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"It Wasn’t My Choice To Do A Black Building" says Richard Meier

Germany Architecture News - Jan 24, 2018 - 05:09   20956 views

PLANE-SITE, Berlin-based global agency working at the interface of urban form, cultural space, and social life, has released its new video with prominent architect Richard Meier, who is best known with his all-white-colour buildings around the world. 

The 4-min video is released within the scope of the Time-Space-Existence series, including other acclaimed architects, such as Denise Scott-Brown, Peter Eisenman, Meinhard von Gerkan, WOHA Architects, Curt Fentress, Dirk Hebel, Arata Isozaki and many more...

In a newly-released video interview, Richard Meier talks about his first black building - named 685 First Avenue - in New York. "It wasn’t my choice to do a black building" says Richard Meier. 

"Richard Meier’s oeuvre is known for bold, geometric buildings cast in luminous white, a color he believes enhances nature and refracts the world. One of the most recognized architects alive today, Meier has dedicated five decades to his field and worked on projects around the globe," stated PLANE-SITE.

685 First Avenue, in New York. Image © Bloom Images

Apart from a discussion on his first black building, Meier also discusses his love of designing buildings for public gathering, for enjoyment and for learning.

685 First Avenue, in New York. Image © Bloom Images

Produced by PLANE—SITE, the video has been commissioned by the GAA Foundation and funded by the ECC in the run-up to the Time-Space-Existence exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia Architettura, which will be opening in May 2018. 

Part of the renowned New York Five group of Modernist architects, Richard Meier, 84, has led his own practice Richard Meier & Partners  since 1963. Over the course of his fifty-year career, the Pritzker Prize- winning architect has consistently placed formal clarity, light, and abstraction at the center of his work. 

Douglas House in Michigan. Image © Scott Frances/OTTO

Equally committed to pedagogy, Meier also advocates for the role of architecture in government, education, and community. He is best-known for the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia and the Jubilee Church in Rome.

High Museum of Art in Atlanta, United States. Image © ESTO

The Time-Space-Existence series will be exhibited in Palazzo Bembo and Palazzo Mora, and distributed digitally to the media and press. At least one video will be released each month in the run-up to the opening of the exhibition.

Smith House in Darien, Connecticut. Image © Scott Frances/OTTO

Richard Meier & Partners recently unveiled plans for two private villas located in the Nebřenice countryside, Czech Republic, which will be the first residential project of the firm in the Czech Republic.

PLANE-SITE's recent video also features one-day salon event, organised by reSITE and Airbnb, titled "My City / Your City: Constraints of the Collective", which was held in December 2017, in Berlin.

Top image: Richard Meier, courtesy of PLANE-SITE

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