In 1969 the architect Walter Schrempf together with artist Otto Herbert Hajek won the BDA prize of the Association of German Architects for the so-called 'Student House' or Mensa. The 60 by 60 meter cube is a multifunctional building made of reinforced concrete. Discover the heart of this fascinating architectural art by navigating through the virtual 3-D model of the central dining hall.
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The Mensa WebApp is a virtual web application of the student canteen 'Mensa' and is the core of the multimedia exhibition project '50 Years of Architectural Art' or 'Denk_mal anders | 50 Jahre BauKunst Mensa' supported by the University of Saarland. It is a multilayered information system and enables new interactive ways for exploring and experiencing the architecture and art of the student canteen Mensa - built between 1965 and 1970 - from previously unseen perspectives. The web app is being continuously developed. This is a good starting point from which you can explore more details of the web app content.
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After studying architecture in Stuttgart, Walter Schrempf (1921-1998) was attracted by several international competitions to Saarland, where he started at the university campus as a site manager in 1952 and designed several university buildings after 1957, among them the Institutes for Natural Sciences and the building of the Anatomy in Homburg. The Mensa was his most important building - it is an award-winning, "architectural highlight of transregional significance" and is listed as an exceptional synthesis of architecture and art.
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Otto Herbert Hajek (1927-2005), a Bohemian sculptor, printmaker and painter from Stuttgart, had already attracted international attention in the 1950s and 1960s with his urban plaza designs made of concrete and paint. His artistic design of the Mensa brought him the breakthrough for his architecture-related art, which received worldwide attention.
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In 1963 architect Walter Schrempf won the competition for a multifunctional 'student house' with a dining hall for 6000 daily meals. His design was a strict, cubic skeleton building made of reinforced concrete in a 'brutalist' style. The excavation began in 1965. In 1966, the artist O.H. Hajek was hired to design the interior of the dining hall, the facade and the forecourt of the Mensa.
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The 1950s and 1960s were a real heyday for modern architecture and architectural art in the Saarland. This is particularly true of the new buildings on the campus of the still young but rapidly growing Saarland University. The Mensa, too, emerged from this democratic spirit in the dawn of Europe. Many of these special individual buildings, like the refectory, are listed as historic monuments.
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For more than 50 years, the Mensa has been the central meeting and supply point for the campus population and the administrative headquarters of the Studierendenwerk; it has left a lasting sensory and aesthetic mark on the everyday lives of generations of students.
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The aim of the cultural program of 'Denk_mal anders - 50 Jahre BauKunst Mensa' is to make the Mensa a performance space that can be perceived and experienced in a new way outside the campus. Experience the two Mensa Beats concerts 'Raumantworten' (film recording from June 30, 2022) and 'Moderne Klassik' live at the opening of the permanent exhibition in January 2023 as well as the site-specific performance piece 'farb/be/wegung' planned as a flash mob in the dining hall (January 2023).
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Contact us and let us know how you would like to contribute to this project. We look forward to hearing from you!