Designing in Dialogue
Chinese National Museum, Beijing
The international touring exhibition, “Designing in Dialogue. The architecture of von Gerkan, Marg and Partners”, is hosted by the Chinese National Museum, Beijing, which was converted and extended by gmp Architects. For this purpose, gmp is cooperating with the Chinese architectural magazine UED and Verseidag AG. The opening ceremony on 8 August, which will be followed by a symposium, will be attended by Meinhard von Gerkan, personalities from the Chinese architectural scene and other guest.
In this exhibition gmp will provide an overview of their oeuvre: sketches and drawings provide an idea of the conceptual thoughts, models present designs in three dimensions and photos document the completed buildings.
The exhibited gmp projects from four continents are grouped into the following six categories:
- Variety and uniformity
- Mobility
- Urbanity
- Society and responsibility
- Innovation and identity
- Tradition
These themes cover important fundamental, practical and theoretical aspects of gmp’s work. The grouping provides greater clarity and illustrates the multiplicity of thought needed in the approach to architecture. However, in gmp’s holistic understanding of architecture, this variety always leads to uniformity.
In consequence, the “variety and uniformity” pairing is of over-arching importance, whereas “mobility” and “urbanity” can be seen as important aspects of the architectural context of “society and responsibility”. This means that a project grouped in the “innovation and identity” pairing could also be considered under the aspects of “society and responsibility” or “tradition”.
So far, the touring exhibition has been shown in Vietnam, Brazil and Chile. Further dates are scheduled.
