January 22, 2020 | Guest Lecture "Re:located"

Facade Translocations in Aachen's Old Town

In his lecture, Jan Richarz gave an overview of the relocation of facades in Aachen's city center after 1945. In the course of urban planning changes after the Second World War, many street alignments were widened and, especially in the university area, some larger buildings were newly constructed. Some of the facades of the buildings that had to be demolished for this purpose were removed in accordance with their historical value, stored in the municipal building yard and used in new buildings. During reconstruction and especially during urban redevelopment, facade translocations in this form were applied especially in the three main redevelopment areas in order to approach the old cityscape in a partially idealized form. This was a legitimate urban planning method until the 1970s, as it allowed streets to be widened for contemporary traffic while still preserving parts of some of the old buildings. In 1981, however, a rethink took place and the remaining stored facades were forgotten.

After studying civil engineering, building history, and history and political sciences in Aachen, Jan Richarz initially worked as a freelance building historian and building researcher, then as a volunteer at the LVR Archive Consultancy and Training Center and as a research assistant at the Department of Historical Monuments and Historical Building Research at RWTH Aachen University. In addition to the archaeology of the Roman provinces and building research on architecture of all epochs, Jan Richarz is mainly concerned with architecture, urban planning and monument preservation since 1945 and with reconstruction and translocation in urban planning.