Lederer Ragnarsdottir Oei, Stuttgart
"We don't like the transparent glass covers so much. Why should we go into a building that tells us when we enter: You're out again." Arno Lederer
Looking at the projects of Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei, one first becomes aware of the great presence of the brick outer wall: where others have long since cut glass openings to celebrate the lightness and transparency of contemporary architecture, where filigree glass skins try to make the boundary between inside and outside forgotten, a completely different attitude is revealed here. A solid stone mantle encloses the rooms, a physical heaviness confidently places itself in its place. "Inside is different from outside!" - This fundamental distinction is not an attempt to clearly separate the exterior from the interior of the building, but rather a clear rejection of the spatial levelling of inside and outside. It is astonishing that the buildings, which are often perceived as heavy and material, do not appear to be narrow or even oppressive in their interiors. On the contrary, it is precisely here that one of the special qualities of these works is revealed.
The projects presented are:
The Salem International College in Überlingen on Lake Constance
An academy building in Stuttgart-Hohenheim
A school in Ostfildern near Stuttgart
The head office of EVS (Energieversorgung Schwaben) in Stuttgart
Since 1979 Arno Lederer has lived and worked as a freelance architect in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, from 1985 together with Jórunn Ragnarsdóttir, since 1992 with Marc Oei. After his diploma (1976) Arno Lederer worked for Ernst Gisel in Zurich. In 1985 he became a professor at the University of Applied Sciences for Technology in Stuttgart, and in 1990 he was offered a chair at the University of Karlsruhe to take over the chair for building construction and design. Since 1995 he has been director of the chair for building theory at the Faculty of Architecture there.
The photos in the catalogue and the exhibition are by Roland Halbe Photographie, Stuttgart.
