For this brand-new episode, I travelled to Zumikon to visit Angela Thomas and Erich Schmid in their house - the Bill Haus. This house, which looks somehow unremarkable from the outside but is amazingly light, open, and welcoming and on the inside, was built by the Swiss architect and designer Max Bill in 1967–68. His second wife and widow, Angela Thomas, lives there today with her husband, the filmmaker Erich Schmid, who made a film about Bill entitled “Max Bill – Das absolute Augenmaß/The master's vision”. Max Bill established himself in art history as the architect and first director of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, also known as HfG Ulm or Ulm School of Design. And that is exactly the reason why I also interviewed the head of the HfG Ulm archive, Martin Mäntele, regarding all questions around the official successor of the Bauhaus. Because that is what Bill intended to do in Ulm – to continue the Bauhaus as if it had never been closed in 1933. And he had Walter Gropius’s blessing, too, and the financial support by the Americans. LOOK OUT FOR 2 BONUS EPISODES with the original Interviews that will be published in the next 2 weeks!

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related