Exhibition on David Adjaye at the Design Museum London until May 5, 2019

The Design Museum London is showing the exhibition “David Adjaye: Making Memory”. In 2016, the museum moved from a converted banana warehouse on the Thames to the former Commonwealth Institute in Kensington, which was three times the size and redesigned by John Pawson. The 1960s building, with its hyperbolic roof combined with a parabola, now houses several galleries and a timber-clad atrium that reveals the roof. The museum is surrounded by new residential buildings designed by OMA.

Sir David Adjaye, the British-Ghanaian architect, became famous with the “Dirty House 2002” and other private residences. His public libraries, which he calls “Idea Stores”, introduced a new library concept in 2004/5. Today, he builds internationally, for example a management school in Moscow and social housing in New York. Adjaye was knighted by the Queen of England in 2017.

Monuments, museums and reading pavilions

An exhibition about contemporary monuments or memorials arouses curiosity. What constitutes a monument, what do we want to remember and how? According to Adjaye, “you can only create a better future if you question the past.”

The exhibition consists of a series of tall, narrow rooms in soft anthracite and light yolk yellow. Models, films and objects vividly illustrate seven selected projects. The projects presented have more or less the function of monuments. Some are rather monumental, such as the planned national cathedral in Ghana. Others are more like monuments, such as the reading pavilion commemorating an uprising in South Korea. References are presented quite literally, such as the crown of an African sculpture or the spiral of fossils.

The African American Museum in Washington

The most important and largest project built is the African American Museum in Washington, USA. The building lives above all from its content. The museum presents the history, culture and society of African-Americans and visitors are to participate in redefining the American concept of civil rights, freedom and equality. It is centrally located on the Mall in Washington, just a stone’s throw from the White House. The stepped building, clad in metal latticework, is inspired by an African sculpture with a three-tiered crown. Adjaye says that the museum has already become a place of pilgrimage. He acknowledges that this building embodies the pinnacle of his work. Adjaye says: “It was the beginning of a new phase in my career and the basis for all new projects.” Some of the unbuilt projects are on display here and others are still in the planning stage.

The Baumeister 05/2018 booklet curated by David Adjaye is available at the entrance to the exhibition.

Haus Unterster in Berchtesgaden proves that rooms in youth hostels don’t necessarily have to be musty.

Lava’s redesigned accommodation in the south-eastern corner of Germany proves that rooms in youth hostels don’t necessarily have to be musty and claustrophobic. A trip to Berchtesgaden: Overnight stay in a youth hostel. During the journey, I keep fighting down horror stories of communal showers and six-bed rooms as small as a closet and fervently hope that the so-called design youth hostel will live up to the promise of its name. My first impression of Haus Untersberg is more than reassuring. I stand in front of the hostel with its protruding windows and yellow-painted wooden strips. Inside, things are pleasant: the entrance area is colorfully striped and you feel welcome. My room may have six beds, but there is nothing reminiscent of the feared prison cell aura. There is plenty of storage space for my travel bag and clothes, as well as an unexpectedly large number of seats in window embrasures and beanbags.

The Stuttgart architectural firm LAVA (see also Baumeister B1O/B11) has ensured that there is no longer any trace of the martial existing building from 1935 in Haus Untersberg. Instead of demolishing the typical local house with its stone base and half-timbering, architects 2O1O to 2O11 converted it. The bedrooms were enlarged and each has its own shower and toilet. The walls were also given a new coat of paint. Fortunately, not the most garish of the color families was chosen and a lot of larch wood was used so that the eye does not panic. There is no panic, but there is irritation when you look into another room: a Vitra chair? This flirtation with the design aspect of the redesign was not really necessary in these practically furnished rooms. Especially when you consider that the rooms are mainly used by families with lively children and adolescents with an egalitarian attitude. What is really charming, however, is the combination of old and new. The original balconies with carvings à la “I was here. Julia 2O11” have been retained, as have the stone floor in the entrance area and the cast-iron railings. This preserves the youth hostel flair and Haus Untersberg does not look like an over-designed foreign body on the site.

The building’s greatest asset could be – in good weather – its view. However, my stay is accompanied by wet and cold weather. Even the most beautiful mountains quickly look dreary. The leisure program on the grounds – high ropes course, archery, canoe tours – is clearly geared towards dry days. A visit to the Berchtesgaden salt mine is worthwhile, but must be done in the knowledge that most of the time will probably be spent in the queue. A mix of old and new with lots of wood is intended to adapt the building to modern needs without losing its cozy flair.

Address

Berchtesgaden Youth Hostel
Struberberg6
83483 Bischofswiesen
www.berchtesgaden.jugendherberge.de