Archive Gossip – the saai Podcast
Archive Gossip takes you on an exploration of one of the largest architecture archives in Germany, the saai in Karlsruhe. As an audio platform, we work in two directions: In the podcast, Archive Gossip brings out the stories that can be discovered in things and told through them as voices from the archive. In oral histories and interviews, we search for and collect the voices that the archive needs for a more inclusive and diverse future but does not yet have in order to supplement our holdings.
The Archive Gossip team meets with staff, researchers and archive experts to delve deep into the boxes and cupboards, rolls and drawers, sketches, photos, index cards and notes at saai. Together, we want to dedicate ourselves to known and forgotten stories and objects and also question the archive as a place of knowledge and an institution.
Idea and realization: Sina Brückner-Amin
Production and assistance: Cheryl Kwarteng
Former team members: Simon Rieß and Isabel Winter
#01 Werkarchiv Conrad Roland with Manuela Gantner
In the first episode, Sina Brückner-Amin talks to Manuela Gantner, researcher in architectural theory from Karlsruhe. Manuela is currently working on a cooperation project between the Wüstenrot Foundation and the saai archive on the architect Conrad Roland, whose estate is located at saai. Topics include: What architectural visions did Conrad Roland actually have, who is famous today for very different work than he ever intended? What are the special features of his estate? And how does one approach such a comprehensive project productively?
#02 Index card stories with Mechthild Ebert
In the second episode, Mechthild Ebert, research associate at the saai, is our guest. Together with Sina, she talks about her work in and with the estates of the archive in Karlsruhe and the special finds she makes 'in the margins' of these archive materials. This is about forgotten and overlooked stories and protagonists in the archive and, subsequently, the question of the extent to which metadata is actually material - and what can be discovered in it.
#03 Eda Schauer in India | Fellow Episode with Frederike Lausch
The third episode is the first in a four-part series featuring the visiting researchers who were fellows at the saai in summer 2025. This year, the saai announced the saai iaas residencies for the first time in cooperation with the Wüstenrot Foundation. In the first episode, I talk to Frederike Lausch about her research on Eda Schauer. Eda Schauer was an architect and worked for a long time at the Institute for Lightweight Structures, also known as IL, at the University of Stuttgart under Frei Otto. In the 1970s, she made several trips to Ahmedabad, India, to teach at the School of Architecture there and to develop cooperative projects.
#04 Archive Myra Warhaftig | Fellow Episode with Nuno Grancho
The Fellow series continues: In the second episode of the four-part series, Sina Brückner-Amin talks to Nuno Grancho, who researched the architect Myra Warhaftig during his Fellowship. Warhaftig was a German-Israeli architect who was a prominent political advocate for women's rights and also implemented these demands in her architectural and research activities. One example of this activist-motivated work is her dissertation entitled "The Obstruction of Women's Emancipation by Housing and the Possibility of Overcoming It" and the implementation of these concepts in an apartment building in Berlin, which she designed as part of the IBA 1987.
#05 Brigitte Feyerabendt — Out of Egon Eiermann's Shadow | Fellow Episode with Daniela Fabricius
The Fellow series continues: in the third episode of the four-part series, Sina Brückner-Amin talks to Daniela Fabricius about her research on the networks behind the architects of the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe, today's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The conversation centres on women in their roles as wives, partners, mothers, daughters and sisters within the male-dominated architecture education of the time. These women paved the way for men to succeed yet gained little visibility themselves. The work of female architecture students disappeared in the shadow of their male colleagues. One such woman is Brigitte Feyerabendt, who studied under Egon Eiermann at the THK and later married him. Throughout the episode, we look through Feyerabendt's personal photo album together — not only a private source but also a testament to women writing their own history. With her vivid storytelling, Daniela gradually lets Brigitte Feyerabendt emerge from Egon Eiermann's shadow and step into the light.
#06 In the Footsteps of Hilde Axster-Trappmann | Fellow Episode with Helena Huber Doudova
We continue with the Fellow series: In the final episode of this four-part series, Sina Brückner-Amin interviews Helena Huber Doudova about her research on the leading women of the post-war West German architectural scene. While the works of male architects achieved great fame and produced numerous well-known names, the work of female architects from that era is largely undocumented. At saai, there are more collections belonging to people named Heinz than to women. Nevertheless, traces of women who contributed to the world of architecture can also be found in our collections. One such woman is Hilda Axster-Trappmann, a graduate of the Karlsruhe University of Technology (now KIT), who worked for Egon Eiermann, among others. During a brief research trip in the Karlsruhe area, Helena came across a private archive of Trappmann’s at the current owners’ home, which was once Trappmann’s residence. This episode offers insight into Helena’s methodology for tracing female contributions in male-dominated archives and demonstrates that archival work involves more than just looking through archival materials.
A short biography of Hilde Axster-Trappmann can be found here: