Fifty years ago, entitled “ambiente / environment”, the three-nation trigon biennial set out to examine the question of the perception of space, adding the factor of architecture to the established relationship between object and environment. To mark the anniversary year, Haus der Architektur picks up this thread and investigates the role of architecture as a catalyst in the relationship of the human being and the environment. The exhibition “we are here! 3 experiments” presents three collectives, each projecting different models of this relationship. What happens when we have no more air to breathe? Or when we cannot find a place in a hyper-capitalised neighbourhood? What is possible when a state of emergency becomes the norm?

The Breathe Earth Collective designs architectures that use technology to ensure a viable relationship between human beings and the air: from fans helping the forest to produce fresh air to urban air machines that look like trees. In Milan, the Isola Art Center collective creates a social oasis that asserts itself tenaciously in inhospitable surroundings. And the Sarajevo Now the People’s Museum and Urban-Think Tank present the museum of urban history as a collective driving force of cultural reconstruction in a war-ravaged urban environment.

Even fifty years after “ambiente / environment”, the relationships to our environment and the strategies for shaping this organic association remain diverse. The three exemplary projects from the former trigon region establish new metabolisms in which architecture filters, controls and enables.

• facebook
• twitter
• email
• google+
• tumblr
• print