Press / Media

The RiverParc Development in Pittsburgh (pictured) is just one example of the innovative architectural designs of Behnisch Architekten, Stuttgart, and Transsolar ClimateEngineering, linked by their interest in designing sustainable and responsible architecture. You will see many more of their trail-blazing creations in our exhibition.

The future of our planet depends on innovative and sustainable thinking—this presents contemporary architecture with a particular challenge: what we build today, and the way we build it, will help to determine our future.

Along with the opening of the exhibition, we begin our accompanying lecture & panel series. We are looking forward to engaging Stefan Behnisch of Behnisch Architekten, Thomas Auer, managing director of Transsolar, and other experts from both sides of the Atlantic in a dialogue to find new ways of building with you this summer and fall.

Presented by the Goethe-Institut Toronto in cooperation with the MaRS Centre and the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen. Part of the program innovation-germany.ca

Ecology.Design.Synergy
Behnisch Architekten + Transsolar ClimateEngineering
Exhibition
23 June -11 July 10
MaRS Centre Atrium, 101 College Street, Toronto, ON
Admission free, open 24 hours a day

“Given the realization that supplies of available raw materials are finite, it is becoming increasingly evident that only innovative solutions can achieve urgently needed reductions in energy and resource use while improving quality of life,” write Kristin Feireiss and Hans-Jürgen Commerell of the Berlin International Architecture Forum, Aedes, in the exhibition’s catalogue. “Ecology.Design.Synergy” will provide you with an insight into the latest in sustainable architecture and illustrates the visions it is driven by. The exhibition displays and highlights designs and projects by the Stuttgart-based Behnisch Architekten and Transsolar ClimateEngineering. Among other projects the innovative RiverParc Development in Pittsburgh, the Senscity Paradise Universe in Las Vegas/Nevada and the Norddeutsche Landesbank in Hannover will be shown. Projects by Behnisch architects and Transsolar in Toronto, Winnipeg and Guelph, including the Donnelly Centre in Toronto, will be presented together for the first time with the world premiere of six documentaries, shown on iPads in a mirrored movie box.

Behnisch Architekten, Stuttgart was established in 1989 as a branch office of Günter Behnisch’s practice Behnisch & Partner (founded in 1952) and became independent in 1991, managed by Stefan Behnisch. In the following years it realised numerous buildings both in Germany and worldwide; among them the Institute for Forestry and Nature Research in Wageningen/the Netherlands (1998), the Genzyme Center in Cambridge/Massachusetts (2003), and the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular, Biomolecular Research for the University of Toronto/Canada (2005). Behnisch Architekten is directed by Stefan Behnisch and partners Martin Haas and David Cook.

Transsolar was founded in 1992 in Stuttgart as a climate engineering consulting company and is now represented in Stuttgart, Munich and New York. The most important projects are the Mercedes-Benz-Museum in Stuttgart, the Bangkok International Airport and the headquarters for the Manitoba Hydro Company in Winnipeg/Canada. One of the best-known joint projects completed by Transsolar and Behnisch Architekten is the Norddeutsche Landesbank in Hannover/Germany (2002).

The cooperation of Behnisch Architekten and Transsolar ClimateEngineering has extended to both international competitions and realised projects in Germany and beyond. The common foundation of this collaboration is the confidence, as the exhibition by curator Frank Ockert illustrates, that high-quality building environments can be realized with less consumption of natural resources.

The exhibition was developed by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) in Stuttgart and the Berlin-based forum of architecture Aedes.

About the Goethe-Institut Toronto

For almost 50 years, the Goethe-Institut Toronto has been promoting an ongoing dialogue and exchange between Canadian and German artists and experts. Our cultural programs present important positions, contemporary arts and ideas from Germany and Europe to Canadians. The current focus themes are Culture & Economy, City & Climate, and German film. We organise residencies together with our Canadian partners, offer international liaison work and consulting as well as promote European cultural understanding, e.g. through our cooperation with other European cultural institutes across Canada.
The institute also offers high-profile German language classes and a library with the largest collection of German DVDs in Canada.

More details: www.goethe.de/ecology

Contact: Jutta Brendemühl
Program Coordinator
Goethe-Institut Toronto
100 University Ave, North Tower,
Suite 201, mailbox 136
Toronto, ON M5J 1V6
Canada
Tel. +1 416 5935257-205
Fax +1 416 5935145
arts@toronto.goethe.org
www.goethe.de/toronto