43 - Ron Herron

Ron Herron (London 1930 – 1994 Woodford Green), “Berlin Sets: Congress Hall Site” (Berlin Locations: Site of the Congress Hall), 1980, pen-and-ink drawing colored with colored pencils with a collaged photographic reproduction on chamois-colored vélin, titled and dated “Sept. 1980" and monogrammed, 20 x 27.8 cm, mounted on backing board and set under glass and a mat in a white anodized aluminum frame, overall size: 44 x 44 cm. Limited edition of 675 Exhibition: “In memoriam Kongresshalle Berlin,” official opening exhibition of Galerie Aedes, Berlin, November 1980 through January 1981. Ron Herron’s design for a “New Congress Hall Berlin” from September 1980 emerged as a direct, radical response to a dramatic historical event in West Berlin: On May 21, 1980, the spectacular, curved prestressed concrete roof of the original Berlin Congress Hall (today the House of World Cultures) partially collapsed due to material fatigue and structural flaws. While official policymakers and urban planners were hastily debating a faithful reconstruction, Herron proposed a completely contrasting, forward-looking vision just a few months later. Instead of rebuilding the Congress Hall in concrete, he proposed a high-tech structure based on lightness, textile-like flexibility, and exposed skeletal architecture. This drawing, along with the one that follows, was shown at the very first exhibition of the later world-famous Aedes Gallery.