The saai | Archive for Architecture and Civil Engineering invites to a public workshop featuring the first cohort’s four current fellows of the saai | iaas Residencies, a cooperation with the Wüstenrot Stiftung. The event offers insights into the fellows’ ongoing research, questions, and methodologies developed during their time working on site in and with the archive. This year’s residency revolves around the theme Robust Fragilities? Systems of Knowledge in the Archive, exploring how architectural archives act as both repositories and producers of knowledge. From the accumulation and erosion of materials to the interplay between analog and digital processes, the fellows were invited to investigate how archives structure, support, or resist systems of thought in architecture and related disciplines. Their projects highlight case studies and theoretical approaches that address archival gaps, unexpected connections, and the tensions between preservation and innovation.

As part of the newly launched iaas | Center for International Architectural Archival Studies, the residency draws on the unique setting of the saai at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). With its extensive collections the saai offers not just a place of storage, but a dynamic field of research and experimentation. The iaas enhances this potential by fostering interdisciplinary exchange across architecture, the philosophy of science, engineering, and media studies.

The public workshop invites students, researchers, and anyone interested in architecture, archives, and knowledge systems to engage in an open dialogue with the residents. The event is part of the residency program that also includes an episode of the saai podcast Archive Gossip, as well as visual and written documentation of the fellows' work.