The first twenty-four hours of my travels put my feet on the ground in four different countries. Although, technically, I suppose the international terminal in the Toronto Airport is considered international ground, right? Nonetheless, as far as airport terminals go, this one was pretty nice. It even had a Richard Serra sculpture to walk through:
It's called Tilted Spheres, and had to be installed before the roof and walls were constructed!
Otherwise, an uneventful flight. As usual, far too little sleep in the unnaturally shortened night, so I was more than a wee bit groggy when I arrived in Zürich.
OS picked me up at the airport- it was great to see him! He had a business meeting in Stuttgart that afternoon, so we rented a car at the airport and made our way north. We had all kinds of stuff to talk about- 12 years of catching up is a long time- but I was having a tough time putting more than two words together, in either language! Ah, sleepiness!
When we got there, he gave me a whole list of things I absolutely had to see and do while I was there, and dropped me off at the Mercedes-Benz Museum, gave me a map and meeting time and place, and had to run.
Now normally, I am all for museums, architecture and the like. But the weather was unseasonably warm- certainly much nicer than the just-melted snow of Boston- and at that moment finding a park to snooze in sounded so much more appealing. I didn't want to be rude, and skip this site after he went out of his way to drop me off here rather than closer to where he needed to go. So I figured I'd spend a little time walking around, seeing it, then heading on to other things.
But of course, I did what I always do- I got sucked in.
The museum is at the edge of town, surrounded by highways, ball fields and a stadium. It's not exactly the most pedestrian-friendly part of town- if you were to imagine where you'd find car dealerships and gas stations, this would be it. It's strange for a museum, but totally fitting for a museum of cars.
So, setting its urban fringe location and setting on the site aside, the museum is a fascinating object in its own right. It was designed by UN Studio (aka Ben van Berkel and crew), and opened in 2006.
The atrium has a trendy-industrial feel to it. I felt like I could have been in the room on the Willy Wonka tour where Charlie and his Grandpa started floating up towards the fan!
When you get the top, where the exhibit starts, you feel like you've landed on the surreal set of 2001: Space Odyssey.
Everyone is directed through the first few rooms, where you can see some of the early uses of their engines.
From here you can pick your route spiraling down through the helical museum, as there are multiple, intersecting paths.
There are lots of cars on display, of course:
including this awesomely decorated bus from Buenos Aires:
The lighting, material choices and textures are fascinating. One path down traces the history of the company and parallel world events. The same ramping path changes materials with each "chapter."
Early- fluted brass wall tiles, with polished dark granite floor tiles and a shimmery crystal chandelier:
Mid-century- vinyl upholstery:
Recent years- shimmery LED ceiling, icy textured glass walls and stainless steel:
Finally, an orange powder-coated stair
and a cafe with wall that reminded me of the bamboo skewer ceiling in Tides Seafood in New York's Lower East Side.
It struck me that years ago while visiting the Educatorium in Utrecht, that Koolhaas was overtly using as many different finish materials as possible. It felt to me like that was the sole purpose to the exercise- no real thought was put to which materials to use where, and why. I found it to be an egotistical move with no real gain. Here my impression was entirely different. Many different materials were used, possibly enough to rival the count at the Educatorium. The critical difference was that they were used thoughtfully, and to a much greater effect.
Overall, very impressive, and definitely worth the visit!
So now, on to other, outdoor wandering!
I took the bus to Bad Cannstadt, and figured I could walk through the park back to our meeting point.
Bad Cannstadt is a cute, old city center.
I don't know its history- was it always a part of Stuttgart, or was it simply engulfed over the years?
It has some very endearing details, like this sculpture of a man feeding ducks:
These houses were built right up against-and on top of- the remnants of the old city wall.
...which makes me think Bad Cannstadt used to be its own neighboring village/city on the Neckar.
From here a lovely wooden covered bridge took me across the Neckar.
I found myself wandering through a lovely park at the elbow of the Neckar.
It wound around the Museum Schloss Rosenstein,
and turned into a long linear park sandwiched between the train tracks to the northwest and a busy thoroughfare to the southeast.
Finally, I met OS at our meeting spot- James Stirling's Neue Staatsgalerie.
I got there just too late to see the inside, but honestly, was just as happy. I needed the decompression and fresh air in the park more than anything!
I have to admit, I'd never been a fan of the building, with the caveat being, of course, that I'd never seen it in person, only in print. A lot of this has to do with my feelings about Post-Modernism in general. I find its reduction of all complexity and its "playfulness" to be snarky, and that irritates me. I also think the color choices are too Crayola.
Detailing like this irritates me further:
This isn't a PoMo critique, but rather one of modern construction techniques. If a chunk of good quality stone can't last 30 years, it should at least be able to be easily repaired. I'm thinking a Dutchman isn't going to do much here.
All that being said, though, the wavy facade makes for some nifty reflections!
OS and I headed over, past the Neue Schloss
and through the Schlossplatz to the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart.
It's a big clear glass cube raised up to the level of the top step of the large set of stairs next to it. It was closing by the time we got there, but we could still take the elevator up to see the view.
There's a really nice contrast between the crisp glass and the solid-looking, rough hewn stone wall
but what I really thought was great was that this building helped stitch together a torn bit of the urban fabric. The road that once sliced through the block here has now been buried (see the tunnel entry a block away)
and runs under this building and the staircase. Its trace can be seen with the glass pavers on the other side.
There were some really nice things to be seen in this part of the city. The Alte Schloß,
this church with the teeny tiny, well-illuminated spiral stair,
and OS is a fan of the Rathaus.
So one more necessary stop for the day: the Weißenhofsiedlung!
Le Corbusier's Doppelhaus:
Hans Scharoun's contribution:
(I was especially excited to see this one, given where we were going the next day!)
There were some nice details, such as at the top of these gates:
And what I really loved was that people still live in these houses; it's not (all) just a museum. As we were walking through the neighborhood we could hear the gleeful squeals of kids playing in the backyards!
My only regret was that with my brand new camera it was still a few days before I would figure out how to take good nighttime photos.
We stopped for a bite to eat at a Kneipe near the campus of Uni Stuttgart, where we ran into OS's friends, not from Stuttgart, but from Beijing! What a small world.
Finally, after many, many hours, my sleepy head hit a pillow. :)
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