The collector is the true resident of the interior. The collector dreams his way not only into a distant or bygone world but also into a better one.
- Walter Benjamin
The Pressa Exhibition, known as the Internationale Presse-Ausstellung (International Press Exhibition) or Pressa for short, was an exhibition held in 1928 in German city of Cologne. The exhibition was intended to showcase the latest in the news media and printing, but as you can see from the above photos, the architecture of the pavilions and their photography stole the show in some ways. By far the most revolutionary was the Soviet Union's pavilion designed by El Lissitzky with its avant garde design of extreme angles and constructivist ornamentation covering nearly all surfaces. However, other designs also drew attention, including those of the Haus der Arbeiterpresse der Allgemeine deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund or ADGB (House of the Workers' Press of the Confederation of German Trade Unions) and the Kölnische Zeitung (Cologne Newspaper), which were beautifully captured by now famous architectural photographers, including Werner Mantz and Hugo Schmölz, some of which you can see above.
The Fostinum