Das Garagenmanifest
Teaching, Research, PublicationLocation: Cottbus
Year: 2016ff./ 2021
Program: GDR Garages, Preservation, Architectural Design, Making Heritage!
Tags: teaching, research, publication
Book
Jens Casper / Luise Rellensmann (Ed.):
Das Garagenmanifest.
Park Books, Zürich September 2021;
Visual Essay by Martin Maleschka. Book Design: Bureau Sandra Doeller, Frankfurt.
Contributors: Jens Casper, Luise Rellensmann, Laura Hernandez, Nora Kokert, Melanie Kuhnlein, Lasse Schmalfuß, Justyna Sielska, Hanna Strahl, Zhuoyou (Zoey) Teng, Pawel Tucholski, Moritz Unger;
“Many people think of heritage as something that comes before us and that society takes over to take care of. However, heritage is a proposition and not given. We consider heritage as something that we are making, that is in our choice.”
Luise Rellensmann, Jens Casper, “Das Garagenmanifest”, 2021
Awards
Deutsches Architekturmuseum - DAM Architectural Book Award 2022
Stiftung Buchkunst The Best German Book Design Shortlist 2022
How to get it!
Order your copy of the book at Park Books
or in your local bookshop with ISBN 978-3-03860-240-8
GDR Garages
GDR garages form a cosmos in themselves. They were built up in organised self- help in the 1960’s-1980’s and are still often used by their respective builders today. The garages are usually grouped together in large complexes with hundreds and sometimes more than a thousand boxes. The garage owners and their families met in these complexes on weekends to maintain their cars, to barbecue, play, drink and talk.
The garages are the last untouched building typology of GDR. In almost every East German city, they offer small valuable spaces for improvisation and tinkering, for repairs, for storage, and they thus make a valuable contribution to a future-oriented mix of uses in the urban fabric.
Das Garagenmanifest is the first description of this typology in architectural and heritage discorse. Thus, it raises questions about cultural values of objects, places and rituals as well as about power, dominance and participation in making and creating heritage. It addresses a „vacuum in architectural education and discourse around reuse“ and reclaims preservation as a part of a contemporary architectural design practice.
Das Garagenmanifest (The Garage Manifesto) was initiated by the preservationist Luise Rellensmann and the architect Jens Casper as a seminar at BTU Cottbus in 2016/17 under the title “Garagen Manifest: Experimentelle Denkmalpflege. Viollet-Le-Duc, Superstudio und die DDR-Garagen“, discussing architectural and heritage manifestos and examining GDR garages in Cottbus as potential everyday heritage.
The outcome of the seminar, the first inventory of GDR garages as cultural heritage, was exhibited at the renowned Architektur Galerie Berlin in march 2017. In 2021 Das Garagenmanifest was published with Park Books, Zürich. The book launch again took place in November 2021 at Architektur Galerie Berlin.
In 2022 Luise and Jens were invited by the European Capital of Culture 2025 - Chemnitz to start an inventory of the city’s garage landscape: 3(0).000 Garagen.
Many thanks to:
Leo Schmidt (Department of Architectural Conservation BTU Cottbus- Senftenberg), Ulrich Müller (Architektur Galerie Berlin), Markus Otto (Dean Faculty Architecture, Cicil Engineering, and Urban Planning BTU Cottbus- Senftenberg), Kirsten Angermann, Thomas Burlon, Laura Hernandez, Gerburg Brilling, Rebecca Galley, Martin Henseler and Marc Timo Berg.
Lectures & Talks
“Garagen in der DDR - so war das damals”
MDR SACHSEN 03.11.2022
https://www.mdr.de/sachsenradio/podcast/exquisit/podcast-exquisit-garagen-ddr-102.html
Listen to Das Garagenmanifest from minute 18:30
„Das Garagenmanifest“
Jens Casper und Luise Rellensmann (Hg.) in Diskussion mit Martin Maleschka (Architekt und Fotograf, Eisenhüttenstadt), Silvia Gioberti (Guerilla Architects, Berlin), Benjamin Gruner (Pochen Biennale, Chemnitz) anlässlich der Buchpräsentation „Das Garagenmanifest“, Architektur Galerie Berlin, 25.11.2021
MODERN MATRIX / EASTERN EUROPEAN MODERNISM
„Making Heritage – Das Garagenmanifest“
im Rahmen der Konferenz “MATRIX MODERNE I OSTMODERNE — Bauen, baubezogene Kunst und Formgestaltung in Ostdeutschland und dem Europa der Nachkriegszeit” der Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz
Stadthalle Chemnitz 02.10.2021
Deutschlandfunk Kultur
„Garagenkultur in der DDR: Viel mehr als ein Stellplatz für den Trabi“
Jens Casper im Interview mit Massimo Maio zu „Das Garagenmanifest“
Kompressor, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 30.08.2021
(find the DLF Kultur audio file here)
Let‘s Talk with Barkow Leibinger
„Das Garagenmanifest“
B-L Barkow Leibinger (Online)
Berlin 08.07.2021
University of Tsukuba (JP)
Luise Rellensmann and Jens Casper:„The Garage Manifesto“
Studio of Mariko Ikeda, Faculty of Art and Design - Heritage Studies Degree Program, 31.05.2021 (Online)
ACHS 2020 FUTURES
Das Garagenmanifest
Association of Critical Heritage Studies 5th Biennial Conference (Online), London 26 - 30 August 2020
Columbia GSAPP New York
Luise Rellesnsmann: Making Heritage: Das Garagenmanifest
Lecture within the Preservation Lecture Series, an initiative of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia GSAPP
24.04.2019
rca 2018. research culture in architecture.
„Das Garagen Manifest“ lecture within „research culture in architecture - international conference on cross-disciplinary collaboration“, mit Luise Rellensmann, TU Kaiserslautern 27.09.2018
published as:
Jens Casper / Luise Rellensmann: Making Heritage: Das Garagenmanifest.
in: Cornelie Leopold, Christopher Robeller, Ulrike Weber (ed.):
rca 2018. research culture in architecture. international conference on cross-discipinary collaboration. Conference Book. Faculty of Architecture, TU Kaiserslautern 2018
University of York
„#makingheritage: The Garage Manifesto“
Center for Applied Heritage Studies (CAHSt), University of York: 26.10.2017 mit Luise Rellensmann;
Deutschlandfunk Kultur
“Schutzraum fürs Auto und das Ich: Kulturerbe Garage”
Jens Casper im Interview (9min21) mit Marietta Schwartz, Deutschlandfunk Kultur - Echtzeit, 24.06.2017
Exhibition
Architektur Galerie Berlin Satellit
Preservation Studio: Das Garagenmanifest
27.02.-18.03.2017
Press, Reviews
Verena Pfeiffer-Kloss: Garagen: Manifest auch in West. Ein Leserbrief an die Autor:innen und den Fotografen des Buches “Das Garagenmanifest“. Urbanophil, 17.02.2022 (Rezension) https://urbanophil.net/kunst/garagen-manifest-auch-in-west/
Susanne Kippenberger: Hoch das Tor! Erforscht: die Welt ostdeutscher Garagen. Rezension „Das Garagenmanifest“, Tagesspiegel, Berlin 09.02.2022
David Kasparek: Erlebte Räume
BDA Der Architekt, Buch der Woche: „Das Garagenmanifest“
„Nach welchen Kriterien beschäftigen wir uns eigentlich mit welchen Dingen, die wir als Gesellschaft hervorbringen und hinterlassen? Warum finden wir das eine interessant, und das andere nicht? Welchen Hinterlassenschaften messen wir eine kulturelle Bedeutung zu?“ Online http://derarchitektbda.de/erlebte-raeume/ 28.01.2022
Further Articles on Critical Preservation
Casper, Jens / Rellensmann, Luise:
„Monumente der Verschmutzung“ und „Denkmalpflege als Experiment“
Baunetzwoche #469, BaunetzMedia, 20.10.2016
(Download from Baunetz)
Casper, Jens / Rellensmann, Luise: „Radikale Denkmalpflege“ (Radical Heritage Preservation) on Rem Koolhaas‘ „Preservation is Overtaking Us“ (with a supplement by Jorge Otero-Pailos)
Baunetzwoche #394, BaunetzMedia, 22. January 2015
(Download from Baunetz)