"Selbstbau"

In September 1985, the foundation was laid for the new building of the Department of “Landscape Architecture and Botany” at the campus Weihenstephan of TU Munich. In the following years, around the new building, a lively network of walls and hedges, gardens and patios, water features and path ways was spun which characterises the identity of this place to the present day. It tells an informative as well as inspiring story. Partly overgrown, weathered and obviously gotten long in the tooth, this story deals with team spirit and love of experimentation, of unconventional teaching and learning methods, of the wisdom of the many, of the limits of growth, of garden culture, environmentalism and much more.

In October 2013, the exhibition SELBSTBAU – which could be translated as „Do-it-yourself construction“ – was organised as a retrospection of the history of the design of the open spaces around the department. It was meant to stimulate a (re)discovery of the particular value of a communal piece of work which for many years represents a mindset and certain positions that characterise landscape architecture at TU Munich.

Organiser: Chair of Landscape Architecture and Industrial Landscape
Idea and concept: Udo Weilacher, Gunter Bartholmai
Realisation: Eric Barth, Felix Dressler, Tobias Kramer

Following the exhibition, different stories and experiences with do-it-yourself experiments at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Botany at Weihenstephan were compiled in a small book that was published in June 2014. selbstbau presents the ideas and initiatives, the process and topics. Prof. em. Peter Latz, Emeritus of Excellence of TU Munich, held a lecture on the day of the book presentation in our department.

The book was availalbe through our secretary but is now out of print.