How to Share Architectural Knowledge
“Every SEO manager would cry on our website,” Katharina Benjamin said of Kontextur, the architecture platform based in Leipzig and Berlin that she co-founded in 2017. She joined Jeff Kaplon, operator of Subtilitas on Tumblr and Instagram and partner of the architecture firm Part Office text: Part Office), in conversation with Chris Morgan, of the architectural project management software start-up Monograph, for a weekly guest Zoom about office operations hosted by the former outfit.
The tears would flow because the website of Kontextur, designed for immersion, is incredibly slow, featuring only interviews, mostly with young European practices. (Their website contrasts with their original Instagram Profile, which is responsive and interactive. Today they have 77.8k followers.) The two guests shared their initial intentions and how their platforms and audiences evolved. Benjamin started Kontextur with a friend when they were unsatisfied with the architecture scene in Germany, where it seemed the big 3-letter offices were building everything. The website format offers a way for practices to develop their stances, rather than hosting “PR people who have everything copy-and-pasteable.” Kaplon started Subtilitas on Tumblr almost twelve years ago as a response to an oversaturated architecture media landscape in which he was “struggling to find any coherent throughline.” He focuses on a lineage of work that he’s interested in and resurfacing older, different projects. (It remains a personal favorite from the golden era of Tumblr architecture blogs like Archive of Affinities or Beton Babe ) Order matters: there’s an “intention around the adjacency of the posts,” Kaplon said. He later began posting on Instagram, where today he has 59.7k followers. Kaplon is okay with staying more anonymous, and the Tumblr remains visually similar to when it started.
Both content creators noted that much of the value of their efforts is not visible to followers; it arrives in direct exchanges, the network of contributors, and the personal discovery of new practices and methodologies. Both are interested in books: Kaplon features them in a “daily read” feature on Instagram Stories and, increasingly, the Instagram feed of Kontextur includes images of print publications, new and old. Kaplon will continue posting at his own pace; lately his time goes into Part Office. Benjamin, who teaches, has plans to grow Kontextur journalistically, perhaps with maps and opinion pieces—they’re more actively looking to feature women and are interested in starting a column about architecture and money. The hour-long conversation showcased how sharing architecture can create community and sharpen our collective attention, even when it’s hosted on platforms that are doing their best to steal it away.