Category: Furniture

Museum Forced Labor Under National Socialism

Posted on by Eingang Gewerk

Media table with a city map of Weimar

Museum Forced Labor Under National Socialism

Background

Our long-time travelling exhibition about forced labour under national socialism, which was shown first at the Jewish Museum Berlin in 2010 and then at six further locations, has now been permanently installed at the former Gauforum in Weimar. This complex of buildings, planned by the Nazis as a gigantean representational site (and then completed by the Soviet Military Administration after the war), now houses the Museum Forced Labor Under National Socialism with our exhibition.

The planning and the development of the newly created museum has been realised under the lead of gewerkdesign. The construction of the functional museum areas, among them the foyer with the cashier’s desk and lockers as well as two public rooms for workshops, was a special challenge in this building. The exhibition extends across several rooms, mainly across the one originally devised as a ceremonial hall. The built-in components of the exhibition densify more and more and turn the atmosphere of the space successively dark and importunate – a contrast that becomes apparent especially against the bulky feel of the hall.

In five chapters – habituation, radicalisation, mass phenomenon, liberation, damaged justice – the ineffable stories of forced labourers are told, who have not only been abused for the purposes of the national socialists but also for those of German companies and households. The exhibition has in some parts been adapted to the city of Weimar and new content has been added. By means of partially intoned letters and diary entries, along with personal items and photographs, the people get a face and a voice. On an interactive media table with a city map of Weimar, visitors can select audible content and understand what events took place where in and around Weimar, in the vicinity of which the concentration camp Buchenwald is located. In the last room, contemporary witnesses await the visitors on screens, telling their stories on request. A large wall painting of a graphically designed timeline shows the development of forced labour and its consequences until today. 

Portfolio / Range of Services
General contractor, exhibition design and planning, implementation planning, exhibition architecture, planning and construction of the functional museum areas, exhibition production, project management and consulting, project development, planning of the object presentation, development and production of the hands-on exhibits, media design, exhibition graphics, signage system through the exhibition

Details

• Opening: 8 May 2024
• Location: Museum Forced Labor
FUnder National Socialism, Weimar
• Client: Buchenwald and Mittelbau-
FDora Memorials Foundation, funded
Fby the Foundation Remembrance,
FResponsibility and Future (EVZ
FFoundation), the Thuringia State
FChancellery, and the Federal
FGovernment Commissioner for
FCulture and the Media
• Area: 2,000 m²

Similar projects

• Forced Labour: Berlin, Moscow,
FDortmund, Warsaw, Prague,
FHamburg, Steyr
• Munich Displaced: Munich

Press

• Deutsche Welle
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
• Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
• Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
• ND Aktuell
• Radio Lotte
• Thüringer Staatskanzlei
• WELT
• Die Zeit

 

Design Process

Project Team

• Jens Imig
• Stefan Rothert
• Birgit Schlegel
• Ann-Christin Ahrens
• Julia Junghänel
• Carsten Saalmann
• Johannes Gotaut

Restoration
• Junk & Reich Architekten, Weimar

Installation
• Walther Expointerieur, Coswig
• Gränz Innenausbau, Weimar

Media Production and Coordination
• Jörgen Pisarz, artavi

Audio Production / Sound Recordings
• speak low Krewer & Teichmann GbR

Photography
• Christoph Musiol

Nichts. Nothing. Riens.

Posted on by Eingang Gewerk

Museum of Communication Bern, Switzerland

Exhibition Poster

Background

The exhibition project “Nichts. Nothing. Riens.” takes on nothing. Objects, stories, films, illusionary spaces, waiting rooms, and moments of surprise are association with this term by integrating everyday observations and situations into the exhibition space. As part of a broad-based research for the exhibition, the exhibits were compiled during a series of workshops and subsequently distributed across the 6 areas of the exhibition: 1_A lot of Nothing. 2_The Waiting Room. 3_ Nothing for You. 4_ All this Nothing. 5_ Constructing Nothing. 6_ Cinema Stage.

A particular challenge for gewerkdesign was to conceive and implement nothing graphically and spatially. The exhibition architecture is not visible at first glance. It aligns with the framework of the museum, supplementing it with additional windows, pillars, and doors. A so-called trilingual transponder invisibly and magically guides the visitors through the exhibition set, leading to a show of actors staging bizarre encounters. Nothing more.

Furthermore, the exhibition is designed to be sustainable. Its individual elements were economically produced, minimising the overall consumption of resources. Wall panelling, old wine crates, cardboard tubes were recycled from previous exhibitions. The graphics were mainly printed on paper in order to minimise the use of plastic and composite materials.

At 62,000 visitors, the Museum for Communication Bern sets a record in visitor numbers with „Nichts. Nothing. Riens.“. As many people as never before at the MfK Bern have seen this special exhibition.

 

Portfolio /Range of Services
Workshop conception and content, exhibition design and exhibition architecture, exhibition and media graphics, communication design, production monitoring

Details

• Duration: 10 November 2023
Fto 21 July 2024
• Where: Museum of Communication FBern, Switzerland
• Client: Museum of Communication FBern, Switzerland
• ca. 650 m²

Related Projects

• Out of Office, Hamburg
• The future quality of living, FHamburg
• Riots + New Beginnings, Bremen

Press

• BärnerBär
• Bärn Today
• Der Bund
• Museumsfernsehen
• Nau
• Radio Bern
• Thuner Tagblatt

Design Process

Project Team

• Jens Imig
• Antoine Laurent
• Bianca Mohr
• Birgit Schlegel
• Gabriel Tecklenburg

Photography:
• gewerkdesign

Interactive Content System:
• iart– Studio für mediale Architekturen, Basel

Multimedia:
• Jean First
• Zita Bauer
• Alexandra Heini
• Kurt Stadelmann
• Franz Szekeres

Film:
• Sibylle Heiniger

Graphics, Layout & Typesetting:
• gewerkdesign

Exhibition Production:
• Patrik Ammann
• Daniel Bucheli
• Arjen Damen
• Giacomo Feurich
• Jean First
• Aurelio Galfetti
• Urs Hochuli
• Coline Jud
• Gratschi Josef Jud
• Theo Kämpfer
• Stefan Käsermann
• Basil Kraus
• Andreas Manecke
• Erich Marty
• Timo Müller
• Stefan Schmidlin
• Jan Stadelmann
• Roland Steiner
• Andri von Moos
• Paul von Moos
• Ueli Zingg

Establishment of Georgium Palace as the museum of the Anhalt Painting Gallery

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Georgium Palace, Anhalt Picture Gallery, <b>Dessau-Roßlau</b>

Dutch cabinet from the 17th Century

Background

Georgium Palace in Dessau has not always accommodated the Anhalt Painting Gallery. It only moved into the palace in 1959, after being housed in the Palais Reina in Dessau, which was destroyed in the war. The history of the palace and that of the painting collection could not be more different: here a palace, first built as a small summer palace for Prince Johann Georg von Anhalt-Dessau (who gave the Palace its name) and intended for private living, there a collection that grew together from several estates into a great treasure for Dessau as a public collection.

When it was decided to modernize Schloss Georgium and adapt it to the current standards of a painting gallery, gewerkdesign was brought in as a consulting partner for the gallery’s refurbishment in 2014. The result is a museum concept that divides the three levels of the building into different usage concepts: On the first floor, functional rooms such as the checkroom, toilets, a lecture hall and reception await the visitors supplemented by a “historical tour” through the history of the house, the Georgen-garden and the history of the collection. The main part of the painting collection will be exhibited on the 1st floor, while graphic works will hang mainly in the mezzanine. In order to keep the hanging of the paintings in the landmark castle flexible, colored wear walls have been hung on the existing walls, which slow down the climate change from the exterior to the interior and protect the paintings by providing a stable temperature. The furniture of the house is part of a series designed by gewerkdesign. The substructure made of delicately processed metal as well as the colored upholstery of the seats takes up the historical furnishing of the house.

A minimalist sign system guides the way through the house. The thematic division of the rooms is also designed in a restrained manner; the paintings are to be the focus. Each room is given a lettering of the respective period in milled letters. Information on the artistic works can be obtained by the visitors from object signs, which are mounted underneath the wear walls. This ensures the greatest possible auratic effect of the paintings in interaction with the color scheme of the walls surrounding them. The thematic rooms on the ground floor have been equipped with media tables. Interactive stations and hands-on exhibits invite active participation. The corporate design with a strong signet and word brand in black on white or yellow leaves room for the great collection. In the future, further information about the castle and the collection will be available individually via a web-based app.

Portfolio / Range of Services:
Design and consulting of exhibition architecture and utilization concept, design and planning of thematic rooms, execution planning, exhibition production, project management, hands-on development (media) and production, exhibition graphics, guidance system in the castle, corporate design, design web and webAPP

Details

– Opening: autumn 2022
– Location: Georgium Palace, Anhalt Painting Gallery, Dessau
– Client: Foundation, Office for Culture Dessau-Roßlau
– Size: 1.989 m²

Design Process

Team

• Jens Imig
• Bianca Mohr
• Birgit Schlegel
• Carsten Saalmann
• Thilo Albers
• Julia Junghähnel
• Jens H. Lohmann
• Michael Lorenz, Graphscape (cashier system, media, website)
• Claudia Wagner, vogelfrei-design (illustrations)

Exhibition production and mounting
• Gemelo GmbH (media)
• Tischlerei Carsten Gräubig
• Rost Werbetechnik (print)
• Joseph Hirsch (metal signs)
• Büchner Möbel (furniture)
• Team Falko Riepe (wear walls)
• Janusz Kruszewski (model)
• Paul Göschel (light)

Architecture
• cuboidoo architects BDA

Photography
• Christoph Musiol

OUR STATE. 75 Years of North Rhine-Westphalia

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Exterior view of the Behrensbau (© Stiftung Haus der Geschichte Nordrhein-Westfalen, Axel Thünker)

Window of St. Lambertus Church in Erkelenz-Immerath

Background

That one of the most modern office buildings of its time – rationally built, light and flexibly divisible – would house an exhibition a good 110 years after it was constructed, this is something that architect Peter Behrens probably wouldn’t have thought likely. The design concept’s proposition for NRW’s anniversary exhibition: an environment in which visitors can relax and engage with the exhibition can only be created according to, not against, the original architectural concept. This means that fixtures and signs are allowed to have a temporary appearance – flexible like the former office floors – that lines of sight remain unobstructed and that the path through the exhibition is clear.

Visitors enter the rather sober looking building on the Rhine promenade through a bright green portal. They enter a foyer that even today achieves an “artistic effect … with simple material and simple design” (*1). Elaborating on this idea, a 270° media installation about places and current everyday life in NRW, projected directly onto the marble surfaces below the gallery, sets the mood for visiting the exhibition.

On the 1st floor gallery, large, backlit images fitted into the wall niches introduce challenges which the federal state of NRW currently faces. Following this introduction, these challenges are discussed in the 8 exhibition chapters. The gridded appearance of the images is characteristic for the introduction as well as the subsequent chapters: it provides orientation and marks spatial and thematic changes.

The scenography of the 8 exhibition areas matches their respective narrative focus. For example is the “Danger” area furnished with intersected walls, thus supporting the chapter’s deconstructive atmosphere. The fixtures of each area are of the same colour spectrum – the colour concept comprises a total of 33 different colours – and by this combine information and narrative media with the area’s individual colour and impression. The exhibition is structured by its main texts, printed in the exhibition’s overall colour “luminous green”, the exhibit labels, printed on panels of the areas’ individual colours, and info graphics, which are designed in a consistent style throughout the exhibition. The distinctively gridded image style is also repeated in the exhibition’s key visual featuring the symbols of NRW’s coat of arms. Thus, the exhibition’s historical content is presented in a modern graphic style. Developed in cooperation with the client, the exhibition’s holistic design concept combines space, graphics, and external presentation. It subtly supports the visitors’ feeling of having successfully mastered the challenges of the last 75 years.

*1: from Peter Behrens’ inaugural address, Festschrift Mannesmann Röhren Werke, 1912

Portfolio / Range of Services

Commissioned as general contractor for all services, exhibition design and planning, implementation planning, concept development for the display, interior design of the service areas, exhibition production, project management and consulting project development, multimedia design, design and user interface of the media guide, concept and design of the media installation on the front of the building, development and production of the HandsOn-displays, exhibition and media graphics, signage, tactile guidance system

Details

• Opening: 26 August 2021
• Where: Behrensbau, Düsseldorf
• Client: Parliament of North Rhine-FWestphalia
• 1.200 m², incl. service areas ca F2.000 m²

Similiar projects

• 100! Universität Hamburg Past and FPresent , Hamburg
• The Luther Effect , Berlin
• Friederisiko. Frederick the Great , FPotsdam

Design process

Team

• Stefan Rothert
• Jens Imig
• Bianca Mohr
• Janine Iser
• Julia Junghänel
• Yunus Kleff
• Marlene Schaefermeyer
• Antoine Laurent
• Gabriel Tecklenburg

Exhibition production and mounting
• i.xpo, Kaarst

Lighting
• lichttransfer, Berlin

Media production and technical support
• Eidotech GmbH, Berlin
• 235 Media, Köln
• framegrabber GmbH, Hamburg
• Kulturbanause, Berlin

Graphics production
• MegaLab GmbH, Köln
• i.xpo, Kaarst

Showcase set-up
• Zehnpfennig und Weber, Berlin

Typography composition and picture editing
• vogelfrei Design, Berlin

Media editing
• Larissa Blau, Berlin

Translation
• David Ward, Berlin
• Ingrid Dixon, Gloucestershire, UK

Photography
• Christoph Musiol

IXC Berlin Chair and Table

Posted on by Henning

Berliner Congress Center, Berlin

Chair in the historical bcc building

Background

Cooperating with the manufacturer Interstuhl, gewerkdesign developed the table system »IXT Berlin« and the stackable chair »IXC Berlin«.

The chair’s red cushioning improves the acoustics of the historical bcc building at Alexanderplatz and elegantly merges into Hermann Henselmann’s architecture from the 1960s.

Depending on their intended function, there are four different models of the IXC: those made of plastic material with acoustically convenient punch holes in the seat and back, those with a folding seat, those with a cushioned seat and back and those that are fully upholstered. The chairs are vertically stackable, linkable, and can be equipped with writing pads and row numbers.

Portfolio / Range of Services: product design, participation with the construction, with the colour concept, and the interior design concept

Details

• Development: 2002 – 2003
• Rollout and presentation: 2004
• Manufacturer: Interstuhl
• Cooperation with the Berlin
FCongress Center bcc

Related projects

• bcc – Berlin Congress Center

Design process

Team

• Jens Imig
• Stefan Rothert
• Tobias Solcher

Photography
• Produzentenfotos