Cold Transfer. Architecture, Politics, Culture

This symposium makes a contribution to a European History of Architecture — a history of transfer, but also of convergences and divergences in Europe’s architecture, politics and culture.

The efforts made by Germany as a ‘perpetrator nation’ to make a radical break with its Nazi past as well as Austria’s claim to ‘victim status’ characterized politics in the postwar period. Both countries’ search for identity after 1945 expedited nation building – under the watch of the Allies. Switzerland, which had remained neutral during the war, served as a bridge facilitating the flow of know-how and assistance to the two war-damaged countries. All three countries participated to varying degrees in the ideological conflict of the Cold War. With its transnational approach, the symposium will shine a light – in comparative perspective – on building practices and the socio-political parameters of the three.

Programme
Fri 24.01
18:00 Welcome address
Angelika Fitz, Director of the Az W
Wolfgang Petritsch, President of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation

18:10–19:50 Ideology Transfer
Keynotes:
Günter Bischof, University Research & Marshall Plan Professor of History, Director, Center Austria, University of New Orleans
Maria Fritsche, Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim

19:50 Discussion with
Günter Bischof and Maria Fritsche
Moderated by Wolfgang Petritsch, President of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation

Sat 25.01
10:00 Welcome address and introduction
Angelika Fitz, Director of the Az W
Monika Platzer, Exhibition Curator, Az W

10:30–12:00 Transfer via Networks
Bruno Maurer, Leiter gta Archiv, ETH Zürich
Gabriele Kaiser, architecture correspondent, lecturer, Kunstuniversität Linz
Andreas Kalpakci, research assistent, gta, ETH Zürich

13:30–14:30 Transfer via Display
Regine Hess, Curator and research assistant, Chair of History of Architecture and Curatorial Practice / Architekturmuseum TU Munich
Sabine Sträuli, research assistent, gta, ETH Zürich

14:30–15:30 Transfer via Democracy
Dennis Pohl, research assistent, department of architectural theory, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
Georg Vrachliotis, Professor of Architecture theory, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
Moderated by Anna Minta, Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture, Catholic Private University Linz

16:00–17:00 Discussion with
Bernd M. Scherer, Director of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Monika Sommer, Director of the Haus der Geschichte Österreich, Vienna
Moderated by Angelika Fitz, Director of the Az W

Curator: Monika Platzer, Az W

A cooperation by the Az W with the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation