She is a great builder. American architect Jeanne Gang stood out in 2009 with the Aqua Tower in Chicago, a 262-meter tower whose undulating balconies are reminiscent of waves. In this city, she will also design the St. Regis Chicago, three interconnected towers, the most impressive of which rises to 363 meters. And if Jeanne Gang has set about creating campuses, museums, theaters of more modest dimensions, one thing is certain, she likes to gain height. Perhaps this is what allows him to see far. Because the woman who founded Studio Gang in 1999, a professor at Harvard, winner of numerous awards, has always been keen to fit her work into the times and their needs. His intervention on the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, in Little Rock, in the United States, perfectly illustrates his approach.
She reorganized and harmonized disparate structures, designed without any link to the environment, by “cutting” a spine with an organic line. Result: the place is now fluid, “unified, a real museum in the park.” And this is just one example of his desire to rethink architecture to make it a more conscious discipline. His book
The Art of Grafting in Architecture
develops his principles for “expanding museums and other buildings, in order to increase their usefulness and pleasure by reducing their carbon footprint.” A book that the philosopher Emanuele Coccia considers to be major. The author of
The Life of Plants, a Metaphysics of Mixture
and
Philosophy of the House
undoubtedly finds in this horticultural approach to buildings themes that fascinate him. It was therefore quite natural that we invited them to a discussion around the benefits of the transplant.
Madame Figaro.
– How were the idea of this book and the concept of the grafter architect born?
Jeanne Gang.
– We architects know that we must reduce our carbon footprint. But at the same time, we must offer desirable architectures. I looked into this problem and tried to look at my job in a different way to provide answers. Reusing buildings is a practice that already exists, and we know that, from an environmental point of view, renovation is better than new construction. However, we must take this further. Until the transplant. In horticultural practices, it has made it possible to strengthen the vitality of many varieties of trees and to make their fruits even tastier. The rootstock and the scion work together without annihilating each other. The interconnection of their branches and their roots allows beneficial exchanges of nutrients, water, etc. This generates new qualities. Relying on this technique in architecture means creating an enriching dialogue between the past and the future.
Emanuele Coccia.
– With this book, Jeanne does much more than take the idea of horticultural grafting and apply it to architecture, she reformulates all kinds of political, urban, ecological questions, which did not find an answer . Thus, Jeanne rethinks the articulation between the city and the “non-city.” It shows that we can compare the “creation of a forest” with that of a city. To produce new forests, grafting is necessary. Jeanne thus finds a “point of indifference” between agriculture and architecture.
Can we compare this architectural transplant to Japanese
kintsugi
, which highlights with gold the place where an object has been repaired?
JG
– The idea of
kintsugi
is interesting. But the architectural transplant goes further. Kintsugi is a
repair
that brings new value. Grafting is much more: it allows you to combine the qualities of a rootstock, the existing building, and a graft, the new element. The goal is to achieve something different while preserving the properties of both. It is a mode of survival: it is about making the existing thing evolve to prevent it from disappearing, to give it the “nutrients” so that it continues.
Jeanne (Gang) rethinks the connection between the city and the “non-city”
Emanuele Coccia
EC
– All talk about reparation refers us to the preservation of the past. Repair is immobility, it is not changing anything. However, the addition of something new can allow this past to continue to live: you have to agree to deal with something that is not yours. This is the magic of grafting, a method which gives rights to the past as well as the future. The graft does not kill the roots, on the contrary, it strengthens them. There is also a broader, political message about the cohabitation of human beings with each other.
The graft refers to monstrous imagery – chimeras, Frankenstein… –, to “unnatural” associations…
JG
– This imagery reflects the fear of the other, of difference, which is linked to our traditions, our cultures, our religions. In the past, moreover, grafters were seen as sorcerers, capable of giving birth to “impure” species. But these were indeed biased views. History has shown it.
EC
– And we don’t realize it, but graft is everywhere. Without her, there would be no lemons!
We architects know we need to reduce our carbon footprint
Jeanne Gang
What explains why a transplant will take place in architecture?
JG
– Transplantation is a conversation between the old and the new. If you meet someone and you don't pay them any attention, dialogue is not possible. It’s the same for architectural grafting. You need to create a constructive exchange and therefore know the rootstock well. It is ultimately a collaboration between two architects, that of the present and that of the past. Unfortunately, the latter is often no longer there. We must therefore understand him without speaking to him.
EC
– This question of the success of the transplant leads to that of beauty. Jeanne’s practice redefines her. In the past, in architecture, it was visual. Now, it extends to all the senses, because Jeanne is not satisfied with the appearance. She strives to circulate life. Because that is the deep function of a building: to let people circulate, but also electricity, air, light... This circulation is necessary to accommodate sometimes incompatible presences. And this approach intensifies beauty and pleasure. This is what Jeanne did with the Richard Gilder Center in New York. She added an extension facing outwards and connected to the ten existing buildings. Now, in this place dedicated to science, education, innovation, and which also hosts the American Museum of Art History in New York, there is more intensity, and the people, like butterflies, can circulate there...
Architects generally want to leave a mark. You ultimately have a more modest approach…
JG
– I still build buildings with the idea that they will outlive me. I don't know if that's modest! But what I also do is position myself at a crossroads between the past and the future. My projects always leave room for others, with the idea that they can improve them.
I build buildings with the idea that they will outlive me
Jeanne Gang
EC
– And there too, there is this idea of circulation! The concept of architectural grafting is definitely a way of understanding what identity really is.
The Art of Grafting in Architecture,
by Jeanne Gang, Éditions Park Books, 144 p., €35.
The Life of Plants, a metaphysics of mixture,
by Emanuele Coccia, Bibliothèque Rivages (2021).
Philosophy of the house,
by Emanuele Coccia, Bibliothèque Rivages (2021).