BY Armin

Helvetica as World Culture, I Think Not

In modern-day Berlin architectural oddity and innovation is now an ordinary part of the booming landscape. Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, Norman Foster’s addition to the Reichstag and Frank Gehry’s DZ Bank are unarguable highlights, but there is one building that, at least on my visit, stood out as one of the most intriguing: The House of World Cultures (Haus der Kulturen der Welt). Designed in 1957 by architect Hugh Stubbin, the building’s iconic concrete roof is beautiful from afar, vertiginous up close, and surprising from any distance — delightfully offset by its massive copper-hued facade. The best way I could describe the building is as if a UFO would have landed in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange: Surreal, sensual, and slightly dangerous. The building has been closed to the public for more than a year and it reopens this month. To signal the new era for the institution Berlin-based Double Standards has designed a new identity: Helvetica uppercase in a box. A far cry from the idiosyncrasy of the building and an odd step backwards in the otherwise innovative visual landscape of Berlin. The previous logo, designed by Cornel Dwindlin in the late 80s, while he was working with Neville Brody, wasn’t extraordinarily innovative either — uppercase letters in a box — but the custom hand-drawn typography had enough peculiarities to make it feel unique to its mothering institution. Helvetica’s neutrality and ubiquity functions as the perfect vessel upon which to create meaning for any institution, but when it dismisses its unique context, Helvetica can really be a drag.

Story spotted on PAGE.

DATE: Aug.23.2007POSTED BY: ArminCATEGORY: Culture COMMENTS:

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Helvetica as World Culture, I Think Not

\n\nIn modern-day Berlin architectural oddity and innovation is now an ordinary part of the booming landscape. Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum, Norman Foster's addition to the Reichstag and Frank Gehry's DZ Bank are unarguable highlights, but there is one building that, at least on my visit, stood out as one of the most intriguing: The House of World Cultures (Haus der Kulturen der Welt). Designed in 1957 by architect Hugh Stubbin, the building's iconic concrete roof is beautiful from afar, vertiginous up close, and surprising from any distance — delightfully offset by its massive copper-hued facade. The best way I could describe the building is as if a UFO would have landed in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange: Surreal, sensual, and slightly dangerous. The building has been closed to the public for more than a year and it reopens this month. To signal the new era for the institution Berlin-based Double Standards has designed a new identity: Helvetica uppercase in a box. A far cry from the idiosyncrasy of the building and an odd step backwards in the otherwise innovative visual landscape of Berlin. The previous logo, designed by Cornel Dwindlin in the late 80s, while he was working with Neville Brody, wasn't extraordinarily innovative either — uppercase letters in a box — but the custom hand-drawn typography had enough peculiarities to make it feel unique to its mothering institution. Helvetica's neutrality and ubiquity functions as the perfect vessel upon which to create meaning for any institution, but when it dismisses its unique context, Helvetica can really be a drag.\n\nStory spotted on PAGE.

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