Raumstation Ruhr, since 2023
Looking back to a new future
In the 1960s and 70s, a multitude of large-scale architectural structures were built, including residential complexes, universities, and administrative buildings – often hybrids that attempted to combine culture, commerce, bureaucracy, and housing in a single building complex.
In public perception, these buildings are largely unpopular today, considered ugly, described as „concrete monsters“ or „architectural sins“ In fact, however, these buildings are documents of a time when architecture was conceived differently. They are the result of a modern belief in technological progress, speak of the spirit of optimism of the post-war years, and are cultural testaments to an era.
The newly designed architecture of the time had a highly utopian content. Its buildings were considered prototypes, erected in the firm belief that they would offer their residents a new and better future. Indeed, it was expected that these large-scale structures would replace the traditional small-scale city in the near future.
Photographed in the Ruhr region.
Kindly supported by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, Essen