Kolumba
The other precedent we were asked to look for was one that involved stone in its construction. We were asked to look at this because of our overarching studio brief which talks at length about the history of our site and the Albert Barrack Wall which is constructed from Basalt.
The remaining volcanic Basalt stonewall of Albert Barracks (1846 — 1852) located in the University of Auckland can be traced back to the colonial mid-nineteenth century when early plans for the town of Auckland were developed. A high wall enclosed nine hectares of military fortification, roughly octagonal in plan, included barracks, a munitions magazine, a hospital and a commissariat. More than one hundred Mori stonemasons and builders were involved in this construction, mainly utilising volcanic Basalt blocks quarried from nearby Mangawhau Mt Eden. The barracks were disbanded in 1870 and the wall was largely demolished afterwards with eighty five metres of the original wall left. The remaining stone itself was returned to Mt Eden to fortify the prison that arose there from 1872. — Extract from studio brief.
Given the historical significance of the site, and that fact that our brief asks us to take this into consideration which approaching a design proposal, I thought it would be interesting to look at a precedent which deals with the need to respect a sites history without just creating a design that lives in the past. Hence, to me, Peter Zumthor’s Kolumba seemed like a good example of this.
During World War II, Germany was bombed by allied air strikes which left behind the mass destruction of architecture and property. It was during this period that the Saint Kolumba Parish was the leading church in the German city of Cologne. However, in 1943 the church and everything on the site was demolished into ruins by an air raid. With the exception of a small chapel that was built on the site in 1949 in remembrance of the devastating bombings, the ruins remained untouched until Peter Zumthors Kolumba Museum was erected in 2007.
Zumthor's design won a competition hosted by the Kolumba Art Society, with his proposal promising to conserve the ruins on the site, preserving its significance as a historical monument. In order to achieve this the design uses the ruins from the site to construct the foundation of the Museum. Uniting the fragments of the old building with a modern grey brick. In doing so the new architecture seems to merge seamlessly with the old.
Despite the fact that the Museum is definitely constructed of more ‘new’ than ‘old’ this does necessarily feel the case when looking at the building. This is as the brick chosen by Zumthor seems to give precedence to the old building, through allowing it to stand out in contrast to the silent, flat and muted tone of the brick. In allowing the old ruins to be the focal point of the design, Zumthor has paid respect to the history of the site through preventing the events of the past being lost and forgotten about. They are showcased in their own exhibit against the backdrop of a new architecture.
To me this precedent felt particularly apt as it not only demonstrates the ways in which we can pay respect the to the history of a site, but its also shows us that we can do it in a way that is modern and forward looking. To respect the architecture of the past we do not just have to replicate it. In fact to just merely replicate it in many ways could be considered disrespectful. Architectural styles have their time and place, and exist for a reason. Hence to just replicate what is used to be there out of an obligory ‘respect’ seems almost like a hollow gesture. The purpose of the design is lost as it is no longer valid. Instead perhaps it is better to think about how we can pay homage to the past in a way that is appropriate to the current context of the design, as Zumthor did. Making sure that any gestures to the past that we make are deliberate and considered.
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