Research Center for the History of Ecological Building (FGÖB)

The Research Center for the History of Ecological Building at the University of Kassel is dedicated to scientific research into the history and theory of ecological building in German-speaking countries. In cooperation with the UniArchiv and the doku:lab, the research center documents the legacies of key players in environmentally conscious, climate-friendly and social building and planning as well as the historical memories of contemporary witnesses. The sources will be historically and critically researched and contextualized and the research results published in a new publication series. Special focus is placed on the history of the Gesamthochschule Kassel (now the University of Kassel). Germany's first research center on the history of ecological building not only aims to close a gap in recent architectural history, but also to make an important contribution to current issues relating to the building revolution.

Founded in 1971, the Gesamthochschule Kassel and its integrated Faculty of Architecture, Urban Planning and Landscape Design (ASL) brought together a large number of progressive ecological players. The "Kassel Model" is regarded as an important reform approach to architecture and planning in the second half of the 20th century and is prototypical for new educational concepts at universities in Germany and abroad. Unlike the archives of important design schools such as the Bauhaus (1919-1933) or the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm (1953-1968), the history of the Gh Kassel has not yet been comprehensively researched. With the establishment of the UniArchiv in 2023, the sources will be systematically secured, indexed and made available for research for the first time. A central task of the Research Centre for the History of Ecological Building Kassel is therefore to document and critically analyze the processes and contexts at the GhK since the 1970s in cooperation with the UniArchiv and other collection infrastructures and to locate them in the international discourse.

This is based on the bequests and estates of important former professors, such as Gernot Minke (since 2023), Michael Wilkens and Paul Posenenske (both from 2024), which are part of the UniArchiv thanks to generous donations, as well as the collection on Lucius Burckhardt's teaching practice at the doku:lab and collections by Ulla Terlinden and others in the Archiv der deutschen Frauenbewegung (Engl.: Archive of the German Women's Movement). In order to make historical genealogies visible, representatives of ecological building avant la lettre such as Lebberecht Migge, for whom a collection of documents is also available at the doku:lab, Hannes Meyer, with the research network Co-op Hannes Meyer initiated by the Department of Theory of Architecture and Design, or the Kassel architect and university lecturer Hans Soeder are also part of the thematic profile; last but not least, precursors in the 18th and 19th centuries such as the solar building theory of the North Hessian doctor and hygienist Bernhard Christoph Faust are included.

The research center understands ecological building as an umbrella term for diverse, sometimes contradictory building and planning practices that deal with questions of energy-efficient, resource-conserving and circular building, technological developments and alternative building materials, building on existing buildings, self-build techniques, use-oriented open space planning, planning criticism, dialogical planning, planning "from below", emancipation, collaborative working methods and temporary, performative urban interventions. Ecological building is an integrative practice and encompasses architecture, urban planning, landscape planning and related disciplines such as engineering and environmental sciences. Against the backdrop of the Anthropocene, a general concept of ecology also encompasses the technosphere and thus advocates a relational view of the environment in architecture and planning that includes cybernetic systems and non-human actor networks in equal measure.

The publication series Ökologisches Bauen, published by Jovis Verlag, serves as a publication tool for the research center and makes historical documents and research results accessible. It combines the thematization of historical positions with current issues of environmentally and socially responsible building. The series is edited by Philipp Oswalt and Alexander Stumm, Department of Theory of Architecture and Design at the University of Kassel.

Publications on the demolition question, Gernot Minke's Experimental Architecture 1962-86, Mike Wilkens' work 1973-95 and Lucius Burckhardt's teaching research projects 1973-93 are in preparation.

The aim is to network the collection infrastructures at the University of Kassel under a thematic focus. The research center is a project of the Departments of Theory of Architecture and Design and Landscape Architecture I Design in cooperation with the UniArchiv, the doku:lab - Documentation and Media Workshop of the ASL Faculty and the Stiftung Archiv der deutschen Frauenbewegung (Engl.: Foundation Archive of the German Women's Movement (AddF)). The UniArchiv preserves the pre- and posthumous estates of outstanding architects and university lecturers as well as the institutional heritage of the Faculty of Architecture - Urban Planning - Landscape Planning, the focus of the doku:lab has been on collecting the work of students since 1974, while the Archiv der deutschen Frauenbewegung (Engl. Archive of the German Women's Movement) contains works on feminist approaches in architecture and planning. The analog document collections are supplemented by digital repositories (videos, documents, e-publications). The research center is committed to networking and cooperation with thematically related (university) archives in an international context.

The Research Center for the History of Ecological Building is headed by Prof. Dr. Philipp Oswalt and Dr. Alexander Stumm.

The founding of the research center is part of the University of Kassel 's strategy to raise its profile as a university for sustainability. It strives for long-term sustainable and equal development in ecological, economic and social terms. For this reason, research focuses and courses of study are being further developed that are oriented towards sustainability issues.