Bernd Schmutz Architekten

We have been asked by Goethe-Institut New York to provide a design to reflect the cultural influences and implications of New York’s 1969 Stonewall Riots in the following decades in the U.S. and Germany. The exhibition design, which has been conceived with Eva-Maria Stadelmann and Frank Joachim Wössner, proposes a simple structure of battens and panels, assembled in a loose spatial arrangement as an open archive to open up new views and relationships. The dynamic display allows the visitor to enter the installation and therefore supports a direct discourse with the themes and contents. Construction is deliberately low-tech to reinforce the interaction of visitors with the materials used and to enable low-cost one-off productions at each of the exhibiting venues. The display’s flexibility reflects the size and characteristics of each space and makes every exhibition unique.

Our proposal for a visitor centre to support Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel’s Haus in Buckow has been awarded with an Honourable Mention. The project which has been conceived in collaboration with Adam Khan Architects, accommodates a tall reception, large hall for lectures and events, visitor facilities and offices under a tent-like and gently curved roof which is sitting as a light timber pavilion in the lush gardens of the protected heritage site.

As part of the festival ‘Metamorphoses’ organised by The Architecture Foundation in London, Bernd Schmutz has been invited by Ellis Woodman to a day-long symposium on 7th October to explore classical currents in contemporary culture and architecture. Our presentation ‘Soft Symmetries’  demonstrated the relevance of classicism in our work as an inspiration and source for transformation. Speakers at the Hawksmoor Room of the Old Royal Naval College included also Timothy Smith & Jonathan Taylor, David Kohn, George Saumarez Smith, Chris Dyvik & Max Kahlen, Norreile Breen, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Andrew Phillips & Melissa Johnston, Amin Taha, David Knight & Cristina Monteiro and Adam Nathaniel Furman.
(Image from ‘The Architecture Foundation’)

Bernd Schmutz has been invited to participate with 30 experts, architects and urban planners at a 1-week long workshop called “Ideenmeisterschaft” to conceive new strategies and architectural concepts for transforming large areas of central Bremen into a more liveable city. The new format for a planning charette, organised and conceived by JES, is based on public consultation and will be stimulated at its outset by external views from various disciplines to support a co-creative process within the interdisciplinary teams in order to gather new ideas for Mitte Bremen and the future of Bremen’s inner city.

Bernd Schmutz has been invited to join Atelier Ekinci at Hochschule Luzern/Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts  as a guest critic for reviews of the studio’s work on steel structures over the course of this semester. Inspired by the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher the students are researching the formal, tectonic and typological potential of nearby haulage structures in Horw and translate them into proposals for large-scale industrial buildings which reflect both pragmatic beauty and careful proportions with characterful structures in an industrial landscape at the transition  between city and nature.