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DEUTSCHES ARCHITEKTURMUSEUM

SOMETHING FANTASTIC

CONTENT

WELCOME SPEECH Dr Barbara Hendricks, Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety PROGRAMME OVERVIEW…..........................................2 Press conference 27 May 2016, related events in Venice FACT SHEET, TEAM AND CONTACT...........................5 PRESS RELEASE......…......................................................8 Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country STATEMENT ON THE OPENING OF THE GERMAN PAVILION.......................................................................12 Werner Durth: The Cracks Are Showing. On the 2016 German Contribution Andreas Hild: Sleeping Beauty Awakens Christoph Ingenhoven: Café Deutschland PUBLICATION ...............................................................17 ARRIVAL CITIES?..........................................................18 Questions and Quotes. Guided tour through the Catalogue BIOGRAPHIES................................................................23 Peter Cachola Schmal Oliver Elser Anna Scheuermann Doug Saunders Something Fantastic (Elena Schütz, Julian Schubert, Leo Streich) SPONSORS & PARTNERS.............................................25

FURTHER EVENTS “Der Umzug der Menschheit” – Symposium of the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA) Book presentation “Germania, Venezia. Die deutschen Beiträge zur Architekturbiennale Venedig seit 1991” (Event in German) Performing Architecture, Goethe-Institut 26. – 29.5.2016

 

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DEUTSCHES ARCHITEKTURMUSEUM

SOMETHING FANTASTIC

PROGRAMME

Press conference May 27, 2016, 11 a.m.

Speakers: - Barbara Hendricks, Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety - Peter Cachola Schmal, General Commissioner and Director of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum - Oliver Elser, Curator at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum - Anna Scheuermann, Project Coordinator - Doug Saunders, Author of Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History Is Reshaping Our World

Official opening May 27, 2016, 12:30 a.m.

Speakers: - Barbara Hendricks, Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety - Peter Cachola Schmal, General Commissioner and Director of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum - Oliver Elser, Curator at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum - Anna Scheuermann, Project Coordinator

 

 

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FURTHER EVENTS

Saturday, May 28, 2016 German Pavilion 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. “Der Umzug der Menschheit“ – Symposium of the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA)

Introduction: Heiner Farwick, Peter Cachola Schmal, “Integration als Aufgabe von Stadt und Architektur”: Barbara Hendricks Discussion: Naika Foroutan (tbc), Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Doug Saunders, Thomas Willemeit Moderation: Matthias Böttger (in German / English)

1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Book presentation “Germania, Venezia. Die deutschen Beiträge zur Architekturbiennale Venedig seit 1991“

With Gunther Adler, Oliver Elser, Francesca Ferguson, Burkhard Grashorn, Verena Hartbaum, Peter Cachola Schmal + Stephan Trüby Moderation: Florian Heilmeyer (in German)

RECOMMENDED EVENTS

Performing Architecture Goethe-Institut May 26 – May 29, 2016

Chiesa della Misericordia / Campo de l'Abazia, 30121 Cannaregio www.goethe.de/performingarchitecture In Act and Thought - A Score for Six Performers May 26 – 27, 2016, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Dance Performance by Fabrice Mazliah, with Katja Cheraneva, Frances Chiaverini, Josh Johnson, David Kern, Yasutake Shimaji, Ildikó Tóth

 

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ARCH+ features #50 May 28, 2016, 4 p.m. Discussion with Armen Avanessian, Arno Brandlhuber, Christian Kerez, Erica Overmeer, Christopher Roth Moderation: Sandra Oehy + Anh-Linh Ngo Culinary Lessons May 29, 2016, 2:30 p.m. Discussion with Tobias Rehberger, Sanford Kwinter, Daniel Birnbaum, Jan Åman, Fabrice Mazliah, Johan Bettum et al.

Matinée of the Chamber of Architects and Urban Planners Hessen (AKH) „Ein regionaler Blick auf globale Herausforderungen“ May 29, 2016, 11 a.m.

Palazzo Contarini Polignac, 874 Dorsoduro, 30123 Venezia Round table with Peter Cachola Schmal, Oliver Elser, Brigitte Holz, Werner Durth (tbc) and Horst Schneider Moderation: Isabella Göring (in German)

 

 

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FACT SHEET VENUE

German Pavilion Giardini della Biennale 30122 Venice, Italy

DATES

Exhibition 28 May – 27 November 2016 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Closed on Mondays (except on 30 May, 5 September, 31 October and 21 November 2016) Professional Preview Days 26 – 27 May 2016 Official Opening German Pavilion 27 May 2016, 12:30 p.m. The exhibition Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country will be presented at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in Frankfurt am Main in spring 2017.

PUBLICATION

Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country Editors: Peter Cachola Schmal, Oliver Elser, Anna Scheuermann Published by Hatje Cantz, 2016 English/German, ISBN 978-3-7757-4141-5

WEB / SOCIAL MEDIA

Homepage: www.makingheimat.de Facebook: www.facebook.com/architekturmuseum Twitter/ Periscope: @DAM_ArchMuseum Instagram: @makingheimat Hashtag: #makingheimat

 

 

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TEAM

The Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) was appointed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, Bau und Reaktorsicherheit) to curate the German Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition 2016 – La Biennale di Venezia: General commissioner Peter Cachola Schmal, Director DAM Curator Oliver Elser, Curator DAM Project coordinator Anna Scheuermann Consultant Doug Saunders, Toronto Kai Vöckler, Offenbach Curatorial assistant Felix Torkar Project assistants Tiziana Agus Gala von Nettelbladt Location scout Offenbach Urban Media Project: Loimi Brautmann Administration Inka Plechaty, Jacqueline Brauer

Exhibition Something Fantastic, Berlin: Elena Schütz, Julian Schubert, Leonard Streich with Julius Fischötter, Marius Helten, Ruben Bernegger, Charlotte Schönberger and Perret Schaad Architect in Venice Clemens F. Kusch and Martin Weigert, cfk architetti Event manager in Venice solmarino: Tomas Ewald Public relations and communications BUREAU N cultural communications: Julia Albani, Silke Neumann, Joanna Kamm, Joanne Pouzenc, Sören Zuppke DAM: Brita Köhler, Stefanie Lampe

 

 

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PRESS IMAGES

A selection of high-res press images is available for download on: http://www.makingheimat.de/en#press

CONTACT

Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) Schaumainkai 43 60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany Tel +49.69.21238844 presse.dam@stadt-frankfurt.de www.dam-online.de

PRESS CONTACT

BUREAU N cultural communications Naunynstrasse 38 10999 Berlin, Germany Tel +49.30.62736102 makingheimat@bureau-n.de www.bureau-n.de

 

 

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MAKING HEIMAT. GERMANY, ARRIVAL COUNTRY

German Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition 2016 – La Biennale di Venezia May 28 – November 27, 2016

The Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) is curating the German Pavilion exhibition Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 – La Biennale di Venezia. In charge of the German contribution are Peter Cachola Schmal, general commissioner and director of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Oliver Elser, curator at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, and the project coordinator Anna Scheuermann. The Berlin architecture office Something Fantastic is responsible for the overall design concept of the German Pavilion. Four large openings in the walls of the German Pavilion have transformed it into an open house. Over 48 tons of brick were removed from the landmark-protected walls. The pavilion is open. Germany is open. Last year, Germany’s borders were kept open to receive over a million refugees. Although currently the EU borders are largely closed for refugees, the gesture of opening the house is a call to rethink Germany as a welcoming nation for immigrants. With the exhibition Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country, the DAM is using examples from Germany’s Arrival Cities to pose for discussion a series of theses developed in collaboration with the Canadian author Doug Saunders. His book Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History is Reshaping Our World has inspired a shift in perspective on immigrant districts—a shift that is also applicable to Germany. Although these districts are typically characterized as “problem areas,” they offer residents and new arrivals the most important prerequisites of an Arrival City: affordable housing, access to work, small-scale commercial spaces, good access to public transit, networks of immigrants from the same culture, as well as a tolerant attitude that extends to the acceptance of informal practices. However, before any of the numerous new arrivals can become regular immigrants, there are currently thousands of refugees living in first admittance facilities and shared accommodations across Germany. Using specific examples, the German Pavilion will present the architectural qualities of these buildings in an exhibition room dedicated to this particular construction task. The examples have been chosen from the database www.makingheimat.de. This growing archive of realised and under-construction refugee buildings across Germany and Europe offers a comprehensive picture of the current reality, and is an exhortation to step up and meet the dire need for affordable and high-quality residential space. Indeed, this is one of the central prerequisites for a successful integration process.

 

 

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The Open House

The opening of the German Pavilion and its transformation into a lively public space was developed in collaboration with Something Fantastic. For these Berlin-based architects, opening up the pavilion is not only a political, urban planning, and architectural statement, but also a welcoming gesture for exhibition visitors. They’ve provided indoor and outdoor seating, free WLAN, power stations, white plastic chairs, and an ayran fountain that will be running during the opening days of the Biennale, operated by a Lebanese caterer from Mestre, the Arrival City in Venice. As part of their teaching activity at ETH Zurich, Something Fantastic has visited a number of different international Arrival Cities, and their overall design concept for the German Pavilion is oriented toward the pragmatic, improvised, and effective design principles of the Arrival City. The exhibition’s texts, printed on colourful paper from copy shops, are pasted to the walls; the bricks prepared to close up the walls are used as counters and benches. At the end of the exhibition, the openings will be bricked in as required by the office of monument preservation. But for the duration of the Biennale, from May to November of 2016, there will be no closed doors in the German Pavilion. Day or night, the pavilion will be open.

Monument Preservation

The opening of the walls was carefully coordinated with Emanuela Carpani, the head of the Venetian office of monument preservation. The three-sided steel frames are earthquake-proof and will be removed when the openings are bricked in again. Nevertheless it cannot be denied: a massive intervention is being made into the material of the monument itself - an intervention that amounts to a new interpretation of the German Pavilion. For this reason, two architects and an architectural historian were invited to make a statement about the intervention:

⎯   Prof. Dr.-Ing. Werner Durth, chairman of the selection committee for the German contribution to the Architecture Biennale 2016

⎯   Prof. Andreas Hild, Chair for Architectural Design, Rebuilding, and Conservation at the Technical University of Munich

⎯   Christoph Ingenhoven, founder and owner of Ingenhoven Architects, Düsseldorf These statements are included in the press kit.

Reporting from the Front

The guiding theme for this year’s Architecture Biennale was formulated by Director Alejandro Aravena as a call to participating architects and curators: “Reporting from the Front.” The exhibition in the German Pavilion refers to this

 

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call in a twofold sense. One the one hand, the exhibition puts “reporting” front and center—that is, it dives right into reality as part of a report on the real conditions. Around half of the authors in the catalogue are journalists reporting from Germany’s Arrival Cities. On the other hand, it answers the question of whether there is a “front” in Germany worthy of being reported: namely, that Germany stands internationally for a refugee policy without precedent. “Reporting from the Front”: Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country interprets the title in the form of reports from Germany revolving around two thematic complexes—“immigration and arrival cities” and “building for refugees.”

8 Theses on the Arrival City

Eight theses on the Arrival City have been worked out in close collaboration with Doug Saunders. With these theses, DAM asks what architectural and urban conditions are necessary in Arrival Cities for immigrants to integrate successfully in Germany. If we hope to avoid the mistakes of the 1960s and 1970s, it’s essential that these new citizens not be treated as guests, who can be “sent home” at any moment. Immigrants must be given the chance to turn Germany into their second home. Immigrants tend to gravitate toward people in similar situations; This results, in the formation of many different Arrival Cities. Doug Saunders defines them in the following terms: “The Arrival City is a city within a city.” The Canadian journalist and bestselling author has visited Arrival Cities around the world. His observations are based on visits to slums and favelas. Such areas are poor and remain poor, but their turnover rate is high. For many people, these Arrival Cities are a transit station to a better life. Arrival Cities in Germany don’t emerge through the proportionate distribution of asylum seekers, or under the terms stipulated in a “Residenzpflicht” (residence requirement) - a subject currently back under discussion—they emerge in urban zones. This model of the Arrival City is applied in the exhibition using examples from Germany. One of these is inner-city Offenbach, another is the Dong Xuan Center in the Berlin neighbourhood of Lichtenberg—a Vietnamese supermarket in which everything functions a little differently from what Germans are accustomed to. Both the current refugee situation and the requirements needed from an Arrival City revolve around a crucial point: Germany is facing a housing crisis. People have been talking about affordable housing for years; now the situation has emerged in which concrete solutions actually need be implemented. Affordable living space must be built for everyone, and that includes—but isn’t limited to—refugees and migrants. The Arrival City is a city within a city. The Arrival City is affordable. The Arrival City is close to business. The Arrival City is informal. The Arrival City is self-built. The Arrival City is on the ground floor. The Arrival City is a network of immigrants. The Arrival City needs the best schools.

 

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Refugee Housing Database

The buildings presented in the pavilion represent a selection of refugee accommodations from those gathered by DAM on the website www.makingheimat.de. The selection is not intended to be an evaluation, but rather an exhibition of built prototypes. In addition to its architectural design and urban arrangement, the quality of a residential building for refugees largely depends on its location and distance to the nearest Arrival City, on local conditions and support, and, last but not least, on the individual prospects for the future. How long and under what circumstances are refugees expected to live there? DAM will continue to monitor the projects once they are completed. Beginning in February 2017, an updated version of the exhibition Making Heimat will be shown at the DAM in Frankfurt. DAM’s partners in compiling the database were the architecture magazine Bauwelt, and the “Berlin Award 2016 – Heimat in der Fremde,” an international call for projects by the State of Berlin for innovative approaches to refugee housing.

Heimat

Heimat is a German concept that’s difficult to translate into other languages. The English words “home,” “homeland,” or “home country” don’t encompass the numerous shades of meaning to the German word—neither do Italian or Spanish words like “casa” or “patria.” Heimat is an individual feeling of “being at home.” With the title Making Heimat, we’re asking what conditions are necessary to establish a permanent life in one’s new home—because it’s safe to assume many migrants won’t be able to return to their original Heimat.

Catalogue

The accompanying catalogue is being published by Hatje Cantz with essays from Doug Saunders, Jürgen Friedrichs, Stefan Rettich, Amber Sayah, Marietta Schwarz, Walter Siebel, Peter Cachola Schmal, Oliver Elser, Anna Scheuermann and more. It also features interviews by Kai Vöckler with Friedrich Heckmann and Matthias Schulze-Böing. For the photo spreads, DAM has commissioned photographers like Kiên Hoàng Lê who has contributed a report on the Dong Xuan Center (German/English, ISBN 978-3-7757-4141-5).

Selection Procedure and Commissioning

The exhibition concept for the German Pavilion was determined by a jury during an open selection process between June and October, 2015, and has been commissioned by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building, and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).

 

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STATEMENTS ON THE OPENING OF THE GERMAN PAVILION

The Cracks Are Showing. On the 2016 German Contribution

In the beginning was the theme. Making Heimat is a response to the massive influx of refugees in 2015 that rattled Europe and nearly tore Germany apart. Some people welcomed the refugees with joy and compassion; others couldn’t be rid of them quickly enough. The German contribution to the 2016 Architecture Biennale dives right into the heart of the matter. The contribution looks into the dangers and opportunities posed by this great decampment to Germany. The curators found the thematic context of their argument in the theses developed by the well-travelled journalist Doug Saunders. The German Pavilion provided the spatial parameters. Since it was rebuilt in 1938, the pavilion has been seen as a building that served the program of Nazi domination. In its mute force and hermetic orderliness, this building (for which the title “pavilion” has never really fit) has always been an object of critique as a place for the Republic of Germany to represent itself. Some people have even argued for tearing it down and erecting a new pavilion in the habitus of a “democratic” architecture—whatever that might be. The history, shape, and formal language of this building continue to provoke confrontation. Repeatedly, it has been disrupted by artistic interventions, alienated, reshaped, or phased out. Think of the powerful images of shattered floor panels in Hans Haacke’s 1993 action, or the different Architecture Biennale contributions that have demonstratively drawn a contrast with the constructive arts of the year 1938—most recently in 2014, when the pavilion was brought into collision with postwar modernism through the installation of elements of Sep Ruf’s Chancellor’s Bungalow in Bonn. This year, the walls seem at first glance to have been broken up under the pressure of events—perforated, and temporarily opened. At second glance, the pavilion meets us with a message: what has begun won’t be held in check; it has forced its way into the building, through its protective walls. Inside, we see accommodations for mitigating extreme hardship, next to these projects for new buildings conceived not only for refugees, but also for people seeking housing from various classes of German society. Through the openings in the facade—which, seen from outside, jar one’s perception—the building attains a new, temporary quality inside. But it doesn’t fundamentally call the architecture’s suitability as an exhibition space into question. Evidently, the measures can be reversed; the stones that have been broken out stand nearby for the repair work. While one by one, different states close their borders to protect Fortress Europe, walls are being opened in Venice—initially for only a summer, as an encouragement for another form of politics in the spirit of European unity, as a commitment to the inviolable dignity of humankind. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Werner Durth Head of the Department of the History and Theory of Architecture, Technical University of Darmstadt Chairman of the selection committee for the German contribution to the 2016 Architecture Biennale

 

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Sleeping Beauty Awakens

“A little surprised ourselves”—that’s how the commissioners of the German Pavilion described their reaction when they learned that the department of monument preservation would approve their proposed cuts into the walls of the historic pavilion building. And in the birthplace of the Venice Charter, no less. True, the interventions in the German Pavilion are within the bounds of the internationally recognized guidelines: they are legible and reversible. Still, a considerable amount of original material has been lost; the integrity of the monument is undoubtedly affected. Can this be allowed? Or under the given circumstances, is it possible that it must be allowed? Monument preservation is understood as the effort to preserve a building in a particular state. The monument is preserved for the present day, yet held in limbo in a crucial way from the nowness of the present. The situation is similar to how in the Brothers Grimm fairytale, the good fairy can only spare Sleeping Beauty from certain death using a watered-down counterspell: “It shall not be death, but a deep sleep of a hundred years.” A protective hedge of thorns soon grows around the whole castle and its slumbering princess. So too, the contradictory status of the monument—preserved and held at bay from the present—typically brooks no challenge. A “hedge” of regulations and legal restraints shelters it from any encroachments. The thorns aren’t meant to part and allow the building to take on new contexts of meaning. Like the king’s sons in the fairytale, anyone who tries to remove the building from limbo will get trapped in the hedges. Yet every monument owes its existence as a monument to a societal discourse. The current shape of the pavilion, rebuilt in 1938 and 2016, now refers to two extreme poles of German history. Evidently, the transformation Germany’s image is currently undergoing in the world is an event deemed relevant enough by the Italian monument-protection authorities to approve the major interventions, despite the proviso that they be put back afterward. Yet it’s precisely this question of “putting it back” that is critical when it comes to the legitimacy of the entire endeavor. It makes no sense to awaken Sleeping Beauty for a few minutes, then immediately put her back to sleep. It makes no sense to open the hedges for a minute, then immediately close them again. This will hardly serve to undo the loss of material and the damage to the integrity of the monument. Should a future commissioner decide to make a similar intervention, there might very well be nothing left of the original building. But if the metaphor of opening represents more than a temporary exhibition concept, then it’s possible to breathe new life into the building, to create new possibilities of legibility, to literally open up new approaches. In this case, the intervention is not only permissible, but perhaps even proper and important. As a historical artifact, every monument is embedded in a continuity. The monument comes to life when you demonstrate that the reality underpinning this continuity is subject to change. In this sense, the present intervention

 

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could use the contemporary moment to transform the building in the same way Germany is currently transforming. However—and here too the image conforms to reality—opening the borders must be more than a grand gesture; it must be more than a short-lived act of generosity. The new openness must leave real traces behind if it actually hopes to accomplish something; it must become part of German society. Only time will tell if the changes to the German Pavilion have the strength to survive as an architectural development; something else it shares in common with the transformations that are currently happening in Germany. Prof. Andreas Hild Chair for Architectural Design, Rebuilding, and Conservation, Technical University of Munich Owner of Hild und K Architekten, Munich

   

 

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Café Deutschland

“A hole to see the sky through”—that was the name Yoko Ono gave to a small white postcard with a circular hole in the middle that she displayed at Documenta in 1972. “There is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in,” sings Leonard Cohen. And now they’re making four holes, four cracks in the unloved German Pavilion! Until recently, the German Pavilion had been enough on its own—like the whole Biennale and the Giardini are still enough on their own: a perpetual reflection of the narcissism of architects and their admirers. But those days are gone. Light, the world is overwhelming the scene, and so far it’s unclear if this time, unlike before, under the pressure of outside developments - global warming, the global financial crisis, wars, hunger, poverty, social injustice, information overload, the European crisis - the refugee crisis, architects are really in a position to take notice of the world and learn from it, instead of continuing to give the world instructions. So far scientists, engineers—practically the entire world—have been ahead of architects, who’ve remained ensnared in their fatal notions of art. Back when Corbusier “discovered” the beauty of technology, this technology already existed, created by the same scientists and engineers who hadn’t bothered to wait on architects. We haven’t quite gotten over this narcissism; indeed, it’s possible it could even reach new heights this year—if the somewhat martial-sounding title “Reporting from the Front” entails architects once again thinking their ideas are going to heal the world, rather than understanding themselves as part of a community of scientists, researchers, politicians, and activists working together to solve the world’s issues. If we keep believing the world has been waiting on us—waiting to be taught how to solve their catastrophic social problems aesthetically, or however else. But there’s also a faint hope that something substantial is changing in how architects perceive themselves. Until now, architects have always done what was possible only because it was possible; seldom have they made an effort to change these possibilities or expand them—and even more seldom have we consciously held ourselves back and not done what was possible, but instead what was sensible or appropriate. Only time will tell if there’s now a real opportunity to change this, or if once again, paying lip service to the “social,” we’re just kicking off another round of the bonfire of the vanities. You can look around outside the pavilions and understand that you’re standing on water, that you’re standing in one of the most entrancing panoramas in the world, that we don’t need all these white walls to experience something of the world, that life is there outside and not in the so very well-intentioned productions inside. And the world can force its way, flood its way into the pavilions. The most interesting place at the Biennale has always been the Café Paradiso, where homage has at least been paid to the illusion that architects communicate amongst themselves—even when everyone else is expected to remain outside. Where have all the engineers, construction workers, craftsmen, construction industry,

 

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residents, or contractors been all these years? How do we architects possibly think we can bring about something sensible without these people? What’s the future of the German Pavilion after this four-windowed intervention? Is it possible that the next time the Biennale rolls around, the pavilion will have turned into a kind of Café Germany: the windows serving as the first stage in a more pervasive process of opening and transformation, with the Biennale transforming from a place of exhibition and presentation to a place of being and exchanging with others? Or could the windows herald the arrival of a real penetration of the world into the pavilion, a reconquest of the world by nature, an unplanned and spontaneous ruination of the representative and official, and a reclamation of the natural? Of course, a reclamation that’s also appealing and logical from an aesthetic perspective. Whatever the case, the openings shouldn’t be covered back up. I like to imagine there’s a world that wants to enter the German Pavilion and that encounters something of equal interest inside those windows—something worth the effort of forcing its way through in the first place. Christoph Ingenhoven Founder and Owner of Ingenhoven Architects, Düsseldorf

 

 

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PUBLICATION

Catalogue accompanying the exhibition Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country in the German Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition 2016 – La Biennale di Venezia, published by Hatje Cantz

Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country

Editors: Peter Cachola Schmal, Oliver Elser, Anna Scheuermann With texts by Anneke Bokern, Oliver Elser, Maren Harnack, Friedrich Heckmann, Christian Holl, Peter Körner, Mechthild Küpper, Stephan Lanz, Denise Peikert, Stefan Rettich, Doug Saunders, Amber Sayah, Anna Scheuermann, Peter Cachola Schmal, Matthias Schulze-Böing, Marietta Schwarz, Walter Siebel, Philipp Sturm, Kai Vöckler With photos by die arge lola, Kirsten Bucher, Josephine Dannheisig / Christopher Domakis, Ludovic Dusuzeau, Kiên Hoàng Lê, Jakob Huber, Tadeuz Jalocha, Peter Körner, Sonia Mangiapane, Cristobal Palma, Judith Raum, Philipp Reiss, Jessica Schäfer, Stefanie Zofia Schulz, Florian Thein, Felix Torkar Graphic design by Something Fantastic, Berlin English/German 304 pages, approx.120 illustrations, softcover, 13,50 x 21,00 cm ISBN 978-3-7757-4141-5 9,80 €

 

MAKINGHEIMAT.

GERMANY,ARRIVAL

COUNTRYGERMAN PAVILION AT THE

15TH INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION 2016 – LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

DEUTSCHER PAVILLON AUF DER 15. INTERNATIONALEN ARCHITEKTURAUSSTELLUNG 2016 –

LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

PETER CACHOLA SCHMAL, OLIVER ELSER, ANNA SCHEUERMANN (EDS. / HRSG.)

DEUTSCHES ARCHITEKTURMUSEUM SOMETHING FANTASTIC

15. Mostra Internazionaledi ArchitetturaPartecipazioni Nazionali

DEUTSCHES ARCHITEKTURMUSEUM SOMETHING FANTASTIC

Making Heimat

untersucht

die urbanen,

architektonischen

und

sozialen

Anforderungen

an

Arrival Cities

in

Deutschland.

makingheimat.de

Find out how architects are working on

refugee housing projectsin Germany at makingheimat.de

MAKING HEIMATINVESTIGATES

THE URBAN, ARCHITECTURAL,

AND SOCIAL

CONDITIONS OF

ARRIVAL CITIES IN

GERMANY.

MAKING HEI

MAT

Germany,Arrival

Country

 

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ARRIVAL CITIES? QUESTIONS AND QUOTES GUIDED TOUR THROUGH THE CATALOGUE

Where to find numbers and statistics on immigration in Germany

Emigration / Immigration demographics in Germany……………………………………………………………….…………….…. p 16 - 17 Immigration and German cities………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………….p 68 - 71 Immigration networks within cityscapes…….………………………………………………………………..……………….…...…..p 200 - 204 Immigration and education……………………………………………………………………………………….…………………….…...p 230 - 231 Immigration in Offenbach am Main………………………………………………………………….…………………………………..p 244 - 247

How Doug Saunders defines Arrival Cities in the context of Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country

Essay: Arriving on the Edge: Migrant Districts and the Architecture of Inclusion by Doug Saunders.………..………p 22 - 41 Interview with Doug Saunders and Stefan Lanz…………………………………………………………………………..…………...p 42 – 55 The arrival cities, these migrant-created urban quarters are ripe with both peril and promise; they are where the new creative and commercial class will be born, or where the next wave of tension and conflict will erupt. Much of the difference depends on how we approach these districts both organizationally and politically, and, crucially, in terms of physical structures and built form. When immigrants succeed, they become part of the economic, educational, and cultural life of the city—all of which depend on, and work much more effectively with, participation in the political life of the city. The processes of creating businesses, working, living in housing, and paying taxes all create not just a need for political participation but a right to political participation. When the migrants themselves have the power, knowledge, and influence to shape their own institutions, circumstances, and physical space, thenit is possible to move beyond the old rhetoric of “integrating” immigrants. Instead, by giving them control over their space and their political lives, they integrate themselves and create new spaces and communities that will transform the rest of us in important ways.

Doug Saunders

 

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Learning about the realities of migration from the director of the European Forum for Migration Studies

Interview: Friedrich Heckmann in conversation with Kai Vöckler………………………………………………………………p 56 – 65 If we take (international) migration to mean transferring the epicenter of your life across national borders, then purchasing a residential property—compared with being a tenant—represents a further shift of interests and ties to the new country. The acquisition of residential property signifies a massive investment in integration.

Friedrich Heckmann

How migration works in Germany: Migration and arrival, acquiring legal rights, movement and settlement

Essay: The Arrival City and the Integration of Migrants by Jürgen Friedrichs…………………………………………………p 76 – 85 As Saunders points out, Germany currently fails to fulfill one of the conditions for successful integration, namely, the ability to quickly acquire German citizenship. […] We should not make the same mistake when it comes to the integration of new migrants. Evidently, the more lenient the regulations governing work and residence are—the more quickly migrants will integrate into the majority society, and not (just) that of their own minority.

Jürgen Friedrichs

On the housing shortage, state subsidies, land speculation, and how architecture can successfully deal with the emergency

Essay: Regulate. Reduce. Accelerate. by Stefan Rettich……………………………………………………………………………....p 86 - 99 Evidently, when the challenges are similar, so are the answers, leading us to re-evaluate the modernist buildings constructed under similar circumstances directly after the war, which relied on the same construction methods.

Stefan Rettich

 

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How do working conditions facilitate integration?

Essay: Work as an Engine of Integration by Amber Sayah…………………………………………………..………………...p 110 – 115 The fact that reports of conflicts between locals and immigrants are rare suggests that this coexistence works. Still, jobs as an engine of integration are not a sure-fire principle; work alone does not make a heimat. In order for foreigners to feel at home, the “making” in “Making Heimat” is at least as important, the integration commissioner emphasizes.

Amber Sayah

See the Dong Xuan Center, a Vietnamese hub in the Berlin district of Lichtenberg

Photo Essay by Kiên Hoàng Lê……………………………………………………………………………..………………….………….p 118 – 137 Essay: Mr Hien Helps by Marietta Schwarz…………...……………..…………………………………………………………….....p 138 - 153

Where does Ernst May's Praunheim estate from 1929 intersect with Alejandro Aravena's 2002 Quinta Monroy project?

Essay: New Building in Frankfurt am Main and Iquique by Peter Körner and Philipp Sturm……………………….p 160 – 171 If we are going to provide the urgently needed living space for low-earners and refugees, we must start to think and build innovatively and move away from old benchmarks and norms. Regardless of the extent to which current building regulations are relaxed, or amendments made to administrative procedures, it is not just benchmarks and architectural aesthetics that should be under debate.

Peter Körner and Philipp Sturm

What characteristics are shared by the spaces that support the establishment of new businesses in Arrival Cities?

Essay: The Arrival City is Fragmentarily Available by Maren Harnack and Christian Holl………………………….p 176 – 185

 

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Does "ghetto-isation" happen in Germany? What forces are behind social and spatial segregation?

Essay: Immigrant Neighborhoods: an Essential Step towards Integration by Walter Siebel………………………….p 220 – 227 As a rule, accommodation for refugees tends to be located outside the economically flourishing conurbations: in rural areas, in the former industrial regions of the Ruhr and the Saar, and in the new federal states (as former East Germany is known)—in other words, economically weak regions. Yet there, the labor market is less able to absorb workers, and training opportunities are meager. Any mandatory residence would confine immigrants to these regions, i.e. precisely to places where their prospects of integration are particularly bleak. Socially disadvantaged Germans and non-integrated immigrants often find themselves co-existing in under-privileged neighbourhoods, which in their eyes offer daily proof that they are leading a marginal existence on the fringes of urban society. So far, however, we have no grounds whatsoever to talk about ghettos or parallel societies in Germany. To date, this is still a theoretical and empirically unjustified exaggeration of the situation. Exaggerated in the sense that in international comparative research we talk about ethnic neighbourhoods only when an ethnic group accounts for at least 40 percent of the population. This is not true of any German city. The images currently being disseminated by the media of waves of refugees streaming across borders stir up far deeper fears. Borders are like the two faces of Janus: they restrict, they curb liberties, but they also provide protection and security. The lifting of a border sends contradictory signals. On the one hand, it symbolises liberation, but it also arouses deep fears of loss of control and the breakdown of all order and security.

Walter Siebel

The importance of engaging with education: The Rütli Campus in the Berlin district of Neukölln

Essay: The “Bad Rütli” and What Happened Thereafter by Mechthild Küpper……………………….………..….…...p 234 – 241 Building is about showing that we care, showing that we care about students and teachers.

Cordula Heckmann, Director of the Rütli School in Berlin Neukölln

 

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The harder the students—and their parents—have it in life, the better the school needs to be.

Mechthild Küpper

What is the real situation in Offenbach am Main, the city where 58% of the population has a migrant background?

Interview: Matthias Schulze-Böing in conversation with Kai Vöckler…………………..….……………………………......p 234 - 241 Essay: Offenbach Portraits by Denise Peikert…………………………………………………………………………………….…...p 265 - 285 For example, we look at whether people of different nationalities and origins simply coexist or really live together in their neighbourhoods. Do people speak to each other? Do they visit one another or reciprocate invitations to children’s birthday parties? Do they support one another? Moreover, do they join forces in representing their interests? All of this echoes successful integration. We establish frameworks for this, for example, by providing places where people can meet locally, and through social work, joint action, and neighbourhood management. We regard segregation as a challenge. As we see it, a good social mix is the best guarantee that people will develop their full potential, take advantage of the opportunities that come their way, and feel less alienated, and that urban society will achieve an equilibrium. Matthias Schulze-Böing

 

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BIOGRAPHIES

DAM Deutsches Architekturmuseum Peter Cachola Schmal

Born 1960 in Altötting. Father from Munich, mother from the Philippines. Has lived in Multan/Pakistan, Mülheim/Ruhr, Germany Jakarta/Indonesia, Holzminden, and Baden-Baden. Studied architecture at the TU Darmstadt. Worked at Behnisch+Partner in Stuttgart in 1989 and from 1990 to 1993 at Eisenbach+Partner in Zeppelinheim. 1992 to 1997 Assistant Professor at the TU Darmstadt. 1997 to 2000 taught architectural design at the University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt am Main. From 2000 curator, and from 2006 director of DAM. German commissary general for the 7th International Architecture Biennale in Sao Paulo in 2007.

Oliver Elser

Born 1972 in Rüsselsheim. Studied Architecture in Berlin. From 2003 to 2007 architecture critic and journalist in Vienna. Curator at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) since 2007 and author of numerous articles for newspapers, magazines, and books. Associate Professor of Scenography at FH Mainz from 2012 to 2013. Exhibitions include: The Architecture Model—Tool, Fetish, Small Utopia, 2012; The 387 Houses of Peter Fritz at Venice Art Biennale, 2013; Mission: Postmodern. Heinrich Klotz and the Wunderkammer DAM, 2014.

Anna Scheuermann, née Hesse

Born 1977 in Lahn-Giessen. Studied architecture at TU Darmstadt and Tec de Monterrey, Queretaro, Mexico. Trainee at DAM from 2005 to 2006. Since 2006, freelance curator and author. Co-curated the German entry for the 7th International Architecture Biennale in Sao Paulo in 2007. Since 2007, press and public relations work for various architects and engineers. Exhibitions include: schneider+schumacher, 2012; Nove Novos, 2013; Suomi Seven, 2014.

 

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Doug Saunders

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1967. Studied in Toronto. Since 1995, journalist for the Canadian daily newspaper Globe and Mail; From 2003 to 2012,: head of the newspaper’s European office in London. Prizes include five National Newspaper Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) for his reportages and columns, the Donner Prize, and the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. Nominated for the Gelber Prize (for the world’s best book about international affairs) in 2011. Publications: Arrival City (2010); The Myth of the Muslim Tide (2012).

Something Fantastic

Something Fantastic is a design practice founded by three architects, Leonard Streich, Julian Schubert, and Elena Schütz. Since 2013, the partners have taught the Master of Advanced Studies in Urban Design at the chair of Marc Angélil at ETH Zurich with a focus on informal and rapidly developing urban contexts. Research and educational projects include collaborations with Harvard University and Yokohama GSA. Produced work for architecture biennales in São Paulo, Venice and exhibitions in various museums including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Nominated for the Iakov Chernikhov Prize and won numerous awards for their design work. Forthcoming publications in 2016: Housing Cairo— The Informal Response (with Marc Angélil and Charlotte Malterre-Barthes) and The Index for Those Who Want to Reinvent Construction.

 

 

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SPONSORS AND PARTNERS

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schneider+schumacher Stefan Forster Architekten

Wentz & Co.

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