German Pavilion
13th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia
The population of Germany is dwindling and aging. A large-scale process of demographic change is taking place. Working on the existing inventory has long become a priority, focusing on shrinkage, downsizing, regeneration, conversion and refurbishment of existing buildings and on closing the gaps in the urban fabric.
We need to start recognizing existing stock, including the little-appreciated buildings and housing estates of postwar modernism, as an important energy, cultural, social and architectural resource in shaping our future, and adopt a fundamentally positive attitude towards the architecture that already exists.
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle stands for a successful shift in value from waste to reusable material. The three R’s form a waste hierarchy in which avoidance comes first followed by direct reuse and, in third place, recycling which changes the properties of the material. The same logic may be applied in setting up a new value system to address existing buildings: the fewer changes that are made and the less energy used, the better the process.
Valuing what exists is the best starting point for a completely open-minded approach: appreciating that the dilapidated, the strange and the ordinary are architectural resources worth taking seriously can open up potential new directions in architecture. Reduce/Reuse/Recycle shows projects and perspectives by architects who take a positive, empowering view of existing structures as an inspiration and motivation for further development.
In the exhibition the following offices / architects are represented: AFF Architekten, Berlin / AMUNT Architekten Martenson und Nagel Theissen, Aachen, Stuttgart / Atelier Kempe Thill Architects and Planners, Rotterdam / Brandlhuber+ ERA, Emde, Schneider, Berlin / Diener & Diener Architekten, Basel, Berlin / Urs Füssler, Berlin/Jörg Leeser, Cologne / Heinle, Wischer und Partner, Stuttgart / Hild und K Architekten, Munich / knerer und lang Architekten, Dresden / LIN Architects Urbanists, Berlin / Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten, Frankfurt am Main / RobertneunTM, Berlin / Schulz & Schulz, Leipzig / Staab Architekten, Berlin
The contribution is supported by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS).
TEAM
Commissioner: Muck Petzet
Team: Andreas Ferstl, Luise Angelmaier, Judith Csiki, Saskia Hendy, Alex Pixley
Exhibition Design: Konstantin Grcic / Team: Olivia Herms
Photography: Erica Overmee / Team: Veronika Lindlbauer, Christian Rapp
Visual Design: Thomas Mayfried, Swantje Grundler
Project management and communications: Sally Below / sally below cultural affairs
Team: Simone Bogner, Ute Riechers, Viola van Beek, Friederike Krickel, Maria Mußotter, Julia Krieger, Hjördis Hoffmann, André Herzig and in Venice Tomas Ewald
Executive architect: Dr. Clemens F. Kusch, cfk architetti / Team: Martin Weigert
