On a text of Wiel Arets
Casa Malaparte. Gabrielle Basilico, 1982
Twenty years ago and, today recognized the Dutch architect Wiel Arets make an incisive description of the Villa Malaparte by Adalberto Libera. A strange house in a location impossible on the island of Capri. This reflection of Arets was included in a longer text, qualified The invaders of bodies, Content in turn City Invasions,a publication by Arthur Kroker in Vienna in 1994.
Wiel Arets has achieved a high international recognition supported by a number of very interesting works suchas Utrecht University Library 2005, the Torre de Viviendas in the island KSNM of Amsterdam of 1996 and his first work, la tienda de modas Bell Gens and the Maastricht 1987, for example.
On their way through the Technical University of Eindhoven, and from student, leave a trace of his great personal knowledge, through various exhibitions and publications. It has also emerged as a master of the discipline and as a teacher in various universities in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, being invited in 1988 to lead a master unit in the famous London Architectural Association. Thence, arranged a visit with their students to the Villa Malaparte in Capri which would result in a series of publications and texts. Since last year's Dean inthe Schoolof Architecture Illinois Institute of Technology, an appointment that recognizes its importance in the contemporary architecture scene.
The interesting thing is to understand how an architect tries to explain the reasons for the specific architecture through a work of someone who has preceded. Understand how it has created a specific space is an intellectual exercise that projects into the future author, while observing a specific building is a condensation of thought and reflection that traces the influence of art, philosophy and culture of a place. In itself, This text Arets, which is dealt with later- would be a demonstration of the intellectual depth of his thought, related, in this case, with that work emblematic of contemporary Italian architecture is the building of Libera.
At the same time, Dutch architect there eagerly sought, architectural references with which to express their personal concerns regarding the arquitectura.La Villa Malaparte, and does 70 years would Libera for writer Curzio Malaparte, is an example of the way some interwar Italian architects achieved a very sophisticated edificatoria expression with a reduced palette of elements.
A sample of critical talent Arets as detected in this text of yours which refers to the house that sits on a craggy promontory on the coast of the beautiful island of Capri:
One reason why I love the Villa Malaparte is the dialogue established between the real and the unreal.
The texts of Malaparte, La Pelle y Kaputt, reflect that architecture is not as tied to the issues and physical examples for study by architects but a poetic quality that will never be achieved if only the architecture relies on. So what you do on the stairs of the Villa Malaparte is use his story and ideas in a reference to the steps of the church of Lipari, where he spent his exile as architect. The white curve reminds deck of a ship sailing.
We could say it is simply a drifting boat, but, for me, the most interesting is that it creates an underworld. An underworld where visitors, although they are very comfortable, follow the orders issued by the plant layout. Reaching this place is a real feat. It is accessible by boat, plane to the pie. From Capri takes an hour walk, but once you got the feeling that you are in a prison and amazing time in a villa. The fireplace is an intriguing, because restates opposition between inside and outside. Fire not only used for the interior, to heat the house, but to warn fishermen of Punta caulk boats that is a dangerous cliff in the sea. Villa Malaparte is a house that could be summed up with this sentence: "A machine of alienation".
Main space inside the Casa Malaparte
Interestingly, the reference to the underworld which establishes, in this case. Arguably perceived intellectual relationship with the surrealist aesthetic project, Advanced movement in which relationships are valued incongruity and random images that occur in dreams. The inner space where the fireplace is located to which we referred Wiel Arets unimagined a dialogue with the garden project known in the apartment from Le Corbusier Beistegui 19. There is also Swiss architect dialogue with the surrealists, when you build a room that has furniture and fireplace despite not having a roof
The VillaMalaparte is a kind of bowl that transports its occupants into unknown territory of imagination. Probably, Italian writer promoter of the work wanted to produce a mental state conducive to creating imaginary stories, perhaps remembered but also dreamed of in a trance caused by the space.
There, the territory and geography have also a role. To get to that place, as redials Arets, to do a difficult and risky through a path that runs along the rugged, wooded coast of the island. The murmur of the sea holds its sway, visitors counterpoint solo sound deep in thought. A place conducive to the creation of new images and works of literature unusual in his inner dense Mental.
Library of the University of Utrecht. Wiel Arets, 2005
