SHIFT (Southern Heritage and Insights for Transformation), Curatorial Project 2026

Master/ 4 SWS / 6 ECTS
Lecturers: Prof. Dr. Andres Lepik, Cara Hähl-Pfeifer

Modul: AR30190 

This research and curatorial seminar will provide an opportunity to develop ideas for a collaborative exhibition project between the Chair of Architectural History and Curatorial Practice and the Chair of Building Technologies and Climate Responsive Design at the Architekturmuseum in November 2026.

In the 18th century, philosophers and scientists started to consider whether human actions could affect the climate. The growth of global colonial enterprises provided evidence to support this belief. Deforestation, desertification, the considerable expansion of agricultural areas, as well as industrialisation, seemed to alter local climates, making them more temperate.^[1] Soon, however, climate began to be understood as a system that does not, in fact, respect geopolitical boundaries.

At the turn of the 20th century, the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius was the first to link global warming to the use of fossil fuels by calculating that higher atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide from human activity could significantly increase Earth's temperature. However, it was not until the 1960s that the issue of global warming moved from the scientific field into the political realm. From then on, environmental awareness also impacted “Western” architectural discourse. The mid-1980s saw the start of the hottest years in history, and since then each decade has set a new record.^[2] In the following years, a redefinition of the construction industry to include sustainability consequently generated so-called green architecture.

Still, in the mid-20th century, architects in Europe and America relied heavily on mechanically conditioned buildings, which was made possible by the low cost of energy resulting from an abundance of cheap oil from the Middle East. Thanks to growing technological advances Modernists felt liberated from climatic constraints in their design process. When the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced an oil embargo on countries that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, the limitations of the previous unrestrained approach to energy use became obvious.^[3]

 Often neglected in the historical canon is that, at the same time, architects in London and the so-called tropics were pioneering an energy-conscious, climate-responsive architecture that would become known as Tropical Modernism. According to Christopher Turner in the 1950s the “tropics” – itself a colonial term comprising existing or former British colonies – came to represent a “geopolitical zone of desire, colonial anxiety and underdevelopment”. Architects such as Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry developed tools for Tropical Modernism in British West Africa (today Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria), adapting a Modernist aesthetic to the hot, humid conditions of the tropical region. The many buildings they designed had a distinctive language of climate control, incorporating adjustable louvres, wide eaves and brise-soleils, which sometimes made superficial reference to the locality by incorporating local motifs. Despite its colonial associations, the movement spread after countries such as Ghana and India gained independence from British colonial rule, becoming an important aspect of nation-building.^[4]

The principles of natural conditioning were appropriated from the diverse range of vernacular and colonial architectures found in tropical regions. Tropical architects then applied a modernist paradigm to these principles, reconstituting them scientifically and mathematically, to create “Tropical Architecture”. By the 1960s, they had developed precise mathematical processes for quantifying and calculating design variables based on meteorological and environmental data. These tools were circulated through numerous conferences, publications and university departments across Europe – the first of which was established at the Architectural Association in London.^[5]

As the writer and historian Vandana Baweja explains, the ideology of Tropical Architecture, which is based on climatic design, minimal energy use and responsiveness to local conditions, resurfaced in “Western” architectural discourse after the energy crises of the 1970s. She argues that Tropical Modernism should be recognised as the “ideological precursor” to green architecture. 

As part of the upcoming exhibition, which highlights the work of SHIFT (Southern Heritage and Insights for Transformation) — a platform exploring contemporary examples of “climate-responsive architecture rooted in culture and place” in the Southern Hemisphere — it is important to consider the origins of this discussion. While Southern regions are usually associated with historical or vernacular building techniques, their distinctive modernist architecture is less recognised and included in global discourse, resulting in an incomplete narrative. We want to examine entangled global histories through the lens of climate change: the rise of environmentalism, its impact on architectural discourse, and the emergence of Tropical Modernism as a precursor to climate-responsive design.

The seminar will take the form of a research-focused workshop, with collaborative discussions at its core. In small groups, participants will be assigned one of the above topics to explore in depth. During the sessions, we will prepare research and discuss texts collectively, paying attention to shared themes and intersections within the broader theme of the seminar. Finally, based on this research, we will come up with initial ideas for a curatorial concept with the aim of creating an exhibition to be held in November 2026. 

^[1] René, ‘Thinking about Climate Change (16th-21st Centuries)’.
^[2] Linden, ‘Climate Change Became Politicized in the 1990s. It Didn’t Have To Be That Way.’
^[3] Loorbach et al., It’s about Time.
^[4] Turner and Victoria and Albert Museum., Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence.
^[5]  Baweja, ‘The Beginning of a Green Architecture: Otto Koenigsberger at the Department of Tropical Architecture at the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture, London, UK’.

Kick-off: Thursday, 16.10.2025

Meetings: Thursdays, 9:45 am - 1:00 pm

Place: seminar room 0340

Language: English

Exam: 05.02.2026 / presentation, 20.02.2026 / project hand-in