Ode to ‘La Tulipe’
Guest writer Lorenzo Poglia is a neuroscientist from Geneva, and co-author of the paper “Ultrastructural Modifications of Spine and Synapse Morphology by SAP97”. Here he sends us the second of two architectural dispatches from his home town. The first is here.
La Tulipe is a unique concrete trunk from which vertical slim branches frame a cube of tinted glass windows. It’s also a medical research center built in 1975-76 and conceived by Jack V. Bertoli.
Its angle-based, furtive geometric construction is such a brilliant architecture that none of the bypassing commuters notice the building. Indeed, its light framework embraces windows that brilliantly reflect its mediocre surroundings. Its typically 1970’s, unequally evanescing, rosy-blue windows reinforce its vivid character and gives me the impetus to declaim a romantic poem to the white rats working in the building. Even the plain metallic structure of the entry shines like the promise of fantastic scientific advances.
May I offer you une Tulip? While UniDufour needs a crown of subtle vegetation to cover its feet, La Tulipe offers a massive concrete base that stands as the wise tree in front of a nascent forest sprouting behind it. “Big is beautiful!”
Whilst UniDufour longs for legitimacy, La Tulipe softly imposes its architecture to the vicinity.