Presentation at Goethe Institute Shanghai, July 5, 2012
Raumlabor, an experimental architecture studio from Berlin has been selected to participate in the Shanghai Biennale 2012. On this occasion, two of its members, Benjamin Förster-Baldenius und Florian Stirnemann, came toShanghai. In the presentation they mostly showed their previous projects. They started off by pointing out some inspirations and questions which they address in their work: Architecture as a space we live in, but which we rarely can influence; the heritage of modernism and utopist ideals, the contradiction between individualism and mass production. Then they continued by showing a number of their projects where these questions are addressed. The common denominator of all the projects was the active involvement of participants: Giving visitors instructions and material to build and take home a simple chair; building a ‘garden house’ together with residents in a suburb ofSeoul; creating the “Hotel Neustadt” with teenagers in the half-empty city ofHalle-Neustadt.
The interesting underlying narrative that I noticed was the rise and fall of cities. Cities are not stable in time, but they grow and shrink and transform. At each stage of their development, they are inhabited by people. And while basic human needs are universal, the social structure of inhabitants changes given the specific point in the life cycle of a city. For raumlabor, this often means using specific modes of engagement with inhabitants.
TheSeoulsuburbs or Neustadt both gave some hints at whatShanghaihousing areas may look like a few decades later. Will they turn into run-down slums, with well-off residents moving on to a new estate leaving the old estate behind? Or will they be taken care of by the owners and property management companies?
Raumlabor only said little about their forthcomingShanghaiproject. We will have to wait for October to see the complete work. In the meantime, they hinted that it may relate to the work and life of Richard Paulick, the chief architect ofHalle-Neustadt, who has also lived and worked inShanghaifor a number of years (1934 – 1949). Besides his work as an architect and professor, he has been also the head of theShanghaicity planning department.