December 10, 2022–June 4, 2023
With ole scheeren: spaces of life the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe presents the first major solo exhibition on the work of the internationally renowned architect Ole Scheeren. Based on Ole Scheeren’s ongoing endeavor to envision new architectural prototypes for the future, the exhibition addresses the fundamental question "How do we want to live?". Installations and digital applications place the experience of architecture at the heart of the exhibition.
Since 2010, Ole Scheeren, born in Karlsruhe, Germany, runs his own office, with branches in Hong Kong, Beijing, Berlin, and London. He is known worldwide for his innovative high-rise buildings, stacked skyscrapers, and residential projects. True to his motto “form follows fiction,” Scheeren’s buildings activate the ideas, fantasies, and emotions of the people who live and work in them, beyond their purely technical and functional structures. In this sense, his architecture is characterized by the hybrid interfusing of formerly separate areas, such as living and working, public and private, culture and commerce, enabling new connections and contexts. In this way, Scheeren creates composite structures that resemble self-contained cities within cities where the surrounding environment becomes an inseparable part of the building itself. An outstanding example of this approach is the residential complex The Interlace in Singapore, known for its natural urban living environment with an interplay of private, public, and semipublic spaces. As the world’s best project for urban living, in 2014 The Interlace was awarded the Urban Habitat Award from the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) in Chicago for its “groundbreaking contribution to the urban realm and social sustainability” and designated World Building of the Year 2015 at the World Architecture Festival.
Scheeren’s understanding of buildings as living organisms and biophilic systems will be featured in the exhibition ole scheeren: spaces of life. Additionally, the exhibition asks what role buildings as urban actors play in the identity of cities and what resonance architecture has in social media and other areas of society—Scheeren’s architecture represents a counter-concept to the usual hierarchic, upwards towering city buildings in order to create new spaces for life.
In the exhibition, these themes are unfolded through four different elements: object, process, context, and consumption. Large-scale models (object) are brought to life through augmented reality features. Archival material (architectural plans, videos, architectural models, etc.) is organized in thematic presentations that link Ole Scheeren’s defining key concepts to his architectural projects (process). Additionally, around 100 3D printed architectural models are embedded in an animated timeline contextualizing and connecting the projects in their time and place (context). Accompanying these elements is social media content that points to the representation and consumption of architecture in the digital age (consumption). This multimediality enables a multifaceted understanding of Ole Scheeren’s buildings and the fundamental issues of social coexistence and cohesion, which are crucial challenges of our times on a global scale.
The exhibition ole scheeren: spaces of life is a collaboration between the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and the OS Archive, in partnership with KME Karlsruher Marketing and Event GmbH, City of Karlsruhe.
Please find here further information about the exhibition.
Curated by: Peter Weibel
Project team ZKM: Anne Däuper, Christian Lölkes, Beatrice Zaidenberg, Philipp Ziegler
Project team OS Archive: Emma Aulanko, Isa Fahrenholz, Marta Ferrari, Georg Hauke, Hyun Vin Kaspers, Nina Sattler, Justin Tan, Felix Yang.
Press contact: Felix Brenner, T +49 721 81001821, presse@zkm.de.
Please find further information on Büro Ole Scheeren here.
