Naïve Intention

PEZO VON ELLRICHSHAUSEN NAÏVE INTENTION

3

PROLOGUE Wiel Arets The ideas of Valéry, Jean-Luc Godard, Leonardo, Mies, and others, who could be included in this series, indicate a situation that can reappear in the ‘great works’ of architecture. It is these works that keep managing to become detached from the categories into which some people try to slot them; should this eventually happen, they would immediately vanish without trace. It is the ‘great thoughts’ that are important, in which a choice, as an alternative to a hard and fast rule, as expression of individual subconsciousness can be deemed of great importance, whereby death in this way of thinking is seen as a myth.

–Wiel Arets, An Architecture of Freedom

Architects who write about their production and do so by explicitly placing their thinking in a framework by validating their position within a value system as “comparative judgment” are scarce within “the Americas.” It is therefore interesting how Pezo von Ellrichshausen tries to frame their production as an artist and architect using the title “Naïve Intention.” The title is rarely the starting point of a search; it is usually the pointé of an argument and describes the desire to express a vision critically.

It is the title of books and films that have a big impact on the discourse; it is the silent witness of a process that has taken place. I remember very well that during the visit to Concepción in Chile, where their studio, or maybe a workshop or atelier, is located, that I had the impression of being in a world that I could not yet place. We could say that we only need words to be able to express ourselves, to describe. In that sense, I could summarize that moment as a feeling of being a stranger who thinks, sees, hears, smells, and finds that he is taking in very much at that moment; it is a learning moment that Paul Valéry described as the importance of combinatorial ability. It was a unique moment in which I was given the opportunity to look into the kitchen of an author whose scenography called memories of me at moments I would like to describe as artefacts of what later

PEZO VON ELLRICHSHAUSEN NAÏVE INTENTION

3

PROLOGUE Wiel Arets The ideas of Valéry, Jean-Luc Godard, Leonardo, Mies, and others, who could be included in this series, indicate a situation that can reappear in the ‘great works’ of architecture. It is these works that keep managing to become detached from the categories into which some people try to slot them; should this eventually happen, they would immediately vanish without trace. It is the ‘great thoughts’ that are important, in which a choice, as an alternative to a hard and fast rule, as expression of individual subconsciousness can be deemed of great importance, whereby death in this way of thinking is seen as a myth.

–Wiel Arets, An Architecture of Freedom

Architects who write about their production and do so by explicitly placing their thinking in a framework by validating their position within a value system as “comparative judgment” are scarce within “the Americas.” It is therefore interesting how Pezo von Ellrichshausen tries to frame their production as an artist and architect using the title “Naïve Intention.” The title is rarely the starting point of a search; it is usually the pointé of an argument and describes the desire to express a vision critically.

It is the title of books and films that have a big impact on the discourse; it is the silent witness of a process that has taken place. I remember very well that during the visit to Concepción in Chile, where their studio, or maybe a workshop or atelier, is located, that I had the impression of being in a world that I could not yet place. We could say that we only need words to be able to express ourselves, to describe. In that sense, I could summarize that moment as a feeling of being a stranger who thinks, sees, hears, smells, and finds that he is taking in very much at that moment; it is a learning moment that Paul Valéry described as the importance of combinatorial ability. It was a unique moment in which I was given the opportunity to look into the kitchen of an author whose scenography called memories of me at moments I would like to describe as artefacts of what later

3

PROLOGUE Wiel Arets The ideas of Valéry, Jean-Luc Godard, Leonardo, Mies, and others, who could be included in this series, indicate a situation that can reappear in the ‘great works’ of architecture. It is these works that keep managing to become detached from the categories into which some people try to slot them; should this eventually happen, they would immediately vanish without trace. It is the ‘great thoughts’ that are important, in which a choice, as an alternative to a hard and fast rule, as expression of individual subconsciousness can be deemed of great importance, whereby death in this way of thinking is seen as a myth.

–Wiel Arets, An Architecture of Freedom

Architects who write about their production and do so by explicitly placing their thinking in a framework by validating their position within a value system as “comparative judgment” are scarce within “the Americas.” It is therefore interesting how Pezo von Ellrichshausen tries to frame their production as an artist and architect using the title “Naïve Intention.” The title is rarely the starting point of a search; it is usually the pointé of an argument and describes the desire to express a vision critically.

It is the title of books and films that have a big impact on the discourse; it is the silent witness of a process that has taken place. I remember very well that during the visit to Concepción in Chile, where their studio, or maybe a workshop or atelier, is located, that I had the impression of being in a world that I could not yet place. We could say that we only need words to be able to express ourselves, to describe. In that sense, I could summarize that moment as a feeling of being a stranger who thinks, sees, hears, smells, and finds that he is taking in very much at that moment; it is a learning moment that Paul Valéry described as the importance of combinatorial ability. It was a unique moment in which I was given the opportunity to look into the kitchen of an author whose scenography called memories of me at moments I would like to describe as artefacts of what later

4

proved to be part of the works that I would visit that day. The house on the cliff, at the Coliumo peninsula, in the vicinity of which, the tsunami still left its tracks. The birds accompanying us during the route made meandering through the façade, ultimately on the roof like a platform, like bühne, to smell the sea and move the wind to hear the birds flying over the calm waves of the sea behave. The weathered whiteness of the concrete house, closed by shutters when we left at sunset, and at last eye contact with the sculptural volume, leaving a seemingly abandoned impression, a memory I will never forget. A place where the author writes and works in isolation, a place that he would like to make available to allies. Reminders were summoned to the scanty moments that I could share with Dom van de Laan in Mamelis during my study time, when staying for several days living the rhythm of his life. It was during a walk through their city, with their explanation, obsessed with a built environment, through a culture that made my connections closer to the house, the studio, the workshop, the atelier, the archive, the gallery. A walk through the university’s outer space with, in the distance, higher on a mountain, the contours of the architect’s house.

Here the wealth of the author and the authorship was apparently cherished, and the young architects and artists who work in their studio are part of this world. Preparing a product, the research that precedes it, is a view in which they bring students, young architects, and artists into their search in S. R. Crown Hall. Here, after the MCHAP.emerge was awarded to them, they created a quirky production, where nothing was left to chance.

This publication does not distinguish hierarchy between the work they produce in an academic setting, and the work they make as an architect or as an artist. They show this production and confront us with their choice; it is the order in which they determine which works are entrusted to the paper.

5

NAÏVE INTENTION Pezo von Ellrichshausen I remember only a day that perhaps was never intended for me.

—Pablo Neruda, Furies and Sorrows (Residence on Earth)

Since we devote our time to the production of both art and architecture, our personal understanding of what a practice should be is not only temporal and instrumentally divided but also reciprocally relative. We always tend to find a comparative judgment for what we do in architecture in reference to what we believe for art and vice versa. We do not know if this might be a natural form of compensation or just a fairly healthy escape so as to be able to read the resulting work from a more distant foreign terrain.

Grounded on what we could provisionally defend as a tacit knowledge based on practice, we do not only believe that there is no possible work of art without an institutionalized system that validates it but also that only a small percentage of that work has the real scope to interrogate the very institution that defines it. Here we are assuming a gentle but fictitious suspension of our faith in the individuality of built architecture in order to elaborate a possible figure for an archetypical work; a work that exceeds its own institutional frame to become a sheer manmade production, the very outcome of human will.

Every time we hear an artist or an architect describing a specific work we try to invert the labels and see how much of those artistic or architectonic ideas could be directly transferred into the other field. A deep gap can certainly be acknowledged in this magnetic duplicity. There seems to be no symmetry in any bidirectional translation. It is indeed easier

4

proved to be part of the works that I would visit that day. The house on the cliff, at the Coliumo peninsula, in the vicinity of which, the tsunami still left its tracks. The birds accompanying us during the route made meandering through the façade, ultimately on the roof like a platform, like bühne, to smell the sea and move the wind to hear the birds flying over the calm waves of the sea behave. The weathered whiteness of the concrete house, closed by shutters when we left at sunset, and at last eye contact with the sculptural volume, leaving a seemingly abandoned impression, a memory I will never forget. A place where the author writes and works in isolation, a place that he would like to make available to allies. Reminders were summoned to the scanty moments that I could share with Dom van de Laan in Mamelis during my study time, when staying for several days living the rhythm of his life. It was during a walk through their city, with their explanation, obsessed with a built environment, through a culture that made my connections closer to the house, the studio, the workshop, the atelier, the archive, the gallery. A walk through the university’s outer space with, in the distance, higher on a mountain, the contours of the architect’s house.

Here the wealth of the author and the authorship was apparently cherished, and the young architects and artists who work in their studio are part of this world. Preparing a product, the research that precedes it, is a view in which they bring students, young architects, and artists into their search in S. R. Crown Hall. Here, after the MCHAP.emerge was awarded to them, they created a quirky production, where nothing was left to chance.

This publication does not distinguish hierarchy between the work they produce in an academic setting, and the work they make as an architect or as an artist. They show this production and confront us with their choice; it is the order in which they determine which works are entrusted to the paper.

5

NAÏVE INTENTION Pezo von Ellrichshausen I remember only a day that perhaps was never intended for me.

—Pablo Neruda, Furies and Sorrows (Residence on Earth)

Since we devote our time to the production of both art and architecture, our personal understanding of what a practice should be is not only temporal and instrumentally divided but also reciprocally relative. We always tend to find a comparative judgment for what we do in architecture in reference to what we believe for art and vice versa. We do not know if this might be a natural form of compensation or just a fairly healthy escape so as to be able to read the resulting work from a more distant foreign terrain.

Grounded on what we could provisionally defend as a tacit knowledge based on practice, we do not only believe that there is no possible work of art without an institutionalized system that validates it but also that only a small percentage of that work has the real scope to interrogate the very institution that defines it. Here we are assuming a gentle but fictitious suspension of our faith in the individuality of built architecture in order to elaborate a possible figure for an archetypical work; a work that exceeds its own institutional frame to become a sheer manmade production, the very outcome of human will.

Every time we hear an artist or an architect describing a specific work we try to invert the labels and see how much of those artistic or architectonic ideas could be directly transferred into the other field. A deep gap can certainly be acknowledged in this magnetic duplicity. There seems to be no symmetry in any bidirectional translation. It is indeed easier

Exterior series, 2016.

Acrylic on paper, 22.8 × 30.5 cm cm each (selection).

Bullring, Osorno, Chile, 2002.

Digital print, 60 × 80 cm, edition of 3.

III

IV

Exterior series, 2016.

Acrylic on paper, 22.8 × 30.5 cm cm each (selection).

Bullring, Osorno, Chile, 2002.

Digital print, 60 × 80 cm, edition of 3.

III

IV

Cent Pavilion, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago, USA, 2014-.

Landscape perspective, oil on canvas, 182 × 182 cm, 2015.

Cent Pavilion, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago, USA, 2014-.

Axonometric, pencil on paper, 22.8 × 30.5 cm, 2015.

IX

X

Cent Pavilion, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago, USA, 2014-.

Landscape perspective, oil on canvas, 182 × 182 cm, 2015.

Cent Pavilion, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago, USA, 2014-.

Axonometric, pencil on paper, 22.8 × 30.5 cm, 2015.

IX

X

Marble Wonder 1, IIT College of Architecture, Chicago, USA, Spring Semester 2015.

Inventory of 200 Chicagoan Two Flat building type (detail of 49 cases), 1:200 scale model, painted cardboard, 3 × 5 × 10 cm each.

72811101422 (Out of Circulation series), 2010.

Torn bill on paper, 30 × 40 cm (detail).

XIII

XIV

Marble Wonder 1, IIT College of Architecture, Chicago, USA, Spring Semester 2015.

Inventory of 200 Chicagoan Two Flat building type (detail of 49 cases), 1:200 scale model, painted cardboard, 3 × 5 × 10 cm each.

72811101422 (Out of Circulation series), 2010.

Torn bill on paper, 30 × 40 cm (detail).

XIII

XIV

Poli House, Coliumo Peninsula (Tomé), Chile, 2003-2005.

Façade detail, October 2015.

Poli House, Coliumo Peninsula (Tomé), Chile, 2003-2005.

Eighty Nine Ninety Nine exhibition; 1:20 scale model, plaster and glass, 50 × 50 × 50 cm, 2005.

XV

XVI

Poli House, Coliumo Peninsula (Tomé), Chile, 2003-2005.

Façade detail, October 2015.

Poli House, Coliumo Peninsula (Tomé), Chile, 2003-2005.

Eighty Nine Ninety Nine exhibition; 1:20 scale model, plaster and glass, 50 × 50 × 50 cm, 2005.

XV

XVI

43112150954 (Interior series no 91), 2015.

Oil on canvas, 30 Ă— 30 cm (detail).

Vara Pavilion, 15th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2016.

South exterior detail, June 2016.

XVII

XVIII

43112150954 (Interior series no 91), 2015.

Oil on canvas, 30 Ă— 30 cm (detail).

Vara Pavilion, 15th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2016.

South exterior detail, June 2016.

XVII

XVIII

Bell Pavilion, A Room for Animitas video by Christian Boltanski, Musée MAC-VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine, Paris, France, 2016-2017.

1:20 scale model, clay, 20 × 25 × 15 cm, 2016.

Romon, Rome, Italy, November 2013.

Cedar, 15 pieces, dimensions variable, installation at various locations (selection of 16 cases).

LXVII

LXVIII

Bell Pavilion, A Room for Animitas video by Christian Boltanski, Musée MAC-VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine, Paris, France, 2016-2017.

1:20 scale model, clay, 20 × 25 × 15 cm, 2016.

Romon, Rome, Italy, November 2013.

Cedar, 15 pieces, dimensions variable, installation at various locations (selection of 16 cases).

LXVII

LXVIII

Blue Pavilion, Sensing Spaces exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 2014.

Installation view of Gallery 3.

Blue Pavilion, Sensing Spaces exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 2014.

Detail view of attic room.

CXI

CXII

Blue Pavilion, Sensing Spaces exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 2014.

Installation view of Gallery 3.

Blue Pavilion, Sensing Spaces exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 2014.

Detail view of attic room.

CXI

CXII

Lamp Museum, Meissner-Prim Foundation, Concepción, Chile, 2010.

Landscape perspective, oil on canvas, 30 × 30 cm (detail), 2012.

Lamp Museum, Meissner-Prim Foundation, Concepción, Chile, 2010.

1:50 scale model, painted wood, 40 × 40 × 50 cm, 2012.

CXLV

CXLVI

Lamp Museum, Meissner-Prim Foundation, Concepción, Chile, 2010.

Landscape perspective, oil on canvas, 30 × 30 cm (detail), 2012.

Lamp Museum, Meissner-Prim Foundation, Concepción, Chile, 2010.

1:50 scale model, painted wood, 40 × 40 × 50 cm, 2012.

CXLV

CXLVI

Cien House, Concepciรณn, Chile, 2009-2011.

Landscape view, September 2013.

Cien House, Concepciรณn, Chile, 2009-2011.

Second floor staircase detail, August 2015.

CLVII

CLVIII

Cien House, Concepciรณn, Chile, 2009-2011.

Landscape view, September 2013.

Cien House, Concepciรณn, Chile, 2009-2011.

Second floor staircase detail, August 2015.

CLVII

CLVIII

70307161321 (Reciprocal Portrait P), 2016.

Erased pencil on paper, 75 Ă— 100 cm.

70307161322 (Reciprocal Portrait S), 2016.

Erased pencil on paper, 75 Ă— 100 cm.

CLIX

CLX

70307161321 (Reciprocal Portrait P), 2016.

Erased pencil on paper, 75 Ă— 100 cm.

70307161322 (Reciprocal Portrait S), 2016.

Erased pencil on paper, 75 Ă— 100 cm.

CLIX

CLX

This publication is an initiative of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture and its affiliated Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP). This award was launched by Wiel Arets, the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture Dean and Rowe Family College of Architecture Dean Endowed Chair, on 13 March 2013, as one of his first initiatives as Dean. The inaugural MCHAP jury was chaired by Kenneth Frampton and included Jorge Francisco Liernur, Dominique Perrault, Sarah Whiting, and Wiel Arets.

This book is the result of the first MCHAP for Emerging Architects, which was awarded to the firm Pezo von Ellrichshausen for their Poli House. The content of Naïve Intention was developed by Mauricio Pezo and Sofía von Ellrichshausen in various institutions and underwent regular revision as guest professors of the IIT College of Architecture. Part of the program was exhibited in a lecture given in the S. R. Crown Hall on 17 December 2014.

The President of MCHAP would like to thank all those who made this program and publication possible: IIT, CoA, the City of Chicago, and the firms and individuals that generously support the initiative, including CCA Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Alphawood Foundation, Kohler, and the Mies van der Rohe Society at Illinois Institute of Technology.

ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Wiel Arets, President of MCHAP and Rowe Family College of Architecture Dean Endowed Chair.

Dirk S. Denison, Director of MCHAP Lluís Ortega, IITAC Editor Vedran Mimica, Director of Research Sasha Zanko, MCHAP Coordinator Travis Rothe, Senior Designer

Published by IITAC Press College of Architecture 3360 South State Street Chicago, IL 60616-3793, USA Tel. (+1) 312 567 3230 www.arch.iit.edu Actar Publishers New York, Barcelona. www.actar.com Concept and text: Mauricio Pezo and Sofía von Ellrichshausen Design: Edwin van Gelder from Mainstudio Texts supervision: Moisés Puente Proofreading: Paul Hammond Images supervision: Ricardo Devesa, Marta Ariza All images are original works by Pezo von Ellrichshausen. The picture rights belong to their studio except: V, XI, XLII, LX, LXX, CXXV, and CXLIV: Cristóbal Palma; VI: Óscar Concha; XXXIII and XXXIV: Diana Quintela; and CXI: James Harris.

Distributed by Actar D, Inc. 440, Park Avenue South, 17th Floor New York, NY 10016 USA T. (+1) 2129662207 salesnewyork@actar-d.com www.actar-d.com Roca i Batlle, 2-4 08023 Barcelona, Spain T. (+34) 933 282 183 eurosales@actar-d.com © of the edition, ITTAC and Actar © of the texts, their authors © of the images, their authors All rights reserved Printed in the Netherlands ISBN 978-1-945150-47-0 PCN 2017939484 Printing: Unicum, Tilburg, the Netherlands A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., USA

Pezo von Ellrichshausen is an art and architecture studio founded in 2002

by Mauricio Pezo and Sofía von Ellrichshausen. They live and work in Concepción (Chile) and teach regularly at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Santiago) and at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago).

They were the curators of the Chilean Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Bienale in 2008 and their work was selected for the Venice Biennale in 2016.

Their works have been published in monographic issues of the magazines 2G (no 61, Barcelona, 2012) and a+u (no 513, Tokyo, 2013) and they are the authors of the book Spatial Structure (2016). Their built work has been distinguished with several international awards and widely exhibited at, among other venues, the FIAC (Paris), the Royal Academy of Arts (London) and the Museum of Modern Art (New York).

This publication is an initiative of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture and its affiliated Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP). This award was launched by Wiel Arets, the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture Dean and Rowe Family College of Architecture Dean Endowed Chair, on 13 March 2013, as one of his first initiatives as Dean. The inaugural MCHAP jury was chaired by Kenneth Frampton and included Jorge Francisco Liernur, Dominique Perrault, Sarah Whiting, and Wiel Arets.

This book is the result of the first MCHAP for Emerging Architects, which was awarded to the firm Pezo von Ellrichshausen for their Poli House. The content of Naïve Intention was developed by Mauricio Pezo and Sofía von Ellrichshausen in various institutions and underwent regular revision as guest professors of the IIT College of Architecture. Part of the program was exhibited in a lecture given in the S. R. Crown Hall on 17 December 2014.

The President of MCHAP would like to thank all those who made this program and publication possible: IIT, CoA, the City of Chicago, and the firms and individuals that generously support the initiative, including CCA Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Alphawood Foundation, Kohler, and the Mies van der Rohe Society at Illinois Institute of Technology.

ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Wiel Arets, President of MCHAP and Rowe Family College of Architecture Dean Endowed Chair.

Dirk S. Denison, Director of MCHAP Lluís Ortega, IITAC Editor Vedran Mimica, Director of Research Sasha Zanko, MCHAP Coordinator Travis Rothe, Senior Designer

Published by IITAC Press College of Architecture 3360 South State Street Chicago, IL 60616-3793, USA Tel. (+1) 312 567 3230 www.arch.iit.edu Actar Publishers New York, Barcelona. www.actar.com Concept and text: Mauricio Pezo and Sofía von Ellrichshausen Design: Edwin van Gelder from Mainstudio Texts supervision: Moisés Puente Proofreading: Paul Hammond Images supervision: Ricardo Devesa, Marta Ariza All images are original works by Pezo von Ellrichshausen. The picture rights belong to their studio except: V, XI, XLII, LX, LXX, CXXV, and CXLIV: Cristóbal Palma; VI: Óscar Concha; XXXIII and XXXIV: Diana Quintela; and CXI: James Harris.

Distributed by Actar D, Inc. 440, Park Avenue South, 17th Floor New York, NY 10016 USA T. (+1) 2129662207 salesnewyork@actar-d.com www.actar-d.com Roca i Batlle, 2-4 08023 Barcelona, Spain T. (+34) 933 282 183 eurosales@actar-d.com © of the edition, ITTAC and Actar © of the texts, their authors © of the images, their authors All rights reserved Printed in the Netherlands ISBN 978-1-945150-47-0 PCN 2017939484 Printing: Unicum, Tilburg, the Netherlands A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., USA

Pezo von Ellrichshausen is an art and architecture studio founded in 2002

by Mauricio Pezo and Sofía von Ellrichshausen. They live and work in Concepción (Chile) and teach regularly at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Santiago) and at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago).

They were the curators of the Chilean Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Bienale in 2008 and their work was selected for the Venice Biennale in 2016.

Their works have been published in monographic issues of the magazines 2G (no 61, Barcelona, 2012) and a+u (no 513, Tokyo, 2013) and they are the authors of the book Spatial Structure (2016). Their built work has been distinguished with several international awards and widely exhibited at, among other venues, the FIAC (Paris), the Royal Academy of Arts (London) and the Museum of Modern Art (New York).

PEZO VON ELLRICHSHAUSEN NAÏVE INTENTION