Architecture Matters 2023

“Second City. On the New in the Old.” is the theme of Architecture Matters 2023, where we will explore this topic at different levels: materials, buildings, society. With the 2023 conference, we jump back into the thick of the action. The venue is Tucherpark, an office ensemble from the 1960s that is listed as a Bavarian State Monument and currently being redeveloped.

How can we think about and design the life cycle of buildings? What does it mean for the construction and real estate industries when new builds are the exception and no longer the rule? Do we have enough appreciation for more recent stock? How should we think about historic preservation today? Beyond general calls for self-sufficiency and lower standards in construction: What comforts are we prepared to give up as individuals to be more sustainable? Even if most places have been built up in this country – what strategies are we developing for regions that still face major urbanization processes? Concrete, the building material of the modern age, offers us a paradigm for examining the true value of building materials. How can circular thinking be applied to building as a whole – starting from initial prototypes based on the principles of cradle-to-cradle, urban mining, or the city as a resource? How much innovative power are the major corporations developing – What new digital business models are currently emerging in the green tech scene? What does it mean to design with available resources – What counts as beautiful today? How can we think in tandem about the social question and the ecological question? And how do we shape this complex change process together with the multitude of stakeholders?