How can history be captured in space and structure and carried on, respectively?

The architects Wandel Hoefer Lorch & Hirsch have been dealing intensively with this question like no one else before in the field of architecture. Already during their years of study they won the competition for the redevelopment of the Börneplatz in Frankfurt as a memorial place. It was followed by the memorial “Track 17” in Berlin-Grunewald, the construction of the synagogue in Dresden, the Jewish Centre at Jakobsplatz in Munich, the Documentation Centre Hinzert and other buildings, where in each case a specific history is architecturally designed in a completely new way, appropriate to the topic in question. The exhibition at the Architekturmuseum der TU München for the first time shows a representative cross section of the architects’ projects, who have won a distinctive, memorable and unrivalled profile within architecture during the past fifteen years.

The programmatic title has been chosen by the architects themselves: ”Time” is referring to their continuous discourse with historical, political and social subjects. For them architecture is an examination of problems and an answer to tasks of everyone’s concern. In combination with the concrete time “material” indicates that place, context and history are integrated into the materiality of a building. This leads to a new form of an architectural practice, which is about expressing specific regards and layers of meanings with the chosen material. Thus, “Material Time” indicates to bring history into architecture via designed, structural substance rather than via narration.

In this way the material of architecture becomes both - “craft and politics” for WHL & H.

For the first time, the architects’ specific working methods are explained in a comprehensive exhibition by means of twelve projects with models, drawings, materials and visualizations, showing buildings and projects that deal with remembrance and history as well as projects in Krakow and Tbilisi.
 
Accompanying catalogue in German/English by publisher Walther König.