I C A R C H 

A HOUSE FOR AN UNKNOWN GOD(DESS)

 

 

 

 

 

 

As it is well known, this year we celebrate 150 years since F. L. Wright’s birthday.

Less known is the fact that an enigmatic building by F. L. Wright, the A.D. German Warehouse in Richland Center, Wisconsin, still stands, although it was abandoned for years.

It seems amazing  to us that a banal warehouse would have so much architectural dignity. No doubt, Wright was thinking of something else when he designed it, not the paraphernalia of banalities warehouses are known for.

What could this “something else” be...?!

Interestingly, and tellingly, the building even has what one might think could be nothing else but some kind of abstracted gargoyles…!?

A warehouse with gargoyles…?!

Strange, indeed…

So on this year of homages and celebrations, we feel that perhaps this abandoned building could invite us towards envisioning even an almost implausible function for it, considering it was destined, initially, for the most prosaic of all architectural functions: to store… to store “items”… dead objects… that is, to be nothing else but a warehouse.

We know, or we think we know, what a “house” is… but what is a “ware…?!” We read in the Miriam-Webster dictionary:
 
Definition of “ware: 1a) manufactured articles, products of art or craft, or farm produce: GOODS – often used in combination tinware b) an article of merchandise 2) articles (as pottery or dishes) of fired clay earthenware 3) an intangible item (as a service or ability) that is a marketable commodity.
 
Strange that it could even be an “intangible item,” as long as it is marketable…
 
But what if we imagine something that is not marketable…? After all, between “goods” and “gods” is not such a long distance (in terms of spelling), although, of course, and unfortunately, the gods were and still are quite often very marketable themselves.
 
If indeed shopping is the terminal of all human activity (as Rem Koolhaas said), we ask you to send us your visions for a possible non-marketable function within this temple-like building. Let’s move towards the other “terminal,” the least lucrative one, if we still have the courage to believe that faith and religion should have nothing to do with being lucrative.
 
So let’s imagine A HOUSE FOR AN UNKNOWN GOD(DESS).
 
A “house” that would look the other way… for a change.
 
Thank you,
 
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