Bavarity – five chapters, five photos
For each chapter of "Bavarity – Coping with Crisis in the Space of Building Culture", I selected one of the altogether 50 photos, representing what the chapter is about. In the following, I describe them and outline their meaning for the book. I explore each of them in detail on my blog, "Architecturewriter". Links to the respective posts are included as well.
The image in chapter one displayed here shows the Wieskirche in Bavaria. The chapter deals with space as text and particularly how we can "read" the built environment. The question is how to approximate this notion in the case of the Free State of Bavaria. The premise for answering this question was to have a closer look at text that illustrates the milieus of Bavarian rural and urban life.
Chapter two deals with "space as crisis" and includes an image from the recovery and reconstruction process in Deggendorf after the 2013 floods. "Space as crisis" in intended to provide architects, urban designers, urban planners and landscape architects with an interdisciplinary understanding of crises and disasters. Such an understanding is aimed at providing a knowledge base for the creation of sustainable and resilient means of adaptation to future crises and disasters.
The photo for chapter three shows the New City Hall (Neues Rathaus) in Nuremberg, designed by Kurt Schneckendorf. The building occupies a historic site bordering the Main Market Square (Hauptmarkt) in Nuremberg. It was designed in the era of postwar modernism, which continues to architecturally contour the cityscape of the present. As the photo shows, it is used for media installations, which underscores its capacity for transformation and, hence, its future-proof character.
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The photo selected for chapter four features the housing association project "wagnisART" in Munich. It was established by the wagnis housing association for its members only a few years ago. Why housing associations, one might ask? I was interested in the way they facilitated participation within the planning and design of the project. As it turns out, this occurred similar to a game, with rules established and implemented by the designers and the users together.
The image presented above reveals how an existing building was envisioned anew, thereby connecting the past, the present and the future. The timber house is located in the city of Landshut in the region of Lower Bavaria and was built in the 15th century. Munich-based architect Markus Stenger carefully revived it in the 21st century by use of sustainable materials. The structure offers an answer to the architectural question on "what if?" by the way the changes it experienced throughout the centuries become partial to its architectural expression.