Interior Architecture Chair Christoph Korner has received a 2019 Interior Design Educators Council Excellence Award for Unbuilding Walls, GRAFT’s German Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale. Presented at the 2019 IDEC Annual Conference in Charlotte, the awards recognize excellence in teaching, scholarship and service from both its own membership and the larger international design community. The awards are based on documented excellence to students and industry professionals.
Curated by GRAFT and Marianne Birthler, the German pavilion explored architectures of division and inclusion. The Unbuilding Walls exhibition responded to current debates on nations, protectionism and division. In the German Pavilion, the project explored the effects of division and the process of healing as a dynamic spatial phenomenon. With reference to “Freespace,” the central theme of the Architecture Biennale proposed by Grafton Architects, special focus was given to outstanding examples of urban and architectural design that address aspects of division and integration. By analyzing architectural projects on the former border strip, the question of what happened on this unprecedented void in the middle of a new capital was examined. Taking the experience of the inner-German wall as a starting point, the exhibition examined historical as well as current barriers, fences and walls beyond Germany’s specific national perspective.