(text is machine translated by Google)
On Monday, the Marian chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp closed to the public, but the gates of the area were opened for our expedition. We were able to experience the pilgrimage chapel in an unusual way during the service day, when the preservation committee dealing with the three-year reconstruction also met, thanks to which the entire southern facade of the chapel is now hidden behind scaffolding. On the other hand, it was possible to see the work of the restorers, exposed parts without plaster and test boreholes examining the condition of the reinforced concrete supporting structure and infill masonry. The visitor center by Renzo Piano, completed eleven years ago, gradually grows into the hillside. Lush vegetation successfully covers the modern intervention and it may happen that many visitors overlook the accommodation for nuns with a small chapel.
Accommodation at the La Tourette monastery had to be arranged well in advance and we were so glad that the solstice date fell on us. The shortest night of the year allowed us to experience the thoughtful complex from early morning until late dusk. In addition to direct spatial experiences that no medium can convey, we also enriched our taste senses thanks to joint dinners in the refectory.
On the way to Firmini, we only drove through nearby Lyon (there are many interesting buildings here for many days) and stopped in Givors for an experimental the 1970s housing estate of La cité des Étoiles by Jean Renaudi, where a reinforced concrete star structure with hundreds of apartments grows out of urban development into wild nature at the foot of a hill with castle ruins. In Firmini we were caught by a cloudburst and also half of Le Corbusier's buildings were closed, but in Unité d'habitation some students also got to see duplex apartments or see the concrete roof landscape of the local kindergarten.
During three intensive days we were able to see Le Corbusier's early work and his late works. With the bar set high, we stopped at the royal saltworks in Arc-et-Senans by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux on the way back. Today, the area included in the UNESCO list serves as a museum (Anthony Vidler participated in the exhibition), where you can familiarize yourself with the models of other visionary projects of this classicist architect.
The aim of the excursion was to experience first-hand the buildings of one of the the most important architects of the 20th century, but also to learn that inspiration can be drawn from significantly older buildings and at the same time keep our eyes open so that we do not miss the current direction of architectural creation.
Journey to La Tourette 2022 - report from the excursion
After completing all their school duties, the summer holidays began for four dozen FA BUT students with a tour of Le Corbusier's buildings. Compared to the previous excursion four years ago, the program had to be slightly shortened, but all important stops were preserved and, in addition, buildings were added, the authors of which do not often appear in the Czech curriculum. The departure was traditionally from the Hotel Austerlitz. By crossing to Stuttgart at night, we saved precious time, where we arrived shortly after dawn and were able to see the iconic New State Gallery by James Stirling before visiting the Weissenhof housing estate (where we had a reservation until 10:00 a.m.). Czechoslovakia, due to its communist history, skipped postmodern styles (with the exception of Michal Brix and a few others). At the same time, it is on these buildings that one can learn to read strong concepts linking new buildings to place and history. On the contrary, the famous Weissenhof housing estate from 1927 on the Killesberg hill above Stuttgart is a pure example of the international style, which enchanted the entire interwar generation of architects, and you can come across identical white cubes all over the world. The main propagator of purism and the person who defined the Five Points of modern architecture was Le Corbusier, who built three family houses on a Stuttgart estate, which, unlike Taut's or Gropius' buildings, have survived to this day, have been sensitively reconstructed and, moreover, are made available to the public. The students were thus able to experience first-hand the cramped layouts and the generous roof garden. In addition to Le Corbusier's semi-detached villa, there was also an exhibition of the Portuguese Fala studios on the ground floor of the Behrens house, with the creation of which students could get to know more closely already in October 2019 during two lectures at FA BUT. In the afternoon we crossed to France, where there was only one item on the agenda in Alsatian Colmar (apart from accommodation) and that was the expansion of the Unterlinden museum. In addition to a modern extension by the Basel duo Herzog & de Meuron, the former Gothic Dominican convent houses the Isenheim Altarpiece by the German Renaissance painter and Matthias Grünewald. A tour of the medieval area with the Garden of Eden at least partly evoked the atmosphere of the Le Thoronet monastery (it is Cistercian and in the Romanesque style), which Le Corbusier was freely inspired by when designing the Dominican monastery of La Tourette.On Monday, the Marian chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp closed to the public, but the gates of the area were opened for our expedition. We were able to experience the pilgrimage chapel in an unusual way during the service day, when the preservation committee dealing with the three-year reconstruction also met, thanks to which the entire southern facade of the chapel is now hidden behind scaffolding. On the other hand, it was possible to see the work of the restorers, exposed parts without plaster and test boreholes examining the condition of the reinforced concrete supporting structure and infill masonry. The visitor center by Renzo Piano, completed eleven years ago, gradually grows into the hillside. Lush vegetation successfully covers the modern intervention and it may happen that many visitors overlook the accommodation for nuns with a small chapel.
Accommodation at the La Tourette monastery had to be arranged well in advance and we were so glad that the solstice date fell on us. The shortest night of the year allowed us to experience the thoughtful complex from early morning until late dusk. In addition to direct spatial experiences that no medium can convey, we also enriched our taste senses thanks to joint dinners in the refectory.
On the way to Firmini, we only drove through nearby Lyon (there are many interesting buildings here for many days) and stopped in Givors for an experimental the 1970s housing estate of La cité des Étoiles by Jean Renaudi, where a reinforced concrete star structure with hundreds of apartments grows out of urban development into wild nature at the foot of a hill with castle ruins. In Firmini we were caught by a cloudburst and also half of Le Corbusier's buildings were closed, but in Unité d'habitation some students also got to see duplex apartments or see the concrete roof landscape of the local kindergarten.
During three intensive days we were able to see Le Corbusier's early work and his late works. With the bar set high, we stopped at the royal saltworks in Arc-et-Senans by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux on the way back. Today, the area included in the UNESCO list serves as a museum (Anthony Vidler participated in the exhibition), where you can familiarize yourself with the models of other visionary projects of this classicist architect.
The aim of the excursion was to experience first-hand the buildings of one of the the most important architects of the 20th century, but also to learn that inspiration can be drawn from significantly older buildings and at the same time keep our eyes open so that we do not miss the current direction of architectural creation.
| Inserted by | Šmídek Petr, MgA. Ing.arch. PhD. |
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