Adam Caruso Interview: Novelty is Nonsense

"The European city is one of the great human inventions!” Adam Caruso advocates building with a deep sense of history and tradition. Meet the architect behind the award-winning Tate Britain conversion and numerous Gagosian galleries around the world.
For Adam Caruso architecture is a cultural practice, a question of making buildings that are connected to the history of architecture and “a deeper idea of place, of the history and culture of the place and how you read it today.” His style contrasts many contemporary architects whose buildings, in Caruso’s opinion, represent “a kind of abstraction that becomes more and more reduced of energy and any kind of relevance.” Caruso St John Architects’ Bremer Landesbank in Germany is one example of the architect’s approach. Placed in Bremen’s historic temple district, the building’s expressive brick facade refers to a northern European tradition and gothic character, “a tradition of brick architecture filtered through modern history,” says Caruso.
The beauty of historic buildings is their flexibility, the way they can seamlessly change form warehouse to flats, from public schools to art galleries. “The physical thing, built with a particular intention, has all of this other potential in it. It’s like magic, like alchemy,” says Caruso. Today’s buildings are built as objects with only one purpose, to stand out, with none of the “open-endedness” of historic architecture. “Architecture becomes a commodity, a fantastic expression of late capitalism,” Caruso laments. “To me that’s the opposite of architecture.”
Adam Caruso (b. 1962) is a London-based Canadian architect and founder of Caruso St John Architects, which he founded with Peter St John in 1990. He was Professor of Architecture at the University of Bath from 2002-2005 and has been Professor of Architecture and Construction at the ETH Zurich since 2011. Among many notable and award-winning projects Caruso St. John is behind the Bremer Landesbank, Bremen, Germany, the restructuring of the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood and the master plan for the Tate Britain, Millbank, both London, UK and several of the Gagosian Gallery sites.
Adam Caruso was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at Bygningskulturens Hus in Copenhagen, Denmark in February 2017.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edited by: Klaus Elmer
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art 2017.
Supported by Dreyers Fond
FOLLOW US HERE!
Website: channel.louisiana.dk
Facebook: / louisianachannel
Instagram: / louisianachannel

[@Audiofreund2]

Very intelligent man. Nice to see him valueing beauty and not dismissing it. Beauty has a function too. It calms our nervous system being around beautiful buildings, mimicing nature.

[@JadenJahci]

Beautiful Mind. Kind Regards, Eve

[@armymenaroundthehouse]

What he says about modernism is interesting. Le Corbusier wrote extensively about his admiration for classical architecture, and I think he felt that a more modern, stripped down architecture that focused less on decoration, and more on proportions would bring us closer to a purer form of architecture. I think that's been lost on most of his admirers.

[@Dev1nci]

There’s a joke: Why is architecture undergrad a 3 year course? Because that’s how long it takes to convince someone that Le Corbusier is a good architect. 😂😂 He obviously was a good architect but I think his work doesn’t allow for a multitude of levels of reading. If you’re a more casual observer you might just interpret it as a concrete block. I think it’s our job now to introduce architecture with character that the most disinterested people can discern.

[@jemmanuel6674]

This seems like almost the sole problem for many, if not most, disciplines in the post-modern age; a lack of historical relevance/awareness, and abstraction that forgoes formal knowledge.

[@andjelatatarovic8309]

abstraction maybe? the work of Deleuze looks at that

[@porsche9184]

"The only thing wrong with architecture is architects" Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright

[@arc3242]

So he praises European cities for 16 minutes...?

[@monstaax3]

*Caruso

[@edisoncummings2970]

despite his interesting thoughts, his voice is sleep-inducing

[@sami_ek]

Despite his sleep-inducing voice, his thoughts are interesting!

[@joebentleytheartist]

Hes talking nonsense find it in all colleges.Pick key words and spin.

[@pkingo1]

"everything has been done before" words spoken by someone who has no imagination... perhaps that is why he clings to the past. Our consciousness (along with culture and technology) is evolving and we need NEW structures to accomodate this evolution. That said we should be aware of our history and rediscover the novelty, inventiveness and creativity that was in the spirit of ancient architecture...

[@geostk3659]

its not about imagination.. everything you make its done before not the same but the spirit.So we dont need NEW structures because new structures its going to be another dead end because they done before.We need the essence of structure not their shell (style).

[@Ruemliblader]

I get your point but I highly doubt he clings to the past. What comes out is always new, but founded on the present instead of a radical speculation that can not be proven right or wrong. Or did you have any particular experience like this while working in his studio or practice?

[@ziraprod6090]

well stated.

[@bensummers9580]

well hello there, mr schumacher. i've been expecting you...

[@sepj3491]

If you actually listened to what he was saying, he said that is what his artist buddies used to say. Maybe you have too much imagination that prevents you to hear what is actually being said.

[@romanovrex]

Eurocentric to the core. When will Europeans tire of sniffing their own armpits, when will they tire of rummaging through their atics full of grandfather's childhood toys in paroxysms of nostalgia and racial narcissism. There was hope for European culture in that 'blip' he dismisses, but if endless revision of some illustrious past is all that's on offer for Europe's future, than tourism is all it's good for.

[@Audiofreund2]

Would you kill your parents and grandparents because they are nostalgic? It is valueing your roots. Knowing, that you are a part of a whole world.

[@David-mt1qm]

you know he is not european?

[@greeneagle08]

Didn’t ask