Hasta La Ideas

The signature stripes of artist Daniel Buren cover the curved walls of this timber-framed house by architect Davide Macullo, which functions as a piece of public art in a picturesque Swiss valley.

For Swiss architect David Macullo, working with the French conceptual artist Daniel Buren was a lifelong dream come true.

“It was a big help to someone growing up in a small place and dreaming about abstract art to find someone like Daniel Buren,” Macullo told Dezeen.

“At that time he invented minimalism, for me. He condenses all the beauty into recognisable stripes.”

He approached Mario Cristiani from Galleria Continua, who introduced him to Buren in Paris and together they devised Swiss House XXXII.

Macullo was adamant that the art be integral to the structure of the building, rather than just a surface design or a temporary installation. The vertical white stripes on the pink and green cladding are formed from slats and an integral part of the building.

“Without the art the building does not exist, it’s part of the structure of the building,” he said. “You cannot divide art from the architecture.”

The frame is made entirely from untreated timber using traditional building techniques. The walls follow the cruciform plan to create an undulating form that shifts according to the angle the house is viewed from.

“From above it becomes a very strong graphic sign, like a Swiss Flag in the middle of the Alps,” explained Marcullo. “From far away it’s exactly how a child would design a house, with two vertical lines, a roof on top and holes for the windows.”

The candy-striped colours of Buren’s walls were inspired by the setting of the Calanca Valley.

The green echoes the grass of the valley floor and the bright pink references the colour of the sky during summer sunsets, and the wildflowers that grow among the grass. The diagonal split of the colours alludes to the angle of the surrounding mountains.

The architect, whose grandfather is from the village, wanted to pay tribute to the collaborative spirit of the cosmopolitan mix of people who live there.

“Everybody speaks at least three languages, they might have spent their life in New York and then come back, it’s an interesting place,” he said. “Everybody puts energy in to this village in different ways, that’s why it survives.”

Marcullo, who owns the house, shares Buren’s belief that art does not belong in a gallery or a private collection. The inside is simply exposed timber, revealing the structure of the building but leaving the art to be seen only by those on the outside.

“The sculpture belongs to the village,” he added. “When you build a house the life of a house is much longer than our lives. If we live a few decades, the house lasts centuries. It’s interesting to do something for the community instead of just for yourself.”

He also hopes that the work will inspire children growing up in the village by making them “feel they’re in the centre of the world,” as Buren’s art did for him in his own youth.

For Buren it was also a triumphant return of sorts. The artist had to flee Switzerland in 1969 after he was arrested following a guerilla installation of his work in Bern. The artist covered billboards in this city with stripes as an un-invited contribution to the Swiss curator Harald Szeemann’s show, When Attitudes Become Form.

Invited or not, his signature stripes have covered everything from museums to fields of tulips in his 40-year career.

One of his most famous pieces is a series of black-and-white columns arranged on a grid in the inner courtyard of the Palais Royal in Paris. Les Deux Plateaux was controversial at the time due its cost and the stark contrast with the historic setting.

This summer the artist unveiled his permanent installation in the new Tottenham Court Road tube station, his first public artwork in the UK. Appropriately names Diamonds and Circles, it features giant shapes in primary colours against a backdrop of black-and-white stripes.

Last year he covered the glass roof of Frank Gehry’s Fondation Louis Vuitton building in Paris, with brightly coloured filters in a chequerboard pattern.

Photography by Alexandre Zveiger.

The post Green and pink stripes colour undulating walls of Swiss house appeared first on Dezeen.

“May I pick your brain for 15 minutes?” That’s a common request with some important time management implications, especially for those who get a lot of these requests. The following are a few things to consider:

If you are the person receiving the request

I’ve received “pick your brain” requests and I’ve handled them in different ways at different times. There’s no one right way to respond to such requests.

It’s okay to say no.

Given how many articles have been written about turning down these requests, it seems as though saying no is hard for many people. That’s not surprising, since saying no to all sorts of requests for your time can be a challenge, as we’ve addressed before on Unclutterer.

Adrienne Graham is one of those who says no to pick-your-brain requests. As she wrote for Forbes:

I love giving advice. I write blogs, articles and a newsletter. I host a radio show. I tweet, Facebook and share nuggets of advice almost daily. So what is it in all of that, that would make anyone think they can still have the right to “pick my brain”? …

Your knowledge has value. You’ve invested time and money into learning your craft and it’s not fair for people to expect you to give it away for free. Even friends need to understand there are boundaries.

As she points out, you can always choose to be helpful in other ways. You may well have free resources — a newsletter, a blog, etc. — that you can suggest the person consult. You can recommend a good book.

It’s okay to say yes.

If you have the time and you want to help, it’s perfectly fine to say yes. I’ve heard many people say that others helped them when they were getting started, and now they want to give back by helping others.

Dylan Wilbanks wrote a blog post entitled On Being Generous, where he stated:

I am an introvert. Alone time is everything to me. And yet, I make the time to meet those who want to talk.

Wilbanks works in tech, and he’s found that as he helps others he in turn gets better at what he does.

It’s okay to say yes, but.

Erin Loechner suggested carving out an hour or a half-hour per week that’s truly convenient for you and offering that time to those who ask. “Yes, I would love to help, but I am currently only available from 4-4:30am EST on Tuesday.”

Kaarin Vembar does this by offering 8 a.m. Friday Skype calls. As she explains to those who ask for an alternative, “I’m trying to maintain sanity, be available to cool people and pay my bills at the same time. Fridays at 8 a.m. equates to healthy boundaries.”

It’s okay to yes, for a fee.

As Rachel Sklar wrote:

You can say, “Sure! My rate is $450 per hour, plus snacks. I’d love to help you!” It is amazing how considerate people become with your time once they have to pay for it.

Nicole Jordan wrote about using this approach:

This is what I started doing, especially for people that I do not know well: I tell them I am happy to meet, I am flattered they asked, and that because my time is valuable I don’t do these PYB sessions for free.

If you are the person making the request

If you’re asking someone to make time to answer your questions, be sure to respect that person’s time.

Consider alternatives to in-person meetings.

As Erin Greenawald wrote:

Somewhere along the way, asking to “sit down for coffee” became the status quo for requests like this. … When you count the time commuting, ordering coffee, sitting down and making small talk, and actually answering your questions, most coffee dates will take almost an hour. And that’s a lot of time to give!

Instead, ask for something that’s even easier. Suggest a phone call — it’s often more void of small talk than coffee, and your contact can do it from anywhere.

If for some reason you really feel you need a face-to-face meeting, you can offer to come to the person’s office, which will cut down on the time required.

Be prepared, so you make good use of the time.

Do some research before making the request — and before the brain-picking session if you’ve been granted one — so you aren’t asking for basic information you could readily get elsewhere.

Post written by Jeri Dansky

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