D EPA RT EM EN T A R C H I T EK T U R E T H Z R I C H

BAUTEN/BAUEN ARCHITEKTURLABOR SCHWEIZ: INTERVIEW 3

Philippe Rahm:
Form and Function follow Climate

PHILIPPE RAHM INTERVIEWED BY

residence from concrete, the stony aggregates of

spite of digital dematerialisation, a physiological link

LAURENT STALDER

which contained the two aforementioned elements.

continued to exist between the computer and the

Buildings/building Swiss Architecture

In eroding over time, the house would replenish

users body, by virtue of the screens radiation on

the human eye.

Laboratory (Bauten/bauen Architekturlabor

the soil with the minerals that plants need in order to

Schweiz) is a two-year lecture and inter-

grow. At the end of the 1990s, following the arrival

This project subsequently developed under the

view series to be held by the Department of

of new technologies such as mobile phones and

name i-weather.org, a sort of climatic cycle for the

Architecture at ETH Zurich. Swiss architects

the internet, there emerged the notion of an elec-

internet that develops in time with a 25-hour circa-

will be invited to explore new trajectories in

tromagnetic field and hence, the idea that matter is

dian rhythm linked to the hormone melatonin.

architecture and urban design in a sequence

not only visible but invisible, electromagnetic. From

of lectures. In parallel, interviews will be con-

then on, electromagnetic geography superposed

Does scientific progress transform architects

ducted, with excerpts appearing regularly in

itself on physical geography. In 1998, also, the first

field of knowledge?

archithese. The interviews will be published

federal provisions on electromagnetic pollution were

Yes. For example, reinforced concrete and steel

in their entirety in a compilation in book form

published, to regulate thresholds of non-ionising ra-

have totally transformed our conception of space.

at the conclusion of the series.

diation. Paradoxically, that which came to be called

These new materials allowed a spatial arrangement

information highways generated smog, just as real

determined by closed, juxtaposed rooms, linked by

highways do. The field of architecture and urbanism

a corridor, to be replaced by Le Corbusiers or Mies

digm shift that took place in Human Sciences

had thus slid towards the invisible dimension. Sure,

van der Rohes free plan, by fluid space. I believe

in the 1990s has had repercussions also for

one didnt know so far (and still doesnt) whether

that knowledge of the physical, electromagnetic and

architecture.

or not such dangers are real yet the very notion of

chemical dimensions of space will modify the nature

When I graduated in the 1990s, I was initially inter-

an electromagnetic field opened up a new way of

of contemporary architecture in the same way.

ested in the chemical and physical qualities of mater-

thinking about space. Space was from this point on

A central premise of your work is that the para-

ials. I wanted to adopt a position on architecture as

no longer imagined simply as a void, as an absence

You define this paradigm shift in architecture as

defined by Hegel, namely that architecture, owing to

defined by walls, floor and ceiling but as a less dense

the transition from physical architecture to

physiological or atmospheric architecture.

its materiality, occupies the bottom rung of the artis-

mass, disconnected, transparent and yet neverthe-

tic ladder, so to speak, subject as it is to weight, the

less filled with material; a void invisible to the eye,

What do you understand by this?

climate and erosion. However, the implication here

certainly, but in which the body was immersed.

This terminology is part of the language of the

manifesto. The discovery of the atmospheric di-

was not simply to think about individual materials in

isolation but rather to understand the connections

The architects agenda would thus henceforth

mension of architecture has allowed us to distance

that exist between them. My work with my former

encompass not only the domain of the object

ourselves from a Swiss debate that in the 1990s,

firm, Dcosterd & Rahm, associs, was thus rooted

but in a more general sense, that of the envir-

in the wake of Herzog & de Meurons first projects

from the start in the notion of interconnectedness,

onment?

focussed only on materials narrative or symbolic

of an eco-system. It rested on the hypothesis that

Yes, absolutely. Actually, I have never been interest-

properties. Concentrating on the physiological and

materials are not isolated from one another but

ed much in new technologies per se or as a means

consciously excluding from our research all that

interconnected by a series of chemical, physical and

to generate new forms. Ive always remained quite

might have clouded this dimension, allowed us to

biological transformations. For example, the potas-

critical of this ongoing virtual, agravic, paperless

apprehend space in a novel, unexpected way, since

sium and phosphate found in certain stones nourish

dematerialisation of architecture. Thus in 1999,

it was determined by unexplored givens. Thermal

the soil when they decompose as a result of expos-

when I was invited to take part in an exhibition

imaging and x-rays do actually allow space to be

ure to air or water. Photosynthesis subsequently

on new technologies in architecture, I proposed a

visualized differently. Light, for example, a classic

allows carbon dioxide and water to metamorphose

critical project, the hormonal-web, in which I dem-

element of the language of architecture, has been

as oxygen and glucose. It was on the basis of this

onstrated the physical and biological aspects of the

enriched since the 1980s by a biological dimension,

thesis, that we built in 1995 the annexe of a private

virtual. It was a question of demonstrating that, in

for its intensity and the length of its waves have

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archithese 2.2010

been shown to influence the hormone melatonin. In

consequence, architecture is no longer simply the
expression of the play of light and shade on bodies
and materials but attains a physiological dimension.
Such discoveries opened up a new field of research
with new implications, with unheard-of design rationales. I called this field physiological architecture.

But how can one reconcile this desire for rupture with notions that remain on the whole very
traditional: such as that of the atmosphere
so entrenched in Swiss architectural debates
of the 1990s?
I see myself as heir to a certain Swiss tradition and
to its interest in questions of ambiance linked to the
materiality of objects. However, my work moved
very rapidly beyond the idea of memory, reference
1 Philippe Rahm architectes, Digestible Gulf
Stream, 12th International
Architecture Exhibition,
La Bienale di Venezia, 2008
(photo: Noboru Kawagishi)

or analogy in favour of a sensual and immediate perception of the odour, the length of a wave, the level
of humidity. Its therefore not so much the visual or
semantic dimensions of atmosphere that are central
to my work as the physiological or meteorological dimensions, in the primary, literal sense of these terms.

This mistrust of form transpires in another of

sculptural qualities and surface. For my part, I was

temperature, humidity, air or sound. The notion of

no longer interested in the building envelope but in

climate or atmosphere is thus fundamental to archi-

what it contains, no longer in the envelopes matter

tecture. I think that ultimately the mass is secondary

your postulates. You dont trace the paradigm

but in that of space: in the void. My first projects

to the void. Paradoxically, the history of architecture

shift of the 1990s back solely to the transition

were consequently very informal. Then, little by

did not assign this status to it.

from the physical to the physiological but

little, by investigating not only the chemical but also

also to the transition from a concept of architec-

the physical characteristics of the air the fact that

Control of the climate is consequently architec-

ture as a problem of form to that of architecture

warm air rises for example, and the displacement

tures principal task?

as a performance issue. What do you under-

of humidity I was able to generate a catalogue of

Yes. Theres no other choice. But I wouldnt use

stand by this?

forms determined by these conditions.

In the classical tradition, in the work of Vitruvius or

the term control, with its modern, normative connotations. I would rather say, that design of the

So what you mean by performance in architec-

atmosphere is now the domain of architecture. And

with harmony and symmetry and their relation to the

tural terms is control of the interior climate?

the new ecological norms accentuate that. Today,

human body. Then, in Modern architecture, form

Yes. The primary role of the architect is to modify

interior space is insulated to the point where one

Alberti, the emergence of form seems to be linked

becomes the expression of function. It is the body

or adapt a climate to human needs: to raise the

can practically heat a house with the flick of a lighter.

that deforms space, the length of an arm that de-

temperature when it is cold, the measure of light

But this gives rise to new problems such as oxygen

termines the size of a kitchen. In the 1990s, with the

when it is dark. The very essence of architecture

renewal, evacuation of the humidity that ensues

emergence of the minimalist Swiss box, the ques-

is therefore to create an environment that differs

from respiration, or adjustment of temperatures to

tion of form became linked with materials, with their

from the exterior environment, be this in terms of

22, 19 or 16Celsius, depending on what a space

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is to be used for. One can see that the exigencies

perature of the space they find themselves in. On

the other fifty per cent is a 1970s revival. Architecture

of sustainable development are causing an increas-

the lower plateau, heated to 24Celsius, its possible

thus allows for the production of diverse environ-

ingly dramatic and fundamental shift in architecture,

to be naked. The climate is paradisical, summery,

ments, rich in contrasts. Its possible to totally recre-

from the tectonic to the climatic, the visible to the

voluptuous. The quest for this type of environment is

ate a Spanish summer, a Tahitian springtime, a Swiss

invisible dimensions.

inscribed in a long tradition that oscillates between

winter, simply by regulating the levels of humidity

Monte Verita, Shangri-la, the Golden Age, hippy

and luminosity, and the position and intensity of heat

The well-tempered environment, a concept de-

open-air events and Arcadia. By contrast, the cooler

sources. Architecture does not simply create spaces

fined in terms of its mechanical dimension by

temperature of 16Celsius emitted by the higher

that protect one from wind and rain; it also allows for

Reyner Banham in 1969, was the theme of your

plateau creates a more hostile environment.

different temporal zones because, in moving from

installation for the Venice Biennale in 2008.

It would be interesting to write a thermal history

one space into another, it is now possible to make

Yes, thats right. But I discovered the work of the

of design and its relationship to the interior climate. In

a spatial-temporal leap from the south to the north,

1950s and 1960s relatively late: the projects of

films of the 1960s, the domestic landscapes in which

from daytime to nighttime, similar to that which one

Yves Klein or Andrea Branzi, for example, or the

skimpily-clad girls dance barefoot on pile carpets

experiences in Switzerland in winter, when crossing

theoretical writings of Reyner Banham and Michel

suggest an interior climate of around 23 to 24Cel-

the threshold to enter ones home.

Ragon. Actually, between the 1960s and my project

sius. Following the oil crisis in the 1970s, the interior

for the Biennale in 2008, Digestible gulf stream,

temperature drops to 18Celsius. These changing

Which leads to your equation, form and func-

Postmodernism served to eclipse this evolution.

conditions lead people to turn down their heating.

tion follow climate?

By setting up a situation of thermal asymmetry

Theyre obliged to wear heavy woollen sweaters,

The formula derives from two or three projects from

convection transfer from a warm pole at 24Celsius

even indoors. In the same way, the domestic land-

2005, in which I investigated the interrelation of humid-

to a cold pole at 16Celsius my project sought to

scape of the 1970s becomes stiffer; it forces people

ity levels, temperature, air circulation and architectural

create a varied thermal landscape. Obviously, in-

to stand up, to abandon the floor. Insofar my Digest-

space. Its based on simple propositions: a human

habitants behaviour changes according to the tem-

ible gulf stream is only fifty per cent a 1960s revival;

being emits thirthy grams of humidity per hour when

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archithese 2.2010

2 Philippe Rahm architectes, Domestic Astronomy, Louisiana Museum,

Denmark, 2009
(Photo: Brndum & Co)
3 Philippe Rahm architectes, Diurnisme, Centre
Pompidou, Paris, 2007
(Photo: Adam Rzepka)
4 Dcosterd & Rahm,
associs, Hormonorium,
8th International Architecture Exhibition, la Bienale
di Venezia, 2002
(Photo: Niklaus Stauss)

sleeping, simply by breathing, 150 grams per hour

warm spaces have always been south-facing, cold

linked to the issue of control. As you admit in

when active, and up to 1500 grams per hour when

spaces where milk and other foodstuff were stored

an interview in the magazine ICON, work on the

taking a shower. Our activities thus contribute to

north-facing, dry spaces for hay in the roof space,

physiological data of a dwelling enables you

progressively raising the level of humidity in the air

and humid ones in the cellar. The defining factor here

not only to control but also to manipulate fac-

around us. Consequently, spatial organisation must

was therefore not the purpose of a space but its

tors such as sleepiness, mood, wellbeing and

be designed in the light of our different activities, in

temperature. Spaces might equally be multipurpose.

so forth. In that interview you even use the term

perversion to describe this potential.

accordance with various data on the interior climate.

In the inhabited parts of some houses, the room with

Such data are important when air renewal is control-

a hearth served both as a kitchen and living room

led by the double-flux heat exchanger stipulated by

and perhaps also as a place of repose for the elderly.

I render them visible, so one might well imagine Im

This independence of form and function is even

responsible for them. In reality, all I do is exploit new

Normally, the architect organises his plan to suit

more striking in other cases, for example in trad-

scientific findings. I didnt invent this link between

the proposed functions of a space and introduces a

itional houses in Baghdad. Rooms there do not have

the hormonal cycle and light. But it happens to exist.

ventilation system only later. I asked myself if it might

a fixed function. Rather, their function changes in the

However, were not obliged to biologically manipu-

be possible to reverse this proposition, in such a

course of the day and the course of the year. Usage

late people just because architecture has gained a

the new environmental norms.

I work on the climate, on climatic parameters, and

way that form and function would follow the climate.

is determined by temperature: the roof may become

biological dimension. No more than we are obliged

In consequence, spaces would no longer be organ-

the bedroom in summertime, for example. It is no

to build solid walls simply because we invented

ised in accordance with functional principles but in

accident that the names of rooms are linked not to

concrete.

terms of ventilation. The house would literally be

their function but to different climates.

In the ICON interview, I was led by the idea that

my work ensued from a sort of second perversion.

designed on a current of air, going from dry to humid.

What is this need you have, to inscribe yourself

The first perversion was modernitys domain since,

The stratified design of the Archimedes House at

in an environmentalist discourse? It permeated

as Heidegger so aptly described, it perverted natural

Vassivire corresponds to the air current that runs

your writings in recent years and you refer to it

cycles, transformed day into night, winter into sum-

through the building. The project proposes that

here yet to me, it seems reductive.

mer. This Modernist project is now over.

Thats the plan for the Mollier house project.

one imagines the house in its entirety in the light of

Its a question of contingency. The environmen-

In Diurnisme, my installation for the Centre Pom-

the fact that warm air rises, and distributes various

tal concerns that arose shortly before 2005 finally

pidou from 2007, I therefore proposed to pervert

usages of the house according to the temperatures

provided a context for my work on physiological

perversion of modernity. It was a double perversion.

they require: thus at the very top of the house,

architecture. Physiological architecture acquires

Indeed, while modernity created non-stop daytime by

one finds the bathroom, the living room below that,

pertinence in the present framework of sustainable

using city lights to suppress the alternation of day and

the kitchen below that, and the bedrooms on the

development and it facilitates a critique of a too

night, thereby transforming the shape of cities and

ground floor. The circulation of air thus generates a

narrow reading of technical or functionalist environ-

the nature of urban lifestyles (as in night-owls, nightlife,

new spatial organisation, a new typology that closely

mentalism. But sustainable development per se is

evenings at the theatre or at balls, etc.), in Diurnisme I

complies with Swiss SIA norms. In fact, the latter

of interest to me only insofar as it allows me to find

tested continuous night or, to be more precise, a false

recommend themselves that temperatures be vari-

new forms and new ways of designing architecture.

night in false daylight during a real night.

Its a fact that nocturnal pollution disturbs natural

able and reflect inhabitants activities.

This climatic as opposed to functional approach

Every quest for comfort, be it in terms of organ-

biorhythms. In the daytime, light blocks the human

to the project updates the environmental principles

ising space or, as in your work, the biological

bodys secretion of melatonin, which influences the

that one finds already in vernacular architecture:

or even physiological dimensions of space, is

sleep cycle. By contrast, the body secretes large

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quantities of melatonin at night. In my project I tried

with the highest coefficient on the periphery. In this

Similarly, in Japan one can buy a hot or cold drink

to reintroduce nighttime without re-extinguishing

way, the borders between inside and outside would

from a vending machine on every street corner: take

the light. It was a matter not of retracing steps but of

dissolve into different spatial thresholds. One would

a can of hot coffee to warm oneself up in winter, and

going a step further. I therefore worked on the length

no longer know where the interior begins: after the

the reverse in summer. I often said to myself that

of those light waves that dont affect melatonin: the

first layer of glazing, after the second or, perhaps,

cool drinks in summer from these vending machines

length of light waves over 600 nanometres, which

only after the third? The interior would be modulated.

are a physiological replacement for cool arcades or

show extreme luminous intensity in the oranges/

It would then be possible to organise pro-

the shade of a tree, and have become as such a sort

yellows, like high noon, at 7000 lux. The bodys bio-

grammes in terms of their thermal coefficients, as I

of alimentary portal, or an alimentary arcade its as

logical rhythm is thereby exposed to something like

did in 2006, in my project for the Kantor Museum in

if an alimentary solution has replaced an architec-

the nocturnal situation yet in full daylight. Diurnisme

Poland and, in 2007, in a competition for a school at

tural solution.

is the creation of a false night in the false daytime of

La Neuveville in Switzerland, where the architecture

modernity.

was created by adding thermal layers: one level of

So it would be a matter of redefining architec-

This approach to architecture which con-

insulation for the toilets (which in winter could cor-

ture, no longer solely as a tectonic problem but

cerns on the one hand the macroscopic scale,

respond to a temperature of 15C), two layers for

also as a technical challenge by introducing

that of the environment, and on the other the

the corridors (160), three layers for the hall (180) and,

air-conditioning or light to a situation, for ex-

microscopic scale, that of human metabolism

finally, four layers for the classrooms at the heart

ample or even as a biological challenge by

challenges a whole range of binary relations,

of the building (200). This allows one to reinvest

acting upon the metabolism?

for example, the distinction between interior

space with a sense of the passing seasons, to leave

Exactly. The canned drink is potable micro-archi-

and exterior space, private and public, natural

behind the climatic norms and uniformity that cur-

tecture.

and artificial, human being and machine. What

rent recommendations on sustainable development

are the consequences for architecture?

unwittingly promote.

Youve contented yourself to date with making

installations. You havent yet built anything.

One of the most obvious consequences, for ex-

The architects role would hence no longer be

I have some interesting projects in the pipeline: resi-

the wall as a tectonic element separating interior

simply to question tectonic limits; he would

dential and commercial commissions.

and exterior realms to a concept of the wall as

also address the border between the inside and

ample, is the transition from an understanding of

strata. Spaces are defined nowadays by regulations

outside of the human body?

Is that realistic? Your approach is above all else

derived from thermal coefficients: a material with

That is what I tried to do in my Hormonorium for

a critical one; it seems little suited to practice.

good insulation properties will have a weak thermal

the Swiss pavilion in Venice, in 2002. The exhibition

I dont think thats the case. What you call a crit-

coefficient of 0.45 for example, another a coefficient

space put nothing on view. There was nothing to

ical approach is for me a matter of renewing the

of 0.9, a window one of 1.1. These days, insulation

see. Interaction took place beneath the skin, at the

language of architecture. And it is with this new

is assured by adding insulating layers. Instead of

hormonal level: the light had an effect on melatonin,

language that I want to build.

adding one layer to another in a compact fashion,

the air on erythropoietin.

as in glazing simple, double, triple glazing one

After that I began to study the relation between

can also dilate the spaces between the glazing

climate and human physiology. For example, I asked

layers and make them habitable. One would thus

myself, whether the body is able to compensate for

inhabit a certain thermal coefficient; the space with

a cold environment by absorbing sugar or proteins:

the lowest coefficient would be at the centre, that

a process familiar to us in Saint Bernard dogs.

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archithese 2.2010

French-English translation by Jill Delton

5 Philippe Rahm
architectes, Convective
Building, Housing for IBA
Hamburg, 2010
(image: Philippe Rahm
architectes)

6+7 Philippe Rahm

architectes, Vaporized
Building, Office building for
EPAD-EPASA La Dfense,
Paris, 2010
(images: Philippe Rahm
architectes)

Philippe Rahm, born in 1967, studied architecture at the

Swiss Federal Insitute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)
and Zurich where he obtained his degree in 1993. He tought
at Lcole nationale suprieure de Beaux-Arts Paris, EPFL,
Architectural Association London, Accademia di architettura
Mendrisio and Lcole nationale suprieure darchitecture
Paris-Malaquais. Currently he is a guest professor at the
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In 2002,
he was chosen to represent Switzerland at the 8th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia. Exhibitions at CCA Montreal, MoMA, Bienal de Valencia 2003,
CCA Kitakyushu, Mori Art Museum Tokyo, FRAC centre
Orlans, Centre Pompidou Paris, Manifesta 7 and Louisiana
Humlebk. He works in Paris and Lausanne.
Laurent Stalder has served as Assistant Professor to the
Chair of the Theory of Architecture at ETH Zurich since February 2006. Focal points of his research and published work
have been the history, criticism and theory of architecture
from the 19th to 21st centuries in Europe and North America.

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