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David Chipperfield takes visitors to the LFA through the ages in his keynote speech
The Institute of Education's Logan Hall was packed full of architectural enthusiasts last Wednesday night when Stirling prize winning architect, David Chipperfield gave his keynote speech as part of this year’s London Festival of Architecture.
Moving through the great masters from Le Corbusier to Louis Kahn, Chipperfield showed the progression from Modernism to Post Modernism placing his work firmly in the history of great architecture.
British born Chipperfield, presented a range of both large and small-scale projects emphasising his wish to democratise buildings; allowing the public to inhabit spaces and feel some ownership over the architecture. This he demonstrated in the spiralling balconies of his America’s Cup Building in Valencia and the central atrium of the new BBC Scotland building in Glasgow.
Chipperfield’s presentation finished with a focus on a project that seemed close to the architect’s heart, the Neues Museum on Berlin’s Museum Island. Making reference to the dilemma’s surrounding the restoration of post-war and post-communist Germany it seemed appropriate somehow that he as a ‘foreign’ architect tackled this sensitive restoration project. Choosing what seemed to be a light-touch, an array of slides showed the painstaking process of the repair and renewal of August Stueler’s 1859 Neues Museum climaxing in the serenity of the main entrance hall.
Chipperfield’s buildings seem calm and collected, much like the man himself. The lecture was a joy and another great triumph for the 2008 Festival of Architecture.
For more information on the London Festival of Architecture please visit www.lfa2008.org
Written by Moira Lascelles, LFA
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