Cross-Border Cowboys

Three enterprising Germans move to Los Angeles where they go on long walks, meet art and film stars, set up shop as architects and snare early commissions from Brad Pitt and curator Dave Hickey.

If the partners of Graft have come from Germany to Los Angeles to live out the American dream, it appears to be working for them. Wolfram Putz and Thomas Willemeit, both 37, and Lars Kruckeberg, 38, have defied the odds and made it big in Hollywood. They haven't come to follow in the footsteps of modernists Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra, as many still do in Los Angeles. And unlike Frank Gehry, Greg Lynn and other contemporary California luminaries, they have no interest in creating and imposing a signature style.

Graft's central motivation, as described by Putz, is "the hunger for the new idea, the hunger for the complete difference." Rather than advancing a particular ideology or aesthetic, the firm takes a cross-cultural, freestyle, multi-perspective approach and has found success in many forms of open-ended collaborations.

In only five years, this trans-urban architecture firm, based in both Los Angeles and Berlin, has managed to get a lot of play out of its name. By grafting art to architecture, European elements to America and vice-versa, living spaces to working spaces and studios to party venues, they have earned the respect of some influential art world figures and attracted celebrity clients like Brad Pitt and Will Smith.

The firm's name is inspired by the story of the phylloxera, an insect native to America that nearly wiped out the grape vines of southern France in the nineteenth century. The only way to save the vineyards was to graft the old vines onto the roots of new American vines, which were resistant to the insect.

Graft has been described as many things: more rock band than architecture firm, a hippie commune and a bunch of eccentrics. "In L.A. we're these crazy German guys and in Berlin we are not accepted into the Berlin architecture mafia - we're cowboys," Willemeit explains. "We've got the American virus," Putz adds.

The original members met in 1993 while studying at the Technical University of Braunschweig's architecture school. (Two years later, they formed part of an a capella chamber choir. They performed at the World Architecture Congress in Berlin this July.) Christoph Korner now acts as a project partner, collaborating on specific projects while pursuing other endeavors. Another original member, Gregor Hoheisel, has left the group. Willemeit joined recently after working for Daniel Libeskind on the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

After completing a Bauhaus-inspired education, the friends were drawn to the home of anti-utopias, Los Angeles, with its tradition of non-tradition. In 1998 Putz and Kruckeberg completed post-graduate studies at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, a school known for its experimental bent, and Korner graduated from UCLA. Later that year, they set themselves up as Graft. Design guns for hire, they worked on renovation projects for a luxury home contractor, and their first solo project was an interior job for AMMO, a minimalist North Hollywood restaurant with an equally minimal design budget.

Around this time Graft began staging "Eventings", now a significant part of their creative process. Paul Holdengraber, Director of the Institute for Art and Cultures at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, recently asked Graft to put forward a topic for an upcoming Eventing - a "Drive-In" lecture, to be held in LACMA's carpark this fall. Graft proposed the subject of art and the museum. Holdengraber professes to be as confused by the group as he is intrigued. "They've come up with the best definition of what they do, they graft. They take a bit from here, a bit from there, transplant it, put elsewhere and see if it grows."

They have been successfully grafted onto the American art and culture scene, perhaps most notably through their association with American art critic and curator Dave Hickey. Hickey's theoretical writings celebrating Las Vegas urbanism and American no-brow culture were an inspiration to the group while they were studying at Sci-Arc. Putz asked Hickey to be an advisor on his graduate thesis. The mentor relationship has developed into one of mutual respect and friendship. Hickey is impressed by Graft members' depth of knowledge not only about architecture, but also music, literature and dance. "They're cultured people in a moment when architects are not particularly cultured," he says.

As curator of the prestigious SITE Santa Fe 2001 International Biennial art exhibition, Hickey asked Graft to design the space. He explains that the exhibit "Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism: was a collection of "calculatedly impure styles, styles without regional identity." For the exhibit design, a simple modern space would not suffice. Hickey asked the architects to turn a former beer warehouse in New Mexico into an Italian palazzo "with salons and drawing rooms, chapels and a grand hall, a Palladian building." Putz explains that Hickey wanted a gallery space that responded to visual cues in the art, and also had its own architectural connotations. to achieve this balance, Graft embarked on a year-and-a-half-long process of meetings with artists.

One of the reasons Hickey chose Graft for this particular project was that they are particularly comfortable collaborating with clients, in this case artists. "I think the reason is they're not proprietary about a style," Hickey says. "They don't care it it looks like Graft design at the end."

The resulting space in Santa Fe included a circle motif carried into a barrel vault and tunnel upon which digital artist Jennifer Steinkamp's abstract 3-D patterns were projected. Graft's own exhibit was intended to question notions of the real. Entitled "kissykissytouchytouchy," it consisted of a large fake flower display with taped sounds of waves breaking on a shoreline installed along a processional entranceway.

Based on a recommendation from Steinkamp, Robert Sain, the director of LACMA's contemporary art division, LACMALab, considered Graft ideal for a complex exhibit he was mounting called "Seeing." The program again combined art and architecture. Several artists were asked to incorporate an existing art piece from the LACMA collection into their work or space, responding to the theme of 'seeing' and intended to appeal to children and adults equally. Graft's solution included a 27 metre long red wall peppered with peepholes revealing miniature dioramas.

The firm has also had several film world clients. These include the Frankfurt-based production company, Neue Sentimental Film, L.A.-based Zeal Pictures and actors James Spader and Tom Cruise.

Graft's most frequent Hollywood client is Brad Pitt.They met Pitt, who has a strong interest in architecture, while working on a small project for his building contractor and have collaborated on three projects to date. The second of these is a multi-functional studio adjacent to Pitt's house in the Hollywood Hills. Two metre-wide ceiling sections, one of crushed travertine and the other of translucent reddish brown mica, provide a strong visual component. As is common with their designs, the space is loosely programmed for maximum flexibility. For example, lowering a fold-down section of a multi-functional wall in one of the front rooms reveals a light table and chair. "It's like a tool-box environment that can shift between the different functional programming desires that the client has," Putz explains.

They are currently designing a California beach retreat for Pitt, who they view as an equal partner in the design process. Putz describes their collaborative meetings as "jam sessions." Ideas are shared freely and responsibility for specific design elements is impossible to discern. "These guys from the film world are very good in dealing with prescribed atmospheres," Willemeit says. He explains that because of the nature of their work, film people catch on easily to the way colours and light affect the qualities of a space.

Graft has also designed sets for commercials and music videos. For the Will Smith video, Will2K, the whole process from conceptualization to working drawings, construction, filming and demolition of the sets took place in a seven-day period. "It really turns your head - for an architect it is amazing how fast you can create worlds," says Kruckeberg. "It is very exciting for us."

As with the Pitt House, Zeal Pictures' recently completed Berlin offices demonstrate Graft's belief that the modernist notion of prescribed function is obsolete. It is a working space and a living space, and during the annual Berlin film festival, it will act as a party space. Another opportunity to address free-flowing function while accommodating fluctuating staff size is the Marina del Rey offices of German production company Neue Sentimental Film. In a vast warehouse near the ocean, Graft inserted double-height offices and a boardroom made of shipping containers. The boardroom doubles as a bar. Building code restrictions forced them to rethink the original plan of putting each individual office on rollers.

Partly to free themselves from such restrictions, the firm has also generated a considerable body of conceptual work. "The Knot House" is an example. Raised on translucent concrete structures, strips of lawn are used as both walls and flooring, creating raised, curved and planted rooms within the house. This concept is currently being incorporated by Graft into a plan for a new hotel in Palm Springs.

It is difficult to project where Graft's "hunger for the new idea" will lead. Hickey, for one, can't imagine the group following a conventional path. "These are not a lot of little twits with funny shoes that want to get the Pritzker when they're 45," he says. "I've taught in that world and nothing could be further from these guys." From this prolific and eclectic group of German adventurers who declare on their website that "taste is the lack of appetite," we can expect something completely different.

One of the reasons Hickey chose Graft for this particular project was that they are particularly comfortable collaborating with clients, in this case artists. "I think the reason is they're not proprietary about a style," Hickey says. "They don't care it it looks like Graft design at the end."

The resulting space in Santa Fe included a circle motif carried into a barrel vault and tunnel upon which digital artist Jennifer Steinkamp's abstract 3-D patterns were projected. Graft's own exhibit was intended to question notions of the real. Entitled "kissykissytouchytouchy," it consisted of a large fake flower display with taped sounds of waves breaking on a shoreline installed along a processional entranceway.

Based on a recommendation from Steinkamp, Robert Sain, the director of LACMA's contemporary art division, LACMALab, considered Graft ideal for a complex exhibit he was mounting called "Seeing." The program again combined art and architecture. Several artists were asked to incorporate an existing art piece from the LACMA collection into their work or space, responding to the theme of 'seeing' and intended to appeal to children and adults equally. Graft's solution included a 27 metre long red wall peppered with peepholes revealing miniature dioramas.

The firm has also had several film world clients. These include the Frankfurt-based production company, Neue Sentimental Film, L.A.-based Zeal Pictures and actors James Spader and Tom Cruise.

Graft's most frequent Hollywood client is Brad Pitt.They met Pitt, who has a strong interest in architecture, while working on a small project for his building contractor and have collaborated on three projects to date. The second of these is a multi-functional studio adjacent to Pitt's house in the Hollywood Hills. Two metre-wide ceiling sections, one of crushed travertine and the other of translucent reddish brown mica, provide a strong visual component. As is common with their designs, the space is loosely programmed for maximum flexibility. For example, lowering a fold-down section of a multi-functional wall in one of the front rooms reveals a light table and chair. "It's like a tool-box environment that can shift between the different functional programming desires that the client has," Putz explains.

They are currently designing a California beach retreat for Pitt, who they view as an equal partner in the design process. Putz describes their collaborative meetings as "jam sessions." Ideas are shared freely and responsibility for specific design elements is impossible to discern. "These guys from the film world are very good in dealing with prescribed atmospheres," Willemeit says. He explains that because of the nature of their work, film people catch on easily to the way colours and light affect the qualities of a space.

Graft has also designed sets for commercials and music videos. For the Will Smith video, Will2K, the whole process from conceptualization to working drawings, construction, filming and demolition of the sets took place in a seven-day period. "It really turns your head - for an architect it is amazing how fast you can create worlds," says Kruckeberg. "It is very exciting for us."

As with the Pitt House, Zeal Pictures' recently completed Berlin offices demonstrate Graft's belief that the modernist notion of prescribed function is obsolete. It is a working space and a living space, and during the annual Berlin film festival, it will act as a party space. Another opportunity to address free-flowing function while accommodating fluctuating staff size is the Marina del Rey offices of German production company Neue Sentimental Film. In a vast warehouse near the ocean, Graft inserted double-height offices and a boardroom made of shipping containers. The boardroom doubles as a bar. Building code restrictions forced them to rethink the original plan of putting each individual office on rollers.

Partly to free themselves from such restrictions, the firm has also generated a considerable body of conceptual work. "The Knot House" is an example. Raised on translucent concrete structures, strips of lawn are used as both walls and flooring, creating raised, curved and planted rooms within the house. This concept is currently being incorporated by Graft into a plan for a new hotel in Palm Springs.

It is difficult to project where Graft's "hunger for the new idea" will lead. Hickey, for one, can't imagine the group following a conventional path. "These are not a lot of little twits with funny shoes that want to get the Pritzker when they're 45," he says. "I've taught in that world and nothing could be further from these guys." From this prolific and eclectic group of German adventurers who declare on their website that "taste is the lack of appetite," we can expect something completely different.