architektur + analyse 2: Konrad Frey: Haus Zankel

Experiment Solararchitektur

Anselm Wagner / Ingrid Böck (eds.)

Softcover
16.5 x 22.5 cm
160 pages, 20 col. and 200 b/w
German
ISBN 978-3-86859-216-0
07.2013

24,80

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Zankel solar house in Prévessin in France, near Geneva, designed from 1976 by the Graz architect Konrad Frey and built in 1978–85 by the CERN physicist Karl Zankel for his family, is the result of a congenial partnership that is very rare in architecture: the architect and the builder delighted equally in the risky experiment, enabling the project to become a raison d’etre and the building to become a work of art. The result can only be described in terms of contrasts: experimental solar workshop and vernacular estate, expressive spatial sculpture, and ecological research station, representative social stage and alternative daycare center for children, postmodern collage and technoid residential machine, mannerist “folly” and monastic cell. It is all the more surprising then that this unique building has not yet been given a noteworthy mention in architectural criticism—it is the unknown masterpiece of the “Graz School.” This book was created as part of the masterclass at Graz University of Technology for documenting the building that is facing demolition.

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