https://wernerstoff.com/This retrospective exhibition celebrates and makes you experience Werner’s considerable work.

Both in Germany and in his time in Auroville.

We tried to capture and protect for posterity the feeling that Werner was aiming to create with his designs by making videos and stills that evoke the totality of his designs and wish to immerse you in the buildings, their plans, pictures and videos.

The concept is trying to provide a possible solution for a conundrum we face in Auroville by integrating the work of many Aurovilians and their good will.

Auroville is a city of architects and designers but we still face an enormous housing shortage, especially affordable housing. 

Compounded with a desire to preserve the heritage of the many artists in places, the community decided to NOT dedicate spaces to the memory of its artists but to find other ways.

One of these ways we have explored: to organise an exhaustive retrospective exhibition and then prepare all important material for the Auroville Archives where they can be protected and consulted by students and the like.

The designs, plans, photos, and some smaller models and prototypes will be prepared for archive storage. The website www.wernerstoff.com contains most photos, walk-through videos and interviews with people who knew Werner, the videos and pictures of the vernissage reception and some of the walks we organized. The Instagram page instagram.com/wernerstoff.official serves to stay active and refer to the 

Life goes on. Other people will occupy his buildings and hopefully understand how these spaces were meant to work together as a whole.

In his time in Germany he designed organic spaces in the style of what is called ‘Gezamtkunstwerk’ in German or ‘total art concept’ which translation doesn’t actually grasp the totality of the concept.

The Waltner house and his own apartment in Cologne are the only buildings we have pictures and videos of and they exude the same organic atmosphere with wavey, fluid walls, objects, furniture and fittings.
The same design elements return in his work in Auroville: circular windows, tables, walls, fountains, pavement, carpets, chairs, etc. Spaces, windows and openings in walls without corners.

Similar to Jugendstil or Art Nouveau designs, everything was designed to work together and form a unity. From the facade, volume of the building and surrounding gardens, to the internal and external spaces, the windows, the colours, the furniture and even door handles and light switches.

The concept of ‘living in art’ was even requested of the occupants. If someone wanted to change something about their living space, he would make himself available to design the changes in line with the totality of the surroundings. An added bookshelf would be custom designed and made to conform with the totality.

The Prayatna community was sanctioned by the main architect of the Auroville project, Roger Anger, and was supposed to be housing 200 people in what was to be the most densely built up community in Auroville.
This density of course created tension which was supposed to be mitigated by the design allowing for privacy in close proximity.

In other areas of Auroville and the bioregion Werner created temples, schools, housing projects, a proposal for the new campus of Svaram and even the cremation ground at Adventure where he was put to rest.

Werner designed from nature even though he didn’t use many ecological materials. He had a tendency towards fluid forms and thus for fluid materials such as cement, concrete, plaster of Paris (or gypsum) MDF, plastic, plexiglass…
But especially in Auroville he started to use poured earth in his designs as is clear from the Prayatna buildings.

As a sculptor Werner worked in gypsum (also called plaster of Paris) allowing for fully fluid forms. We are showcasing 13 sculptures spread around the grounds both imported from Germany and made in Auroville. We have scanned and reproduced the catalogue of Werner’s exhibition in MönchenGladbach (Germany) and about the Waltner house.