News

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?

Wir suchen eine neue Kolleg:in im Verwaltungsbereich (Teilzeit, 50%) mit hervorragenden Organisations- und Kommunikationsfähigkeiten für allgemeine administrative Aufgaben am saai | Archiv für Architektur und Ingenieurbau! Für die gesamte Stellenbeschreibung dem Link folgen. Bewerbungen können nur über das KIT Bewerbungsportal entgegengenommen werden.

Felix S. C. Wong

At the ICAM (International Confederation of Architecture Museums) conference in Hong Kong in December 2024, saai co-director and professor of architectural theory Anna-Maria Meister was elected to the ICAM board. She is looking forward to working with Martien de Vletter, Co-President (Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal) and Ikko Yokoyama, Co-President (M+, Hong Kong) as well as Zoë Ryan, Vice President (Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia), Alison Fisher, Secretary General (The Art Institute of Chicago), David Peyceré, Treasurer (Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, Paris), Birgitte Sauge, Membership Secretary (Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo), Antonello Alici (Dipartimento di ingegneria civile, edile e architettura, Università politecnica delle Marche, Ancona), Deniz Ova (SALT, Istanbul), Saman Quraishi (CEPT Archives, Ahmedabad) and Shayari de Silva (Geoffrey Bawa Trust, Colombo).

As a schoolboy, Conrad Roland dreamed of traveling to the USA. But it was not until years later, after an apprenticeship as a carpenter and a degree in architecture at the Technical University of Munich, that he was given the opportunity to continue his studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Walter Peterhans thanks to a Fulbright scholarship.

Now open: Our call for fellows for the first saai | iaas Wüstenrot Foundation residencies on the annual theme "Robust Fragilities"! Starting in 2025, the Wüstenrot Foundation will fund three fellows who will have the opportunity to research and work in residency at saai for 4-6 weeks in early summer. The residencies are aimed at researchers at all career levels. Detailed information on the application process and the entire call can be found at the following link.

Fascinated by Otto's delicate supporting structures, Conrad Roland developed concepts for large-scale suspended cities in order to ‘free society from the straitjacket of architecture’.

With the newly established iaas [international architectural archival studies] center, research is being located in the archive itself. Through research on the genesis of metadata or on organizational structures in the collections, the iaas makes use of its unique position in the saai archive.

On 27 November 2024 we invite you to this year's saai Lecture with Marina Otero Verzier (Columbia University GSAPP). In addition to her lecture ‘Zone of Potential Insufficiency’, our new research centre iaas [international architectural archive studies] and our podcast ‘Archive Gossip’ will be launched at the event.

The Archive Gossip Team meets with staff, researchers and archive experts to delve deep into the boxes and cabinets, rolls and drawers, sketches, photos, index cards and notes at the saai. Together, we will explore familiar and forgotten stories and objects, and question the archive as a place of knowledge and an institution.

Everyone knows them - the red climbing structures that are omnipresent in playgrounds and fascinate children and adults alike!

The project examines the estate of the visionary architect Conrad Roland and offers insights into the work of archives and the scientific research process

Bernd Seeland

Dr. Doris Hallama is taking over the management of the Archive for Architecture and Civil Engineering (saai)! With her expertise and passion for historical buildings and engineering, she will lead the archive into a new era.

Bernd Seeland

Who preserves the important works of our architectural history? Get to know the dedicated team behind the archive holdings, who maintain and protect the cultural heritage of architecture and engineering in southwest Germany.