SUPERCRIT #9: SAUERBRUCH HUTTON'S GSW


Exhibition/event
w/ University of Westminster & EXP
London
2023
@supercrits
www.supercrits.com


⊕ See also SUPERCRIT #8, SUPERCRITS: VISUAL IDENTITY, CONTESTING STATUES

The ninth edition of the acclaimed Supercrits series saw Louisa Hutton and Matthias Sauerbruch come back to school to present Sauerbruch Hutton’s groundbreaking project GSW, completed in 1999, for a 'crit' by a panel of international critics and a public and student audience. The event and the identity for the Supercrits series were produced by Studio MASH.






























Built in 'the magic (but brief) moment after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the potential future was stronger than all of the present', GSW suggested a new, progressive, environmentally responsible and beautiful architecture which could relink the severed halves of the city. An assembly of different parts and forms relating history and future, it pioneered an environmental approach as an expressive part of its architecture, notably in its beautifully coloured, adjustable, solar-shuttered facade, which acts as a 'dynamic painting' in reds and pinks, fusing occupancy and sustainability.


The panel of critics included:
Paul Finch, director of the World Architecture Festival; 
Susannah Hagan, founding director of RED (Research into Environment and Design) and Emerita Professor University of Westminster; 
Dirk van den Heuvel, Associate Professor of Architecture at TU Delft; 
Jennifer O'Donnell, founder of Plattenbau Studio; 
and Oliver Wainwright, architecture and design critic at the Guardian.


Devised in 2003 by the research group EXP at the University of Westminster, and re-launched by Studio MASH in 2018, Supercrits invites the world's most influential architects 'back to school' to present a well known project to an expert panel and student audience. Former Supercrits have been Cedric Price: Potteries ThinkBelt; Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown: Learning From Las Vegas; Richard Rogers: The Pompidou Centre; Bernard Tschumi: Parc de la Villette; Rem Koolhaas: Delirious New York; Leon Krier: Poundbury; Michael Wilford: Neue Staatsgalerie; and Will Alsop: Le Grand Bleu.