NEW GERMAN ARCHITECTURE. A REFLEXIVE MODERNISM

NEW GERMAN ARCHITECTURE

"This catalogue is bound to be the compendium which the young generation of architects in the first decade of the twenty-first century will be measured against." Artheon-Mitteilungen

What is new German architecture? What are its distinguishing features, its character? This publication presents an extensive portrait of contemporary architecture in Germany. Well-known authors in the field describe 25 state-of-the art buildings and projects by German architects from 1990 to the present, and, by means of a selection of ten architectural firms, provide an overview of the most important movements in German architecture since 1975.
If new architecture in Germany indeed reflects facets of the zeitgeist, if - according to Friedrich Nietzsche, with liberties - it is supposed to be architecture after the German soul, then the selection presented here primarily shows one thing: We have finally entered an epoch without "great tales" (Jean- François Lyotard). New German architecture does not lend itself to being forced into formal or programatic patterns, cannot be classified into schools, tendencies or clear traditional lines. This "lack of clarity" (Jürgen Habermas) is not only an expression of a farewell to great ideologies but also indicates a specifically heightened cultural sensitivity. Moderate, not overbearing, self-assuredly thoughtful, undogmatic: New German architecture is the architecture of a self-critical, reflexive Modernism.

Edited by Ullrich Schwarz on behalf of the Hamburgische Architektenkammer , texts by Gert Kähler, Wolfgang Kil, Wolfgang Pehnt, Hanno Rauterberg, Olaf Winkler u.a.