Rooms that resonate, colours that breathe – the exhibition presents a multifaceted chapter of Ingeborg Kuhler's œuvre bringing together travel sketches, watercolours and technical drawings to create a dialogue that renders architecture tangible as visual poetry.
Ingeborg Kuhler (born 1943) is one of Germany's most important post-war architects. Her buildings are marked by a clear, poetic design language that understands architecture as a synthesis of space, light and material.
Drawing © Ingeborg Kuhler
The exhibition is dedicated not only to Kuhler’s architectural work, but also to her drawings and paintings – an equally significant part of her œuvre. Her design drawings and collages are graphic explorations of spatial ideas, possessing an almost meditative clarity and often interspersed with colourful accents. In them, thoughts condense into spatial compositions that are as rational as they are poetic. Her free-style paintings reveal another dimension of her work: here space is not constructed but felt, sensed, opened to free association. Kuhler’s formal language is calm, sometimes austere, but always human.
Photo © Ivan Němec
Photo © Ivan Němec
The first exhibition room presents the architect’s artistic work; the second is dedicated to her most renowned project: the Museum of Work and Technology (now Technoseum) and the Süddeutscher Rundfunk studios (SWR Office until 2024) in Mannheim. In 1982, the young architect won the open competition for the project, beating renowned male competitors such as Gustav Peichl and Günter Behnisch. Two years later, Kuhler became the first professor of design and experimental design in West Germany when she was appointed to the Berlin Academy of the Arts (today the Berlin University of the Arts).
Drawing © Ingeborg Kuhler
The exhibition invites visitors to discover Kuhler as a pioneer who crossed the boundaries between architecture and visual art. This artistic approach is evident in her drawings, collages and paintings; it explores order and freedom, structure and emotion –the tension between these opposing forces that gives rise to true creativity.
Poems of Spaces and Colours is a tribute to an architect whose quiet determination enabled her to create spaces that had an impact – and a lasting effect. The exhibition also aims to encourage the rediscovery and re-evaluation of a pioneer in the history of female architecture. The show is accompanied by Ivan Nĕmec’s artistic photographs of the building of the Museum of Work and Technology and the studio of Süddeutsche Rundfunk in Mannheim.
A catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition, which was curated by Nadejda Bartels.
Drawing © Ingeborg Kuhler
Ingeborg Kuhler - Poems of Spaces and Colours
Tchoban Foundation. Museum for Architectural Drawing
Christinenstrasse 18a, 10119 Berlin
Exhibition opening: 30 September 2025, 7 pm
Exhibition dates: 01 October 2025 – 11 January 2026
Opening hours: Mon – Fri 2 pm–7 pm, Sat –Sun 1 pm–5 pm
Admission: 6 € / concessions: 4 €
The exhibition is supported by the thomas Group and TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten.