A new exhibition on the work of New York-based Richard Meier & Partners Architects is set to open at the Ulm Stadthaus Exhibition and Assembly Building in Ulm, Germany on 8 July.
'Picture, Tower, Building – Richard Meier and the Ulm Minster' is a retrospective on the lauded American architect, whose mannered use of natural light and sensitive spatial awareness – 'creating sublime spaces of aesthetic illumination and enlightened cultural values' – has made him one of America’s most respected contemporary practitioners for the past half century. He is a winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and has received Gold Medals from both the American Institute of Architects and RIBA.
The exhibition – which runs until 22 November – includes original models, sketches, schematic drawings and photographs of past Meier projects, including the Smith House in Darien, Connecticut; the house he designed for his parents in Essex Falls, New Jersey; Mexico City’s Reforma Towers; and unbuilt competition proposals for the New York Historical Society and Madison Square Gardens.
Inevitably, the main draw of the show is the Ulm Stadthaus itself – a project completed 22 years ago, ‘conceived as a programmatic and cultural complement to Ulm’s Münsterplatz and the historic mass of its cathedral’ and which Meier posits as wholly representative of the eponymous firm’s design philosophy.
‘While architecture is forever providing us with volumes about where we have been, it is at the same time offering us clues about where we may still be able to go,' the architect explains. 'It is an honour to have some of our early and current projects on display in a country where we are about to start several new architectural projects.'
The retrospective includes original models, sketches, schematic drawings and photographs of past Meier projects, such as the Reforma Towers in Mexico City (pictured).
This processional material gives a fascinating insight into the work of one of America's most respected architectural firms. Pictured: working model of the Reforma Towers.
The material reveals Meier's nuanced and sensitive understanding of the importance of physical space...
... and natural light.
Other featured projects include the house Meier designed for his parents in Essex Fells, New Jersey.
This house was Meier's first commission in private practice, a modernist pile in a neighbourhood of pseudo-colonial houses.
The Essex Fells house's interior light was provided via skylights and clerestories.
The Smith House in Darien, Connecticut, is one of the firm's most recognisable designs; Meier created 'sublime spaces of aesthetic illumination'.
The exhibition also includes designs and imagery of unbuilt structures, such as for the New York Historical Society (pictured)...
... and these imposing prospective models for the redevelopment of New York's Madison Square Gardens.
'While architecture is forever providing us with volumes about where we have been,' Meier explains, 'it is at the same time offering us clues about where we may still be able to go.'
ADDRESS
Ulm Stadthaus Exhibition and Assembly Building
Münsterplatz 50 89073
Ulm, Germany&a
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