Rio de Janeiro
If the Parthenon was a 21st century project, it would probably be architect David Chipperfield. The Brit is the winner of this year’s Pritzker Prize, the highest award in architecture.
The association with classicism is not due to the postmodern reproduction of Doric, Ionic or Corinthian columns.
The correspondence established by Chipperfield with the genesis of Western architecture moves in the realm of principles. The forms of his projects are based on strict geometry and modulation. The nature of the materials used is explained visually and their structures are heavy, expressing solidity and stability.
It’s an architecture somewhat alien to the current logic of seeking the limelight through seductive images that can be easily shared on social networks to bestow fleeting status on the author.
It would be difficult to judge the quality of the Briton’s projects by the number of likes or other devices of momentary interest, as Chipperfield strives for the continuity of his buildings over the centuries.
In contrast to the recent Pritzker Prizes, which were awarded to Diébédo Francis Kéré last year or to the architect couple Grafton Architects in 2020, Chipperfield’s biography bears no trace of justifying her laurels with questions of identity.
After all, he is a white Londoner of rather aristocratic origin who graduated from elite schools such as the Kingston School of Art in 1976 and the Architectural Association in 1977. He has worked with Norman Foster, the 1999 Pritzker Prize winner, and Richard Rogers. Winner in 2007 before founding his own office in his hometown in 1985. His noble lineage is most evident when he is given the title Sir David Chipperfield.
So is this a conservative win? NO. This only reiterates that the Pritzker jury’s criteria favor the virtues of architectural design the essence of that craft over personalistic narratives.
Chipperfield had already worked in Japan and was a professor in Stuttgart when he won the 1997 competition for the project that made him famous the restoration of the Neues Museum in Berlin.
In this case, it is more likely to be a reconstruction, as the museum, originally designed by Friedrich August Stüler in the mid19th century, was heavily bombed during World War II and left entire sectors in ruins for decades.
The British architect reconstructed the original structure of the New Museum without camouflaging what was renewed in the middle of the old one. Using subtle contrasts, he filled in vanished areas with new materials. It did not hide the signs of the times and the traumatic wounds of war under putty and paint.
The main staircase hall deserves a special mention. The decorations that covered the walls, floors and ceiling were not reconstructed, but the original form of the grand, symmetrical staircase was recreated, now made of a gleaming mixture of white cement with shavings of Saxon marble, all set amidst exposed brick walls. The result is a monumental setting of rare elegance.
The Neues Museum project, reopened in 2009, established a new paradigm in the field of restoration of historic buildings for cultural purposes. This paved the way for David Chipperfield’s office to receive several commissions for such projects.
He designed the James Simon Gallery, which opened five years ago, on the same Museum Island in the Spree. The new building harmonises perfectly with the neoclassical neighboring buildings of the Pergamon Museum and the Old Museum.
The gallery was built to serve current daytoday functions information desk, box office, shop, luggage storage, rooms for temporary exhibitions and an auditorium. The overall purpose was to create a new entrance to this cultural quarter of the island. This access is characterized by a majestic and solemn external staircase in the center of the building, with elegant tall and slender columns covered in white and luminous stone.
The architect’s relationship with the city of Berlin grew closer. One does not need to be an expert in the field to see the correlation between the mathematical precision of David Chipperfield’s modules and that of the modern master Mies van der Rohe it seemed natural that the Brit who was commissioned to restore the Neue Nationalgalerie, the iconic 20th century steel and glass pavilion.
The order dealt with technical updates of air conditioning, technical lighting and other installations, but when the original project consists of strictly measured and assembled components, the renovation is a process of careful disassembly and reassembly.
Another city that Chipperfield has developed an infamous association with is Venice, Italy. In 2012 he curated the Architecture Biennale entitled “Common Ground” we can translate it as togetherness or consensus.
At that time he demanded that architects should be aware of their collective responsibility: “We advertise ourselves autobiographically, but distance ourselves from common concerns.”
His biennial statement ended with a warning. “We need to share ideas, pool our talents, take ourselves seriously so that people don’t see architects as prima donnas, lonely geniuses and media stars, but as professionals committed to a common agenda.”
In addition to the transience of an event, Chipperfield also conceived the new pavilions for the cemetery on the island of São Miguel in Venice, tranquil environments designed according to the canon of Renaissance perspective, aiming for ideal proportions if the dead have not gone from there to paradise , at least their bodies are in an earthly place with similar virtues.
Last year, the building of the old public prosecutor’s office on St. Mark’s Square was opened to the public for the first time in five centuries. Chipperfield renovated all of the building’s interiors, with over a hundred windows and over 50 arcades.
A highlight is the top floor under the roof, where he opened a series of new porticoes with contemporary arches reminiscent of those on the ground floor.
To fully understand a David Chipperfield project, one must have the somewhat archaic experience of visiting the site, walking cautiously from room to room, climbing its always unique stairways, wanting to touch the walls to appreciate the texture of perfectly cut to feel marble or concrete. finely polished until, when least expected, it is surprised by a vantage point of unexpected beauty to the eyes.
At 69, David Chipperfield was selected in February to design the Archaeological Museum of Athens, which seems like the natural destination for the scholar who best understands what classicism can offer contemporary architecture.