"Why wait any longer for the world to begin?"
Karljosef Schattner
June 2006
Karljosef Schattner is one of Germany’s most remarkable architects; almost his entire body of work is contained in the small Bavarian town of Eichstatt where he worked from 1957 to 1991.
His great gift is in his ability to graft his architecture into the beautiful and picturesque setting of this baroque town by layering his designs within and around these historic buildings. His work is truly of its time yet sits harmoniously in context. This is done in a sensitive and honest way so that there can be no historical confusion. It is done in an inspired way so that there exists a relationship between the new and the old that becomes mutually self dependant.
“To deny the present is to deny the past” was in part a founding philosophy for his architecture, he wanted his buildings to engage with the historic architecture of Eichstatt, to create a dialogue in time. In essence this architectural approach asserts that merely to imitate something else not only robs us of our own historical identity but also devalues that which it impersonates through the confusion created.
He was a contemporary of Carlo Scarpa and is very obviously influenced by him. Like Scarpa seeing history as a journey that brings about continual change but his architecture is very much his own and continues to be developed by his students.
Inscape made the pilgrimage to Eichstatt in the company of Richard Murphy Architects in October of 2005, these images are from that visit.
Comments
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I like the detail at the top of the arch (top thumbnail image), whoops that wasnt by shattner was it! |
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