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[en] Architektur Galerie Berlin

Exhibition view from “Morger Partner”

Morger Partner What Was What Will Be

Watch the opening celebration here

A generational change is currently underway in many renowned architectural firms. With it comes the question of how the firm’s identity can continue to stand out and evolve. This is particularly relevant for architects who have designed iconic works or made notable contributions on specific issues in the past. The question gains further significance against the backdrop of the radically changing priorities in construction that have been taking place for the past ten years or so, which also have an enormous influence on the role of architects in society.

Morger Partner Architects uses the exhibition to address and advance this development process. An impromptu project was initiated, in which each of the architects selected a project from the firm’s 33-year history and developed a design and usage scenario for its future. They investigated how the buildings might respond to the ecological, economic, demographic, and political changes of the coming decades, putting nothing less than their resilience potential to the test. From a wider perspective, the exhibition also makes it clear that redevelopment of the existing building fabric will likely be the most important task of architecture in the 21st century. Scenographically, Was War Was Wird (What Was What Will Be) reinterprets the legendary display easels Lina Bo Bardi designed for the Museu de Arte de São Paulo. Each module presents a project, showing both the original project and its proposed conversion on the front and back. The display modules are complemented by a mirror installation.

in 1988, Meinrad Morger and Heinrich Degelo founded Morger&Degelo Architects in Basel. From 2006, it continued as Morger+Dettli Architects, and then changed its name to Morger Partner Architects in 2015. In 2019, Meinrad Morger (b. 1957) handed over the reins to his long-time partners, Martin Klein (b. 1978) and Henning König (b. 1975), who have since been leading the practice into the future with five associates.

Among the firm’s most notable projects are the Messeturm trade fair tower in Basel (2003), Kunstmuseum Vaduz art museum (2000), and the Claraturm mixed-use tower complex in Basel (2021). Currently, Morger Partner Architekten is realizing new buildings on the campus of the Deutsche Bundesbank (Germany’s central bank) in Frankfurt/Main (1st prize competition, 2020).

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Morger Partner: Was War Was Wird (Foto: Jan Bitter)

, Morger Partner: Was War Was Wird (Foto: Jan Bitter)

Morger Partner: Was War Was Wird (Foto: Jan Bitter)

, Morger Partner: Was War Was Wird (Foto: Jan Bitter)

Morger Partner: Was War Was Wird (Foto: Jan Bitter)

, Morger Partner: Was War Was Wird (Foto: Jan Bitter)

Morger Partner: Was War Was Wird (Foto: Jan Bitter)

, Morger Partner: Was War Was Wird (Foto: Jan Bitter)

Morger Partner: Was War Was Wird (Foto: Jan Bitter)

, Morger Partner: Was War Was Wird (Foto: Jan Bitter)