Germany at the Architecture Biennale Venice 2008

raumtaktik
raumtaktik was set up in 2003 by architects Friedrich von Borries and Matthias Böttger. Their work is concerned with investigation of space and spatial intervention. Central to their interest in the means of production of space is a preoccupation with the cultural, economic and political parameters that determine the shape of architecture and urban development. Globalisation, migration, economic transformation and commercialisation, as well as the activation of urban space, are all subjects of their work. In 2006 Friedrich von Borries and Matthias Böttger were commissioned by the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb (Federal Agency for Civic Education) to curate the tour exhibition Fanshop der Globalisierung and edit an accompanying publication. A year later they also curated Space Time Play – Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism, which dealt with the definition of virtual space in computer and video games. Work by raumtaktik has featur in exhibitions such as Shrinking Cities, with archilab Orleans, at the Rotterdam Architectural Biennale, the Berlin Jewish Museum and with Designmai Berlin. Next Year, raumtaktik will curate 7298 Meters Architecture and Politics at Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt am Main. More of their current work can be seen this year at ZKM in Karlsruhe, at the Zurich Architekturforum and at the Nai in Rotterdam. Both Friedrich von Borries and Matthias Böttger have been selected for residences next year at the Akademie Schloß Solitude.

Friedrich von Borries was born in 1974 and studied architecture in Berlin, Brussels and Karlsruhe, where he gained his PhD in 2004. He is a member of the Junge Akademie der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften and of the Deutsche Akademie für Naturforscher Leopoldina. Friedrich von Borries commenced his academic career in 2001 at the Technical University Berlin, and he has taught and researched at the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and other academic institutions such as MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts and ETH Zurich, where he is currently engaged as a guest researcher. Together with Matthias Böttger, he also accepted a guest professorship in October 2007 for art and public space at the Nuremberg Akademie der Bildenden Künste. Last year Friedrich von Borries’ book Wer hat ngst vor Niketown (Who’s afraid of Niketown) was awarded the Daniel Gössler Belobigung für Architekturtheorie. He recently published Sozialistische Cowboys – der Wilde Westen Ostdeutschlands.

Matthias Böttger was born in 1974 and studied architecture and town planning at Westminster University London and Karlsruhe University. He has worked as an architect with practices in Cologne, Berlin and Paris. His academic career commenced in 2005 with the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and has taken him via Stuttgart University to ETH Zurich, where he is currently teaching artistic thinking in design. In conjunction with Friedrich von Borries, Matthias Böttger holds a guest professorship for art and public space at the Nuremberg Akademie der Bildenden Künste. As a member of the post theater and in conjunction with Max Schumacher, Hiroko Tanahashi und Ronit Muszkatblit, Matthias Böttger devised and produced a number of spatial installations that were shown in Berlin, Bonn, Belgrade and Singapore. post theater perceives itself as a think tank for theatre, performance art and dance, operating internationally from and in Berlin, New York and Tokyo.

5 of 100
Updating Germany presents 100 projects for a better future. Twenty of them will be featured in the exhibition in the German pavilion. The final selection will be presented at the press preview on 11 September 2008. Further information is available upon request. The following five projects are included in the project collection and illustrate in examples the curators’ approach.

MEtreePOLIS
Architects: HollwichKushner Architecture (HWKN),
New York, USA
Location: Atlanta, USA
Date: (concept) 2007
Url: www.hwkn.com
MEtreePOLIS is the ultimate tree-hugger’s vision of a city 100 years from now based on projecting real developments in the field of genetic manipulation into the future. HWKN predicts that, by 2108, technological advances will allow the fusion of photosynthetic molecules with solid-state electronic devices, effectively turning modified plants into energy producers they call ‘power plants’. HWKN’s future city will be a product of enhanced nature. It will be stratified like a forest, with a canopy at the top collecting water and energy and a single-surface city floor below of bio-renewable moss with no roads or pavements. Transport is provided by hydrogen-powered pods.

SkySails
Designers: SkySails GmbH:
Stephan Wrage + Thomas Meyer, Hamburg, Germany
Location: n/a, Completion: 2005 – ongoing
Url: www.skysails.de
The SkySails concept, designed for commercial shipping and luxury yachts, consists of a fully automated towing kite propulsion and a wind-optimised routeing system. It is used offshore in addition to the propulsion of the ship’s engine – wind conditions permitting. The SkySail offers a potential reduction of fossil fuel costs of between 10-50% per annum. After initial trials in 2005, the first large-scale tests on cargo ships began in 2007 and series production is planned during 2008.

United Bottle
Architect: Instant Architekten, Berlin, Germany
Location: n/a, Date: 2007
Url: www.instant-arch.net
The standard PET water bottle is a familiar sight worldwide. In times of crisis, bottled drinking water is distributed within disaster areas, where it is used as a method of clean water distribution. The United Bottle update is based on a redesign of the standard PET bottle form. The new shape allows them to be slotted together into stable, nine-bottle units that a single person can carry easily. Filled with local materials, the bottles become a really stable construction material for temporary or even long-term shelter. United Bottle represents a transition in thinking from an outright prestige-driven consumer indulgence (the craze for bottled water) into consuming with consideration by design.

Heliotrop House
Architect: Rolf Disch Architekten, Freiburg, Germany
Location: Freiburg, Germany, Date: 1994
Url: www.rolfdisch.de
This pioneering prototype was the first house in Germany to generate more than its entire energy needs autonomously. As a so-called Plusenergiehaus, it produces five times more energy than the owners need and represents a breakthrough in economic sustainability on a domestic level. Named Heliotrop because it rotates on a cylindrical column base to track the path of the sun, triple glazing on one side of the house can absorb heat during the day and insulated glass on the other protect against heat when necessary. Whilst the shape of the Heliotrop may have a distinctly retro-modernist feel, as a concept it is way ahead of its time and sets standards every house builder should aspire to.

Tissue Engineering
Developer: Timo Schmidt, Institute for Lightweight Structures (ILEK), Stuttgart + T Institute for Tissue Engineering + Anatomy, Tübingen
Location: n/a, Date: 2006, URL: www.uni-stuttgart.de/ilek
This project is an attempt at generating a three-dimensional, static and mechanically functional tissue using bioengineering. One of the aims of tissue engineering is to encourage specific cultured cells to reproduce in vitro (outside the body) to produce tissue that can be used to replace damaged issues in organisms. In this case, sheets of cells were created that, when stimulated mechanically, orientate their extra cellular structural elements together in one direction so that their combined strength helps to withstand external forces. updatinggermany_responseform.pdf