DENKWERKSTATT 2021 – BUILDING AT THE LIMIT. TRADITIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF AN HIGH-MODERN GUIDING PRINCIPLE.

11. November 2021, at the old Cottbus diesel power plant (Hybrid-event)
In lectures and interdisciplinary discussions, the first Thinking Workshop of the Priority Program Cultural Heritage Construction addressed two seemingly almost contradictory facets of ultra-modern construction, which were put up for discussion with the annual theme 2021 „Building at the Limit“: the exploration of structural limits at the limit of what was previously conceivable while minimizing the use of materials on the one hand, and the confinement of structural thinking in codified limits of what is permissible through a previously unthinkable regulatory apparatus on the other hand.

Heritage as link to the past as well as to the future: In accordance with this fundamental orientation of SPP 2255, the think tank combined historical analysis with the questioning of the present. It examined the practices, thought patterns, and attitudes that the „generation of high-moderns“ developed in the field of tension of „building to the limit“ and at the same time traced the reception and reflection of the paradigm of minimization, or in other words: the continuities and ruptures of high-modern efficiency thinking in today’s building industry.

Last but not least, the first think tank of the SPP 2255 also served the fundamental self-understanding about the concept of „High modernity“, which is central for the conception of the priority program. It has to be clarified to what extent this periodization offer developed in the historical sciences is resilient and useful as a structural feature and knowledge-forming category for the characterization of the more recent history of building technology.

The think tank „Building at the Limit“ was held as a hybrid event at the Brandenburg State Museum of Modern Art | Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus. Due to the pandemic situation, on-site participation was unfortunately only possible for a limited group of around 30 people. However, interested members of the public had the opportunity to follow the event in the form of a video conference.