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With a response by Judith Blume
The 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis led to the closure of the Tate Britain restaurant in London, which had advertised its 55-foot-long racist mural from the 1920s as “the most amusing room in Europe.” Suddenly it was obvious.
Flooded by Mail introduces strategies of antihegemonic amateur collecting and examines why the killing of a Black man by U.S. police in public implicates us in Europe. A number of objects found online are useful for this task: the trial minting of a coin commemorating the collapse of the Cologne City Archive that never entered circulation, a board game from a 1932 German film, stock photos and generic copperplate engravings from the same family over centuries, Köllnflocken trading cards, postcards from a wall in Morocco, a procession in Cologne and a possessed harbor in Spain, and a 1970s conceptualist installation with postcards of rough seas along the British coast.
English
148 pages
M BOOKS, Weimar
1st Edition, 2025
CCSA TOPICS 04
ISBN 978-3-944425-40-5
Mit einer Respondenz von | with a response by Sina Brückner-Amin.
herausgegeben vom/ edited by Center for Critical Studies in Architecture CCSA
144 Seiten/ pages
10,5 × 15 cm
Gestaltung/ Design: hla.studio, Leipzig
23 farbige und schwarz-weiße Abbildungen/ 23 color and black and white images
Broschur/ Softcover
Englisch/ English
M BOOKS, Weimar
1. Auflage/ 1st Edition, 2023
Glas ist der Stoff, aus dem die Transparenzträume der Architektur und Literatur in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts gemacht sind. Für gewöhnlich wird die Geschichte dieser geteilten Faszination in der Forschung beider Bereiche anhand von einigen kanonischen Werken männlicher Akteure erzählt. Der Essay nimmt diese historiographische Schieflage zum Anlass, um in der Glaskultur der Moderne dezidiert weiblichen Entwürfen nachzuspüren, deren Geschichten sich oft gleichzeitig auf unterschiedlichen Kontinenten abspielen. Während die ehemalige Stummfilmschauspielerin Evelyn Word Leigh in Nyack, New York ein Glashaus für sich erbaut, gestalten in Europa ansässige Künstlerinnen und Autorinnen – wie Claude Cahun, Anaïs Nin und Hilda ‚H.D.‘ Doolittle – imaginäre Glaskuppeln als Baustellen künstlerischer Subjektivitäten aus. Ob Häuser oder Kuppeln, diese schöpferischen Frauen nutzen gläserne Umgebungen, um ihre ‚natürlich‘ zugewiesenen Plätze in westlichen Gesellschaften und die damit verbundenen Grenzen der weiblichen Handlungsmacht zu hinterfragen und neu zu verhandeln.
In the first half of the 20th century, when architecture and literature dreamed of transparency, glass was the material these dreams were made of. However, the historiography of both fields usually focuses on a few canonical works by male authors to tell the story of this shared fascination. Departing from this imbalance, this essay takes the opportunity to explore the glass culture of modernity through the lens of female projects whose stories often take place simultaneously on different continents. While the former silent film actor Evelyn Word Leigh builds a glass house for herself in Nyack, New York, artists and writers based in Europe – like Claude Cahun, Anaïs Nin, and Hilda ‘H.D.’ Doolittle – flesh out imaginary glass domes as construction sites of artistic subjectivities. Whether homes or domes, these creative women used glass environments to question and renegotiate their assigned places in western societies, challenging the boundaries of female agency.
Die Reihe „Architekturen des Ordnens“ (AO) erscheint in englischer Sprache innerhalb der CCSA Topics, der Publikationsreihe des Center for Critical Studies in Architecture, einer Kooperation der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main (Kunstgeschichtliches Institut), der Technischen Universität Darmstadt (Fachbereich Architektur) und des Deutschen Architekturmuseums. Die Bände der AO-Reihe werden als Print- und mit zeitlicher Verzögerung als Open Access-Publikation veröffentlicht.
Architekturen des Ordnens ist ein auf vier Jahre (2020-2023) angelegtes interdisziplinäres Forschungsprojekt der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt und Technischen Universität Darmstadt, mit dem Max-Planck-Institut für Rechtsgeschichte und Rechtstheorie und dem Deutschen Architekturmuseum als außeruniversitären Partnern. Der Schwerpunkt besteht aus 26 Mitgliedern und widmet sich der Untersuchung von Architektur als einer Kulturtechnik, welche sich sowohl ästhetisch, materiell, räumlich, diskursiv als auch epistemologisch manifestiert.
The Bauhaus as we know it did not exist. It is actually a complex of clichés, unilateral interpretations, ideological appropriations, misunderstandings, tendentious receptions, and historical narratives. Not surprisingly, it was celebrated as the most important art school of modernity’s heroic age, while simultaneously documenting quite the opposite: the degeneration of art and architecture in the age of capitalism.
Bauhaus Clouds takes such approaches as a point of departure for action. On the one hand, it addresses the constructs of new narratives that place architectural archives at the center of the Bauhaus debates. It begins with the understanding that archives and architectural collections are neither crystallized nor neutral statements. On the other hand, it investigates the degree to which architectural narratives and measures affecting the idea of the Bauhaus have influenced social constructs of past experiences in the current process of architectural culture, as well as society’s relationship with building culture at large.
Contributions by Almut Grunewald, Anke Blümm, Bruno Maurer, Carsten Ruhl, Daniel Talesnik, Daniela Fabricius, Daniela Ortiz dos Santos, Ita Heinze-Greenberg, Karen Koehler, Kathleen James-Chakraborty, and Rixt Hoekstra.
CCSA Topics is a series of publications by the Center for Critical Studies in Architecture
92 Seiten/ pages
19,5 × 30 cm
Gestaltung/ Design: hla.studio, Leipzig
76 farbige und schwarz-weiße Abbildungen/ 76 color and black and white images
Broschur/ Softcover
Englisch/ English
M BOOKS, Weimar
1. Auflage/ 1st Edition, 2025
ISBN: 978-3-944425-16-0
Jasper Ludewig
herausgegeben vom/ edited by Center for Critical Studies in Architecture CCSA
132 Seiten/ pages
10,5 × 15 cm
Gestaltung/ Design: hla.studio, Leipzig
10 farbige und schwarz-weiße Abbildungen/ 10 color and black and white images
Broschur/ Softcover
Englisch/ English
M BOOKS, Weimar
1. Auflage/ 1st Edition, 2024
ISBN 978-3-944425-34-4
herausgegeben vom/ edited by Center for Critical Studies in Architecture CCSA
132 Seiten/ pages
10,5 × 15 cm
Gestaltung/ Design: hla.studio, Leipzig
12 farbige Abbildungen/ 12 color images
Broschur/ Softcover
Englisch/ English
M BOOKS, Weimar
1. Auflage/ 1st Edition, 2022
ISBN 978-3-944425-21-4
Mit einer Respondenz von Philip Ursprung.
Siegfried Kracauers Texte sind ein viel untersuchter Gegenstand der Soziologie und Medienforschung. Weniger bekannt ist der Umstand, dass Kracauer studierter Architekt war, der während des Ersten Weltkriegs praktizierte und sich 1915 mit einer architekturhistorischen Arbeit promovierte. Nach dem Krieg veröffentlicht Kracauer zahlreiche Kritiken mit besonderem Augenmerk auf zeitgenössischen Entwicklungen der modernen Architektur. Von diesen Texten lässt sich ein Interesse an architektonischen Phänomenen nachzeichnen, die von der Reflexion der eigenen Erfahrungen bis zu einer allgemeinen Betrachtung der Subjektivität des modernen Architekten und universeller gesellschaftlicher Phänomene reicht.
Carsten Ruhls Essay zeigt, dass die Abwesenheit von Ornament in der modernen Architektur als ornamentales Konzept der neuen sozialen Ordnung des Kapitalismus verstanden werden kann.
Siegfried Kracauer’s texts are a widely investigated field of sociology and media studies. It is less well known that Kracauer was a graduate architect, practised during World War I and was awarded his PhD after writing a thesis in 1915 in the field of architectural history. After the war, Kracauer published numerous critiques with a special focus on the architectural developments of the time. They document an interest in architectural phenomena ranging from a reflection on his own experiences to a general perspective on the subjectivity of the modern architect, as well as more universal social phenomena.
In essence, this essay claims that the lack of ornamentation in modern architecture can be grasped as an ornamental concept of the new social order of capitalism.
Von Matthias Brunner, Chris Dähne und Carsten Ruhl.
Die Autor*innen machen in Mehr als ein Haus! anhand bislang unbekannter Archivmaterialien die Hintergründe dieses Projekts erstmals in Tiefe zugänglich. Dabei entspannt sich in situ eine bisher nicht vollständig erzählte Geschichte von der Weimarer Republik über den Nationalsozialismus bis zur Nachkriegszeit und der BRD, in der das Haus als Zeuge für Breuers Entwurfshaltung, für die Bedeutung des Möbelentwurfs in seiner Architektur und schließlich für seine beginnende Abkehr von der klassischen Moderne auftritt.
100 Seiten, 20 x 27 cm
Max Bächer was an architect, ubiquitous judge of architecture competitions, public intellectual, and, from 1964 to 1994, professor at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, today the TU Darmstadt. The exhibition “Max Bächer: 50 Meter Archiv” gave a glimpse into his estate, which has been housed in Frankfurt’s Deutsches Architekturmuseum since 2012.
The exhibition extended over 50 meters in the form of a newly constructed banister running through the open stairway hall of the architecture department. Divided into seven thematic sections, the exhibition presented various aspects of Bächer’s diverse range of interests and activities. The focus was Bächer’s involvement with architecture competitions. Between 1960 and 2010, he participated in over 400 competitions. Some for which he sat as chairman include the competition for Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, the Fellbach town hall, and the construction of a new building for the German Historical Museum which was never completed because of German reunification. The exhibition used archival material to present these three projects, which illustrate the diverse approaches Bächer took as a chairman. In the case of Potsdamer Platz, he advocated vehemently for a democratic, smoothly run competition process, while in the case of Fellbach town hall, Bächer skillfully played with the rules to influence the composition of the jury, ensuring that a series of internationally renowned architects were invited to participate. One of these, the Swiss architect Ernst Gisel, ultimately won the competition and was able to complete his project despite citizen protests.
Another section of the exhibition was devoted to Max Bächer’s work as a public intellectual. Using archival material shown for the first time, the exhibition documents Bächer’s interest in Nazi architecture. In 1973, he visited the architect and Nazi Minister of Armaments Albert Speer, an encounter of which Bächer kept a meticulous record. Bächer was also exhibited as an architect who designed buildings. A residence from the 1950s and another from the 1980s are presented using photos and plans. In between came the Kleiner Schlossplatz in Stuttgart, realized in 1968. Its construction was disputed from the outset, and Bächer observed the process with a comprehensive collection of newspaper clippings.
Max Bächer was born on April 7, 1925 in Stuttgart. His childhood under the Nazi regime and his military service in Italy exerted a major influence on him, and he would later write a number of essays about these experiences. Because of a wound he suffered in 1944 that left him with a stiff arm, he could not realize his plan to study music. From 1946 to 1951, he studied architecture at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart. He later wrote that he was deeply influenced by his decision to minor in art history and literary history. In 1949, he received a stipend to study at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA. In 1964, Bächer was named Chair of Interior Design (Entwerfen und Raumgestaltung) at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, a title he held until being made professor emeritus in 1994. He ran his own architectural office, first in Stuttgart and later in Darmstadt, and was one of Germany’s busiest judges of architecture competitions. He was an honorary member of the BDA and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Max Bächer died on December 11, 2011 in Darmstadt.
128 pages, German / Summary in English
21 x 28 cm
Graphic design: Matter of (MO-P-029), Stuttgart, Cover: Happy Little Accidents
In 1973, Max Bächer, architect, university professor, juror and critic, met Albert Speer, architect, former Nazi Armaments Minister and convicted war criminal. Frederike Lausch has taken the previously unpublished record of that meeting as the starting point to analyse Max Bächer’s intensive study of the relationship between architecture and Fascism. From 1971 onwards, Bächer presented several lectures on the architecture of the National Socialist period, in which he also warned of the dangers of contemporary Fascist tendencies. In 1978, the dialogue with Albert Speer ended with a strongly worded condemnation by Bächer, after Speer had published his designs in an illustrated book completely lacking in self-criticism. When Speer’s book was again debated in the mid-1980s, Bächer called for an ideology-free culture of discourse.
276 Seiten, deutsch / englisch
16 x 23 cm
Foreword by Oliver Elser and Philip Kurz
Graphic design: Matter of (MO-P-072), Stuttgart
M BOOKS publisher
