Located at Lutherplatz in the center of Kassel, 200 meters north of Königsplatz is the approximately 100 sg m Research Station of TRACES. It has served to facilitate dialogue between urban society and the university since 2019, and will continue to do so for a period of five years. Here students and teaching provide insights into their work with talks, lectures, workshops, seminars, and exhibitions, including the wider public in the research in the sense of a “Citizen Science.” The TRACES Research Station was established as a design-build project by students from architecture, landscape architecture, product design, and visual communication under the auspices of the department of Architectural Theory and Design at the University of Kassel. 

The basic structure of the building was constructed by students of the University of Kassel as part of a Design/Build project in August of 2019 under the direction of the department of Architectural Theory and Design/Prof. Philipp Oswalt at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Bauhaus in Dessau-Törten for a year and a half. Ludwig Hilberseimer’s “Growing House” had originally been designed for this site, and served here as an inspiration. 

For the appropriation by TRACES in Kassel, thirty students of architecture, landscape architecture, product design, and visual communication redesigned and expanded the structure for the new requirements. The year-long planning process encompassed choice of location, the urban layout, the architecture of the building, the design of the exterior area, the interior design and furniture, as well as the design of the graphic elements. In the summer of 2021 the students used a do-it-yourself approach to construct the building.

As part of the construction of the Research Station, students of Visual Communication developed the visual appearance of TRACES (typography and logo). In the design of the logo, Yannick Stark, Lotte Frank, and Julia Reinhold give expression to the interaction and collective experience of science and scholarship as a core message of TRACES. “The moving lines that come together to form the lettering tell the story of various people who come from different directions and met on their way. They experience a part of the way together, then separate again. In the end the totality of their traces result in TRACES.” 

Students:

Hassan Ahmed, Timm Bornmann, Schäfer Christin, Schmidt Eric, Friederike Frost, Arina-Dana Gogu, Laura Hammelmann, Antonia Heesen, Benjamin Hennig, Paul Hübinger, Käckel Inka, Roscher Johanna, Benedikt Kimpel, Louise Kötter, Löscher  Lara, Johanna Rödiger, Martin Rühlmann, Merle Schmidt, Lisa Strewe, Schick Verena, Valerie Wieczorek (Architecture); Philipp Helmreich, Melina Zaddach (Landscape Architecture); Julius Abromeit, Dorothea Griep, Dennis Lange, Jona Wentzler, Xiangnan Wu (Product Design); Lotte Frank, Julia Reinbold, Yannick Stark (Visual Communication)

Teachers:

Philipp Oswalt, Dr. Andreas Buss, Georgios Varelis, Jonathan Knoop (Department of Architectural Theory and Design), Prof. Jakob Gebert (Kunsthochschule/Product Design), Samson Kirschning (Kunsthochschule/Visual Communication), Mitarbeitende: Katja Weckmann, Philipp Oetter (Department of Architectural Theory and Design)

Advisors:

Mark Laszkiewicz (Bauplan ML), René Mäurich, Ingenieurbüro für Tragswerksplanung, Berlin; Gerhard Kratzenberg, Beratende Ingenieure, Kassel; Tauber Explosive Management GmbH & Co KG, Weiterstadt

Companies:

Garten- und Landschaftsbau C. Ullrich, Kassel; Heim und Jörges GmbH, Haustechnik, Kassel; Talis Lehmbau, Kaufungen

Sponsors:

Gartencenter Ziegener Vellmar, Talis Lehmbau GmbH Kaufungen.

Thanks to

Christof Nolda, Volker Mohr, Hans-Georg Flöther, Volker Lange (City of Kassel), Barbara Heinrich, Helge Kuhn, Alexander Reitz, Amelie Gatzke (Evangelischer Stadtkirchenkreis Kassel), John P. Leszner (Talis), Dr. Oliver Fromm, Karl Haase, Anja Schneider, Nanne Buurman, Carina Herring, Guido Brinkmann (University of Kassel).

General coordination:

Department of Architectural Theory and Design, Prof. Philipp Oswalt, Dr. Andreas Buss

This project was made possible through the generous support of the Evangelische Stadtkirchenkreis Kassel, the IKEA Foundation, the Pfeiffer Foundation, and the sto Foundation

The TRACES Research Station serves as a site for cooperation between science, art, and the local population of Kassel in the area of exhibition studies. It is an open window in the city, which allows research and teaching to be experienced directly. Alongside informative formats, participatory and cooperative formats also play a central role, which consciously seek to connect people of all social and cultural backgrounds. The goal is to make science and scholarship transparent and to link them to local knowledge in the sense of “Citizen Science.” Exhibitions are platforms of cultural exchange, encounter, and political impulse, and not only in the field of the visual arts. They are thus important intersections for processes of social reflection and renewal, but they do require visitors to have particular competence in how to critically engage with these interpretive proposals.