The Club of Suicidal Architects

There are buildings that ruin and kill. Cursed constructions that claimed the fortune or life of their architects, overwhelmed by not living up to their own demanding expectations. These tragic failures are chronicled by Belgian poet and writer Charlotte Van den Broeck (Turnhout, 1991) in 'Fatal Leaps' (Acantilado). She weaves together thirteen stories of buildings that led to the ruin or death of their tormented creators, from the Vienna State Opera to New York's Knickerbocker Theatre and Rome's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane church.

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas once warned that "architecture is a dangerous mix of impotence and omnipotence." This quote opens a book of more than three hundred pages in which, straddling narrative and essay, Van den Broeck delves into the personal and professional tragedies of builders who chose to end their lives or leave the profession, overwhelmed by their failures. She explores their minds as they faced the challenges of erecting theaters, libraries, museums, churches, barracks, offices, villas, golf courses, or sculpture gardens.

The sinister history of the municipal pool in Stadpark, near the author's hometown, sparked her interest in the topic. Designed by an anonymous architect, its construction was plagued with breakdowns, collapses, water contamination, and a child getting her braid caught in a drain. It was never open for more than three consecutive months, and its definitive closure fueled the legend of a curse and rumors that its architect committed suicide.

Invited in 2019 to recite her poems in Vienna, the shy Van den Broeck tried to break the ice at a reception by talking about her hometown pool. She learned that a similar curse hung over the Vienna State Opera building. This coincidence became the seed for her book, featuring thirteen cases out of twenty-four she investigated.

Gaston Eyssenlyck (1907-1953), the unfortunate Belgian designer of the former Post and Telegraph headquarters in the Flemish city of Ostend, is featured in the first chapter. Now converted into a cultural center, the building is today a modernist architectural landmark. But its architect did not overcome his disappointments and ended his life at 47 before seeing it completed.

Tragic were also the ends of Eduard Van der Nüll (1812-1868) and August von Sicardburg (1813-1868), creators of the Vienna Opera House. Admired today for its beauty, contemporaries compared the building to a shipwreck. Van der Nüll, the artist, and Sicardburg, the technician, formed a complementary duo. "They couldn't live without each other," writes the author. The first hanged himself, unable to bear the attacks on the building. The second stopped fighting tuberculosis and died ten weeks later. Neither saw their building inaugurated in 1869.

Francesco Borromini (1599-1667), genius of Baroque architecture and author of Rome's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane church, met another terrible end. A fierce rival of Bernini with a dark, sullen, solitary character unsure of his genius, he committed suicide by falling on a sword.

The collapse of New York's Knickerbocker Theatre on January 28, 1922 caused 95 deaths and numerous injuries. A heavy snowfall dumped tons of snow on the roof, which gave way due to construction faults. Reginald Geare (1889–1927), its architect, was tried and acquitted of involuntary manslaughter but could not overcome the tragedy and committed suicide.

In Valletta, she investigated the construction of Malta's National Library by "perfectionist" and "forgotten" Stefano Ittar (1724-1790), who committed suicide due to structural calculation errors five years before the building was completed. In Naples she visited Villa Ebe, a mansion that Scottish architect Lamont Young (1851-1929) finished shortly before shooting himself at age 78.

George Arthur Crump (1871–1918) designed New Jersey's exclusive Pine Valley Golf Club "to test players' mental strength." He committed suicide overwhelmed by problems expanding the course, though newspapers said he died from a dental infection.

In Saint-Omer in France's Pas-de-Calais department she visited the crooked bell tower of its seventeenth-century church during whose construction master builder Jean Porc either jumped or fell to his death.

The book closes with Starr Gideon Kempf's (1917-1995) story; creator of Colorado Springs' Kinetic Sculpture Garden inaugurated in 1978. He had said that when he could no longer work on his projects he would erase himself from existence. He fulfilled this at age 78 when he found himself unable to complete his sculpture project. His grandson showed Van den Broeck the weapon his grandfather used to shoot himself in the head in 1995.

A regular contributor to Belgian press Van den Broeck is a professor of Literary Analysis and Essay Writing at Antwerp's Royal Conservatory. Her first poetry collection 'Chameleon' (2015) received the Herman de Coninck Prize and her second 'Nachtroer' (2017) won the Paul Snoek Award for best poetry book in Dutch.