A Zumthor Endeavour
The Bruder Klaus Chapel
The Airbnb in Strasbourg recommended that I get the 9 euro German railway pass that covers everything except for high speed trains between cities. This means that all public transit in cities and regional trains are included. The downside is that for me to get from Strasbourg to Aachen near Cologne took 13 hours instead of 8. I suppose everyone and their mom is also traveling now that it’s summer, but I didn’t expect so many late trains. I thought the German system would be more robust.
For some reason I could not determine every single train I took was delayed. Either it left late or it arrived late. The first three trains arrived late but the transfers were long enough that I wasn’t disrupted. But then the fourth train was cancelled and I almost missed the replacement because the service person sent me to the wrong platform last minute when the upcoming train on the display was temporarily deleted. Fortunately the train left 30 minutes after it was scheduled to leave 40 minutes late so I was able to squeeze on like a sardine. Fortunately, the ride was only an hour and on the next train I could sit on the floor.
I was happy to arrive in Aachen after a day of transit but I had to get dinner, more donair because kebab is always dependable to be cheap and available, and then snacks from the grocery store for the next days expedition.
I don’t know why I continue to rough it in hostels when I know I’m going to have a bad experience and hate myself. Even with just four beds in the tight room, the man below kept shifting every few moments and when he finally departed early in the morning, two other men came to bed and began snoring. Like the thunder of Zeus, I wanted to kick them in the head. I wanted to scream and yell and shout. Why did I cheap out? Why did I knowingly choose a bad experience to save money? I know that it’s never worth it to loose sleep, wake up grump, and have a day with even worse allergies yet I continue to cheap out on hostels. Instead of 60 $/night I should spend double and actually enjoy myself. Actually be comfortable. And actually have a chance at a reduced allergy day. This was one of the least good hostel experiences I had on the trip but others were pretty good.
This has got to be one of the few times I was happy to get up early. I woke up so many times before my alarm I kept wondering if I should just get up. But I didn’t and I got a little more sleep when it got to be that time in the morning hours when the body’s just so tired it falls asleep.
It took me three trains to get where I needed to be — a regional express back to Cologne, a regional express to Mechernich, and then a regional train backtracking one stop to Satzvey. This station was so rural that it didn’t even have a platform but a strip of asphalt between the tracks. The Bruder Klaus Chapel is an hour walk away over a hill and through some fields. Unlike the Maginot Line, for the most part I was on dedicated bike paths or low volume roads so there weren’t any cars whizzing by at 60 clicks.
I was a bit surprised that there is a dedicated parking lot for the Chapel because it was commissioned by local a farmer and his wife who wanted to give thanks to the patron saint. It took architect Peter Zumthor nine years to design and build it. This reference is probably the best written description of the project I’ve found, that I used in my book. A large portion of that time was in discussion with the couple and getting to know them personally.
The Chapel is visible from the parking and is a striking block of sandstone set against a green backdrop and blue sky balanced by fields of wheat. The approach is not direct, but passes the long side of a barn and around some fields. As you approach, the grade slowly ascends so that you become level with the chapel and rotated 90 degrees so that the chapel stands out against the sky.
The chapel is made from concrete but it seems to be a very granular composition, almost like rammed earth in layers. The heavy steel door pivots open to a curving tunnel. It’s quite heavy but moves smoothly. The interior was formed by inclined logs that were burned away over several days. Charred reminders remain yet the scalloped shells are smooth.
This is the first architectural work that I wanted to touch everywhere. The walls are smooth curves with rough peaks that go well with the many glass spheres embedded in the wall. Steel tubes through the wall bring in light and make the wall sparkle. They also help to break up the12m vertical height. The floor is also tactile with a liquid metal appearance. I’m not sure if it was intentional, but a depression in the floor makes for a nice shallow pool of water.
The chapel is a single chamber open to the sky where light is drawn in. It’s not dark, but perfectly composed atmosphere. It is exactly the kinds of experiences that Zumthor speaks about in his lecture and book Atmosphere. The tactility and atmosphere do not render nearly as well in photograph than having been there in person. This work was very important to my Emotive Architecture and thesis work but experiencing it in person had elevated even further.
I think Corbusier’s Pavilion, Tadao Ando’s conference centre, and this Chapel have a lot more to teach me and I’m eager to research them further. This chapel is one of the most important architectural works to me, particularly because it is a rare example where the narrative of construction is grandeur than the construction itself. This project is all about how it was made, not what was made. It is about the journey of the designer and the occupant, the atmosphere, and the connection to the land. Too much architecture continues to be built on the ideas of the 20th century that devestates the environment. I am attracted to architecture that associates the people with the landscape with Zumthor has done masterfully here.
I was glad that I went early in the morning because a tour bus arrived on my departure and I was pretty agash to see it driving down the bike path to get as close as possible. On the flip side, the field around the chapel is still used by the local farmers who brought their tractor to mix up the cut grass.
I then thought to go on an adventure and take a different train back but halfway there I realized that it probably wasn’t going to work and had to double back.
When I made it back to Cologne I downed a bottle of water and then when to the Kolumba Museum, another Zumthor Project that I’d studied during a school work study. The museums holds largely Jewish artwork but I was most interested in the building itself.
The museum is built on the ruins of a Roman residence, a Carolingian church, a two Romanesque churches, and a gothic cathedral. A pathway floats above the ruins and is lit by double layered perforated brick walls.
I had a hell of a time with allergies in there for no good reason but to make taking photos difficult. At the far end of the path is a former vestry with a work by Richard Serra. The booklet provided by the museum was useful because I’d seen pictures of it but thought nothing of it until I read the description that it is named The Drowned and the Saved, referring to a book by Primo Levi who was arrested in 1944 as a Jew and deported to Auschwitz. The book is about the duty to remember in order to ensure that such things would never happen again. It wasn’t the most striking work but it had a good story.
The upper levels were beautiful. The walls are tall and plain with few works and fewer glass cases. Each floor has a reveal along the edge and chambers to the sides hoave a small lip up. I think a lot of people stumble on it but I quite enjoy it. These rooms are also have higher ceiling providing an experience of expansion and contraction in each space.
Of the windows out to the city I looked for connecting moments like the Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens but they seemed mostly for daylight. Only one window looked toward the Cologne Opera but it did not seem very intentional. The museum is about the same height as the buildings around it so it’s probably not easy to make framed views to the city when it’s blocked by the neighbours.
There were a number of petty attendants that would make good subjects in the photos and give a sense of scale but they were well practiced in eluding photos. I spent so long looking at the ceiling they must have wondered what I was doing.
There wasn’t much else I wanted to see in Cologne. I went into the cathedral which was cool and the Ludwig Museum because they had an exhibit on Isamu Noguchi but it was less landscape architecture and more sculptural.
I am however extremely pleased that I made it to both of the Zumthor projects. They were the reason I came and there’s a certain amount of satisfaction with achieving a goal, however small it is.
