Catalog for the exhibition at the Bavarian Chamber of Architects, Munich, December 2014 - January 2015
and at the TU Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, February 2015 - March 2015

Edited by: Matthias Castorph and Michael Heinrich

Texts by: Hans Georg Keitel, Matthias Castorph, Michael Heinrich

Photos and drawings by: Luzia Birker, Francesca Califano, Matthias Faul, Maximilian Gottschalk, Pierre Klein, Konstantin Kyosev, Pia Luckert, Natascha Martin, Vera Mok, Willi Neuer, Sarah Petry, Lucas Reif, Tatjana Roith, Fidanka Tsvetanova, Stefan Werth, Anna Jule Wiertz. Students of the TU Kaiserslautern / Architecture department

The Munich architect Franz Hart has changed the cityscape of Munich since the 1950s with a series of public buildings - including the Patent Office, the administrative and institute buildings of TUM, the platform hall of Munich Central Station, the Salvator Garage and facade designs. The buildings testify to the architectural desire for a clear, functional and precise language and an explicitly modern conception of urban space.

They are architecturally or urbanistically solitary structures that usually elude an adapted integration into the established context of the city or deliberately set accents. They are foreign bodies in the fabric of the city because they were designed for special tasks (e.g. Hochvolthaus) or remain fragments because the overall urban planning concept intended for them was not realized - such as the planned development axis of the TUM with pavilion buildings along Gabelsbergerstrasse. Almost half of these buildings have already been demolished or significantly altered. It seems as if the city's organism is rejecting Franz Hart's buildings like foreign bodies.

Matthias Castorph, Michael Heinrich (ed.): Franz Hart (1919-1996) Public Buildings in Munich. Catalog of the exhibition. Bavarian Chamber of Architects, Architecture Department TU Kaiserslautern. Franz Schreinerei Verlag, Munich 2014. ISBN: 978-3-943866-27-8