Made in USA - German Architects in New York

an exhibition at the German House, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany

Exhibition at the German House, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany

March 1 – March 23, 2012

exhibition opening:
Thursday, March 1, 6-8pm

exhibition location:
German Consulate General
871 United Nations Plaza (49th Street and 1st Avenue), New York

Made in USA—German Architects in New York features the work of seven architects from Germany based in New York City. The exhibition highlights excellence in design and architecture, and celebrates the contribution that German architects have made to the city’s vibrant architecture scene. The exhibition will showcase a recent building by each of the architects and provide an overview of their practices.


Roundtable discussion with participating architects at the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building

time:
Tuesday, March 6 6pm

location:
Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
5 E. 3rd Street (at Bowery)

Free Admission to the exhibition, opening and roundtable discussion.
RSVP required for exhibition opening on March 1, 2012 at 6 p.m.

The exhibition will be on view from March 1, 2012 through March 23, 2012,
during regular office hours (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.).


Participating Architects:

Tobias Armborst is a founding partner of Interboro Partners, an office of architects, urban designers, and planners who work together to improve the urban environment with innovative and experimental design ideas. Co-founded by Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Oca, and Georgeen Theodore, Interboro has won many awards, including the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program in 2011, the AIA New York Chapter’s New Practices Award, and the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices and Young Architects Awards. Tobias is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies at Vassar College.

Philipp von Dalwig, AIA is co-founder and principal of MANIFOLD Architecture Studio (MAS) in collaboration with his partner Kit von Dalwig. MAS's body of work includes the completion of building projects in New York, both commercial and residential, design strategies and innovative environmental design solutions.
MAS has been featured in numerous publications including the New York Times, Oculus, and Frame, among others, was awarded the AIA New York Chapter’s New Practices Award in 2010, and participated in the São Paolo Architecture Biennial in 2011. Philipp teaches at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and is the co-chair of the NPNY committee at the AIA New York Chapter.

Thomas Leeser is principal of Leeser Architecture, an award-winning and internationally recognized architecture office. Projects include the winning competition entry to design an iconic hotel in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and the first prize competition entry to the World Mammoth and Permafrost Museum in Siberia. Completed projects include the expansion and renovation of the New York's Museum of the Moving Image and the 3LD Performing Arts Center in Lower Manhattan. Leeser Architecture has/is currently working on a number of buildings in Bangkok, Abu Dhabi, and in Brooklyn, New York.

Jürgen Riehm, FAIA, BDA is a founding partner and principal of 1100 Architect together with David Piscuskas, FAIA. 1100 Architect is an architecture office based in New York with a branch office in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, with a noted track record and a wide range of award-winning projects in housing, workplace, retail, education, libraries, and art-related projects.

Annabelle Selldorf, FAIA is principal of Selldorf Architects, an internationally acclaimed architecture office with award winning work in the US, Europe and Asia. Well known for the renovation of the Neue Galerie in New York, the firm has recently completed an iconic residential tower and several art galleries in Chelsea, New York. Selldorf Architects is currently building a state of the art recycling center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Thomas Warnke is principal of space4a, an emerging architecture office whose work has been featured in the New York Times, among other publications. Warnke is merging the professions of architecture and real estate development to arrive at notable new work.

Tom Winter, AIA is principal of Tom Winter Architects, an emerging practice based in Brooklyn, NY. His work includes object design to single family residences to larger-scale design. The office is currently designing a cutting edge eight-story mixed-use building across from Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City.

The exhibition is curated by Matthias Neumann.For further info please contact Matthias Neumann at mneumann@normaldesign.com

The exhibition and event is made possible through the generous support of Relative-Space, Vorwerk, Poggenpohl and Seele, and SoHo Reprographics.

 

The most interesting work that one does on the problem of affiliation is in locating the energy of resistance. - E. Said

To assess complex cultural identities sometimes affords to look at the various and ambivalent strains that compose the whole. As such this compilation of work by German born architects working in New York City wants to be read and understood according to where one puts the emphasis on the title. There are various competing aspects that make the whole (and even this whole is but a fraction and can be added at will by gender, generation etc.). The exhibition invites to take a closer look at the accomplished architectural output within these parameters.

All of the presented architects had their upbringing in Germany, most of them went to architecture school for some period of time in Germany. Education and childhood remain a life-long point of reference to anybody, and permeate willingly or unwillingly. National attributes are problematic at best, but even in their strained history they offer a moment of pause and productive resistance.

The work compiled here is Architecture with a capital A that affords to be understood as an act and object in of its own. The differences in scale, design sensibilities and architectural intentions of the individual architects in this selection of work presents a cross section of contemporary issues in architecture, from formal innovations to social practice to material and energy consciousness. And lastly, all work was designed and built in or around New York City, setting a common location for the urban and landscape environment and reflecting back to the city itself, which has acted as a hotbed for cultural diversity and experimentation for a long time and may serve as a foil to understand fractured identities.

There is a long and significant history of cultural exchange between Germany and the United States in the field of architecture, spanning more than a century of migration and work produced on either side of the Atlantic. Even aside from the great exodus of cultural emigration out of Germany in the 1930s, which brought luminaries like Gropius and Mies van der Rohe to the US, renown architects like Dankmar Adler, O.M. Ungers and Helmut Jahn mark a continuity in contributing to the architecture of the United States over the decades. It is within this historic trajectory that this exhibition wants to invite a fresh look on contemporary practice in New York City.

curator:
Matthias Neumann

production:
normaldesign (www.normaldesign.com)

curatorial assistant:
Rebecca Layton

graphic design:
Megan Bullock, Mesh Design and Development (www.meshfresh.com)
Matthias Neumann, normaldesign

camera:
Lahoe Ku

video editing:
Lahoe Ku, Matthias Neumann

This exhibition would not have been possible without the generous support and help of numerous people, foremost the engaged participation of all architects involved and their fabulous staff, and the supportive encouragement and involvement of the Consulate General of Germany in New York as well as from the Goethe-Institut New York. To name but a few: Juliane Camfield, Melanie Domino, Lisa Green, Susan Heiser, Rachel Horst, Nina Krull, Ulrike Lienau, Sara Martin, Helena Piehl, Dr. Rene Rubbeling, Cathrin Urbanek, Jakob von Wagner. For further support: Tyler Greenberg, Ann Neumann, Natalia Roumelioti, Adi Shniderman and Jan Wilker.

Last and certainly not least, we would like to acknowledge the generous support of our sponsors without whom this exhibition would not have been possible.

Poggenpohl
Seele, Inc
Vorwerk
RelativeSpace
SoHo Reprographics