Exhibition Changemakers (SS 24)

Good ideas alone are not enough to improve situations. Committed local actors are needed to activate communities, get projects rolling and facilitate change. During their project in Cape Town in March 2024, the students met these special activists who contribute to improving urban living situations in underserved neighbourhoods with extraordinary ideas, innovative approaches and courageous decisions: the Cape Town changemakers, who are often unknown as “hidden champions” and remain in the background. The idea behind the exhibition was to bring them to the front. For the Changemakers exhibition, eight of the activists and their projects were portrayed and presented to the Aachen public. Each “Changemaker” was given a personal portrait and a “Mood Box” was developed: an object that presents images, texts and contexts in such a way that the story of the Changemakers and their projects is told in a creative way.

The results were shown in three different exhibitions: the first was the opening event in the Reiff Foyer of the Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University on June 11, 2024, which gave all visitors a personal insight into their time in Cape Town with short testimonials and the film premiere of the project documentation. The exhibition was then shown on 29.06.24 in the Welthaus at the 38th Aachen World Festival. In the stairwell of the Welthaus, the students had the opportunity to present the Changemakers exhibition in a new format. This allowed the exhibition to be presented to a wide audience. Since July 2024, selected exhibits from the exhibition have been on display in the showcase of the Chair for Landscape Architecture at Jakobstrasse 2.