Organisational System *01
Archives are based on classification systems that structure materials and facilitate access. In the best case, these are flexible enough to enable different contextualisations and to make estates for a variety of research questions interdisciplinary compatible. But how do you deal with a stock that comes with a specially developed, highly specific classification system? This question arises when inventorying Conrad Roland's archive. In addition to the classic materials of an architectural legacy, his archive comprises a unique strategy of knowledge organization that not only poses a structural challenge, but also raises fundamental considerations for dealing with archival order.
For more than a decade, architect Conrad Roland devoted himself to researching hanging houses as part of his dissertation project. In order to make the content and materials that he requested from architectural firms worldwide for planned and implemented designs clear, comparable and usable, he developed a "morphological matrix". This tool of knowledge organization was his key to systematically categorizing the different construction principles. The accompanying collection of material includes letters, sketches, photographs, plans and countless handwritten notes. One could almost regard his work as an encyclopaedic reference work for hanging constructions of the 20th century, even if it remained fragmentary.
The core of his system was a color-coded syntax that worked with simple tools: coloured glue dots, some of which were inscribed in coloured squares, post-its and custom-made storage furniture. Each colour, square and dot had a specific meaning and enabled intuitive orientation within the material. This approach shows parallels to the Zettelkasten method of the sociologist Niklas Luhmann. Luhmann's index card collection of around 90,000 entries linked knowledge associatively instead of hierarchically and, like Roland's colour coding, was much more than a pure classification system: it served as a thinking tool that enabled creative connections and transferred structural knowledge into a dynamic network. Even though Roland's system was entirely analogue, his methodology can be understood as an early form of networked thinking, which is now supported by digital tools such as metadata, tagging, and hyperlinks. Terms that are now part of the standard digital knowledge organization seem to be already inherent in Roland's approach. The openness of Roland's method, which formed an ever-expanding network of knowledge, was both a strength and a weakness. While digital databases can theoretically be expanded indefinitely, physical archives inevitably reach their limits. In addition, the possibility of constant expansion made the work difficult to finish. Perhaps this was the reason why it ultimately remained incomplete and unpublished.
The integration of Roland's estate into the saai | Archive for Architecture and Engineering turns out to be a balancing act.In order to preserve the materials in the long term, the individual documents were initially removed from their original colour-coded envelopes and repackaged in an archive-friendly manner – a decision that disregarded the logical structure of his scientific methodology. This reveals a central dilemma: How can Roland's original ordering principle be preserved? Can his system even be transferred to a rigid archive structure without losing its inner logic? Is his research work to be understood as a collection of individual objects, or can it only be fully grasped as a closed unit?
These questions concern not only the practical archiving processes, but also the scientific interpretation and contextualization of the collected knowledge. They make it clear that archiving goes far beyond the mere preservation of materials – it is always also a form of interpretation and decision.
MG, 25.2.2025
Original Roland envelope labelled and color-coded – an example of his thematically organised collection of materials. Roland's logic of order combines colour codes, numbering and letter abbreviations in a multi-layered system that includes his own designs in addition to his research project. This creates a complex system that makes integration into existing archive structures even more difficult.
