Thomas Dietzsch ist Autor unseres kürzlich erschienenen Architekturführers Halle an der Saale. Sachsen-Anhalts größte Stadt kennt er seit seinem zweiten Lebensjahr. Hier führt er zu Bars, Inseln und einem tätowierten Fisch.

Text: Thomas Dietzsch

Foto: Marktkirche St. Marien, Westansicht mit Blauen Türmen, südliche Altstadt,

© Tomasz Lewandowski, Görlitz 

Geboren bin ich in Mecklenburg, aber in Halle wohne ich seit meinem zweiten Lebensjahr – wenn man vom Architekturstudium in Weimar, Berlin und Paris absieht. Immer wieder bin ich hierher zurückgekehrt, ich finde, die Stadt hat viel Lebensqualität. Das beginnt mit ihrer Größe: nicht zu unübersichtlich, aber auch groß genug für ein vielfältiges kulturelles Leben. Halle bewegt sich etwas unter dem Radar, was durchaus Vorteile hat: Anders als in anderen Teilen Ostdeutschlands fielen hier nach der Wende nicht scharenweise Investoren ein. Es gibt viele qualitätvolle Neubauten und behutsame Restaurierungen – keine andere deutsche Großstadt wurde während des Zweiten Weltkriegs weniger stark zerstört. Meine Familie und ich wohnen im Zentrum, zwischen dem Dom und der Moritzburg (Friedemann-Bach-Platz 5), die Nieto Sobejano von 2005 bis 2008 um einen Museumsflügel erweitert haben; es war der erste Auftrag der Spanier außerhalb ihrer Heimat. Ganz in der Nähe befindet sich die Saale. Vom Mühlgraben, einem Nebenarm des Flusses, starten wir manchmal zu Kanu-Touren.

Gründerzeit. Die baulich interessanteste Geschäftsstraße der Stadt ist die Große Ulrichstraße, die sich vom Marktplatz nach Norden schlängelt. Auf einem mittel­alterlichen Grundriss findet man hier zum Teil prächtige Gründerzeitbauten, nicht zuletzt historische beziehungsweise ehemalige Kaufhäuser mit Lichthöfen. Die Kleine Ulrichstraße, die parallel dazu verläuft, ist ruhiger, dort gibt es kleine Läden und Kneipen. Ich trinke gern einen Gimlet im Zazie (Kleine Ulrichstraße 22), einem Programmkino mit stilvoller Bar, benannt nach dem gleichnamigen Film von Louis Malle. Empfehlen kann ich auch die Sakura Sushi­bar (Große Ulrichstraße 33), die sich in dem historischen Gebäude am nördlichen Ende der beiden Straßen befindet. Vom ersten Obergeschoss blickt man hier hinab auf die Straßenbahnen und das geschäftige Treiben.

Inselreich. Einen Spaziergang entlang der Saale beginnt man am besten auf Höhe des Planetariums und arbeitet sich dann Richtung Norden vor: entlang des Freibads Saline (Mansfelder Straße 50a) über die Ziegelwiese bis zur Burg ­Giebichenstein, Sitz einer traditionsreichen Kunsthochschule. Die Ziegelwiese ist ein besonders populärer Ort – vor allem im Sommer zieht es die ­Hallenser auf diese Binneninsel. Dort befindet sich die mit 80 Metern angeblich zweithöchste Fontäne Europas, errichtet 1968 anlässlich der 10. Arbeiterfestspiele der DDR. Einmal auf der kleinen Peißnitzbrücke die Saale überquert, gelangt man auch schon auf die nächste Insel: Im Gartenlokal Peißnitzhaus (Peißnitzinsel 4) kann man ganzjährig Kultur­veranstaltungen erleben.

Wunderkammer. Einer von Halles berühmtesten Söhnen ist der ehemalige deutsche Außenminister Hans-Dietrich Genscher. Er blieb seiner Heimatstadt auch zu Zeiten der deutschen Teilung verbunden und organisierte vor dem Fall der Mauer finanzielle Unterstützung aus dem Westen für die Franckeschen ­Stiftungen (­Franckeplatz 1/Haus 2–7). Gegründet vor mehr als 300 Jahren als eine Anstalt für Arme und Waisen, handelt es sich dabei heute um einen einzigartigen Ort für kulturelle, wissenschaftliche, pädagogische und soziale Einrichtungen. Unter anderem hat die Bundeskulturstiftung dort ihren Sitz. Ich bin fasziniert von der barocken »Kunst- und Naturalienkammer« im ehemaligen Schlafsaal der Waisenknaben. Tausende Artefakte und Kuriositäten gibt es da zu bestaunen, zum Beispiel versteinerten Käse und einen tätowierten Fisch.

THOMAS DIETZSCH, Jahrgang 1965, ist Co-Autor des neuen Architekturführers Halle an der Saale. Er studierte Architektur in Weimar und Berlin-Weißensee sowie Stadtplanung in Paris-Belleville und ist heute als Architekt BDA mit einem eigenen Büro in seiner Heimatstadt und ihrer Umgebung tätig. Foto: privat

Von der Mittelmeerküste bis an den Euphrat: Am Donnerstag, 17. November, stellen Herausgeber und Autoren die Architekturführer Irak/Syrien und Izmir in Berliner Bücherbogen vor.

Foto: Der Architekturführer Izmir, aufgenommen am Konak-Platz, Verkehrsknotenpunkt und historische Sehenswürdigkeit der türkischen Metropole. © Mehmet Çelik

Ob Izmir an der Ägäisküste, Damaskus oder Aleppo: Zwischen Mittelmeer und Euphrat finden sich einige der ältesten dauerhaft besiedelten Städte – und wesentliche Beiträge zur Weltarchitektur. Die Region Mesopotamien gilt gar als "Wiege der Zivilisation". Zwei kürzlich erschienene Titel stellen das mehrere tausend Jahre alte bauliche Erbe der Levante vor: der Architekturführer Irak/Syrien, herausgegeben von Lore Mühlbauer und Yasser Shretah, sowie der Architekturführer Izmir von Mehmet Çelik, erhältlich auf Deutsch, Englisch und Türkisch. 

Am Donnerstag, 17. November, präsentieren Herausgeber und Autoren die zwei Bücher in der Berliner Buchhandlung Bücherbogen (Stadtbahnbogen 593, 10623 Berlin). Die Veranstaltung beginnt um 19:30 Uhr. Der Eintritt ist frei. Einen Flyer mit allen Informationen finden Sie hier: klick. 

The collaboration between Kyiv-based publisher Osnovy and DOM goes back to 2017. New joint projects are currently underway.

Text: Damien Leaf

Photo: Dana Pavlychko, © Osnovy

The name sounds surprisingly sober for a publishing house whose most successful series is the Awesome travel guides with pop art-style covers: Osnovy is the Ukrainian word for ‘basics’. While the DOM publishers partner publisher from Kyiv shares our passion for architecture and design, its history actually began with very different books.

Founded immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Osnovy was known in the young independent Ukraine for classics such as Plato and Nietzsche – hence the name ‘basics’ – but also for its titles on macroeconomics and other academic disciplines. The change came when Dana Pavlychko took over the company from her mother and stepfather. Born in 1987, Pavlychko studied public policy, economics, and international relations in Brussels and London and originally intended to become a civil servant. Instead, when she returned home, she revolutionised her parents' business step by step. ‘I myself am very interested in photography and design,’ she says. ‘And there was also an economic reason: beautiful books promised to sell better.’

The Awesome series was launched in 2012: it introduces Ukraine and its major cities (including Odessa and Lviv, for example) through short episodes on specific places and buildings, but also on people and food. Published in English, the books quickly became a bestseller among foreign visitors to Ukraine – and among Ukrainians searching for gifts for foreign friends. They sold a total of 60,000 copies. Recent Osnovy publications include two immensely charming photo volumes on Ukrainian railroad ladies and Ukrainian balconies. The transformation from Aristotle to art went so far that the publisher even opened a bookshop/café/bar in the centre of Kyiv.

This year would have been Osnovy's 30th birthday, but celebrations have been called off. The war changed everything from one day to the next: after the Russian attack, many of Osnovy's 20 or so employees had to flee to western Ukraine or abroad. Dana Pavlychko and her husband, a documentary filmmaker, together with their three children – aged one, two, and four years old – found shelter in the Bavarian village where DOM publishers runs its warehouse.

So far, donations have ensured economic survival. Employees stay in touch via Zoom, and Osnovy is now even selling books again via its online shop. Amid all the painful news, they want to use this forced interruption to change the publishing house: ‘I'm a kind of cheerleader for the team at the moment. We are all trying to stay positive.’ One way to make a difference is to tune into the podcast that Osnovy has launched. It's avail­able on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The collaboration between Osnovy and DOM goes back to 2017 when Pavlychko met publisher Philipp ­Meuser of DOM at the Frankfurt Book Fair. This resulted in the joint book Decommunized: Ukrainian Soviet Mosaics. New joint projects are currently underway – on the architectural history of Ukraine, and above all, on its future.

What brings a practicing architect to start publishing books as a second business enterprise? Ūla Ambrasaitė, publisher of Vilnius-based LAPAS talks to Philipp Meuser, architect and head of DOM publishers, Berlin. During their conversation it turns out that they do not only share their passion for beautiful books but also follow the idea allowing young authors to start their career in the book industry. Meuser shares invaluable insights in his publishing activities. The interview was conducted in in late July 2022, five months after Russian President Vladimir Putin had started his military invasion to Ukraine. The war requires both publishers to position themselves more politically.

Illustration: Natascha Meuser, © DOM publishers

Ūla Ambrasaitė: DOM publishers are already counting their 17 years in business and successfully growing in depth as well as in size. Not only your books receive awards but also DOM publishers as an enterprise were awarded twice with the German Publishing Prize as an outstanding publisher in 2020 and 2022. What is even a more important step in a life of an independent publishing house – lately you have decided to share the editorial responsibilities and invited an editor-in-chief to join the team. Since 2019, Björn Rosen has been appointed as the publishing director. Therefore, I would like to ask you to share your insights on the publishing industry today, and if your perspective has changed during the years. But let me ask you about the very beginning – what was your way into publishing? How came DOM publishers into life, and what was the reason that you had started the publishing?

Philipp Meuser: My way into publishing started from the first day of studying architecture in the university. I had entered a fellowship program to also be trained as a journalist during my studies in architecture. When all my student fellows in the university did their internships in all these famous architects offices in Berlin in the early 1990s, I was gaining work experiences at local newspapers and radio stations. I always felt in-between these two worlds of practicing architecture and theorizing on architecture – until today. In 1996, my wife Natascha and I founded Meuser Architekten, and almost ten years later we extended our activities in the publishing world. As an architect, you are trained to manage your projects in a very holistic way. You always need to have all planning steps in your mind. The same applies to publishing: you write about architecture, you think about the graphic design, and how to do the printing process, the production, and the distribution. Allow me to add that content management is my main priority. Moreover, I believe that a book needs to be found and that you do not need to promote it, if the message is clear and contemporary.   For me, the publishing business is more about the contribution to a discussion, let's say adding a small piece of mosaic to a whole picture of architectural history. It's even more important to publishing a book which is listed in a bibliography five or 10 years later, as if you would sell 2,000 or 3,000 copies within the first three months of the publication. Of course, sales and earnings are important for independent enterprise cannot survive without profit.  

Ūla Ambrasaitė: You mentioned the importance of the book being quoted in other books. I think this is one of the fundamental drivers of a publisher: contributing to a global web of ideas and creating the context for authors within the bigger context.

Philipp Meuser: Indeed. Whenever I'm going to brief an author, I always ask him where he would like to see his book in the bookshelf, if it is an architect's monograph, or is it something about urban design, about a style of architecture, about a material, about a construction method. It’s a fundamental question to make the author clear what he is writing about. For me, briefing the author is never reduced to the issue “tell me something about your target group”. It's always about the question: What is the context you are writing in?

Ūla Ambrasaitė: The author plays a crucial role in publishing, and I am noticing authors becoming stronger voices in the industry. How do you see the role of an author at DOM publishers, has it changed since 2005?

Philipp Meuser: I don't know if the role of the author has changed dramatically. I would say the ambition of me as a publisher might have changed. Allow me to simplify: In the beginning it was important for us to publish any kind of book, which was related to architecture, design, or urban planning. Today the selection of an author has become more important to us. Our strategy is to ask whether this author fits into our publishing program. I've never counted, but I would estimate we have published more than 700 titles with more than 1,000 authors since the beginning. And it has always been important for me, that each author contributes to the profile of the publishing house.

 

»As an architect, you are trained to manage your projects in a very holistic way. You always need to have all planning steps in your mind. The same applies to publishing.« – Philipp Meuser 

 

Ūla Ambrasaitė: Would you recall a moment when it has changed from wanting to publish books on architecture in general to aiming to create a network of conversations, that each author would contribute to the profile? 

Philipp Meuser: This was quite early – forced by economic circumstances and not voluntarily. The strategical turn was: mainly focusing on series, saying farewell to the anything-goes mixture. I remember that the first architectural guide we published on Berlin was shortly after the 2008 financial crisis. We were forced to think about our publishing strategy very much. In the beginning years, we licenced nearly all our titles to foreign publishers. We closely worked with publishers in China and Singapore – we released the titles in German, and Chinese publisher in Mandarin, and the Singaporean publisher in English. The copies were printed in one production process using the method of black-film change. We had quite a good cooperation which was suspended immediately during this financial crisis when Asia suffered a lot. We also suffered in the architect's office. I remember that within one week we lost five projects, what we were doing in Russia and Kazakhstan. The clients called us and terminated the contracts overnight. We had to think about how to survive and then we came up with the idea to reduce our whole publishing program and to develop three series: guides for travelling architects, construction and design manuals for practicing planners, and the Basics series for our academic audience. We try to meet the requirements of all architects, scholars, and people who are generally interested in architecture. It's clear for us that the architect is not the only stakeholder in the building and planning process. But the architect remains the only stakeholder in the process who is responsible for design and beauty.

Ūla Ambrasaitė: As much as I know you personally, and as much as I am following DOM publishers’ programme, I notice a strategy to support and to empower the younger generation as well as first-time authors in general. 

Philipp Meuser: Indeed. We have been working many times with so-called first-time authors – youngsters who publish a book first time in their life. In general, it is quite time- and energy-consuming. You always need to start from scratch and to explain each step. During the years we have helped mainly young authors from Eastern Europe to publish their first book ever. We are very proud of supporting young talents. I strongly believe that a young author can also write about a subject of which generations of other authors have been publishing before. Young authors can add new thoughts to a topic what experts have written about. The new view is so important, especially when it comes to the architectural guides. Whenever we have authors with Arab or Asian background, they are often very shy and too respectful, and they tell us: “Oh, we are nor old neither experienced enough to write about our city, to select buildings for an architectural guide.” In this case we try to encourage them to start writing, because all these experts and more experienced authors also have started some day in the past. We feel that we can really persuade young author to write.   

Ūla Ambrasaitė: Which title do you have in mind?

Philipp Meuser: I remember the initial meeting for our Alexandria title, which was edited together with a local architecture school and the Goethe Institute. In 2017, I went to Egypt for a first workshop to introduce the architectural guidebook as a book genre, which is not so common in certain cultural context. I explained what an architectural guide is, what is the purpose of it. 25 out of the 30 students were female. They were very open-minded, but at a certain point, they all told me, they didn’t feel qualified to become authors. The told me: “We feel too young and it should be the older men who should write about architecture.” I told them not to believe in a single history of architecture!  Finally, I am very happy that the guidebook was recently published. And most of the authors who contributed were those young female students. I count this as a success in our publishing activities. It's not the quantity of books, what we sell, or the quantity of titles, what we publish during the year. It’s about inspiration and motivation. Whenever young authors are as proud as to have tears in their eyes – this reminds us why we do books.

 

»It is important to give a voice to different perspectives. And it takes effort to encourage people to start writing and believing how to contribute to the dominant narrative, how much their voice also matters.« – Ūla Ambrasaitė 

 

Ūla Ambrasaitė: It resonates a lot to my personal vision as a publisher that it is important to give a voice to different perspectives. And it takes effort to encourage people to start writing and believing how to contribute to the dominant narrative, how much their voice also matters. However, we come to a very important question to a publisher: How do you define the bestseller at DOM publishers? How do you measure the success of the book besides its contribution to the broader profile of the publishing house?

Philipp Meuser: Let me give you two answers. Of course, from the financial point of view, a bestseller is a book what you sell many copies of within a very short time. And another bestseller is, of course, if you have a second or even your third print run. So I think these are bestsellers on the economic side. However, the successful book could also be a title with a very small print run, but which gets reviews from high-qualified reviewers or from experts within a certain field of research. I think this is something, what is important for me and for DOM publishers in general.  Sometimes young people contact us because they read something what we had published, and they want to contribute to our publishing program. In general, we are very open to support them. Whereas I have to say that we are not as generous as we can allow everyone to publish in our publishing house. Of course, we have some levels of quality control – but also of financial responsibility. We need to calculate how the return of investment is guaranteed. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. And this brings us to the question, how can we give a forecast if a book is successful or not? Frankly speaking: I cannot! The book market is unpredictable. You never know, how fast a book will sell. But I can tell you that you will sell all copies in the end.  

Ūla Ambrasaitė: You say this after 17 years in publishing – that you never know what will sell. What was the most unexpectedly successfull book?

Philipp Meuser: The more nerdy the subject is – the better you can sell it. We have published a book on the north Ukrainian city of Slavutych – most people in Western Europe never have heard about it. It's a city which has been replaced after Chernobyl disaster and it's like a big open-air museum of Soviet panel housing. Very nerdy. We published this book in English, Ukrainian, and Russian language, and it was sold out very soon. It was really a surprise for us. Our motivation to publish was not to sell it as soon as possible and to make a big profit. Our motivation was to allow the author Ievgeniia Gubkina to write a book on this subject, on the city, and to make this city more well known in the academic world.

Ūla Ambrasaitė: I would say it is an intrinsic success of a publisher, when the audience you have built during the years trusts in your choice and is eager to read about a nerdy subject they have not heard about before. However, the economic success is measured by different metrics. For example, the Federation of European Publishers has once published a report saying that one out of 10 published titles is a bestseller, two published titles cover the expenses and seven titles are unprofitable. What percentage of bestsellers in this regard does DOM publishers have per year?

Philipp Meuser: When I just think about those ten per cent bestsellers, I agree in terms of revenue and number of titles. Out of 50 new releases per year, five are bestsellers. Together with our strong backlist, it allows us to publish financially high-risk titles. These are those “nerdy” titles I was mentioning before. Since our books are not focused on one season, we can sell it the same price for five to seven years. The risk in publishing is mainly to understand how soon you can sell your longsellers. This caused the main troubles in the beginning of our publishing business. Today we have approximately 300 titles in the market which guarantees continuous earnings. The biggest risk for publishing business remains the cash flow. You need to calculate how long you are going to have the title on stock, that means for a calculation of a book, it's not only the author's and designer’s fees or printing, distribution, warehousing cost – the secret is to balance future investment, continuous returns, and the “frozen money” in your warehouse. Luckily, we have full control on most of the publishing steps and don’t depend on third parties. But whenever there are some certain issues like a financial crisis, the pandemic, or the war in Ukraine – we are directly hit. Since a couple of years, we had established quite good and successful sales in Russia, but it was completely suspended by the start of Russia’s invasion. The same applied to our sales in Ukraine whereas. It’s dramatic, less in terms of financial disaster but in terms of cultural exchange what is our main motivation to keep running the publishing house. The war forces us to act more actively: We must understand architecture as politics, not only as a beautification of our built environment or as an answer to social and ecological questions. 

 

»Out of 50 new releases per year, five are bestsellers. The more nerdy the subject is – the better you can sell it.« – Philipp Meuser 

 

Ūla Ambrasaitė: Publishing is a tought business where the content analysis is way more important to understand economics than the way around. Although the book market is unpredictable, or maybe because of it, I notice people usually gets excited about the idea to publish books, to start their own publishing house. What would be your economic advice for the ones thinking to start publishing – how many years of investments should they calculate before the break-even? 

Philipp Meuser: You need to calculate 5 to 10 years. Definitely. The first five years you can hardly make any profit unless you carry Harry Potter in your program. The Bible might be another bestselling option. If young people think about establishing a publishing house, I recommend to do it with a partner: One is responsible for the content, and the other one is responsible for the financial success. This might help to have the breakeven sooner than five years.

Ūla Ambrasaitė: That is a very good advice – to have a partner and to calculate at least 5 years of negative results. What do you see as the biggest challenge for yourself today in publishing?

Philipp Meuser: Today’s challenge is to focus the publishing to a more political program. The war in Ukraine had forced us to rethink our direction. We sharpened our focus on Eastern European topics. Currently, half a dozen titles about Ukraine are in progress. They aim to increase knowledge about the country in the rest of Europe. Other titles will be translated into Ukrainian language to support decision makers in Ukraine when it comes to rebuilding the country. We understand this as our political statement against Russia. Putin and his minions dream about destroying the existence of Ukraine as a souverain nation. We as publishers try to fight back with independent reflections on Ukrainian architecture, building culture, and identity. If you would ask me what DOM publishers is going to do in 5 or 10 years, we would try to become stakeholder not only in the discussion on architectural history, but also about politics related to architecture and housing.

Ūla Ambrasaitė: I would like to finish our conversation with your perspectives on the future. What would you think the most disruptive innovations will be, what mental shifts they might cause? Would you think there will be different way how people buy and read books, how authors write or choose a publisher? Have you ever thought of how and if different the publisher’s life will be in 10 years?

Philipp Meuser: I this regard I might be the most conservative publisher. I believe in printing on paper, and I keep believing in. All these utopian thoughts about removing printed books from the market – I can hardly imagine that we as humans will completely digest knowledge from digital sources only. But the kind of books, what we are doing will change. I believe that books become more and more design objects. The more you focus on the quality of books, the better you might succeed in the market. From this, all stakeholders in the industry will benefit: the publisher, the reader, and the author.

Vom "Portugiesischen Haus" über italienische Ruinen bis zur Lübecker Altstadt: Diese sechs Bücher aus unserer Reihe Grundlagen empfehlen wir Ihnen fürs Reisegepäck und für laue Leseabende. 

Abbildung: Raúl Lino wählte die Zypresse zu seinem Zeichen, bezugnehmend auf ein Zitat des persischen Dichters Scheich Saïd: »Besitzt du im Überfluss, sei freigiebig wie der Dattelbaum. Wenn du nichts deinen Besitz nennst, dann sei ein Azad, ein freier Mann wie die Zypresse.«

1. Portugal  

Er gehört zu den interessantesten Persönlichkeiten der portugiesischen Baugeschichte: Raúl Lino da Silva (1879–1974) entwarf vor allem Wohnhäuser, für die er regionale Traditionen mit innovativen Strömungen aus West- und Mitteleuropa verband. Als junger Mann besuchte er die Kunstgewerbeschule in Hannover und blieb Zeit seines Lebens eng mit Deutschland verbunden. In unserem Buch Zwischen regionaler Moderne und portugiesischem Stil wird die Biografie dieses so vielseitig begabten wie umstrittenen Mannes nachgezeichnet. Ausführlich werden Linos wichtigste Schriften und das von ihm propagierte Ideal des »Portugiesischen Hauses« vorgestellt.

2. Spanien  

Die Diktatur des Generals Francisco Franco hinterließ in Spanien auch architektonisch tiefe Spuren. In der Zeit nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg standen die ländlichen Gebiete im Fokus des national-katholischen Regimes. Eine neue Generation von Architekten suchte damals nach einer abstrahierten ländlichen Architektur und einer organischen, mit der Landschaft verschmolzenen Stadtform. Das Buch Rural Utopia and Water Urbanism stellt die Strategie hinter der Gründung von 300 Dörfern ("Pueblos") vor und zeigt, welche Rolle dabei Dämme, Bewässerungskanäle und Elektrizitätswerke spielten.

3. Italien  

Ruinen gehören seit jeher zu europäischen Städten, sei es als Überreste alter Reiche oder als Folge von jüngeren Ereignissen wie Bränden oder der Stilllegung von Industrieanlagen. Wie umgehen mit ihnen? Diese Frage steht im Mittelpunkt des Buches Urban Ruins. Die Denkmalpflegerin Elisa Pilia untersucht darin den Umgang mit urbanen Ruinen am Beispiel des historischen Zentrums von Cagliari. In der Hafenstadt an der Südküste Sardiniens wurden während des Zweiten Weltkriegs viele Gebäude durch Luftangriffe der Alliierten zerstört. Ausgehend von ihrer Analyse zeigt Pilia Strategien zum Schutz und zur Neunutzung von Ruinen überall in Europa.

4. Finnland  

In seiner Heimat gilt er als "Meister des Betons": Pekka Pitkänen (1927–2018) war einer der bedeutendsten finnischen Architekten der Nachkriegszeit. Bekannt ist er vor allem für den Erweiterungsbau des finnischen Parlaments (1978) und die Heilig-Kreuz-Kapelle (1967) in Turku. Für Concrete Modernism hat der Turkuer Autor Mikko Laaksonen umfangreiche Archivrecherchen angestellt, Interviews geführt und sich in Pitkänens unveröffentlichte Memoiren vertieft. Seine Monografie – das erste Buch dieser Art auf Englisch – bietet einen einzigartigen Einblick in das Leben und Schaffen eines ungemein produktiven, aber erstaunlich wenig bekannten Architekten.

5. Deutschland  

Kaum ein Ereignis hat Lübeck in der jüngeren Geschichte so sehr geprägt wie die Luftangriffe im März 1942. Die Erzählung über den Zweiten Weltkrieg konzentriert sich deshalb meist auf die Altstadt, die inzwischen zum UNESCO-Welterbe gehört. Unbeachtet bleiben dabei die für Zwangsarbeiter und, nach Ende des Kriegs, für die Unterbringung der Vertriebenen genutzten Lager und der spätere Siedlungsbau außerhalb des Stadtkerns. 90.000 Vertriebene fanden in der Hansestadt schließlich ein neues Zuhause. Heimat auf Trümmern zeichnet anhand ausgewählter Dokumente sowie zahlreicher historischer und aktueller Bilder die Planungsgeschichte der Stadt nach.

6. Brasilien  

Posthume Ehre: Im vergangenen Jahr wurde Brasiliens bekannteste Architektin Lina Bo Bardi (1914–1992) für ihr Lebenswerk mit einem Goldenen Löwen der Architekturbiennale von Venedig ausgezeichnet. Die gebürtige Italienerin steht im Mittelpunkt von Richard Zemps Buch Bauen als freie Arbeit, in dem es um die brasilianische Architektur zwischen 1961 und 1982 geht. Wie die Grupo Arquitetura Nova, die ebenfalls Gegenstand von Zemps Untersuchung ist, war Bo Bardi bestrebt, die Trennung zwischen Entwurfsplanung und handwerklicher Umsetzung auf der Baustelle so weit wie möglich aufzuheben.  

Christof Göbel, Mit-Herausgeber unseres Architekturführers über Toulouse, ist seit mehr als zwei Jahren zu Gast in der südwestfranzösischen Metropole. Was dem Stadtforscher dort besonders gut gefällt: Gewässer, Parks – und eine Raumstation.

Text: Christof Göbel

Foto: Die Garonne und das Hôpital de La Grave, © Gremi357

Toulouse ist die viertgrößte Stadt Frankreichs – und sehr charakterstark. Die engen Gassen im Zentrum zeugen von einer langen Geschichte, die bis in die gallo-­römische Zeit zurückreicht. Es ist außerdem Europas Rugby-Hauptstadt und der Ort mit dem Dialekt »le plus sexy de France«, wenigstens behaupten das manche Toulouser. Ich habe Toulouse dank ­eines Forschungsaufenthalts kennen­gelernt und finde es sehr lebenswert.

Wasser. Durch die Stadt verlaufen der Canal du Midi, der das Mittelmeer und den Atlantik verbindet, und die Garonne. Beide prägen Toulouse stark. Ich wohne im Umland, und wenn ich ins Zentrum fahre, zieht es mich oft ans Flussufer: Rund um den Place de la Daurade und den Place Saint-Pierre gibt es viele Cafés und Restaurants, bis spät abends geht es dort quirlig zu; ­Toulouse ist eine junge Stadt – in Frankreich haben nur Paris und Lyon mehr Studenten. Auf der anderen Seite der ­Garonne – einmal über die Saint-Pierre-Brücke – befindet sich ein Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst, in dem interessante Ausstellungen stattfinden: Les Abattoirs (76 Allées Charles de Fitte) besitzt auch einen guten Museumsbuchladen.

Erde. Ich bin seit 2019 zu Gast an der Uni­versität ­Toulouse–Jean Jaurès, Teil eines städtebaulichen Ensembles von Candilis-­Josic-Woods aus den Sechzigerjahren. Leider ist von deren architektonischer Idee nach diversen Umbauten wenig übriggeblieben. Gerne spaziere ich durch die nahe gelegenen Parks. Dort kann man Pigeonniers finden, wie man sie sonst eher außerhalb von Toulouse sieht: große ­Taubenschläge (oft zweistöckig auf ­einem Grundriss von 5 × 5 Metern und mit offenem Erdgeschoss), die je nach Region anders gestaltet sind. Teilweise hat man sie inzwischen zu Wohnungen umgebaut.

Luft. In Toulouse befindet sich ein großes Airbus-Werk, das man auch besuchen kann. Mit der Familie lässt sich die Beziehung der Stadt zur Luft- und Raumfahrt am besten in der Cité de l’espace (Avenue Jean Gonord) erleben, einem interaktiven und lehrreichen Themenpark. Ein Highlight dort sind zum Beispiel die vier Module der Mir-Station, die von 1986 bis 2001 im Weltraum unterwegs war.

CHRISTOF GÖBEL ist Mit-Herausgeber und Teil des Autorenteams (auf dem Foto der zweite von rechts) unseres Architekturführers zu Toulouse, der auf Deutsch und auf Französisch erschienen ist. Den aus Deutschland stammenden Architekten und Stadtplaner führte ein Forschungsaufenthalt nach Frankreich. Göbel ist Professor an der UAM in Mexiko-Stadt. Foto: Maison de l'Architecture Occitanie-Pyrenées