It doesn’t quantify how much will be demolished
says Prof. Alexander Stumm. A lot of usable things are being destroyed and expensive new ones are being built. Stumm knows what he’s talking about. He is the initiator of the Demolition moratorium and one of the founders of Demolition Atlasa platform with an interactive map that shows a growing number of buildings that are threatened with demolition or have recently been demolished. The numbers speak for themselves: 55 percent of waste in Germany comes from the construction industry. We can no longer afford this, especially given the acute housing shortage.
From art history to ecological building
Stumm obtained his Master of Arts at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) in art history, modern German literature and law with the topic The architects Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra and the development of the International Style in the United States. In his doctorate, Stumm dealt with architectural concepts of reconstruction.
The 41-year-old specialized in ecological building during his scientific career. He curated the exhibition Ecological building since the 1970s and is together with Prof. Dr. Philipp Oswalt founder of the research center History of ecological building at the University of Kassel. Since 2014, he has supplemented his work in science with work as a freelance journalist, including as an editor at ARCH+, BauNetz and Bauwelt.
Teaching experience from Germany to Vietnam
Stumm gained teaching experience, among other things, in his work as a research assistant and postdoc in the field of architectural theory at the TU Berlin as well as a lecturer in the History of Architecture at the Vietnamese German University in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Before he was appointed to the TH Lübeck, Stumm held substitute professorships for architectural theory at the HSA Dessau and the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg inside.
He is currently completing his habilitation on the subject at the University of Kassel Archeology of ecological building. Architecture and planning at the Kassel University, based on the work of Gernot Minke, Thomas Herzog and Michael Wilkens.
Build responsibly
Sustainable construction was already being considered. I want to encourage students not just to invent new theories, but to think responsibly about what they build.
Marginalized groups should also be taken into account, as construction is always characterized by a power imbalance.