Günther Ludwig Eckert studied architecture in Munich from 1947 to 1951. As a freelance architect, he realized numerous detached houses, residential and office complexes as well as churches from 1954 to 1980. He became known for the residential high-rise and the now listed canteen in the Olympic Village in Munich (1967-1972). The construction of the high-rise building was the first time that Eckert's "building kit method" was used, which allows for individual interior fittings despite the highly rationalized construction method with prefabricated elements. Eckert also invented a wet room made of plastic (1967), in which all the functions of a bathroom are integrated. In addition to his work as an architect, Eckert was also a draughtsman and painter and made films together with the author and director Werner Prym. From 1978 onwards, he explored the idea of the global continuum. Günther L. Eckert died in Munich in 2001.

"It is now almost half a century since Günther L. Eckert developed the idea of a continuum spanning the earth, called the tube. With his architectural design, worked out down to the last technical detail, he wanted to prove that the whole of humanity could survive in prosperity on Earth without further destroying and exploiting it. In contrast to historical and current utopian concepts, Eckert did not plan a (N)somewhere or (N)sometime. Rather, he drew a radical consequence from the tendencies inherent in our technology and developed them into a closed loop spanning the earth. It was also important to him to show that this construction, which looks like a spaceship and is called the tube, could be built in the here and now with the means and techniques available to us.

The core of Eckert's utopian ideas was therefore not the architecturally technical construct. Rather, he hoped that people would give up their biologically determined "I" in favor of an intellectually based "we": that they could agree on a project shared by all and live together in peace. The tube was conceived as a possible housing for such a future humanity determined by the "we". In view of the ever-increasing destruction of our environment, the continuum now appears more as a kind of rescue architecture into which we humans will have to retreat if we do not fundamentally change our relationship with nature. However understood: In any case, Eckert's concept offers a highly descriptive agenda and a solid basis for discussion on the dimension of the tasks and questions we have to deal with if we want to preserve planet Earth and thus our livelihoods." Michael Fehr