Figures: A Project in St Petersburg 2010-2012 - Hardcover

Rob Krier

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 393668166X ISBN 13: 9783936681666

Publisher: Edition Axel Menges, 2012

Synopsis

The architect is at all times also an artist. How otherwise would he be able to tame the three-dimensionality of space and subdue the urges of physics and structural mechanics with the creations of his fantasy? This creativity is however mostly restricted purely to its own field. Rob Krier is an exception. For years, he has seen his love of art as a vocation -- one which he nurtures parallel to his work in construction. Fine art should stand in dialogue with architecture and it is Krier's ambition to have iconographic themes brought into the latter, so that they might speak equally to both the occupants of a building and to bystanders, moving them to thoughtful reflection. In his contribution to the European Embankment project in St Petersburg, Krier recently demonstrated the power of architecture and fine art to cross-fertilise. The architects in charge of the urban development of this district are Sergei Tchoban and Evgeny Gerasimov. Krier designed the façade for a 132-metres long building on the Newa riverbank one that looks across the water onto the rear façade of the Hermitage. The vibrancy of the architecture is enhanced by its sculptural ornamentation based on the Balzac theme, 'The Human Comedy'. In this regard, Krier modelled over 50 figures in white clay, as well as around 65 linear metres of reliefs. The short poems that comment on the sculptures also centre on the theme of mankind and its interrelationships in society.

About this title

About the Author

Rob Krier is an architect and influential theorist for architecture and urban planning. Born and raised in Luxembourg, he moved to Vienna after having studied in Munich and worked for Oswald Mathias Ungers and Frei Otto. Today he resides in Berlin and Liguria. After teaching posts in Stuttgart and Lausanne, he was a professor of architecture at Vienna Technical University from 1976 to 1998 and, in 1986, held a guest professorship at Yale University in New Haven, Mass. Besides his work as an architect, Rob Krier creates sculptures and statuary arts primarily for public spaces.

Edition details

• Publisher: Edition Axel Menges
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 393668166X
• ISBN 13: 9783936681666
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 704