saai Lecture 25/26: Monika Platzer and Michael Hieslmair & Michael Zinganel
Title of the lecture
Visual Storytelling. From Cold Storage to Hot Stories – The Open Collection of the Az W
About the lecture
For this year’s edition of the saai Lecture, Monika Platzer (Az W Architekturzentrum Wien) together with Michael Hieslmair and Michael Zinganel (Tracing Spaces) will present their innovative concept for the new permanent exhibition of the Az W, conceived as an integration of the collection and exhibition architecture. Under the title “Visual Storytelling. From Cold Storage to Hot Stories – The Az W Study Collection,” Platzer, Hieslmair, and Zinganel discuss the curatorial and exhibition design concept of the permanent exhibition opened in 2022. Over the past 17 years, the collection has grown to include more than 100 estates and archives as well as extensive project collections, and now for the first time offers a systematic presentation of selected original objects. At its core is an inquiry into key objects, both well known and lesser known. Seven “hot questions” bring the “silent storage” to life. Selected models, drawings, furniture, textiles, documents, and films develop new cross connections across seven thematic chapters.
Monika Platzer, Head of the Collection and Curator at the Architekturzentrum Wien, has been responsible for numerous national and international research and exhibition projects, including “Hot Questions – Cold Storage. The New Study Collection of the Az W (2022),” “Cold War and Architecture. Contributions to the Democratization of Austria after 1945,” and “Vienna. ‘The Pearl of the Reich.’ Planning for Hitler.”
https://www.azw.at/de/
The research platform Tracing Spaces, founded in 2012 by Hieslmair and Zinganel, is dedicated to the analysis of architecture, urban research, logistics, tourism, mobility, and migration through interdisciplinary projects. Their work combines research-based exhibition practice with artistic and architectural-theoretical approaches.
https://tracingspaces.net/
Admission
Participation is free of charge. No registration is required.
Date and venue
Wednesday, 14 January 2026, 7:00 pm
KIT Faculty of Architecture
Fritz Haller Lecture Hall
Englerstraße 7
76131 Karlsruhe
About saai Lecture – Archive
As a university archive for architecture and engineering construction, saai at KIT is part of a broad network of comparable institutions worldwide dedicated to the preservation and research of architectural heritage. They share similar experiences and related challenges, while each faces different conditions and therefore pursues its own specific goals for the future. The range of topics extends from questions of archiving in the digital age to shifts in historiographical paradigms, including the integration of environmental and global history.
saai continues the discussion series “saai archive talks” with international guests, focusing on digital and analogue archives in architectural offices as well as on the transfer, preservation, and care of materials and objects in academic archives. This year’s series is dedicated to digital transformation and addresses the question of how digital objects influence scholarly and curatorial practice as well as everyday work in architecture archives and offices.
Following a brief presentation by the speakers on their work at their respective institutions, current questions and challenges are discussed together with the other participants, including researchers, students, and interested members of the public.