Von der
Weltaus­stellung zur
Bauausstellung

Eine Architektur­geschichte
großer Ausstel­lungen 1851–1957

Habilitation at the School of Engin­eer­ing and Design at Tech­nical Uni­ver­sity Munich, fun­ded by German Research Found­a­tion (DFG)

Study on the archi­tec­ture, polit­ics and typo­logy of large exhib­i­tions, with twenty case studies that form a gene­a­logy of their own.

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It will be pub­lished in May 2026 by Jovis Ver­lag, Berlin.

International Building Exhibition Interbau 1957, Berlin, Special Exhibition Hall by Günther Günschel and Frei Otto © Architecture Museum of TU Munich

Inter­na­tional Build­ing Exhib­i­tion Inter­bau 1957, Ber­lin, Spe­cial Exhib­i­tion Hall by Günter Gün­schel and Karl Otto © Archi­tec­ture Museum of TU Munich, VG Bild Kunst, Bonn

WOHNEN MIT KLASSE

ED. BY AMELIE OCHS AND ROSANNA UMBACH
SUPERVISION BY REGINE HESS

Kritische Berichte.
Journal for Art History
and Cultural Studies, 2/2025

Hous­ing and class are inex­tric­ably linked. The art­icles in this issue ana­lyze this con­nec­tion with a view to images of hous­ing in pho­to­graphy, film, magazines, archi­tec­ture (debates) and on social media and dis­cuss how class rela­tions are made vis­ible and invis­ible in them. The issue is pub­lished in German.

Down­load the issue          Ulmer Ver­ein

Wohnen mit Klasse. Ed. by Amelie Ochs and Rosanna Umbach. Supervision by Regine Hess. Kritische Berichte. Journal For Art History And Cultural Studies, 2/2025
Between Conventional and Experimental. Mass Housing and Prefabrication in Modernist Architecture, ed. by Regine Hess, Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler, Tzafrir Fainholtz, Yael Allweil, Leuven University Press, Leuven 2024
Between
Conventional
and
Experimental

Mass Hous­ing and
Prefab­rication in
Modernist Archi­tec­ture

 

ed. by Regine Hess, Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler, Tzafrir Fainholtz, Yael Allweil
Leuven Uni­ver­sity Press,
Leuven 2024

Mod­ern mass hous­ing owes much of its social ideas and designs to archi­tec­tural pre­fab­ric­a­tion. Indeed, the concept of this book is based on the idea that pre­fab­ric­a­tion in mass hous­ing should bring about social change in spe­cific his­tor­ical situ­ations. There­fore, the present col­lec­tion provides a history of dif­fer­ent con­struc­tion sys­tems in diverse con­texts, but more than that, it is an attempt to demon­strate the rel­ev­ance of pre­fab­ric­a­tion history for a cultural and mater­ial history of the built envir­on­ment.
The con­trib­ut­ors are Mia Åker­felt (Åbo Aka­demi Uni­ver­sity, Turku), Yael Allweil (Tech­nion Israel Institute of Tech­no­logy), Inbal Ben Asher-Gitler (Sapir Aca­demic Col­lege, Ashkelon/ Ben Gur­ion Uni­ver­sity of the Negev, Beer Scheva), Angelo Ber­to­lazzi (Uni­ver­sity of Padua), Tamara Bjažić Klarin (Institute of Art History, Zagreb), Tzafrir Fainholtz (Tech­nion Israel Institute of Tech­no­logy), Alberto Fran­chini (Tech­nical Uni­ver­sity Munich/Polytechnic Uni­ver­sity of Milan), Ilaria Gian­netti (Sapi­enza, Uni­ver­sity of Rome), Regine Hess (TU Munich), Silke Langenberg (ETH Zurich), Daphna Lev­ine (Tech­nion Israel Institute of Tech­no­logy), Stefania Mor­nati (Sapi­enza, Uni­ver­sity of Rome), Uta Pot­tgiesser (TU Delft), Maryia Rusak (Oslo School of Archi­tec­ture and Design), Liat Savin Ben Shoshan (Tech­nion Israel Institute of Tech­no­logy), Maria Tas­sopoulou (Tech­nical Uni­ver­sity of Athens), Anna Wil­czyńska (Esto­nian Uni­ver­sity of Life Sciences/Warsaw Uni­ver­sity of Life Sciences).


The Open Access ver­sion of the book is avail­able in the OPAEN online library.

A FUTURE FOR
WHOSE PAST?

THE HERITAGE OF MINORITIES, FRINGE GROUPS AND PEOPLE WITHOUT A LOBBY

ETH ZURICH, CONSTRUC­TION
HERI­TAGE AND PRESERVATION

PRO­JECT MAN­AGER AND ACQUI­SI­TION OF THIRD-­PARTY FUNDS
2022/­2023

The motto of the European Archi­tec­tural Heritage Year 1975 was “A Future for our Past.” 50 years later, in view of the con­sequences of glob­al­isa­tion, diversity, cli­mate change, migra­tion and dis­place­ment, we are faced with the ques­tion of who is meant by “us” at all.
The research and exhib­i­tion pro­ject is based on an idea by Prof. Dr. Silke Langenberg. It asks whose heritage we are talk­ing about, who determ­ines what is import­ant for society’s memory, and what char­ac­ter­ises this soci­ety? Do the objects pro­tec­ted by laws on monu­ments, nature and heritage con­ser­va­tion in the German-speak­ing coun­tries and thus pre­served for the future really rep­res­ent history? Or have we not been talk­ing about his­tor­ies for a long time? What heritage is sig­ni­fic­ant for out­siders and mar­gin­al­ised groups without a lobby, and what meas­ures should be taken to ensure that the heritage of the future really reflects the social devel­op­ments of the past? What does inclu­sion in heritage mean? The exhib­i­tion and pre­par­at­ory research are inten­ded to hon­our the res­ults and achieve­ments of the European Archi­tec­tural Heritage Year 1975, to reflect on the cur­rent situ­ation and to provide impulses for the future devel­op­ment of preservation. Cooper­a­tion part­ners are ICOMOS Ger­many, ICOMOS Aus­tria and the S AM Swiss Museum of Archi­tec­ture. The pro­ject is fun­ded by the Fed­eral Office of Cul­ture (BAK).

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Pro­ject man­age­ment and acquis­i­tion also included the suc­cess­ful applic­a­tion for an inter­na­tional conference to be held on Monte Ver­ità in Ascona from 22 to 24 Octo­ber 2025 and the pub­lic­a­tion A Future for whose Past? A Guide­book, ed. by ICOMOS Suisse/ETH Zurich, Con­struc­tion Heritage and Preservation, Zurich 2025

Find out more about the conference

A Future for whose Past? A Guidebook

ETH Zurich. A Future for whose Past? The Heritage of Minorities, Fringe Groups and People without a Lobby. Regine Hess – Project Manager and Acquisition of Third-Party Funds 2022/2023

DAS ERBE VON
MINDER­HEITEN /
THE HERITAGE OF
MINORITIES

ed. by Regine Hess,
ORKUN KASAP, SILKE LANGENBERG

Kritische Berichte.
Journal for Art History
and Cultural Studies, 1/2024

The issue brings together con­tri­bu­tions from monu­ment preservation, archi­tec­ture and art history on top­ics of labor, gender, race, child­hood, psy­cho­path­o­logy, sub­cul­ture and the right of mar­gin­al­ized groups to the European archi­tec­tural and cultural heritage. The authors are Clara Aroki­asamy OBE, Pres­id­ent of ICOMOS UK (inter­viewed by Regine Hess), Tom Aver­maete, Rune Frand­sen, Kos­tas Tsi­am­baos, Coordin­ator of DOCO­MOMO, Greece.

kb Debate 2024: The rules of the debate
The exist­en­tial crises of recent years – cli­mate change, the covid-19 pan­demic, the latest wars and the rise of polit­ical pop­u­lism – have led to a social debate cul­ture that is increas­ingly emo­tional and ideo­lo­gical. The harden­ing of ideo­lo­gical stand­points and the com­mu­nic­at­ive logic of the new media are accom­pan­ied by a boom in altern­at­ive offers of truth, which are increas­ingly accom­pan­ied by attacks on science and its insti­tu­tions that con­stantly chal­lenge the scientific rules of find­ing truth and solu­tions. The debate topic there­fore aims to ask what strategies the human­it­ies, and spe­cific­ally art history, can offer to counter the erosion of the basic rules of a demo­cratic exchange of opin­ions and the loss of trust in inde­pend­ent science. The debate begins with Wolfgang Ullrich’s con­tri­bu­tion Kunstwelt im Kon­f­likt.


Read more about edi­tion 1/2024          Ulmer Ver­ein

Das Erbe von Minderheiten / The Heritage of Minorities, ed. by Regine Hess, Orkun Kasap, Silke Langenberg kritische berichte. Journal for Art History and Cultural Studies, 1/2024
WITH/OUT IDEN­TITY
WITH/OUT IDENTITY</p>
<p>REGINE HESS (ETH ZURICH)<br />
KEY NOTE LECTURE</p>
<p>Das Forschungs- Und Vermittlungsprojekt A FUTURE FOR WHOSE PAST? The heritage of minorities, fringe groups and people without a Lobby. Zum 50. Jubiläum des Europäischen Denkmalschutzjahres</p>
<p>7. Jahrestagung Graduiertenkolleg Identität und Erbe</p>
<p>24.11.2023<br />
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar<br />

REGINE HESS (ETH ZURICH)
KEY NOTE LECTURE

7. JAHRESTA­GUNG GRADUIERTEN­KOLLEG IDEN­TITÄT UND ERBE

24.11.2023
BAUHAUS-UNI­VERSITÄT WEIMAR

 

DAS FORSCHUNGS- UND VER­MITTLUNG­S­PRO­JEKT A FUTURE FOR WHOSE PAST? THE HERITAGE OF MINORITIES, FRINGE GROUPS AND PEOPLE WITHOUT A LOBBY ZUM 50. JUBILÄUM DES EUROPÄIS­CHEN DENKMALSCHUTZJAHRES

The cultural turn, post­co­lo­ni­al­ism and crit­ical heritage studies have changed the concept of heritage from a canon­ical to a dis­curs­ive epi­stem­o­logy. Migrant com­munit­ies demand a new approach to exist­ing monu­ments that is dif­fer­ent from norm­at­ive con­cepts of iden­tity. Build­ing cul­ture and the con­ser­va­tion of exist­ing build­ings chal­lenge the value sys­tem of monu­ment preservation.


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Designed Orders

Lec­ture Series

REGINE HESS (ETH ­ ZUrich)
Oth­er­ing Displayed:
Racial­ized Space­mak­ing of
German Exhib­i­tions

Designed Orders Lecture Series. Architectures of Order. Regine Hess (ETH ZUrich) – Othering Displayed: Racialized Spacemaking of German Exhibitions

LOEWE Research Cluster:
Archi­tec­ture of Order.
Prac­tices and Discourses between Design and Knowledge

 

02.02.2023
Goethe Uni­ver­sity Frankfurt

Archi­tec­ture
Con­flict

ed. by Regine Hess,
work­ing group
Archi­tec­ture Conflict

Kritische Berichte.
Journal for Art History
and Cultural Studies, 2/2023

This issue is ded­ic­ated to con­flict in archi­tec­ture. Here, we con­sider plan­ning and build­ing in at its most import­ant – con­flic­tual – stages, where a mul­ti­tude of dif­fer­ent act­ors are involved. Archi­tec­ture and preservation are thus more strongly embed­ded in the polit­ical, social, and his­tor­ical sci­ences. Research­ing con­tro­ver­sies and the pro­duc­tion of dif­fer­ence are guid­ing research prin­ciples. The work­ing group Archi­tec­ture Con­flict is inter­ested in a his­tor­ical, source-crit­ical per­spect­ive on built and unbuilt archi­tec­ture, pub­lic space, infra­struc­tures, as well as those nar­rat­ives, insti­tu­tions and inter­ac­tions doc­u­ment­ing that.
This year’s debate on Queer­ness in Art Sci­ences is con­tin­ued by the con­tri­bu­tion «Queer Spa­tial Prac­tice: The Forum Queer Archive Munich as stor­age of memory and feeling».


Read more about edi­tion 2/2023          Ulmer Ver­ein

Architecture Conflict, ed. by Regine Hess, working group Architecture Conflict Kritische Berichte. Journal for Art History and Cultural Studies, 2/2023
Decon­struc­tion –
Void and Emotion
in Contem­porary Architecture

Lec­ture by REGINE HESS

May 10, 2023. ­4 – 5:30 p.m.

Depart­ment of Art History,
DEPT. archi­tec­tural history,
Uni­ver­sity of Cologne

Deconstruction – Void and Emotion in Contemporary Architecture
Staats-
bau­schule München

Architek­tur,
Kon­struk­tion und
Ausbildungs­tradition

© pk-Odessa Co. @sebastianschels

Die Fotografie der Aula ist Teil einer Serie der Hochschule München des Fotografen Sebastian Schels © Sebastian Schels
Silke Langenberg, Karl R. Kegler, Regine Hess (eds.), Staatsbauschule München. Architektur, Konstruktion und Ausbildungstradition, Munich 2022 © Ivan Sterzinger

© Ivan Sterzinger

Silke Langenberg, Karl R. Kegler, Regine Hess (eds.), Munich 2022

 

The Fac­ulty of Archi­tec­ture at Munich Uni­ver­sity of Applied Sci­ences cel­eb­rates the 200th anniversary of its found­ing in 2022. Its pre­de­cessor insti­tu­tion, the Staats­bau­schule München, is one of the old­est schools of archi­tec­ture in Ger­many. The book is ded­ic­ated to it with essays by Karl R. Kegler, Silke Langenberg, Chris­tian Schuler, Regine Hess, Chris­ti­ane Fülscher, Andreas Putz, Ákos Moraván­szky, and Rein­hold Wink­ler, an inter­view with Peter Lanz, as well as his­tor­ical build­ing plans and pho­to­graphs by Tania Rein­icke, Rainer Viertl­böck and Sebastian Schels.


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Racism in
Archi­tec­ture

ed. by Regine Hess,
Chris­tian Fuhrmeister
and Monika Platzer

Kritische Berichte.
Journal for Art History
and Cultural Studies, 3/2021

Racism in Architecture, ed. by Regine Hess, Christian Fuhrmeister and Monika Platzer, Kritische Berichte, Zeitschrift für Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften, 3/2021 © Jonas-Verlag

With peer reviewed art­icles by Maja Lee-Voigt, Ito­han Osay­im­wese, Kenny R. Cupers, Ole W. Fisc­her, Monika Platzer, Regine Hess, Alex­an­dra Klei, Sabine Girg, Mira Anneli Naß, the announce­ment of the net­work of Black pro­fes­sion­als work­ing in the build­ing industry by Cath­ar­ina Meier, “Smash­ing Fig­ures” by Birgit Sze­panski, and a con­ver­sa­tion by Ben­jamin Kaufmann and Chris­tian Fuhrmeister.

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Lettering “Schande“ applied to the pedestal of the Lueger Memorial in Vienna, 2021 © Schandwache

Let­ter­ing “Schande“ applied to the ped­es­tal of the Lueger Memorial in Vienna, 2021 © Schandwache