St. Agnes with ARCH+: On Conversion

Discussion with Arno Brandlhuber (architect) and Kerstin Wittmann-Englert (architectural historian), moderated by Anh-Linh Ngo (ARCH+)

Designed by Werner Düttmann in the 1960s, St. Agnes (St. Agnes’ Church and Parish Centre) in Kreuzberg was deconsecrated in 2005 due to its shrinking congregation. After a series of interim uses, the gallerist Johann König signed a hereditary lease in 2011. The historically listed plot was carefully converted by Brandlhuber+ Emde, Burlon and Riegler Riewe. At the centre of their work was the church building itself, which was transformed into an exhibition space for contemporary art through the addition of a suspended ceiling. The architect Arno Brandlhuber will speak about his minimally invasive intervention in the continuation of Düttmann’s rationale. How is such an intervention to be judged from a conservational standpoint, when the character of the space has been so drastically changed? Brandlhuber discusses his approach to Düttmann’s legacy in an interview with Kerstin Wittmann-Englert, who was chair of the Landesdenkmalrat Berlin (State Monument Council) from 2009 to 2018.

Arno Brandlhuber is an architect and urban planner and has been running Brandlhuber+ since 2006. His work includes architectural and research projects, exhibitions, publications and political interventions. Since 2017, Brandlhuber has been professor of design and architecture at ETH Zurich. Together with Olaf Grawert, Nikolaus Hirsch and Christopher Roth, he is curating the German Pavilion at the 17th Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2021.

Kerstin Wittmann-Englert is a professor of architectural history at the TU Berlin. As a former chair of the Landesdenkmalrat Berlin (State Monument Council), she has actively shaped policies relating to monument preservation. Wittmann-Englert has been a member of ICOMOS since 2014 and on the academic advisory board of the Wüstenrot Foundation since 2016.

Anh-Linh Ngo is an architect, author and co-editor of ARCH+. He is a member of the board of trustees of the IBA 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart and co-initiator of the research project Cohabitation. The results of the project will be presented in an exhibition and numerous events in Berlin in summer 2021.


This series of events was conceived and organised in cooperation with the magazine ARCH+.

Due to the limited number of participants, we kindly ask you to register for this event. You can register online here two weeks before the event.

Note: The current distance and hygiene regulations apply, as well as a general mask obligation. The obligation to test is waived.

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