Elmar Schossig †
Elmar Schossig, born in Chemnitz in 1950, grew up in Ludwigsburg and Lörrach. Long before completing high-school, he dreamt of being an architect. He had “planned” his first home in art class at the tender age of 11. Studies at the TU Braunschweig and the RWTH Aachen, graduating under Gottfried Böhm, provided the necessary foundations. But it was independent reading and travel – journeys to Holland, Italy, France, the Ticino and last, but not least, the United States – that served as important influences. In 1972, shortly before beginning his studies, Elmar Schossig’s encounter with the work of Richard Buckminster Fuller at a major exhibition at the Museum for Science and Industry in Chicago would become a key experience. The exposure to Fuller’s ideas inspired a passion for ecology, sustainable architecture and energy efficiency. The private practice, founded in 1984 with his wife Dörte Gatermann in Cologne, quickly led to success and interesting commis-sions. As parents and office partners, Elmar Schossig and his wife shared equally in raising their children, born in 1985 and 1989. Elmar Schossig developed a great affinity for technical aspects. The development of a new integral aluminium-glass facade in 2000 (with lighting designer Helmut Köster) launched an intense exploration of various themes, resulting in numerous designs and products in the areas of furniture, lighting, floor coverings, dividing walls and always new facades. The chief characteristic in these works is multifunctionality; the driving force is a strong spirit of curiosity, a quest to discover something new. In 2005, a peak time of productivity, the architect was diagnosed as suffering from an incurable cancer. Yet for this boundless optimist this has been no reason to slow down. Elmar Schossig contin-ues to devote himself to product design and, since 2006, to photography. His first photographic volume “Unterwegs aufgenommen – eine fotografische Novelle” (“Images from the road – a photographic novella”) was published in late 2006. In 2009 the architect participated in his first group exhibition entitled “Raumbilder – Bildräume”(“Images of spaces – Space in images”) in Munich. At times he partici-pates in architectural competitions and involves himself in current debates on architecture by giving lectures.
Elmar Schossig died on december 15th, 2009.
