Das Garagenmanifest
Talk
Almost everyone who grew up in the former GDR can tell stories about the garages: about weekends in the garage yard, about the car that – acquired after a legendary waiting period – was mainly moved for the vacation trip to the Baltic Sea. And even today, cars are tinkered with and neighborhoods are lived here. Built in united self-construction, complexes, which can consist of more than a thousand garages, spread out on the edges of settlements. Smaller garage complexes sometimes hide in the middle of the city.
In recent years, interest in a reappraisal of the architectural and planning history of the GDR has increased considerably. Garages as representative examples of everyday GDR architecture and biotopes of the everyday culture of the vanished state have received far too little attention. The Garage Manifesto now offers the first reappraisal of this multi-layered GDR legacy. Nine case studies illustrated with black-and-white photographs, drawings, and site plans provide insights into the construction and planning methods of various facilities. An in-depth essay deals with the origins of the building typology and with the threats to which this piece of living GDR culture is exposed today.
Finally, developments in monument preservation are also considered: Cultural heritage is not simply there, monuments are made, the message goes. The book is rounded off by a picture essay by photographer Martin Maleschka.
During the book launch, Rellensmann and Casper will discuss with their guests beyond the typological consideration of garages as places of communities, exchange and cultural production.
Please find more information online at: architekturgalerieberlin.de/veranstaltungen/das-garagenmanifest/
