Titus Bernhard, Augsburg
Titus Bernhard is a member of the emerging German avant-garde, a movement that is developing its own architectural Modernity free of stylistic preconceptions. Playing decisive roles in daily planning and approval procedures — along with preliminary deliberations and the design process itself — are the powers of persuasion and the presentation of arguments needed to advocate novelty. Titus Bernhard demonstrates that first-class architecture is still possible — even in highly regulated Germany. On the basis of documentation charting the relevant authorization procedure, this exhibition offers impressive elucidation of his projects.
Two key projects illustrate the design development of this architectural firm. First, the ensemble 'SML' in Burgrieden near Ulm (consisting of a residence, agency and the automobile collection, and shared by two families). Secondly, the house 9x9 in Stadtbergen near Augsburg (which, with a preparedness for risk and strong commitment on the part of all participants, tested the limits of the local masterplan). With reference to these projects, the exhibition features the firm's repertoire of classical Modernism, while also exploring their preoccupation with architectural illusion, with materiality in new contexts, and with haptic attractiveness, including formal processes that renounce the cube.
Their basic design attitude is oriented toward simplicity. Reductiveness demands special meticulousness in planning and in the execution of details, and calls for structural clarity, restriction to the essential, modulation of light, precision of material connections, and asceticism. But reductiveness also allows room for astonishing constellations and provides opportunities for scenarizing individual objects in perpetually new ways.
Of central importance in this context are investigations of social phenomena on the one hand and the requirements of building with "low budgets” on the other, along with the practical implementation of both factors. Here, the demands of high technical and aesthetic quality remain fundamental.
Alongside the presentation of numerous completed or ongoing projects, the exhibition documents the reactions of citizens, decision-makers, and public authorities to these unorthodox plans. An emphasis on decision-making, planning, and construction processes constitutes the special attraction of Titus Berhard's working approach.
Representative of such responses are a lawyer's arguments for lifting a construction ban, along with ca. 100 responses to Haus 9x9 from neighbors and citizens, in the form of graphically displayed letters-to-the-editor, e-mails, and newspaper articles from the regional and national press.
Beyond providing documentation of these architectural activities, the exhibition seeks to provoke reflections about the basic principles of construction regulations, masterplans and design statutes, as well as about their aesthetics, sense, and nonsense. Such considerations are presented in a discriminating, substantive, and non-polemical manner. Hopefully, this exhibition will provide an impetus to reflect on how all participants can make meaningful contributions to architectural culture.
