"Buildings and Speculations" von Ballmoos Krucker Architekten, Zürich

Location: Architecture Forum Aedes am Pfefferberg, Christinenstr. 18-19, 10119 Berlin
Exhibition dates: 23 January– 5 March 2009
Opening: Friday, 23 January 2009, 8 p.m.
Opening hours: Tue-Fri 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Sat-Sun 1 p.m.-5 p.m.

The exhibition “Buildings and Speculations” by Swiss architects von Ballmoos Krucker is part of the event series “Baukunst im Dialog” / Architecture in Dialogue,” under the auspices of the Swiss Embassy in Berlin. The series – which deals with the sustainable design of the habitable environment – was conceived in collaboration with the ETH Zürich, the ETH Lausanne, the USI Mendrisio, the BSA, the SIA, and the Swiss Fachhochschulen.

Over the past 10 years, Zürich architects Thomas von Ballmoos and Bruno Krucker have earned substantial reputations. Their projects are characterized by the search for a realistic attitude, one whose traits are complexity, but also directness, appropriateness, and fitness for life. In their practical activities, wide-ranging theoretical concerns converge with a variety of individual foci. This orientation is also transmitted through their teaching activities at the ETH Zürich and the EPF Lausanne. Outstanding projects are the Stöckenacker Residential Estate in Zürich (2001-2002), the main headquarters of the municipal electricity works in Buchs (2002–2004), a private house in Zürich-Wollishofen (2003–2005), the residential buildings in Glattpark (2002-2007), as well as a primary school in Obermeilen (2005-2007).

Alongside realized buildings the exhibition will show three new residential projects for Zürich. Thematically, these are concerned with large forms and with organic approaches to building. The incorporation of these current projects, both scheduled for completion in the coming two years, manifest changes, but also constants in the team’s architectonic themes: the urbanistic effectiveness of “large forms,” plasticity – external space, the potential of organic design strategies, but also older themes: construction, tectonics, materiality, prefabrication. Realized buildings will be represented in the exhibition by largeformat photographs and execution plans. Spatial researches in the area of residential building (referred to by Martin Steinmann as so-called “inner form”) can be experienced vividly at Aedes am Pfefferberg through a 1:1 scale spatial installation. The exhibition will thereby become an experimental field in the architectonic sense. Erected on a level that is constructed of scaffolding material will be an accessible “inner form.” This installation investigates a fictive, organic space and offers views of the exhibition via a variety of openings.

The specific properties of the gallery space will be exploited by the exhibition design. Presented on the upper areas of the walls will be project plans and large photographs of buildings. Displayed below them at eye–level will be a number of execution plans. Also displayed into the space will be large models, some of them set between the scaffolding poles below the installation. Inside the spatial installation, biographical elements will create a “personal environment” with a variety of display objects. Also on view will be unrealized, speculative, design concepts in the form of sketches, models, and reference objects. This small-scale grouping is in keeping with the intimacy of the installation as an inner form, and emphasizes the experimental character of this part of the exhibition. “Distant views” seen through these openings will generate visual links to the buildings and projects via unusually close to or distorted perspectives. This experimental spatial configuration will be documented in an Aedes catalog scheduled for release during the exhibition.

Project participants: Philippe Carrard, Director of gta Ausstellungen, Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich; Daniel Zulauf, Counselor of Embassy, Swiss Embassy in Germany, Berlin; Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Director of the Aedes Architecture Forum,
Berlin; concept: Thomas von Ballmoos, Bruno Krucker, architects, Zürich Speaking at the opening will be: Kristin Feireiss, Aedes Berlin, Dr. Christian Blickenstorfer, Ambassador at the Swiss Embassy in Germany, Philippe Carrard, Director of gta Ausstellungen, Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich.