German Pavilion
13th International Architecture Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia
29th August – 25th November 2012

The population of Germany is dwindling and aging. A large-scale process of demographic change is taking place. Working on the existing inventory has long become a priority, focusing on shrinkage, downsizing, regeneration, conversion and refurbishment of existing buildings and on closing the gaps in the urban fabric.

We need to start recognizing existing stock, including the little-appreciated buildings and housing estates of postwar modernism, as an important energy, cultural, social and architectural resource in shaping our future, and adopt a fundamentally positive attitude towards the architecture that already exists.

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle stands for a successful shift in value from waste to reusable material. The three R’s form a waste hierarchy in which avoidance comes first followed by direct reuse and, in third place, recycling which changes the properties of the material. The same logic may be applied in setting up a new value system to address existing buildings: the fewer changes that are made and the less energy used, the better the process.

Valuing what exists is the best starting point for a completely open-minded approach: appreciating that the dilapidated, the strange and the ordinary are architectural resources worth taking seriously can open up potential new directions in architecture. Reduce/Reuse/Recycle shows projects and perspectives by architects who take a positive, empowering view of existing structures as an inspiration and motivation for further development.

In the exhibition the following offices / architects are represented: AFF Architekten, Berlin / AMUNT Architekten Martenson und Nagel Theissen, Aachen, Stuttgart / Atelier Kempe Thill Architects and Planners, Rotterdam / Brandlhuber+ ERA, Emde, Schneider, Berlin / Diener & Diener Architekten, Basel, Berlin / Urs Füssler, Berlin/Jörg Leeser, Cologne / Heinle, Wischer und Partner, Stuttgart / Hild und K Architekten, Munich / knerer und lang Architekten, Dresden / LIN Architects Urbanists, Berlin / Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten, Frankfurt am Main / RobertneunTM, Berlin / Schulz & Schulz, Leipzig / Staab Architekten, Berlin

The contribution is supported by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS).

Dates

4th October 2016
www.reduce-reuse-recycle.info is online!

5th December 2014 / 6.30 p.m.
Vernissage Exhibithion Reduce / Reuse / Recycle, Ostwall 7, Dortmund
at Ehemaliges Museum am Ostwall, Ostwall 7, 44135 Dortmund
Exhibition from 6th December 2014 until 1st February 2015,
open Do 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. , Fr - Sun 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

17th September 2013 / 7 p.m.
Vernissage
Exhibition Reduce / Reuse / Recycle
at Amerika Haus, Karolinenplatz 3, 80333 Munich
Exhibition from 18th September until 18th Oktober 2013, open Mon - Fr 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. , Wed 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.

17th and 18th September 2013 / 10.30 a.m - 6 p.m.
Symposium Reduce / Reuse / Recycle
Vorhoelzer Forum, Technische Universität München, Arcisstraße 21, 80333 Munich

1st November 2012
Vernissage
Exhibition at Gallery AEA, Berlin

29th August 2012 / 11 a.m.
Opening
13th International Architecture Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia 2012

29th August 2012 / 2 p.m.
ARCH+ features 14 with Muck Petzet, Konstantin
Grcic, Erica Overmeer and Miroslav Šik,
official representative of Switzerland at the 2012 Architecture Biennale
Giardini di Castello, Venice
2.00 p.m. start at the Swiss Pavilion, Giardini, Venice
2.45 p.m. continue at the German Pavilion
3.30 p.m. reception on the terrace of the German Pavilion

28th June 2012 / 7.30 p.m.
Arno Brandlhuber, Muck Petzet, Florian Heilmeyer
Vorhoelzer Forum, TU München, Arcisstraße 21, 80333 München

7th June 2012 / 7 p.m.
Andreas Hild, Muck Petzet, Florian Heilmeyer
Deutsches Architektur Zentrum DAZ, Köpenicker Straße 48/49, 10179 Berlin

Publications

Reduce / Reuse / Recycle
Architecture as Resource
Ed.: Muck Petzet, Florian Heilmeyer
Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, Berlin
ISBN 978-3-7757-3425-7 (English)

Reduce / Reuse / Recycle
Ressource Architektur
ISBN 978-3-7757-3424-0 (German)
publication date: end of August 2012

Reduce / Reuse / Recycle
Paper
Ed.: Muck Petzet, Florian Heilmeyer
available at the Pavilion

Downloads

pdf / Press release
pdf / Curatorial statement
pdf / Projects
pdf / Publications
pdf / Biographies
pdf / Data and facts
pdf / paper
pdf / Exhibition views

Download press images
via agency sbca

Team

Commissioner:
Muck Petzet
Team: Andreas Ferstl, Luise Angelmaier, Judith
Csiki, Saskia Hendy, Alex Pixley

Exhibition Design:
Konstantin Grcic
Team: Olivia Herms

Photography:
Erica Overmeer
Team: Veronika Lindlbauer, Christian Rapp

Visual Design:
Thomas Mayfried, Swantje Grundler

Project management and communications:
Sally Below / sally below cultural affairs
Team: Simone Bogner, Ute Riechers, Viola van
Beek, Friederike Krickel, Maria Mußotter, Julia
Krieger, Hjördis Hoffmann, André Herzig and in
Venice Tomas Ewald

Executive architect:
Dr. Clemens F. Kusch, cfk architetti
Team: Martin Weigert

Translations:
Nadia Baehr, David Koralek, Alisa Anh Kotmair,
Kimberly Bradley, Ishbel Flett, Catherine Shelbert

Publication:
Edited by: Muck Petzet, Florian Heilmeyer
Editorial board: Sally Below, Viola van Beek,
Friederike Krickel / sally below cultural affairs
Project texts: Franziska Eidner with Muck
Petzet and Florian Heilmeyer
Graphic design: Thomas Mayfried, Swantje
Grundler, with Matthias Friederich
Translations: Theresia Enzensberger, Ishbel
Flett, David Koralek, Alisa Anh Kotmair, Catherine
Shelbert
Copyediting: Birte Kreft, Sandra-Jo Huber / Leina
Gonzalez

The architect Muck Petzet is General Commissioner of the German contribution. After studying in Munich and Berlin, he initially worked with Herzog & de Meuron in Basel. He has had his own office in Munich since 1993 and runs it since 2012 in partnership with Andreas Ferstl. His many years of practical and theoretical engagement with conversion strategies forms the foundation for the Biennale concept. He has, for instance, carried out exemplary conversion projects in the shrinking cities of Leinefelde and Hoyerswerda, as well as numerous con-versions/modernizations and renovations in and around Munich. In connection with his teaching position at the University of Liechtenstein, the foundations were laid for a ‘conversion theory,’ which Muck Petzet has developed further in numerous lectures and articles.

The designer Konstantin Grcic is in charge of the exhibition design. In his office Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design, Munich, he has developed internationally awardwinning design products, furniture, and lighting for some of the most renowned firms in the industry since 1991. In recent years, Konstantin Grcic has curated exhibitions such as Design-Real for the Serpentine Gallery, London, and Comfort for the St. Etienne Design Biennial. In 2001 and 2011, he received the Compasso d’Oro, and Design Miami gave him the Designer of the Year Award in 2010.

The photographer and artist Erica Overmeer has photographed the exhibition projects of the German contribution. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and then worked at Herzog & de Meuron in Basel and at Walter Keller/Scalo Verlag in Zurich. In her work she focuses on the complex ways architecture is embedded in its social environment.

The project manager and communications consultant Sally Below, with her Berlin agency sally below cultural affairs, is responsible for project management, editorial management, and communications. Sally Below advised the German contribution to the Architecture Biennial in 2004 and 2008. Her work focuses on urban development, architecture, and their networking of the many different areas of society that make up the city.

Thomas Mayfried and Swantje Grundler were designing the visual identity of the German contribution. Thomas Mayfried is a graphic designer, and, since 1999 has managed cultural projects from his studio in Munich. In 2003, he designed the visual identity for the Haus der Kunst and was responsible for its entire visual design up until 2011. The art historian Swantje Grundler worked at Haus der Kunst up until 2007, and there curated Mayfried’s exhibit “Ephemera: Grafik Design, etc.” together with Chris Dercon in 2010.

Co-editor of the publication for the German contribution is the architecture journalist Florian Heilmeyer. He studied architecture in Berlin and Rotterdam and initially worked as an architect, set designer, construction manager, and exhibition designer. Since 2005, he has worked exclusively in architecture communication with texts, books, exhibits about architecture and urban policy; as editor for BauNetz; as contributing editor for MARK (Amsterdam); and as author for international publications.

Press contact

Project management / communications
sally below cultural affairs
Simone Bogner
Schlesische Straße 29–30
10997 Berlin
Tel. +49 30 695 37 08-0
Fax +49 30 695 37 08-20
biennale2012@sbca.de

Imprint

Muck Petzet 13. Architekturbiennale 2012 UG
Landwehrstraße 37
80336 München

contact via sally below cultural affairs GmbH
Schlesische Straße 29–30
10997 Berlin
Tel. +49 30 695 37 08-0
biennale2012@sbca.de

Media Partner

The German contribution to the
13th International Architecture Exhibition
Venice Biennal 2012
is supported by

and sponsored by