Erbschaften – on the trail of an institute Book presentation at the Städtisches Museum Braunschweig
Layer by layer, students and staff of the Institute for Architecture-Related Art (IAK) at Technische Universität Braunschweig have uncovered the history of their institute over the past few years and reappraised it using artistic research methods. After the results were shown in an exhibition in May, the book “Erbschaften” is now being published. The documentation will be presented at the Städtisches Museum Braunschweig on September 19, 2022.
The book “Erbschaften” (Inheritances) describes the reappraisal of the history of the institute in a series of seminars from 2019 to 2022. It is not a purely documentary work, instead also being a narrative volume and archive of the history of a special house in Querumer Forst at the same time. Originally, this building was erected for the Institut für baulichen Luftschutz (Institute for Structural Air Protection) under Dr. Theodor Kristen in the late 1930s. Bulletproof concrete was to be developed and tested in a protected location. In the 1960s, the house was converted for use as a studio and teaching facility for architecture students according to plans by Braunschweig architect Zdenko Strižić. This was followed by years of artistic teaching under the direction of professors Jürgen Weber, Azade Köker, Tomás Saraceno and, since 2016, Folke Köbberling.
Book cover “Erbschaften”. Photo credit: IAK/TU Braunschweig
„Gelbe Subkultur“ (Yellow Subculture) is what Marc-André Tiede called his libretto of text and image. Photo credit: IAK/TU Braunschweig
Photogrammetric measurement of the tower excavation done by the Institute of Building History at TU Braunschweig. Photo credit: IAK/TU Braunschweig
In this part of the book, Dr Arne Herbote gives a retrospective of the "Erbschaften III" seminar, in which students collected stories from the Querumer Forest and thus made a specific piece of Braunschweig university history visible. Photo credit: IAK/TU Braunschweig
Excavations in the forest
On around 186 pages, the book includes articles and investigations, drawings, photos of sculptures and excavations in the forest, field reports on “Töpfern im Uhlenbusch” (pottery in the Uhlenbush) in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as findings from geophysical explorations. Students and staff also describe their research in historical files from the National Socialist era.
Over the years, the project “Erbschaften” has developed into a transdisciplinary research project. In addition to the IAK, the Institute of History and Theory of Architecture and the City, the Institute for Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics and the Institute of Building History, among others, were involved.
“Erbschaften” has thus become a cornerstone of a living archive of the IAK and forms a pictorial as well as thematic bridge between historical reappraisal and perspectives of contemporary artistic teaching: “A book dedicated to the IAK, the house, its people and stories,” says Alice Goudsmit from the project team, who edited the documentation together with Professor Folke Köbberling and Gergely László.
Book presentation
Monday, 19 September 2022, 4:00 pm
Städtisches Museum Braunschweig, Steintorwall 14, 38100 Braunschweig.
Admission is free.
The book costs 30 euros and can be purchased at the book presentation or directly from the Institute for Architecture-Related Art:
Phone: 0531 23511 50, email: iak@tu-braunschweig.de.
Prior to the book presentation in Braunschweig, the editors and authors will present the documentation at the book fair “Writer’s Corner” during the exhibition “Transgressive” at the Kühlhaus Berlin, Luckenwalder Straße 3, on 17 September at 5 pm.