Monday Evening Talks

An Anti-Dictionary of Modern Architecture, lecture

Jean Louis Cohen, Frankreich

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Jean Louis Cohen, born in 1949 in Paris, is a French architect and art historian. Since 1994, Cohen commutes between Paris and New York City, where he is Professor of History of Architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU. His research focuses on the architecture and urban development during the 19th and 20th centuries in Germany, France, Italy, Russia and North America. Cohen's research activities have led to numerous international publications and exhibitions that appeal to a broad audience. Jean-Louis Cohen is a central figure in academic and other public institutions both as a curator and as an advisor. On behalf of the French Ministry of Culture, for example, Cohen developed a concept for the research center and the permanent exhibitions of the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris. He will be awarded with the Prize of Architectural Theory of the Schelling Architecture Foundation in Karlsruhe in November 2010. On 15th November, on his way home, he will stop in Aachen to open the Monday Evening Talks with an "anti-dictionary of modern architecture".

"Sustainability", lecture

Reinier de Graaf, OMA/AMO, Niederlande

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Since 1996, Reinier de Graaf has been a partner of the OMA office in Rotterdam. Prior to working with Rem Koolhaas, de Graaf worked in offices in the Netherlands and Great Britain. He spent his student days at the Technical University Delft and at the Berlage Institute. De Graaf is responsible for numerous construction projects for OMA, in Europe as well as in Russia and the Middle East. He not only accounts for individual construction projects for OMA but, more importantly, also has overall responsibility for OMA, the research and design branch of OMA, whose activities have steadily expanded in the fields of media, sociology, technology, fashion and graphic design since its establishment in 1998. On the basis of his project Roadmap 2050. A practical guide to a Prosperous, low carbon Europe, Reinier de Graaf will give a lecture on the cliche´ of "sustainability" at the Monday Evening Talks.

"Architecture", lecture

Momoyo Kaijima, Atelier Bow-Wow, Japan

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Momoyo Kaijima is a founding member of the Japanese office Atelier Bow Wow, existing since 1992. She studied at the Japan Women´s University and at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Meanwhile, Momoyo Kaijima teaches as a professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard and as a visiting professor at the ETH Zurich, which she already visited as an exchange student. The research work of Bow Wow started with the analysis of micro-architectures which developed seemingly incidentally in urban residual areas of Tokyo. The newly discovered and sometimes odd buildings have been documented in the books Pet Architecture Guide Book and Made in Tokyo. The most recently published book by Bow Wow, entitled Behaviorology (Rizzoli, 2010), is a first retrospective of the built works of the Atelier. In addition to numerous residential buildings, the Atelier also builds public rooms in the context of art exhibitions, with their help exploring the behaviour patterns of its users. Research is an eminent part of Bow Wow’s work and the foundation of the Atelier’s world-wide influence. At the Monday Evening Talks in Aachen, Momoyo Kaijima will be talking about the cliché “architecture”.

”Japan”, lecture

Ken Tadashi Oshima, USA

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Ken Tadashi Oshima is an internationally renowned American architectural theorist and teaches at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Washington/Seattle. Oshima has completed his education as an architect at the prestigious American universities Harvard, Berkely and Columbia. Oshima’s teaching is concerned with subjects such as the transnational history of architecture, theory of architecture, design and representation. On the basis of monographs on Antonin Raymond and Arata Isozaki, Oshima’s researchs refer to the development of modern architecture and urban development in Japan. One of his most famous publications is called International Architecture in Interwar Japan (U.W. Press, 2009). As part of his curatorial work, Ken Tadashi Oshima arranges the anniversary exhibition of the MA Gallery in Tokyo. It bears the title "Global Ends". Oshima’s lecture in Aachen deals with the clichés “Japan” and “Gap”.

"Compliance", lecture

Finn Williams, Common Office, England

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

The Blueprint Magazine counts Finn Williams among the 25 most inspiring people who will instigate lasting changes in architecture and design in 2010. Williams completed his studies in 2007 at the Royal College of Art in London after visiting the Macintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow and the FAUP in Porto. During his studies he already received numerous awards, including the New London Architecture Prize for his thesis. He worked for Rem Koolhaas and General Public Agency in London, before founding his own Atelier Common Office in London in 2008. Besides his work with Common Office, he works as an urban planner at Croydon Council Urban Design & Conservation Team, which is one of the most interesting planning groups in Britain. Despite his young career, Williams participated in many international exhibitions and already teaches at prestigious universities such as the AA, the Royal College of Art and the Bartlett School of Architecture. In his book Sub.plan: a guide to permitted development, he deals with the scope which planning law allows the designer and explores the impact of regulations on architecture. For instance, Williams re-drew Le Corbusier's houses in terms of today's building standards. He also dedicates his Monday Evening talk to "compliance".

A Dictionary of Adopted Ideas : Designing with Clichés, lecture

Enrique Walker, ARG/USA

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Enrique Walker is an architect, architectural theorist and critic. He studied at the University of Chile and at the AA London, where he did his Master of Arts in 1995. He teaches at Columbia University in New York and heads the Master of Science Programm in Advanced Architectural Design. Furthermore, Walker teaches at the Pratt Institute, also in New York. One of his main publications is Tschumi on Architecture: Conversations with Enrique Walker (The Monacelli Press, 2006), in which he uses a series of interviews to give the architect Bernard Tschumi the opportunity for autobiographical statements. Further conversations Enrique Walker held with architects are published in the book 12 Interviews (Santiago: Ediciones ARQ, 1998). In a ten-year program at Columbia University he developed a dictionary of received ideas with his students, in which architectural platitudes are transformed into exciting and critical designs. Enrique Walker will tell us about the experiences with this dictionary at the last Monday Evening Talks in this series.

Hans Hollein, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Grand Tour Revisited Architectural Pilgrimages today

Following a thirty-year tradition, the Aachen Monday Evening Talks on architecture invites prestigious international guests to present their work in the light of new or current themes in architectural debates. The Aachen Monday Evening Lectures are organised by Dipl. Arch. Ariane Wilson and cand. arch. Nicola Schulze at the Department of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, chaired by Prof. Axel Sowa. From the mid-17th to the mid 19th century, the Grand Tour educated Europe’s young intelligentsia. The classical legacy of Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany composed the vertices of its standard itinerary and defined the canons of a certain “cultural hegemony” (EP Thomson). Amongst this throng of eager and studious observers who, along their travels, collected objects and narrated impressions, architects sought inspiration in the monuments of Antiquity and returned home with ideal models and material fragments to nourish their own work. In the twenties, Japan could well be considered a significant destination for architects, with a anthropological penchant; California in the Fifties, India in the Sixties. What are the Grand Tour itineraries of architects today? Where do architecture students flock? What is the link between institutional and roaming education? Is there a standard network of new models – spontaneously, commercially or politically promoted - or does each architect draw his own path? Do architects seek monuments or huts, beauty or trash, ideal or informal cities, emanations of genius loci or alien incidents? Does travel heighten the understanding of local experience or does it broaden global experience? How do architects map an imaginary geography of inspiration and information? Are they simply tourists with black notebooks? How do they move? What is the effect of distance and presence, in time and in space, on his/her perception of things? Does the path or the destination matter most? How do architects observe and describe? How do the discoveries of travel influence their work? This series examines the relevance of Grand Tours today, their routes and their benefits, in the light of the work of seven prestigious guests - architects, travel writers, photogrpahers and theoreticians - whose work negotiates between the local and the faraway, questions the geographical boundaries of architecture and the position of the roaming or anchored subject. Programme :

30.11.2009_ HANS HOLLEIN 07.12.2009_ WERNER BLASER * 14.12.2009_ SYLVAIN TESSON 11.01.2010_ HIROSHI HARA 18.01.2010_ PATRICK BLANC 25.01.2010_ JILLY TRAGANOU 01.02.2010_ SAM JACOBS

Lectures by H. Hollein and W. Blaser will be held in German, all others in English. Access free of charge. Further information: Architekturtheorie

Further information:

• Hans Hollein (PDF)

"west meets east" Mies van der Rohe, Exhibition

Atelierhaus Aachen, Süsterfeldstr. 99, 52072 Aachen

Grand Tour Revisited Architectural Pilgrimages today

Following a thirty-year tradition, the Aachen Monday Evening Talks on architecture invites prestigious international guests to present their work in the light of new or current themes in architectural debates. The Aachen Monday Evening Lectures are organised by Dipl. Arch. Ariane Wilson and cand. arch. Nicola Schulze at the Department of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, chaired by Prof. Axel Sowa. From the mid-17th to the mid 19th century, the Grand Tour educated Europe’s young intelligentsia. The classical legacy of Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany composed the vertices of its standard itinerary and defined the canons of a certain “cultural hegemony” (EP Thomson). Amongst this throng of eager and studious observers who, along their travels, collected objects and narrated impressions, architects sought inspiration in the monuments of Antiquity and returned home with ideal models and material fragments to nourish their own work. In the twenties, Japan could well be considered a significant destination for architects, with a anthropological penchant; California in the Fifties, India in the Sixties. What are the Grand Tour itineraries of architects today? Where do architecture students flock? What is the link between institutional and roaming education? Is there a standard network of new models – spontaneously, commercially or politically promoted - or does each architect draw his own path? Do architects seek monuments or huts, beauty or trash, ideal or informal cities, emanations of genius loci or alien incidents? Does travel heighten the understanding of local experience or does it broaden global experience? How do architects map an imaginary geography of inspiration and information? Are they simply tourists with black notebooks? How do they move? What is the effect of distance and presence, in time and in space, on his/her perception of things? Does the path or the destination matter most? How do architects observe and describe? How do the discoveries of travel influence their work? This series examines the relevance of Grand Tours today, their routes and their benefits, in the light of the work of seven prestigious guests - architects, travel writers, photogrpahers and theoreticians - whose work negotiates between the local and the faraway, questions the geographical boundaries of architecture and the position of the roaming or anchored subject. Programme :

30.11.2009_ HANS HOLLEIN 07.12.2009_ WERNER BLASER * 14.12.2009_ SYLVAIN TESSON 11.01.2010_ HIROSHI HARA 18.01.2010_ PATRICK BLANC 25.01.2010_ JILLY TRAGANOU 01.02.2010_ SAM JACOBS

Lectures by H. Hollein and W. Blaser will be held in German, all others in English. Access free of charge. Further information: Architekturtheorie

Werner Blaser, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Grand Tour Revisited Architectural Pilgrimages today

Following a thirty-year tradition, the Aachen Monday Evening Talks on architecture invites prestigious international guests to present their work in the light of new or current themes in architectural debates. The Aachen Monday Evening Lectures are organised by Dipl. Arch. Ariane Wilson and cand. arch. Nicola Schulze at the Department of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, chaired by Prof. Axel Sowa. From the mid-17th to the mid 19th century, the Grand Tour educated Europe’s young intelligentsia. The classical legacy of Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany composed the vertices of its standard itinerary and defined the canons of a certain “cultural hegemony” (EP Thomson). Amongst this throng of eager and studious observers who, along their travels, collected objects and narrated impressions, architects sought inspiration in the monuments of Antiquity and returned home with ideal models and material fragments to nourish their own work. In the twenties, Japan could well be considered a significant destination for architects, with a anthropological penchant; California in the Fifties, India in the Sixties. What are the Grand Tour itineraries of architects today? Where do architecture students flock? What is the link between institutional and roaming education? Is there a standard network of new models – spontaneously, commercially or politically promoted - or does each architect draw his own path? Do architects seek monuments or huts, beauty or trash, ideal or informal cities, emanations of genius loci or alien incidents? Does travel heighten the understanding of local experience or does it broaden global experience? How do architects map an imaginary geography of inspiration and information? Are they simply tourists with black notebooks? How do they move? What is the effect of distance and presence, in time and in space, on his/her perception of things? Does the path or the destination matter most? How do architects observe and describe? How do the discoveries of travel influence their work? This series examines the relevance of Grand Tours today, their routes and their benefits, in the light of the work of seven prestigious guests - architects, travel writers, photogrpahers and theoreticians - whose work negotiates between the local and the faraway, questions the geographical boundaries of architecture and the position of the roaming or anchored subject. Programme :

30.11.2009_ HANS HOLLEIN 07.12.2009_ WERNER BLASER * 14.12.2009_ SYLVAIN TESSON 11.01.2010_ HIROSHI HARA 18.01.2010_ PATRICK BLANC 25.01.2010_ JILLY TRAGANOU 01.02.2010_ SAM JACOBS

Lectures by H. Hollein and W. Blaser will be held in German, all others in English. Access free of charge. Further information: Architekturtheorie

Further information:

• Werner Blaser (PDF)

Sylvain Tesson, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Grand Tour Revisited Architectural Pilgrimages today

Following a thirty-year tradition, the Aachen Monday Evening Talks on architecture invites prestigious international guests to present their work in the light of new or current themes in architectural debates. The Aachen Monday Evening Lectures are organised by Dipl. Arch. Ariane Wilson and cand. arch. Nicola Schulze at the Department of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, chaired by Prof. Axel Sowa. From the mid-17th to the mid 19th century, the Grand Tour educated Europe’s young intelligentsia. The classical legacy of Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany composed the vertices of its standard itinerary and defined the canons of a certain “cultural hegemony” (EP Thomson). Amongst this throng of eager and studious observers who, along their travels, collected objects and narrated impressions, architects sought inspiration in the monuments of Antiquity and returned home with ideal models and material fragments to nourish their own work. In the twenties, Japan could well be considered a significant destination for architects, with a anthropological penchant; California in the Fifties, India in the Sixties. What are the Grand Tour itineraries of architects today? Where do architecture students flock? What is the link between institutional and roaming education? Is there a standard network of new models – spontaneously, commercially or politically promoted - or does each architect draw his own path? Do architects seek monuments or huts, beauty or trash, ideal or informal cities, emanations of genius loci or alien incidents? Does travel heighten the understanding of local experience or does it broaden global experience? How do architects map an imaginary geography of inspiration and information? Are they simply tourists with black notebooks? How do they move? What is the effect of distance and presence, in time and in space, on his/her perception of things? Does the path or the destination matter most? How do architects observe and describe? How do the discoveries of travel influence their work? This series examines the relevance of Grand Tours today, their routes and their benefits, in the light of the work of seven prestigious guests - architects, travel writers, photogrpahers and theoreticians - whose work negotiates between the local and the faraway, questions the geographical boundaries of architecture and the position of the roaming or anchored subject. Programme :

30.11.2009_ HANS HOLLEIN 07.12.2009_ WERNER BLASER * 14.12.2009_ SYLVAIN TESSON 11.01.2010_ HIROSHI HARA 18.01.2010_ PATRICK BLANC 25.01.2010_ JILLY TRAGANOU 01.02.2010_ SAM JACOBS

Lectures by H. Hollein and W. Blaser will be held in German, all others in English. Access free of charge. Further information: Architekturtheorie

Further information:

• Sylvain Tesson (PDF)

Hiroshi Hara, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Grand Tour Revisited Architectural Pilgrimages today

Following a thirty-year tradition, the Aachen Monday Evening Talks on architecture invites prestigious international guests to present their work in the light of new or current themes in architectural debates. The Aachen Monday Evening Lectures are organised by Dipl. Arch. Ariane Wilson and cand. arch. Nicola Schulze at the Department of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, chaired by Prof. Axel Sowa. From the mid-17th to the mid 19th century, the Grand Tour educated Europe’s young intelligentsia. The classical legacy of Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany composed the vertices of its standard itinerary and defined the canons of a certain “cultural hegemony” (EP Thomson). Amongst this throng of eager and studious observers who, along their travels, collected objects and narrated impressions, architects sought inspiration in the monuments of Antiquity and returned home with ideal models and material fragments to nourish their own work. In the twenties, Japan could well be considered a significant destination for architects, with a anthropological penchant; California in the Fifties, India in the Sixties. What are the Grand Tour itineraries of architects today? Where do architecture students flock? What is the link between institutional and roaming education? Is there a standard network of new models – spontaneously, commercially or politically promoted - or does each architect draw his own path? Do architects seek monuments or huts, beauty or trash, ideal or informal cities, emanations of genius loci or alien incidents? Does travel heighten the understanding of local experience or does it broaden global experience? How do architects map an imaginary geography of inspiration and information? Are they simply tourists with black notebooks? How do they move? What is the effect of distance and presence, in time and in space, on his/her perception of things? Does the path or the destination matter most? How do architects observe and describe? How do the discoveries of travel influence their work? This series examines the relevance of Grand Tours today, their routes and their benefits, in the light of the work of seven prestigious guests - architects, travel writers, photogrpahers and theoreticians - whose work negotiates between the local and the faraway, questions the geographical boundaries of architecture and the position of the roaming or anchored subject. Programme :

30.11.2009_ HANS HOLLEIN 07.12.2009_ WERNER BLASER * 14.12.2009_ SYLVAIN TESSON 11.01.2010_ HIROSHI HARA 18.01.2010_ PATRICK BLANC 25.01.2010_ JILLY TRAGANOU 01.02.2010_ SAM JACOBS

Lectures by H. Hollein and W. Blaser will be held in German, all others in English. Access free of charge. Further information: Architekturtheorie

Further information:

• Hiroshi Hara (PDF)

Patrick Blanc, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Grand Tour Revisited Architectural Pilgrimages today

Following a thirty-year tradition, the Aachen Monday Evening Talks on architecture invites prestigious international guests to present their work in the light of new or current themes in architectural debates. The Aachen Monday Evening Lectures are organised by Dipl. Arch. Ariane Wilson and cand. arch. Nicola Schulze at the Department of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, chaired by Prof. Axel Sowa. From the mid-17th to the mid 19th century, the Grand Tour educated Europe’s young intelligentsia. The classical legacy of Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany composed the vertices of its standard itinerary and defined the canons of a certain “cultural hegemony” (EP Thomson). Amongst this throng of eager and studious observers who, along their travels, collected objects and narrated impressions, architects sought inspiration in the monuments of Antiquity and returned home with ideal models and material fragments to nourish their own work. In the twenties, Japan could well be considered a significant destination for architects, with a anthropological penchant; California in the Fifties, India in the Sixties. What are the Grand Tour itineraries of architects today? Where do architecture students flock? What is the link between institutional and roaming education? Is there a standard network of new models – spontaneously, commercially or politically promoted - or does each architect draw his own path? Do architects seek monuments or huts, beauty or trash, ideal or informal cities, emanations of genius loci or alien incidents? Does travel heighten the understanding of local experience or does it broaden global experience? How do architects map an imaginary geography of inspiration and information? Are they simply tourists with black notebooks? How do they move? What is the effect of distance and presence, in time and in space, on his/her perception of things? Does the path or the destination matter most? How do architects observe and describe? How do the discoveries of travel influence their work? This series examines the relevance of Grand Tours today, their routes and their benefits, in the light of the work of seven prestigious guests - architects, travel writers, photogrpahers and theoreticians - whose work negotiates between the local and the faraway, questions the geographical boundaries of architecture and the position of the roaming or anchored subject. Programme :

30.11.2009_ HANS HOLLEIN 07.12.2009_ WERNER BLASER * 14.12.2009_ SYLVAIN TESSON 11.01.2010_ HIROSHI HARA 18.01.2010_ PATRICK BLANC 25.01.2010_ JILLY TRAGANOU 01.02.2010_ SAM JACOBS

Lectures by H. Hollein and W. Blaser will be held in German, all others in English. Access free of charge. Further information: Architekturtheorie

Further information:

• Patrick Blanc (PDF)

Jilly Traganou, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Grand Tour Revisited Architectural Pilgrimages today

Following a thirty-year tradition, the Aachen Monday Evening Talks on architecture invites prestigious international guests to present their work in the light of new or current themes in architectural debates. The Aachen Monday Evening Lectures are organised by Dipl. Arch. Ariane Wilson and cand. arch. Nicola Schulze at the Department of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, chaired by Prof. Axel Sowa. From the mid-17th to the mid 19th century, the Grand Tour educated Europe’s young intelligentsia. The classical legacy of Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany composed the vertices of its standard itinerary and defined the canons of a certain “cultural hegemony” (EP Thomson). Amongst this throng of eager and studious observers who, along their travels, collected objects and narrated impressions, architects sought inspiration in the monuments of Antiquity and returned home with ideal models and material fragments to nourish their own work. In the twenties, Japan could well be considered a significant destination for architects, with a anthropological penchant; California in the Fifties, India in the Sixties. What are the Grand Tour itineraries of architects today? Where do architecture students flock? What is the link between institutional and roaming education? Is there a standard network of new models – spontaneously, commercially or politically promoted - or does each architect draw his own path? Do architects seek monuments or huts, beauty or trash, ideal or informal cities, emanations of genius loci or alien incidents? Does travel heighten the understanding of local experience or does it broaden global experience? How do architects map an imaginary geography of inspiration and information? Are they simply tourists with black notebooks? How do they move? What is the effect of distance and presence, in time and in space, on his/her perception of things? Does the path or the destination matter most? How do architects observe and describe? How do the discoveries of travel influence their work? This series examines the relevance of Grand Tours today, their routes and their benefits, in the light of the work of seven prestigious guests - architects, travel writers, photogrpahers and theoreticians - whose work negotiates between the local and the faraway, questions the geographical boundaries of architecture and the position of the roaming or anchored subject. Programme :

30.11.2009_ HANS HOLLEIN 07.12.2009_ WERNER BLASER * 14.12.2009_ SYLVAIN TESSON 11.01.2010_ HIROSHI HARA 18.01.2010_ PATRICK BLANC 25.01.2010_ JILLY TRAGANOU 01.02.2010_ SAM JACOBS

Lectures by H. Hollein and W. Blaser will be held in German, all others in English. Access free of charge. Further information: Architekturtheorie

Further information:

• Jilly Traganou (PDF)

Sam Jacobs, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo4

Grand Tour Revisited Architectural Pilgrimages today

Following a thirty-year tradition, the Aachen Monday Evening Talks on architecture invites prestigious international guests to present their work in the light of new or current themes in architectural debates. The Aachen Monday Evening Lectures are organised by Dipl. Arch. Ariane Wilson and cand. arch. Nicola Schulze at the Department of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, chaired by Prof. Axel Sowa. From the mid-17th to the mid 19th century, the Grand Tour educated Europe’s young intelligentsia. The classical legacy of Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany composed the vertices of its standard itinerary and defined the canons of a certain “cultural hegemony” (EP Thomson). Amongst this throng of eager and studious observers who, along their travels, collected objects and narrated impressions, architects sought inspiration in the monuments of Antiquity and returned home with ideal models and material fragments to nourish their own work. In the twenties, Japan could well be considered a significant destination for architects, with a anthropological penchant; California in the Fifties, India in the Sixties. What are the Grand Tour itineraries of architects today? Where do architecture students flock? What is the link between institutional and roaming education? Is there a standard network of new models – spontaneously, commercially or politically promoted - or does each architect draw his own path? Do architects seek monuments or huts, beauty or trash, ideal or informal cities, emanations of genius loci or alien incidents? Does travel heighten the understanding of local experience or does it broaden global experience? How do architects map an imaginary geography of inspiration and information? Are they simply tourists with black notebooks? How do they move? What is the effect of distance and presence, in time and in space, on his/her perception of things? Does the path or the destination matter most? How do architects observe and describe? How do the discoveries of travel influence their work? This series examines the relevance of Grand Tours today, their routes and their benefits, in the light of the work of seven prestigious guests - architects, travel writers, photogrpahers and theoreticians - whose work negotiates between the local and the faraway, questions the geographical boundaries of architecture and the position of the roaming or anchored subject. Programme :

30.11.2009_ HANS HOLLEIN 07.12.2009_ WERNER BLASER * 14.12.2009_ SYLVAIN TESSON 11.01.2010_ HIROSHI HARA 18.01.2010_ PATRICK BLANC 25.01.2010_ JILLY TRAGANOU 01.02.2010_ SAM JACOBS

Lectures by H. Hollein and W. Blaser will be held in German, all others in English. Access free of charge. Further information: Architekturtheorie

Further information:

• Sam Jacobs (PDF)

Gottfried Böhm zum 90. Geburtstag, lecture

RWTH Hauptgebäude, Aula I

Grand Tour Revisited Architectural Pilgrimages today

Following a thirty-year tradition, the Aachen Monday Evening Talks on architecture invites prestigious international guests to present their work in the light of new or current themes in architectural debates. The Aachen Monday Evening Lectures are organised by Dipl. Arch. Ariane Wilson and cand. arch. Nicola Schulze at the Department of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, chaired by Prof. Axel Sowa. From the mid-17th to the mid 19th century, the Grand Tour educated Europe’s young intelligentsia. The classical legacy of Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany composed the vertices of its standard itinerary and defined the canons of a certain “cultural hegemony” (EP Thomson). Amongst this throng of eager and studious observers who, along their travels, collected objects and narrated impressions, architects sought inspiration in the monuments of Antiquity and returned home with ideal models and material fragments to nourish their own work. In the twenties, Japan could well be considered a significant destination for architects, with a anthropological penchant; California in the Fifties, India in the Sixties. What are the Grand Tour itineraries of architects today? Where do architecture students flock? What is the link between institutional and roaming education? Is there a standard network of new models – spontaneously, commercially or politically promoted - or does each architect draw his own path? Do architects seek monuments or huts, beauty or trash, ideal or informal cities, emanations of genius loci or alien incidents? Does travel heighten the understanding of local experience or does it broaden global experience? How do architects map an imaginary geography of inspiration and information? Are they simply tourists with black notebooks? How do they move? What is the effect of distance and presence, in time and in space, on his/her perception of things? Does the path or the destination matter most? How do architects observe and describe? How do the discoveries of travel influence their work? This series examines the relevance of Grand Tours today, their routes and their benefits, in the light of the work of seven prestigious guests - architects, travel writers, photogrpahers and theoreticians - whose work negotiates between the local and the faraway, questions the geographical boundaries of architecture and the position of the roaming or anchored subject. Programme :

30.11.2009_ HANS HOLLEIN 07.12.2009_ WERNER BLASER * 14.12.2009_ SYLVAIN TESSON 11.01.2010_ HIROSHI HARA 18.01.2010_ PATRICK BLANC 25.01.2010_ JILLY TRAGANOU 01.02.2010_ SAM JACOBS

Lectures by H. Hollein and W. Blaser will be held in German, all others in English. Access free of charge. Further information: Architekturtheorie

Further information:

• Gottfried Böhm (PDF)

Martin Rauch, Lehm Ton Erde, Österreich, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Martin Rauch wurde 1958 in Schlins, Vorarlberg, geboren. Seit mehr als 16 Jahren entwickelt Rauch neue Anwendungsmöglichkeiten des archaischen Materials Lehm, die er mit großem Erfolg in zeitgenössische Projekte einbringt und seinen Zugang zum Herstellen in der Architekturdebatte verankert hat.
Martin Rauch sagt über seine eigene Arbeit: ‚Obwohl die drei Worte - Lehm, Ton, Erde - prinzipiell dasselbe beinhalten, haben sie für mich und meine Arbeiten dennoch symbolischen Charakter. Im globalen Zusammenhang würde ich Lehm aus bautechnischer Sicht als Baumaterial beschreiben, Ton als Symbol der Gestaltbarkeit bei der künstlerischen Verarbeitung, Erde als Sinnbild ökologischer und volkswirtschaftlicher Vorzüge des Lehmbaus.’ Aus ‚Rammed Earth, Lehm und Architektur’,(Otto Kapfinger, Birkhäuser 2002)

Marcus Fischer, Finnforest Merk Holzbau, Aichach, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Marcus Fischer ist Projektmanager bei Finnforest, Europas größter Unternehmungsgruppe für Holzprodukte. Sie entwickelt ökonomische, energieeffiziente und umweltverträgliche Konstruktionstechniken für das vielfach einsetzbare Material Holz. Finnforest bietet ein breites Sortiment an Holzwerkstoffen, Massivholzprodukten, Bauprodukten und –systemen, entwickelt aber auch Lösungen für besondere Konstruktionen in Zusammenarbeit mit Architekten und Ingenieuren. Beispiele dafür sind das Expo Dach von Herzog und Partner auf der Expo 2000 in Hannover oder die Mensa der Universität Karlsruhe von J.Mayer-H, Berlin 2006.

Arnold Walz, designtoproduction, Stuttgart/Zürich, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Arnold Walz, 1953 in Stuttgart geboren, entwickelte als einer der ersten Architekten in Europa parametrische CAD Modelle für die konstruktive Planung. Er arbeitete zusammen mit Ingenieuren wie Bollinger Grohmann, Werner Sobek, oder Jörg Schlaich, und war instrumental für die Umsetzung der komplexen Geometrie des Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart, UNStudio, 2006, tätig. 2005 gründete er zusammen mit Fabian Scheurer und Christoph Schindler die Firma designtoproduction, die die Lücke zwischen dem komplexen Entwurf und seiner Umsetzung schließen will. designtoproduction entwickelt dabei insbesondere Verfahren im Hinblick auf industrielle, computergesteuerte Produktionsweisen.

James Timberlake, Kieran Timberlake Architects, USA, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

James Timberlake ist Partner von KieranTimberlake Associates in Philadelphia, USA. Das Büro ist federführend in der Auseinandersetzung mit den Produktionsbedingungen des Entwerfens und sondiert das Innovationspotential von umweltverträglichen Baukomponenten. Aufsehen erregte ihr 2008 im New Yorker Museum of Modern Art gezeigtes fünfgeschossiges Cellophane House; ihr Buch „Refabricating Architecture“ (2004) ist ein wegweisendes Manifest. Zu ihren jüngsten Projekten zählen das Sculpture Building and Gallery der Yale University und das Loblolly House auf Taylor’s Island, Maryland, die zu den umweltverträglichsten Bauten Amerikas gehören. Timberlake lehrt und forscht u.a. an der University of Pennsylvania's School of Design.

Shin Egashira, Künstler+Architekt, AA School, London, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

In Tokyo geboren, war Shin Egashira zunächst als Künstler in Tokyo, Beijing und New York tätig, bevor er in London sein Diplom an der Architectural Association School of Architecture mit Auszeichnung machte. Dort lehrt er seit 1990. In Sommer-Workshops in einem Dorf in Koshirahura im Norden Japans, entwirft und bastelt er mit seinen Studenten an ‚crafted structures’ und kleinen baulichen Eingriffen in die Natur; auf künstlerische und experimentelle Weise werden dabei Materialien erforscht. Die selbstgebauten Tragwerke zeigen, dass Architekten in der Lage sind, jenseits einer globalisierten Bauwirtschaft Ideen umzusetzen.

Bohdan Paczowski, Architekt, Polen/Luxemburg, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Bodan Paczowski wurde 1930 in Polen geboren. Zusammen mit Paul und Matthias Fritsch leitet er seit 2003 das Architekturbüro Paczowski et Fritsch Architectes in Luxemburg. Sein Wirken ist ungewöhnlich vielfältig und verbindet dabei Theorie und Praxis. So realisierte er Bauten wie das Abfertigungsgebäude in Luxemburg, war Präsident der luxemburgischen Stiftung für Architektur und Ingenieurwissenschaften und trägt durch regelmäßige Beiträge in Zeitschriften wie Bauwelt, l’Architecture Aujourd’hui oder d’A zur Architekturdiskussion bei. In seinem Vortrag wird sich Bohdan Paczowski mit der Theorie des Herstellens der Architektur auseinandersetzen.

Marcos Acayaba, Architekt, São Paulo, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Marcos Acayaba ist ein brasilianischer Architekt aus São Paulo. Seine Aufmerksamkeit gilt dem Material, dem Herstellen und Konstruieren, angefangen von den parabolischen Schalen in Stahlbeton bei seinem Wohnhaus in Milan (1972), bis zu den leichten Holzkonstruktionen seiner späteren Projekte wie dem Wohnhaus Marcos Acayaba in Tijucopava, Guaruja (1996). “Die umsichtige Verwendung von Material und Ressourcen macht Architektur zu einem ökologischen Unterfangen. Durch die Sparsamkeit der Mittel vesuche ich Effizienz, Komfort und letzlich auch Schönheit im Bauen zu erreichen. Denn da, wo jeder Exzess vermieden wird, kann kein Mangel herrschen.”

Montagabendgespräche WS 2007/08, lecture

Ricardo Porro, Paris

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Ricardo Porro wurde 1925 in Cuba geboren und baute dort auf dem Gelände eines ehemaligen Golfculbs im Auftrag von Fidel Castro und Che Guevara die legendären Kunstschulen von Cubanacan. Porro liess sich 1966 in Paris nieder und baute dort mit seinem Partner Renaud de la Noue für öffentliche Auftraggeber Schulen und Wohnungsbauten. Ricardo Porro unterrichtete an den Architekturschulen in Paris, Lille und Strasbourg.

Further information:

• Montagabendgespräche WS 2007/08 (PDF)

Montagabendgespräche WS 2007/08, lecture

Rasmus Wærn, Stockholm

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Rasmus Wærn wird sein grossangelegtes Wissensprojekt im Bereich der Architektur vorstellen. Er ist Architekt sowie promovierter Architekturhistoriker und Autor. Seine Spezialgebiete sind die zeitgenössische und frühe moderne schwedische Architektur.

Einem »Call for Knowledge« folgend beteiligten sich 60 international renomierte Wissenschaftler aus den Bereichen Architektur, Städtebau, Geographie, Soziologie, Philosophie ... Das daraus entstandenen Werk »The Crucial Words« ist gerade im Verlag Birkhäuser erschienen und wurde von dem schwedischen Architekturbüro Wingårdh architects getragen.

Further information:

• Montagabendgespräche WS 2007/08 (PDF)

Dietmar Steiner, Direktor des Architekturzentrums Wien, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Montagabendgespräche WS 2006/07 (PDF)

Rüdiger Lainer, Wien, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Peter Sapp, querkraft-architekten, Wien, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Ernst Fuchs, the nextEnterprise, Wien, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Boris Podrecca, Wien, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Anette Gigon (Gigon & Guyer, Zürich), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Isa Stürm (Stürm und Wolf, Zürich), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Quintus Miller (Miller und Maranta, Basel), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Meinrad Morger (Basel), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Dieter Jüngling (Jüngling und Hagmann, Chur), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Gottfried Böhm, Köln, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Vortrag aus Anlass seines 85. Geburtstages

Gesine Weinmiller, Berlin, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Stephan Braunfels, München, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Braunfels Architekten

Christian Jabornegg/ Andràs Pàlffy, Wien, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Podiumsdiskussion, Podiumsdiskussion

Dieter Bartetzko, Kritiker (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Francesca Ferguson, Kommissarin des Deutschen Pavillons der Architekturbiennale Venedig 2004, Dörte Gatermann, Architektin (Köln/ TU Darmstadt), Andreas Tönnesmann, Professor für Architekturtheorie

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Jan Pesman, CEPEZED, Delft, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• CEPEZED

Philippe Samyn, Brüssel, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Samyn and Partners Architects and Engineers

Hani Rashid, Asymptote, New York, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Asymptote

Bernhard Tschumi, New York, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Bernhard Tschumi

Kiyonori Kikutake, Tokio, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Als »Special Guest« wird der Rektor der RWTH Aachen im Anschluss den geplanten Abbau von vier Professuren begründen.

Further information:

• Kiyonori Kikutake

Jacques Moussafir, Paris, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Architecture and Politics in Israel, lecture

Eyal Weizman, Tel Aviv

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Matthias Sauerbruch, Berlin, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Louis Moreno Mansilla & Emilio Tunon, Madrid, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Bart Lootsma, Rotterdam, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Mark Linnemann, NL Architects (Amsterdam), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• NL Architects

Christoph Ingenhoven (Ingenhoven, Overdiek und Partner; Düsseldorf), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Ingenhoven, Overdieck und Partner

Kengo Kuma (Kengo Kuma & Associates; Tokyo), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Kengo Kuma & Associates

Volker Staab (Berlin), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Volker Staab

Clorindo Testa (Buenos Aires), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Clorindo Testa

Wil Alsop, lecture

Großes Hörsaalgebäude (Audimax), Audimax

Felix Claus, Amsterdam (Claus en Kaan Architecten), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

José Maria Pastrana, Tenerife (AMP Arquitectos), lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Shigeru Ban, Tokyo, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Patrick Bouchain, Paris, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Volker Wehrmann, Fondation ZERI, Genf, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Fondation Zeri

Blurring Architecture, lecture

Toyo Ito

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Mondays 7:30 PM, Fo 4 Kármán Auditorium, RWTH Aachen

RWTH University Aachen, one of Germany’s top-ranking universities, has held a yearly series of Monday Evening Talks on architecture for over 30 years. These traditional “Montagabendgespräche”, organised by the department for Architecture Theory, are much awaited by students, academics and the public at large. They have featured great names reflecting contemporary trends, including Daniel Libeskind, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Lucien Kroll, Kengo Kuma, Gottfried Böhm, Julius Posener...

Alan Brookes, London, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Cruz & Ortiz, Sevilla, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Winy Maas, Rotterdam, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• MVRDV

Gottfried Böhm, Köln, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Vitor Figueiredo, Lissabon, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Michele Saee, Los Angeles, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Steve Christer, Studio Granda, Reykjavik, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Juhani Pallasmaa, Helsiniki, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Craig Dykers, Snohetta, Oslo, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1

Further information:

• Snøhetta

Ábalos & Herreros, Madrid, lecture

Kármán-Auditorium, Fo1