Photo © IABA 2025
Photo © IABA 2025
Photo © IABA 2025
Photo © IABA 2025
The exhibition Sergei Tchoban: Between Timelayers deals extensively with the theme of IABA 2025, In-Between – Architecture and the City in the New World Order. The specially developed format reflects the contrasting interplay of historical and modern architecture, the dialogue between history and the present as it is pronounced in modern cities. Tchoban understands the city with its architectural layers as a walk-in history book. In his works, he puts visualised and constructed ideas on paper and relates them to each other.
Urban layers of time and city contrasts as new harmonies in the urban fabric are central themes. The contemporary architectural language contrasts with the historical layers of the city. The scale of urban gestures often contrasts with the structure of the city. But how much contrast can a city tolerate? What needs to be considered when making new interventions? How is history dealt with?
Tchoban’s works show architectural visions and solutions for the new era in forms and materials. His exploration of these themes is reflected in his drawings as well as in his architectural projects. Depending on the defined role a building plays in the city, it is given a specific framework – unobtrusive with haptic details or significant with contrasting forms and materials.
The two-part exhibition presents a selection of projects and architectural fantasies that explore the contrast between contemporary and historical, iconic and background architecture, and show how new layers play a role in the creation of the contemporary city.
For Sergei Tchoban, a drawing is both an experiment and an opportunity to develop new architectural ideas and then realise them
The centrepiece of the „drawing“ section inside the exhibition consists of three genuine engravings by Piranesi, into which a new contemporary layer has been engraved. Does this destroy a masterpiece? Or could it give the city a new contemporary touch?
The “built” part of the exhibition focuses on projects that deal, sometimes controversially, with the historical context in which they are located. Reuse and social and cultural integration are important sustainability issues.