INFORMATION of 19 February 2013
Frankfurt am Main
NETWORK LIVING
Architecture for all Generations
16 February — 19 May 2013
Deutschen Architekturmuseum DAM,
Schaumainkai 43, Frankfurt am Main, Ground Floor
EXHIBITION OPENING:
Fri, 15 February 2013, 17.00
PRESS CONFERENCE:
Fri, 15 February 2013, 11.00
GUIDED TOURS:
On Saturdays and Sundays 16.00
Richard + Su Rogers: Rogers House © Rogers Stirk Harbour, Photographer unknown
OPEN:
Tue, Thu — Sat 11.00 — 18.00 \ Wed 11.00 — 20.00 \
Sun 11.00 – 19.00
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
PUBLICATION
COINCIDING PROGRAM
IMPRINT
COMING SOON / CONTACT
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Network Living. Architecture for all Generations
Frankfurt/ Main, 15.02.16
Day-to-day living in old age with a focus on normality and habit – an exhibition presenting
35 innovative architecture projects
Western industrialized nations are facing major challenges as a result of their aging populations.
Challenges not only in terms of restructuring their social insurance systems, but also of adapting
both private accommodation and the public domain– public spaces and transport systems.
However active management of the new requirements is slow to establish itself on the
residential market. Only five percent of currently available residential accommodation is
suitable for the elderly. And this although the vast majority of the current 65plus generation –
93 percent, to put it more exactly – lives in private households.
Over the past 15 years, increasing life expectancy and changing demands of accommodation
have led to a series of shifts in attitudes to living in old age. Today’s generation of over-65-yearolds no longer wishes to be perceived as recipients of benefits but instead as clients. They
increasingly wish to make their own decisions about what support options they wish to take
advantage of and in what way. They are prepared to adapt their own lifestyles to old age but are
completely unwilling to abandon these entirely in favor of a world of ›designed for the elderly‹ –
living everything, of course, in its accustomed environment. The buzzword of active precautions
instead of passive welfare is something that this generation has now made a real mental note of.
For the residential market in Germany, this means in particular that in future what is on offer
will increasingly have to take its cue from private housing. After all, in Germany, a mere seven
percent of over-65-year-olds live in what is known as “care” facilities. All too often, media
perception associates living in old age with retirement homes, assisted living models and
apartments specially adapted to old age. However, the real focus of building activities lies in the
construction of “normal” houses and apartments. This must be accompanied by a more normal
approach to the former subject. After all, in future, the challenge will be less to create living
space tailored to old age than to design and shape residential accommodation in such a way that
it can be flexibly adapted to its users’ old age and their physical and intellectual capabilities.
Accessible living in the privacy of one’s own four walls must be seen as the real model for the
future, not least because our living environments and their well-established networks guarantee
social integration. In future, care and provision will be more strongly determined by selforganized, established neighborhood networks than is the case today.
The exhibition Network Living. Architecture for all Generations sees itself as a plea for
normalizing the idea of living in old age. All the 35 apartment complexes presented show that at
best, living in old age prolongs existing living habits. At the same time, the exhibition illustrates
examples of the social possibilities. Whether this is living alone in a single-occupancy house,
with others in collective living projects or in apartments in multi-story residential complexes in
districts with self-organized neighborhood assistance – the subject of living in old age has many
different faces and architectural facets.
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Network Living. Architecture for all Generations
Frankfurt/ Main, 15.02.16
In order to present innovative approaches, examples have been chosen not only from the
European context but from further afield as well, for example, from Japan, where the
demographic situation is even more dramatic than in Germany. Alongside villas by Shigeru Ban,
Sou Fujimoto, Atelier Bow-Wow and David Chipperfield Architects for older clients are multioccupancy houses with communal areas by Will Alsop, Baumschlager Eberle and Fink + Jocher
Architekten. Age-appropriate conversions in Switzerland is one of the topics addressed, as are
assisted-living in Luxembourg, renovation work in Germany and a revitalized village in Italy.
These contemporary residential projects are complemented by historical buildings such as one
by Le Corbusier for his parents on Lake Leman (Switzerland), one by Robert Venturi for his
mother in Chestnut Hill (USA), the glass house in New Canaan (USA) where Philip Johnson
lived until he was 98 years old and Richard Rogers’ house for his parents in London (GB) in
which the third generation is now living. All these projects support the theory that this is one of
the topics that at least individual architects have always taken into consideration – whether
consciously or unconsciously – in their designs.
All 35 projects are presented in plans, models, photographs and short filmic documentations.
The entire exhibition space is, in fact, staged as a large living space to be touched and felt. It was
possible to get Frankfurt-based photographer Barbara Klemm involved in the project; she
documented the diversity of lives experienced by older people in a series of arresting portraits.
These form the start to the exhibition. There are also individual focal topics on areas of product
design, assistance systems, intelligent building technology and mobility (e-bikes, walking
frames, shopping carts, car sharing). The exhibition was designed and implemented by a
Frankfurt-based bank design agency, Sign Kommunikation.
All the projects presented at the exhibition were chosen in collaboration with a scientific
advisory committee. The following people formed part of this body: Prof. Dr. phil. Dr. h. c. Dipl.
Psych. Andreas Kruse, a gerontologist at the University of Heidelberg, Prof. Christiane Thalgott,
former town counselor responsible for construction in the City of Munich and Prof. Dietmar
Eberle, founding member of architecture bureau Baumschlager Eberle and Professor at the ETH
Zurich, who is a member of the ETH residential forum.
Patrons of the exhibition Netzwerk Wohnen. Architektur für Generationen are the Federal
Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Development, Dr. Peter Ramsauer, and the President
of the German Association of Cities and Towns and Lord Mayor of the city of Munich, Christian
Ude.
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Network Living. Architecture for all Generations
Frankfurt/ Main, 15.02.16
PUBLICATION
To mark the exhibition, a comprehensive catalog is published by Prestel Verlag, Munich, in
German/English and is edited by Annette Becker, Peter Cachola Schmal and Claudia Haas. It
features articles by Paul Andreas, Dietmar Eberle, Fritz Frenkler, Albrecht Göschel, Frank
Junker, Andreas Kruse, Kirsten Mensch, Christiane Thalgott and Caja Thimm. The catalog goes
into detail about the exhibition, with articles by renowned specialists on the subjects of urban
planning and living environments, the conversion of existing apartments, collective living
projects and universal design.
Annette Becker, Peter Cachola Schmal, Claudia Haas (ed.)
Network Living. Architecture for all Generations
Prestel Publishers, München 2013
German/englisch; Softcover, 240 pages with 280 coloured images,
size 23 x 30 cm
With essays by Paul Andreas, Dietmar Eberle, Fritz Frenkler,
Albrecht Göschel, Frank Junker, Andreas Kruse, Kirsten Mensch,
Christiane Thalgott and Caja Thimm.
ISBN: 978-3-7913-5256-5
Museum shop prize: 36,- EUR/Book Store Prize: 39,95 EUR
The exhibition hopes to alert visitors, architect and the construction industry to the relevant
prerequisites in terms of architectural solutions and networks. A comprehensive accompanying
program put together in cooperation with trades and industry, social services and the real estate
market offers visitors further opportunities to find out more and to discuss the subject. Detailed
Information about all events: www.dam-online.de
Sat/Sun, 4 p.m. Open guided tours by curator Yorck Förster;
admission to the museum EUR 7 Euro/ EUR 3.50 reduced
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Network Living. Architecture for all Generations
Frankfurt/ Main, 15.02.16
IMPRINT
Network Living. Architecture for all Generations
16 february 2013 – 19 May 2013 in the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), Ground Floor
Director DAM Peter Cachola Schmal
Exhibition concept Annette Becker, Claudia Haas
Scientific Advisory Board Dietmar Eberle, Andreas Kruse und Christiane Thalgott
Research assistance Paul Andreas, Markus Tristan Lorenz, Evelyn Steiner, Erich Wagner
Exhibition design SIGN Kommunikation, Frankfurt, Antonia Henschel, Jörn C.Hofmann, Aleksandra
Linek, Oliver Selzer, Esther Schulze-Tsatsas, Dimitrios Tsatsas
Translations Jeremy Gaines, Norma Keßler
Public relations Stefanie Lampe
Secretariat Inka Plechaty
Administration Jaqueline Brauer, Yvonne Künstler
Museum education Christina Budde, Yorck Förster
Registrar Wolfgang Welker
Exhibition architecture Inditec Display & Messegestaltung, Oliver Taschke Schreinermeister
Setup fort he exhibition Christian Walter, Marina Barry, Pietro Paolo Brunino, Ulrich Diekmann,
Enrico Hirsekorn, Caroline Krause, Eike Laeuen, Achim Müller-Rahn, Harald Pompl, Michael Reiter,
Angela Tonner, Beate Voigt, Gerhard Winkler, Valerian Wolenik
In Cooperation with:
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Network Living. Architecture for all Generations
Frankfurt/ Main, 15.02.16
Press images for announcements and reports during the exhibition period at www.dam-online.de
8 June – 1 September 2013
Think Global, Build Social! Architectures for a better world
15 June – 1 September 2013
Bollinger + Grohmann. Behind the scenes
DEUTSCHES ARCHITEKTURMUSEUM
Press & Public Relations
Schaumainkai 43, 60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, www.dam-online.de
Stefanie Lampe, M.A.
T +49 (0)69 212 36318 \ F +49 (0)69 212 36386
stefanie.lampe@stadt-frankfurt.de
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