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Architecture Section

The Architecture Section stages exhibitions, events, seminars and workshops that focus on the various issues involved in planning and construction.

A group of about 30 people are gathered for a photo on the steps of a building
Members of the Architecture Section, November 2024
© Marcus Lieberenz

About the Section

Since its foundation in 1696, the Akademie der Künste has counted among its members numerous prominent architects, ranging from Andreas Schlüter, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, David Gilly and Friedrich August Stüler to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Peter Behrens, Erich Mendelsohn, Hans Poelzig and Bruno Taut. However, it was not until 1954 and the re-establishment of the Akademie der Künste in West Berlin that a separate department for architecture was instituted at the prompting of the first president, Hans Scharoun.

It has become established practice for the members of the section to be consulted about the programme and for them to play an active curatorial role. This is a principle that has proved its worth, with exhibitions commemorating the achievements of the great architects of the 20th century, including Hans Scharoun, Egon Eiermann, Alvar Aalto, Hugo Häring, Erich Mendelsohn, Hans Poelzig and Otto Bartning.

Themed exhibitions are dedicated to current areas of interest in construction and urban planning. The section organises lecture series, discussions, conferences and expert dialogues.

Consulting

One of the Architecture Section’s key concerns is the consultative role it plays in advising both the German government and other organisations and associations in society. It uses its expertise and reputation to save modernist and post-war modernist monuments that are under threat. The section is represented in the Schaustelle Nachkriegsmoderne network, which showcases post-war modernist architecture, and on the State of Berlin’s advisory committee for art (Beratungsausschuss Kunst – BAK).

Directors

HG Merz, Director

Architect and exhibition designer

Member of the Section (since 2018), Director (since 2024)

Learn more

HG Merz
HG Merz
© Inge Zimmermann

Regine Keller, Deputy Director

Landscape architect and urban planner

Member of the Section (since 2013), Deputy Director (since 2024)

Learn more

Regine Keller
Regine Keller
© Inge Zimmermann

Former Directors

Former directors are Fritz Frenkler (2021–2024), Matthias Sauerbruch (2018–2021), Michael Bräuer (2012–2018), Donata Valentien (2006–2012), Günter Nagel (1997–2006) and Friedrich Spengelin (1989–1997).

Former deputy directors are HG Merz (2021–2024), Jörn Walter (2018–2021), Wilfried Wang (2012–2018), Michael Bräuer (2009–2012), Heinrich Moldenschardt (2006–2009), Vladimír Šlapeta (1997–2006) and Günter Nagel (1986–1997).

Members

The section comprises members from around the world representing the fields of architecture, urban and landscape planning, design, civil engineering, architectural history and architectural theory.

All Members of the Section (in German)

Programme

Past Exhibitions

From 2010 to 2020 the section devoted four major, member-curated exhibitions to European cities and the tendencies apparent in them at the start of the 21st century: Return of Landscape (2010), Culture:City (2013), Demo:Polis – The Right to Public Space (2016) and urbainable – stadthaltig (2020).

The exhibition POWER SPACE VIOLENCE – Planning and Building under National Socialism was staged in 2023. Models, photographs and films were used to document the inhuman conditions that characterised construction in the Nazi era.

In 2024/25 the double exhibition draw love build / sauerbruch hutton tracing modernities presented projects by the architectural firm sauerbruch hutton in dialogue with exhibits from the Architectural Archives.

Two people looking at written boards and pictures in an exhibition room
POWER SPACE VIOLENCE – Planning and Building under National Socialism, exhibition view, Akademie der Künste, 2023
© Andreas [FranzXaver] Süß

Lectures and Talks on Architecture and the City

Between 2018 and 2023 the section ran the lecture series “On the Duty and the Power of Architecture” with lectures by members and a range of guests that included Shigeru Ban, Klaus Bollinger, Arno Brandlhuber, Winfried Brenne, Kees Christiaanse, HArquitectes, Herman Hertzberger, Anne Lacaton, Le Balto, Daniel Libeskind, Víctor López Cotelo, Dorte Mandrup, Volkwin Marg, Ian Ritchie, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Patrik Schumacher, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Volker Staab, Christiane Thalgott, Kjetil Thorsen and Xu Tiantian. The dialogue partners – Matthias Sauerbruch, Wilfried Wang and others – were also members of the Architecture Section.

In the early part of July 2023, an international symposium examined ways of tackling the Nazis’ architectural legacy.

In 2025 a series of events takes place on the future design of German city centres, featuring experts and members of the section from Germany and abroad.

News

Prizes and Fellowships

Every year the jury awarding the Berlin Art Prize in the architecture category is made up of members of the Architecture Section. The section is also represented on the expert advisory board for the Peter Joseph Lenné Prize, awarded to landscape architects every two years by the State of Berlin.

The JUNGE AKADEMIE fellows have a particularly important role to play in fostering young talent. This involves the forging of a close bond – predicated on a rigorous selection process, with mentorship by members leading on to involvement in the section’s current projects – and cultivates dialogue between the generations. Each year, the section awards two Berlin fellowships and, every two years, a residency at Villa Serpentara in Olevano Romano in Italy.

Publications

Monographs and catalogues are published on a regular basis in conjunction with the section’s exhibitions.

Contact

Carolin Schönemann
Secretary of the Section

T +49 (0)30 200 57 1537
T +49 (0)30 200 57 1538
baukunst@adk.de

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