Thomas Schutte: Houses

Dusseldorf-based artist Thomas Schutte (born 1954) first came to prominence in the 1980s with his drawings, watercolors, stage sets and architectural models. In the 1990s, he produced ceramic figures and monumental sculptures of bronze and steel. Schutte’s first forays into imaginary or utopian architecture were scale models of rooms in which one might live and work: ateliers for artistic activity, and bunkers to which one might retreat. After a gap of 20 years, Schutte returned to the architectural model, producing light pavilions out of wood and studio leftovers, as well as commercial and public buildings. Where his early models exist as potential buildings only, the later models of his One Man Houses series (from 2003 to the present) are designed to be built (as several have been). Houses provides a comprehensive survey of Schutte’s architectural models, from his early experiments through to his current design projects.