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Remembering
Göran Schildt (1917-2009) By A.C.Antoniades, AIA
Ghristina and Göran Schildt, March 1990 , Temple of Poseidon/Sounion-Greece (photo ACA) I met Göran Schildt in the mid seventies in Texas. He was the honorary speaker during the official opening of the Alvar Aalto exhibition at the University of Texas at Arlington. When we were introduced, I was overwhelmed to hear a Finn speaking perfect Greek in remote Texas. The first thing he told me was that he had a house in Leros, that he spent the winter there and the Summer in Finland, and that he could also speak another eight languages besides Greek. From his first sentences and enthusiasm it became obvious this man was not just a lover of a Mediterranean island, but of a whole civilization and culture. He spoke of his house as “Kolchis”, taking for granted I knew it was the name he had already given it. Yet, till that moment , I had never heard of Dr. Göran Schildt. I had read none of his forty or so books up till that period . He became known as an architectural writer a few years later, and I became overwhelmed and influenced by much of what he represented and said, years later. Besides my initial ignorance, the very friendly and personal talk during that initial event in Texas, along with his comment that he could not go to his beloved house in Leros, predisposed me very favorably towards him . Some, stupid person in the Greek embassy in Switzerland was claiming back to his compatriots in Leros that he had seen in one of Schildt's books, some pictures of teenage Greek girls sunbathing in the nude, which as I found out later when I saw the book, it was not actually true. This however, had been enough for the local mayor to keep hostage Daphne, Göran’s beloved yacht, in the bay of Alinda. And as if that confiscation was not enough, he had been threatened with expulsion were he to return to the bay of Alinda to claim his boat.
This story made me feel compassionately in his favor, even though I suspected, that at that time, all I represented for him, was an excuse to polish his Greek in remote and alien “Texas”; also, perhaps, to declare through me to his American hosts , his cultural preference to Europe and Mediterraneity. As I was about to find out later, Göran was a Nordic-Mediterranean to the marrow ! A lover of Greece who had named his Aalto designed villa Skeppet in Ekenäs ,“Ithaca”, a name reserved for mentioning only to his most kindred friends. “Kolchis” and “Ithaca”, Göran’s annual and on-going destinations from earth to eternity…! I must say from the start, that Göran Schildt, as I found out later, was a number of remarkable people into one ; First and foremost, it was the humble, cordial , sincere and and friendly person on the human level. Then , it was Göran the writer, a most charming intuitive, highly perceptive and human critic whose written texts were joy to read ; and finally, it was Göran the “talker” and public speaker, who meant to tell you all the details of all he knew on whatever subject he was delivering, in private or in public. His compassionate talk was like a water fall, full of sparkles and ideas, while on the other hand, his lectures would go on for hours, which, in English, would make some audiences, particularly fellow academics, feel uneasy . I had endless opportunities to witness Göran in private, and treasure of many letters he sent me over the years, that prove his humanity, while his books do not need me at this point to speak of their worth and contribution to many fields. I have tried and did this for two of his Aalto biography books elsewhere. My first opportunity to witness the “officially lecturing” Göran was the day following our first meeting. In that occasion, already in sympathy with the speaker, I tried very hard to tell the Texans the lecturer had to say all the details about the Bauhaus, because it was only through the contrast to the Bauhaus that Alvar Aalto’s perception of architecture would become clear. What troubled me then, was not the substance of what he said or the negativity of some Texans because of his long and very scholarly lecture, but rather the suffering of this learned man who had been forced by the ignorance of some of my own compatriots to part with Daphne. So, I made it my task to visit Leros during my first meta-Dictatorship visit to Greece. I met and spoke to “that stupid mayor”, and heard with my own ears the epithets he was “decorating” him with , and saw Daphne anchored in Alinda, but also saw for
"Daphne" , whose story has been told by Goran Schildt in his book "Mine Rejser med Daphne"(My travels with Daphne) , the boat that brought Alvar Aalto, Ulf Palme, Pontus Hulten , Roberto Sambonet and many famous others to the Mediterranean, anchored in the bay of Alinda-Leros (Photo ACA) the first time Lakki-Leros (former "Portolago"), the hidden secret of Italian architecture in the Dodecanese, which opened up pioneering research horizons for me on this subject. Overwhelmed by most of what I saw during my tour in several Greek islands, I devoted to Schildt and Daphne a whole chapter of my critical account of that visit (“O Photagogos”). On the academic level , I wrote the first ever published article on the Italian architecture in the Dodecanese, an architecture about which Bruno Zevi nor anybody else had heard anything up to that moment, and that would have never happened, had I not gone to Leros in search of the GöranSchildt story and the release of "Daphne". These two publications of mine became the subject of much correspondence between Schildt and myself and were to seal a mutual and long lasting friendship. He introduced to me several people in the island who could help me further with my research on the Italian architecture. Top in the list was Giorgos Valsamis, the first mayor of Leros following the departure of the Italians, and the late Manolis Isychos, a teacher who was involved into the local cultural affairs , trying during the meta-Dictatorship years to organize the archive of Leriot History . Both men, Valsamis and Isychos became very much intrigued by the architectural case of the Port town of their island, and both set about to collect drawings and give me leads on that particular subject. Göran, needless to say, was always my local supporter on this research endeavor, which of course, following my first publications on the subject (JAE-Journal of Architectural Education etc.see Testimonials below ) was soon to be taken over by others with access to the ministry of culture and funds for exhibitions and subsequent “glossy”publications, even a whole book on the subject I had commenced and Göran had so generously supported intellectually and vigorously encouraged.
Lakki -Leros, and aerial view of the town taken by the Italians following its construction in the Thirties. The town was initially known as Portolago, and it is one of the neglected pieces of twentieth century town planning literature. In proof to this see Bruno Zevi's letter to me in picture below: Despite the above, I must say , the real founding of my friendship with Göran Schildt was the earlier mentioned chapter in “Photagogos”; to this one he had replied with two pages of gratitude in his subsequent book “My trips with Daphne”. Those who could read the English text A copy of my sketch of the interview with the mayor, Villa Skeppet (“Ithaca”) and Villa Kolchis, along with the suggestion that the cruelty on Göran and Daphne were indicative of a climate negative for the cultivation of friendship, international exchange and Tourist development, appeared in the two pages of the Danish translation of his book. From that incident on, I had started to consider him my trusted older mentor and he probably thought of me as his Greek intellectual friend whose family he met, loved and asked about repeatedly, being actually same age as my father. It was after his death that I believe I really understood why he had such interest in the relationship of my father and myself , always sending his greetings and wishes , always asking about my father's health ; Göran had been orphaned by his own father, the famous Swedish Finnish writer Runar Schildt, who had committed suicide in the courtyard of a hospital in 1925. Göran never said a word about this to me while I had done no effort to find out more about his famous father, when once I saw his father's name mentioned in one of Göran's short biographies. My own relationship with my father, might perhaps have made Göran see instances he might have missed in his own personal life. The early loss of his father, explains to me why perhaps he was so warm and caring in general , so generous in giving advice and suggestions, not only on collegial and architectural matters, but on family affairs as well. And this is why his biography of Aalto is so full of human compassion, with so much information about the Aalto family and how eventually "life" and "family" affected Aalto's architecture, how all this, LIFE, eventually affects, or , ought to affect as I believe now, all architecture. I do believe Göran Schildt is the really humane critic of architecture, and this is perhaps something which eventually costed him much in "wide acceptance", particularly among the "scholarly predisposed architectural academics", who are prone to endorse pretense and non-human argument. There was always something sincere and warm in Göran's letters ; family compassion as we knew it in the Mediterranean of the past ; Letters of an author/critic, who thinks "Kindred" to his subjects, one of them, like a close relative and best friend ; one who likes to hear about the happiness of the beloved ones, one who suffers of similar problems when suffering, one who wants to relieve and help a friend from his problems abroad. This started to become clear to a few years later , when his books of the Aalto biography started to appear in English and we talked a lot on architecture. I believe Göran had found in me , the young and hard trying “younger relative” who was also an architect trying in architectural writing, whose native language was not English , just as English was not his own language either, but who was trying to raise a voice in the English speaking world through the international architectural media, yet one who could do architecture, in contrast to himself, the famous and undoubtedly successful writer and scholar , who also was writing in non-English, and had similar problems, yet who was secretly hiding a desire to perhaps try his hands on architecture, but hesitating to dare. He said to me some years later in Leros , and actually wrote it to me again in one of his last letters, around the time he was about to start work on his second house , “I have designed the house in the Alvar Aalto manner”. I had been startled to hear this; It actually reminded me of Charles Jencks, who had told me he wanted to built one or two houses in his life, and who actually did his garage a few years later. The writer Charles Jencks has fulfilled his latent dream with his hands on architecture. I never had the chance to see the house Göran had written to me he had designed; I don’t know any details, such as who was the local registered architect (or engineer) who took him through the jungle of the Greek building permit process, or , what was actually Göran’s personal spatial interpretation “in the Alvar Aalto Style”.
Top photo: Living room of the Schildt "Villa Skeppet" in Ekenäs Finland; Fire place Designed by Aalto to remind Göran of the sail of his boat Daphne. (Photo ACA) Below: Christina and Göran Schildt on their visit to the Condominium in Saronis, A.C.Antoniades architect (Photo ACA) All I know is he had said to Christina, “Alvar Aalto, would have liked to have seen this building” when I took them to see the condominium in Saronis I had designed for my sister, all obviously inspired by the interior three storey staircase of the Chemistry building at the University of Jyväskylä. Göran had started as an art historian, and his
doctoral dissertation was on Cezanne; Then he wrote a bunch of books on
travel, several devoted to Greece, some to Leros and Daphne, and finally
he devoted ten or so years of his life , on the five books of his Aalto
biography, the longest architectural biography to this date. During that
period and after, he produced several smaller books on detailed issues of
the architect, such as Aalto’s dimension as a painter, the “Sketches”, a
small volume in which he presented several Aalto essays, while at the same
time he attended the Alvar Aalto archive, participated in the board of
Artek, and was the protagonist in the organization of several Alvar
Aalto Coferences. But even Aalto was not enough to keep his flame alive;
toward the end he had been exhausted and was anxiously hoping to finish
the task soon, so that, his health permitting, he would start writing his
own memoir…. Roberto Sampbonet,Göran Schildt, Christina Schildt, Tony Antoniades at Säynätsalo - Alvar Aalto Conference 1985 (Photo: ACA archives) When Göran introduced me to Elissa Aalto in Murratsalo, he had said : “Alvar would have liked to have met Tony” . Elissa invited me to go have a sauna with all the others in the Alvar Aalto sauna, and I accepted, only to remember Schildt’s remark when inside the crowded sauna…” I wouldn’t believe a Greek would join us. Modern Greeks are shy to appear in nude”. I was quick to remark that he was right, that I recall my own father always turned sideways to wear his bathing suite and that I had never seen my fathers’ front . I left the next morning from Jyväskylä, probably having caught a mid-summer terrible cold from the Aalto Sauna experience.
The "whole body" of Finnish and international architects in the nude by the Alvar Aalto Sauna in Murratsalo . Alvar Aalto Conference 1985 , Murratsalo (Photo ACA)
Göran Schildt, Peter Papademetriou and Michael Graves, Jyväskylä, Aalto Conference 1985, (Photo ACA) On that day, as I was about to take the Finnair buss to the airport , I took the picture of Göran trying to explain something to Peter Papademetriou, while Michael Graves who also took the Sauna with us the day before , was observing the heated conversation. I was waiting to greet them good by, as they were waiting for their own Pullman to take them to the conference. On an earlier occasion to Ekenäs, during my five trips to Finland in the eighties, Göran showed me his villa Skeppet as well as the Aalto Bank. He told me why Aalto had left a hole to the lower right portion of the door to the office of the bank director: “So that he could see the shoes and the stockings of the person who was waiting to see him for a loan” . He also showed me a very beautiful library and a motel design by his nephew, the architect Ole Hanson. I wrote in my article "Architectural road to the Deep north" about all this , but it is important to write here something which I did not dare publish in those days : I was about to take my first picture of the main elevation of Villa Skeppet, when Göran noticed that the rolling up white courtain of the living room was not at the level Aalto wanted it to be when photographed, and he begged me to wait ; he run inside, lifted it up appropriately and then came out to ask me take the picture. Needless to say, I had photographed the house both, in the Aalto and in a non-Aalto manner….
Villa Skeppet photographed in the "Non-Aalto" manner above, as Göran runs inside to lift the curtain to the proportionately appropriate (according to Alvar Aalto height),and below the villa, with happy Göran Schildt, posing in front of the villa.(Photos by ACA/early eighties, top never published before, or ever shown to Goran Schildt. ....I have a feeling Göran must be smiling now from way up above ...A.C.A May 2009) My next meeting with Göran was at Kefalari- Kifissia, where we had some extraordinary barbounia fish at my sister’s terrace, overlooking some huge oak-tree, overwhelmed by the tunes of spring birds. In another occasion our meeting was in the presence of my father, who had the same age as Göran ; This was the first time I heard Göran talking about his participation in the war , the Finnish-Russian war in the early forties, and that he had been woonded, carrying eversince a grenade fragment inside his body; This trauma had been a nuisance to him through life-often complaining to me in his letters. When Göran died, and I announced it to my father one month later, because my own father was also sick throughout March of 2009, my old man told me , “He was such a nice man. I am so sorry he passed away”. Göran had a charm, and with his heavily Scandinavian accent for the Greek ear, he was charming the simple locals who loved him as their equal. He apparently charmed years later , even the other mayor, who convened the whole city council of Leros, to bestow upon him the credential of an honorary citizen of Leros. So, here we had exactly the opposite of the earlier behavior, the locality greeting and embracing one of its children, as if it were the return of a patriotic exile. The Finnish ambassador Antti Lassila and myself from the part of the Greeks, were invited to address Göran Schildt during that ceremony. Two Scandinavian reporters were also present, one from Sweden the other one from Finland.
Antti Lassila, the Finnish Ambassador to Greece, Göran Schildt,and journalists Ilva Vyck and Leena Vatanen, Kastro-Leros, 3 May 1997 (Photo ACA) I append the original Greek text and the English translation of my address to his honor on 4 May 1997 at the end of this document (please hit here), hoping with this, to arouse sometime the interest of people in Greek authorities to bend carefully to Göran Schildt's contribution and honor his memory appropriately, just as the Lerians did. They ought to do it, because, if Göran Schildt is an important writer for the archtiects, it is actually a benefactor , in fact one of the earliest and greater ones for the development of Greek Tourism. It was because of him and his books and his boat Daphne, that all the Northern Europeans learned how to come to the Mediterranean through the Canals of France, and it was because of his personal love for Greece that the recommended final destination was Greece and the Aegean. Göran Schildt had deep roots; going in many directions, they were holding him strong, sure and firm in his perception and appreciation of things. Nourished by the DNA of his renown father , faced the tragedy of life with conviction for hard work and creativity to the end, all combined with the most humble love and attitude towards the others, even his occasional professional enemies. Creativity was paramount, and he always gave in, “letting it go”, giving the benefit of the doubt even to the devil, forgiving his enemies and people that troubled him immensely; Apparently he believed, fate had its plans for everyone. I am aware of the details of several such cases , besides the early mayor of Leros in the late seventies. What was important was that his classical education, his deep knowledge of the Mediterannean world , the Hellenic spirit and the Odyssean enterprising, were part of his own life . His association with people, top of them all being Alvar Aalto, made him state his own mind as thought and believed was the case, always in the side of what he believed to be the truth; His scholarly training as an Art Historian, and his deep knowledge of Cezanne put him at the cutting edge between 19th century and twentieth century modernism, while his prolificacy permitted him to intermingle in the grinder of his brain and written oeuvre antithetical and often conflicting themes, from high Art to business like matters. All this is apparent in his Aalto biography; thus we have come to know and accept Aalto’s Chameleonic personality, and have come to accept there are many more other parameters in architecture than talent in design and composition , which count for the making of Architecture. I can’t think, how one who plan to devote oneself to architecture, ought to proceed, without having read the Aalto case, through the dissection of Göran Schildt. Göran knew Aalto, and even though himself not an architect, he has written what I believe to be the best treatise ever written, not only as a biography , but as a text for professional architectural conduct and success. I had seen that when I wrote my own “Poetics of Architecture”, and suggested the study of architectural biographies, as a necessary channel to architectural creativity; I am more convinced now, that perhaps more important than design , in the whole process of architectural creativity, is “getting the commission”; Aalto is a primary example to that and this became possible through Göran Schildt. There are many levels on architecture and creativity from which the Göran case is didactic. Giving more details and examples in an introductory article such as this , would bore the reader. Göran’s passing is still fresh in the line of eternity; Even myself may have time to come back to this subject again. I have much material and original documentary evidence from our correspondence and the several chances we had to be together, and discuss. I have kept them all and if not personally , others may go through that in my archive. I am sure there will probably be many trips by future scholars in Ekenäs, in Leros and in Hydra...
Postcript : Aalto as an influence , never made it actually to Greece, except through instances of isolated struggling, by individuals such as the architect Kostas Xanthopoulos, my colleague from the NTUA who now lives in Finland, and perhaps Alexandros Tombazis on several occasions, particularly during the period he was collaborating in comptetitions with Dimitri Porphyrios as his chief Designer. Porphyrios , had studied Aalto and had actually written one of the first books on him, but unfortunately, for reasons difficult to understand he quickly turned to the Neo-traditionalism , a turn I really never understood . I have repeatedly stated in writing my disgust to the neglect of the Aalto lessons in contemporary Greek architecture, and I tried very hard, particularly during the two years of the production of the two issues of the magazine “A+T” (architecture +Technology), to promote the Greek islands /Alvar Aalto lessons and spirit in architecture and to explain the tangentials of both. Göran Schildt gave me generous support in this particular effort; His two articles in the only two issues of this magazine, whose abrubt termination is a subject of "another dissertation" on "backstubbing", are the only Schildt material on architecture that circulates translated into Greek. Even though the vernacular architecture of this country, is very much an architecture in harmony and accord with the Alvar Aalto spirit, the status quo preferred to close its eyes to its own architectural wealth and to look elsewhere for prototypes. . Many American adacemics particularly those who had visited Finland , some of whome claiming to have met Alvar Aalto, some claiming to have worked for him, felt very antagonistic toward Göran.Among them , some who fabricated stories about Aalto, incidents and “facts” which never happened, and which Goran over the years corrected them for my benefit in his letters to me. Most of these corrections had to do about Aalto’s relationship with Greece, his trips here and the influence of Greek islands in his architecture; Through Goran’s suggestions and proof , with dates and particular incidents, Aalto had found in the Greek islands a confirmation of his thoughts and believes, not an inspiration. I have no reason to doubt this, as it acutally makes for a much stonger case on what is good. Among the people who were particularly hostile against Schildt in America, was an architect who had been claiming he had spent a whole summer in Aalto’s office, copying in tracing paper drawings by Aalto . Another one, an immigrant to the United States from Scottland, whose English was apparently better than mine and Goran’s , had been clearly antagonistic whenever the Aalto biography by Goran was mentioned; This one, had aquired a professorship in one of the Universities of Texas , probably on the grounds of his forthcoming biography on Aalto, and when his book was published was going around the lecture tour claiming he had original “insider” information and thriving, was apparently to be greately surprised when it became clear to the architectural world it he was not apparently so “insider”. The official biographer , trustee of the Aalto Archive and trusted friend of Alvar and Elissa Aalto, was Göran Schildt. Göran was an exceptionally educated man, a great intellect, a very prolific writer and even more prolific speaker. We met many times, both in Finland and in Greece : in Helsinki, in Ekenäs, in Jyväskylä and Säynätsalo, at his summer home in Leros, at my home in Athens and subsequently in Hydra, with excursions to Vouliagmeni, to Saronis, to Sounio .and all over the suburbs of Athens, having great “barbunia fish” at my sister’s terrace in Kifissia . Göran knew Greece better than most Greeks would claim to know their country ; When in “Kolchis” one summer, Göran offered me the last copy he kept in his Leros library of the first great book he wrote on Greece, “In the Wake of Ulysses” . He told me , King Paul had given him an award , thanking him for having written such book which had helped so many northern-Europeans find their way to meta-world war II Greece through the canals of Europe. As I had found out by then, there was no Scandinavian who had not read something by Göran Schildt, who had not seen him on TV or read his newspaper articles. Göran was considered to be the Dean of Scandinavian Journalism in the last thirty years of the twentieth century. I ask the pardon of those Scandinavians, who may know his Nordic side, perhaps a lot better than I; all I tried to do here, is give you a bit of my personal perception of his "Hellenic side"....
Göran and Kristina Schildt ,1997, on their pebble terrace at "Kolchis" , the Schildt house in Leros. (Photo by ACA, 1997)
Göran Schildt In memoriam by Anthony C. Antoniades Hydra/May 2009
Testimonials: 1.The Bruno Zevi letter to A.C.Antoniades mentioned in the text above:
2. Correspondence and photographs between Göran Schildt and A.C.Antoniades in the A.C.Antoniades Archive. 3. On Göran Schildt - Alvar Aalto/ Finnish Architecture by Anthony C.Antoniades / Αντώνης Κ.Αντωνιάδης in the international and Greek bibliography , see 3(1) Chapter on Göran Schildt in A.C.Antoniades book "O Φωταγωγός", εκδοσεις Καραγκούνη , Αθήνα 1982, σσ.103-108 3(2)"Architectural Road to the Deep North and other Travel Sketches (in English and Japanese) , "A+U" (Architecture and Urbanism), Sept. 1981. p. 87-112. 3(3) "Alvar Aalto: The Decisive Years", Göran Schildt. (Rizzoli 1986). A book review on the above book, in"Architecture" The Journal of the American Institute of Architects, Sept. 1987, p.p. 131 and 135. 3(4) "Evolutionary Eclectic Inclusivity: On the work of Kristian Gullichsen", A+U (Architecture and Urbanism), (in English and Japanese ) No. 209, Feb. 1988, p.p. 106-127. 3(5) "Τετράτομη Βιογραφία του Alvar Aalto απο τον GöranSchildt",Mag.The World of Buildings, (in Greek),April 1995,pp. 182-185 . 3(6) "O Αλβαρ Ααλτο και το μέλλον της αρχιτεκτονικής", Mag.The World of Buildings, (in Greek),April 1995,pp.28-36, 3(7) "Recent Finnish Architecture: The Work of Nurmela - Raimoranta -Tasa","The World of Buildings", no14 ,Athens,Feb. 1998 , 4. On the Italian Architecture in the Dodecanse By A.C.Antoniades see the following 4(1) "Η Αρχιτεκτονική των Ιταλών στα Δωδεκάνησα" , Περιοδικό "Ο Δρόμος", Μηνιαιο Δωδεκανησιακό περιοδικό΄, Τεύχος 17-18, Ρόδος, Δεκ. 1983, σσ.20-30 , 4(2) "Αγνοημένος Διεθνισμός¨Η Αρχιτεκτονικη του Λακκιού" , περιοδικο "Α+Χ"("Ανθρωπος και Χώρος"), εκδόσεις Καραγκούνη, τεύχος 20, Αθήνα 1983, σσ.27-38 (Ελληνικά και Αγγλικά), Βλ. επίσης και http://www.akx.gr/20-07.asp 4(3) "Italian Architecture in the Dodecanse: a preliminary assessment", JAE (Journal of Architectural Education", -Fall 1984, pp. 18-25, (This was the first international publication of this original research find -see prologue of above issue by Peter C.Papademetriou, p.1- Copyright of the above : JAE and copyright of photographs and drawings the author A.C.Antoniades) 4(4) "Ιταλική Αρχιτετκονική στα Δωδεκάνησα (μιά προκαταρκτική εκτίμηση)", Δελτίο Συλλόγου Αρχιτεκτόνων , Ιούλιος/Οκτώβριος , Αθήνα, 1985, σσ.14-29 , 5. Göran Schildt on Antoniades, see: G.Schildt "Meine Rejser med Daphne"
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