Die Röhre

At the beginning of the 1980s, Günther L. Eckert developed an architectural utopia: a giant above-ground tube spanning the globe as a dwelling space for all of humanity.

With his technically detailed design, he wanted to prove that all of humanity can live in prosperity on earth without further exploiting and destroying it. Unlike other utopian concepts, however, Eckert did not plan for an anywhere or anytime. Rather, the tube, called the "Continuum," was intended to bring together all technologies that had been implemented up to that point in a closed control loop. Eckert was not primarily aiming for an architectural-technical construct, however, but hoped that people would give up their "I" in favor of a "we" and agree on a project that everyone would support together.

It has now been almost half a century since Eckert developed his idea. In view of climate change, finite resources and political upheaval, one can only say with horror that his ideas have lost none of their actuality, and are more relevant than ever. Against this background, the "tube" illustrates all the more the dimensions of the changes that we must develop in our relationship with nature as the source and basis of our lives.