Guest curators: BARarchitekten and Gregor Harbusch

Ludwig Leo designed three of the most architecturally significant buildings in post-war West Berlin: the Sporthalle Charlottenburg, the Umlauftank near to the Tiergarten S-Bahn station, and the boathouse tower for the German Life­guard Association (DLRG) in Spandau.

Although the Umlauftank remains a landmark in Berlin, Leo’s withdrawal from archi­tectural discourse after the 1970s means that the basis of his work is now largely forgotten. The exhi­bi­tion takes a close look, through the architect’s extra­ordinary drawings, at four of his projects. Decisive themes in Leo’s work were the idea of dense spatial sequences, movable elements, and the encour­age­ment of social interaction through living and working together. Leo said “archi­tecture must be socially justified, otherwise it is only a picture.”

The 5.6 m² gallery space, equipped with sliding display panels, relates to the spatial compactness of Leo’s designs. The exhibition is based on many years of research by the participants and combines material from the architect’s archive at the Academy of Arts in Berlin with new material made for the exhi­bi­tion, including a model, an animation film and photographs. The exhibition is accom­panied by a publication.