Both the stone and marble surfaces are set in a mortar bed, apparently fastened with four centimetre round by 12 centimetre long iron bolts, covered with lead and given aluminum caps. Yet, the anchor bolts had only a limited functional value. The enhanced and articu- lated bolts only held the panels in place during the first three weeks of construction while the binding mortar bed hardened. Despite the fact that they were only needed for a limited period of time, the architect chose not only to keep but also to enhance their appear- ance. The bolt heads are invested with a constructional meaning seemingly inspired by necessity. The façade pattern of the Postsparkasse becomes not only a textile design that responds to the designer’s aes- thetics, but it aspires to represent the technological, economic and time-saving attributes of this type of construction and standardization. Had the bolts not been there in their exaggerated size and form, the nature of cladding material as a thin surface and the methods of construction would not have been easily perceived. In many ways, the bolts function as a sewing tool, binding pieces of façade fabric together, allowing the build- ing to show at once lightness and weight, thinness and thickness, solid- ity and fragility, paradoxical condi- tions woven together within the building itself. For further analysis see E. Ford, Details of Modern Architecture , Cambridge, MA, 1990, pp. 203-231.
qui répond au sens d’esthétisme du concepteur, mais il aspire à représenter les attributs tech- nologiques, économiques et con- sciencieux du temps épargné typiques de ce type de construc- tion et de normalisation. Si les boulons n’y avaient pas été, de taille et de forme exagérées, la nature du matériel plaqué, en tant que fine surface, et les méthodes
de construction, n’auraient pas été aussi facilement perçues. De plusieurs façons, la fonction des boulons en tant qu’outil de cou- ture, reliant les pièces du tissu de la façade les unes aux autres, permet à l’immeuble de faire preuve, de façon simultanée, de légèreté et de poids, d’étroitesse et d’épaisseur, de rigidité et de fra- gilité.
plaques de pierre boulonnées au mur. Dans ce cas, le mur en maçonnerie portante a été plaqué d’une surface ayant un tissu qui lui est analogue. Les têtes de boulons sont dotées d’une signification structurale qui semble être inspirée par néces- sité. Le motif de la façade du Postsparkasse devient ainsi beau- coup plus qu’un motif de textile
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O n S ite review
S ewing
I ssue 8 2002
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