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Georg Lippsmeier Collection
1960s-2010
Collection
The Georg Lippsmeier collection contains materials from the collection of the Institut für Tropenbau (Institute for Tropical Building), dating from the 1960s to the early 1990s. The collection consists predominantly of publications covering the theme of building for tropical climates.
The Georg Lippsmeier collection consists mainly of publications, which as published material is accessible through the CCA library to facilitate description and access. These publications can be found and requested for consultation on the CCA website using the search term "Georg Lippsmeier collection." There are about 1200 monographs and 400 periodicals. The publications are mostly from the 1960s to the 1980s and are mainly in German, English, French, and Spanish. The collection includes numerous publications related to architecture and construction in tropical climates in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and Oceania. A major theme across these publications is housing in the developing world. These publications are complemented by numerous reports from organizations such as the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, and various branches of the United Nations. Publications on projects designed by Lippsmeier and his associates can also be found in the collection, as well as material on building schools and health centres in developing countries. Publications of the research findings of the Institut für Tropenbau are also represented in the collection.
The Lippsmeier collection also includes some unpublished material such as maps of countries with tropical climates in Africa, Latin America, and Asia as well as photocopies of publications on building in tropical climates. The collection contains a large slide collection of photographs taken from the travels of Lippsmeier and other members of the Institut für Tropenbau in Africa, Asia or Latin America and used as reference by researchers of the institute.
The Georg Lippsmeier collection is arranged in six series: CD037.S1; CD037.S2; CD037.S3; CD037.S4; CD037.S5; CD037.S6.
CD037.S1 contains the Institut für Tropenbau’s research material about Africa, while CD037.S2 and CD037.S3 contain research materials on Latin America and Asia and Oceania, respectively.
CD037.S4 contains research materials organized by the topic of research. The Institut für Tropenbau’s slide collection is arranged in CD037.S5 and is organized alphabetically by country. Series CD037.S6 documents how the research library of the Institut für Tropenbau was organized.
Georg Lippsmeier was a German architect born in 1923, in Magdegurg, Germany. He studied architecture at the Technische Universität Braunschweig (Braunschweig University of Technology) and completed his studies in 1949. In 1950, Lippsmeier established his own practice with an office based in Düsseldorf and later in Starnberg, Germany. From the 1950s to the 1990s, he undertook projects in Africa that integrated environmental factors such as climate and solar angles. In the 1960s he founded a research institute in Starnberg, Institut für Tropenbau (Institute for Tropical Building). The Institut für Tropenbau was a research institute that consisted of a group of researchers led by Lippsmeier who acted as Director. The institute’s mission was to research on subjects related to the tropics, such as architecture in tropical climates and building technologies in tropical climates. They published their findings, which can also be found in the Georg Lippsmeier collection of published material acquired by the CCA. From 1973 to 1985, Kiran Mukerji, from whom the CCA also acquired a research collection, worked as a researcher for the Institut für Tropenbau. The Institut für Tropenbau ceased its activities in 1991 after the death of Georg Lippsmeier.
Georg Lippsmeier’s and the Institut für Tropenbau’s research libraries remained in the custody of Lippsmeier before they were donated to ArchiAfrika by Lippsmeier’s son in 2009, and transferred to African Architecture Matters (AAM) in 2011. ArchiAfrika acquired the Georg Lippsmeier material, along with two other collections: the Coen Beeker collection and the Kiran Mukerji collection. With these acquisitions ArchiAfrika intented to build a research collection, accessible to scholars and researchers, on African and tropical climate architecture and urbanism. Not long after, ArchiAfrika moved their base to Accra, Ghana, but the three collections remained in the Netherlands. The custody of the three collections was transferred to African Architecture Matters (AAM), a non-governmental organization with consultation project in Africa, but their purpose remained the same. The Coen Beeker collection, the Georg Lippsmeier collection and the Kiran Mukerji collection were acquired by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) from AAM in March 2016 to insure their widest accessibility. The material was transferred in the fall 2016. An addition to the Georg Lippsmeier collection was made in December 2017 and February 2018 by AAM.
When citing the collection as a whole, use the following citation:
Georg Lippsmeier Collection
Collection Centre Canadien d'Architecture/
Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal;
Gift of African Architecture Matters
When citing specific collection material, please refer to the object’s specific credit line.
German, English, French
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