On Behalf of the Environment

The Institut de l’Environnement was an interdisciplinary school that existed in Paris from 1969 to 1971. Founded in the heated climate of worldwide student protests and growing awareness of the threat to the environment, this research and training centre sought to redefine teaching methods and the role of research in architecture and design.

The participants of the Bauhaus Lab 2024 explored both the teaching and research activities of the institute and the cultural context of the time. The result is an exhibition that looks at the fragmented history of the Institut de l’Environnement along the lines of the question “What is the environment?”. Like a common thread, this question links three installation-based thematic clusters: Signs of Protest deals with the cultural context of the institute. A series of posters establishes links to cultural and political events. The Archive Curtain made of paper offers insights into everyday teaching and research at the institute and symbolises the overwhelming wealth of archive material. The Facade forms a membrane, accentuating an intermediate space that relates to the facade of the school, but whose materiality also thematises the external impact of this controversial institute.

On behalf of the environment. Pedagogies of unrest is a collective project and was developed by an international group of architects, designers, curators and researchers from the Bauhaus Lab 2024 as part of the Transcultural Modernism Studies programme.

Symposium: 8.8.2024, 2 pm, in Englisch
Opening: 8.8.2024, 5 pm