Accept or reject?
Critical article for the discourse section of the Yearbook of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology's Faculty of Architecture. Written in April 2022, published in October 2022. "Lukas Großmann's article ‚Accept or reject?‘ deals very concretely with qualitative evaluation criteria for the preservation of existing buildings from the post-war period, using a specific example. The question of preservation is here directly linked to the fundamental question of the cultural discourse around the topic of ‚building stock‘ and idealistic implications. Using the example of the former post office building in Bruckmühl from the early 1970s, Großmann asks, among other things, what standards of value are applied by our society. What criteria our society has agreed upon, independent of individual judgments of taste, and why. And which authorities decide on these criteria." - translated from the introduction to the discourse section, written by Nina Rind. Accept or reject? Most existing buildings in Germany were built in the era of post-war modernism. Is the architectural heritage of these buildings to be considered a treasure or a debt? An attempt to clarify the complex problem of the question "to preserve or to demolish?" on the basis of a former brutalist post office building. - from the article abstract. The entire yearbook can be read online for free at https://issuu.com/arch.kit.edu/docs/221006_jahrbuch_kit_arch_web Printed copies can be purchased from the Faculty of Architecture.