sauerbruch hutton: draw love build

Ever since Sauerbruch Hutton designed the M9 Museum District in Venezia Mestre, which was inaugurated in 2018, the architects have maintained a creative connection with this much-appreciated Venetian city. Consequently, M9 seems an appropriate place to host a comprehensive retrospective of the architects’ practice over the last three decades.

Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton founded their partnership in London in 1989. Four years later, Sauerbruch Hutton moved to Berlin, where today the international studio for architecture, urban planning and design comprises some 120 people. Since 2000, Sauerbruch and Hutton have shared their leadership with Juan Lucas Young and, from 2020, with a group of 16 further partners.

This exhibition documents a selection of their most important works, chosen to highlight common themes that weave through the various projects—including the creative exploration of the post-industrial city, in particular of its marginal territories; the development of integrated concepts for a more sustainable built environment; and the creation of sensual and surprising spaces that enrich the everyday life of its users. These projects are represented in numerous models and drawings. Further, an app—also available on devices provided by M9—enables the visitor to access extensive information such as photographs, drawings, texts and videos that offer further insight into some of the projects as well as commentaries by Luca Molinari, the Director of the Museum.

An additional element of the show—one that allows a particular and discreet view “behind the scenes”—is the film Sauerbruch Hutton Architekten, created by the artist Harun Farocki in 2013 as part of his documentary series on the nature of work.

The exhibition thus employs nearly all available media to simulate the experience of architecture, which normally cannot be directly shown in a gallery. In this exceptional case, however, it even includes a full-scale “real” experience of one of the works itself—the M9 Museum District—the venue of draw love build.