Without registration. Included in the admission price.
The tour will be given in German.
24 July – 18 October 2026
Series open up a play of nuances and differences; of redundancies and repetitions. Any series that has been started can be expanded with similar objects. Objects that are conceived, produced, received, or consumed in the mode of seriality always refer to related objects from the same series. But what exactly makes a series a series? What significance does seriality hold for the design of our everyday worlds, and in what ways does the series allow for individual adaptations? The exhibition In the Mode of Seriality Difference, Variation, and Repetition in Architecture and Design aims to offer new approaches to the field of seriality. It examines serial strategies and methods to highlight both the potential and the limitations of seriality.
While 20 case studies of outstanding examples in architecture are presented by students from RWTH Aachen University to the public through images, plans, and models, six studies by students from HfG Offenbach explore the theme in the fields of product, communication, and interior design. They discuss the paradox of serial craftsmanship and the possibilities of additive manufacturing in the serial production of road cycling shoes; examine references in interior design and typeface design in the New Frankfurt of the 1920s; and present Hangul – the writing system of the Korean language developed by King Sejong in 1443 – as a generative system. These studies exemplify the advantages, opportunities, and contradictions of serial design and production and aim to remind us that every series produces not only products but also ideas about how we want to live. Visitors can thus discover, on the one hand, inventions, product innovations, and manufacturing processes that, when viewed as a whole, trace the developmental lines of the history of technology, and, on the other hand, current critical debates in the field of design.
Today, the concept of seriality is once again emerging as a political promise. As the current debate on housing construction shows, seriality is intended to accelerate production processes, simplify procedures, and keep costs down. Seriality is intended to provide sustainable building components in large quantities. Models, modules, and prototypes are already available. When will they go into mass production? Before production ramps up, we would like to pause and ask: what exactly is meant by this new call for seriality? What does seriality mean in terms of ethical and aesthetic issues?
To provide a space for these and other questions, the Frankfurt-based foundation urban future forum e.V. – as the exhibition’s initiator and conceptualizer – invites you to three accompanying lecture and discussion events: the Serial Parliaments. Each of the various Serial Parliaments is dedicated to an overarching thematic block and invites architects, designers, manufacturers, politicians, and citizens to present their thoughts and positions on serial planning and production and to discuss them with the audience. The goal is to demonstrate how the (supposed) contradiction between mass production and good design can be resolved and to use examples to show that quality is compatible with the methods of industrial manufacturing.
The exhibition is curated by Prof. Axel Sowa, with support from Florian Eschner, the team from the Department of Architectural Theory, and students at RWTH Aachen University. It is being developed in collaboration with students from the HfG Offenbach under the direction of Prof. Matthias Wagner K. Prof. Norbert Hanenberg, together with students from TH Gießen, contributed to the design of the exhibition furniture.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Wüstenrot Stiftung, the Else Kröner Fresenius Stiftung, the Informationszentrum Beton, der B&O Bau GmbH and the Pacarada Group. Partners include the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development, and Construction, THM Giessen, RWTH Aachen University, and the Frankfurt-based foundation urban future forum e.V.
Without registration. Included in the admission price.
The tour will be given in German.
Without registration. Included in the admission price.
The tour will be given in German.