Making Heimat

The exhibition Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country, which DAM created and curated for the German Pavilion at the 15th International Venice Architecture Biennale, is presented on two floors at the DAM and features updated and expanded subject matter as well as documentation and a review of the German Pavilion in Venice.

The exhibition responds to the fact that in 2015 the German borders were left open for around 1 million refugees, and prompts reflection about Germany as an open immigration country. In close cooperation with Doug Saunders, eight theories about “Arrival Cities” were devised that aim to trigger a change in the way we view immigrant neighborhoods. While providing their inhabitants and new arrivals with the most important conditions for them to be able to settle down and become integrated, these have for the most part been seen as problem areas.

Arrival City Offenbach, the neighboring city of Frankfurt, is accorded great significance in the exhibition. 58% of its population have a migration background, and there are 156 nationalities living peacefully side by side.

Before many of the refugees in Germany can become regular immigrants, thousands of them live in emergency and communal accommodation. The structures for refugees that have been, or are still being realized, and which since March 2016 have been part of the online data base www.makingheimat.de, are given their own exhibition floor in DAM. Selected projects will be examined in detail there by means of discussions, reports, and photographs. The current refugee situation and the demands being made on arrival city districts have one thing in common: there is a housing crisis in Germany. Accommodation that everyone can afford has to be built. For this reason, likewise selected housing projects will also be showcased.

The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive supporting program.