Oswald Mathias Ungers at Belvederestrasse: Self-portrait in the Studio

Planning implies a double register of actions. On the one hand the architect establishes a dialogue with the reality, performing a maieutic action that allows him to arrive to an epiphany concerning the context’s deepest meanings. On the other hand, the obstetrical role of the architect is propaedeutic to the creative act of designing that, in the poietic impetus, pushes the architect towards the definition of a dynamic continuum of renewed principles. In the tension between maieutic and poietic, between autonomy and heteronomy of the architectural discipline, the nature of architecture is rooted. Working with the interdisciplinary dimension of architecture corresponds to the opportunity of drawing a cultural self-portrait, of which it is possible to decrypt the traits through the patient scanning of images, photographs, objects collected in the memorabilia. Individuals like Oswald Mathias Ungers (1926-2007) express, in an extraordinarily clear and fascinating way, the attitude of working within architecture through other disciplines. OMU arrives on the scene of architectural culture not only for his works and his theoretical contributions, but also for the importance of his art and rare books private collection. The collected artworks are matrixes at the basis of his architectures, they reflect his ideas through the free tools of art. Ungers’ studiolo, built in his house in Belvederestrasse in Cologne, assumes the value of a place of retreat in an ideal and inscrutable spot, in which Ungers can study his art collection and reflect on the cultural matrixes of his architecture. The thesis that this essay wants to explore is the relationship between OMU’s architecture and the system of references to the sister arts of architecture, considering the Kubus-Haus as a paradigm of this interdisciplinary interweaving based on suggestions, analogies, similarities, connections and overlaps, that have created a general and complicated system akin to a palimpsest.