Living in Shelters, The Future of the Cavern

the Endless House , Frederick Kiesler -1950-1960

For the first time in an exhibition, the Kiesler-foundation
confronts the two models Grotto for Meditation and Endless House.
Both concepts are characterized by the artists research for a form,
which attempts to satisfy both practical and spiritual human demands,
in order to provide men a livable and adequate environment.

Working on a construction (which was close to Philip Johnsons Roofless Church
in New Harmony, Indiana) for the successors of Robert Owen (1771-1858),
an early socialist and founder of the cooperative system,
Kiesler found in 1962 an opportunity to verify his co-realistic theories
in the built practise.
The design of the Grotto for Meditation
refers to the history of the social-reformatory movement of the location,
but first of all, it should represent a room of meditation,
a universal form beyond all religious denominations.

Similar to the Endless House,
Kiesler gets inspired by morphologic formal vocabulary
and chooses the motif of a spiral,
for the artist a symbol for change and assimilation.
The centre of the complex is built in form of a snail.
This form combines the centrifugal power, the expansion to the infinity,
with the centripetal power,
which approaches the individual towards contemplation.


the Kiesler-foundation Frederick Kiesler