Exhibition, talks
Initiated by Sally Below, Moritz Henning, and Eduard Kögel
Curatorial team: Avianti Armand, Sally Below, Moritz Henning, Eduard Kögel, Setiadi Sopandi
2024
In the late 1950s, several young Indonesians went to study in West Germany, including architecture students. Most of them attended the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), while others studied at the technical universities in Hanover and Aachen. After completing their studies, the majority returned to their native Indonesia and quickly became key figures during this dynamic period of the country’s history. Around a third of the graduates remained in Europe, where they embarked on successful architectural careers in Germany and Switzerland.
Drawing from the diploma theses of the Berlin graduates, archived at the TU Berlin Architecture Museum, Dipl.-Ing. Arsitek: An Indonesian-German Architectural History provided insight into this little-known aspect of German-Indonesian relations, for the first time in Germany.
Dipl.-Ing. Arsitek: An Indonesian-German Architectural History aimed not only to reconnect these architects and their works with the place where they completed their training, but also to highlight that their significant contributions to international architectural development remain underacknowledged in global, and particularly Western, discourse. This raises important questions: How can previously overlooked and marginalized architects be incorporated into global discussions? How might this reshape the role of architecture in society, both in Germany and Indonesia? What new discourses could emerge in both regions? And how does public debate influence the appreciation and treatment of their built work in its original context?
Launched in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the city partnership between Jakarta and Berlin, this project exemplified mutual cultural appreciation and highlights the positive impact that can be achieved through academic and cultural exchange.
An exhibition at the Institute for Architecture of the Technical University Berlin, that was based on our exhibition Dipl.-Ing. Arsitek. German-trained Indonesian Architects from the 1960s held in Jakarta in 2022, documented the lives and work of eight of these architects.
Three accompanying talks expanded on the exhibition and connected it to broader contemporary discourses:
The Question of Materials
Guests: Anupama Kundoo (Chair of Architecture and Design Methods, Institute of Architecture, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany), Sina Jansen, (Natural Building Lab, Technical University of Berlin, Germany), Setiadi Sopandi (Museum Arsitektur Indonesia, Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia), Avianti Armand (Museum Arsitektur Indonesia, Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia), Gregorius Jasson (Kota Kita Foundation, Surakarta, Indonesia)
Moderation: Friederike Meyer, BauNetz, architectural journalist, Berlin
Strategies for Collecting and Presenting
Guests: Avianti Armand (Co-Founder and Director of the Museum Arsitektur Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia), Setiadi Sopandi, (Co-Founder and Director of the Museum Arsitektur Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia), Adelia Andani Djarot (Museum Arsitektur Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia), Angeline Basuki, (Museum Arsitektur Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia), Nadejda Bartels (Director Tchoban Foundation, Berlin, Germany), Hans-Dieter Nägelke (Director of the Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Berlin, Germany)
Moderation: Friederike Meyer, BauNetz, architectural journalist, Berlin
Global Architectural History – An Exclusive Narrative
Guests: Nikolai Brandes (Research Centre global dis:connect, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich), Eduard Kögel (Co-Initiator of the platform Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism, Berlin), Ursula Schwitalla (Art historian, chairwoman of the Tübinger Kunstgeschichtliche Gesellschaft e.V., founder and board member of Diversity in Architecture e.V. and initiator of the divia prize, Tübingen, Germany), Liang Song (Department of Building and Urban History, Technical University of Berlin, Germany)
Moderation: Friederike Meyer, BauNetz, architectural journalist, Berlin
View the full programme here.
