BAUWENDE - Architecture in the climatic turn

About this event

Matthias Sauerbruch’s lecture traced the slow paradigmatic shift that, during recent decades, has guided the architectural thinking of his practice in the context of ever-increasing climate awareness. Early efforts concentrated on the reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions through the provision of intelligent architectural strategies together with the controlled application of computerized building management systems.

Comprehensive analysis of these first projects led to additional criteria such as user empowerment and an increased awareness regarding the selection of materials as well as the exploration of various cyclical models in construction. Continuing project-based investigations of these strategies are accompanied by intuitive reflection on socio-cultural contexts as well as on the physical phenomena of the contemporary urban landscape that inevitably form the horizon of our individual and collective lives.

Discussing selected examples of Sauerbruch Hutton’s varied portfolio that are dealing with the growing resistance of the natural and the urban environments, Matthias will propose the emergence of a “continued modernity” that employs the power of architecture to create sensual and supremely inhabitable urban environments.

About the speaker

Matthias Sauerbruch studied at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in London as project manager for six years and partner for four years.

In 1989 he founded Sauerbruch Hutton together with Louisa Hutton and has been directing the office since then. Matthias has taught from 1985-1990 at the AA as a unit master. He has held tenure professorships at the TU Berlin as well as the Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart between 1995 and 2005. He was a visiting professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (2006), the Harvard Graduate School of Design (2005-2009) as well as the University of the Arts in Berlin (2012-2014). Matthias is a founding member of the German Sustainable Building Council (Deutsche Gesellschaft für nachhaltiges Bauen), he is a member of the Urban Design Council in Munich and the board of KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin. Furthermore he is an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and RIAI (Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland). And he is a member of the Architecture Section of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin.