensible experiences of space and forms.

Then we have a version of the modern as a synonym of abstraction, of the generic, of global products defined by internal logics, cast from outer space onto the surface of the earth, decorated to render them more palatable, generically too, by different versions of what was once called iconic architecture.

The articles published here set out to operate against this idea, by asserting either a voice that is specific, different and close at hand, or a phenomenological and not just abstract approach to the project and the work.

In today’s context of globalization, more and more are treading the paths that combine the active logics of change and the intelligence of modernity in dialectic with local logics that are dense, strong, and not necessarily picturesque.

Constructing a global culture that is at once fragmented and collective.

Bill Viola, Four Hands, black-and-white video polyptych on four LCD panel displays, 2001

192

Josep LluĂ­s Mateo Identity and Modernity

193

Identity and Modernity

At the present time of globalization, the identity-modernity dialectic reappears, though in a different way to how it was addressed in our recent past.

On the one hand we have the defence of the specific, the local, of landscapes that are perhaps not so diverse but, like the climate, permanently variable; sometimes remote cultures and histories that continue and develop.

Places, materials, hands and heads that work with them, physical and sensible experiences of space and forms.

Then we have a version of the modern as a synonym of abstraction, of the generic, of global products defined by internal logics, cast from outer space onto the surface of the earth, decorated to render them more palatable, generically too, by different versions of what was once called iconic architecture.

The articles published here set out to operate against this idea, by asserting either a voice that is specific, different and close at hand, or a phenomenological and not just abstract approach to the project and the work.

In today’s context of globalization, more and more are treading the paths that combine the active logics of change and the intelligence of modernity in dialectic with local logics that are dense, strong, and not necessarily picturesque.

Constructing a global culture that is at once fragmented and collective.

Bill Viola, Four Hands, black-and-white video polyptych on four LCD panel displays, 2001

192

Josep LluĂ­s Mateo Identity and Modernity

193

On Teaching

Chalk writing on blackboard (introduction lecture ‘Water’), Josep Lluís Mateo

Identity and Modernity

219

On Teaching

Chalk writing on blackboard (introduction lecture ‘Water’), Josep Lluís Mateo

Identity and Modernity

219

Editor Chair of Architecture and Design Prof.

Dr. Josep Lluís Mateo Editors-in-Charge Josep Lluís Mateo and Florian Sauter Team Soraya Barbero, Andrea Cavelti, Isabel Concheiro, Maria Güell, Anna Hotz, Till von Mackensen, Cecilia Obiol, Chasper Schmidlin, Ramias Steinemann Translations Elaine Fradley (Richard Scoffier) Ingvar Milnes (Marcel Meili, Claude Lichtenstein) Isabel Concheiro (Iñaki Ábalos) Florian Sauter (Peter Zumthor) Transcriptions James Yeo Proofreading Elaine Fradley Graphic design Folch Studio, Barcelona Creative direction in production Folch Studio, Barcelona Printed and bound in Barcelona Distribution

First published in 2014 by ACTAR-D, New York Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of images published herein. The publisher would appreciate being informed of any omissions in order to make due acknowledgement in future editions of this book.

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consensus of the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-940291-46-8

Participating students Earth Fall Term 2012 Agustoni Fabio; Arvinte Eugene; Bühler Yannick; Bühlmann Ole; Fuchs Corinne; Fuhrmann Jan; Gfeller Mathias; Holl Pierre-Jean; Käser Cenoz Nadine; Knecht Severin; Kretz David; Ladda Alexander; Lagler Caroline; Lieb Lara Maria; Lojero Ibarra Jose Alberto; Martinec Alexandra; Michel Daniel; von Moos Dominik; Müntener Claudia; Murer Lukas; Pennisi Fiammeta; Ramseier Isabel Andrea; Roos Stefan; Sanchez Rosales Cesar Alberto; Sarda Fuster-Fabra Alvaro; Stäheli Lena; Steffen Angela; Turnovski Christian; Vogler Jan; Weber Anina; Weiss Nathanael; Widmer Christina; Wulf Gabriel; Zellweger Florentin; Ziegler Melanie Water Spring Term 2013 Alhanko Christophe; Bachmann Georg; Bachmann Lorenz; Birchler Simon; Braun Sibylle; Brunner Marisa; Bucher Lucas; Bundi Dario; Crameri Valentino; De Giorgi Gino; Didisheim Sophie; Engel Roy; Genhart Pascal; Giger Christoph; Hasler Stefan; Jasarevic Kenan; Läser Nico; Linhoff Leif; Mistry Unnati; Neurohr Semian; Reichert Fionn; Renuka Makwana; Ruckstuhl Pascal; Schenker Rahel; Schillinger Caroline; Sigrist Marion; Stadlin Gabriel; Soukup Ondrej; Valsangiacomo Pablo; Vima Grau Sara; Wyss Niccolò; Zihlmann Jeannine Air Fall Term 2013 Bachmann Michael; Caccia Cosimo; Cattaneo Filippo; Cerfeda Melina; Collu Valentina Dohner Beatrice; del Don Fernando; Egge Svenja; Gerth Mirjam; Grabar Nina; Imfeld Melanie; Inauen Nicole; Kostezer Daniel; Kundig Romain; Kuonen Muriel; Lo Priore Serena; Maag Géraldine; Meuli Mauro; Nef Flavio; Neusch Jonas; Pannatier Benjamin; Pfaff Petra; Reif Andreas; Rippstein Christian; Rosset Quentin; Schiemann Robert; Schneider Lena; Schöttler Simon; Steiner Flurin; Toscano Nicola; Wanner Céline; Zalyesna Zoya; Zesiger Eva; Zugliani Cyrill; Zürcher Katrin Fire Spring Term 2014 Andronescu Daniela; Augugliaro Giulia; Barras Sarah; Chaillou Stanislas; Crepaz Manuel; Felder Andreas; Flühmann Hans; Häfliger Dimitri; Hendry Silvana; Iorno Martino; Jäger Jonas; Jain Neel; Krieg Tobias; Lopatka Piotr; Michel Simone; Miseri Jasmin; Oertel Anja; Ohnuma Yukari; Rechsteiner Andreas; Richter Jannik; Saruhan Selin; Signer Fabio; Singhvi Rini; Takamura Togo; Zahler AnnaKatharina; Zingg Christoph

Acknowledgements Earth Water Air Fire is the last issue of the Architectural Papers series edited by the Chair of Josep Lluís Mateo. We want to express our thanks to the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich for continuously supporting the project over the last 12 years. In this time-span we produced 9 printed publications and several digital issues with the aim to cover a wide range of topics related to teaching architecture and architectural culture in general. The discourse set out to critically discuss and reflect on the contemporary architectural condition – one informed by a new, digital wave of Globalization, a major economical crisis that strongly targeted the debate on iconicity, and a time of ever increasing attention being paid to questions of sustainability and identity. Having said that, this is also the place to thank Josep Lluís Mateo for his driving energy to uncover many yet hidden or neglected voices, giving them, but also many of us a platform to speak, if not at least to distance oneself temporarily from the material production of buildings and engage in the theoretical construction of a more analytical framework for these.

In that regard, the final thanks go to all the contributors, a proud list of builders and thinkers, and their willingness to share their time and knowledge with us.

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