JOHN HEJDUK

RAIMUND ABRAHAM, ARCHITECT

1975: “Images recapture other images, transforming and emerging up
through, almost touching horizontal under-layers, thence to the under-
membrane surface, pregnant and in anticipation with reflection. Then
we are enveloped. Within the poetics of architecture, we know that we
are in the presence of a master architect when we observe, inhabit and
absorb the images and the world of Raimund Abraham.
At first we are made to believe that this architect deals with earth and
sky. He digs down into the earth and he builds up into the sky. At first,
we are made to believe that this man understands the shadows of the
underground and reflects the light of the opaque overcast atmosphere.
At first, we are made to believe that three elements – man standing,
man sitting, man lying – are the prime conditions. Then we realize that
Raimund Abraham’s moment is that moment when the uppermost
surface of the earth contacts the undermost surface of the sky. It is
the moment of anticipation, the moment just before contact; the
moment of maximum tension and of maximum repose; the moment
filled with passion and with gentleness, as with the Winged Angel of
da Vinci, just touching Earth from the flight of the sky. Leonardo’s
painting, The Annunciation is anticipation, love, creation, mystery, and
so is Raimund Abraham’s architecture.”
I hadn’t read that until yesterday. I wrote something else for today
(December 3rd, 1991).
Souls, shadow and sound. Raimund Abraham embraces and practices
with determination and love the art and science of Architecture. He
sees his discipline as one of the great and profound gifts to humanity.
He believes in the sacred, and he brings his offerings and respects to
the Earth and to the Heavens. His silences resonate in deep respect
of echoing man’s inner breathing sounds, sounds that respond to
the synapses of the soul, and if listened to carefully and quietly,
illuminates the sea-fall of fluids between the crevices of the brain,
flowing and moving down to the horizontal plane, to the edge-line
of the risen vertical – that is to revelations.
Raimund Abraham is a rare free spirit. He demands that the discipline
of Architecture be life-giving and life-celebrating. His creations are
unrelenting in their pursuit of thought and ultimately place the lone
searcher into the very heart of the unknown.
Or, to put it more explicitly, into the very soul of the mysterious, which
in the end, is of the sharpest precision and has the weight of black
granite embedded with unearthly light crystals. His journey is within
the immense shadows where Form and Space become increasingly
clear, consequently becoming true enrichment, which is soul sound.

Part 1: 1975: Introduction to Exhibition Catalogue: Raimund Abraham “The House –

Universe of Man”, Mexico City, 1975.
Part 2: 1991: Speech before the Lecture of Raimund Abraham “In the Middle of
[Now]here” in: The Great Hall, Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. Gallery, in The Irwin S. Chanin
School of the Cooper Union, New York.

215

Brought to you by | Cambridge University Library

Authenticated