NIKLAS MAAK

ARCHITECTURE WITHOUT PERMISSON

Niklas Maak is a professor of architecture at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, and the architecture critic of Germany’s “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. Since 2014, he has taught architecture at Harvard University. Maak was a co-curator to Rem Koolhaas’ show “Countryside. The Future“ at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2020. Moreover, he is the author behind books such as “Living Complex. From Zombie City to the New Communal”  and the novel “Technophoria”.

Maak argues that architecture is a normative act, with most buildings encouraging people to be either singles, couples or small families, discouraging other possible ways to live with friends or in larger circles. Even worse, building still means building for relatively wealthy people. This, however, means that the majority of the world population cannot afford architecture, and a safe and healthy environment. Given the global ecological and social crises, this has to be urgently changed. So we have to become activists, inventors, experts in reuse, collective builders, fearless politicians, speculative thinkers, and make bold moves!

(Photo: Frank Röth)