Pritzker
Prize winner Gottfried Böhm and his three architect sons might be the world’s preeminent
modernists, but the function of many of their buildings is to harken back to
the past. With churches, mosques, World War II memorials, and an Egyptology
museum to their collective credit, the Böhms have built, but they find
themselves at a personal and professional crossroads in Maurizius Staerkle Drux’s
documentary, Concrete Love: the Böhm
Family (trailer
here),
which screened during the 2015 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City.
As
the only German Pritzker laureate, Gottfried Böhm is the unquestioned head of
the clan and of their family practice. His overwhelmingly dominant stature
leads to issues and tensions within the family unit, particularly with respect
to his wife Elisabeth. She was once a promising junior architect as well, but
she permanently deferred her career to raise their children. She has long
suffered from dementia when Drux starts observing the family, but she soon
succumbs to age and infirmity.
Despite
her failing health, the Böhm sons miss their mother’s stabilizing influence.
Resentments of the patriarch start to become more pronounced, especially as the
sons face their own particular professional challenges. Stephan is determined
to get a toehold in the exploding Chinese market, even though he is a bit put
off to learn architects are largely considered on par with contractors and
workmen in the People’s Republic (arguably, a rare expression of egalitarianism
in the increasingly stratified nation). Meanwhile, Paul Böhm is growing
exasperated with the budget cuts and aesthetically dubious demands imposed on
him by the strange network of patrons behind his mega-mosque project. Believe
it or not, we sort of get the sense he is being set up to be some kind of
scapegoat.
At
least Peter Böhm sort of gets the last laugh at the opening of the Museum of
Egyptian Art he designed. He had clashed with his father over its deceptively
simple, boxy layout. Yet, once Drux takes his cameras inside, we get a sense of
how its imposing massiveness evokes the great monumental structures of ancient
Egypt and how the surprisingly airy open spaces serve the exhibitions. It really
has a cool sense of place.
