Neue Staatsgalerie - Stuttgart, Germany - Architect: James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates - Completed: 1984
12 Photographs
If any building sits at the heart of my fascination with architecture, then the Neue Staatsgalerie is probably it. Not because it’s the best building I’ve visited (it isn’t) or because I particularly love post-modernism (I don’t), but in a similar way to the cemetery at San Cataldo, it came to me at a time in my education when I needed tinder for the lonely sparks of architectural inspiration that I was experiencing.
In my third year at university, I was designing a sunken plaza in Adelaide and my tutor saw my rough model of intertwined shapes and bright colours and sent me off to the library to find this strange fascination he’d described. This was before we had the internet and a hundred images at our fingertips, but after an exhaustive search of architectural books, I found it. As first I was enthralled by the bold colours and exciting geometry, but soon discovered and began to appreciate how the interlocking and interconnected spaces defined the visitors experience of the place by creating possibilities that seemed random, but actually were intimately connected to the building user and their experience.
Despite all this, I had never been in a hurry to visit. Somehow, I knew it would come at some point and it happened organically, while travelling through Germany on a camping holiday. I visited twice, over the course of two days, and the first time I took no pictures nor drew any lines. It was the afternoon, and I walked the place up and down, back to front, inside and out. The next morning, I returned with my camera and took a set of photographs.
It is rare to visit a building and not be disappointed in some way, no matter how exciting or brilliant the building is, but I found it hard to be disappointed by the Neue Staatsgalerie. I knew her faults, like a sometimes irritating old friend that you love at all times regardless, and visiting was a little like coming home. I have visited many buildings before this one and I’m glad I waited, because strangely I don’t think I would have appreciated it like I did.
It was worth the wait.
HWLK
