Unpublished archival research documents based on two archival study programmes held in 2014 and 2015 at the Ungers Archive for Architectural Research (Cologne, Germany). This dataset contains two documents of compiled archival research relating to:

OMU's idea of the city 2014, Cologne, Germany

OMU's idea of the city 2015, Cologne, Germany

'Oswald Mathias Ungers (1926-2007) was a visionary post-war architect and educator best known for introducing the idea of an urban archipelago in the study of The City in the City. His architectural and urban design studies are characterised by a fascination with dialectical contradictions, whether in the exploration of typology as morphology, the concept of the doll in the doll or the text 'Janus Face of Architecture'. Sharing these interests, the workshop is an opportunity to discuss Ungers's writings in seminars and analyse his urban design projects. Taking place at the Ungers Archive for Architectural Research (UAA), participants will gain unique access to Ungers's project archive and one of the most extensive private collections of architectural books covering 500 years of architectural history. Targeting students and researchers interested in urban design, the workshop is a training in fundamental research practices, archival studies and the analysis of primary written sources and design projects.

The archive at Belvederestraße 60 in Cologne not only houses Ungers's library with more than 12,000 books and records of projects since the 1950s, but is also the first example of his central 'house-city' concept, an architectural interpretation of the urban. It offers the unique opportunity to follow Ungers's dogma that 'the designer does not invent, he discovers', by enabling archival research and
study of his writings and projects. The workshop will attempt to 'discover' Ungers's ideas of the city twofold. By reading his urban theories and tracing their roots in the archive, as well as by analysing his urban design practice through his, but also our own, drawings.'

For copyright reasons these documents (2 x PDFs) cannot be publicly shared. For further information or to request access please contact Sam Jacoby at sam.jacoby@rca.ac.uk or email repository@rca.ac.uk.