Fab Bozzolo-Fabia
Richard Runfola
Jarrett Trudeau
Ryan Vigiolto
Nicholas Wheeler (Krafting)
Craig Brozowski
Michael Hoover
Morgan Mansfield
Abigail Peters (Structural Paper Shells)

Georg Rafailidis

ARC 605
Fall 2019

MArch

There may be no better display of an architecture inspired by fantasy than the grand residential projects of King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845–1886): the Schloss Herrenchiemsee, a one-to-one replica of the central portion of the Palace of Versailles, including an even more elaborate Hall of Mirrors; the more modest Schloss Linderhof, a neo-baroque remodel of a royal Bavarian forester’s house, complete with a vast garden and surreal “Venus Grotto;” and the infamous Schloss Neuschwanstein, an enormous pleasure castle perched high at the edge of the Bavarian Alps—giving real-life animation to the image of fairy tales.

Of the three, the Schloss Herrenchiemsee offers the most over-the-top celebration of Ludwig II’s obsession with the Ancien Régime of France. The palace boasts a flamboyant interior utterly divorced from function. 

The palace was built to be occupied solely by the King himself and his invisible staff. Instead, it’s an architecture born of symbolism and analogy, fueled by selfseclusion and embattled delusion: an extravagant homage to Ludwig’s hero in history, King Louis XIV.

By the mid-1880s, the palace’s main sequence of rooms was largely completed. But construction overruns in 1885 and Ludwig’s untimely—and mysterious—death left much of the palace’s interior unfinished. A vast number of its rooms, left unbuilt and undesigned, remain a hollow shell of unfulfilled fantasy.

For this studio, students picked up where the architect, Georg von Dollmann, and Ludwig, left off: to propose a 21stcentury vision for the completion of the palace’s north and south wings. Tied to the Grand Tour Redux: Europe 2019 study abroad program, the studio drew on experiences of – and conversations of – the architecture of the Baroque, Rococo, and their 19th-century neo-revivals; the architecture of national and personal identity; and contemporary architecture’s ability to speak to history and reveal its untold stories.

The program took 31 undergraduate and graduate students across Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, traveling over 4,500 miles and visiting, admiring, and discussing more than 40 cities and towns and over 300 buildings.

Director Luchino Visconti's 1972 film, Ludwig, depicted an interesting obsession of the self proclaimed "Moon King." Ludwig II was infatuated with the theater. Between 1872 and 1885, the Bavarian King had 209 private performances given for himself alone. For him, theater embodied the creation of a fictional, magical world on stage. As the often isolated King complained, “I can get no sense of illusion in the theatre so long as people keep staring at me…I want to look myself, not to be a spectacle for the masses.”

The Hall of Rhythmic Performance encloses an open floor plan, free for visitors to circulate. It is the undulating acoustic panel ceiling that becomes the protagonist of the space.

Colored in a Rococo styled pastel palette, the panels extend from the ceiling to create a theatrical, three-dimensional marbling effect throughout the room. The hall uses the panels to delineate various spaces within the room, creating whimsical scenes for socializing through play and performance. 

A single gilded piano inhabits the space, symbolizing Ludwig’s passionate admiration for art, music, and the German composer and theater director, Richard Wagner. The room embodies Ludwig’s desire to escape from reality and have an immersive, private performance.

The Antechamber of Candid Gild takes on an important feature of the Neo-Baroque style of Ludwig II’s palace, Herrenchiemsee—faux marble. Marbleizing or faux marbling is the preparation and finishing of a surface to imitate the appearance of polished marble. During the Late Baroque period, the techniques were perfected and have been used in all styles of construction well into the 20th century. The elegance and refinement of the techniques often deluded visitors from distinguishing between false and real marble in many churches, palaces, and public buildings in Europe.

A wide range of marble within a building displayed the owner’s power and wealth because it meant they had the economic capacity to travel and source marble from around the world. Marbleizing techniques came in high demand when those without the means to travel sought to portray the same sense of wealth. The technique became so desirable and refined that faux marble became more expensive than actual marble. 

For the antechamber, an exaggerated sense of marbleizing is displayed within the room to emphasize the obsession of that period.

Perhaps one of the most integral elements of Baroque and Rococo architecture is the art of poche. Architects in that period used complex interpolations of plan and section to create unique spatial conditions.

This antechamber serves as an analysis of Baroque poche, furthering the legacy of shaped spaces while being designed with contemporary concepts in mind. 

The geometry of the antechamber takes a position of both agreement and exacerbation of the Baroque and Rococo. The space is embodied by an array of wooden frames intending to emulate barrel vault construction. The sectional form of the space seeks to further the flamboyance of the Rococo period, takingon the visual metaphor of two swans kissing.

The antechamber also acts antithetically to the material and experiential concept of poche. The exposed frame generates a spatial condition but permits you to see the tectonics of the frame and the surrounding masonry. Although the poche travels over the windows, the gaps between the frames bring transparency and lightness to the space, allowing both natural and artificial light to filter in.