Dec 9, 2017–Jan 18, 2018

PPAG Architects

Do You Really Want to Live Like Your Mother?
Address
Christinenstrasse 18-19, 10119 Berlin Map
Hours
Tue-Fri 11 am–6:30 pm, Sun-Mon 1–5 pm

With a focus on trendsetting forms of housing, PPAG architects is one of the leading protagonists of contemporary architecture in Austria. Since 1995, the Vienna-based architecture studio founded by Anna Popelka and Georg Poduschka has been working to stimulate the further development of our society through innovative living environments. 'Do You Really Want to Live Like Your Mother?' presents a 1:1 model of their idea for an elastic space configuration within an apartment. The installation features plans, drawings, and films for structures planned and built by PPAG, including residential buildings and urban development projects in Vienna and Berlin. The exhibition gives visitors an insight into the well-considered solutions which meet the demands of the diverse ways of life.

If one asks housing developers about their ideas and goals, the same basic answer is repeated throughout Europe: one-room flats, two-room flats, three-room flats, four-room flats – only the proportions vary. Visionary ideas for cohabitation are not part of the equation. The apartment itself has largely been standardized in Europe since modern times, in terms of both the size and floor plan of the various types. But what can the apartment dwelling contribute to the further development of our society? Every dwelling is a propaganda machine for a way of life. Are we really so equal that we want to live in the same flats? Or are we so equal because we live in the same flats? Is this what we want? Is there another way? What does the city look like? Do we want to be content with typologies established at the end of the 19th century?

'Do You Really Want to Live Like Your Mother?' shows an abstract 1:1 model of their idea for an elastic apartment. These 54 square meters don’t claim to solve the housing question, but pose one of many possibilities for a truly heterogeneous housing market.