The pioneering character and continuing success of Schaal's scenic compositions for stage sets and exhibitions is significantly due to this field allowing him to take full advantage of his multiple talents. He succeeds equally in the thinking and practical skills of an architect, a painter, a sculptor, a landscape designer, an urban visionary, cineast, and a man of literature, and this allows him to discover, through his space-embracing scenographic installations, unique three-dimensional equivalents for his paper-drawn 'thought spaces' and 'path spaces' or 'thought buildings' from the 1970s. His renowned compendium entitled Architektonische Situationen, published in 1980 and containing, the essence of his early spatial studies, in fact contains within it the seeds of all his later stage set and exhibition configurations. The symbiotic relationship between legendary director Ruth Berghaus and spatial visionary Schaal first began producing history-making stage sets in the early 1980s. Working with Berghaus, Schaal created elementary spatial compositions possessed of great suggestive power for Les Troyens (1983), Wozzeck (1984), Orpheus (1986), Elektra (1986), Moses und Aron (1987), Tristan und Isolde (1988), Lulu (1988), Fierrabras (1988), Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (1991) and Nachtwache (1993), and also working with other directors to do the same for countless other operas and theatre pieces. In creating his installations and their powerful images, Schaal has never solely been concerned with creating suitable illustrations for scene-related plot action. Instead, he always adds something more, as it were, in the form of a boldly independent interpretation. The same is true of his concepts for temporary or permanent ex-hibitions. Before undertaking any of the individual projects on his long list of exhibition projects, Schaal has always researched archive material, historic background, and repercussions, but also the emotional and psychoanalytical implications of the exhibitions' theme and the exhibits concerned, with the meticulousness of a scientific specialist. In works such as his installations for Berlin Berlin (1987) or Prometheus (1998), for the Filmmuseum Berlin (2000), and for the memorials of the former concentration camps Mittelbau-Dora (2006), Bergen-Belsen (2007) or Esterwegen (2011), he always presents his own view of the world, his own view of things. Frank R. Werner studied painting, architecture and architectural history in Mainz, Hanover and Stuttgart. From 1990 to 1994 he was professor of history and theory of architecture at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Stuttgart, from 1994 until his retirement in 2011 he was director of the Institut fur Architekturgeschichte und Architekturtheorie at the Bergische Universitat in Wuppertal.

Text in English & Italian. Ivano Gianola is one of the founding members of the so-called Ticino School. Like the other significant figures of this legendary school he is primarily concerned with urban-development and architectonic quality of building in the Canton of Ticino. The extensive uvre that has sprung from this concern has produced a plethora of intuitively designed, distinctive buildings. After more than ten years of planning and building, Gianola's most extensive project and at the same time the largest project of the Canton of Ticino to date is now open to the public. The new Cultural and Art Centre of Lugano is located directly on the shore of Lake Lugano. The spacious and spatially differentiated new building is an architectonic hybrid that combines a museum for contemporary art, a convention centre, various restaurants and cafes as well as a theatre under one roofscape. The theatre is not only equipped as an optimal venue for operas and theatrical performances, but can also be used as a concert hall or convention auditorium. Moreover the urban configuration of the new complex functions as a most convincing contemporary gateway to the largest city in Ticino. This Opus volume tries to decipher not only the obvious and hidden urban-planning aspects of this major project but also its multilayered formal esthetic and haptic connotations. Thereby the book pays tribute to a high point of contemporary Ticino architecture and to Ivano Gianola's late masterpiece.

Text in English & German. From the 1970s to the present day there is scarcely an architect who has produced such pioneering work as a creative explorer of limits, lateral thinker and stimulating inspirational figure than Hans Dieter Schaal. With a high level of professionalism Schaal has regularly provided us with essential food for thought and hypotheses as an architect, painter, sculptor, draughtsman, designer, garden and stage designer, Utopian, philosopher and author. His work has always been driven not by superficial effects, but by existential statement on what surrounds us in terms of facts and things that are concealed or suppressed. Schaal's artistic statements have elicited responses at home and abroad and have influenced whole generations of younger designers to a considerable extent. Thus Schaal embodies an ideal artistic type that one rarely comes across, known in the Renaissance as uomo universale. As anticipated for some time now, the current volume explores all facets of this complex and fruitful oeuvre, revealing above all its synergetic interrelationships. In addition to this Schaal's thought and action patterns as relevant in terms of art and architectural history are emphasised in this comparative survey of his work, and their efficacy demonstrated. An extensive catalogue of Schaal's work rounds the volume off. Thus the present volume offers an indispensable encyclopaedia of the life's work of one of the truly creative design artists of our day.

Text in English and German. Despite their usually very large volumes, works by Eckhard Gerber's Dortmund practice are structurally light and transparent, precise in their detail, and make an unmistakable impact on the urban space. Presenting the new exhibition centre in Karlsruhe, this Opus volume is devoted to a building complex with all the self-confidence of a city-within-a-city. Admittedly visitors are not aware of that until they have passed a breath-taking exhibition loggia whose daring roof, protruding powerfully along the whole length of the building, attracts attention even from a distance. The basic concept, tailored to the urban landscape, the functional ground-plan arrangement, the unusually subtle use of structures and materials for a large building of this kind, and not least the high design quality of all structural parts will certainly mean a high level of acceptance and a long future for the Neue Messe in Karlsruhe.

Since the end of the 20th century, an unprecedented number of remarkable museums have been built. None have had bigger worldwide implications than Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (199197). Until, that is, the new Musee des Confluences in Lyon was opened to the public, in late 2014. It was created by Wolf D. Prix of the Coop Himmelb(l)au team, which was founded in the 1970s. Many avant-garde groups from those wild years such as Archigram, Superstudio, Archizoom, Haus-Rucker-Co, and the Japanese Metabolists are now consigned to the past, but the Coop Himmelb(l)au architecture firm, whose special aspiration was always to bring into the world buildings that overcome the pull of the earth buildings 'to float on the horizon like clouds' is more in demand than ever. The finest demonstration of this endeavour to date can now be admired in Lyon. Functioning as a museum of human history, this impressive concrete, metal and glass colossus truly does appear to float above the peninsula at the confluence of the Rhone and the Saone. Like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, this new building, so impossible to overlook, is an inspiration for the revita-lisation of disrupted urban areas and the valorisation of derelict industrial areas within the city precincts, but also far beyond Lyon. This Opus volume deals with the origins, construction, function and formal appearance of the Musee des Confluences, and also offers a preliminary theoretically based evaluation of the architecture of the building. Frank R. Werner was professor of history and architecture theory at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Stuttgart from 1990 until 1994 and director of the Institut fur Architekturgeschichte und Architekturtheorie at the Bergische Universitat in Wuppertal from 1993 until his retirement in 2012. He studied painting, architecture and history of architecture in Mainz, Hanover and Stuttgart. Christian Richters studied communication design at the Folkwang-schule in Essen. He is one of the most sought-after architecture photographers in Europe. To date he has been represented in the Opus series by 14 volumes, including ones about the embassies of the Nordic countries and the Bode Museum in Berlin, the Nieuwe Luxor Theater in Rotterdam and the BMW Welt in Munich. See also: Opus 66. Coop Himmelb(l)au, BMW Welt, Munchen, Edition Axel Menges 2009.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, new university buildings were regarded as real showcase projects in Germany. With their help, it was hoped to catch up with the international building scene again after the severe destruction of the Second World War. However, deficiencies in the technical execution and also in the subsequent building maintenance often led to the fact that in the course of the years serious structural problems appeared more and more frequently in the former showcase projects, which in some cases even led to the demolition of former demonstrative projects. This opus volume presents such an aging university ensemble on the old campus of the RWTH Aachen, which could not only be saved, but also embodies a renaissance of high-quality urban development and sustainable architecture. This balancing act is thanks to the architects and engineers of the renowned SSP AG from Bochum. First of all, they used the building task to significantly reorganise the old campus area in terms of urban development and to uncover lost urban references. In a next step, they demolished a dilapidated multi-storey car park and built the new technical centre, the Technikum on its foundations. In doing so, they followed the highest construction standards and sustainability strategies down to the smallest detail. However, the architects were able to retain the neighbouring, defective high-rise building of the so-called Sammelbau of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. They stripped the high-rise down to its bare supporting structure and then refurbished it to the highest technical and ecological standards, just like the Technikum. In times when terms such as sustainability or building ecology are being used in an almost inflationary manner, the project presented here is a real model, because it not only speaks of high standards, but has in fact implemented the highest standards and because it has given the concept of re-use (ie: the recycling of old, dilapidated building substance, a sensuously appealing structural form and a long-term new utility).

Hans Dieter Schaal is already something of a cultural institution in Germany. Trained as an architect, he always operates outside the "main stream", designing and realizing stage sets, sculptures, cemeteries, parks, squares, spatial installations or book projects, which are often trendsetting in their own field. In the last ten years Schaal has established a focal point that seems to be the sum of all his themes: exhibition architecture. He has provided expansive installations for the broadest possible range of exhibition subjects in such high-volume buildings as the Martin-Gropius-Bau or the Zeughaus in Berlin, the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn, the Kunstvereinsgebaude in Stuttgart, the Deutsches Postmuseum or the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. His work was never mere exhibition design in these cases. Instead of this he was always concerned to tell spatial stories about the exhibits or their historical background. Of course he was able to draw on his experience in stage-set design here. Admittedly Schaal would not be Schaal, if he were not to use the whole stock of ideas from his decades of lateral thinking or his insatiable search for archetypes and images. On occasions this has meant that Schaal's exhibitions were ad-mired simply of their spatial sensations. It was only the very few people who were prepared to analyse the extraordinarily extensive and complex work more profoundly who found a carefully established subliminal relationship network of selected motifs running through all his exhibition installations like a central theme. Sometimes they come from his own early work, sometimes from literary or cinematic finds, then again from psychological-philosophical footnotes or even private obsessions. Such image particles constitute a thought-edifice perhaps comparable only with Aby Warburg's legendary picture archive which breaks right through the bounds of traditional exhibition architecture. Frank R. Werner has been director of the Institut fur Architektur-geschichte und Architekturtheorie at the Bergische Universitat in Wuppertal since 1993. He studied painting, architecture and architectural history at the Kunstakademie in Mainz, the Technische Hochschule in Hanover and Stuttgart University.