The Götz Collection

Construction Matters | The Götz Collection

Plywood

Plywood is a wood composite material created by taking thin sheets of wood and gluing them face to face in perpendicular layers to create a strong versatile material. This material is often cut in 4’x8’ sheets to comply with popular dimensions and is the largest size one person can handle on-site.

The Götz Collection

The Götz Collection is a small, private museum of contemporary art in Munich. The building was designed by Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron with Helmut Federle and completed in 1992. The Götz Collection is a full celebration of plywood as a material. Windeck says, “The use of plywood informs the architectural idea of the building from initial design through execution…In these projects, assembly has already begun with the gluing procedure in the factory, and construction is only a further step in the sequence of creating the wood composite.” 

An art crate is the muse for this backyard gallery. Centered around birchwood, in the trees and material, the building takes the form of a humble plywood box. 

The exterior of the Götz Collection is a collaboration of plywood and glass; both have a matte finish that gives it's daytime aesthetic a cohesive look. The night has a stark contrast in appearance. Götz glows and creates a different visual geometry, extruding light in two linear rectangles, sandwiching the plywood material.

Discussion Questions

We have been talking about how buildings built in the last few years (decades?) would not last as long because builders are trying to use cheaper materials. In the reading, Windeck says that plywood is a stronger material than non-composite wood. Is this true? Isn't plywood a cheaper material? Would buildings made with plywood have a longer or shorter lifespan than solid wood construction?

Aaru Market Hall and The Götz Collection were both constructed with composite wood materials. In the Aaru Markey Hall, the void highlighted the structure of this building (wood + space around it), what highlights the wood material in The Götz Collection?

Not a question but a statement -

The interior of Götz is timeless with the balance of wood, glass, and white walls but the exterior is very 1992. I think it is the hue of the glass and the silvery look of the frames on the bottom floor.

Resource

Windeck, Georg, Lisa Larson-Walker, Sean Gaffney, and Will Shapiro. “Plywood” and “The Götz Collection.” Essay. In Construction Matters, 198–213. Brooklyn,, NY: PowerHouse Books, 2016.