"Carbon Confessions" – an exhibition by Dutch architecture firm MVRDV – opens on Thursday, 16 January at 7 p.m. at Munich's Architecture Gallery.

Featured speakers:
Elisabeth Merk, Chief Urban Planner, Munich
Jacob van Rijs, MVRDV
Jan Knikker, MVRDV
Nicola Borgmann, Munich Architecture Gallery

This exhibition offers a comprehensive look at MVRDV's decades-long exploration of sustainable architecture. It traces the firm's evolution – from early urban densification concepts like Berlin Voids and EXPO 2000 to today's climate-responsive projects addressing biodiversity, carbon reduction, and material innovation – revealing a journey marked by both breakthroughs and hard-won lessons.

"Carbon Confessions" presents an unflinching narrative: a chronicle of breakthroughs and missteps that captures the broader transformation sweeping through architecture, redefining what buildings mean in an age of climate urgency. Carbon takes center stage – not merely as a problem, but as raw material, provocation, and the defining design challenge of our era. The exhibition demonstrates how architecture can catalyze real change: through adaptive reuse, pioneering material strategies, and digital innovation, sustainability becomes concrete and achievable.

With candor and transparency, "Carbon Confessions" reveals MVRDV's discoveries, calculated risks, and the complexities of carbon accounting woven throughout their projects. More than a retrospective, this exhibition is a confession – an honest reckoning with the obstacles and oversights encountered while shaping an architecture fit for the future.

The exhibition itself embodies resource conservation: materials and display elements are repurposed to eliminate waste. "Carbon Confessions" goes beyond simply presenting the contradictions and complexities of carbon – it harnesses them as a catalyst for dialogue. It invites architects, students, and the public to engage in a conversation that transcends design; rather, it's about reimagining our cities and healing the planet through architecture that breathes, adapts, and regenerates.

www.architekturgalerie-muenchen.de