SPACES

Society seems to have agreed some time ago in demanding from architecture two things which seem, at least in principle, to be contradictory. The first is a demand for efficiency. Modern architecture in this sense perfectly translated this demand into a specific language and set of forms: a clean, clear, technical vocabulary resulting in a desirable reduction of cost and times for reconstructing after the World Wars and in a democratization of construction, which had hitherto been reserved to a select few. There is a tacit agreement to spend public resources responsibly, avoiding inefficiency in the public expenditure of taxpayers’ money. But at the same time, society complains about the loss of expressivity and identity of modern architecture; the undecorated modern box, to architects’ liking, is something that the general public still finds hard to accept and swallow. So we have been witnessing these mutually exclusive paths that either deliver efficient, inexpressive (unloved yet needed) architectures, or pathetic, postmodern (or even cynical) flirtations with kitsch that the real estate market shallowly captures as added make up and applied decoration.
Raphael Zuber is trying to integrate these demands. He seems to be fighting two battles, one declared and the other nondeclared. The declared battle is a search for greatness; the nondeclared battle is to find a source of expression within the logic of efficiency, structure, and good construction. His search for greatness and monumentality is even conducted in domestic buildings. At the same time, he is exploring the expressive qualities of a physical force (gravity, bending), or a material (exposed concrete), or geometry (symmetry, but along unusual axes). There is a certain maturity, austerity, and forcefulness in his work; he uses classical notions of order in a heterodox way in the pursuit of expression: the arcs around an edge and circular windows and stairs are attempts to retrieve an expressive quality that modern architecture has lost. In this sense, each of his buildings is a small battle that has been won: the search for integrity in architectural language and meeting the demands of efficiency with grandiosity are something worthy of being studied.