- )!!!

The Curved StaircaseEscalera de trazo curvo

whi Fromthe slightly curving staircase model to the spiralt. ch calls In on Itself. From the single to the double and thet~Ple versions. These are the staircases that have promptedpeermost daring displays of virtuosity in design, masonry and

speclive, as well as the boldest sword duels and the mostspectacular descents by dance troupes ..[O.lB.]

Desde la ligeramente curvada hasta la que se enroUasabre 51misma, en espiral; desde la sencilla, hasta 1adoble, ala triple. Son escaleras que han permitido los mas osados alar-des de prcyecto, de aparejo petreo, de representaci6n enperspectiva, las luchas mas encarnizadas entre espadachines,los descensos mas espectaculares de un cuerpo de baile ...

[O.TB.J

Minimalist essence of the curved, winding or spiralstaircase .. [0. T. B.J

Guillermo Perez vtnatta.La estancia, 1985

Oil on canvas / Oleo sobre tela; 167 x 283 emColecclon de ta Fundacicn Juan March

The Curved Staircase Escalera de trazo curvo

A great deal of knowledge about and admiration for thegreat painting of ages gone by can be found in the work ofGuillermo Perez Villa Ita (Tarifa, Spain, 19481, whose paintingsfrom the 19705 and t980s are full of references to and eve-cations of the past. In some of his writings, the artist hasbeen very critical of the international avant-garde, suggestingthat the tradition can only be rejuvenated at this point byadding a healthy dose of irony to the melancholy of irremedia-ble loss. The fact is that the modern claSSICS,from Duchampto Mondrian, can also be traced in his work, but there areechoes of other artists too. La estancia (The Room) 119831,for example, shows a wall painted with an "Informalist" back-ground. In a tribute to chaogenous abstraction, Perez Villaltaportrays himself as a Rodinesque "Thinker" and as an EcceHomo about to receive the crown of thorns from his alter egopainted In the background. This dream painting (the artist isnapping on the right) also features a splendid curved stairca-se, without a handrail and suspended in the air, which wouldserve admirably to illustrate at least three of Tusquets's typo-logies. The stairway that Pontormo painted for Joseph inEgypt (c 15(8) immediately comes to mind, as does EdwardBurne-Jones's The Golden 518/( (1880), but this one by PerezVilla Ita ISsmaller and vacant. To which higher state of dreamsor life might it lead' What tragedy, trick or joke awaits us if wetry to climb its fragile steps' [J.A.R.1

Mucho conocimiento y admiracion par la gran pinturaantigua hay en Guillermo Perez Villalta (Tarifa, 1948), CUYOScuadros de los afios setenta y ochenta estan plagados de citasy evocaciones del pasado. El artista se ha mash-ado muy cnti-co en algunos textos con la internacional vanguardista, comosi fuera posible ya un remozamiento de la tradicion que nosume una buena dosis de ironia a la melancolia de la perdidairremediable. La cierto es que los clasicos de la modernidadestan tambien presentes en su trabajo, desde Duchamp aMondrian. Pero no s610 ellos: en La estancia (1983), par ejem-plo, vemos un muro pintado con un fonda "informalisra'' quees un homenaje a la abstraccion caogenu. Aunque 10esencialno es eso, sino una alegoria de caracter figurativo en la que elartista se autorretrata como "pensador" a 10 Rodin y comoEcce Homo, a punta de recibir la corona de espinas de su otroyo pintado en el fondo. En esa ensonacion (el artist-a, a la dere-cha, esta durmiendo la siesta) figure tambien una estupendaescalinata curva, sin barandilla y en el aire, que bien podriavaler para ilustrar (al menos) tres de las tipologfas deTusquets. Nos acordamos inmediatamente de la que pintoPontormo para Jose en Egipto (hacia 1518), 0 de la que figuraen The Golden Stair, de E. Burne-lones (1880), pero esta esca-lera de Perez Villalta es mas pequefia y esta vacia. ~Aque esta-do superior del sueno a de la vida puede conducir? iQue tra-gedia, que juego 0 que broma encontraremos si intentamosascender per sus fragiles peldafios? [JAR.]

---\III~ \

r

Sintesisminirnalistade eualquier escalera de trazo curvo, de cual-quier escalera helicoidal, de eualquier escalera de caracol.. [OTB.1

Escalera de trazo curveThe CurvedStaircase

Billy Wilder,

Sunset Boulevard I EI crepUsculo de los dioses.USA, 1950

Kobal Collection

The action of Billy Wilder's film Sunset Boulevard takesplace almost entirely on its staircases. These are the stairs ofthe mansion owned by Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), anageing Paramount Studios has-been, who is the dominatingpartner in a relationship with a young scriptwriter (WilliamHolden). The mansion (or rather its staircases) is the quintes-sence of all the tradition of Hollywood's past splendour. Thereare echoes of certain films by Orson Welles, like Citizen Kaneand The Magnificent Ambersons, with staircases that seem toevoke lost power, magnificence, loneliness and time runningout. Sunset Boulevard is also reminiscent of the stately sou-thern mansions featured in Wyler's films, such as The LittleFoxes or The Heiress, markedly female-dominated establis-hments in which the staircase separates the private woman'sworld -located on the upper floor- from the public domain,where the descent ISstaged. It is hardly surprising that Wildershould have considered Bette DavIs -the heroine of The LittleFoxes- and Montgomery Clift, the opportunistic male lead inThe Heiress, as possible alternatives for the starring roles inSunset Boulevard.

It is this self-referential nature that makes the staircasetranscend its instrumental function as a piece of scenery.Staircases take over the film. The star's shadow passes upand down them; they form the "pathway of the princess",who IS attended by a loyal servant, a flim director who hadfollowed her into exclusion. Eric von Stroheim plays this role

Toda la peticula El crepusculo de los dioses, dirigida porBilly Wilder, esta practicarnente cont.enida en sus escaleras.Son las escaleras de la mansion de Norma Desmond (GloriaSwanson), una vieja Estrella de la Paramount en decadenciaque mantiene una relacion absorbente con un joven guionista(William Holden). Una mansion -unas escaleras- que con-centra toda la tradici6n det pasado esplendor de Hollywood.Se pueden escuchar los ecos de algunas peliculas de Welles,como Citizen Kane y E1 esplendor de los Ambersons, con laimpresion de unas escaleras que nos hablan del poder perdi-do, de la magnificencia. de la soledad, del tiempo que seacaba. Tarnbien resuenan las mansiones sudistas de las pell-culas de Wyler, como La loba 0 La heredera, mansiones deafirmacion femenina en las que la escalinata separaba elmundo pnvado de 1al11ujer-situado en e1 piso superior- de 1azona publica, abajo, donde se produda la puesta en escena deldescenso. No es de extraiiar que Wilder pensase en BetteDavis -protagonista de La loba- y Montgomery Clift, queencarnaba a1 oportunista protagonista de La heredera, comoposibles alternativas para protagonizar su pelicula.

Ese caracter autorreferencial hace que esta pieza dedecorado trascienda a su funci6n instrumental. Las escalerasse apoderan de la peticula, por elias discurre la sombra de laestrella, son "el camino de la princesa". asistida por un se:-vidor fiel, un director de cine que 1aha seguido en su margI-nacion. Un papel interpretado por Eric von Stroheim. en un

. e that Wilder cre-in an irresistible and masterly mirror gam .. . If ne of his favourrteates in tribute to Stroh elm hlrnse , a

directors. The film also includes other lavish starrcadseS't df . hed tllrn rrec e

those featured in Queen Keily, the un mrs I' htsd GI . Swanson' the Igby Von Stroheim which starre etta .h t b longs exclUSively toand shadows of a splendour t a e

cinema. D' But perhapsThe film's artistic director was Hans reier. .

thtaking "Classlcwhat IS most significant is that the brea . he. f paorer mac e

Hollywood" staircase was not a piece 0 d to the. hich belonge

stage scenery but a real staircase, w d _Renaissancemansion in which the film was shot, a pS~~ha United Statescastle built in 1924 for a former consul a I ~etty. Close toin Mexico, and later repurchased by J. Pau dt was demo-Paramount but not right on Sunset Boulev:~t ~; the set forlished in the late 1950s, after serving as P

Rebel without a Cause. . b th melodramaticIt is a stairway of shadow and light, 0 mate

. fI 's consumand terrifying, as can be seen In the 1md d scends it likefinal sequence, In which Norma Desmond b ethe press anda star reborn, an ageing princess, vlewe ( the murderby the police who have come to arrest h~ ~~e end of anof her lover. This crepuscular scene ma~.s the very his-era to which there is no gOing back, ma Ing the old and

. . d rk betweentory of cinema a narrative Ian manew. [J.B.J

irresistible juego de espejos que Wild.er ejercita can l1:-ano ~1

maestra en homenaje al propio Stroheim, uno de sus direc-feridos Porque otras escaleras Iastuosas, las de La

tores PKre~IY peli~ula inacabada dirigida par Stroheim y prota-rewa , bOO la pellcula. d par Swanson, aparecen tam len en .'gOlllzal a y sombra de un esplendor que ya solo es del Cine.como uz 'H Dreie PeroEI director artistico de 1a pebcula fue ~ns rei r. . .. , I mas significativo es que esa escalinata apoteostca

qurzas 0 ddt' piedradel Hollywood clasico no era un decora 0 e car on ., '. I al que formaba parte de 1amansion ensino una esca era re . .la que se rodo la pelicula, un castillo seudorenacentls~a cons-truido en 1924 para un ex-consul de Estados Unidos enM' 'co recomprada posteriormente por J. Paul Getty. LaeXl.,' cercana a la Paramount aunque no exactamente en

mansion. I d I - s cinS t Boulevard fue demo1ida a fina es e os ana -unse , . I d d corado paracuenta, despues de servir, parCIa mente, e eRebelde sin causa. , _

Una Escalera de sombras y luces, melodrama.tlea Y terro-II a como se evidencia en la magistral secuencl~ final de lar ~ '1 cuando Norma Desmond baja la escahnata comO~~ac:s~eUa renacida. como una princesa envejecida, a~te la

Y ta polida que viene a detenerla por el aseslllatoprensa ca el final dede su amante Una escena crepuscular, que mar . tuna epoca a ·la que no se puede regresar. que con~~r e1a propia historia del cine en un hito argumental de 10vieJo Y10 nuevo, llRJ

, 1

"2 Frank O. Gehry & Associates,Maquette for the project submitted to the Museum Island competition I

Maquetn del pruyecto para el concurso de la Isla de los Musecs.Berlin, 1997

Wood I Madera; 66 x 45,7 x 91,4 emFrank o. Gehry & Associates

Over 50 years of uninterrupted architectural production,Frank O. Gehry has succeeded in building many of what star-ted out as mere intuitions jotted down in random sketches.

As his works progress, one can see something remarkablehappening: how even the most simple and compact volumesof his buildings are shot through with a disquieting irregularityof forms. Since the 1970s, Gehry has developed a personalstra~egy for a?apting and reusing an already existing building:the interpolation of extraneous forms that cross it with theirown spontaneous movement. As these pass through, the wallscurve and are sliced open, allowing the skylights and stairca-ses to project outwards. This technique is indeed a completeconcept in understanding architecture, and it is one thatGehry has applied to his own, original buildings. In the latteralso, Gehry first needs to build a canonical structure, at timeseven an extremely mundane one. A sturdy framework that hecan use as a basis on which he is then free to decide where

The Curved Staircase Escalera de (raw curvo

,"

A 10 largo de cincuenta anos de constante produccionarquitectonica, Frank O. Gehry ha logrado construir muchasde las intuiciones que sus dibujos deshilachados intentabananticipar,

Mientras sus obras avanzan, puede asistirse a un fenome-no especial: vel' como se extiende entre los volumenes massimples y cornpactos de sus editicios, cierta intranquilidad deformas irregulares. Desde los mas setenta, Gehry ha desarro-Ila?o u~a estrategia personal para intervenir y reutilizar un edi-ficio existente: la intrornision de forrnas ajenas que 10 atravie-san con un movimiento pro pia y esponuineo. A su paso S8

doblan y se rasgan las paredes, y sobresalen lucernarios Yescaleras. Este mecanisme se convierte en toda una forma deentender la arquitectura, y se traslada a sus edificios de nuevaplanta. Tambien en el10s Gehry necesita construir primero unvolumen canonico, a veces incIuso extremadamente vulgar.Un armazon segura donde apoyarse para decidir d6nde y

and how to fragment. break and bend, and which material he isgoing to stretch in order to transform what is left, a steel mesh,

a wooden framework a stone cladding, metal scales ...In the case of the project that Gehry submitted for the

Museum Island competition in Berlin, the exisfing buildings hehad fa work with were almost sacrosanct the histone buildings

by Schinkel and Stuler on the River Spree. During the secondphase of the competition, in 1949, the maileable element Inl~c-ted into the interior was the staircases in the central atrium 0

the Neues Museum. .Like I.M. Pel in hls exemplary Louvre project, Gehry desig-

ned a network of curved staircases under a glass skylight, .,although Gehry's proposal was completely dlfferenf from Pel s ..Once again staircases are the stars of the architectural show In

. ' th· tt·lfude differs froma wide, empty central space. However, elr a

t ·es They preferthat of so many other examples from past ceO. un .convulsed forms to serene monumentality. [A.Q.M.J

como fragmentar, romper, curvar, y que sustancia extenderpara desfigurar sus restos: una maUa de acero, ~~ entramadode madera, un aplacado de piedra, escamas metalicas ...

En el proyecto de concurso para la Isla de los Museos deBerlin, los restos con ]05 que jugar son casi intocables: los his-tori cos edificios de Schinkel y Stuler, junto al rio Spree. En lasegunda lase del concurso, en 1997, la sustancia maleable quese inyectani en su interior seran finalmente las escaleras en elatria central del Neues Museum.

Como LM. Pei llevo a cabo en su paradigrnatica interven-cion en el Museo del Louvre. tarnbien Gehry colocara un sis-tema de escaleras CUT vas bajo un lucernario de vidrio, aunouede un modo completarnente distinto. De nuevo las .escaler.asson las protagonistas de la arquitectura, en un espacio amplio,vado y central. Pem su actitud es diferente a la d.~mntos otrosejemplos de siglos pasados. Prefieren la conVUlSIOn a la monu-

mentalidad serena. IAQ.M.l

The Curved Staircase Escalera de trazo curve

~dreaPalladio, 97Los Quatro libros de arquitecfura, Imprenta Real, Madrid, 17Book I Libra; 41,5 x 28,5 x 3 emBiblioteca del Col·legi d'Arquitecles de Catalunya

Leonardo da Vinci, t B fol 69 rectoDouble spiral staircase, notebook B I Escalera doble de caracol, came .' ,1487-1492Bibliotheque de I'lnstitut de France

~ . I . doble del castillo de Chambord.Double staircase, Chateau de Cham bard I Esca 81 a

Loire Valley, France I Valle del Loira, Francia, c. 1530

Curved staircases force the stone to perform a beautifuland complicated dance and their craftsmen to cut and sculptit with care so as to make it seem light and malleable, for-ming a perfect line that twists uninterruptedly,

Yet an even harder game can be devised by splitting stair-cases in two, three or four, into a jungle of ramps surroundinga single central space which can accommodate several peo-ple at once without their hindering each other's movement upand down the stairs.

Leonardo da Vinci had already devised a double spiralstaircase, which probably influenced the design of the famousinterior staircase of the Ch'§teau de Chambord, since duringthe last year of his life he was a guest at its royal patron,Francis I. Buiit In c, 1530, this broad double staircase alsoincorporates a smaller central spiral staircase, which ascendsto the tower spire.

In 1570, Palladia announced that he had heard extraor-dinary reports about this castle, "an absolutely new andmost handsome invention". He spoke of four staircases thatascended one on top of another to four different rooms,where the people gOing up and down could see each otherbut did not meet, and "without one person encroaching onthe stairway of another". This description corresponds moreclosely to another of Leonardo's designs than to the Chateaude Chambard, Fortunately, Palladia also drew a plate with

Las escaleras cur vas obllgaban a la piedra a un baile difi-cil y bello, y a sus artesanos a cortarla y tallarla can cuidadopara hacerla parecer ligera y rnaleable, formando una lineaperfecta que se retuerza sin interrupcion.

Pero aun puede inventarse un juego mas dificil y desdo-blar las cscaleras en dos, en tres 0 en cuatro, en una maranade rampas que rodean un mismo espacio central y par lasque pueden circular varias personas sin molestarse en elascenso y en el descenso.

Leonardo da Vinci ya dibujo una escalera helicoidal ydoble. y es probable que influyera en el disefio de la famosaescalera interior del castillo de Cham bard, ya que en e1ltlti-mo ana de Sil vida fue huesped de Sil constructor, Francisco I.Esta ancha escalera doble, realizada en torno a 1530, tieneademas otra pequeita escalera de caracol en el centro, quesube hasta la aguja de la torre,

Palladio nos dice en 1570 que ha aida alga extraordinariosobre este castillo, 'luna invenci6n del todo nueva y hermosi-sima", y nos habla de cuatro escaleras que suben una sobreotra a cuatro habitaciones diferentes, donde los que suben ybajan se ven sin encontrarse, "y sin caminar los unos par I~sescaleras de los otros", Esta descripci6n se corresponde mascan otro de los disefios que Leonardo produjo que con la rea-Udad de Chambord. Afortunadamente, Palladio dibuja tam-bien una lamina para intentar explicarnos esta complicada

I, t d arvel to us Andthe purpose of explaining this comp rca em,· d" I' ld I what he achievesince he also imagined It to be he ICOI a, , f

' h' h ' deed four dif e-was a sort of stone DNA chain on w IC ,In .', , h ther Without everrent people would giddily pass by eae a ,

Id d to have a veryactually meeting, although they wou nee ,clear Idea at the outset to which room they were gorng.

f and far between,While clients With such needs are ew f II been most use udouble staircases and ramps have a ways id colli-

, di ti s so as to aVOIfor separating traffic in opposite tree Ion f' ', 'h f donkey traf IC InSlons, They have been deVised bot or II d builtwater-well shafts, such as that designed by Sanga a dannarilY, I Ike the extraor IIn Orv18to in 1527, or for two peop e, I, built byleisurely-paced double ramp of the Vatican Museums

l,

Giuseppe Momo In 1932, which opens up increasing Y

towards the light. the double. ble works are 'Two more unique and Incompara z (1499-1500),

almost magical staircase at the Castle of Gra d furtherwhich succeeds in constantly drawing nearer t~:~ entirely;tram itself until it almost peters out and dlsapp t f Santo

. ., 'n the conven aand the tnple staircase hidden away I I I the latter,Domingo de Bonaval in Santiago de composste:~Iiv:ring usthe three slender stone limbs thrust upward, bt that

. us in no dousafely to each doorstep, and leaVing t.mes archi-Andrade, its bUilder, was a juggler, and that some Itecture can take one's breath away, [A,Q.M.1

Giuseppe Momo,. V ucen Museums I Escala doble de los Museos varicanos.

Double staircase, a I Roma. 1932

ill y como se la irnagina ademas curva, 10 que obtie-maravi a, , I e efec.ie de cadena de ADN petreo ell a que. -ne es una especr , f '

tivamente, cuatro personas diferentes S8 cruza~an en ~rm~,. ontrarse nunca aunque para evitarse ctertazamente sm ene , , ..

., deberian tener muy claro desde un prmcipio afrustraclon,ue habitacion quieren subir, ,

q Es dificil encontrar un cliente con es~s n.ecesldades,ro las escaleras y las rampas dobles han ~Ido Sle~pre rnuy

pe ar sin conflictos las dos circulaciones con-utiles para separ 1, De burros en los pozos de agua. como e que

tra~(a:i·lo construy6 en Orvieto en 1527, 0 de perS?nas, comoSa I~lentisima escalera doble de los Museos Vall canos. q~een M \·1Z0' en 1932 abriendose cada vez masGiuseppe orne rea ,h . I tuzac~ :tras' dos obras {micas e inigualables son 1a esea1erad ble casi magica del castilto de Graz (1499-1500), que esa az ~e acercarse Y alejarse constantemenle de. 51 mtSma,

cap . t rse y desapareeer y la escaJera tnple que sehasta casl anu a "B I1 convento de Santo Dommgo de onava. en

esco~de ~neeCompostela. Porque lanzar a la vel esos lr.esSantiago 'edra a desenroscarse en el aire con esa VIO-brazos de fina pI. tiem de bajarnos al pie de cadalencia y lle~arn~s s~~~:e~:e su :nstructor Andrade era unpuerta

b}?etaJamq:e a veces 1a arquitectura puede cortar 1a res--

mala ans • Ypir.cion. lAQ.M.J

'"