“Everything we see around us is architecture,” says renowned architect Meinhard von Gerkan at the start of this video, the latest entry in PLANE–SITE’s “Time Space Existence” interview series, which will be screened at the 2016 Venice Biennale.
The “Time Space Existence” series “explores the philosophical concerns of architects,” according to the creators. The format is an open-ended conversation, which allows the interview subjects to really delve into the topics that fascinate them most. In the case of von Gerkan, one of the founding partners of the Hamburg-based firm gmp and President of the Academy for Architectural Culture, that topic is the need for architectural education that teaches architects how to best meet the needs of the public.
Von Gerkan claims that the realities of capitalist society create roadblocks that prevent buildings from truly meeting people’s needs. “The balance between living conditions for everybody — poor or rich, however — and the afford [sic] our society has to spend to create this, that is a main problem all over the world,” he says. “On one side the investors put money to make money but not to create a better life. And the state are willing to create a better life but miss what is important to the behavior of the people for feeling well.”
“Over these 29 years of my official professorship I created my own idea of what could be better in the future,” he says. “We created an academy for architectural culture to create solutions for the future that should show the society a better way to come to a better solution for our living world.”
For von Gerkan, finding solutions has involved renewing his practice’s focus on simplicity and utility. At gmp, von Gerkan says, “We look for projects which are necessary, which are very important for all the different societies.” He discusses how at times his firm has not had enough money to complete their projects in the way they knew they needed to be done. At these times, he says, they doubled down on their resolve to “find solutions.” Sometimes this meant changing their designs, sometimes this meant looking to other sources for funding, but in each case it required ingenuity.
To learn more about von Gerkan’s incredible career, make sure to watch the video. Also, stay tuned forfurther Architizer coverage of the exciting upcoming Venice Biennale.