Stefan Rettich, architect, professor for urban planning and author of the book Die Bodenfrage [The Land Issue], and Peter Leonhardt, monument conservator and curator of several exhibitions on the subject of Leipzig’s architectural history, discuss resources, building and questions around the commons with the artist Lara Almarcegui. Using examples from Leipzig, they examine the impact of the construction sector on the climate, environment and society, and explore possibilities for a sustainable transformation of architecture and urban development.
The discussion marks the end of the one-year project Halted Excavation, realised by Almarcegui on behalf of the GfZK in 2024. Since the mid-1990s, a time when the building industry boomed and extensive urban regeneration took place in Europe, the Rotterdam-based artist has been working on processes of urban transformation. She is interested in land, wasteland, building materials and construction sites. In Leipzig, she turned her attention to the construction site of the Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) at Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz. Almarcegui halted the construction work at the point when the deepest layers of the excavation had been reached. In a video installation, she recorded the uncovered material and historical layers of the city before they were buried again.