Cover

Magazine No 01

Pilgrimage & the Architect

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 Table of contents
Part 01 of 02

Editorial 04 Interview 29

Editorial Reaching the Summit

Ole Bouman on redemption through nature

Text: Jessica Bridger

Essay 05 Essay 30 - 31

From Delft to Dhaka Coming/Going

Trespassing in Louis Kahn‘s masterpiece Traveling in the name of architecture

Text: Chris Luth Text: Jessica Bridger

Interview 06 - 08 Found 32

When the Building Comes as a Hajj Time

Surprise
Barry Bergdoll‘s architectural pilgrimages to Brno, Text: Jessica Bridger
Brasilia, and Bilbao
Text: Jessica Bridger

Photo Essay 09 - 28 Essay 33 - 35

Ruta del Peregrino Enlightenment at Burning Man

Iwan Baan‘s impressions of Mexico‘s most famous A pilgrimage of participation
pilgrimage route
Text: Julian Raxworthy
Text: Florian Heilmeyer

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 Table of contents
Part 02 of 02

in the photo booth with... 36 - 40 Essay 51 - 54

Gideon Lewis-Kraus I Know Where You Live

On stalking architecture – and architecture stalkers
Text: Elvia Wilk
Text: Rob Wilson

Article 41 - 50 Next Issue 55

God‘s Concrete Rock Venice Architecture Biennale 2012

Gottfried Böhm’s church in Neviges

Text: Florian Heilmeyer

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 Editorial

Welcome to the first issue of uncube, our new digital

magazine about architecture and beyond.

As we were planning this inaugural issue, the Venice

Architecture Biennale loomed large on the horizon. Both
inspired and curious about the growing phenomenon of such
international roller-coaster events – and also just wanting to
celebrate our own and others’ obsession with architecture
– we have dedicated our first issue to the topic of the
pilgrimage whether religious, professional, or personal.

We take you from Venice to Bilbao, from Neviges to Mount

Ventoux, from Berlin to Burning Man, all part of a quest for
enlightenment through architecture.

And of course you’ll also be starting on the new uncube

journey with us – we hope you will continue with us over the
coming months and years!

Enjoy, The Editors

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 Essay

From Delft to Dhaka

Trespassing in Louis Kahn’s masterpiece
Text by Chris Luth

Pilgrims aspire to the supernatural. So do Kahn´s solution blended function, landscape,

architects. Mies found God in architectural and representation in a masterful way. Perfec-
details. And Koolhaas, a kind of anti-Mies, tion was not found in detail, but instead in a
finds meaning in subverting architectural harmony that needs no destabilizing. In the
sections. As a student at Delft University of film, someone started to cry.
Technology during the late 1990s, both left
me unsatisfied. However during my visit in 2007, Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina was on trial at the
Some ancient and vernacular architecture Assembly on concocted allegations of extor-
managed to achieve a deep connection tion – or at least, that is what her political
between place and people, well beyond party claimed - and no visitors were allowed
abstract perfection and spatial subversion. to enter. Crime. Not due to ornament. Photo: Lykantrop, Wikimedia
Could contemporary architecture still aspire
to the same qualities without being nostalgic? This did not satisfy me either. So I tricked the
guards and sneaked in, secretly taking photos
My quest brought me to Gujarat in northern everywhere I went. Without my architectu-
India. From ancient Hindustan step wells ral guidebook with photos of the complex,
to the Indian Institute of Management in I would have been arrested. Or so said the
Ahmedabad: never had I seen such a complete undercover policeman who caught me. Saved
vision, such wholeness. No neutral abstract by the book – how befitting a pilgrimage.
perfection here, nor interesting incongruence.
It all seemed so pure and modest. Then again, a night in jail inside Kahn´s
masterpiece … Divine.
Unwittingly, I had thus been looking for
Louis Kahn. Just like his son did in the docu-
mentary film My Architect. And, like his
son, I continued to the National Assembly
in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Asked to design it,
Photo: Naquib Houssain/Flickr

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 Interview

When
the
Building
Comes Villa Tugendhat sits on a residential street in Brno. The street-facing façade implies a rather
simplistic relationship between site and architecture …

as a
Surprise
Barry Bergdoll speaks
about traveling to Brno,
Brasilia, and Bilbao
… but viewed from the garden it reveals the real complexity of Mies van der Rohe’s design and
Interview by Jessica Bridger the relationship between inner and outer spaces. (photos: David Zidlicky)

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 Interview

W hat stands out to you as some of your most On the other hand, Brno is a capital of the modern
notable experiences when you have made a pilgri- movement in architecture –though I defy anyone
mage to visit a work of architecture? other than a true expert to name another important
building there from that period. The difference bet-
»When I consider the architectural pilgrimages that ween what the Czech architects built and the absolute
are of importance to me, I think first of the buildings luxury of Mies, with thirty times the budget, comes
I’ve sought out because I saw them in photographs or into focus. The intersection of the art historical as-
read about them in a books, but which then led to the pects with the political, social, and economic condi-
revelation that what I was seeing and experiencing was
different from what I’d been led to expect. The best »I would argue that tions in Brno is important. I would argue that you re-
ally don’t understand the Tugendhat house unless you
experiences were when the buildings had fundamen-
tal qualities that I felt were moving, important, and you really don’t spend a few days in Brno and get to know the city.

profound, but that those qualities had been somehow

eliminated from the transmitted experience of the understand the More recently I was in Brasilia. I was part of a gene-
ration taught to perceive it as the absolute epitome
building by reportage or photographs. When the buil-
ding turns out to be infinitely better than what’s been Tugendhat house of abstract, aggressive modernism, built for the car,
a total failure. Once I arrived I was waiting to have
said about it. When the place is a surprise.
unless you spend that impression, so I could go home and say the same
thing. Instead I discovered this incredibly interesting
The first time this happened for me was in Brno at place and an amazing work of landscape. Small-scale
Mies’ Tugendhat House. I hadn’t realized that it was a a few days in Brno planning gestures create places that are textured and
more complex and completely different building than complex, especially in the spaces around the so-called
I’d expected from reading about it: in its landscape, in and get to know Superquadra. And 50 years after Brasilia’s creation,
its cityscape, and in the way it related to everything things there really function beautifully. I came away
around it. Even simply seeing how the Tugendhat the city.« thinking Brasilia has a great deal of urbanity to it and
house is unlike the other houses on the street, so they is a successful city, and I had to overcome everything
are always cropped out of the photographs – its diffe- I’d been taught about it in order to realize that.
rence from what surrounds it is part of understanding
it. I recognized there in Brno the extent to which The problem with architectural pilgrimages is that
snapshots of buildings tend to crop out the surroun- commonly people go to see the one trophy and lea-
dings, and how plans are shown in the abstract on ve: you go to Bilbao see Gehry and leave; you run
white paper without topography. to Brno and see the Tugendhat house and leave. Of-
ten the trips are responding to the idea of the heroic

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 Interview

architect, the starchitect, and basking in that aura.

Almost as if to check something off a list of what is
supposed to be important and not to criticize or ana-
lyze. I wish that architecture students going to these
places would take a sketchbook and not only a camera.

The phenomena of what is important and the conso-

lidation of a received view happen startlingly fast. For
example, I decided while I was on vacation in the south
of France to visit Bilbao on a whim, a week after it ope-
ned to the public. I was in a period where I was a bit
off Gehry’s architecture. We decided to drive to see the
Souvenir postcard of Brasilia’s Super Quadra.
building, which took three days – a little bit of a pilgri-
mage. The building was so much more than the talking
points that had somehow become the only public com-
ment. I think that Gehry‘s Guggenheim Bilbao is one
of the most successful, important, and simply unexpec-
ted and subtle buildings of the early 1990s, particularly
in the way it relates to its urban fabric. It seems an
opinion gains a certain weight through replication, and
only then is there some kind of trend-breaking happe-
ning, someone expressing a contrary view. I would be
curious to see how this happens – how fast, in what
way, to see a sociological explanation of this pattern.

I’ve also noticed the phenomenon of shifting pilgrima-

ges. For example, I haven’t met anyone recently who’s
been to Bilbao. When does it get too late to jump on
the bandwagon? Currently what I find most interesting
as architectural pilgrimages are places like the Open Air
Museum of Modern Architecture in Ivrea, Italy, located
at the site of the former Olivetti industrial complex.
Sites that trace our industrial heritage.« The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, as seen from a side street. (photo:
Nigel Europe/Flickr)

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 Photo Essay

Ruta del Peregrino

Iwan Baan’s impressions of Mexico’s most
famous pilgrimage route
Interview by Florian Heilmeyer
Photos by Iwan Baan

The Lookout Point by Swiss-based HHF Architects, completed 2011.

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 Photo Essay

The Ruta del Peregrino is said to be the nowadays about two million people come each del Peregrino. Dellekamp Arquitectos from
most traveled pilgrimage route in the Sou- year, ranging in degree of devotion. They teem Mexico City developed a master plan that
thwest of Mexico. For over 200 years, pilgrims like ants in the short period around Easter, “complemented and enhanced” the existing
have come during Easter Week to journey the over the dusty streets and through the little route and “accentuated its relationship with the
117-kilometer-long route from Ameca up to villages. Everywhere there are tarpaulins han- landscape.” Seven architecture firms and artists
the Cerro del Obispo, then over the Espina- ging between the trees, colorful plastic chairs were invited to design nine sculptural buildings
zo del Diablo Mountains (the “devil‘s back”), are set out, and people sleep wherever they can along the route. These structures were designed
down to the little town of Talpa de Allende find shade. For a brief time these otherwise for resting, praying, or meditating – as view-
and into a church where they keep a statue of neglected and desolate areas along the route are ing points, stopping and starting places, or for
the Holy Virgin of Talpa, renowned for perfor- turned into a noisy and lively path of celebra- staying overnight. The Dutch photographer
ming miracles and relieving suffering and fear. tion. Iwan Baan has been documenting these unusu-
al projects since 2010. We met the ever-trave-
Since the construction of the church in 1782, The provincial government decided in 2008 ling photographer at a short stopover in Berlin.
the number of pilgrims has increased steadily; to improve the infrastructure along the Ruta

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 Photo Essay

“It‘s like a great festival – people come from all over Mexico, and
many travel these distances along with their entire families,” says
Iwan Baan who documents the Ruta since 2010.

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 Photo Essay

Iwan Baan, how many times have you been on the Ruta
del Peregrino now?

I’ve been there four times, three times during the pilgrima-
ge and once inbetween. The first time was only for a week
around Easter, 2010. Then I went again in October, 2010,
to photograph HHF‘s project, and again in 2011 at Easter.
My latest visit was just recently, at Easter 2012, to visit the
lookout tower of Christ & Gantenbein which has mean-
while been finished.

The Ruta del Pelegrino seems to be somewhat difficult to

reach. How do you get there?

You fly to Guadalajara, and from there it‘s about three

hours by car to Ameca. You drive for hours through
nothingness and suddenly you‘re in a great traffic jam with
all the tour buses and pickup trucks, and everything is full
of dust. It‘s like a great festival – people come from all over
Mexico, and many travel these distances along with their
entire families. Dellekamp Arquitectos designed Gratitude Open Chapel, in collaboration with architect Tatiana Bilbao, seen over the sym-
bolic “Wall of Promises” that surrounds it. Pilgrims encounter the chapel near the beginning of the route, near the town of
Lagunillas in Jalisco, Mexico.

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 Photo Essay

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 Photo Essay

»People there don’t

challenge the buildings.
It’s more that they just
wonder what they are
supposed to do with
these structures, because
they don’t know.«

Gratitude Open Chapel is designed as an enigmatic structure of ‘gratitude and self-reflection’.

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 Photo Essay

Two million people seems like a lot to me, In the pictures it often looks like a long trail Did you go on foot as well?
especially if I imagine them spread over such of ants.
a short distance. No. Of course I walked a lot around and in
Yes, that is true in many places. Where the trail between single pavilions, but I never did the
Not everyone does the whole route. Many is narrow, a lot of queues build up, especially complete route. I used a car or a helicopter. In
just drive to a few points that are reachable in the mornings and evenings. By day it‘s often fact, I mostly used everything but my feet.
by car, and not everyone travels at the same very hot, up to over 30 degrees Celsius, so many
time. That‘s how the pilgrims spread out over travel only at night or by twilight. By day they
the sites, and even at Easter – when the pilg- look for shady places, to sleep or just to rest.
rimage reaches its climax there are some quiet
moments along the route. In Talpa de Allende,
where everyone gathers in the square in front
of the church, of course it seems rather like a
huge and swarming folk festival.

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 Photo Essay

Some of the new structures are within sight of each other along the route, like the Gratitude Open Chapel which can be seen as a small white spot in the distance (in the background to the left) from the Lookout
Point designed by Swiss architects Christ & Gantenbein.

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 Photo Essay

Are the buildings situated on hills so that one can orient oneself using
them as landmarks? Are they a kind of guidance system along the
route?

Some are within sight of each other. If you stand on HHF‘s spiral, you
can see Elemental‘s viewing point. They are opposite each other, but on
two different hills, and the walk on foot between them is really long.
Also, from Christ & Gantenbein’s tower you can see a tiny white dot in
the distance: that‘s a spire of the Open Chapel by Derek Dellekamp and
Tatiana Bilbao and on the other side, far, far away in the distance, you
can see Ai Weiwei’s structure. The buildings are far in between, but they
if you look very, very closely they do become some kind of marking of
the landscape.

So how do people find the buildings?

Some are built right on the route, so you can’t miss them; for example,
Elemental‘s bent concrete cuboid is a very lively spot. It‘s up on a hill,
and inside the building you can sit in the shade, rest, and admire the
view. Others are set a little further from the route, like Dellekamp‘s
white concrete halo. But all of the structures become a sort of beacon in
the landscape. People gather around them, the Coca Cola-stalls set up
shop just next to them and they become resting places along the route.

Christ & Gantenbein Architekten’s Lookout Point is constructed from nine prefabricated
concrete elements. Visitors can enter the empty space inside and gaze up at a telescopic view
of the Mexican sky.

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Photo Essay

How do the pilgrims react to the new buildings?

In different ways. The buildings aren’t marked yet, they are

puzzling beacons in the landscape. The concrete halo, for
example, is very irritating. Those who find it don‘t know
what to make of it. So a lot of them look for signs with an
explanation or instructions for its use. But there aren‘t any
except for a leaflet by the organisation which describes the
pavilions and what they do.
But for instance Elemental’s bent concrete lookout or
HHF‘s spiral are quite different. They are big sculptures
that you can see from far away, and where you can enjoy
a wonderful panorama. There, people immediately know
what to do – they sit in the shade, they chat and drink,
the children run around, and so on. Most of the structures
also become meeting points because people set up their
small restaurants around them. And, of course, they use the
buildings as a template to spray their names and the date of
their pilgrimage on it.

The Sanctuary, designed by artist Ai Weiwei, rises from the landscape.

18
 Photo Essay

Ai Weiwei‘s sculpture provides a beautiful viewing platform to the Jalisco Mountains in the distance.

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 Photo Essay

How can we imagine the sound of the place?

They spray their names on them? Are there also religious rituals along the
Is it like a quiet walk in nature or a loud and
route?
cheerful festival?
At first I completely didn‘t understand what
was going on. Many pilgrims carry spray cans Yes, of course. When a relative dies, many
All the photos with bands, trumpeters, and
with them! To spray their names everywhere, people travel the whole trail with a cross or a
guitar players are from Talpa de Allende. It‘s
marking where they’ve been: on walls, stones, memento, such as a photo or even an urn with
really loud on the big square. It‘s always full
houses, trees, even on churches – and likewise the ashes of the deceased. I‘m not sure whether
of people. There you can see the difference
on the new buildings. The whole route looks the graffiti isn’t also something religious.
between those who just want to have fun and
like a graffiti trail. Some architects got angry
those who take it seriously. Some go the last
about this. But ultimately, some of the buil-
few meters to the Virgin on their knees, and
dings are very unfinished, very raw structures.
others do the whole route barefoot. Others just
People make this new architecture their own,
make noise, sing, and chatter; there are child-
they adopt it by spraying their names over
ren running about and playing among them,
them.
and you can even get pony rides.

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 Photo Essay

What was it like when you were there in October 2010?

It was quite different, almost unbelievable. We were there completely alone! At Eas-
ter it‘s this enormous folk festival and in October we were alone with the cows and
stars. The idea of the project is for it to also attract tourists other than the pilgrims.
At present so many people come at Easter and for the rest of the year the structures
are empty. Then, it‘s only a religious space for cows. When no pilgrims are there –
eleven months of the year – mainly cows occupy the structure, they obviously also
These shelters by Mexican studio Luis Aldrete Arquitectos are designed for pilgrims to spend the
find the shade very attractive. night in. Their latticed surfaces, built of adobe bricks, will eventually be overgrown with vines.

What do people say about the architecture? Is there criticism that the buildings
don‘t fit into the landscape, that they are too modern?

At least I haven‘t heard that. I believe it‘s all a question of attitude. People there
don‘t challenge the buildings. It’s more that they just wonder what they are supposed
to do with these structures, because they don‘t know. But I also think that the buil-
dings in their own way really fit well into the landscape.

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 Photo Essay

Swiss studio HHF Architects designed the concrete Lookout Point, which was completed in 2011.

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 Photo Essay

»No, I won‘t go on
foot, and I won‘t car-
ry a cross. I have my
camera with me, and
that‘s enough – that‘s
my cross.«

Swiss studio HHF Architects designed the concrete Lookout Point, completed in 2011. It‘s com-
plex, spiraling structure, is conceived as an additional looped path within the pilgrims‘ journey.

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 Photo Essay

Half-balanced on a hillside near the Las Cruces way marker, Crosses Lookout Point is a concrete pavilion by Chilean architects Elemental.

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 Photo Essay

»I‘m not sure whether the

graffiti isn’t also something
religious.«

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 Photo Essay

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 Photo Essay

Do you think the idea of more general tourism along the

route can work?

It‘s an interesting idea. The countryside is really very beau-

tiful, and in the autumn even more spectacular, when
everything is green and blooming and not so dry and dusty
as it is at Easter. On the other hand there is practically no
infrastructure; no hotels, hardly any restaurants. There are a
few haciendas where one can stay overnight, but otherwise
the route is only comfortable for genuine camping enthusi-
asts. But who knows? Maybe it will work.

Is this great communal experience infectious? Will you

travel the actual route next time and perhaps even go
barefoot?

No. I‘ll take the helicopter again. That is, if we can get a
better one than last time. In 2010 ours came from Gu-
adalajara, covered in oil, and I asked the pilot whether
everything was in order. He said he just had to see to a
few things, but when after four hours he was still messing
around with the rotors, I said no problem, I don‘t need
the helicopter any more. But no, I won‘t go on foot, and I
won‘t carry a cross. I have my camera with me, and that‘s
enough – that‘s my cross. (laughs)

The pilgrim‘s destination: The old church in Talpa de Allende where some people kneel in
front of the statue of the Holy Virigin of Talpa.

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Magazine No 01 | Pilgrimage & the Architect | Page 28
 Interview

Reaching the Summit

Ole Bouman on redemption through nature

What would you consider have embarked is part of the ex-

your most notable experience perience. The longer and tougher
taking an architectural pilgri- the journey, the more intense the
mage, be it to a building, a site redemption can be. I guess this is
or a city? not a fact but a perception.

»Traveling is not the whole story. Not many buildings did this
Pilgrimage is much more than to me. Pantheon. Le Thoronet
traveling. It is about suffering. Abbey. Places where humanity
It is about sacrifice. And, if suc- obviously transcended itself. But
cessful, it is not just about enjoy- perhaps nothing is more telling
ment. It is not even about fulfill- for me than biking up to moun-
ment. It is about redemption.  taintops like Mont Ventoux or
Gran San Bernardino, looking
The question of pilgrimage is a down to the valleys, and realizing
religious one. It can never end how far people can go beyond
just by recognition of the object. themselves.«
The time that passes since you

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 Essay

Coming/Going
Traveling in the name of architecture
Text by Jessica Bridger

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 Essay

The architect’s field of cultural fod- twentieth century. But we now live tural calendar. These events have an
der is ever-expanding. Recalling the in an era of the internet, Easyjet, and aspect of communion to them; true
line in the movie Annie Hall, when budget hostels. The inaccessible is believers, enthusiasts, casual obser-
a young Woody Allen “can’t sleep merely a few clicks away. vers, and skeptics all come to take
because the universe is expanding,” part in an event together – not so
there is simply – and increasingly A pilgrimage in the traditional sense different from many pilgrims on the
– so much to see that it can lead to is about repentance, absolution, and more traditional routes like the Sant-
anxiety. redemption. Architecture has always iago de Compostela.
played a role in both secular and
Architecture often inspires pilgri- religious journeys, in the design of In this fast-moving, digitally depen-
mage. We travel to the most sac- sacred enclosures or the provision dent era, it is fascinating to consider
red architectural sites: famous pro- of basic infrastructure for someti- how these pilgrimages have chan-
jects by famous architects, history’s mes arduous travel. For architects, ged, and how they have retained the
grand buildings, and even to obscure the ease of travel and the pressure to qualities of the more rarified grand
locations on the rumor of forgotten go to the newest, hottest sites com- tours of old. What are we really visit-
constructions or even despised star- bine to make a discipline that seeks ing? The physical structures or their
chitecture to experience fallout of the the actual beyond internet images contexts? Are they sites of memory
Bilbao effect when one can ask: is it and slick renderings. Clearly photo- or concentrated spaces of common
really as bad as the critics think? graphs, plans, and models are not a contemporary experience? We visit
substitute for the experience of visit- buildings, travel through landscapes,
The architecture-oriented pilgri- ing these places in real life. meet other like-minded people. How
mage is a journey of primary, first- do these experiences change us by the
hand experience – and the journey is We should also consider what is time we get home?
sometimes as important as the des- perhaps the most modern type of
tination. The “Grand Tour” was his- pilgrimage, travel to the Venice
torically for the elite; the travel of Le Architecture Biennale, the Rotterdam
Corbusier in Italy, Greece, and Tur- Biennale, Documenta, and other
key was exceptional at the turn of the similar must-go events on the cul-

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 Found

Hajj Time

Visible in the center right, the Al-Bait Towers, completed in

crowds of people in Mecca for the 2012.
Hajj, which draws over three mil-
lion people annually and simulta- The Abraj Al-Bait Towers are part
neously. The pilgrimage is centered of a larger development effort in
on the al-Haram Mosque, home Mecca. It remains to be seen if
of the cube-like Kaaba, the most the new development can strike
sacred site in Islam. a balance between exuberant,
luxury-oriented architecture and
Mecca now also holds the distinc- the infrastructural improvements
tion of being home to the world’s necessary for the ever-growing
tallest clock tower. The 601-me- yearly pilgrimage.
ter crescent-shaped spire is also
among the top ten tallest buildings (Photo: skyscrapercenter.com)
in the world. It is part of the Abraj

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 Essay

Enlightenment
at Burning Man
A pilgrimage of participation
Text by Julian Raxworthy

The Burning Man burns at the culmination of the week-long festival in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. (Photo: Christopher Michel)

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 Essay

The Burning Man festival transforms the Black Rock Desert »Burning Man is
in Nevada from a lifeless lime basin to a temporary city each
August, and after its three-week lifespan leaves no trace of its
existence. It has been doing this for 20 years, growing from a
thought of as
ritual in which a few friends burned an effigy on a beach in
San Francisco to mourn their break-ups with their girlfriends
a festival, but
to a temporary urban settlement of 50,000 people with its
own airstrip. The man to be burned now stands 50 meters
in some ways it‘s
high, standing in the center of a semi-circular grid. Rather
than an event, Burning Man is really an infrastructure for a
more like a par-
phenomenon, the organizers providing a system into which
the participants, often coming from all over the world, plug
king lot.«
in activity, building, offerings, and most of all, participation.
Without commerce, without even running water (but, yes,
with portable toilets), Burning Man prides itself in its radical
self-sufficiency. As a site of pilgrimage it demonstrates that go-
ing somewhere for something may not involve just a location
but an entire way of being – bringing a “sense of place” to the
place.
 
The idea of being a pilgrim is tied to preparation. It’s not
enough just to turn up - one is expected to be ready. For a
trek, it‘s fitness, for a religious mission, perhaps prayer, but for
Burning Man it’s contingency. Burning Man is at Black Rock
because there is nothing alive there to be destroyed and no
people to annoy. There is literally nothing there apart from the
alkaline dust that is picked up by harsh storms and that pene-
The Temple of Transition, where revelers went to cleanse themselves of the past. (Photo: Perfecto Insecto, 2011)
trates all orifices in tents and bodies. Together with punishing
heat reflected off the ground, preparation involves buying eve-
rything for shelter, food, and partying. Over time, this process
has turned from one of survival to exuberance; themed camps
build elaborate structures for shelter and visitors. We met a
friend-of-a-friend at a party who knew someone who knew

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 Essay

about a camp. Our dome had a bar and a stereo, and the camp
had its own shower. Preparation for pilgrimage can be research
and networking – or it can be Walmart.
 
The pilgrimage is a convergence of journey, place, and event.
Burning Man is thought of as a festival, but in some ways
it‘s more like a parking lot. Its semi-circular grid is organized
alphabetically by city names, which are arranged in rings,
marked by clock numbers around their circumference. The
first city is called Esplanade, then Amsterdam, Baghdad, and
on and on. Each camp has its own peculiarities and specialties.
Apart from porta-potties, this is the only structure provided –
the visitor must bring the rest. At the center of the semi-circle
is an open area called the Playa, where people drive around in
art cars at night and stage parties, happenings. In the middle
is the Man, who is burned on the second-to-last night, and
behind it is the temple, a structure where people place things
they want to grieve, leave, and move beyond, like notes to »Nothing
departed love ones. We all hope to leave the pilgrimage a diffe-
rent person. happens
 
Pilgrimages are supposed to involve some form of enligh- at Bur-
tenment, and enlightenment can be quick, unexpected but
profound, its significance outweighing its duration. Nothing ning Man
happens at Burning Man except you, times 50,000. Nothing
is expected of anyone, but everyone wants something to except
happen – otherwise the event would be a bummer. So, despite
numerous tourists, most cross a line and eventually join in. you, times
The spirit of participation is high, and it’s contagious. Many
adopt a persona, some people a new persona each day. Like 50,000.«
enlightenment, the moment of participation feels amazing
when it happens, and we’re disappointed when it’s over – until The constantly shifting pattern of people celebrating belies the highly
we come again the next year. regularized structure of the temporary settlement. (Photos: Christo-
pher Michel; Geo Eye/Satellite photo)

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 In the Photobooth with ...

In the Photo Booth with ...

Gideon Lewis-Kraus
Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s first book, A Sense of Direction: Pilgrimage for
the Restless and the Hopeful, is the story of three pilgrimages he made
– from the famous Camino de Compostela in Spain, to a 900-mile
solo journey around the Japanese island of Shikoku, to the Hasidic
pilgrimage site of Uman, Ukraine.
Gideon is still traveling these days, but we managed to pin him
down and ask him a few questions about his pilgrimages – and why
he doesn‘t need to be a pilgrim anymore.
Interview by Elvia Wilk

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 In the Photobooth with ...

You traveled to three pilgrimage destinations designed

for religious purposes, but you weren’t pursuing re-
ligious absolution. Without a specific religious goal,
were the destinations completely arbitrary?

»The question for me, though I think I only dimly understood this when
I set out, was how I could give myself a way to remain in suspension.
The whole question of arrival, for a secular modern pilgrimage, is a
completely arbitrary one; arrival just represents the place where you
can’t keep moving. The creation of an arbitrary goal – of, say, Santiago
de Compostela – is actually just the frame for being suspended in moti-
on. Or, rather, it’s a kind of suspension that’s masquerading as motion.
That first journey became a completely formal exercise, though my ideas
of form and content were subsequently complicated. We told ourselves
we had no expectations about what the end might bring.«

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 In the Photobooth with ...

The Camino de Santiago is an orchestrated, touristic ex-

perience, but in Japan you were in a foreign, rural place
with very little pilgrimage infrastructure. Being con-
fronted with this contrast led you to break down the
distinctions between tourism and pilgrimage. How do
you differentiate between the two?

»Other people I met along the way were concerned with being “authen-
tic” pilgrims in different ways; I got caught up in that, too, at first – a
big part of any pilgrim’s self-image is that he or she isn’t a tourist. But
authenticity doesn’t exist in the abstract; it only has meaning in terms of
the aims of the experience. It might mean being true to some idea of
the original experience’s religiosity – going to pilgrims’ masses and so
forth. But, absent of religious belief, most pilgrims come to think of it
in terms of just playing by the rules, which is to say it has mostly to do
with whether you walked the whole way or let yourself take the bus. My
favorite pilgrims didn’t worry about stuff like this too much; by the end
of the book, most of these distinctions have broken down.«

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 In the Photobooth with ...

Unlike a religious story, your story doesn’t have

a dramatic resolution. How did you deal with the
lack of a climactic conclusion to your real-life
experience?

»I had this fear, which was of course also a wish, that the only
possible resolution of a book about restlessness and commit-
ment was the Eat Pray Love example, but I was lucky enough
that no Javier Bardem character appeared, and then the book
was finished. The end of the book becomes, in part, about
how rarely we get any real sense of closure, or rather that clo-
sure often comes in the counterintuitive form of a new open-
ness. If there was a dramatic result, it was beginning anew with
my dad. There could be a whole epilogue – probably a whole
second book, though I won’t write it – about his reaction to it.
The absolution in the end wasn’t divine but personal.«

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 In the Photobooth with ...

One thing that impressed me about your book

is how accurately it describes the Berlin
experience for young people. You capture a
feeling that’s in the air here, the restless-
ness, the reasons people come to the city,
and the reasons they leave. Was it living in
Berlin that made a pilgrimage necessary?

»I have no idea, really. I suspect the idea of the Camino would

have appealed to me either way, but the Berlin context definitely
gave a special allure to the idea of spending a month getting
up early every morning and knowing that the day ahead held
nothing in the way of decisions. If Berlin is a kind of holiday
from obligations, the Camino held out a lot of promise as a ho-
liday from decisions.«

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 Article

God’s
Concrete
Rock
The pilgrimage church Mary, Queen of Peace, rising from the medieval town of Velbert-
Neviges in 1968 ... (Photo: Arved von der Ropp)

Gottfried
Böhm’s church
in Neviges
Text by Florian Heilmeyer
Photos by Arved van der Ropp, seier+seier

... and exactly 40 years later. The only visible change is the light grey paint that has been put
on the leaking roof. (Photo: seier+seier, 2008)

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 Article

Aerial, ca. 1970. (© Picture archiv of the city of Velbert)

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 Article

The small German town of Neviges is home to about »It’s easy to

19,000 inhabitants and a spectacular concrete structure,
which looms over the narrow medieval alleys. This is the
pilgrimage church called Mary, Queen of Peace, built in
imagine that in
1968 and designed by German architect Gottfried Böhm,
which continues to hold a special place in many people’s
1968, when it was
minds – including architecture and Catholic pilgrims alike.
Why did this bold expressionist building land in this small,
inaugurated,
medieval (and Protestant) town? not everyone
It all began in 1676 in the small German town of Dorsten
when the Gray Friar Antonius Schirley knelt down in front
was happy with
of a painting of the Virgin Mary, just as he did every day.
Yet on this particular day a voice suddenly spoke to him:
this giant con-
“Bring me to Hardenberg. There I will be praised.” The
voice alluded to certain healing powers, which convinced
crete (Catho-
the Friar to do as he was told. He brought the Virgin Mary
canvas to the newly founded Franciscan mission in the
lic!) church.«
nearby town of Hardenberg-Neviges. A few years later Fer-
dinand von Fürstenberg, the Prince-Bishop of the region,
fell ill nearby and traveled to the small chapel where the
Virgin’s image had been placed, where he was miraculous-
ly cured. This was the birth of the Catholic pilgrimage to
Neviges.

Infrastructure grew along with the growing numbers of

pilgrims: a cloister was built next to the chapel, and the
chapel was replaced by a church. In the nineteenth century
the monks started to expand into surrounding property, ad-
ding processional paths, and creating a “Hill of Mary” and
Gottfried Böhm‘s original charcoal drawing from 1968. In his drawings, Böhm
a “Hill of the Cross,” including grottoes, groups of statuary, usually included a pair of spectators representing himself and his father, Dominik
and smaller chapels. By 1740, about 20,000 pilgrims were Böhm, who was also a famous church designer. (© Deutsches Architekturmuseum,
coming to Neviges every year – and by 1954 the number Frankfurt am Main)

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 Article

Long Section through the church and the Via Sacra, showing how important the connection of outside and inside spaces were to Böhm. The concrete church was actually intended to be more like a tent-like struc-
ture spanning over the end of the pilgrimage route. (© Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main)

Magazine No 01 | Pilgrimage & the Architect | Page 44

 Article
had grown to about 300,000. Most of the pilgrims stayed
overnight, turning the pilgrimage into the main economic
engine of the area. This also encouraged the Protestant ma-
jority in this region to stay mostly tolerant of the Catholic
pilgrims.

Corbu or Mies?
Plans for a bigger and more appropriate church had been
around since the beginning of the twentieth century, but
economic and political changes impeded the start of con-
struction for almost half a century. It was not until 1959
that the Diocese of Cologne invited 17 teams to participate
in an architecture competition. Meanwhile the plans had
grown to such an extent that the design brief asked for the
second largest church north of the Alps (only the Cologne
Cathedral is bigger), a dome that could not only hold about
3,000 people, but also included a kindergarden, a museum,
and a few apartments exclusively for the nuns amongst the
pilgrims.

In his essay “The Multi-layered Concrete Rock” (in: Gott-

fried Böhm, Jovis Publishers, Berlin 2006), Karl Kiem
The space of the main nave roars spectacularly upwards.
But underneath the Via Sacra is unspectacularly leading describes that all competition entries could be placed
right up to the main altar: Böhm continued with the stylistically into two (modern) baskets. The new structure
same paving and the same street lamps from the outside was envisioned as either a functional square or an organic,
to the inside. The open gallerys are like small houses nature-inspired figure: “[There was] basically the choice
with balconies surrounding this „market place“. (Photos:
Arved von der Ropp, 1975). between a functional modernism modeled on Mies van der
Rohe’s IIT Chapel in Chicago (1952) and others that were
more freely formed based on Le Corbusier’s pilgrimage
chapel in Ronchamp (1955).” We can only guess whether
Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp, which lies about 500 kilometers
south of Neviges, served as an inspiration for Gottfried
Böhm’s winning design.

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 Article

A nun‘s pilgrimage (Photo: Arved von der Ropp, 1975).

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 Article

The glass-stained windows of the chapel show roses, a motif com-

monly connected to the Virgin Mary. Böhms architecture seems to
connect effortless postwar modernity with expressionism and a dose
of German romanticism. (Photos: Arved von der Ropp, 1975).

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 Article

The decision in favor of Böhm’s proposal was also made the town by a modern version of a Holy Precinct, including
because he was the only architect to include the existing to- the nuns’ residences and the kindergarten, which are placed
pography as part of his scheme. While the other proposals to the left and right of a via sacra directly in front of the
suggested leveling the entire area, Böhm placed the dome church’s main entrance. This kind of attention to context
on the highest point of the slightly sloping site, creating a and details continues inside. Of course, at first the central
promenade for the pilgrims that continuously rises upwards room makes freezes one in awe after passing the rather
with a few stone steps every couple of meters. This gesture small and modest entrance. All of a sudden everything
connects the church to the town and the pilgrimage path, about the space seems to roar up towards the sky until,
making the dome the enclosed end of the open-air pilgrim’s high above, and one’s gaze comes to rest on the bottom
route: Approaching the church, the path winds through the side of the roof, the many-folded structure of which is
narrow alleys of the medieval town, spiraling around the visible inside. The room feels much bigger than you would
“concrete mountain” which only appears every now and expect from the outside. But then one starts to discover
then over or between the old buildings of the city center. all these familiar materials and structures: Böhm used the
This continues until one enters the slightly curved prome- same paving and street lamps inside as outside, so there is
nade and – finally – the church itself. continuity in the atmosphere of the exterior and interior
spaces, beneath the 7,500 cubic meters of the concrete
It’s easy to imagine that in 1968, when it was inaugurated, roof ’s structure. Together with the open concrete galleries
not everyone was happy with this giant concrete (Catholic!) this looks like an abstract version of the small-scale town
church rising in the northeast of Neviges. It was certainly that one has just passed through, like a light covered, very
an intrusion. Böhm’s structure has been compared to all robust marketplace.
sorts of things: a bunker, a tent, a fortress, a rock with a
giant cave and a crystal. The expressive form of the roof
might also be seen as a protective coat, a metaphor that is Uncanny and Ex-
often found in the design of churches dedicated to the Vir-
gin Mary. Gottfried Böhm has never explicitly explained his hilarating
inspirations, so we might assume that he intended for his
design to be open to all of these interpretations. Today it seems that the people of Neviges have developed
pride in “their” church, which remains a considerable sensa-
However one interprets the form, it cannot be considered tion, not only in the context of Neviges but also worldwide.
completely alien; It is not an isolated monolith, but rather It’s like an open house that attracts many different visitors: Photo: seier+seier, 2008
a greyish crystalline rock – God’s rock! – placed in front of believers and non-believers, Catholics and Protestants, pil-
the green hills of Neviges. It seems like a logical conclusion grims of the Virgin Mary and pilgrims of architecture. The
that evolves out of the slowly changing spaces along the church is widely considered Gottfried Böhm’s masterpiece,
route. The church is both connected to and set apart from although he built some 60 other churches most of which

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 Article

»Most of the
pilgrims stayed
overnight,
turning the
pilgrimage
into the main
economic en-
gine of the
area. «

Photo: seier+seier, 2008

Magazine No 01 | Pilgrimage & the Architect | Page 49

 Article

are also beautiful and impressive buildings. But never befo-

re or after he was able to develop such a convincing gesture
and comprehensive design, from the exterior spaces to the
chairs and the bright colored windows of stained glass.
When he was awarded with the Pritzker Prize in 1986, the
laudation seemed to make direct reference to the church in
Neviges: “His highly evocative handiwork combines much
that we have inherited from our ancestors with much that
we have but newly acquired — an uncanny and exhilara-
ting marriage.”

Although the construction was highly experimental in the

1960s, Böhm’s building has not required any significant
changes until today. Since the interior cannot be heated (it
was meant as a summer church for the pilgrims), a smaller,
warmer chapel room has been created inside. Böhm had
designed freely movable chairs for visitors, which are now
anchored in defined rows. The roof had to be fixed after
water damage occurred in the 1970s, and a light grey paint
was applied which disturbs the general impression of the
monolith for the keen-eyed pilgrim as the other walls have
meanwhile turned a much darker grey. These days, the
monks – together with the 92-year old Gottfried Böhm
– are conducting tests for an alternative roof construction
The robust and scant surfaces and materials inside
strategy. A covering with lead plates is currently being have remained their quality.
discussed. Böhm, who still lives in Cologne, has remained (Photos: seier+seier, 2008)
closely connected to his building and continues to visit it
regularly.

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 Essay

I Know
Where
You
Live
On stalking
architecture – and
architecture stalker
The Corbusierhaus in Berlin. (Photo: Rob Wilson)
Text by Rob Wilson
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 Essay

Often when I arrive home, walking towards my floor-by-floor with anonymous corridors stretching
apartment block, there are figures hanging around in into the distance. Once when I was in our old flat – on
the shadows at the edge of the trees, sometimes alone, the fifth floor, at the far end of a cul-de-sac corridor – I
sometimes in groups, staring at the building, mar- left the door open to get a through-breeze, only to hear
shalling cameras. And on leaving in the morning, it’s a slightly embarrassed cough behind me. Turning, I
not unusual to run the gauntlet of a massed crowd of found a couple, already half in the flat’s hallway, asking
twenty-something students, hardly noticing me as they whether they could take a quick look around. Our flat
hold their iPads and phones up to capture the block at the time was only a single studio, no balcony, dodgy
beyond. carpets, and so they left again pretty quickly, grasping
for something positive to say aside from a weak “great
I live in Berlin’s Corbusierhaus – the fourth iteration of view,” and looking somewhat crestfallen that they
Le Corbusier‘s Unité d’Habitation. At least it was origi- hadn’t received the double–height modernist masterpi-
nally designed by him, though he subsequently almost ece experience which they’d hoped for.
disowned it, demanding it be designated a lesser species
“Type Berlin,” as the ceiling heights in the apartments And that is what is most fascinating for me about pilg-
had to be increased to 2.5 metres to conform to the mi- rimages – strangely, even architectural ones: the people
nimum standards of the Berlin Building Code, thereby watching. Just read Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canter-
countermanding his beloved Modular of 2.26 metres. bury Tales of 1387: “It was ever thus.” After all, it’s to
Living there, this height increase is frankly an impro- a degree all in their (or your) head. People’s reactions
vement, but in any case it hasn‘t stopped the building are often so strange, rich, and extraordinary, ranging
becoming an architectural pilgrimage site. from brazen annoyance at others daring to be there
also, getting in the way of their pure communion with
Many of these architectural pilgrims venture inside the Architecture, to those who are self-conscious and half- Heidegger‘s Hütte, Todtnauberg, Schwarzwald.
block as well. Frequently when exiting the lift, you find embarrassed at their own interest and presence. I won- (Photo: Rob Wilson)
odd people milling around the lobby, perusing the rela- der what might be the experience they are looking for –
tively poor manna offered up by a series of information their own unique promenade architecturale, a moment
boards explaining the block‘s design, construction and of enlightenment, a touch of genius – the hand of the
layout, whilst also eyeing up the lifts hungrily, despera- Master speaking to them? And what is the qualitative
te to get deeper into the building. difference in expectation brought by their differing
reasons for visiting – whether it be viewing a key mas-
Occasionally more daring types do ride the lifts, in terwork, an extraordinary construction, a sacred site, or
the vain hope of seeing an apartment, only to be faced merely the ghost of association in a building?

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 Essay

When Peter Doig painted the Unité D’Habitation at Briey-en-Forêt in northeast France, it was semi-derelict. This painting‘s slightly sinister feeling shows the block in a very similar
setting to it’s ‘sister-ship’ in Berlin, the Corbusierhaus. The glimpsed view and approach through the trees has the sense more perhaps of being a stalker rather than a pilgrim. (Peter
Doig, Concrete Cabin II, 1992, Oil on canvas, 200 x 275 cm. Courtesy Warren and Victoria Miro, ©Peter Doig)

Magazine No 01 | Pilgrimage & the Architect | Page 53

 Essay

This came into focus last month when I was on holi-

day in the Schwarzwald, observing my own feelings as
I took a mini-pilgrimage of a sort – a short diversion
on the way up the Feldberg mountain, to see a tiny
building – all yellowed shingles and bright green shut-
ters: the hütte of Martin Heidegger. There was no one
around, and alone for a moment, I thought: what am I
here for? Do I think I‘ll be touched by genius? Or feel
the essence of dwelling, of Bauen Wohnen Denken –
or be alone with the ghost of the man? It was a bit of
all of these things, mixed with an amazing setting and
view.

Meanwhile, back in Berlin, like flies in ointment, I am

just one of the many architects that came first as a pil-
grim and got stuck in the Le Corbusier block, which is
now encrusted with designer-types living there. Maybe
it’s the chance to reside in a piece of the true cross, but
perhaps it’s just the same as those aging, addled hippies
who travel to and end up staying in Varanasi in India
– we’re all hoping for that elusive, endlessly removed
(architectural or other) Nirvana.

The Corbusierhaus in Berlin. (Photos: Rob Wilson)

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 Next Issue

13 S
ept.
201
2
Next Issue
Venice Architecture
Biennale 2012
Following our pilgrimage issue, uncube No. 02 is going
to be packed full of the bounty of the Venice Architecture
Biennale 2012, we will return with more than armfuls
of tasteful fabric bags, but also with our key impressions,
images, video interviews, – and of course some must-see
suggestions from this year’s grand architecture event.

Sign up for our Newsletter to stay tuned.

Australian architects Denton Corker Marshal’s visualization of their forthcoming Australian Pavilion is an homage to
Aldo Rossi’s 1974 Biennale Theater, which arrived on a barge. Construction start envisaged for the end of 2013.

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