Theres Rohde studied Media Culture at Bauhaus University Weimar and was a DFG fellow in the Research Training Group on Media Historiographies. Her dissertation explored modernist architecture and housing exhibitions, including the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt and the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart. Building on her academic work on the history of exhibitions, she moved into a curatorial role at the Museum of Concrete Art. Since 2021, she has been guiding the institution into a new era as its director, shaping the future of the Museum of Concrete Art and Design.
Interview
How would you describe your vision for the “Spaces of Mobility” for the Munich Metropolitan Region in 2034 in three words?
Multidimensional. Engaging. Broad in scope.
What do you see as the biggest mobility challenge facing the Munich Metropolitan Region?
The greatest challenge is undoubtedly that a region whose economic strength has been built over many decades on the automotive industry now needs to consider alternatives for a variety of reasons. Mobility needs to be different, and the way we think about it needs to evolve. This means creating concepts that work both with and beyond the car – for urban residents as well as for people in rural areas without access to the S-Bahn network. It will be a challenge to create a form of mobility that is environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially inclusive, while ensuring that no one is left behind.
What motivated you to get involved in the IBA-M?
The opportunity to help shape the future. Not just one vision, but several possible visions of what our future – and our ideas of living and mobility tomorrow – might look like.
What unique perspective or expertise do you bring to the IBA-M?
One that extends beyond architecture alone. Even in my doctoral research, I explored the International Building Exhibitions of the modern era and the ways in which they staged visions of future living – not from the viewpoint of an architect, but as a cultural scholar. At the heart of my work was the question: could people actually live in the image that architects were presenting to the public? Now, I’m the director of an art museum, so I engage with images more than ever before. And because of that, I certainly ask different questions of IBA projects than others do.
For me, the IBA is…
…an opportunity not only to imagine the future, but to imagine multiple futures in all their dimensions. Not one image, but many. Not one future, but many possible versions of it.