GAM 20

The Infraordinary
GAM 20

Guest Editors:
Matthias Castorph, Julian Müller

GAM’s twentieth volume is dedicated to the search for the everyday in architecture. Its title, “The Infraordinary,” refers to a concept first used by Paul Virilio and Georges Perec: In the 1970s, they introduced the term l’infra-ordinaire to describe the habitual and ordinary—the opposite of the extraordinary. With this in mind, GAM 20 delves more deeply into the non-extraordinary in architecture. Seeking to go beyond glorifying or emphasizing the banal, it highlights stories of the reconceptualization and revaluation of existing architecture, as well as its day-to-day use. In daily life, after all, architecture tends not to look the way it does in glossy magazines, on the websites of renowned architecture firms, or on Instagram.

Cover Illustration: „Teilansicht mit Besenschrank mit geöffneter Tür“, Anbauküche des VEB Küchenmöbel „ratiomat“ Eppendorf, Leipziger Herbstmesse, 1988 © Deutsche Fotothek / Friedrich Weimer