Werner Blaser

Werner Blaser (born August 29, 1924 in Basel , Switzerland ; † December 8, 2019 ) was a Swiss architect and publicist . Werner Blaser's biography and work are shaped by his intensive engagement with Alvar Aalto , Ludwig von Mies van der Rohe and classical Chinese and Japanese architecture. His numerous publications document architecture and are published worldwide.

biography

After completing his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker with a degree in Basel, Werner Blaser traveled to Scandinavia in 1949. In addition to his visits to Carl Larsson and Bruno Mathsson , he worked as an intern for Alvar Aalto in Helsinki. Among other things, he was responsible for cataloging the Artek furniture and furnishing work on the cargo ship “Fintrader”.

His passion for architecture led Blaser to the Institute of Design in Chicago in 1951 . In the architecture department at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) he attended a photography course, which enabled him to make his first contact with Mies van der Rohe . During his stays in Chicago, Blaser made the acquaintance of personalities such as Ludwig Hilberseimer , Walter Peterhans , Alfred Caldwell , Georg Danforth, Daniel Brenner, Gene Summer, Ogden Hannaford and Joe Fujikawa.

Blaser processed his studies and photographs of the classic pavilion buildings from the 17th to 18th centuries during his stay in Kyoto in 1953 in his first and to this day most acclaimed publication "Temple and Tea House in Japan". This publication in 1963 led Mies van der Rohe to commission Werner Blaser to create a monograph. After six months of intensive collaboration, Werner Blaser's publication "Mies van der Rohe - The Art of Structure."

At the invitation of the Chinese architecture society in Beijing , Blaser traveled to China in 1972 and 1976 to research, among other things, the classic courtyard house, which also resulted in publications.

From 1957 to 2006 Werner Blaser ran his own office as an architect, designer and publicist in Basel , Switzerland . Since 2007 he has been working independently for Blaser Architekten AG, Basel. There he integrates his “Living Archive” - an extensive collection, the core of which is his architectural photographs from historical Asian architecture to the European and American avant-garde. The “Living Archive” includes documentation about Japan and China, complete recordings of Mies van der Rohe's buildings, a collection of Gerrit Rietveld's furniture , prototypes of his own everyday furniture and an extensive architecture library with 4,000 books.

Teaching assignments

Werner Blaser worked as a guest lecturer for the development of connectors at the Ulm University of Applied Sciences in 1956 . Here a friendship arose with Hans Gugelot , who already worked as a lecturer for product design and development under Max Bill and conveyed to him the importance of architecture for furniture construction. In 1978 Werner Blaser was given a teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and in 1983 a visiting professorship at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna under the then director Johannes Spalt . From 1980 to 2005, Blaser organized the architecture lectures in Basel with over 200 events on world architecture, which are now being continued as part of the Basel Architecture Dialogues and by his son Christian W. Blaser.

Furniture

1949–1950 Compliments from MoMA in the “International Competition for low-cost Furniture” for design of collapsible cupboard furniture
1952 “Good Design Award” from MoMA , New York
1955–1957 First and ex aequo price at the “Concorso internazionale dei Mobile” in Cantu, Italy
1958 Tubular steel armchair “all in line” for Josef Albers
1973 Development of a foldable wooden armchair
1975 Furniture program Development of simple furniture in a package
2004–2005 Manufacture of 15 prototypes in Karelian birch (Art of Fugue) in Fiskars (Finland) for the “Living Archive” Blaser Architects AG

Construction work

1960 Acacia wood climbing labyrinth for Hirzbrunnen kindergarten, Basel (CH)
1960–1967 Bromhübel cemetery complex, Arlesheim (CH)
1962–1963 Removable exhibition pavilion, Basel for the CIBA photochemistry
1963–1967 Children's home pavilion in Müllheim (DE)
1963–1972 Children's home Tüllinger Höhe Lörrach (DE), socio-pedagogical special school with home (project)
1966 Kindergarten for the Christoph Merian Foundation in Basel, a joint project with Helen Blaser
1967 Parish hall with parish
apartment, Neuchâtel (DE) 1968–1969 Residential houses, Bottmingen (CH)
1970–1971 Storage hall in three-dimensional framework with office J. Lüber, Märkt (DE)
1972–1973 Three houses in wooden skeleton (hexagonal grid), Biel-Benken (CH) and Jura (CH)
1976 Design of the floor covering (with rhombus motif) Barfüsserplatz, Basel (CH)
1976–1977 Renovation with Pergola extension Casa Nascosta, Ascona (TI)
1986 Kindergarten in wooden frame (hexagonal grid), Bottmingen (CH)

Photo exhibitions

1950 "Alvar Aalto" Baldwin + Kingrey, Chicago (USA)
1955 "Temple and Tea House in Japan", Gewerbemuseum Basel (CH)
1958 "Furniture made of wood and steel: Alvar Aalto and Mies van der Rohe", Gewerbemuseum Basel (CH), The New Collection Munich (DE)
1965 "Example Japan - Construction and Equipment", Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts Munich (DE), Kunstgewerbemuseum Zurich (CH)
1966 "Ornament without ornament", Kunstgewerbemuseum Zurich (CH)
1970 "Objective architecture using the example 'Skin and Skeleton' ”, The New Collection Munich (DE), Technical Universities of Antwerp (NL), Darmstadt and Eindhoven
1973“ Architecture to Furniture ”, University of Applied Arts Vienna (AT)
1973“ Example China - Classic Pavilion Architecture ”, Die Neue Sammlung Munich (DE), Gewerbemuseum Basel (CH)
1975 “Structural Architecture from Eastern Europe”, Gewerbemuseum Basel (CH), Technical University Antwerp (NL), University of Applied Arts Vienna (AT)
1976 “The rock is my house at Ciba-Geigy ", Basel (CH)
1977" Retrospective 25 Years Werner Blaser - Principle of an Architecture ”, Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur (CH)
1980–1990“ 70/80 Architecture in Switzerland on behalf of the Pro Helvetia Cultural Foundation ”, traveling exhibition in 80 museums and universities in Europe, Asia, the USA, Australia and South America
1986 –1990 “Mies van der Rohe - Less is more”, Coronation Hall in the Aachen City Hall (DE), Goethe-Institut Tokyo (J), Bauhaus Dessau (DE), Kunsthalle Weimar (DE)
2000–2006 “West meets East Mies van der Rohe ", Berlin (DE), Architecture Museums Helsinki (FIN), Bauhaus Weimar (DE), Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago (USA)

Bibliography (selection)

Werner Blaser has written a total of 108 books, more are in progress. He himself says of his publications: “It was never about just making books. It is about translating the thinking experienced from within into language and aesthetics and transposing it into the present. Only in this way do publications make sense and become useful contributions to our current construction work. ”(Blaser 2006: 14)

Books on Mies van der Rohe

• Mies van der Rohe. Verlag für Architektur Artemis, Zurich 1972. ISBN 3-7608-8102-5 (studio-paperback series)
• Mies van der Rohe - apprenticeship and school. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1977. ISBN 978-3-7643-0830-8
• Mies van der Rohe - furniture and interiors. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1981. ISBN 3-421-02560-6
• Mies van der Rohe - less is more. Waser Verlag, Zurich 1986. ISBN 3-908080-20-7
• Mies van der Rohe - Farnsworth House. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1999. ISBN 3-7643-6089-5
• Mies van der Rohe - Lake Shore Drive Apartments Chicago. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1999. ISBN 3-7643-6090-9
• Mies van der Rohe - West is East is West. Vice Versa Verlag, Berlin 2000. ISBN 3-932809-12-2 (exhibition catalog)
• Mies van der Rohe, Crown Hall. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2001. ISBN 3-7643-6447-5
• Mies van der Rohe - West meets East. Birkhäuser Verlag, 2nd ext. Edition Basel 2001. ISBN 3-7643-6458-0
• Mies van der Rohe - IIT Campus. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2002. ISBN 3-7643-6594-3
• Mies van der Rohe - Federal Center Chicago. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2004. ISBN 3-7643-7094-7

Books about Mies van der Rohe's pupil

• Werner Blaser, Monica Stucky-Schürer: Drawings of large buildings. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1983. ISBN 3-7643-1522-9
• Architecture and nature - the work of Alfred Caldwell. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1983. ISBN 3-7643-1524-5
• Myron Goldsmith - Buildings and Concepts. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1987. ISBN 3-7643-1809-0
• Gene Summers - Art / Architecture. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2003. ISBN 3-7643-0145-7

Folk architecture books

• Structural architecture from Eastern Europe. Zbinden & Druck Verlag, Basel 1975. ISBN 3-85989-380-7
• The rock is my home / Le rocher est ma demeure / The rock is my home. Wepf Verlag, Basel 1976. ISBN 0-442-24520-3
• Swiss wooden bridges / Ponts de Bois en Suisse / Wooden Bridges in Switzerland. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1982. ISBN 3-7643-1334-X
• Farmhouse in Switzerland - a collection of the most beautiful rural buildings. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1983. ISBN 3-7643-1523-7
• Atrium atrium - five millennia / Open Courtyards - five centuries. Wepf Verlag, Basel 1985. ISBN 3-85977-080-2
• Tomsk - Texture in Wood / Texture en Bois / Texture in Wood. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1993. ISBN 0-8176-2849-5
• Inner courtyard in Marrakech / Courtyards in Marrakech. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2004. ISBN 3-7643-6967-1
• In the Isfahan Garden - Islamic architecture from the 16th to 18th centuries. Niggli, Sulgen 2009. ISBN 978-3-7212-0675-3
• Icons of world architecture. Niggli, Sulgen 2012. ISBN 978-3-7212-0797-2

Books about master architects

Blaser, Werner (1982): Alvar Aalto as a designer. Stuttgart: German publishing house.
Blaser, Werner (1988): Santiaga Calatrava - Ingenieur-Architektur / Santiaga Calatrava - Engineering Architecture. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1990): Richard Meier - Building for Art / Richard Meier - Building for Art. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1996): Richard Meier - Details. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1991): Helmut Jahn - Airports. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1991): Norman Foster - Sketches. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1993): Norman Foster - Sketch Book. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1994): Livio Vacchini - Transformation. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1995): Richard Horden - light tech. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1998): Renzo Piano - Museum Beyeler in Riehen near Basel. Bern: Benteli Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (2005): Renzo Piano - Paul Klee Center in Bern. Basel: Reinhard Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1990): Werner Sobek - engineering art. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1999): Tadao Ando - Museum of World Cultures in the Rhine. Berlin: Vice Versa Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (2001): Tadao Ando - Architecture of Silence. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (2002): Helmut Jahn - Transparency. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (2002): Helmut Jahn - Architecture / Engineering. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (2005): Tadao Ando - Proximity of the Far. Sulgen: Verlag Niggli.
Blaser, Werner (2007): Tadao Ando - Building in the Earth. Sulgen: Verlag Niggli.
Blaser, Werner (2003): Eduardo Souto de Moura - Element Stone. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (2003): Helmut Jahn - Bayer corporate headquarters (Leverkusen). Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (2003): Helmut Jahn - Post Tower Bonn. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (2004): Helmut Jahn - State Street Village at the IIT. Chicago: Flash Press.
Blaser, Werner (2004): Theo Hotz - Weishaupt CH. Sulgen: Verlag Niggli.

Furniture books

Blaser, Werner (1982): Folding chairs. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1984): Rudolf Bofinger - element system furniture. Stuttgart: German publishing house.
Blaser, Werner (1985): Architecture in Furniture. Zurich: Waser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (1992): Joining and connecting - Joint and Connection. Werner Blaser's furniture factory. The Work of Werner Blaser. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Blaser, Werner (2009): Archi Swiss - Parallels with the big world. Basel: Regent Edition.
Blaser, Werner (2006): Werner Blaser - Passion einer Leben / Passion of a Life. Muttenz: Edition Sturm.

Web links

• Literature by and about Werner Blaser in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography Werner Blaser  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituary notice