Description

In 2012, Danish architect Lise Juel completed the restoration of fellow Dane Jorn Utzon’s magnificent residence on the Spanish island of Majorca, known as Can Lis. Uncovering Utzon is a series of pensees by Juel describing the process of restoring the beloved architect’s unique and magnificent construction for the Utzon Foundation.

Accompanying Juel’s evocative account of her experience working at Can Lis are the equally evocative images of the house by eminent architectural photographer Helene Binet. Known for her emotionally powerful black-and-white photographs of the work of the world’s most important architects, past and present, Binet brings her unique eye to Can Lis to produce a breathtaking portrait of Utzon’s spectacular, elemental masterpiece.

Together, Juel’s personal account and Binet’s inimitable photography illustrate the simple yet undeniable power of this rough-hewn Modernist architectural landmark that embodies the guiding principle espoused by Utzon himself: “If we understand the nature of a material, we have to be able to understand the structure of wood, the weight and the hardness of stone . . . we must become one with our materials.”