We continue with the series of houses in which we feel the architect is present in his most intimate side, reflecting his personality, dreams and wishes in his own work. Today we bring you the Kolonihaven pavilion, a project by Miralles and Tagliabue. It is a reflection on the passage of time that filters some pieces of the placid family life of the architects.

Collecting the pass of time...

The house thus becomes a calendar.

It registers the movement of time during the year or during a lifetime...

Children's Room...

A Child inviting an adult at her playing, at her size.

“Papa” vient chez moi!”, as drawn by Le Corbusier.

Parent and child entering the same place from two different doors

A small one and a big one.

A young girl taking her first steps with the help of a miniature chair.

The house

Is a miniature stone in a bonsai landscape;

It is a rock in an artificial landscape of sand.

The house is built around these familiar movements of time passing by:

wrapping furniture, movements and time.

Text.- EMBT

The wooden house for a kolonihaven is a pavilion with a rather loose program, maybe it can be best defined as a device with the function of capturing time, regarded as a cycle: the seasons of the year, the child that grows up…. It is more of a playing space for the members of the family than a house itself.

It was conceived to be built next to a tree in a Kolonihaven, literally “colonial garden.” At the end of the 19th century, the Danish government gave away some plots at the outskirts of Copenhagen, so that citizens could grow their own small gardens or orchards. Moreover, people were allowed to build pavilions where they could stay temporarily in their plots; they would use it to store the tools for the cultivation of flowers, fruits and vegetables, to rest and get away from the routine at the city, or even to meet with friends, family and neighbors. In 1994, trying to promote the nomination of Copenhagen as European Capital of Culture ’96, the government invited 13 internationally renowned architects to re-interpret these rural huts. Miralles and Tagliabue were among them.

The architect couple soon developed a first collage with the basic ideas that they were hoping to explore. Using cuttings from a botany dictionary about plants and flowers, they composed a circular calendar with the flowering period of the plants throughout the year. Next to it laid the reproduction of some drawings from “Le Modulor 2”, by Le Corbusier, where “a child invites an adult at her playing, at her size.” Below, the words “P’pa vient jouer chez moi!” (Dad, come over to my house and play!). That way, father and daughter (probably Enric and young Caterina, whom the architects credit as one of their collaborators) enter the house through two different doors, each at their corresponding sizes. 

This statement of intentions reflects time in two aspects: in a more universal sense, like the cycle of nature, the seasons of the year, the harvest...; and also the passage of time in the domestic life of the family, children running around, the parents sitting at a table.

In fact, this domestic scenario translates quite directly into the shape of the pavilion. The plan is generated by drawing the movements of the daughter while she was playing with a chair, while the volumes that compose the pavilion wrap, in the manner of a dress, the playing of the little girl and the posture of the adults sitting at the table. The ceiling varies in height, being very low in the children’s area, with a little door for the entrance; and regular in the area for adults,  also with a regular door. The transition from childhood to adulthood is represented by these three stepped volumes, as if the house grew up along with its inhabitants.

Another subject that deserves a reflection is the tree, which stands, according to the plan, next to the lowest volume. The house lays back at the point where it would meet the tree, allowing the top to touch the façade, generating a new interior/exterior space  between them and creating a relationship with the garden.

Paradoxically, today the pavilion (constructed in 2002 to be exhibited at MACBA) stands isolated behind a security rope in the gardens of the Pedralbes Palace, in Barcelona, separated from the tree and treated as a museum piece, children not being able to climb it anymore. However, we can always take a look at these amazing documents and imagine how it would feel to sit and relax in this shed/tree after a morning of work at the garden, enjoying nature and watching life go past…

CREDITS.-

Location.-Copenhagen (Denmark).
Client.- Fonden Kolonihaven. Kirsten Kiser.
Architecs.- Enric Miralles/Benedetta Tagliabue.
Project Team.- Ricardo Flores, Fabian Asunción.
Collaborators.- Elena Rocchi, Vibeke Linde Strandby, Hernßn Dφaz Alonso, Leandro López, Caterina Miralles Tagliabue.
Model.- Fabián Asunción, Tom Broekaert.
Photography.- Giovanni Zanzi.
Date.- 1996

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Enric Miralles Moya (Barcelona 1955 - Sant Feliu de Codines 2000) studied at the Barcelona School of Architecture, ETSAB, graduating in 1978. From 1973 to 1983 he collaborated with Albert Viaplana and Helio Piñón, and in 1984 he founded the Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós studio, from this stage one of his most poetic works stands out, such as the Igualada Cemetery. In 1993 he began the EMBT study with his wife and partner Benedetta Tagliabue.

Considered an architect of great inventiveness, he defined himself as the enfant terrible of Spanish architecture. He was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Columbia University for the 1980-81 academic year. Two years later, he presented his doctoral thesis "Things seen to the left and the right, (without glasses)."

Since 1985 he was professor at ETSAB (Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona), holding the Chair of Architecture since 1996. In 1990 he began as Director and Professor of the Master Class at Städelschule of Frankfurt and beginning in 1992 served as the "Kenzo Tange Chair” professor at the GSD of Harvard University. Moreover, he was visiting professor and lecturer at several universities in the United States (Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Yale), Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, and a member of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.

As an architect of many works, his projects include, the Igualada Cemetery in Spain (1995) and the rehabilitation of Utrecht City Hall in Holland (2000). He was also active as an interior designer, with projects including The Hipostila shelving system(1989) in collaboration with Lluis Clotet and Oscar Tusquets Blanca for Bd Ediciones de Diseño, Lungomare Bench for Escofet,(2000), Vacante bench for Sellex (1991), and many other furnishing designs which were not put in production.

He has received numerous awards, including the National Prize of Spanish Architecture 1995, FAD Prize (Fomento Artes Decorativas) 1985 and 2000, The European ITALSTAD (Italy) 1991. Leone d’Oro Prize at the Biennale di Venezia 1996. His work has been published internationally in the most distinguished reviews, El Croquis N.100 101, Enric Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue 1996-2000. GG. Miralles Tagliabue Time Architecture 1999. Electa, Documenti di Architettutra. Benedetta Tagliabue. Enric Miralles: Opere e Progetti. 1996. In 1999 he was named an Honorary member of The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. In 2002 he received posthumously the Gold Medal from the Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya.

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Benedetta Tagliabue was born in Milan and graduated from the University of Venice in 1989. In 1991 she joined Enric Miralles’ studio where she eventually became a partner. Her work with Miralles, whom she married, includes a number of high profile buildings and projects in Barcelona: Parque Diagonal Mar (1997-2002), Head Office Gas Natural (1999-2006) and the Market and quarter Santa Caterina (1996-2005), as well as projects across Europe, including the School of Music in Hamburg (1997-2000) and the City Hall in Utrecht (1996-2000).

In 1998, the partnership won the competition to design the new Scottish Parliament building and despite Miralles’ premature death in 2000, Tagliabue took leadership of the team as joint Project Director and the Parliament was successfully completed in 2004, winning several awards.

She won the competition for the new design of Hafencity Harbor in Hamburg , Germany, for a subway train station in Naples and for the Spanish Pavilion for Expo Shanghai 2010 among others.

Today under the direction of Benedetta Tagliabue the Miralles-Tagliabue-EMBT studio works with architectural projects, open spaces, urbanism, rehabilitation and exhibitions, trying to conserve the spirit of the Spanish and Italian artisan architectural studio tradition which espouses collaboration rather than specialization.

Their architectural philosophy is dedicating special attention to context.

Benedetta has written for several architectural magazines and has taught at, amongst other places, the University of architecture ETSAB in Barcelona. She has lectured in many international architectural Forums as, for example, the RIBA, the Architectural Association and Bartlett School in, London, the Berlage Institut in Amsterdam, and in USA, China and South America.

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Published on: October 9, 2013
Cite: ""Papa, vient jouer chez moi!" by EMBT" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/papa-vient-jouer-chez-moi-embt> ISSN 1139-6415
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