The exhibition occupies three floors of the Blumenstraße high-rise bunker, a structure originally built in 1941 that has been the home of Architekturgalerie München since 2021. Each floor presents a different perspective on MVRDV’s efforts to advance the construction revolution. The middle floor, where the bunker’s main entrance is located, forms the core of the exhibition. On the walls is a 22-chapter storyline of MVRDV’s journey in sustainability, including the office’s early evangelism for density and mobility, its efforts to implement sustainability in its own operations with vegetarian lunches and the creation of The Green Dream Foundation to offset its travel emissions, its missteps in relying too heavily on sustainability consultants, and the foundation of MVRDV NEXT, a combined climate and technology unit within the office that helps to drive the firm’s current focus on carbon.

“If you think architects create buildings of concrete, wood, steel, and glass, it’s time to think again”, says MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs. “Carbon is the raw material that underpins them all. With this exhibition we hope to convince people of that fundamental reality, while also being honest that it can take some time to fully understand all the implications of this paradigm shift. The sooner the construction industry starts thinking in this way, the sooner we will reach an optimistic, sustainable future.”