Bayerwaldzyklus

Peter Haimerl . Architektur

with beierle.goerlich

MARCH 09 - JULY 07,2019

OPENING: FRIDAY, MARCH 08, 7 PM

In 2019, the Bielefelder Kunstverein’s biennial exhibition series »Baukunst« (Architecture) is featuring Peter Haimerl, one of the most interesting and individual of Germany’s architects. Based in Munich, he exceeds the boundaries of conventional architecture in his projects. He sets out to develop unconventional solutions and innovations with each of them. Concepts materialising from his practice fuse architecture with areas such as computer programming, sociology, economics, politics or art. In all this, Haimerl devotes himself particularly to the topic of »Bauen im Bestand« (Building amid Existing Stock). He has founded the Haus.Paten-Initiative (House Patron Initiative) and is comprehensively engaged with the culture of building in the Bavarian Forest area. As he has already done on the Schedlberg (near Arnbruck in Bavaria), he goes back in his mind to the basic characteristics of his buildings and tries to retain their originality by supporting the existing substance of the almost derelict Waldlerhaus (a local form of agricultural building) with concrete beams. In the middle of Blaibach, Haimerl has realised a visionary structure for the concert hall, where a canted monolithic structure creates an expanded area below ground and, with that, has changed the entire town centre. When he remodelled the Schusterbauernhaus (shoemaker’s/ cobbler’s farmhouse) in Riem, he implanted a concrete prism into the ruined structure, which matches the roof pitch and reflects into the interior space.

The exhibition by the Bielefelder Kunstverein provides a comprehensive overview of the Bayernwaldprojects. Our exhibition has come about in collaboration with the artist-duo, beierle.goerlich, who have supplied an artistic complement to many of his projects and engaged with the architecture, the urban construction projects and the development processes in rural areas with their photographs, videos and performances.

Peter Haimerl, born in Eben (Bavarian Forest) in 1961, founded his own practice in Munich in 1991. He has been awarded numerous prizes for his work, such as the “Große Nike” (Grand Nike), the Bavarian State Prize for Architecture and the Bavaria Culture Prize. Peter Haimerl has had teaching positions at the FH München (Munich University of the Applied Sciences), the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (Braunschweig University of Art) and most recently a Guest Professorship at the Universität Kassel (University of Kassel).