What the Files Reveal: Making Everyday Architecture Talk

Abstract

Editorial Summary Typically, design projects leave traces in building archives. Benedikt Boucsein sees great potential in this practice, as it can be used for a research methodology that explores archival material from the designer’s perspective, especially for work that is otherwise not archived. In his text Benedikt Boucsein illustrates this through the example from everyday architecture of the reconstruction period after World War II, which he denominated as »Grey Architecture«. One major insight of this research was that the building files were more important for the research than the actual buildings, and that working in the archive helped make this particular architecture »speak« for the first time, unveiling how the built environment is produced. He concludes that archival material may, especially for everyday architecture, be more important than the actual building, and that the designer’s view is decisive in understanding this material. [Ferdinand Ludwig]