20.01.2025

Refugees to the Gärtnerplatz!

Building design

It is an ambiguous housing war that is currently taking place in major German cities. Time and again, social alliances are forming to oppose the demolition of supposedly or actually dilapidated buildings for the purpose of real estate development. The protest is justified rationally: the building fabric is not that bad. Demolition would waste taxpayers’ money. These arguments may be valid in the specific case […]

It is an ambiguous housing war that is currently taking place in major German cities. Time and again, social alliances are forming to oppose the demolition of supposedly or actually dilapidated buildings for the purpose of real estate development. The protest is justified rationally: the building fabric is not that bad. Demolition would waste taxpayers’ money. These arguments can possibly be invalidated in specific cases. But that doesn’t make the fight obsolete. Because in reality, it’s about something else. Namely, whether existing buildings that have not yet been renovated for luxury could not be used to create a greater social mix. This in turn raises the question of what degree of heterogeneity we are willing to accept for ourselves and our inner cities and what degree of – even painful – diversity we want to create.

Strollers were given an impression of this struggle yesterday in Munich’s Gärtnerplatz district. A rally organized by the “Bellevue de Monaco” alliance took place there. With short readings and music, an interestingly heterogeneous crowd protested against the demolition and the presumed selling off of the valuable property by the city of Munich. Their idea: the property could be used for refugee housing. The activists included social workers, architects and prominent journalists such as Axel Hacke (guest in the next Baumeister architecture quartet). There was also some nice music.

There was a lot of talk about what they didn’t want. For example, the gentrified standardization of our cities. And these inner city zones of tasteful consumer terror are really dull. Inevitably, there was also a lot of stereotyping. The fact that today you only need to drop the term “latte macchiato” to reap joyful cackling doesn’t make the no-brainer of the soulless high earner any more interesting. Much smarter is the positive vision that was actually at issue. The demand for a district – and therefore a society – that is much more open to immigrants and gives them a presence in the city. This is a real issue for the future. And not just because we urgently need hours of multicultural dance festivals on Gärtnerplatz, as one speaker wished. No, it is simply about the resilience of European societies. We know that our population is ageing. To counteract this, we need more immigration. A social system must also be able to cope with this culturally. And living together with refugees can be the perfect training for this, especially in upscale neighborhoods.

In Augsburg, the “Grandhotel Cosmopolis” has been receiving a lot of support from a progressive public for months. And rightly so. This unconventional hospitality initiative, which brings together refugees, hotel guests and creative people, shows how spatial heterogeneity can be productive. A project like this would be good for Gärtnerplatz and other affluent German mono-zones. It would create a path of tolerance and understanding. Gentrification drivers would be shown how poorer classes live. And at the same time, the critics of commerce would be taken out of their comfort zone – through confrontation with the devilish macchiato drinkers.

12.11.2024

Design

Sculpture of the month: Family stele

Building design

September 20, 2015 was World Children’s Day. Under the motto “Children welcome!”, many initiatives across Germany drew attention to the rights of children. Especially in view of the refugee crisis, it is important that these rights are upheld! Children are usually best off in their families. It is a safe haven, a place of security – it is identity and home. With our Sculpture of the Month October 2015, we want to draw attention to the family and its irreplaceable value.

September 20, 2015 was World Children’s Day. Under the motto “Children welcome!”, many initiatives across Germany drew attention to the rights of children. Especially in view of the refugee crisis, it is important that these rights are upheld! Children are usually best off in their families. It is a safe haven, a place of security – it is identity and home. With our Sculpture of the Month for October 2015, we want to draw attention to the family and its irreplaceable value.

Master stonemason and stone sculptor Kathrin Post-Isenberg from Siegburg created a family stele made of various granites for a family of four from Bonn. As in every family, her clients have many things in common, a structure of togetherness – at the same time, the individual parts of the family, each person is different or unique. Post-Isenberg wanted to pick up on this in her sculpture – similar to the design of individual gravestones, in which she also highlights the family/personal history in detail. It was actually supposed to be a floral sculpture. The family had seen one of these at an exhibition by the master stonemason. However, Kathrin Post-Isenberg decided on a different design due to her living situation and her first impression of the personalities: “The architecture and design of the self-built house consists of many square and rectangular shapes. Everything is clearly arranged and conveys a sense of uniformity. The parents also spoke very clearly about themselves, there were few extravagant formulations. They gave me structure.”

A clear and simple formal language now also characterizes her work. Four stone cubes rest on a rectangular base. All of them are connected to each other with a two-centimeter spacer. The choice of material is interesting: all the cubes are made of granite – the highlight: the artist used different types of granite. When dry, you would think that the sculpture was made from a single stone. When wet, it reveals its full beauty and you can see the differences. Four cubes represent four individuals. From Orion to Verde Candeias, each family member chose their own material. Post-Isenberg also left the arrangement of the cubes up to the family. Which cube stands for whom, however, remains a secret here. The base is formed by a dark impala, which is intended to convey strength and stability. All of the 160-centimeter-tall work’s STEINs were carved.

Sometimes others ask why the stele is uniformly gray. At first they don’t understand. But when the watering can is brought out, many can understand why this material was chosen. This is also human and reminds us that you first have to get to know people and families better in order to understand them. It is only when you get to the bottom of things that you can see their complexity. Kathrin Post-Isenberg’s family stele makes it clear what family can mean, but also what stonemasonry is all about! The end of our story also shows how important it is to pay attention to the needs of customers and provide advice: Interestingly, the father of the family later attended a sculpting course with the artist – he did not work on various head formations like many others, but on an art object made of angled cubes.

Find out more about the artist here.

05.12.2024

Nuremberg’s depot treasures restaged

Building design

Museum of the City of New York) can be considered one of the very first selfies. Photo: Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg

The exhibition “Light and Canvas – Photography and Painting in the 19th Century” at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg currently shows how photography developed into an independent branch of art. The show, which is well worth seeing, was equipped with works from the museum’s own depot. The main task was to find a frame typical of the period for many of the pictures and to […]

The exhibition “Light and Canvas – Photography and Painting in the 19th Century” at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg currently shows how photography developed into an independent branch of art. The show, which is well worth seeing, was equipped with works from the museum’s own depot. The main task was to find a frame typical of the period for many of the pictures and to restore the existing ones, as conservator Martin Tischler reports. (more…)