Carbon Confessions

The exhibition CARBON CONFESSIONS offers an in-depth look at MVRDV's long-standing engagement with sustainable architecture. It highlights decades of challenges, successes and self-reflection and traces the office's path - from early concepts for urban densification, such as Berlin Voids and EXPO 2000, to current projects that address biodiversity, carbon reduction and innovative materials in the context of climate change.

CARBON CONFESSIONS tells an unvarnished story: a chronicle of milestones and missteps that traces the broader shift in architecture and redefines buildings in times of climate urgency. The focus is on carbon - not just as a problem, but as a raw material, provocation and design challenge of our time. The exhibition shows how architecture can become a tool of change by making sustainability tangible and implementable through adaptive reuse, innovative material approaches and digital technologies.

With honesty and openness, CARBON CONFESSIONS shares MVRDV's insights, calculated risks and the challenges of "carbon accounting" at all levels of their projects. The exhibition is not just a showcase of their work, but a confession. It honestly reflects on obstacles and failures in the development of their attitude towards sustainable architecture.

The exhibition itself is an example of resource conservation: materials and props are reused to minimize waste. CARBON CONFESSIONS not only presents the contradictions and complexities of the carbon problem, but makes them the starting point for a dialogue. It invites architects, students and the public to participate in a discussion that goes far beyond design - a discussion about redesigning our cities to heal the planet through architecture that breathes, adapts and regenerates.

Opening: 16.1.2025, 7 pm
Speakers:
Elisabeth Merk City Planning Commissioner of the LH Munich
Jacob van Rijs MVRDV
Jan Knikker MVRDV
Nicola Borgmann Architekturgalerie München