Blog: Caixa Forum de Madrid
Name: Caixa Forum
Location: Madrid
Architect: Herzog & De
Meuron
Building date: 2001 to 2007
Purpose: The purpose of the
Caixa Forum is to be a museum and cultural center on Paseo del Prado, a
historical district in Madrid, Spain. Its building was once a 19th
century factory that is now refurbished into what Caixa Forum.
Program: Caixa Forum serves
as a space for education, exhibition, arts, advertisement for Caixa bank and
culture. It also contains a restaurant and administrative offices.
Users: The users of Caixa Forum are museum visitors,
staffers, and those that choose to use the museum as a forum for events.
Nature vs Nurture
Caption:
I think the cool thing about this is the contrast
between the manmade created part and the seemingly natural vertical garden.
View from an Alleyway
Caption:
The
photos use of grey and dreary colors all around the building with light shining
on it. This creates an appearance of almost holiness upon the building. The
building materials of the building are old 19th century brick and
steel frames beneath.
A cavern of light
Caption:
The
architects use of brown brick with lights makes us feel that we are in a cave
looking up at the sky from an hole in the top.
All pictures taken from www.arcspace.com
Surroundings:
La Caixa Forum is located in Paseo del Prado in the middle
of Madrid. Madrid is the bustling capital of Spain with over 3 million
inhabitants. It is located on Paseo del Prado one of the oldest and most
important boulevards and historical districts in Madrid. Paseo Del Prado contains
many other important museums like the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and
the Reina Sofia Museum. There are also important parks like Parque Del Retiro.
It sits facing botanical gardens.
An interview with Jacques Herzog
Jacques Herzog, the architect of the building, transformed a
factory into the spectacle that is the Caixa Forum. Herzog stated that he added
weight and volume to the building, all very important things. Herzog built
higher and then dug deeper while designing. He wanted to create a look and feel
of the underworld and heaven in its design. He states that he wants to make it
more powerful and accessible. Then, he wanted it to also have elements of
nature, which led to the addition of the vertical garden.
A visit
When I
visited Spain I saw the museum firsthand. What caught my eye was the vertical
garden. The building is very unique and very popular. I thought that the most
interesting thing is how the building combined pieces of nature, the most
ancient and primordial thing about the earth with modern architecture.
Video observations
The
first thing that I noticed about La Caixa in the video was the spiral
staircase. The staircase was very modern and it was bone white. I thought it
was like a spiraling spine piercing through the building.
Observations based on blog
In the
blog the author speaks about the way the heavy mass is detached from the
ground. This creates an illusion of gravity defiance. I think this is a very
important feature of the building and I agree with the author. I also think
that it creates an illusion of going into a cave or cavern.
Blog about Herzog and de Meuron
Herzog & de Meuron is the name of the associated studio
founded in Basel in 1978.
Their big break came when they reconverted the Bankside
Power Station on the Tames’ south bank into the Tate Modern (1994-2000)
They were the first swizz architects to be awarded with the Pritzker
Architecture Prize
An interview featuring Herzog and De Meuron on a website
Herzog and De Meuron use other forms and disciplines to
create their works
The two cite Aldo Rossi and Robert Venturi as their biggest
influencers
Herzog and de Meuron view their architecture as art on the Avant-Garde
The
elements of modern architecture: understanding contemporary buildings / Antony
Radford, Selen B. Morkoç and Amit Srivastava.
This ambitions piece of work chronicles 50
pieces of modern architecture. It contains over 2,500 hand drawn pieces of
artwork. The book seeks to help its readers understand modern architecture by
juxtaposing those 50 pieces.
Reading
architecture and culture: researching buildings, spaces, and documents / edited
by Adam Sharr
This book is much like our class
in the fact that it tries to show how architecture is a reflection of culture.
It examines artwork from the past 500 years. The book collects readings which
address specific buildings and their specific functions within society.
