Valerio Olgiati: A Visitation

Author(s): Peter Wilson

Source: AA Files, No. 65 (2012), pp. 59-71
Published by: Architectural Association School of Architecture
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 Valerio
Olgiati:

A Visitation

Peter Wilson

You have come a longway

fromwormto mankind,but a part
ofyou remainsworm.
PronouncementfromZarathustra,
when he came downfrom themountain,
fromFriedrichNietzsche,
Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1885

Undercroft
oftheValerio studio,
Olgiati
Flims, 2012
Switzerland,
©Archive
Olgiati

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A lecturebyValerioOlgiatiin Germanyis a Above: Strombolicchio, Italy
Sicily, has,appropriate to itspark-propagating role,
©Konrad Helbig with
rare occasion, one that re-enactscertain : Fathepur India 24 equallymegapicture windows, every
Opposite Sikri,
underlyinghierarchies in the German- ©Archive wall of every room centrallyshot through
Olgiati
speakingEurozone,wherethe architectural withone as ifitwereitscompositionalcode).
journalHochparterre (the word roughly translatesas 'one level up') During my time as Olgiati'sco-professorat the Accademia di
mediaplatforms
is one oftheprincipalarchitectural fora long-stand- Architettura in Mendrisioit was rumouredamongststudentsthat
ing,one-waydisseminationofwhatis now marketedas 'Swissness'. he had sanded offtheredcrossfromtheSwissnumberplateofhis
The 'land of the foldingpocketknife'hoversoverits much larger whitePorschein a characteristic actofextremeaestheticexactitude.
-
and perhapsless refinednorthernneighbour a sortof mythologi- For his recentlecturein Münsterwe had expectedthe same white
cal architect'sutopiawherebeautifully detailedbuildingsare com- Porsche,largelybecause the seven-hourdriveon no-speed-limit
missionedbyculturedand discerningclientswho livediscreetlives autobahns seemed preferableto the profanity of shopping-centre
in expansive,exposedconcreteinteriors thatare almostempty,save airports. As it turned out, the ketchup-n-chips Germanroadside
of
fortheirartcollections,interspersed betweenimpossibly largesheets Gaststätte presentedan evengreateraestheticand cultureshockfor
of glass beyondwhichfrolicsa panoramaof alpine peaks. (I must a Swissarchitectand hiswifetravelling incognitoinwhatturnedout
admitthatthe use hereof theword'frolic'betraysa certainAnglo- to be a vw Phaeton(butpaintedin a colour- Staubgrauor dustgrey
Saxonreading,whichfortheSwissmightlackthenecessaryserious- - thatValeriotells me laterwas speciallyproducedforhim at the
ness.Perhapsitwouldhavebeenbettertoplumbthegenealogyofthe Germancarmaker'sDresdenfactory). The whitePorsche,however,
picturewindowbackto the1930VillaKhunerbyAdolfLoos,withits remainsa kind of Olgiatiemblem. I rememberit lurkingwithin
'photomontaged view'throughthelarge-format windowin theinte- the rarefiedambience of the undercroft below his studio in the
riorphotographfirstpublishedbyHeinrichKulkain his 1930Loos village of Flims, in the easterlySwiss canton of Graubünden,
monograph.)Olgiati,however, takespains to distancehimselffrom a composed and provocativereversalof the familiarJudd-or
thisgenre(althoughthelivingroominhis2005k+n House sportsfour Serra-styleminimalistontologyof haptic object in white cube.
suchmega-panes,whichmagicallyand mag- In Flims it was the object thatwas coded
nificentlydisappearintothefloorat thepush white, abstractand mobile (it comes and
k+nHouse,
Opposite-,
of a button;whilesimilarlythe 2008Visitor LakeZurich, Switzerland,
2005 goes), while the framingenclosure took
CentrefortheSwissNationalParkin Zernez © ArchiveOlgiati on the role of subject, embraced by the

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super-materiality oftactile,engulfing
concreterecallingTanizakior he has just traversedto theartificial
horizonat theedge oftheroof
thedim,unseenlightsourcesofbaroqueniches. pool,levelledto themillimetre to preventwaterspillage.Itbringsto
Later,on thewayto thelecture(in myfunctionalblackVolvo),we mindan earlier1968generationof Swiss enfantsterribles and their
stoppedoffto showtheOlgiatisone ofour recentprojects- a ware- slogan, 'down withthe Alps,clear view to A
Italy'. poolside Porsche
house and officepavilionwithits own 40 x60m rooftopreflecting conversationensues, threateningto delay the lecture.Our client
pool. The building'sPorsche-driving announces that his own black 911
clienthad asked us to inscribeinto has had its engine tweaked and
its adjacent black asphalt a 50cm- recentlyreached 325km/hon the
wideX5om-long white stripe to open autobahn. Olgiati concedes
demarcatethe routeto his own per- thatthis is the ultimaterefinement
fectlyaxial parking space. Olgiati in German technology,but that it
notedthattodaythisPorscheseemed neverthelessfalls somewhat short
to have been parked somewhatoff on aura and elegance.He adds that
centre. The German hermeneutic he himself has recently moved
philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer onwards and upwards and now
had a wordforthis kind of critique drivesa Ferrari.
- Vorurteile
, denotingthe prejudices Finally arriving at the msa
or pre-judgements thatan individual (MünsterSchoolofArchitecture), the
ora groupuses to definethemselves, lecturehallwas morethanfull(walls,
and make a distinctionbetween'us' aisles and every available space
and 'them','self' and 'other'. appropriated), withone rowoccupied
Aroundus herein Münsteris the by the higher echelons of Münster's
flat north German plain, Ronald city planning department,and six
Reagan'sCold Wartheatreof choice seats nearbyoccupied by ten mem-
for a limited nuclear skirmish. bersof myown office, who laterdis-
Olgiaticomparesthisflatlandscape closed their strategyfor avoiding

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crampbytakingturnsleaningforwards Lectures follow a sanctioned script
or back - a sortof synchronised slow- and sequence, and to date have been
motionrowingthroughthetidesofthe published in Portugueseand English
subsequent two-hourOlgiati lecture. (in Darco 14, 2010) and in German,
Two further overflow lecturehalls pro- English, Italian, Spanish, French
jected live video transmissions.One and Japanese (Olgiati, by Birkhäuser,
weekearlierStudioOlgiati(in fact17(a) 2012). In every iterationthe lecture
olgiati.net)had cancelled the lecture begins with an opening photograph
because 'the publicityvisible on the that looks down on an exhibition(in
internetwas not professionalenough'. Tokyoor at the eth Zurich),featuring
Thiswas certainly thecase; themsa has large white models balanced on thin
a remarkably flatadministrativestruc- black pins,and thenfollowsfourpro-
ture but an activestudentbody,who jects (threebuilt,one unbuilt)before
self-administer things like photogra- introducing Olgiati's 'Iconographie
phy,sponsorship(eventhedeputydean Autobiography' - extractsfroma lexi-
is a student)and publicityfor such con of 55 overwhelmingly seductive
eventspossiblyat theexpenseofprofes- reference images.
sionalism.Althoughthroughsms net- The models are all at a scale of
working,the studentsdid conjurean 1:33and presentour firstaccess to the
audience fromfarand wide thatwas familyof forms- the specificobjects
appropriateto the scale of the Olgiati that constitute the Olgiati oeuvre.
mediamyth.In theend thelecturewas Theirauthorexplainsthatthese mod-
sanctionedfromFlims. els are not to be read as miniature
The Olgiati story is a precise buildingsbecause the uniformwhit-
construct, administered and dis- eout bleaches a materialreading,con-
seminated with draconian rigour. textand other nuances of character,

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and so what theyprioritiseinsteadare the Above : TheSacredLake, and, strangely,'castle'. With Olgiati, we
abstractionsof a conceptualstrategy, such TempleofHathor, Denderah,Egypt seem to be courtingsimilarlinguisticand
: Katsushika
Opposite Hokusai,
as the earlyYellowHouse withits dangling ViewofMount formal ambiguities. His early Yellow
Fuji,1827
pudenda of structuralcolumn and cruci- House, for example, might lead one to
formbeams locatingeach internallevel.For hnal presentationsor expectsomethingakinto Luis Barragan's1983yellowValdezHouse
studentworkat Mendrisio,Olgiatihad been knownto hirea local in Monterrey, but itis actuallypaintedwhite,a wilfuldisempower-
painterto spraystudentmodelswhiteas theyenteredthejurystu- mentofitstitle.Is thisa linguisticdecoyto confoundthevillagers
dio. Whiterecursas themeand coding in manypublished state- ofFlims,who gave Olgiatiseniorsuch a difficult time?'Nowyou'll
mentsbyOlgiati.His studioin Flimshas masteredthe alchemyof knowwhatyourfatherhad to putup with',is whatOlgiati'smother
55cmwhiteconcretewalls byusingwhitecementin place of grey, is reportedto have said when the provocativeYellowHouse was
and whiterockdustorgreysand withLiaver(a foamglass and gran- firstunveiled(causing traffic accidentsat the villagecrossroads).
ulate product)in place of greyrockdust,and even replacinggrey The white/yellow exhibitionhouse framesone almostcentralinter-
gravelwithwhiteLiaporclay. nal column. Such columns in similarlyconstitutedJapanesetem-
Frustratedat havingto regularly re-educateconstructionfirms ples (forexample,at the Izumo Taisha shrine,whose plan is to be
in theartofconcrete,StudioOlgiatihas recentlyconsideredgoing foundin theIconographieAutobiography) havea name inJapanese
intothe business as concretecontractorsthemselves.A 2005 com- that designates both 'earthquake-resisting column' and 'father'.
petitiondesignfortheuia Medical Centreis renderedin gleaming In Flims,Olgiatireportsthatthe exact placementof the column
sanitary-warewhiteconcrete,a plumpmiddle-agedplatoniccylin- required one week's intellectuallabour. Does this not send us
der that resists,throughits thematisedwhiteness,both sand- skiddinginto the hall of mirrorsof significationthatwe might
storms and any poetic midday mirage of its desert horizon. naivelyassume is taboo withintheCalvinisticonoclasmassociated
This projectis metaphoricallylinkedto the Olgiatiiconographie withSwissness- thathigherlevelwherestoneinsistson its stone-
catalogue with a visual referenceto Hokusai's late-seventeenth- ness,and materialpresenceeclipsesmetaphoricassociation?
centurywoodblockprintof Mount Fuji. In Further provocations of the Yellow
Japanese, much confusion arises from the House are exemplifiedin its much pub-
: TheYellow
Opposite House,
fact that the word for the colour white Flims, Switzerland,
1999 lished office photographs (by Olgiati's
[shiro]also designates 'snow', 'mountain' ©Archive Olgiati friend and colleague Christian Kerez).

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 HouseKucher, HouseinMalans,
1992 TheLakeCaumaproject, inPaspels,
School 1998
amNeckar,
Rottenburg 1991 Flims,
1996-02

Bäckerareal
CommunityCentre, Museum
Rietberg extension, ofLucerne,
University 2003
Zurich,
1999 2002
Zurich,

Ardia
Palaceresidential
building, Residence
Multi-family K, museum,
Municipal 2006
Aarau, Bardili
Studio, 2002-07
Scharans,
Tirana,2005 2006
Zurich,

Plantahof
Auditorium, residential
ZugSchleife building,
2008-10
Landquart, Zug,2006-12

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TheYellow
House,
Flims,
1999 Three
condominiums,
Chur,
1999 HouseinSarid'Orcino,
2000 Office 2001
Zurich,
building,

EPFLLearning
Centre, National
PalaceMuseum, 2004
Taipei, Visitors
Gornergrat Centre, K+NHouse,
LakeZurich,
2001-05
Lausanne,
2004 Zermatt,
2004

Valerio studio,
Olgiati Visitors
Centre
SwissNational
Park, Perm
Museum 2008
xxi,Perm, Parliament
entrance
CantonGrisons,
Flims,2003-07 Zernez,
2003-07 Chur,
2007-10

IICarnasciale,
Cantina 2008- Hohenbeilstein
Schlossgut HouseinAlentejo,
2009- Apartment inLima,
tower 2010-
Auditorium,
Beilstein,
2009-

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Throughthemwe can see how the byLe Corbusier'smaniaforcollect-
rough, white-paintedstone sur- ing images and publishing)that
face mimicsthe foregroundpock- resurfacesas the Olgiatitemplate.
marked textureof meltingsnow. ForOlgiati,as forLe Corbusier,dis-
Plasterhas been hackedoffthepre- courseis marshalledbya sophisti-
existing(yellow)building'withthe cated understandingand instru-
violenceofa flayedanimal',accord- mentalising ofmass media.The key
ing to one reviewer.The resulting vehicleofthisis his2008mythologis-
archaic monolith is marshalled ingwhitemonograph, a bumperofa
byin-situ-concrete windowsintoa book,50mmthickwithan extremely
griddedstraitjacket of whitewalls fragile binding that causes it
and black Cartesian punctures. to self-destruct in the hands of
The overwrittraces of previous a lessthanrespectful reader.Images,
openingsand detail are concealed as in morerobustchildren'sbooks,
behind the gossamer drape of an are printedon heavycard,so that
extremely finewhitelimewash.The thewhole registersmoreas a mini
provocativemanifestationof such construction thana book. Original
scantilyclad nakedness at a vil- editionsarealreadyrumouredto be
lage crossroadsactivatesa certain, sellingon the antiquarianmarket
almostpornographic, voyeurism. formorethantentimestheirorigi-
The recent media success of nal retailprice- collector'sitems,
the Olgiati oeuvre suggests com- especiallywhen inscribedwiththe
parisonsto BeatrizColomina's1994 'Valerio Olgiati' signature,20cm
Privacyand Publicity thesis.In par- highand 30cmwide(theactofsign-
ticular,it is the abandonmentof ingembeddedin a performative tra-
the private(principallyillustrated Yet its
dition). despite frailties, this

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mustbe one of the best architectural books : KazuoShinohara,
Above HouseinAshitaka, uninvited pilgrimagesto Flims, outma-
Japan, 1977© Shinkenchiku-sha
ever published,perhaps the heaviest,and
Zervreila
Reservoir, noeuvringmotion-sensorsecuritylightsas
Opposite:
also one ofthemosteccentric. Graubünden, ©Archive
Switzerland Olgiati theyscale the Olgiati perimeterwall. The
Olgiati and his contemporary Kerez title of James Knowlson's recent Samuel
have also been recentlycanonised by El Croquismonographsas Beckettbiography- DamnedtoFame- springsto mind.Shinohara
Young Turks of the Swiss scene. For both, structureis a defin- was neverplagued by such disrespectfuladulation. I remember
ing theme in theirarchitectural products,and each of them also some decades ago commutingwithhim bytrainto his Yokohama
frequently refers to the practiceand proceduresof the Japanese residenceand studio,wherehe installedhimselfbehindhis desk,
mathematician/architect Kazuo Shinohara. Such trans-cultural a self-designed'statementwork station',and I sat facing him,
referencing is the exceptionin a Swiss contextwhere metaphor respectfully and extremely formally sippingtea.
or symbolicreadingremainsillicit,giventhe legacyof Calvinism In a 2011El Croquisconversationwith Markus Breitschmid,
and the abstractmodernismof Hannes Meyer,Max Bill, Alfred Olgiati declares 'Sometimes I find my architecturelabelled as
Roth or, for that matter,Rudolf Olgiati. But as the prodigal minimalism,a gross misinterpretation... I thinkarchitectonically
Olgiatijunior tells us, his early stintin Californiacoloured his through and through! To think architectonicallyis extraordinarily
worldview.'We are all childrenof postmodernism',he relates as rich.I enjoy it!As a matter of fact,my own ambition is to expand
a preludeto the saga of his homecoming,'the bachelorstripped architecture in such a waythatthereexistsabsolutelyno reference:
bare by Americandivorcelaw',just as his YellowHouse stripped I dreamof pure architecture!' Olgiati'sbuildingsexhibita charac-
bare the Swiss alpine postcard aesthetic.The narrativeof this teristic'unitaryform',an aspirationto objecthood- poeticobjects
post-lecture epiphanyalso revealedhow his returnto Graubünden (and poeticimages)thatchallengetheiraudienceto engage.'People
and the Flims villagehouse modifiedby Olgiatisenior prompted like to be continuouslyengaged',continuesOlgiati.This is not so
the choreography of the currentmuch-publicisedOlgiati setup - much a Kantian aestheticengagement,but more an imaginative
thewhite'house oftradition'(his parents'house now occupied by unravellingof the building's encoded conceptualisation.Here
himself) twinned provocativelywith the we are not tartromRichardSerras line or
newblackOlgiatiStudiobuilding.
: PermMuseum investigation- primeobjects,foreground-
Opposite xxi,
The success of this media hit has gen- Russia,2008 ing materialslike lead, steel or concrete,
erated legions of fans, who now make ©TotalRealAG a monumentallogic at work. For Serra,

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as for Olgiati, the veil of minimalism, Above
:Josef
Hoffmann, PalaisStoclet, him, decipheringthis compositionalcode
couched as it is in the phenomenologi- Brussels,Belgium,1905-11 is thechallengesetto thosewho encounter
: Izumo
Opposite TaishaShrine,
cal, 'mystifiesmore than it reveals', as Japan, ctenth
century his objects.
Hal Foster characterisedit in The Art- In many ways it is this 'firstperson'
Architecture Complex.Hence one 01Olgiatis signatureprovocations: as referentthat characterisesmuch of Olgiati's Iconographie
'I am particularly dumbfoundedwhen... lookingat architectural Autobiography, fiveimages of which have the sub-category, 'One
education...whyall those phenomenologicalconsiderationsare of the Five Houses I Would Live In' - a privilegedlist,including
thoughtofas important.' a carefullycropped view of Shinohara's1977House in Ashitaka,
It is a characteristicof the modernthat artisticproductsare whose own author also indulged in first-person authenticating:
measuredonlyagainstthe oeuvresof theirauthors- a condition 'I wantto build such a house thatwhenI stand in a roomthewall
perhapsbest illustratedbytheworkof Picasso, who in the face of I faceseems to be standingat a greatdistance.'BothShinoharaand
theincreasingdifficulty in identifying theuniversalvalues ofa spe- Olgiatihave also describedtheirconceptualmoves in composing
cificmomentbecame his own referent (Blue period,Pink period, space as either'divisions'or 'additions'.For Shinohara,the latter
etc).This is also thecase withthebodyofobjectsthatmakeup the joiningtogetherofcomponentsappearedas a particularly western
work of Olgiati; theyconstitutea familywith recognisableand trope- notablycollage.
recurringtraits,organisationaltropeslike the ambushed square Withinthe Olgiatioeuvrethe phrase 'specificobjects' - famil-
plan and characteristic materialisations (for example, the Red iar fromearly manifestosof Donald Judd but now transposed
Concreteperiod).As IndraKagisMcEwanhas written, forVitruvius, as a referent forboxlike'tastefullifestyleminimalism'- takes on
'bodies were wholes whose wholeness was above all a matter a defamiliarisingrole for complex readings and fundamental
ofcoherence.The agentofcoherencein thebodyoftheworld- and questioning.Such speciesalso impliesitsowntaxonomyin thepsy-
in all bodies in it - was ratio.'For Stoics,bodies were made up of chologicaland analyticalmannerof GeorgesPerec's 1974Espèces
thingsjoined together(,synaptomenôn ), withunifiedbodies (such d'espaces(Speciesof Spaces). An equivalenttaxonomyof Olgiati's
as plants, animals and Olgiati buildings) specificobjectswould beginwiththe most
being ruled by a single bond (hexis).'The Studio Bardill,
Scharans, prevalent trope,'Objects Germinatedfrom
building gets its magnificenceby being Switzerland,2007 a Square Plan'. Manyofhis projectsremain
completelycoherent',Olgiati tells us. For © ArchiveOlgiati faithfulto their Cartesianorigins,like the

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Flims studio,a black wooden barn like the circular ramp in the
perched on its suspended square otherwise square 2003 Zermatt
concreteplatform, or its mostcom- ProjectionRoom.
plex relative, the 2008 museum 'Objects Whose Character
design for Perm in Russia. Here, DerivesfromStructuralPropping',
each of the seven square plans, would be a second categoryin an
stacked around and skewed by Olgiati taxonomy - a technique
a common core, has a different co-opted for more complex pro-
author (a rushjob, a one-weekend grammes like the 2004 National
design),and each houses a separate Palace Museum design in Taiwan,
componentofthecomplexmuseum with its diagonal escape-stairbox
programme. Despite its efficient givinglateralstabilityto itsstacked
conceptualand proceduralstrategy, slabs. The most extremethema-
the design ran agroundon account tisedpropssupportthe2001Zurich
of its perceivedsymbolicinterpre- OfficeBuildingdesign,whereeight
tation in Russia, where such for- floorsreducein size towardthetop
mal rigourwas read as a revivalof (in accordance with Swiss plan-
monumental Stalinist social real- ning regulations). The resulting
ism. In other cases the purityof taperingand irregularbuilding is
the square plan seems to be less perimeter-propped by a character-
than resistantto virulentsubplots: giving forest of leaning columns.
the K+N House, forexample,grows More recently, in the 2010Planthof
a corner 'rabbit ear'; elsewhere Agriculture SchoolAuditorium, the
perimeterwalls become pregnant one monumentallyverticalwall is
with staircases,or the entireinte- skeweredby a heftydiagonal con-
rioris colonised by an alien figure, creteprop.Thiswas thefirstproject

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presentedin theMünsterlecture,a precise Garden ofCrathes Scotland
Castle, concreteis themedby a repetitive, almost
©Archive
Olgiati tattooeddisk motifhand-carvedinto the
30-minutesequence of minimal diagrams
chroniclingitsconceptualevolution,begin- concrete's formwork, emblematicallyani-
with the intuitivechoiceofa sec- mating its pink-red surface - an obvious
ning prism
tion- an isoscelestriangle,and a close relativeofthe1974Shinohara provocationto iconoclasticmodernism'sembargoon symbolism.
PrismHouse (Minami-tsuru), whichalso requiredan internalpropto Elsewhere,in Lima, Peru, a square residentialtowerin red con-
stabilise its tent-likediagonal roof.In statingthat 'the structure creteis plannedand in Tirana,Albania,a red signatureOlgiaticur-
is basically the core area for an architect'slogical reasoning', tain-wallhas recentlyappeared,but due to discrepanciesbetween
Olgiatialso invokesa Framptonesquetectonicframe,despite the Albanianand Swissconstructional exactitudethisprojectis destined
critical reception of Kenneth Frampton's Tectonic thesis in to remaina virtualimagein theOlgiatitaxonomy. We are informed
Germany(the art historianWolfgangKemp notablyrebukedhim halfwaythroughthe Münsterlecturethatthiskindof media after-
fornot havingcreditedHegel's 1835'Lectureon Aesthetics'as the lifedoes notimplya demotionto second-classsimulacrastatus,only
origin of a mechanistic force distribution in architectural thatone imageshould sufficeto tellus everything we need to know
Like
interpretation). Frampton,Olgiati uses the frame as a counter about a What
building. the huge white book affirmsis thatobses-
to the strategyof stereometric -
sculptedsolids a poetic manifes- sive and auraticdigitalrenderings like these could be tracedback
tationof structurein the ancientGreeksense ofpoiesis, the act of to Olgiati'sone-yearstintin the mid-1980sas a studentin Miroslav
makingand revealing. Sik'slegendaryeth AnalogueArchitecture studio.Fromthatstudio
A continuingand cumulativeoverviewof the Olgiati oeuvre a cultofarchaic,exotic,almostpathologicaldrawingsinfusedwitha
hintsat an evengreatertaxonometric design,witheverything in its deep and gloomygraphicmelancholyemerged(theIndian summer
place, a listof seductivefiguresaddingup to a recalibratedwhole. ofthehand-drawn): accordingto Sik,'lifeengendersimages,images
Among these, monolithic red concrete objects play a prominent outlive generationsand are onlyrearrangedbyarchitects, and with-
role. As ancestorto this genre springingfromthe Iconographie outimagesthereareno memories'.
Autobiography is theuniformredstoneMughalCityofFatepurSikri. Of course,the idea of an image catalogue is a familiarone -
Inheriting thistradition,and thesmallestofhis redicons,Olgiati's just look to the workingmethodologiesof SigmundFreudor Aby
AtelierBardililands amongstpicturesquewooden alpine houses in Warburg,even ifthe tasksthe psychoanalyst and the arthistorian
thevillageofScharans,notfarfromFlims.Heretheliquid originof asked of themvariedconsiderablyfromOlgiati'sautobiographical

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design tool. For Freud, black-and-white AldoRossi,SanCataldo Cemetery, shade and enclose a glade of Africantrees
Modena, 1971-84
Italy, © darc
photographs of antique statues (by his (simulated elsewhere). Privaterooms are
archaeologist friendEmanuel Löwy) pro- carved out ofsolid shadowat one end ofthe
vided an index of a shared dream state - court, while a curvedpassage burrowslike
emancipatedmemorypictures - and he would apparentlyspend the secretentrance to an Egyptianburial chamber(or that same
hoursporingoverthem,whilestillmorewereframedand hungon motifre-enactedin freemasonryinitiatoryritual - part Claude
thewalls of his Viennesehome and consultingroom at Berggasse NicolasLedoux,partJean-Jacques Lequeu). Butto projectforwards,
19, indexical evocations of psychoanalysis'archaeologicalmeta- whatexactlywill be revealedat the end of Olgiati's own initiation
phor.Speculativeinterpretation was also enacted in the dada-like sequence: a sepulchralchamber,the brightdawn in the eastern-
assemblagistprocess of the Mnemosyne Atlas (Mnemosynebeing mostsleepingchamber,the dna of his enigmaticoeuvre?Perhaps
the Greekgoddess of memory),Warburg'sgreat indexicalwork, one possibilitymightbe a cult of voluptasocularum(or pleasure
and a visualcoda to his highlyinfluential ifidiosyncraticclassifica- of the eyes),a distillationof one of St Augustine'sConfessions and
tion scheme.For Olgiati,bycontrast,retinaltriggersare reasoned his voluptasocularumcarnis(the pleasureof the eyesof the flesh).
conceitsofferedas interpretative instrumentsto decode his built For Olgiati,this would representa movingon froma modernist
workand also as the aestheticspringboardsthatprompttransfig- ontology(and all those iconoclasticfatherfigures)which itself
urationas a project'sevolutionary sequence. Andwhile ten of his collapsed the Vitruviantrilogyoffirmitas , utilitas
, venustas(solid,
autobiographicalimages are strict
line - or
drawings plans sections, useful,beautiful) intothe more prescribed firmitas + utilitas= venus-
of
diagrams concept - the majority offereither seductivelyillumi- tas. And indeed venustas, the modernist taboo subject of beauty,
nisticand sensuallycolouredphotographs,atmosphericpainterly is embracedbyOlgiati'sworkand images,a sensual anchoringin
such as BarnetNewman'stworeds,or a co-habitationofthe a worldfundamentally
effects, animatedbypleasure,in whichtheimmedi-
abstractwiththe sensate,similarto the wordlesssyntaxof stamp acy of operativebeautyleads to the seductivecharmof the charis-
albums(withall theirconjuredelsewheres). matic, and which in turn suggests the ultimate recalibration
Towardstheend oftheMünsterlecturea newOlgiatihouse was of Swissness, to say nothing of Vitruvius,to an architecture
presented,a retreatfromthe public platformof Flims,even from informedbyfirmitas + venustas= utilitas.The sturdySwisspenknife
Switzerlanditself.Buried deep in a cork oak forestin Portugal, suddenlybecomingessentialnotjust forits usefulnessbut forits
6m-highwalls secure the perimeterof the compound, dispense characteristic and seductiveappearance.

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