A knight and his squire

If Sir David Chipperfield himself is unable to present a lecture he often sends in his place his trusted man Rik Nys. Having been involved in the practice almost since its beginnings, the Belgian architect knows both the office’s works and Sir David himself very well. David Chipperfield Architects is renowned for the design of museums; Berlin’s restored Neues Museum, which reopened in 2009 after 11 years of restoration, received the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2011, and the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach (2006) received the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2007.

During his lecture at the recent Association of Finnish architects’ event held in Lahti, Nys spoke enthusiastically about the Museo Júmex in Mexico City, which was completed at the end of last year. The video presenting the building process is a thriller: will the huge wooden door fall on the tens of construction workers who lift it and tilt it back and forth? The catharsis in the film comes when David Chipperfield opens the door to the guests with the slightest of touch of his finger.