Mirko Baum: From Machinism to Pelargoniums - Lecture at FUA TUL

The Faculty of Art and Architecture of the Technical University of Liberec is hosting a guest lecture by a renowned architect, during which the author will present his lifelong architectural work.
Prof. Ing. arch. Mirko Baum is undoubtedly among the architects who have succeeded not only in their homeland but also abroad after leaving the republic in 1974. A member of the so-called "SIAL" group, which brought together young and promising architects in the Liberec Stavoprojekt, Baum spent two decades in Germany as a professor of architecture at RWTH Aachen. Mirko Baum joined SIAL in the 1960s and from the beginning, he excelled in his interest in the technological and engineering foundations of architectural work. His works reflect his fascination with the creations of R. B. Fuller, the Archigram group, and the early works of J. Stirling. All of these are personalities and groups that were at the forefront of the HIGH-TECH movement. On a similar basis – engineering and design foundations – Baum's Berlin employer J. P. Kleihues also built, where Baum spent a considerable number of years. His clear and rational view of architecture, influenced by SIAL's machinism and enriched by the use of modern technologies, is presented not only in studies and projects from the SIAL group but also in his later works from exile.