BOLDNESS IN BRICK
Gehry’s MARTa Museum in Herford
Currently Frank O. Gehry is considered the most creative and original architect worldwide. Ever since his first experimental essays in the 1970ties Gehry has made use of all thinkable and unlikely materials with an extraordinary curiosity and eagerness for experiments in most cases ending up with surprising or convincing results. At the start of this career the materials chosen were cheap ones like plywood, wire netting or corrugated metal, later on the preferences dominating his choices were more sustainable like coloured aluminium or titanium plates confirming his reputation as a world famous architect.
Gehry’s most praised and so far most effective one for site has without doubt been the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao(1997)which allegedly created some 5.000 new jobs in the local tourist sector while at the same time bringing the industrial city of the coast of Northern Spain valuable reputation. Since then a number of cities and towns have been dreaming of having a ‘Bilbao-effect’ of their own by inviting well known architects to design a local masterpiece for this purpose
Unfortunately the creation of architectural masterpieces is not as easy as having the ambition, the money or handling the job to even an architect with some reputation. The lucky result only occurs if the architect is making breathtaking choices combined to the local context a being the right ones. This seems to have been the case in the German small-town of Herford (of some 60.000 residents.
The city council of this community wanted to preserve the state of being the mayor manufacturer of furniture and kitchen elements in Germany by inviting Gehry to design a new museum for design and art – MARTa. The name is referring to M for the first letter in the German word for furniture (Moebel) plus ART and a small ‘a’ for ambience, all together referring to the fact that the institution besides a design and art museum contains a ‘Forum for Culture, Events and Presentations’ as well as the ‘Competency and Information Centre’, the latter in the former factory building.
When MARTa opened last year (2005) the citizens of Herford had already voted their mayor out of office at local election due to the cost of the museum. While the mayor himself was sacrificed his plan of bringing the town on the world map of architecture succeeded never the less with visitors even coming from abroad in larger numbers than dreamed of.
As something new for Gehry brick is playing the mayor role as building material in Herford. Of course red brick has been used earlier by the architect – for instance as a part of his Winton Guest House (1984) and on a flat in Neue Zollhof, Düsseldorf (2001) – but in Herford brick is dominating the tall facades as well as the pavement outside and, in some places inside, the building totally. Visually the choice of brick is not evident considering the context of the mostly whitewashed and plastered small-town houses, but in respecting the scale of the neighbouring buildings Gehry is using them respectfully to draw attention and emphasize his museum building
Hidden at the rear of MARTa a listed industrial building from the 1950es is hiding only to be exposed in the lobby by its white-painted concrete structure wrapped in lower parts by plywood panels to prevent wear and tear from queuing visitors. The white industrial building structure is separated from the Gehry-‘addition’ by a glassed corridor also acting as main entrance and lobby for the complex. The entrance forecourt is contained on two sides by new building wings leading to the entrance under hangouts of a elegantly sculpted metal roof surfaces of which a part is used as a sign for the name of the museum. In contrast to the outside the interior is dominated by white plasterboards on steel framing, white ceilings as well as major skylights culminating the exhibition area
As in many other Gehry buildings complicated and hidden steel constructions are not only supporting the inner skin of the building but also supporting the curved brick cladding of the facades. The masonry is carried out as a thin curving façade layer only to be broken at corners where it has not been possible to curve the outer skin furthermore. Windows or openings are consequently omitted around the meeting hall and museum solely lit from above by skylights, while facade openings are occurring in the glazed lobby as well as in the small conference room, café and restaurant placed on the backside of the museum overlooking a picturesque little creek.
From any angle of the outside as well as in the interiors the sculptural forms and flowing special compositions is experienced as convincingly homogeneous and perfect architecture.
The architecture is a true masterpiece in homage to brick.
Flemming Skude
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