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Querdenker, We[a]ve - Dynamic Exhibition

Part 2 Project 2002
Christina Assmann
Konstantina Fili
University of Stuttgart | Germany
The task of the diploma project was to design a forum for invention and science in close proximity to Stirling’s Staatsgalerie. A forum that documents and displays the history of invention, that exhibits works and projects and provides information and inspiration for visitors and inventors.

The main emphasis lies in the didactic task: the explanation of the course of the creative process with its sequence of stages of development and the clarification of scientists’ and inventors’ work as well as a stimulating environment for the visitors.

The creative process is a net of (inter-) dependencies. Keywords here are ideas, knowledge, research, information, circumstances, support and communication.
Innovation has to be seen as a development process – from the idea to the product – translated into architecture in a dynamic building shape.

An undulating shape with ups and downs respomds to the urban context. Swinging in an inviting gesture from the underground level of a metro stop and passage way into the city, it marks the start of Stuttgart’s cultural mile.
The public green next to the Wagenburgtunnel is reorganised as a sculpture park connecting the parks of Uhlandshöhe and Rosenstein. The urban situation consists of an interesting marriage of closed and open space. The inner organisation of the building corresponds to the different stages of the creative process. The building construction as a two sided cantilevered lattice girder allows boths ends of the building to float without supporting pillars. The façade design with a uniform metal mesh structure powder coated in red, stresses the homogeneous character of the building.

Christina Assmann
Konstantina Fili


Christina’s design of a center for innovation “W[e]ave – dynamic exhibition” was honoured by the University as one of the best diploma projects because of its uniqueness concerning architectural ideas and was therefore highly encouraged to enter the RIBA President's Medals Awards.

We perceive her work as a refreshing approach towards a spatial interpretation of an abstract process – the creative process in the field of product development.

Her building layout leads the visitor in a smooth tour through museum spaces that are organized following the different stages of the creative process. The specific functions are allocated to boxes that are either piled, suspended or cantilevered layering space into different zones in order to obtain a changing spatial experience. “W[e]ave” contains public spaces as well as exemplary housing and working areas for inventors that present the progress of their work in a didactic way along the visitor’s path. These private spaces are accessed by a separate system of stairs that also serve as an escape route in case of fire.

The project elaborately combines structure, material, energy and safety issues, while creating a striking presence within the urban structure.

A remarkable steel girder makes an amazingly expressive building form possible that serves in the context of urban planning with its sculptural gesture as an architectural anacrusis to Stuttgart’s cultural strip.

It achieves to create an architectural logo for Stuttgart, an innovative structure with room for innovative ideas.

2002
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