Architect Meier turns his ambition to London

[3CPO]

Architect Meier turns his ambition to London

It is ironic that London is hosting a major retrospective of work by United States architect Richard Meier -- the city is one of the only European capitals where he has not designed a building.



But the man who, in 1984 at the age of 49 became the youngest-ever winner of the Pritzker Prize, architecture's equivalent of the Nobels, told AFP that no one has ever asked him to build in London, despite major success elsewhere.

Surrounded by his drawings, sculptures and models of his buildings which went on show at the Louise T. Blouin Foundation in west London earlier this month, Meier, 73, found it tough to pick out his favourite work so far.

"It is hard to say, because the last one is usually the favourite, and my last one is the Arp Museum, in Rolandseck (western Germany)," he said.

"But every time I return to the Getty in LA (Los Angeles, western United States), I say it is amazing that it got built...I guess I would choose the Getty."

Then he changed his mind again: "My next one is also my favourite: a group of residential buildings I'm building in the East River, in New York City, south of the United Nations. I think it will be a good addition to the city."

Meier has been described by some critics as taking modernism to the extreme -- he is noted for his clean, white lines and use of light, space, shadow and water, while his inspirations include Le Corbusier and De Stijl.

Asked what makes architecture art, he said: "The relationship to the context it is located, the quality of the spaces it has, the relationship between space and light."

But the human angle is also important: "How people experience it, the quality of human scale...also the tactile quality of the building, the materiality, the sense of how it is made, the feeling that it has."

He added that a building "should be inviting, and should enliven the place where it exists".

The exhibition, entitled "Richard Meier: Art And Architecture" reveals that the architect, originally from New Jersey on the US east coast, is also a sculptor and a painter.

It features model of Meier's bold proposal to replace the World Trade Center in New York, destroyed during the September 11 2001 attacks -- two grid-like, luminous blocks which tower over the Manhattan skyline.

In the end, though, the project was awarded to Daniel Libeskind in 2003, which he describes as "a shame".

For a period, Meier declined to design houses, saying that the effort it takes to design a building for a handful of people was "crazy when you could be making public housing for hundreds of people, with the same amount of time".

"But then I thought that maybe, maybe, these houses have a life outside of themselves, maybe they influence the way people think about architecture, they influence how people think about how to live," he added, indicating a shift.

He would love to crown his success by taking on a project in Britain, perhaps a museum, but noted the length of time these take to complete -- he worked on the Getty for 12 years and the Arp for more than 20.

Asked why none of his works had been built in London, he said: "Nobody has asked me... but maybe after this exhibition they will ask me."

Meier spoke generously about the work of contemporaries including Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, northern Spain.

On Norman Foster's Swiss Re building in London, nicknamed "the gherkin", he commented: "It shows that there can be diversity in London."

Fonte: France24