The saai | Archive for Architecture and Civil Engineering is one of the most comprehensive and important architecture collections in Germany. The holdings include over 530,000 plans, drawings and sketches, 680,000 photos, film and sound documents, 1,100 linear meters of construction files, 900 models, 50 pieces of furniture and 400 linear meters of specialist journals and books.

The oldest documents date from around 1700. The focus is on the 20th century, particularly its second half. saai is home to the work archives of Egon Eiermann, Otto Ernst Schweizer, Fritz Leonardt, Günter Wilhelm, Carlfried Mutschler, Rolf Gutbrod, Reinhard Gieselmann, Otto Herbert Hajek, Frei Otto and Günter Behnisch, among others.

The collection is based on the historical holdings of the architecture department of the former Polytechnische Schule Karlsruhe, now the KIT | Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Since the 1970s, the collection has been expanded through donations of important and extensive estates of contemporary architects. The saai was finally founded in 1989 following a decision by the state government of Baden-Württemberg.

Image: Egon Eiermann and Sep Ruf, German Pavilion at the 1958 World Exhibition, Brussels.

Anna-Maria Meister and Joaquín Medina Warmburg have been managing saai together since April 1, 2023. As dual leadership, they want to strengthen saai in three directions: a collection strategy is being developed for the "saai Archive" as the cornerstone, which will bring new voices into the archive and illuminate existing ones with contemporary issues. With "saai Research", saai will be further expanded as an international research center. And "saai Digital" will develop a strategy for digital estates, future restoration techniques and the preservation of various media in an international network with other archives and collections, as well as deepening the digitization campaign.