a+u

a+u’s June issue features Hombroich. Located between Düsseldorf and Cologne, on the banks of the Erft River, Hombroich is a place for art and culture that covers an area of more than 60 ha. First opened in 1984, Hombroich is situated near lignite mines, on sites sandwiched between farmlands and railroad tracks and stretching from southeast to northwest. Toward the south is Museum Island, a lush green art park dotted with pavilions, and toward the north is a former NATO missile base, Raketenstation, that has been transformed into spaces for artistic production. In addition to these 2 sites, Museum Island and Raketenstation, this issue also features SpacePlaceLab, an ambitious expansion project conceived from 2003 to 2008, and SpacePlacePractice, a series of regional scale proposals, triggered by events near the site in the 2020s, such as climate change disasters and the shutting down of open-cast lignite mining. What started as a pursuit of the utopian dream of “art parallel to nature” in an “urban backyard landscape,” Hombroich is now being confronted by the challenges of our century with extreme urgency and relevance – which similarly raises the question, “how can our way of life exist in parallel with nature?” (a+u)

Introduction:
What Is Hombroich?
Art and Architecture in Parallel with Nature: From Art Park to a New
Mode of Life
Wilfried Wang

Museum Island Hombroich
Site plan

Essay: Museum Island Hombroich: The Art Park
Barbara Hoidn

Erwin Heerich, Walk-In Sculptures
Ticket Office / Tower / Tall Gallery / Cafeteria / Orangerie / Graubner Pavillon / Labyrinth / Snail / Tadeusz Pavilion / Twelve-Room House

Artists in Residence
Thomas Kling / Ute Langanky / Katsuhito Nishikawa / Oliver Kruse

Per Kirkeby, Three Chapels and Bus Stop

Terunobu Fujimori, One-Stone Tea House
Essay: Ein Stein Teehaus / One-Stone Tea House

Tadao Ando, Langen Foundation
Essay: A Museum that Lives and Breathes within the Forest

Álvaro Siza with Rudolf Finsterwalder, Siza Pavilion

Raimund Abraham, House of Music

SpacePlaceLab 2003–2008
Site plan

Essay: Hombroich SpacePlaceLab 2003–2008
Wilfried Wang

Manifesto

Proposals
Raimund Abraham / Álvaro Siza with Rudolf Finsterwalder / Tadao Ando / Per Kirkeby / Daniel Libeskind / Oliver Kruse / Erwin Heerich / Katsuhito Nishikawa / Hoidn Wang Partner / Thomas Herzog with Werner Lang and Norbert Kaiser / Krischanitz und Frank Architekten / Finsterwalder Architekten / Frei Otto / Anatol Herzfeld

SpacePlacePractice 2022

Essay:
SpacePlacePractice 2022
From Regional Park, Rural Prototype, Bamboo Furniture
Barbara Hoidn