Research

Dr. Frederike Lausch’s research focuses on the political implications of architectural discourses and architectural theories in the 20th century.

Current research interests:

  • Post-war architectural discourses in the context of development work and politics: Communication Centre of Scientific Knowledge for Self-Reliance (CCSK, 1980s), Yona Friedman, Eda Schaur, UNU, UNESCO and UIA
  • Media of development: self-help manuals 
  • Institutional history: Institute for Tropical Building (1968–1979) and Institute Planning and Building in Developing Countries (1980–2000) in Darmstadt
  • Archives and the power of sources in architectural research (upcoming edited volume)

Previous (but ongoing) research interests:

  • Dealing with the architecture of National Socialism after 1945: Max Bächer’s confrontation with Albert Speer (1970s to 1990s)
  • Architectural theory since the 1960s
  • Processes of translating philosophy into architecture: Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in the 1990s (dissertation 2019)

Past research interests:

  • GDR architecture education at the Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen in Weimar (oral history project on the subjective experience of the “Wende”)

Publications (selection)

Books

  • Fascism and Architecture. Max Bächer’s Confrontation with Albert Speer, CCSA Topics 2, Weimar: mbooks 2021. external page Read here.
  • Gilles Deleuze und die Anyone Corporation. Übersetzungsprozesse zwischen Philosophie und Architektur [Gilles Deleuze and the Anyone Corporation. Translation Processes between Philosophy and Architecture], Bielefeld: Transcript 2021. external page Read here.
  • Mimesis Bauen. Architektengespräche [Building Mimesis. Conversations with Architects] (with Eva von Engelberg-Dočkal, Hans-Rudolf Meier & Carsten Ruhl), Paderborn: Fink 2017.
  • Architektenausbildung in Weimar. 29 Lebensläufe zwischen DDR und BRD [Architectural Education in Weimar: 29 Biographies between East Germany and Reunified Germany], Kromsdorf: Bauhaus-Universitätsverlag 2015.

Edited Volumes

  • Utopia Computer. The “New” in Architecture? (with Nathalie Bredella & Chris Dähne), Forum Architekturwissenschaft 6, Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin 2023. external page Read here.
  • Max Bächer. 50 Meter Archiv [Max Bächer. 50 Meters Archive] (edited with Oliver Elser, Carsten Ruhl & Christiane Salge), CCSA Topics 1, Weimar: mbooks 2019. external page Read here.
  • Mimetische Praktiken in der neueren Architektur. Prozesse und Formen der Ähnlichkeits-erzeugung [Mimetic Practices in Recent Architecture. Resemblance: Processes and Forms] (edited with Eva von Engelberg-Dočkal & Markus Krajewski), Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net 2017. external page Read here.

Journal Articles (peer-reviewed)

  • “The Case for Self-Education – The Self-Help Manuals of the Communication Centre of Scientific Knowledge for Self-Reliance”, in: ABE – Architecture Beyond Europe, No. 21, 2023. external page Read here.
  • “Aldo Rossi in the Turmoil of ‘German Identity.’ The German Historical Museum Competition of 1988” (with Phoebus Panigyrakis), in: Histories of Postwar Architecture, No. 7, 2021, 169–199. external page Read here.

Websites and Web Articles

  • Website „Vom Institut für Tropisches Bauen zum Fachgebiet Planen und Bauen in Entwicklungsländern“ (with Adrian Franco), https://tropenbauthd.hypotheses.org/, 2024. external page Find here.
  • “Direktflug oder von Frankreich über die USA nach Deutschland? – Französischer ‘Post-strukturalismus’ in ANY und ARCH+” [Direct Flight or from France to Germany via the USA? – French “Poststructuralism” in ANY and ARCH+], in: https://dokumentederarchitektur.de/, July 2021. external page Read here.

Podcasts

external page More information here.