Alternative Histories

Interpretation of a design sketch for a villa by Josef Hoffmann
Publication catalogue Alternative Histories: Drawing Matter (2019)
Exhibitions: Cork Street (Londen), CIVA (Brussel) & Irish Architectural Archive (Dublin)
Commission: Drawing Matter, Londen, VK & Architecture Foundation, Londen, VK
2019

 

Upon invitation of Marius Grootveld and Antje Engels HvdHA made a MDF model of cottage which was based on a tiny sketch of a cottage by the Viennese architect Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956). They approached a group of contemporary architecture practices with a question: if architecture is a corpus of inherited ideas, could contemporary architects, with their own references, make a model that would respond to a drawing from the past? A selection of 85 European architecture practices architects responded to this question. Their models alongside the drawings that prompted them were exhibited in the travelling exhibition Alternative Histories.

Hoffmann’s sketch may be found intriguing and awkward at the same time. It suggests an expressive roof to the cottage. It is ‘a little house with a big scale’. The cottage has a veranda with exaggeratedly thick columns. In the model the constituting parts of the architecture are articulated further. Basement, steps, columns, façade, gutter, roof and chimney are reduced to a composition which is based on the simple stacking of its parts. In order to stress the idea of stacking, the model has been built in sheets of MDF. The model is as small as the original sketch, roughly the size and weight of a halve litre pack milk.

Alternative Histories has been on show in London and Brussels. The catalogue may be ordered here. Alternative Histories  is co-curated by Jantje Engels and Marius Grootveld in collaboration with Ellis Woodman (Architecture Foundation, UK) and Niall Hobhouse (Drawing Matter, UK). The following architects participated:

Marie-José van Hee
Robbrecht & Daem
Tony Fretton 
Bovenbouw 
Caruso St. John
Christ & Gantenbein
De Smet Vermeulen
Almannai Fischer
Clancy Moore 
Emi 
Architecture Research Unit
Conen Sigl 
BeL – Sozietät für 
David Kohn 
Eagles of Architecture
East 
Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven
Lütjens Padmanabhan
Sergison Bates 
Mark Pimlott
Roz Barr 
Taka 
Monadnock
Rural Urban Framework
Wim Goes 
Knapkiewicz & Fickert
Oda Pälmke
Ryan W. Kennihan 
Dyvik Kahlen 
Descloux Engelschall
Fala 
Lilith Ronner van Hooijdonk
Max Otto Zitzelsberger
Olivier Goethals
Piovenefabi
Ono 
Point Supreme
Hans van der Heijden
ECTV
Multerer 
Raamwerk
de Paor
Atelier Tomas Dirrix
Baukuh
Johan Celsing
Dow Jones
Hild und K 
Hugh Strange
Office Winhov
Nikolaus Bienefeld
Stephen Taylor 
Studio Thys Vermeulen
noA 
Loelinger Strub
Witherford Watson Mann
Carmody Groarke
General 
GAFPA
Johansen Skovsted 
Veldwerk 
Traumnovelle
31/44 Architects
Sam Jacob 
Mikael Bergquist
Hayatsu 
Gustav Appell 
Dierendonckblancke 
2A+P/A
Space Popular
OMMX
Bernd Schmutz 
AMUNT Martenson
Schneider Türtscher
Noreile Breen
Murmuur 
Muf
Flores i Prats 
Alex Lehnerer
Haerynck Vanmeirhaeghe 
Linsi, Reemaa, Riha
EM2N
Svizzera 240
NP2F
Bardakhanova Champkins 
Smith & Taylor
Craig Hamilton 
Doorzon