Lines of Thoughts. Meinhard von Gerkan.
50 years of architecture in sketches and drawings

From November 2015 to January 2016, the exhibition "Lines of thought" was shown at St. Peter’s Church in Riga featuring architectural design drawings by Meinhard von Gerkan, which were created over 50 years of his work.

The exhibition was first on display fin Hamburg from July to October 2015. The occasion was Meinhard von Gerkan's 80th birthday in 2015 and the opening of the exhibition pavilion on Elbchaussee designed by him. THe pavilion is located in the immediate vicinity of the headquarters of gmp · Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners and the residence of the von Gerkan family.

The second venue of the exhibition – St. Peter’s Church in the inner city of Riga – is closely connected to Meinhard von Gerkan’s life. This is where the architect, who was born in Riga, was baptized in the summer of 1935. St. Peter’s Church (Latv. Svētā Pētera baznīca) at Pēterbaznīcas iela in the center of the inner city of Riga was the city’s parish church in the Middle Ages. Architecturally the church is a large three-nave basilica in the Gothic style, built of red bricks. The church spire is similar to that of St. Catherine’s Church, one of the principal churches in Hamburg.

© Marcus Bredt

The "Lines of thought“ exhibition looks back over 50 years of gmp architecture, but most importantly pays homage to an architect who, to this day, develops his designs with the help of sketches. It is also intended as a plea for architects and designers to be able to put ideas and conceptual thoughts manually on paper, in spite of the ubiquitous proliferation of digital design applications. From an archive of far more than 3,000 sheets, more than 150 originals relating to 46 projects were selected. The sketches selected are primarily those that exemplify von Gerkan’s ability to use just a few significant hand-drawn lines to capture the core and character of even very complex projects. In addition, the exhibition focused on designs that exemplify the work, the development and the milestones of the practice. The exhibition included the first drawings for the design of the Berlin Tegel Airport – the project with which the practice’s history began – as well as those for Berlin’s main railway station and the most important projects in Riga.

The exhibition was organized in cooperation with St. Peter’s Church in Riga and the Vincents Grupa, Riga, as well as with the friendly support of the Latvian Ministry for Culture, the Riga Dome and the German Embassy in Riga.

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