GUNTER BEHNISCH.

By Peter Blundell Jones. Basel: Birkhauser. 2000. SFr42. DM48

An architect who manages to make moments for the everyday must be just in time. More so if he, like Gunter Behnisch, has been able to do it for a long time over a wide range of tasks, from schools for local communities in the '60s, over prestigious projects like the Munich Olympics and the Bonn Parliament, to '90s projects in Berlin and abroad. A condensed and informative overview of the career of this outstanding German master is given by Peter Blundell Jones in this paperback monograph. It is a book where everything is in proper order: good black and white photos, legible drawings with north always up and lots of catalogue information.

A short introduction points at some characteristics. According to Blundell Jones there is no Behnisch style, while at the same time he claims Behnisch to be the leading heir of Raring and Scharoun's organic direction. The interest in designing social situations rather than technical objets is part of that tradition, but Behnisch gods well beyond Scharoun in material mastery, giving 'substance to space The background is a '60s interest in systems, which during the '70s gave way to a sensibility for the situation. 'Buildings belong to life, they become part of a place and the site of human activities' as Blundell Jones puts it. This shows in the different kind of building tasks that the book is organized round a social architecture built for meetings and not for the rich. But it also shows in something less visible: the organization of work at the Behnisch office. Freedom is given to the collaborators and the master himself doesn't design but works as a critic and inspirator. Inspiring indeed!