Dr. Regine Hess, Senior researcher at the Chair of Construction Heritage and Preservation, Prof. Dr. Silke Langenberg, Institute of Preservation and Construction History (IDB) and Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA), ETH Zurich © Laura Trump

Research Interests

Archi­tec­ture History and The­ory 18th to 21st Cen­tury, Exhib­i­tion and Museum Studies, Global Archi­tec­ture History and Heritage, Methodoloy

 

Editor

Mem­ber of the edit­or­ial board of kritische berichte, Journal for Art History and Cultural Studies
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Mem­ber of the edit­or­ial team of sehepunkte, Rezensions­journal für die Geschichtswissenschaften
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Pro­fes­sional Biography

After pro­fes­sional activ­ity, Regine took up the study of Art History and Medi­eval and Mod­ern History at Goethe Uni­ver­sity, Frank­furt am Main, with a focus on archi­tec­ture history and monu­ment preservation. As a fel­low of DFG Gradu­ate col­loquium Psychic Ener­gies of Fine Arts and sup­por­ted by a schol­ar­ship of Evan­gel­isches Stud­i­en­werk, her PhD thesis was super­vised by Prof. Dr. Klaus Herd­ing and Prof. Dr. Chris­tian Freigang (2005–2009). There, Regine dealt with the cre­ation of emo­tions in the­ory and prac­tice of European archi­tec­ture from the 18th cen­tury up to today. The Cent­ral Institute of Art History at Munich awar­ded her PhD thesis with the Theodor Fisc­her Award.

Sub­sequently to her train­ing as a museum cur­ator at Staat­liche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (2008–2010), Regine worked at the Archi­tec­ture Museum of TUM at Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2011–2015). She star­ted her teach­ing in 2009 at the Archi­tec­ture Depart­ment of Karlsruhe Institute of Tech­no­logy and has teached since at Tech­nical Uni­ver­sity of Munich (TUM), Tel Aviv Uni­ver­sity, Uni­ver­sity of Kassel and ETH Zürich. 2016 she received a schol­ar­ship from German Research Com­munity (DFG) for her habilitationpro­ject Von der Weltauss­tel­lung zur Bauauss­tel­lung. Eine Architekturgeschichte großer Aus­s­tel­lungen 1851–1957. She was senior researcher at the Chair of Archi­tec­ture History and Cur­at­orial Prac­tice (Prof. Dr. Andres Lepik) at TUM (2016–2021) and at the Chair Con­struc­tion Heritage and Preservation (Prof. Dr. Silke Langenberg) at ETH Zurich (2021–2024). In 2018, she received the Azri­eli Archi­tec­tural Archive Fel­low­ship from Tel Aviv Museum of Art and spent sev­eral months in Israel research­ing on Post-war archi­tec­ture and land­scape design. Regine’s habilitation manu­script was accep­ted by the TUM School of Engin­eer­ing and Design in 2024. In 2025, she resumed teach­ing as a Private Lec­turer at the Chair of Archi­tec­ture History and Cur­at­orial Prac­tice at TUM. The pub­lic­a­tion of Von der Weltauss­tel­lung zur Bauauss­tel­lung. Eine Architekturgeschichte großer Aus­s­tel­lungen 1851–1957 will appear in 2026. 

Net­works

She is part of the net­work D‑A-CH: Refram­ing Nach­kriegsar­chitek­tur in Österreich – Deutsch­land – Sch­weiz, which exis­ted from 2018 to 2020. Here, the research­ers rep­res­en­ted sig­ni­fic­ant archi­tec­ture archives such as the Aus­trian Museum of Archi­tec­ture (Architek­turzen­trum Wien), the Archi­tec­ture Museum of TUM at Munich, the gta Archives at ETHZ and the Süd­west­deutsches Archiv für Architek­tur und Ingenieurbau at Karlsruhe (SAAI). Together with Yael Allweil (Haifa), she edited Hous­ing Regimes – New Approaches to a State-Citizen-Relation (2020). In 2021 she pub­lished the bilin­gual, peer-reviewed issue Rassismus in der Architektur/Racism in Archi­tec­ture in col­lab­or­a­tion with Monika Platzer (Vienna) and Chris­tian Fuhrmeister (Munich). The pub­lic­a­tion Staats­bau­schule München. Architek­tur, Kon­struk­tion und Ausbildungstradition was pub­lished together with Silke Langenberg and Karl R. Kegler (Munich) in Feb­ru­ary 2022, on the 200th anniversary of one of the old­est schools of archi­tec­ture in the German-speak­ing world. The peer reviewed art­icle volume Between Con­ven­tional and Exper­i­mental – Mass Hous­ing and Pre­fab­ric­a­tion in Modernist Archi­tec­ture, together with Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler (Beer Sheba), Yael Allweil and Tzafrir Fainholtz (Jer­u­s­alem) was accep­ted for pub­lic­a­tion by Leuven Uni­ver­sity Press in Novem­ber 2021 and will be pub­lished in Octo­ber 2014.

Regine has pub­lished conference pro­ceed­ings such as the bilin­gual volume Architek­tur und Akteure. Praxis und Öffent­lich­keit in der Nach­kriegs­gesell­schaft (2018). She con­trib­uted to Arch+, Kun­st­chronik, Forum Stadt, Jahr­buch der Fak­ultät für Architek­tur der TUM, Kunst und Politik.Jahrbuch der Guernica-Gesell­schaft, sehepunkte, Kun­st­geschichte online – Open Peer Reviewed Journal, Allge­meines Künst­ler­lexikon (AKL), and Jahr­buch immers­iver Medien.

Next to her con­tri­bu­tion to sev­eral major art and archi­tec­ture exhib­i­tions between 2009 and 2013, Regine has cur­ated Bauen und Zei­gen. Aus Geschichte und Geg­en­wart der Kunsthalle at Staat­liche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe in 2014 and Paul Schneider-Esleben. Architekt at Archi­tec­ture museum of TUM at Pinakothek der Moderne in 2015, accom­pan­ied by exhib­i­tion catalogues. Regine is a suc­cess­ful found-raiser, both for scientific research and for exhibitions.

 

Mem­ber­ship

2021 – EAHN – European Archi­tec­tural History Net­work
2021 – Pro SAFFA58 Pavil­lon, Zürich
2021 – Fre­un­deskreis Architek­tur­mu­seum der TU München
2019 – Ulmer Ver­ein, Verb­and für Kunst- und Kul­tur­wis­senschaften
2016 – SAH – Soci­ety of Archi­tec­tural His­tor­i­ans
2013 – Deutscher Verb­and für Kun­st­geschichte
2006 – Alumna Evan­gel­isches Stud­i­en­werk Villigst

2022 – 2024 ICOMOS Suisse
2016 – 2020 ICOM Deutsch­land – Inter­na­tional Coun­cil of Museums
2009 – 2020 Guernica-Gesell­schaft, Karlsruhe

 

Hon­ours

Theodor Fisc­her Award, Award for Early Career Research in the History of Archi­tec­ture from the Nine­teenth to the Twenty-first Cen­tury, 2010
Cent­ral Institute of Art History – Theodor Fisc­her Award