“Architecture combinesserving practical needs withart,” notes Michel Petit andto deepen this partnershipfurther, he and Luxembourg-based artist Sally Arnold arelooking at ways to collabo-rate. Petit notes that inLuxembourg as elsewhere“too often decision makershave a very functional view,”with public projects in particular being susceptibleto popular complaint.“Architects may seek tobypass this debate,” he notes“as they feel it will make iteasier to sell their ideas to thepromoter.”This, he feels has alot to do with many people’ssuspicion and lack of knowl-edge about modern and con-temporary art, with peoplebeing unused to welcomingchallenging images.

Using the potential“There is a lot of potential inLuxembourg,” remarksArnold, who is keen that thecountry should take a leadand be bold.“We need goodbuildings to give us orienta-tion and this will create rich-ness in our urban environ-ment.” Ideally, she thinks thecountry should aspire tocharismatic projects such asthe Guggenheim Museum inBilbao and the Opera Housein Sydney. In both cases,these interesting, attractiveand hugely memorablebuildings have transformedthe international image oftheir cities. The new SallePhilharmonique by Christiande Portzamparc stands a

good chance to fill this gapin Luxembourg.

However, some would saythat Luxembourg has muffeda couple of chances to createsomething special in recentyears. The Grand Duke JeanContemporary Art Museumoccupies a dramatic, historicsite overlooking the City, butas being a strong echo ofI.M. Pei’s Louvre Pyramid,critics feel it looses impact.More recently, the CitéJudiciaire on the St EspritPlateau too occupies a pres-tige site, but the plans byLeon Krier seem to some tolack courage, mirroring asthey do Luxembourg’s tradi-tional architectural style.Krier is an architect admiredby Britain’s Prince Charlesand is the creator ofPoundbury village which wasbuilt on the Prince’s land.The government had soughta more daring design for the

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Making space By Stephen Evans

A booming service sector has been accompanied by a scramble to erect office space in Luxembourg, leaving an architecturalheritage of varying quality. The government in conjunction with the Order of Architects and Engineers and the ArchitectureFoundation released a brochure in January entitled “For an architectural policy”; a name which implies Luxembourg doesn’thave a policy. We spoke to architect Michel Petit and artist Sally Arnold about how we could view the buildings around us.

Rehbierg Water Tower, Garnich; Georges Reuter

Provisional conference centre, Kirchberg; Jim Clemes

Cité Judiciaire, but publicoutcry caused the Luxem-bourg City commune to shyaway from taking a contro-versial decision. “We needcourage and to be in touchwith international discourse”notes Petit. “This is the danger of money: You can

end up not thinking but justbuying your way into fash-ion, but then you just end up following and never leading.”

Think it throughLuxembourg law states thatpublic buildings have to

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devote 2% of their total costto artistic adornment foreach building project. Thiscan mean either a separatework on a pedestal or the artcan be incorporated into thearchitectural design. “Somepeople just go ahead andbuild and only then thinkabout what they should buyto go with it,” notes Petit.“What we are trying to do isharder as we want to puttogether a logical, continu-ous work. The task is mademore difficultl because manyof the people in control oflocal projects don’t under-stand the importance ofgood interesting architecture.There is a tendency to besuspicious of artists and art.”

Sally Arnold agrees. “Toomany people fail to realisethat art is a highly skilled discipline, a craft.Too often itis dismissed as not being

relevant to practical issuesand there is distrust thatartists are solitary creatureswho find it impossible towork in a team. This is justnot the case.” Integrating artis not as difficult as it wouldseem, she says, point out thata “skin” layer can be added toa building to redefine theconventional aspect.“A goodpiece of art will be a statussymbol and an identificationpoint for an urban area, buttoo often the easy “cut andpaste” approach is used.”

New heritageSo despite its drawbacks,these professionals are con-vinced that Luxembourg isstarting to assemble an inter-esting architectural heritage,as witnessed by the candi-dates for the recentLuxembourg ArchitecturePrize. Arnold also praises therenovation of the GrandTheatre which left the origi-nal design in place.Althoughthe building may not be to

everyone’s taste, it is interest-ing and is redolent of theperiod when it was con-structed. She is also a fan ofmost of the buildings and thejuxtaposition of styles on theBoulevard Royal, with theleast interesting construc-tions tending to be from the1980s. “There was a lack ofboldness at this time andcommercial considerationswere often paramount.”

Petit also feels more atten-tion should be given to thegaps between buildings. “Weneed public spaces. Buildingsare one thing, but space iswhere people live. I supportthe recently launched com-petition to rebuild theCentre Hamilius.We need togive people the space to liveto bring them back into thecity.”These ideas can be seenin Petit’s successful design forthe second European Schoolplanned for Mamer.Designed to house up to2,000 children, Petit has

sought to create several discrete buildings to bringthe school down to a morehuman scale. “There is a bigplayground with a hierarchyof areas each with their ownyards too. It is not one schoolbut six different ones, so thateach age will have its ownschool with its own entranceand own identity.” He alsouses an existing water-courseas a reference point for thesite.“We need these points toconnect us with our urbanspace” he remarks, pointingto the steel public sculpturelandmarks on the Kirchbergby the Red Bridge and at theend of bd JFK.“If we can dothis with large and smallobjects it creates identity andallows us to connect.”

www.gouvernement.lu/dossiers/justice/cite_judiciaire/index.html

www.fondarch.luwww.sudafricana.com

www.michelpetitarchitecte.com

European School II, Mamer; Michel Petit

From artwork, to plans, to reality. Sports Hall at Delheicht School, Esch; Sally Arnold

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