Spaces that resonate, colours that breathe – the Tchoban Foundation's exhibition "Ingeborg Kuhler – Poems from Spaces and Colours" reveals a multifaceted chapter of Ingeborg Kuhler's oeuvre. Travel sketches, watercolours, and technical drawings create a compelling dialogue that transforms architecture into visual poetry. Ingeborg Kuhler (born 1943) ranks among Germany's most significant post-war architects. Her buildings embody a refined, poetic design language that understands architecture as the synthesis of space, light, and material.

The exhibition transcends her architectural legacy, equally celebrating her drawing and painting practice – a vital expression of her artistic vision. Her design drawings and collages are graphic investigations of spatial concepts, layered with chromatic accents and an almost meditative precision. In these works, thoughts crystallize into spatial compositions that are simultaneously rational and poetic. Her independent paintings, meanwhile, reveal another facet of her practice – here, space is no longer constructed but sensed, felt, and evoked. Kuhler's formal language is restrained, sometimes severe, yet always profoundly human.

The exhibition unfolds across two rooms: the first showcases the architect's artistic practice, while the second centres on her most celebrated project – the Museum of Work and Technology (now Technoseum) with the Süddeutscher Rundfunk studio (later SWR, housed there until 2024) in Mannheim. In 1982, this emerging architect won the open competition, outpacing established rivals including Gustav Peichl and Günter Behnisch. By 1984, her appointment as professor of design and experimental practice at Berlin's University of the Arts made her the first woman to hold such a position in West Germany.

The exhibition positions Ingeborg Kuhler as a visionary bridging architecture and fine art. Her artistic voice speaks clearly through drawing, collage, and colour: exploring the interplay between order and freedom, structure and emotion – the creative tension from which meaningful design emerges. Poems from Spaces and Colours honours an architect who, with quiet conviction, shaped spaces of enduring impact. The exhibition also serves as a catalyst for rediscovering and reassessing a trailblazer in women's architectural history. Accompanying the show are photographs by Ivan Nĕmec documenting the State Museum of Work and Technology and the Süddeutscher Rundfunk studio in Mannheim.

Tchoban Foundation. Museum for Architectural Drawing
Christinenstraße 18a, 10119 Berlin
Exhibition dates: 1 October 2025 – 11 January 2026
www.tchoban-foundation.de