CHIPPERFIELD/LITERATURE MUSEUM

摘要

At first glance the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach am Neckar could have been designed at any time within the last 80 years. A simple orthogonal pavilion executed with the precision and restraint of an era when to be modern, or rather Modern, was a show of defiance in itself. Chipperfield has built a career on designing buildings that defy fashion; buildings of a solidity and timelessness which, if not overtly populist, promise to withstand the test of time. The irony, of course, is that such a formidable talent has risen to maturity at a time when architectural patronage in the UK is being fuelled by an evangelism of an entirely different kind. The virtues of quiet timelessness hold little sway when projected visitor numbers are accepted as the ultimate justification for architectural excess.