Rural Rebellion

Christoph Hesse Architects are based in Berlin and Korbach, a small town in the northwestern part of the German federal state Hesse. This rural area in the green heart of Germany is the location of most of the projects the firm has realised since its establishment in 2010. Yet occasionally, they also set out to plant rural concepts in an urban context. Christoph Hesse Architects and their friends see their designs as open places of culture. Catalysts for change in thought on one hand, intended to change people’s perspectives and stimulate their self-efficacy in society. On the other hand, as actual interventions in existing, globally prevailing structures that can be disrupted and changed locally. Thus, the firm distinguishes between projects acting as perspective changes and as system changers.

Rural Rebellion is the first monograph on Christoph Hesse Architects. It constitutes also a manifesto against the late modernity’s economy, which they see as based on unrestrained exploitation of nature, social coldness, and dependent on globalised markets. The projects and completed designs featured in this book point at alternative paths to follow. They are presented through photos and visualisations, drawings and plans as well as brief texts and interviews with the “rural rebels.”