Basel-based architecture bureau Miller & Maranta has established its international reputation with projects such as the Schwarzpark multi-family apartment building in Basel (2004), the careful restoration and extension of Villa Garbald by Gottfried Semper in Castasegna (2004), and the vertical expansion of the Altes Hospiz at the Gotthard Pass (2010). 2016 will see the completion of an office building for the Swiss engineering firm Ernst Basler + Partner at KunstCampus Berlin.
The urban and architectural elaborations of their projects offer differentiated reactions to aspects of specific local situations – always in a contemporary language. Close attention is paid to the detection of memories, moods, materials, sound, and lighting conditions of the respective location. The aspects that mark their particularity are reinterpreted with confident and distinctive structures, so that place and interpretation are ultimately juxtaposed.
The exhibition Miller & Maranta designed for Architektur Galerie Berlin presents five projects, making use of a special technique. The Schwarzpark apartment building, Villa Garbald, Hotel Waldhaus, the Zollikerstrasse apartment building, and the Bad Samedan spa are all approached using stereoscopic films that were produced especially for this exhibition by Zurich-based filmmaker Samuel Ammann.
In using this technique, the architects address two aspects simultaneously. The spatial approximations, shot with two staggered cameras, touch on the fundamental issue of spatial perception, which is only possible in movement. This technique can also be understood as a comment on the possibilities of New Media. The precise selection from seemingly endless possibilities does not automatically mean a deficit, but instead leads to a focusing – the concentration on a special moment enables a deeper confrontation.
The spatially impressive presentation of veduta-like films in sculptural “peep boxes” underpins this idea of a concentrated, sensual representation of architecture.