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SERIEN FRAU ARCHITEKT • MS. ARCHITECT

however, Merete Mattern became so ill with food poisoning that her life took a different
aus: M. Mattern: Bilder ökologischer Visonen, IL 27, Natürlich bauen, 1980, S.- 268-271/Architekturmuseum der TU Berlin
turn. After her return to Germany she began addressing ecological and esoteric questions.
Teaching appointments, studies for ecological building and participation in the founding
of the political party “The Greens” all followed. Articles in other publications followed,
for example in the French architecture magazine L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, which in
1967 devoted an entire issue to architecture from Germany, in particular that in which
architects who took their cue from Hans Scharoun were sounding out new interpretations
of Expressionism. 1967 saw further success for Merete Mattern. Her proposal for the
expansion of the city of Bratislava, which was produced for an international architects’
and urban planners’ congress, was exhibited on several occasions. As previously with the
Ratingen project, Merete Mattern developed her design using sketches and numerous
working models, which in each case document stages in the process, without, however,
making more than vague specifications. Further designs of this nature were made for
Karlsruhe, Neuperlach in Munich, as well as with the title “Solar City Fort Lincoln,
Washington DC” (together with Mario Sama). For the Solar City she was awarded a
“Grand Prix International d'Urbanisme et d'Architecture” in 1969 in Cannes, which Louis
Kahn presented to her and a number of other prizewinners. As she recorded in a hand-
written note, it was at this time that she started becoming aware of symptoms of food
poisoning. “Yes! That was one of the most poignant moments in my life” Merete Mattern
noted in a folder, in which she documented her defining encounters in the form of a CV.
Bilder ökologischer Visonen – organische Grundrisse • Pictures of ecological visions – organic ground plans The list ended with the words “Thanks to all the great masters who rebelled + Louis
Kahn.” After this series of urban design competition entries, Merete Mattern devised the
“Floating Cities” project. The exact context can no longer be reconstructed, but it is noti-
ceable that the technoid structures are mounted in a photocollage from the Bratislava
I n the 1960s and 1970s, Merete Mattern’s designs made her a regular feature in German competition with a view of the Danube from the castle. The copies of drawings and pho-
tos of models from the urban design projects of the late 1960s are peppered with later
and international trade journals. Her visionary and fantastic plans for entire cities were
also included in several books about trends in architecture at the time. Be it the expansion designs, which are presumably architectural phantasies, i.e., came about without any
of Bratislava to accommodate 100,000 inhabitants, or the invention of “floating cities”: For specific reason. They are often plant-like buildings, many were modelled in clay, photo-
many people Merete Mattern, who was born in 1930, was a ray of hope in an era felt to graphed, and stuck in. Other designs are devoted to the ecological conversion of entire
be often in crisis. The development of huge residential areas was at the top of architects’ regions. In Garnpoint on Lake Chiemsee there are also numerous wax models. These
and urban planners’ agendas, but very few were able to go about the task as freely, arti- were made because of the sheer joy of wishing to experiment with pouring hot wax into
stically, and un-technocratically as Merete Mattern. At the time, between 1966 and 1970, water. The results are reminiscent of the form-finding studies conducted by Frei Otto, with
she published work and presented it at exhibitions far more than actually realizing pro- whom Merete Mattern exchanged ideas for a while, and others of present-day parametric
jects. She had been able to do so since the late 1950s. Though at the time she had not design processes .These later designs likewise continually appear in publications, though
actually completed her Architecture degree, she was already working with her parents they are far removed from urban development debate, in which in the 1960s Merete
Herta Hammerbacher and Hermann Mattern, both successful landscape architects, on Mattern and her designs played a major role.
several projects, for example a housing development comprising several residential buil-
dings in Göttingen. Though Herta Hammerbacher and Hermann Mattern had been divor-
ced since 1935, they still worked together and now involved their daughter in their project Der Autor des Beitrages Oliver Elser ist Kurator am Deutschen Architekturmuseum (DAM)
partnership. Merete Mattern was born in Berlin. Following her parents’ divorce, she lived in Frankfurt am Main. Er kuratiert Ausstellungen zur Postmoderne, über Archi tek -
with her father and his second wife Beate. For a while, her mother moved in with the pho- turmodelle im 20. Jahrhundert und über Simon Ungers. 2016 war er Kurator von Making
tographer Elsbeth Heddenhausen and the latter’s sister in a house which the architect Heimat, dem Deutschen Pavillon auf der Architekturbiennale in Venedig. Sein aktuelles
Walter Kratz had designed during the Third Reich to meet the needs of three single, pro- Ausstellungsprojekt ist #SOSBrutalismus, eine internationale Bestands auf nahme mit
fessional women. In 1941, Merete Mattern, her father and stepmother moved to Garnpoint Rettungskampagne. Er arbeitet auch als Architekturkritiker und -journalist.
on Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria, where the father had acquired a farm as a place of refuge
and in which they could be self-sufficient in wartime and times of crisis. Mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Herausgeber und des Ernst Wasmuth Verlages
wurden der gekürzte Textbeitrag und die Abbildungen entnommen aus:
She graduated under Hans Scharoun at the TU in Berlin

As of 1946, she attended an educational facility in Marquartstein to obtain a high school Frau Architekt
graduation certificate. She then did a carpentry apprenticeship, following this by an
internship with Ivar Tengbom in Stockholm as well as periods of study in Kassel and Seit mehr als 100 Jahren:
Berlin, which were repeatedly interrupted by practical work in her parents’ studio. In 1961, Frauen im Architekturberuf
she graduated under Hans Scharoun at the Technical University in Berlin . A large model
of the concert hall she designed for her degree still exists today. According to her son
Fabian Zimmermann, she made reference all her life to the design, which for her seems Frau Architekt
to have been a nucleus for a “music cathedral”, a sort of gesamtkunstwerk of a musician’s Herausgeber: Mary Pepchinski, Christina Budde, Wolfgang
life. Five years later Merete Mattern, as part of a consortium that included her mother and Voigt, Peter Cachola Schmal – Deutsches Architekturmuseum,
several young architects, took part in an urban design competition for the expansion of Frankfurt/Main. Erschienen 2017 im Ernst Wasmuth Verlag,
the City of Ratingen. It would be her first and biggest publication success. The numerous Tübingen, Berlin. Deutsch/Englisch. 113 Seiten. Hardcover.
instances of her design for Ratingen being published, as well as subsequent pieces of Format: 24,5 x 30,5 cm. 48 Euro
work, were followed by the next step in her career, a visiting professorship in the United ISBN 978 3 8030 0829 9 (Buchhandelsausgabe)
States, which she began in 1968 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. While there, ISBN 978 3 8030 0828 2 (Museumsausgabe)

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