Built to Break: Architektur für Alle

Built to Break: Architektur für Alle (1)

Built to Break: Architecture for All is a performance in the urban space of Bornheim. On a guided tour through the Bornheimer Hang estate, planned by Ernst May, architectural knowledge intertwines with the literature of Heinrich von Kleist. A fusion of history, design, and literature!

The project Built to Break: Architecture for All focuses on the question of how we as a society deal with ruptures, crises and changes – spatially, socially and emotionally. Young people in particular are experiencing a world in transition today: climate crisis, social inequality, identity issues. 

The project aims to offer them a creative space to explore these issues through a combination of architectural history, theatre and literature. The starting point is the May Settlements in Frankfurt – an example of democratic urban planning and social housing. ‘Built to Break’ combines their architecture with Kleist's text ‘The Earthquake in Chile’, which describes a society in crisis.

These levels are interwoven in a performative theatre walk: the two performers switch back and forth between tour guides and literary characters. The audience becomes part of a fictional urban society.

The international performance collective BOYS* IN SYNC is collaborating with the Grüne Soße theatre, which is located directly on Bornheimer Hang. In their research for the city tour, they are not only drawing on ‘book knowledge’: through street surveys on site, they want to find out how residents experience their urban space. What opportunities and problems does the architecture present? Why is there rubbish here? Where do people meet? The theatre supports them in establishing contact, e.g. with young people, through its established networks.

Tickets for the event can be purchased HERE.