Architectural exhibitions have a long and surprising history. Regine Heß has examined them as a subject of architectural history research, with their own genealogy and impact, and demonstrates that architectural exhibitions have a tradition that dates back to the world’s fairs, industrial exhibitions, arts and crafts exhibitions, and colonial exhibitions of the 19th century. It was the most renowned figures in architecture, design, and landscape architecture who further developed the typologies of large-scale exhibitions and adapted them to the new format of the architecture exhibition. Drawing on 17 exhibitions—some of which have been researched for the first time—Von der Weltausstellung zur Bauausstellung (From the World’s Fair to the Building Exhibition) offers an architectural history of major exhibitions and traces their development from the 1851 World’s Fair in London to the 1957 Interbau (International Building Exhibition) in West Berlin, examining aspects such as the representational power of architecture, industrial architecture, and the racist practice of othering.
