Sixty years of architecture: Retrospect and outlook with Peter Haimerl

Our understanding of architecture has changed significantly over the past six decades. In particular, technologies and construction types have continued to develop. Detail has documented this development over time. On the occasion of our 60th anniversary, we review the past and look into the future with Peter Haimerl.

What is the legacy of the 1960s?
Surprisingly, the 1960s had relatively little impact on architecture. The modernist structures of the postwar era had already broken with tradition. A vestige of the general liberation from conventions and commerce can be seen only in the back-to-nature movement of the 1980s. 

Where will architecture be 60 years from now?
It’s hard to say. Certainly, the trend towards shifting interior spaces from analog to digital worlds will be unstoppable. Sixty years from now, maybe we’ll be spending half our time in digital spaces. One thing is sure: the change will be greater than we can imagine.

When did you first encounter Detail?
During my studies at the Munich University of Applied Sciences. International fellow-students told me that Detail was the only architecture magazine that was read around the world and that stood for the quality of German architecture.

Peter Haimerl, whose architecture office was established in Munich in 1991, questions the boundaries of architecture and urban design. He concentrates on projects, which cross the line of conventional architecture. In every project, he demands fascinating and unconventional solutions to create innovation. In order to achieve coherent concepts, he melds his architectural view with other contexts such as computer programming, sociology, economics, politics and conceptual art. E.g. zoomtown. This project is an open research platform to optimize and reorganize urban design. Currently Peter Haimerl dedicates his work to the leitmotif “attraction instead of restriction” and is interested in construction within existing structures. Each project is special, the requirements are specific, the solutions subtle. Selection of teaching assignments/ (guest) professorship: Braunschweig University of Art (05/06), Institute for Transportation Design | University of Architecture Munich (09/10), urban design and structuralism and digital influence | University of Kassel (16/17), Institute for urban planning | University of Art and Design Linz (since 19/20), Institute of Architecture, Studio zoomtown. A wide range of awards (selection): German Architecture award (‘15), Cultural award of the Bayerische Landesstiftung (‘15), Große Nike BDA (2016), Architecture award of the Bavarian State (‘18), Cultural award of the Bavarian State (‘18).