Collaboration and Architecture
Haben Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Egon Eiermann oder andere Vertreter der Moderne ihre Architekturen eigentlich alleine geplant und errichtet? Vermutlich nicht.
Aber wer sind die vielen Anderen, die Entwurf und Ausführung von Architektur begleiten?
Was wissen wir über die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter in den Architekturbüros der Moderne?
Welchen Einfluss hatten die Fachleute in den ausführenden Firmen?
Und: Welche Rolle spielten die Partnerinnen und Partner?
Auf solche Fragen fehlen uns häufig zufriedenstellende Antworten.
Der Architekt David Chipperfield sagt: Architecture does not just happen. Sein Name steht für eines der interessantesten Architekturbüros der Gegenwart. Er beschreibt Architektur als ein Zusammenspiel von Anforderungen, Erwartungen, Vorschriften und hoffentlich auch Visionen.
Deshalb erfordert Architektur Kollaboration. Und ihr Erfolg hängt maßgeblich davon ab, wie gut diese Kollaboration funktioniert.
Im Podcast spreche ich mit Fachleuten über Bauten der Moderne und über das Netzwerk der Menschen, die das Planen und Bauen begleitet und beeinflusst haben. Das klappt heute nicht immer gleich gut, weil Quellen fehlen oder die Frage nie gestellt wurde. Aber in den letzten Jahren sind spannende neue Erkenntnisse gewonnen worden. Die möchte ich vorstellen.
Mein Name ist Christiane Lange. Ich bin Kunsthistorikerin und Mitbegründerin des gemeinnützigen Vereins Projekt MIK. www.projektmik.com
Ein Podcast von Projekt MIK, produziert vom Studio K22, Krefeld, Germany
English Version:
Did Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Egon Eiermann, and other representatives of modernism actually plan and build their buildings on their own? Probably not.
But who are the many others who accompany the design and execution of architecture?
What do we know about the employees in modernist architecture firms?
What influence did the experts in the executing companies have?
And what role did partners play?
We often lack satisfactory answers to such questions.
Architect David Chipperfield says: Architecture does not just happen. His name stands for one of the most interesting architectural firms of our time. He describes architecture as an interplay of requirements, expectations, regulations, and hopefully also visions.
That is why architecture requires collaboration. And its success depends largely on how well this collaboration works.
In the podcast, I talk to experts about modernist buildings and the network of people who accompanied and influenced their planning and construction. This does not always work equally well today because sources are missing or the question was never asked. But in recent years, exciting new insights have been gained. I would like to present them here.
My name is Christiane Lange. I am an art historian and co-founder of the non-profit association Projekt MIK. www.projektmik.com
A podcast by Projekt MIK, produced by Studio K22, Krefeld, Germany.
Collaboration and Architecture
F5 The Barcelona Pavillon
My guest today is Dr. Laura Martínez de Guereñu. She is an architect and an associate professor of the history of architecture at the IE University in Madrid, and in 2018 she won the first Lilly Reich Grant, awarded by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe in Barcelona.
Her latest publication, which presents new findings on Lilly Reich's role in the design of the Barcelona Pavilion, will be released in September 2025. “Lilly Reich in Barcelona: The Materialisation of a Neglected Authorship".
The Barcelona Pavilion was built in 1929 to represent the German Reich at the International Exposition in Barcelona. Although it was originally intended to be temporary (May–October 1929), a replica has been open to the public at its original location since the 1980s. The architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is widely regarded as the pavilion's creator. The pavilion holds iconic status in architectural history.
However, Mies only received the commission after spending several months working on the planning of the large industrial exhibition for the World's Fair with his partner, Lilly Reich. Designing 25 industrial sections with 268 exhibitors across 16,000 square metres (170,000 square feet) was challenging. Mies made Lilly Reich's collaboration a condition of accepting the commission.
Through meticulous study of the plans and examination of all available sources, Martínez de Guereñu's latest publication reveals that Mies and Reich developed the formal vocabulary used in the pavilion while planning the industrial exhibition. The pavilion is not an isolated design, but a coherent part of the overall presentation. So, how much credit is due to Lilly Reich? I discuss this with Laura Martínez de Guereñu.
The Conversation was recorded in Krefeld at Studio K22
