World Radio Switzerland

Destination architecture: 5 feats of design worth the trip

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:25:51 UT

by Jennifer Davies, For WRS

ZURICH: MFO Park
by Burckhardt + Partner and Raderschall (2002)
Oerlikon, ZURICH

The centre of the MFO Park in Oerlikon reveals columns of climbing plants (© Burckhardt + Partner)

Best for: Park lovers

Yes, Zurich has a lake with all its twee trappings, but when it comes to summer architectural sights, MFO Park is the best in the city. Hidden behind the office blocks at Oerlikon’s train station, it’s a large open steel frame, the same size and shape of the factory building (Maschinen Fabrik Oerlikon) which once stood there—only now it looks as though the triffids have taken over. Climbing plants such as wisteria and sweet peas reach to the sky. You can walk to the centre and scale the grid metal floors 17 metres to the full (not for the vertigo-challenged!) height. The park’s architect, Oliver Gilbert from Burckhardt + Partner, says he’s thrilled each time he visits: “Every time I come back here, it has changed and grown some more. It’s a surprise. It was like a skeleton when it was first built but now we can see the structure coming into being—it’s a building project that only nature can control!” (Read more about how this green building grew from its factory roots)

BASEL: Vitra Campus
by Various Artists (2010)
Weil am Rhein

Aerial view of the Vitra design campus in Weil am Rhein near Basel (© Herzog & de Meuron)

Best for: “Star-chitect” showpieces

At the opening of Herzog & de Meuron’s VitraHaus in February, Jacques Herzog claimed, “Vitra has put Weil am Rhein on the map.” Just outside Basel across the Swiss-German border, the Vitra campus at Weil am Rhein stands on a four-acre industrial estate developed in the 1970s by namesake Vitra furniture company’s Basel-born chairman Rolf Fehlbaum. Over the years he’s hand-picked international architects to create the dozen or so industrial and museum buildings on site; from the first, Nicolas Grimshaw’s factory building in 1981, to Frank Gehry’s design museum in 1989, to Zaha Hadid’s fire station in 1994 and, most recently, Herzog & de Meuron’s VitraHaus, with a factory hall by Japanese duo SANAA to open in autumn 2010. Yet Fehlbaum has hit back at what some describe as this “stamp-collecting” approach to architecture, “We are not a sort of zoo for buildings,” he says. But, from a visitor’s perspective, does it really matter what how you label it? Admiring a gallery of original contemporary buildings in the countryside is no bad thing if you ask us.

LAUSANNE: Rolex Learning Center
by SANAA (2010)
Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL)

Rolex Learning Center at EPFL, by SANAA (© Hisao Suzuki and EPFL)

Best for: Sci-fi and future fans

It was this undulating building, which undeniably looks like a slice of melting Swiss cheese from above, that swayed the judges from the esteemed international Pritzker Prize to award Japanese duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (otherwise known as SANAA) with the 2010 Laureate. Walk around the building and you can’t help but feel a 2001: A Space Odyssey vibe with its white space, organic curves and a learned hush to all areas. Large communal garden areas feature in the larger holes of “the cheese,” which encourage people to venture outdoors in good weather. Nishizawa explains the ethos: “Human movements are not linear like a train travels, but curve in a more organic way…architectural forms can be created from human movements, and, in turn, architecture influences humans.” Hmm…HAL couldn’t have said it better himself.

GRAUBÜNDEN: Therme Vals
by Peter Zumthor (1996)
Vals

Therme Vals, thermal springs Graubünden, by Peter Zumthor (swiss-image.ch/Christoph Sonderegger)

Best for: Water babes

In person, 2009 Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor is like the “silent senator” of Swiss architecture and his showcase Therme Vals in Graubünden reflects an understated approach. “For me what’s important is the smell of the earth,” he says. “Architecture expresses itself through what surrounds us. It’s about composing your materials—like buying clothes.” Zumthor believes in sourcing locally and so based the whole structure on the local grey Vals quartz, which was cut to size in the quarry just behind the nearest village. The natural spring baths (a temperate 30°C) are fed from the mountainside and framed by walls made of thin slabs. Small monastic windows filter in shafts of light, which play on the surface of the water and hit the walls at angles like laser beams. And Therme Vals is inset into the side of the mountain, so a summer swim in the pools outside offers a stunning view of the surrounding landscape.

TICINO: Chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli
by Mario Botta (1996)
Monte Tamaro (Rivera)

Chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli by Mario Botta at Monte Tamaro (swiss-image.ch/Christof Sonderegger)

Best for: Pilgrims

You can only get to Mario Botta’s chapel, 1,600 metres above sea level, via cable car until 4 p.m.— so this experience requires some forward planning. But once you get there, it’s a breathtaking sight, with a long open-air walkway that arrives at the edge of the cliff with the valley stretching out below and a panorama of mountain ranges as far as the eye can see. But tear yourself away from the unbeatable view, there’s still the church interior to visit. A walk through a long tunnel brings you to the circular sanctuary of the chapel, where the focal point is the religious contemporary artwork of Enzo Cucchi, whose fresco altarpiece depicts a pair of hands in a white outline on a dark blue background, lit from above by skylights that appear to cast light from the heavens. So be prepared, inside and out, the Chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli is as dramatic as an Old Testament scene.

Topics: Basel, lausanne, ticino, zurich

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Expat Life: Soundtrack from a life abroad

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:15:01 UT

And then came living abroad. Not only did it introduce me to different cultures, but to completely new music—from sultry tango in Recoleta to the sound of Willie Colon’s trombone in South America to, recently, seeing the entire Club Tent at Nyon’s Paléo Festival rocking to Mama Rosin, a Cajun blues band from Geneva.

My first taste of all this was back in 1979. I’d only been living in Italy for a few weeks when friends took me to see Pino Daniele. I had no idea who he was. My Italian wasn’t great and I was unsure what to expect, but I went along and loved it. Thirty years later I only have to hear the opening chords of Je sto vecino a teand I’m transported right back to that concert with thousands of Italian fans amidst the stunning scenery of the Amalfi coast.

Coldplay singer Chris Martin performs during the band’s Viva La Vida tour. (REUTERS/Christian Charisius)

Over decades spent abroad, I’ve witnessed interesting contrasts in how various Anglophone artists react and play to crowds across the continents. Rod Stewart brought on an interpreter just to say “Hola Santiago” in Chile, but Coldplay’s Chris Martin had a Bern crowd eating out of the palm of his hand over the summer when he addressed them in Swiss German. At a concert in Glasgow he even told the audience he was partial to Tunnock’s teacakes (a Scottish culinary legend). I’m sure whether he is in Warsaw or Wisconsin he learns a few words of the lingo and does his homework on local culture. It’s slick of course, but it does pay off.

Other groups have been less in tune with the crowd. In the ’90s, Michael Jackson was on a global tour and due to perform in the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires. Although I was living in Uruguay and it meant a four-hour drive to see him, I was looking forward to the concert. However, it turned out to be rather a bizarre one. Michael kept disappearing for endless costume changes, losing the show’s momentum and the crowd’s interest. They had cheered loudly enough when he moonwalked onto the stage, but it paled to the sheer roar when Maradona entered the stadium as a VIP guest. Jackson may have been the King of Pop but football is royalty in Argentina.

Music can also be a powerful elixir, bringing out many emotions of expat life—sometimes when you least expect them. Every now and again, no matter how settled you are, you can get a whiff of homesickness. Living in Indonesia I played back-to-back Bowie when the gamelan music just got to be too much and I wanted a taste of“home.”

And on other occasions, I’ve found myself feeling unexpectedly patriotic. In 1989, I was living in Santiago, Chile, when a rumour went around the city that a concert would be held in the national stadium after many years of musical isolation under dictatorship. There was much discussion as to who would be headlining. Most thought it would be a salsa band or Inti Illimani, a Chilean group back from exile. When it was announced it would be Rod Stewart, I was distinctly underwhelmed, but I still bought tickets for the night.

It arrived after a perfect summer’s day with a clear, cloudless sky. There was a palpable feeling of excitement in the air. The sun set, tinting the tips of the Andes pink, and it gave the stadium the most spectacular backdrop. Once it was dark everyone brought out candles and thousands of tiny lights lit up the arena. The band started up and the warm-up guy shouted, “Santiago, a warm welcome please for Meester…Rod Stewart!” He leapt on stage with the first few words of Hot Legs blasting out to every corner of the stadium, and the crowd loved it. It was a special night and to my surprise I suddenly felt so very proud that it was a Brit from my country who was singing at this historic occasion.

There have been many other wonderful concerts across the world since then. As I’m more the mother hen amongst a lot of spring chickens here at WRS, I can remember when world music was just that, a world away from my village life, but living abroad changed it all.

—Catherine Nelson-Pollard

Kids in Mind: Growing up to the sound of music

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:00:01 UT

By Rachel Melville-Thomas

Happy talk

Singing and listening to music helps babies begin to understand the way language is constructed, how it is divided up into phrases and has a rhythm in the words. Infants learn best through their bodies, so it isn’t good enough to switch on the nursery cassette player and walk away. They need you to copy their movements to music and to pick out the patterns for them over and over.

What to try: Sing or hum and rock your baby in your arms. Starting at around 6 months, get face-to-face and hold their hands as you sing or listen together. Pat him on the back in time to the music, let him have rattles and shakers to see what sound comes out.

Music and maths

The structure in music means that children’s brains need to learn how to decode it—how to process the sound information they are hearing. This process is closely linked to the skills needed in maths to work out fractions, ratios and proportions. Professor Gordon Shaw in Los Angeles was one of the first to explain how crucial music could be for learning in a series of studies in the late ’80s. Children who took keyboard lessons in addition to maths help came out with better results by 40 percent.

Homemade music
Ideas for starting out to make music at home without costly instruments:

18 months to 6 years:

POTS AND PANS PERCUSSION
Let your baby or toddler have a wooden spoon and make a drum set by upending saucepans and plastic storage boxes.

TWANG GUITARS
Save tissue boxes and stretch rubber bands over the top so they span the hole.

SHAKE YOUR SILLIES OUT (with thanks to Raffi)
Make your own rattles and shakers by filling plastic bottles or containers with rice, lentils or pasta. Seal well around the top with soft tape if caps are not tightly fitted.

HOOTING AND HOLLERING
Blow or sing down the inner tube of a kitchen roll for a trumpet, and hum and make raspberry noises down it for a passable didgeridoo sound. Roll cardboard into a cone for an instant megaphone for your budding singer.

For older children:

THE WINEGLASS SYMPHONY
Get a series of glasses and fill each one with a different amount of water. Tap them with a wooden chopstick or a plastic cocktail mixer. See how the sound varies and test to see if you can get them all in sequence.

What to try: Let toddlers experiment with sounds and rhythms themselves. You don’t need special equipment (see Homemade Music at right), just join in with the shaking and clapping. Identify rhythms for them: Say “da-da-da” as they bang the tabletop three times.

Rhyme and reason

Dr. Frances Rauscher from the University of Wisconsin found that music helps enhance the part of the brain that deals with abstract reasoning and spatial cognition—that’s the thinking you need in jobs such as engineering and architecture. Music itself is a Rubik’s Cube in your head, needing the brain to hear its “shape” in order to make sense of it and recognise new patterns.

What to try: Play different kinds of music to your under-6-year-olds so they get to hear a good variety. This isn’t just about Mozart—in fact, Dr. Rauscher suggests that unknown music styles cause stress to rise and children’s attentions to shut off. Go back to old nursery rhymes and repeat phrases to well-known tunes, for example, “Wash, wash, wash your hands” to “row, row your boat.” Play lap games that have loud and soft parts like “This is the way the farmer rides…”

All together now

Musical activities are a great place to develop your child’s social skills. As music teaching and therapy demonstrate, children in group music sessions learn to take turns, to attend to others and to predict what the other person might do next. That skill of predicting connects directly with empathy which is a key part of your child being able to make friends and understand when things go wrong.

What to try: Join a musical activity group appropriate to your child’s age. Or just have sessions at home, by putting on some music and having a sing-along band with percussion and karaoke-style vocals. Play “follow the leader” with rhythms banged out with a spoon.

Once again with feeling

Music offers children an arena to express their emotions and to become more confident. Listening to fierce classical music or a wistful folk tune may evoke a wide range of responses that may not be easily put into words. Young people on the autistic spectrum, for example, often are able to “say” how they feel far more articulately in sound and rhythm. And any child can sing a dreamy song or bang out their crossness in music. This is also why music can provide a refuge and a place of understanding for teenagers—even though everyone around just wants to pull the earphones out!

What to try: Remind yourself what feelings are aroused in you, as you listen to favourite pieces of music. Ask your child what comes into his mind when listening to a particular piece (be ready for the “Nothing” answer!). What do they think is the best music? The worst? Sometimes when listening to music around your children, just say nothing and let it be.

Roots and rhythms

Music is a powerful way for us to pass on our own culture to our children. They will recall the cradle songs you sang from your homeland, long into their adult years. Knowledge of songs and rhymes and dance tunes from a special country gives children a sense of being rooted somewhere—even when the family is travelling and moving around the world.

What to try: Sing songs in your mother tongue to your child. Play CDs if you can’t remember them yourself. (It also helps bilingual children to develop pronunciation and vocabulary to be able to sing songs in both languages.)

Answers to common music questions

My 11-year-old used to love his instrument lesson, now he’s saying he wants to give up because it’s too hard. What shall I do?

Consider whether it’s the right instrument for his personality. There are plenty of books and web resources on this. It’s possible he needs a more social instrument, or one that has more contemporary possibilities. Or a different teacher perhaps? Encourage him to keep going until an agreed upon time, such as a birthday or holiday. Think through what other pressures he has. Homework? Sport? Friends leaving? Has he just started secondary school?

Check with yourself about whose needs are being met by the music lessons—yours or his?

Negotiate a break. Remember that many people who were forced to take lessons give up by late teens. Growing to hate it would be worse.

I really can’t stand my teenage daughter’s music—it’s either blasting out of her room or she’s incommunicado because she is plugged into her iPod. How is music helping her now?

Music is an enormously important refuge for teens—it can be the place where their unspoken thoughts are voiced or the safest outlet for their frustrations with growing up.

Sometimes extra loud music from a room can be a communication—like “I hate everyone!”—or simply a pursuit of the intensity of sensory experience that adolescents crave.

You may need a contract to address the problem, for example: Music can be played as loud as you like when there’s no one at home (though this can be tricky in Swiss apartments!), no earphones at the meal table or first thing in the morning when discussing plans. Sanctions: loss of iPod and computer time for two days.

Tell her you would like to hear how things are going at school with friends. Do it in the car or shopping as a side-by-side chat, and listen for serious worries.

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From folklore to fireworks, every corner of the country will be celebrating National Day this weekend. If you haven’t already made plans, here are some of the highlights and a few other ideas:

Swiss Tourism’s picks for top events this weekend

Alinghi 5 sails on Lake Geneva

Catch a film—indoors or out (New in theaters)

Go for a swim: Lake Léman, Bern, Lugano, Zurich (German only)