Positions

The Wednesday evening lectures in the winter semester 2022/23

2023/10/24

This time the guests are Volker Staab (Staab Architekten), Alexander Römer (ConstructLab), Peter Kulka (Peter Kulka Architektur), Daniel Barber (University of Technology Sydney), Carles Oliver Barceló (IBAVI) and Francisco Cifuentes Utrero (Aulets Arquitectes) as well as the art historian Horst Bredekamp (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

This year's guests are Volker Staab (Staab Architekten, Berlin), Alexander Römer (ConstructLab, Berlin), Peter Kulka (Peter Kulka Architektur, Dresden), Daniel Barber (University of Technology Sydney), Carles Oliver Barceló (IBAVI, Mallorca) and Francisco Cifuentes Utrero (Aulets Arquitectes, Mallorca) as well as art historian Horst Bredekamp (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

The Pecha Kucha lectures will kick off the lecture series on 2 November 2022 as part of the 25th edition of our annual student-curated exhibition “Sichten”.

About the event

The Department of Architecture has been organising the Wednesday evening lectures since the 1970/71 winter semester. The series was initiated by Max Bächer, Professor of Design and Interior Design from 1964 to 1993, who, thanks to his good contacts, succeeded in attracting internationally renowned architects such as Louis Kahn, Jörn Utzon, Paul Rudolph and Zaha Hadid to give lectures at the department. As a result, the series, which was unique in Germany in its format at the time, gained importance beyond Darmstadt from the mid-1970s onwards. Since then, the Wednesday evening lectures have been the most-attended public lecture series at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and thus make an important contribution to knowledge transfer.

Since 2008, the series has been conceived and organised for the department by Prof. Wolfgang Lorch (Department of Design and Building Design). As in its early days, the series under his direction follows the claim to present current positions that go beyond the narrower specialist context of architecture and reflect the generalist orientation of the department.

Participation and training:

The events are open to the public and free of charge. They take place in person and are also streamed via Zoom.

Participation is recognised as further training by the Chamber of Architects and Town Planners of Hesse.

Information on participation on site and online as well as on the recognition of continuing education points can be found at: https://www.architektur.tu-darmstadt.de/mittwochabend

02 November 2022: Pecha Kucha Lectures

As part of Sichten 25 – Annual Exhibition of the Department.

Pecha Kucha is Japanese and means “confused chatter”. And there's a reason for that: in this entertaining lecture format, each speaker is allowed to show 20 images, each of which can be seen for 20 seconds and then change automatically. So there is no chance of boredom.

09 November 2022: Volker Staab

Staab Architects, Berlin

“Form follows…?”

Volker Staab founded the office Staab Architekten in Berlin in 1991. The focus of their work is on public buildings for culture, education and research, often located in sensitive, listed urban and landscape spaces. After guest professorships at the TU Berlin, the FH Münster and the Art Academy in Stuttgart, he took on a chair for design at the TU Braunschweig in 2012.

16 November 2022: Alexander Römer

NOTE: Unfortunately, the lecture cannot take place on 16.11.2022 as planned. It will be held at a later date.

ConstructLab, Berlin

“A convivial ground”

“ConstructLab is the description of a collaborative building practice that works on both short-lived and permanent projects. Unlike the conventional architectural process where the architect designs and the client builds, constructLab brings together the design and construction of the project. The designer continues to build and design on the site.”(Source)

Alexander Römer is an architect and carpenter, currently living in Berlin. He initiated Constructlab as a platform for artistic action research, constructive experimentation and interdisciplinary design. Constructlab's projects are both temporary and permanent architectures, combining design and fabrication with participatory processes.

11 January 2023: Carles Oliver Barcelo and Francisco Cifuentes Utrero

IBAVI, Mallorca
Aulets Arquitectes, Mallorca
„Stone, earth and wood“

Carles Oliver studied architecture at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB). In 2009 he was hired at the Balearic Social Housing Institute (IBAVI), where he has been the director of the Life Reusing Posidonia project, funded by the European programme LIFE+ for Nature Conservation & Climate Change Adaptation Projects. Currently, he is the Head of Technical Department. …

30 November 2022: Peter Kulka

Peter Kulka Architektur, Dresden

“Borderline Cases and Transformations between Tradition and Modernity”.

Peter Kulka completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer and then trained as an engineer specialising in architecture at the building trade schools in Görlitz and Gotha. He then studied architecture at the HBK in Berlin-Weißensee from 1959 to 1964. After working with Hermann Henselmann and Hans Scharoun in Berlin, he founded his office in Cologne in 1979 and in Dresden in 1991. From 1986 to 1992 he held a professorship for constructive design at the RWTH Aachen. His buildings include the Campus University in Bielefeld, the redesign and extension of the Königsmünster Abbey and, currently, the renovation and extension of the Saxon Parliament.

07 December 2022: Daniel Barber

University of Technology Sydney
„Thermal Practices“

Daniel A. Barber is Professor of Architecture and Environment in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a Research Affiliate at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. His research and teaching follow two trajectories: an archival exploration of environmental histories of architecture, and conceptual frameworks to cultivate designed pathways to a post-hydrocarbon future.