Network "IBA meets IBA"

In the course of one century, Germany’s international building exhibitions have become a viable and sustainable ground for experiments in urban layout and thus a special “trademark” of the country’s planning and building culture. In order to ensure that the experience gained from this standard and its impact on future international building exhibitions can be maintained and in order to set new standards in everyday processes at the same time, a pilot project in national urban development policy was initiated by the Federal Ministry of Traffic, Construction and Urban Development in 2008. Its goal is to create a network called “IBA meets IBA”.

IBA Hamburg took the initiative in 2007 already to start this process. In that year there was an exchange of experiences between over 30 experts in the Hafen Hamburg Hotel. This first IBA LAB “IBA meets IBA” was repeated in early February 2009 at the Akademie der Künste Berlin [Academy of the Arts, Berlin] with the goal to build a tighter network between all international building exhibitions.

During the event in Berlin, there was a discussion about how the quality characteristics of the “IBA brand” could be safeguarded and fostered. It was also about the question if and how the concept of an international building exhibition in Germany could be developed further to contribute to the European planning and building culture. Apart from constituting a network called “IBA meets IBA”, it also served the memorandum on “The Future of International Building Exhibitions”, which was presented at the “IBA meets IBA” FORUM on the 4th and 5th of July, 2007, in Hamburg.

The show is on the road

Running parallel to the workshop show, IBA Hamburg’s travelling exhibition “IBA meets IBA”, shown in Hamburg until the end of February 2008, represented the first overall review of more than one hundred years of international building exhibitions in Germany and presented the seven predecessors of IBA Hamburg.

In cooperation with M:AI Museum for Architecture and Engineering in North Rhine-Westphalia one of the exhibits shown was a model of the first IBA, held in 1901 on Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. The objective of the exhibition is to create awareness and spark a critical debate on the century of accumulated experience represented by these IBAs, to develop their insights for our day and age, and make them available to everyone seeking a guide to complex spatial strategies. Therefore the retrospective showed the special features of the IBA urban development programme, offering answers to basic questions: what exactly is an IBA and what can an IBA achieve? What tasks must modern international building exhibitions tackle? The exhibition was well received by the public and is moving on in 2008: one of its stations will be Basle.


Infoline: 040 / 32862640
ausstellung@iba-hamburg.de