Alternative Histories: Taka Architects on Peter Märkli

TAKA architects, Peter Märkli’s ground floor plan for Haus Kuehnis, 2018. Plaster, corrugated card, Indian ink and red thread, 70 × 130 × 100 mm.
Peter Märkli (1953), Haus Kuehnis, 1982. Charcoal on trace, 315 × 225 mm. DMC 2698.3.

Peter Märkli’s sketch of the plan for Haus Kuehnis seems to describe a compact building with a different front and back and interior rooms made specific through spatial divisions, decoration and architectural order.

We know Markli’s house – with its stout singular form and enigmatic approach to order and decoration – and can’t escape its image when we imagine a new life for his plan.

But we can imagine it transported to another place – the exposed Atlantic coast of Ireland – where a looser formality would be expected and where Markli’s frieze decorations might be replaced by brackets and cord, to stop the roof from blowing away.

– TAKA Architects, Cian Deegan and Alice Casey

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