Architecture Matters
International Event on Architecture, Society and the Future
Fri February 19
14 – 23:00
Reaktorhalle, Munich
Program
Welcome Dr. Andrea Niedzela-Schmutte, Nadin Heinich
Lectures, Performances, Table Talks Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Bompas & Parr, Peter Haimerl, Stefan Höglmaier, Matthias Lilienthal, Wowhaus, Ole Scheeren
Relax Mjunik Disco
Architecture Matters builds on the difference that good architecture can make. Architecture is not reduced to beautiful forms or as a cost driver, but as a cultural force that captures and shapes social life in all its diversity. As a catalyst for renewal.
Architecture Matters is aimed at architects, representatives of the real estate industry and politics, manufacturers and the interested public. Selected architects from all over the world are invited to present their projects and visions and enter into a dialog with the Munich scene. With lectures, performances, discussion rounds and communicative breaks.
The invited speakers come from Brussels, London, Moscow and Germany and are presented in more detail in the following text.
Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen
Half modern, half something else – Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen is one of the most interesting young architecture firms. Unconventional, uncompromising, reduced to the essentials. Kersten Geers (*1975) and David Van Severen (*1978) founded their office in 2002 and first attracted international attention in 2008 as curators of the Belgian pavilion at the Architecture Biennale in Venice with “After the Party” and confetti on the floor. In 2010, they were awarded the Silver Lion at the same event. They have taught at the Berlage Institute, Columbia University and Yale, among others, and are the curators of this year’s edition of the Biennale Interieur in Kortrijk, Belgium.
Bompas & Parr
Sam Bompas and Harry Parr are experts in culinary staging, architectural installations and tantalizing our taste buds. They became famous thanks to their extraordinary skills in making jelly, which they used to recreate a variety of buildings, from Forster’s Millennium Bridge to airports. They cook with lava or lightning, create walk-in cloud cocktails, work with companies such as Selfridges, Louis Vuitton or Mercedes-Benz and stage spaces in institutions such as the Serpentine Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Salone del Mobile or the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Wowhaus
Wowhaus has never been interested in buildings as eccentric objects. From the very beginning, their focus was on cultural buildings and public space – a topic that was long neglected in Moscow. Dmitry Likin (*1966) and Oleg Shapiro (*1962), both trained architects, founded their office in 2007. In the wild 1990s, they had no desire to design swanky palaces for the nouveau riche. Likin became chief designer of the television station Channel One, Shapiro sold helicopters. Their construction period began with the upheaval following the resignation of Moscow’s long-serving mayor Luzhkov. Likin and Shapiro became popular with their design for the Strelka Institute and the redesign of Gorky Park. Today they are among the most important architectural firms in Russia.
Ole Scheeren
Radical Chinese: Ole Scheeren started designing at the age of 14, at 21 he built his first house and toured China, at 31 he became a partner at OMA, responsible for the Asian business and planned CCTV, the second largest office building in the world. In 2010, the now 44-year-old founded his own architecture firm with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and Bangkok. A branch office in Berlin was added in the fall of 2015. Chinese speed meets German coziness? Not at all! He is currently planning his first high-rise building outside Asia in Vancouver.
Baumeister is a media partner of this event. Our editorial team will be on site and report on the event afterwards.