The WBS 70 Plattenbau, one of the most typical communal housing complexes created for the citizens of the DDR, is the subject of these works on paper. The ink wash drawing depicts the consequences of dramatic triangular slices that carve out sections from these dense banks of apartments. These architectural propositions take on humorous and critical aspects, displacing large sections of these mass-produced buildings as if they could be carved into cake-like servings. The cuts expose the monotonous, beehive-like texture of these structures, allowing light and air to penetrate deep into the building. The communal nature of the housing is stressed, but instead of citizens united in solitary consumption of television, for example, they are potentially exposed to a theatre of the everyday. Rotating the aborted triangular sections achieves theatrical configurations, producing stepped structures that look like spectator bleachers. The passivity of harsh functionality, indicative of an emphatic ideology orientated towards a distant future, is transformed by these simple displacements into playful platforms for action and live spectatorship.
WBS 70 cut #5
Ink on paper, 2006
42 x 49 cm