Statements

Peter Cook on “city objects”.

“Only very feeble cities cannot absorb buildings of overt personality, but like a human personality a building can become more and more intriguing as we delve inside and get to know it. Thus, the Kunsthaus is a rotund, laughing, winking face. A straightforward and revealing entry area, then a tantalising element (the travelator) that invites you into the unknown. The mystery deepens in the dark, magic space. More tantalisation and a different facet of the same character and finally revealing (onto the needle) that the intentions were benign.”

Peter Cook on “shape or content”.

“It is fashionable in academic-architectural circles to both (1) be suspicious of exotic shapes and forms and (2) be immersed in the magic of surfaces created by form. There are all sorts of pitfalls: when you are describing and representing a building like the Kunsthaus Graz, you are (of course) describing the shape and the boundary form. For goodness sake – it’s a definite thing. It looms up above your head into the sky and it is shapely. Yet when I have to remind various useful people about the need for gradations of light, the significance of subtle positioning, the degree of processional or incidental or bifocational or decoy-like space and the placement of devices, the eyes of most listeners glaze over. When Colin and I discuss the deliberate ambiguities of curved edge, definite object, misty distance, oblique view, we are probably thought of as tricky, obtuse or full of bullshit.

In fact, the building, like many of the late 20th century or early 21st century has the technical and cultural advantage of being able to simultaneously play upon the need for certain contents or devices to assert themselves firmly ... and for others to be wayward, subtle, ambiguous or occasional.”

Peter Cook: "Did you enjoy?"

"It is my hope that people enjoy the Kunsthaus. So that when there is a stunningly good exhibition it does no more than serve as a support facility and when there is a tedious exhibition on it can still provide the visitor with a memorable ambience. My suspicion is that it will also offer the visitor another regard for the city of Graz itself. The castle re-assessed as it is glimpsed through the naughty orifice, the city as it is seen from the high needle deck, the disappearing ground of street and River Mur as you glide up into the unknown. Did you enjoy the shafts of light? The interruption of the sky by the curves? The pull of the edges? The hidden apses? Did Fischer von Erlach ask those questions when he (surely) invited us to enjoy?"