The Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Sciences mourns the loss of Prof. Oliver Thill, professor in the Department of Architecture at our faculty. With him, we have lost a dedicated university lecturer and valued colleague.
Together with Prof. André Kempe, he headed the "Design and Resources" department at the Institute of Building Studies.
This autumn, a symposium will be held in Hanover to commemorate his work at the Faculty of Architecture and Atelier Kempe Thill.
Our sincere condolences go out to his family, friends, colleagues and all those who knew him. We will honour the memory of Prof. Oliver Thill.
Obituary by André Kempe
On March 2, Oliver Thill, my old college friend, colleague, office partner, and co-professor at the Faculty of Architecture at Leibniz University, succumbed to cancer. Oliver was 55 years old. His death leaves a huge hole in the life of our office, our team at the university, and in my own life. His loss means not only the loss of an office partner, but also the loss of a great architect of European stature, a complex thinker, a keen observer, an inspired and humorous conversationalist, an eloquent university teacher, and a speaker.
Like me, Oliver Thill was a child of East Germany. He grew up in the confines of the GDR, spending his youth in the late 1980s, when signs of disintegration were becoming increasingly apparent and subculture was flourishing. Our studies began in Dresden immediately after reunification in the fall of 1990, and we were able to discover and conquer the world with this huge opportunity for a completely new start.
I met Oliver on the very first day. Together with a few other fellow students, we formed a close-knit group right from the start. From day one, we worked on almost all university projects together in an almost symbiotic, complementary, and mutually reinforcing exchange. This way of working, in which everything was questioned in seemingly endless debates in my attic apartment and later in the university's workrooms, formed the basis for our joint work for 36 years, right up to the present day.
The fall of the Berlin Wall was a great opportunity for Oliver and me. But, as for everyone who grew up in the East, it was also a drastic change. Mentally, we had to adjust to a completely different social system. Like many of us, Oliver was possessed by an insatiable curiosity and thirst for adventure. This led us to organize our own stays abroad in Paris and Tokyo. After graduation, neither he nor I wanted to stay in Germany. Everything seemed provincial. We decided to move to the cosmopolitan Netherlands. After working for other firms for a short time, we decided to put a lot of energy into setting up our own architecture firm, Atelier Kempe Thill.
Just like me, Oliver was not simply interested in contemporary architecture and modernism, but rather in the entire architectural history of human civilization, in order to develop a deep understanding that goes far beyond everyday experience. With this in mind, he wanted to position himself and us in today's world of major neoliberal upheavals. He did not want to design isolated, object-like buildings, but rather spaces, the in-between. He was not pragmatically concerned with the sheer production of buildings or a mere service. He was always concerned with architecture as something spiritual, something animated. Architecture as a container, spaces with a center that invite concentration in a world of distraction. It was always about giving meaning, creating living spaces, illustrated with many sketches containing humorous little allusions.
Oliver designed rational architecture in the best and most comprehensive sense of the word. However, he was a very emotional person with a unique and provocative sense of humor, a fact that surprised many people who only knew our projects. His idealistic soul revealed itself in sharp sarcasm about the state of architecture and the world. As a tireless architecture enthusiast, he fought hard for each of our projects and every detail. His creative spirit and mental agility repeatedly brought our projects and our discourse to life. His field of work was never a secluded ivory tower, but always the harsh reality of our society.
In addition to our adventures in the real world of construction, Oliver Thill and I were always enthusiastically involved in teaching at universities and later in research. Our joint professorship at Leibniz University Hannover was the logical next step after various visiting professorships. Here, too, the focus was and is on connecting young students with the real world.
How can one still achieve something magical in the life and work of an architect in a world full of obstacles? Oliver Thill always strived for this and was usually able to achieve it. He leaves behind a great legacy.
André Kempe
