Henn Architekten Ingenieure, München
On Friday, 2 June 2000, the Architekturforum Aedes will open a German-French exhibition project in the two galleries that will create a dialogue between the urban utopias of the French architect and urbanist Tony Garnier (1868-1948) and the German architectural office of Gunter Henn, HENN Architekten Ingenieure.
On the topicality of the exhibition project: Tony Garnier's ideal city 'cité industrielle' (1904/1917) and the Volkswagen AG projects completed in 2000/01 - 'Die neue Autostadt in Wolfsburg' and 'Die gläserne Manufaktur in Dresden' by Gunter Henn - are exactly 100 years apart. The two turn-of-the-century projects are currently provoking a new urbanism debate. The sign of our times is the city of culture, consumption and services, the city of mobility, which indulges in the cult of the car, but which is opening up to new tendencies. Today it is about the city in which production (again) takes place.
At the 'Autostadt' in Wolfsburg by Gunter Henn, a form of creativity of being there, of making (collecting) oneself can be detected. The next - customer-compatible - step is already conceivable: choose electronically, buy and collect at the place of manufacture. The 'Autostadt' in Wolfsburg is being built on 25 hectares at the gates of the VW headquarters as a complex customer centre, including a corporate forum, car museum, seven brand pavilions, hotel and glass car stacking towers. The precise architectural language is juxtaposed with the landscape-influenced centre with soft hills and water surfaces. A bridge over the canal links the Autostadt with Wolfsburg's ICE railway station. The 'Transparent Factory' in Dresden by Gunter Henn reveals another surprising development: with the construction of a car plant in the centre of the city of culture, industry implants its own project - industry returns to the city. The not uncontroversial turn of industry towards the city is a serious signal of future-oriented processes of change in the city and production.
In the case of Gunter Henn's 'Transparent Factory' in Dresden, another surprising development becomes apparent: with the construction of a car plant in the centre of the city of culture, industry implants its own project - industry returns to the city. The not uncontroversial turn of industry towards the city is a serious signal of future-oriented processes of change in the city and production. The form of the 'Transparent Factory' shows the development towards city-compatible production: the car production, delivered just-in-time by tramway and assembled by hand, is achieved through a network of surrounding supplier companies - in the sense of a new industrial culture. The self-transformation of industrial culture (Ulrich Beck), i.e. the replacement of the first modernity by the second, becomes clear in its contours and principles in the 'Transparent Factory'. Here, too, the customer not only picks up his car, he literally witnesses its creation. In keeping with its purpose, Gunter Henn's angular building is designed to be consistently transparent inside and out. Here the customer can watch the individual parts being assembled into a car. The finished models are ready for collection in a glass cylinder. Other uses include a cinema, restaurant and exhibition space, integrated into the landscape of the 'Großer Park' in Dresden.
In contrast, the 'cité industrielle' of architect and urban planner Tony Garnier, Lyon, presents itself more orderly - as a productivity myth around 1900. Electricity and central bureaucracy hand in hand for the optimal happiness of industrial workers. Tony Garnier is present when it comes to the avant-garde of the 20th century. Little known in his work are the interrelations between utopia and practical implementation. His buildings in Lyon of reinforced concrete and steel structures, which he planned and built as one of Lyon's dominant architects during the 35-year era of Mayor Edouard Herriot, impressively demonstrate his architectural skills. Garnier's visions of the 'cité industrielle' and his ideas translated into buildings are presented comprehensively for the first time in Germany.
The complete first edition of the main works of 'cité industrielle' and the 'Grand Travaux pour la ville de Lyon' (1917), loans from the holdings of the research library of Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG and further original drawings by Tony Garnier from the archive of the Musée des Beaux Arts, Lyon, will be on display at Architekturforum Aedes West on Savignyplatz.
The 'Autostadt Wolfsburg' and the 'Gläserne Manufaktur' are presented in the architecture forum Aedes East in the Hackesche Höfe. Plans, drawings, texts and models map these two major urban development and architectural projects as well as HENN's working methods.
Gunter Henn's office, HENN Architekten Ingenieure, is an architecture, planning and consulting firm with a highly specialised network of over 200 employees, including overall planning for research and development centres, office buildings, university, institute and industrial buildings. Gunter Henn has been working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA, since 1994 and has held a professorship at the TU Dresden since this year.
The exhibition is prepared and scientifically accompanied by Peter Stürzebecher and Günther Uhlig.
Speakers at the exhibition opening:
Kristin Feireiss Berlin/Rotterdam
Günter Uhlig Karlsruhe/Milan
