Bio
Ansgar Halbfas was born in Germany in 1972 and graduated from the University of Stuttgart in 2000. His early projects during his studies are documented here, while private projects from recent years can be found here. He is a master in both urban planning and architectural design.
In 1996, while he was studying, he won first prize for his booth design for the Mannesmann Rohr Exhibition Stand competition and developed it's complex geometry using Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM). In a follow-up study for the EPSON Corporation in 1998 he realized internet based planning of a project worth over 1M€ for the first time. He joined the Institute for Paraarchitectonic Phenomena (IPP) from 1998 to 2002 and published his first work about Organic Future in 2000.
Qualifications include professional photography and layout since 1994, teaching experience since 1996, CAM and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) programming since 1998. First public exhibition and paid R&D in 1999.
After his diploma in 2000 he realized his first Public Private Partnership (PKS) bringing together culture and commerce, architecture and urban legends. In 2002 his work was shown at the Fraunhofer IAO full immersion CUBE ⁄ CAVEE where he took his students first in 1998. He worked with architects like Peter Zumthor (Switzerland), Ando Tadao (Japan) and Max Bächer (Germany).
Major projects include the new German Central Bank Berlin–Brandenburg (1998, realized –2002), the Growing Chair; (1999), the executive suite of Mosbach Public Bank (2000), the Club MS Pussy Galore (2000, realized), Porsche Targa ⁄ 4S Product Launch Stuttgart Zuffenhausen (2001, realized), a private estate in the Provence (2005) and the Landart Panda Bear stretching over 40 hectare at Chengdu Research Base visible from space (2007, scheduled).
Ansgar (安建华|鼠) has been travelling to Japan and China since 1998. His first published book, Sichtwelt, (together with J. Hass and G. Scholz) is about perception of Japanese culture and architecture. Movies include Porkshots, Fruit City, Melanome City, Creature Feature – Feature Creature and Japanese Interior. Lectures include Toolbox Town Planning, Computer Aided Architectural Design, LABS Studio (International collaboration in Los Angeles, Berlin and Stuttgart), 3D–GIS, Organic Future (Design and Media), Organic Future (Architecture and Urban Planning) and Nature Touching. Exhibitions include Zapata (Group), University of Stuttgart (Solo), Etage01 (S), Mukojima Lifelong Learning Center (G), Art Foundation Schwenk (S), Designers Saturday (G), Kunsthalle Kornwestheim (G) and Baukunst Essen (G).
In 1996, while he was studying, he won first prize for his booth design for the Mannesmann Rohr Exhibition Stand competition and developed it's complex geometry using Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM). In a follow-up study for the EPSON Corporation in 1998 he realized internet based planning of a project worth over 1M€ for the first time. He joined the Institute for Paraarchitectonic Phenomena (IPP) from 1998 to 2002 and published his first work about Organic Future in 2000.
Qualifications include professional photography and layout since 1994, teaching experience since 1996, CAM and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) programming since 1998. First public exhibition and paid R&D in 1999.
After his diploma in 2000 he realized his first Public Private Partnership (PKS) bringing together culture and commerce, architecture and urban legends. In 2002 his work was shown at the Fraunhofer IAO full immersion CUBE ⁄ CAVEE where he took his students first in 1998. He worked with architects like Peter Zumthor (Switzerland), Ando Tadao (Japan) and Max Bächer (Germany).
Major projects include the new German Central Bank Berlin–Brandenburg (1998, realized –2002), the Growing Chair; (1999), the executive suite of Mosbach Public Bank (2000), the Club MS Pussy Galore (2000, realized), Porsche Targa ⁄ 4S Product Launch Stuttgart Zuffenhausen (2001, realized), a private estate in the Provence (2005) and the Landart Panda Bear stretching over 40 hectare at Chengdu Research Base visible from space (2007, scheduled).
Ansgar (安建华|鼠) has been travelling to Japan and China since 1998. His first published book, Sichtwelt, (together with J. Hass and G. Scholz) is about perception of Japanese culture and architecture. Movies include Porkshots, Fruit City, Melanome City, Creature Feature – Feature Creature and Japanese Interior. Lectures include Toolbox Town Planning, Computer Aided Architectural Design, LABS Studio (International collaboration in Los Angeles, Berlin and Stuttgart), 3D–GIS, Organic Future (Design and Media), Organic Future (Architecture and Urban Planning) and Nature Touching. Exhibitions include Zapata (Group), University of Stuttgart (Solo), Etage01 (S), Mukojima Lifelong Learning Center (G), Art Foundation Schwenk (S), Designers Saturday (G), Kunsthalle Kornwestheim (G) and Baukunst Essen (G).
:: Photo information and credits:
1 > Expo 2010 in Shanghai / German Pavlion
Photo courtesy © Ansgar Halbfas
2-3-4-5 > Presentation with organic future installation in my German office / 2002
Photo courtesy © Ansgar Halbfas
6 > Public exhibition of organic future project / 2002
Photo courtesy © Ansgar Halbfas
Most recent people interviewed (View all)
Toal O' Muire
Árpád Ferdinánd
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Isaac A. Meir
Kim Herforth Nielsen
Most recent list of themes (View all)
on Architecture and Theory
on Architecture and Competent Authorities
on Architecture
on Architecture and Sustainability
on Educating Architecture
on Promoting Architecture
on Architecture and Events
on Guiding Architecture
on Architecture and Photography
on Architecture and Politics
on Architecture and Skyscrapers
on Architecture and Art
on Architecture and Travel
My point of view:
on Guiding Architecture
Interview Date: 18-05-2011
VIEW the entire interview on VIDEO!
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What is the importance of architectural tourism?
Traveling architects are a very special kind of humans. When architects travel they care about every detail. For example, if they see a furniture, they look at every corner, if they see a wall, they look at the material – is this real wood? They knock everything, they touch everything… other people, let's say, ordinary people, they don't know about architecture from this scientific point of view, so they can only feel the architecture, they can feel the silence, they can feel the emotions of a room, they can feel if something is not OK in a certain environment. For example, there is a long tradition in China, they call it Feng Shui, it's the balance in architecture and this is something that everybody can understand about architecture, although they dont know anything, they have no education in architecture – they can feel the space talking to them.
What do you think is the added value that architecture creates within a city?
The presence of architecture itself and the cityscape that is created by architecture is important in order to create a public arena, a public space, where people can find together and where people feel safe – I think safety is a very important feature of architecture if we are talking about urban spaces. I don't mean the safety of having cameras or other kinds of things that bring safety – safety is something that can be created by certain points of views you have, by certain situations of light, by certain harmony, that even people, who maybe don't have that feeling like being at home in the city, suddenly they feel at home and they relax. So architecture can also be a part of creating a peaceful city.
What is the importance of architectural events worldwide? What are the profits for a city holding such kind of major events?
Let me take the world exposition in Shanghai – it was the biggest world exposition ever and so far it will be the biggest world exposition at least for the next decades. But architecture was not the main reason for this world exposition – the main reason for a world exposition or for other similar happenings is to bring people together, to bring culture together…, and also to promote and to make business. But architecture is a vehicle, architecture is something that carries a message.
For example at the world exposition in Shanghai architecture was carrying the mood and the societies of the guest countries from all over the world to the host country, China. So you could see countries like India or Pakistan, which brought their native architecture to China for this event, and you could see countries like Germany or Japan, which brought a very modern approach, or England – the most famous architecture – which even brought an art piece, not an architecture, so the boundaries are fluent.
Other countries don't pay attention to architecture at all, if they go to such an exhibition, because they don't have the culture in their ministries to – how to say – pay attention to architecture… – but your question was more about any kind of events, so, architecture first of all has to be useful for this: If a city doesn't provide the architecture for such an event, and architecture in this case also means urban structure like open public spaces where you can have an open air cinema, where you can have concerts, where you can have an art exhibition – architecture has to be accessible, for example to students. I remember when I was a student, I loved to use space; as a student you are happy if someone tells you, 'you can use this wall, do what you want with it' and then you say 'Wow, Yes, I want to use this wall' and then this can enable the power and the creativity of people. Regarding events first of all it's a big bonus for the inhabitants of the city, because their daily life goes on and on, and suddenly there is an in-vasion: People from where ever come and bring something new to them, so they leave their traces in the city and then (suddenly) they are gone, so the inhabitants have to consider what happened here, so it (the event – A.H.) leaves values for the inhabitants. On the other hand, those people who are traveling to this event, who are visiting the city especially for this event, and this is normal if you take for example an art fair or if you take a concert or something like a big exposition: it's the people who are visiting the city, who learn about the city, so it's a big marketing factor: The city which is the host for such an event, can benefit for years and years – also financially – with such kind of event.
For example at the world exposition in Shanghai architecture was carrying the mood and the societies of the guest countries from all over the world to the host country, China. So you could see countries like India or Pakistan, which brought their native architecture to China for this event, and you could see countries like Germany or Japan, which brought a very modern approach, or England – the most famous architecture – which even brought an art piece, not an architecture, so the boundaries are fluent.
Other countries don't pay attention to architecture at all, if they go to such an exhibition, because they don't have the culture in their ministries to – how to say – pay attention to architecture… – but your question was more about any kind of events, so, architecture first of all has to be useful for this: If a city doesn't provide the architecture for such an event, and architecture in this case also means urban structure like open public spaces where you can have an open air cinema, where you can have concerts, where you can have an art exhibition – architecture has to be accessible, for example to students. I remember when I was a student, I loved to use space; as a student you are happy if someone tells you, 'you can use this wall, do what you want with it' and then you say 'Wow, Yes, I want to use this wall' and then this can enable the power and the creativity of people. Regarding events first of all it's a big bonus for the inhabitants of the city, because their daily life goes on and on, and suddenly there is an in-vasion: People from where ever come and bring something new to them, so they leave their traces in the city and then (suddenly) they are gone, so the inhabitants have to consider what happened here, so it (the event – A.H.) leaves values for the inhabitants. On the other hand, those people who are traveling to this event, who are visiting the city especially for this event, and this is normal if you take for example an art fair or if you take a concert or something like a big exposition: it's the people who are visiting the city, who learn about the city, so it's a big marketing factor: The city which is the host for such an event, can benefit for years and years – also financially – with such kind of event.
:: You are member of Guiding Architects that is an international network for architectural guided tours.
What exactly do you offer during these tours?
Everybody should be able to guide in his hometown or the town he knows very well, but if an architect is guiding, of course he pays special attention to the urban history, to the urban development, to the new architecture, and how it interacts with the inhabitants there, so when I am doing a guided tour for visitors in Shanghai or Beijing or other cities in China or other cities I know, I first of all focus on my audience and on their background. If it's a group of kids or grown-ups, or doctors or … and (you have to keep in mind) what they already know. Then you start from their level of knowledge, and from their social point of view – a visitor from America is very different from a visitor from China or from Russia or from Germany or where ever.
Once you have the understanding about your group, which doesn't take a long time, as this is a little small talk and interest in your group when you start and from once you know their level of interest, you will bring them to the city as it lives, to the city with its soul, you will try to bring them as close as possible to the inhabitants of the city, to their daily life: how do they get up, how do they prepare their breakfast, how do they spend the morning, how do they have lunch with their colleagues after work, how is the whole day organized. This is interesting but this is a social aspect. On the other hand you will try to find the connection with the architecture: how does the architecture in a city represent the daily life, why is the architecture designed like this. It could be a social reason, it could also be a financial reason, for example, every city has its decades, Athens has it, Shanghai has it, all the German cities have it, all the north American cities, every city in the world has it: You have decades in every city that are poor – and you have rich decades. So every decade and every architecture creates different levels of social classes and also (to explain about these backgrounds – A.H.) is part of your job as a guiding architect. And what's maybe the most important –but this is something only interesting for those people, who are really interested in architecture, other people could be bored by this information – is the architecture itself. The architecture itself means: which architect, why has he built it, who was the person who paid for the architecture, what was the relationship between the city, the architect, between the construction company and the owner, how is the whole project situated and organized.
Once you have the understanding about your group, which doesn't take a long time, as this is a little small talk and interest in your group when you start and from once you know their level of interest, you will bring them to the city as it lives, to the city with its soul, you will try to bring them as close as possible to the inhabitants of the city, to their daily life: how do they get up, how do they prepare their breakfast, how do they spend the morning, how do they have lunch with their colleagues after work, how is the whole day organized. This is interesting but this is a social aspect. On the other hand you will try to find the connection with the architecture: how does the architecture in a city represent the daily life, why is the architecture designed like this. It could be a social reason, it could also be a financial reason, for example, every city has its decades, Athens has it, Shanghai has it, all the German cities have it, all the north American cities, every city in the world has it: You have decades in every city that are poor – and you have rich decades. So every decade and every architecture creates different levels of social classes and also (to explain about these backgrounds – A.H.) is part of your job as a guiding architect. And what's maybe the most important –but this is something only interesting for those people, who are really interested in architecture, other people could be bored by this information – is the architecture itself. The architecture itself means: which architect, why has he built it, who was the person who paid for the architecture, what was the relationship between the city, the architect, between the construction company and the owner, how is the whole project situated and organized.
How did you decide to work on this?
I started very early. When I was a student, I was already teaching at the university – this happened, because my generation, I am 38 now, was the first generation to learn how to use the internet, who learned to use the public tools we have in this generation. The generations before were very settled – they had to read their books, they had to travel somewhere – but I grew up with the internet. I even remember the internet long before Google, and when we were happy, when suddenly there was this company to find all the information. So nowadays a guiding architect is working in a different environment, because people can prepare themselves with a lot of information, but – you can have many informations – this will never replace the information and the feeling somebody can create who lives in a city where he is guiding, so actually I started guiding very early during studies and then in Shanghai I recognized, that most visitors from foreign countries don't understand the Chinese city. They know really nothing about Chinese society, they think China is still a communist country with a dictatorship and everything, and they don't understand that Shanghai is a very open minded international city with a long British tradition, with a long French tradition, a long urban tradition, with a long tradition of being a free city – it doesn't matter which kind of political system is existing right now. And on the other hand, if you compare a guiding architect to a normal tourist guide, a normal tourist guide will tell you: 'Oh, look at this, this is very pink, this is very wooden, this is very white' – these are just examples – of course, a tourist guide will say: 'this is very famous; this is very old', but this is not the categories an architect, a guiding architect would explain about a city, about its architecture. A guiding architect would explain the city and its architecture from the point of view how the city works, what the relationships within a city are. So if a foreign client comes to me, first of all I will explain him the city with a critical point of view as a western person, because a Chinese person or a person who is not really that critical like a guiding architect should be, will only mention the positive aspects of a city, but a guiding architect will mention both parts: the good part and the bad part, that every building, every part of a city, every society has. So actually that's the benefit of being guided by a guiding architect especially in Shanghai or in China, that you can understand, how the Chinese society is organized apart from all the political problems..
How would you characterize modern architecture in your country and generally nowadays?
Modern architecture is always a fight between the stars in modern architecture and the newcomers. The newcomers – most of them try to copy the stars, but this is OK, you have to understand because they are kids. On the other hand newcomers are very important for architecture, but it's difficult for newcomers, so modern architecture is something that is always coming from this big pond of fresh architects who try to compete. Architecture is the profession, which has the biggest competition in the world and this is what I like about modern architecture, this is what makes architecture always modern, all the new architecture is modern (in many different aspects – A.H.).
Of course, nowadays our perception of architecture is based on magazines, magazines that are publishing so called modern architecture. (About a room) like we are in right now, everybody would say, OK, this is very modern. But modernity is not defined by a certain style that is 'en vogue' – this is the fashion of the day. Modernity is defined every day new. So be surprised, let yourself surprise, be engaged as an architect, create something new, there is no rule for modern architecture.
Of course, nowadays our perception of architecture is based on magazines, magazines that are publishing so called modern architecture. (About a room) like we are in right now, everybody would say, OK, this is very modern. But modernity is not defined by a certain style that is 'en vogue' – this is the fashion of the day. Modernity is defined every day new. So be surprised, let yourself surprise, be engaged as an architect, create something new, there is no rule for modern architecture.
Does architecture as a profession need empowerment? In which ways should this be done?
I remember during my study I had a very good friend and colleague and we were working for years, and in our generation we said an architect is somebody who knows everything – and nothing. And this is something not many professions have: this is an ability to loose, to forget everything you know and to start to play like a kid and create a multi billion building from this first naive idea, and on the other hand an architect has to be a very professional person who is able to control millions or billions of whatever currency to create houses, towers, whole new cities. So an architect has two sides that have to be balanced – from naivity like Picasso, who, many historians say, always stayed in a certain way naive in his mind to be able to create this famous art, and on the other hand you have to be a strong businessman. And this is something only a few people are able to balance and do, but every architect should learn this, from my point of view.
Although it's very important that you start early, even if you are… I started my first million project in my fifth semester in the university, but I made also mistakes all the time, so architects have to grow up… but I think they really get good, when they get older.
Is the world financial crisis an opportunity for everyone to reconsider the ways that we design and construct the buildings and the urban environment?
Definitively, yes. World financial crisis is a big chance for everybody.
World financial crisis hopefully can be able to break up some structures, that would otherwise never have changed; world financial crisis hopefully takes the money from those who have too much and hopefully – like we saw yesterday in Athens – gives more to those who don't have enough and use their rights to protest, to get more from those who have too much – but this is a political point of view. You are asking for the architecture and the chances for architecture in the world financial crisis: for example in the 70ies, Richard Rogers and Sir Norman Foster started also in a time where architecture was a hard business and they started with very simple architecture for industrial buildings.
Although it's very important that you start early, even if you are… I started my first million project in my fifth semester in the university, but I made also mistakes all the time, so architects have to grow up… but I think they really get good, when they get older.
Is the world financial crisis an opportunity for everyone to reconsider the ways that we design and construct the buildings and the urban environment?
Definitively, yes. World financial crisis is a big chance for everybody.
World financial crisis hopefully can be able to break up some structures, that would otherwise never have changed; world financial crisis hopefully takes the money from those who have too much and hopefully – like we saw yesterday in Athens – gives more to those who don't have enough and use their rights to protest, to get more from those who have too much – but this is a political point of view. You are asking for the architecture and the chances for architecture in the world financial crisis: for example in the 70ies, Richard Rogers and Sir Norman Foster started also in a time where architecture was a hard business and they started with very simple architecture for industrial buildings.
So every generation has its crisis, and every generation of architects has its crisis, and actually a crisis is always good, because a crisis removes those things that are stopping innovation, a crisis is a new start for innovation, and our world, our society needs much more innovation.
At the end, can you please provide your personal proposal for 10 buildings (constructed and visitable) which you think as the most important worldwide that someone must visit anyway?
At the end, can you please provide your personal proposal for 10 buildings (constructed and visitable) which you think as the most important worldwide that someone must visit anyway?
You are asking about ten buildings, that somebody, everybody, should visit: It should be one very good house that has been build to let kids play in it. I remember when I was a kid, we had a house in the garden – I never saw this again in my whole life, it was maybe on sale for one year at the beginning of the 70ies. It was a small wooden house with a door high like this (A.H. showing the height of the door), so only kids could enter this house. But by having a house for you as a kid alone, with a door where nobody could enter who was bigger than 90 centimeters, you as a kid had the power, could feel power: this is my house, no grown-up can go in, so in this house you feel very safe, and it was really your possession, your social space, where you were playing the life of the grown-ups – what kids do, when they play. This is something everybody should have in his childhood.
Of course, it doesn't need to be a house, it can be just a corner with a plastic roof or whatever, but it should be your own space as a kid.
Then, when you grow up, you should have the same in school – many schools don't have this. Schools actually are the worst buildings in the world from an architectural point of view. These are the problems of the governments which are building them. I have seen some good schools, but maybe only one or two percent of schools are really houses that enable the pupils to interact, that enable the pupils to feel well… so what you really should have seen and visit is not the tourist attractions, it's not the Eiffel tower…
Maybe I should tell you the places that I really loved when I went there: These were museums. Museums are not so easy to visit, especially if you have no knowledge about art. Museums are something that pushes you, you can get tired in a museum, because you see a lot and you don't understand, you don't know the history and you have to think a lot, what did he (the artist) think when he was creating this work.
So five of these ten buildings should be museums. Any kind of museum, small, whatever, but not a museum showing some antique coins – in this case I am talking about art or photography. And the other buildings should be modern, very modern buildings.
People should visit modern buildings. They should visit old buildings, but they – I am talking about ordinary people – should try to understand the viewpoints and the future that modern architecture is creating, because modern architecture can change so much, and we don't have enough of this in the world.
If you come to Shanghai, you should definitely go to one of the old housing compounds, so you should visit people in their daily life. Don't be shy, walk inside, walk into their kitchens, talk to the people in the lane houses, the old compounds, called Hutong in Beijing or Shikumen (or Linong – A.H.) in Shanghai. Definetely you should visit people in their daily life. Then, you should visit the famous time of Shanghai in the 1930s: You can visit the old slaughterhouse in Honkou, visit the Jewish quarter, and when you go more South you come to the North Bund where you see the Astor House Hotel and the Broadway Mansions. Then you cross the Suzhou river and pass by, which is now under renovation from David Chipperfield, the Rockbund, where Rockefeller together with a Chinese investor is renovating the old social heart of the British society. Then you walk to the South until the newly opened first Design Hotel in Shanghai, the Waterhouse Hotel, and then you go again to where the people live… and if you have more time then you take the ferryship to Pudong, go to the highest bar in the world, have a nice free flow of champagne if you are lucky to be a girl every Wednesday night. Otherwise you just pay for the bottle of whisky and wodka in the booming economy of China.
If you come to Shanghai, you should definitely go to one of the old housing compounds, so you should visit people in their daily life. Don't be shy, walk inside, walk into their kitchens, talk to the people in the lane houses, the old compounds, called Hutong in Beijing or Shikumen (or Linong – A.H.) in Shanghai. Definetely you should visit people in their daily life. Then, you should visit the famous time of Shanghai in the 1930s: You can visit the old slaughterhouse in Honkou, visit the Jewish quarter, and when you go more South you come to the North Bund where you see the Astor House Hotel and the Broadway Mansions. Then you cross the Suzhou river and pass by, which is now under renovation from David Chipperfield, the Rockbund, where Rockefeller together with a Chinese investor is renovating the old social heart of the British society. Then you walk to the South until the newly opened first Design Hotel in Shanghai, the Waterhouse Hotel, and then you go again to where the people live… and if you have more time then you take the ferryship to Pudong, go to the highest bar in the world, have a nice free flow of champagne if you are lucky to be a girl every Wednesday night. Otherwise you just pay for the bottle of whisky and wodka in the booming economy of China.
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