Munich´s Haus der Kunst is turning 70. After being inaugurated by no other than Adolf Hitler in 1937 this building is more than its neoclassical architectural expression of fascist ideology. What makes this building, designed by Ludwig Troost, so intriguing is that its steel frame construction actually brings it closer to American 20^th century hotels and banks and the concept of fake fassade than to the solidity of its appearance. The current director Chris Dercons` genuine approach of `critically dismantling` the post war veiling of the buildings` symmetry and scale in order to enable a confrontation rather than a diminutive of its original architectural state is also profiting from this almost exculpatory secret.

What also makes this building so intriguing, as remarked by Koolhaas at the symposium `Gebaute Ideologie` held at Haus der Kunst last week, is that it worked just as well for the propagandist shows of the Nazi era as it does for recent shows of contemporary art and design.

The symposium addressing the history and the future of the building was held in the reconstructed middle hall, formerly known as the Ehrenhalle, now ´Shifted Room`, which through its critical reconstruction has regained its original size of 800 m². The middle hall has recently also received new elements - the book shop designed by Munich´s favourite Konstantin Grcic as well as the recently installed curtain by Petra Blaisse/InsideOutside, who is also currently showing her projects in the middle hall. The curtain leaves the open space free, while providing for the multifunctional demands regarding acoustics, projections, etc.

After a short film by Alexander Kluge and an introduction into built ideology in Munich as Hauptstadt der Bewegung (capital of the movement) by Winfried Nerdinger, Jong Myong Ho, chief architect at the architectural academy in Pjongjang, North Korea, takes the floor and (in short) proclaims an architecture whose urban staging and inherent monumentality confer visitors to straighten their clothes as well as their posture. Jong Myong Ho was invited by a42.org of the art academy in Nuremberg to work with the master students of Arno Brandlhubers studio on the topic of architecture and ideology see also Akademie der bildenden Künste.

Followed by Brazilian architectural historian and curator Lauro Cavalcanti who talked about Oscar Niemeyers buildings for Brazilia and Rio in comparison to other ideologically driven architectural pieces of that era. Final speakers were Jaques Herzog elaborating on the exceptional political decision of Munich to rebuild the destroyed city after the war vs. Frankfurt, which is today considering to re-erect its historical city for location factors and Rem Koolhaas, presenting the hermitage project and part of his research on preservation at GSD. The two had not only been invited by Dercon to speak, but also to collaborate on a concept for the future of the building. Both of their offices have already exhibited in Haus der Kunst -AMO with the Europe exhibition in 2004 and HdeMs work show `No. 250` last summer, where the facade temporarily took on the original Allianz Arena neon sign borrowed from the stadium. On the podium with Mark Wigley, the discussion raised the question if the soon to be vacant west wing which previously hosted a theatre were to be used commercially or as further exhibition space and exactly what the difference would imply. While Koolhaas considers the infamous P1 night club accommodated in the building as an ´ignorant and energetic prototype` for further more commercial uses of the space, Herzog proclaimed a more contextual approach to the building as an entrance to the English Garden and in relation to the partly tunnelled Prinzregentenstrasse. As collaborations between Koolhaas and Herzog have supposedly failed so far, it will be interesting to await the outcome of this one.