Anniversary exhibition on Lucius Burckhardt at the Faculty of ASL

"Lucius Burckhardt repeatedly left the university campus with the students and intervened in the city and landscape in order to arrive at new perspectives. The resulting actions challenged established structures and ways of thinking and made alternative positions visible through performance," explains Prof. Dr. Philipp Oswalt (Department of Architectural Theory and Design), who is curating the exhibition together with students.

Lucius Burckhardt taught as Professor of Socioeconomics of Urban Systems at the Gesamthochschule Kassel from 1973-97. Here, the subjects of architecture, urban planning and landscape planning were and are combined in one Faculty, as if made for Burckhardt, who thought these disciplines together. He researched the perception of the city and landscape and their effects on planning and construction and in the 1980s, his critique of urbanism led to a new discipline, the science of walking, also known as promenadology.

As early as 1976, he and his colleague Karl Heinrich Hülbusch took the first steps in this new method with students in the so-called "Urspaziergang". During the excursion to the North Hessian village of Riede, southwest of Kassel, the students explored the question of what landscape is and how we perceive it, influenced by language, literature, painting, media and advertising. Other walks were less explorations than processions, performances or even demonstrations that combined sharp criticism of existing ways of thinking with humor and a sense of the surreal.

"In the exhibition, we are showing further actions and interventions in which Burckhardt gave his students a coherent perception and interpretation of our environment and its history and reflected on the social and cultural conditions of architecture and planning. At the heart of his planning theory was the demand for the participation of city dwellers in the design of architecture and the city," says Prof. Oswalt, offering a glimpse into the exhibition.

"10 x research-based activism. Lucius Burckhardt's Teaching Research Projects 1973 - 1993" is one of ten anniversary exhibitions in the series "The Kassel Model 1973-2023. 50 Years of Architecture - Urban Planning - Landscape Planning at the University of Kassel" to mark the Faculty's anniversary. The exhibitions and the accompanying program highlight innovations and pressing issues in architecture, urban planning and landscape planning. A look back at the history of research and teaching is combined with current concepts of urban activism, the redesign of public spaces, the moratorium on demolition, sustainable building and digitalization. Then as now, critical and technically sound concepts are needed to address the challenges facing society. The Kassel Model stands for this self-image.

The exhibitions are organized and curated by various departments in collaboration with students. The exhibition series will continue until the summer semester 2024.

The Faculty of Architecture - Urban Planning - Landscape Planning invites you to the exhibition opening on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, 7 pm. Dr. Sanda Meireis (Berlin) will speak about the "Utopian content of small forms". On October 25, 2023, 7 pm, the exhibition will be accompanied by an event with statements and dialogues by participants in Lucius Burckhardt's public interventions, including Helmut Aebischer, Heidrun Hubenthal, Dennis Lange (Trafo-Haus), Bernd Sauerwein, Martin Schmitz, Bertram Weisshaar.

Anniversary exhibition

10 x researching activism. Lucius Burckhardt's teaching research projects 1973 - 1993

Monday - Thursday 8 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Friday 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Foyer of the ASL new building
Universitätsplatz 9
34127 Kassel

Admission is free of charge.

Exhibition team: Fulya Kamisli, Angelina Kretzer, Aylin Martin, Prof. Dr. Philipp Oswalt, Marie Schreiber, Naemi Sünderhauf

Further information on the exhibitions and other anniversary activities: http://www.uni-kassel.de/go/jubilaeumASL

Accompanying events:

Wednesday October 18, 2023, 7 pm

Opening of the exhibition with a lecture by Dr. Sandra Meireis (Berlin): The utopian content of small forms

Wednesday October 25, 2023, 7 pm

Talk about research-based activism then and now.

By and with Helmut Aebischer, Heidrun Hubenthal, Dennis Lange (Trafo-Haus), Bernd Sauerwein, Martin Schmitz, Bertram Weisshaar and others.

ASL-Neubau, ground floor, foyer and room 106, Universitätsplatz 9, 34127 Kassel

The series will be continued with the following exhibitions:

MUT - Materials and Technology Research Network
(Wed. 15 Nov - Thu. 30 Nov 2023)

RE:VIEWING L - 75 years of landscape architecture studies
(Wed. 6 Dec - Thu. 21 Dec 2023)

Demolition or preservation - The Henschelei and the Gesamthochschule Kassel
(Wed. 10 Jan - Thu. 25 Jan 2024)