The ‘Urban Housing Lab’ studies answers to the pressing challenges for future urban habitation – shifting demographics, societal segregation, and climate change. It discusses strategies for inclusive, cohesive habitation and relational coexistence and caters to the proliferating tendencies towards civic engagement, participation and sharing. With its roots in practice the lab pursues a design-led approach on deeply intertwined tracks – design research, publication and curation, and education.
Anticipating multi-faceted uncertainties, the lab is deeply interested in investigating hybrid typologies open to responsive programming beyond housing and new agencies of decision-making. Seeing architecture as open-ended process, the lab aims for spatial and operational forms that are responsive to far-reaching demographic, technological, and societal transformations. Respective concepts for an exemplary ‘Future Hybrid High-Rise Commune’ will be shown at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021‘How will we live together’, as part of the Singapore Pavilion ‘to gather: The Architecture of Relationships’.
Drawing connections between social and environmental sustainability, the lab also investigates means to de-carbonize both construction and operation of buildings – with concepts for climate-responsive layouts, hybrid materiality, flexibility and circularity. Engaging with forward looking design thinking and decision-making processes the lab pursues the potentials afforded by computational tools – to simulate climatic comfort, to conduct life-cycle-analysis and to measure the resilience of designs to respond to changing requirements and urges for participation.
Conducting integrative typological research for seminal publications such as the ‘Floor Plan Manual Housing’ the ‘Urban Housing Lab’ analyses innovative design solutions and contextualizes them in a holistic narrative on the essential historic, technological, and societal shifts in urban habitation.
The ‘Urban Housing Lab’ seeks interdisciplinary cooperation to investigate integrative answers beyond thematic and institutional silos and collaborates with expertise in engineering, computation, and social design fields. Curating events like the ‘Future Urban Habitation Symposium’ in Singapore and editing respective scholarly publications for Wiley the lab pushes for cross-disciplinary debates on the transformative agendas it works on – ‘Inclusive Urbanism’, ‘Typology for Building Communities’, ‘Adaptive & Responsive Habitation’, and ‘New Tools, new Approaches’.
PROJECTS, selection
1995-2001
Public Housing in Berlin-Weissensee (Design)
18 Public Housing buildings (100 flats) in Berlin Treptow (Design, Realization)
Housing- and Office building in Berlin-Wilmersdorf (Design, Realization)
all at Autzen Reimers Architects BDA, Berlin
Architecture Designer
……………………………………………….
Urban Planning Competition Landsberger Allee, Berlin
Heide Von Beckerath Architects, Berlin, Germany
Architecture Designer
……………………………………………….
Town Hall and Cultural Centre Ijsselstein, Netherlands, (Design, Realization)
Religious Centre in Troina, Sicilia (Design)
Corporate identity Facade for Randstad Uitzendbureau, NL (Design)
all at Van Berkel en Bos/UN Studio, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Architecture Designer
……………………………………………….
Revitalisation Railway Station Frankfurt/Oder (Design, Realization)
Revitalisation Railway Station Berlin-Ostbahnhof (Design, Realization)
Expo Hall 8/9, Expo 2000 Hannover (Design Competition)
all at Becker Gewers Kühn Kühn Architects BDA, Berlin, Germany
Architecture Designer
……………………………………………….
Since 2001, selection
HAHOH Architects, Co-founder, Director Architecture Design
Design Competition
Art Museum Bozen, Italy, with Christian Stiller
Design Competition
Revitalization London-Southwark, Europan „In-Between Cities“
Awarded design competition / Design Study
Fremtidens Foreningshus – Design Study for a standardized Community Center
For: Danish Foundation F. Culture & Sport Facilities
Design, Feasibility study
Granary Bremen-Harbour, Bremen, Germany – Adaptive reuse
For: Senate of Economy & Harbours,Freie Hansestadt Bremen
With: ASP Stadt-& Landschaftsplaner, Degraeuwe Consulting, G&D Eventcomm
Awarded design competition / Design Study
Camp Reinsehlen, Conversion of former British Army Tank Training Camp
Masterplan & conversion concept
For: Camp-Reinsehlen-Gbr
With: ASP Stadt-& Landschaftsplaner
Urban Planning Competition
Parkquartier Hamburg – Friedrichsberg, Hamburg, Germany
with/for: Fink Jocher Architekten
Urban Planning Competition
Unipark Nonntal Salzburg
With: b+m+s landscape architects
Design / Realization
Berlin North – Art Exhibition Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
Collaborative exhibition design with artists
for: Sparwasser Hq, Berlin
Awarded Design Competition
Chicago Prize 2005 ‘Chicago Watertank’, Chicago, USA
with: Mike Null & Hoon Cho
Honorable Mention
Project Development & Participatory Design
Pappelallee 25, Berlin, Cooperative Housing project
Clients: Private housing cooperative
Project Development & Participatory Design
Schliemannstr. 24, Berlin, Cooperative Housing project,
Clients: Private housing cooperative
Design, Realization
Multifamily-House in Zell a.H. – Low-Energy-Standard
Client: Private
Design
Kopenhagener Str.77, Berlin, Conversion
Client: Private
Design
Haus Ahornzweig, Essen, Conversion
Client: Private
Design Competition
Kindergarten Stadtpark Wien, Vienna
Design Competition
City Museum Kassel, Kassel
Design
Conversion Viereckweg 20 & 22, Berlin-Buch
Client: Private
Design Study
Single-family House Hager, Affordable housing in timber
Client: Private
Design, Realization
Multifamily-House with commercial units, Berlin-Treptow
Client: Private
Design, Realization
Conversion Multifamily-House, Berlin-Neukoelln
(Multi-generation living)
Client: Private