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B.
UP IN THE AIR
Expansion of the American Memorial Library,
Berlin, 1989
This project, as a result of a winning entry for an international competition
that was subsequently cancelled, can be thought of as an anticipatory use
of a concept that Steven Holl tested in different conditions during his ca-
reer: putting buildings ‘floating’ in the air.
In this expansion, the proposal is elevated by the idea of generating a con-
tinuous movement over the existing building. This circuit is also scratched
on the curtain wall as a way of tracing the idea over the glass. The ‘loop’,
made up of a series of buildings progressively rising above the old library,
offers a spatial form that, on an urban level, creates a ‘gateway to the city’.
This set is culminated by a suspended zeppelin-shaped bridge that con-
nects with the children’s library, proposing an unusual spatial experience
to stimulate people’s senses. Holl’s proposals are the result of combining
concept, materiality and perception into a unique architectural design.
Afterwards, this floating condition can also be seen in projects like Spatial
Retaining Bars in Phoenix, Housing and Hotel in Guadalajara, the Center
for Contemporary Art in Rome, and most recently, in the Nanjing Sifang
Art Museum, built in China. The influence of Russian Constructivism ideas
present in Kazimir Malevich paintings or the relation with Italian Futurism
projects exploring this structural suspended condition are undeniable.
Here another salient characteristic of Holl’s work can also be perceived,
the aquarelle perspectives (described by Kenneth Framptom as the
source of his poetic ability
2
) as a medium for perceiving the idea material-
ized, to test the effects of light and shadows by blending the watercolors
gradually from bright to dark.
2 Kenneth Framptom in “Steven Holl: A retrospective View”, El Croquis 78+93+103”, 2003.