MAN transFORMS: The Documents

The exhibition MAN transFORMS: The Documents explores Hans Hollein’s and Lisa Taylor’s exhibition MAN transFORMS. Aspects of Design, which was the opening show of the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design in New York in 1976. It will be the first exhibition to trace the development of MAN transFORMS on the basis of original documents—from the first outline proposal to the detailed design.

Contributions developed specifically for the exhibition by Hans Hollein as well as Richard Buckminster Fuller, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Ettore Sottsass and Oswald Matthias Ungers map the spectrum of the heterogenous and changing discipline of architecture around 1976 and point towards key problems of the forming currents of Postmodernism.

The exhibition MAN transFORMS: The Documents makes visible how Hollein reoriented the museum and drew the attention to the transformation of the museum from a place of a collection display into a total environment, where the physical experience supersedes the mediation of historical contexts. Moreover, MAN transFORMS played a catalytic role for the development and discursive processing of architectural ideas and demonstrated to what extent the medium of the exhibition can serve as a tool for theory formation. 

An exhibition by the chair of Laurent Stalder with Samuel Korn in collaboration with gta exhibitions. The exhibition was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Hollein family.

About gta exhibitions
gta exhibitions is part of the Institute of History and Theory of Architecture (gta) at ETH Zurich. The exhibition program serves as an interface between theory and practice, showcasing research and teaching in the Department of Architecture. The thematic field of architecture is extended through interdisciplinary approaches and critically reflected through an experimental approach to the medium of the exhibition.

gta exhibitions is curated by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen.