MIES - Monolith

The Monolith, a giant, rusty cube built at the Expo site on Lake Murten, was supposed to be dismantled at the end of the exhibition on October 20.

But the celebrated French architect, Jean Nouvel, recently visited his creation to voice his opinion on whether the cube should stay afloat beyond the lifespan of the exhibition.

Nouvel told reporters gathered in the lakeside town of Murten that he would not add his name to a petition which supporters hope will extend the cube’s life by another five years. “That would be immodest on my part,” he commented.

The architect oversaw the design of the Murten Expo site, but refuses to take a position on the future of the Monolith.

“I think that if part of the exhibition should be conserved,” Nouvel told swissinfo, “then it should be decided through democratic and political channels.”

Deiss leads campaign

The Swiss foreign minister, Joseph Deiss, is leading the campaign to preserve the Monolith, while Murten site director, Hans Flückiger, says he would welcome such a move as long as it was the will of the people.

“Certainly it’ll be a great pleasure if we receive positive signals that a part of the population would like to keep what we’ve worked on and constructed,” Flückiger told swissinfo.

“For us, though, it’s very important to hear a united call for the Monolith to be preserved,” he added.

Nouvel says the question of the cube’s future is a pertinent one, given that the Expo site’s theme is “Instant and Eternity”.

“It’s logical to ask whether we need to keep the Monolith, because as a piece of art, it’s very symbolic of eternity.”

Past and present

The rust of the cube’s steel exterior is supposed to symbolise the passing of time, while the sheer size of the structure reflects the fact that the past cannot be overlooked.

Inside the Monolith, two exhibitions bring together Switzerland’s past and present.

Images of a modern Switzerland – complete with flying chalets and extreme close-ups of naked bodies - are flashed on a giant, circular screen on the first floor of the cube interior. On the top floor, visitors are invited to view the 19th century panorama painting of the medieval Battle of Murten by artist Louis Braun.

“It’s a structure that encompasses an important part of Switzerland’s heritage…it can be considered a kind of monument to Murten,” Nouvel said.

Test of time

The ultimate test of the Monolith’s longevity will be whether its owners put forward the funds to keep it afloat. Flückiger says the cost is presently being calculated and a report will be presented at the end of the month.

Expo organisers could take their cue from another famous piece of architecture to survive the passing of time: the Eiffel Tower. Today it stands proud in the French capital, Paris, more than a century after its construction for a national exhibition in 1889.

However, Nouvel says Expo organisers will have to consider ways of adapting the structure of the Monolith if it is to remain on Lake Murten beyond Expo.02.

“It’s not a structure built to last a very long time – such as a decade or even a century – so if the decision is taken to keep the structure, some modifications will have to be made.”

BDCS - Brise Soleil

A typical wooden brise soleil, shading overly transparent exteriors

Brise soleil, (from French, "sun breaker"), in architecture refers to a variety of permanent sun-shading techniques, ranging from the simple patterned concrete walls popularized by Le Corbusier to the elaborate wing-like mechanism devised by Santiago Calatrava for the Milwaukee Art Museum or the mechanical, pattern-creating devices of the Institut du Monde Arabe by Jean Nouvel.

Calatrava's wing-like mechanism as seen from inside the Milwaukee Art Museum

In the typical form, a horizontal projection extends from the sunside facade of a building. This is most commonly used to prevent facades with a large amount of glass from overheating during the summer. Often louvers are incorporated into the shade to prevent the high-angle summer sun falling on the facade, but also to allow the low-angle winter sun to provide some passive solar heating.

Originally, brise soleils were constructed out of concrete, per Le Corbusier's tenets established in his Towards a New Architecture, widely considered now a manifesto for all things modern architecture

On the Arab World Institute, where Nouvel pioneered his brise soleil innovation in his Institut du Monde Arabe: one sees a glass-clad storefront where a metallic screen unfolds with moving geometric motifs. The motifs are actually 240 motor-controlled apertures, which open and close every hour. They act as brise soleil to control the light entering the building. The mechanism creates interior spaces with filtered light — an effect often used in Islamic architecture with its climate-oriented strategies. This building catapulted Nouvel to fame and is one of the cultural reference points of Paris.

Nouvel's metallic screens with circular apertures