After the introductory studio project in the first semester, the Typology Studio which is ‘Typologies of Regeneration’ for this term, the following studio projects are offered by the different chairs of the architectural faculty.
These selectable design studios are re-scheduled each semester by the program coordinators and partially coincide with the regular English study program of the other Master’s program in Architecture. Below you’ll find an overview of all design studios offered for the winter term 22/23.
Berlin is a multilayered city, a pluriverse. All kinds of makers, dreamers, seekers, and outsiders have always found a place here, creating together alternative ‘worlds-within-worlds’ in which different hopes, desires, and opportunities can be traced. The Berlin Pluriverse emerges as a network of interconnected distinct communities with queer and hybrid (gender/ sexual/ cultural/ religious/ etc.) identities that operate in off-spaces within the city. What can we learn from them to acknowledge and empower difference? How can we translate queering into design practice? We will explore the spatial performance and material expression of a variety of non-normative urban experiences, in order to develop one-to-one design proposals – from site-specific interventions to body-scale artefacts – that support and celebrate the richly diverse identities that cohabit Berlin today.
Course Information
Design Studio 1/2 + PIV Integrative Seminar
15 ECTS
Contact
Prof. Rainer Hehl
FG HEHL
In response to the increasing impact of the construction industry on CO2 emissions and the disposability of certain buildings, the concept of the Anti-Monument emerges. Unlike traditional monuments, Anti-Monuments seek protection for reasons other than cultural value or beauty.
This course focuses on developing strategies to generate public interest in preserving buildings slated for demolition. Students will be assigned „ugly buildings“ and tasked with creating transformation strategies that are aesthetically pleasing, technically feasible, and financially viable. Through research, analysis, and creative problem-solving, students will explore architectural interventions, adaptive reuse, sustainable materials, and energy-efficient systems.
By showcasing innovative design approaches and sustainability considerations, students will present persuasive proposals that highlight the positive impact of their strategies on cultural, social, and environmental levels. Students get the opportunity to reshape the narrative around building preservation and uncovering the hidden potential of Anti-Monuments.
The course is supervised by Prof. Jacob van Rijs as a „masterclass“. It offers the opportunity for a direct and continuous exchange between professor and student that draws on the great thematic experience of an architect and the unbiased approach of a student.
Course Information
Design Studio 1/2 + PIV Integrative Seminar
15 ECTS
Contact
Prof. Jacob van Rijs
FG Van Rijs
Course Information
Design Studio 1/2 + PIV Integrative Seminar
15 ECTS
Contact
Prof. Claus Steffan
GTE
The transformation of cities towards sustainable and inclusive development is a key objective of global agendas such as the SDGs or the New Urban Agenda. There is substantial potential to improve urban access, air quality, safety and
the quality of life in cities along with reducing greenhouse gas emissions if an integrated policy and planning approach is applied.
This studio supports this process through a perspective on transformative living labs focusing on improving urban mobility solutions, connectivity and fostering local innovation to contribute to sustainable urban development. The design studio will be implemented in collaboration with the Urban Living Lab Center (ULLC), which is a Collaborating Center of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). It is co-hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Technische Universität Berlin, the Wuppertal Institute, and regional partner universities and network partners.
In cooperation with the local municipalities and universities, we adress key urban challenges by embedding new sustainable mobility and energy solutions into urban and rural settings. This work will incorporate local solutions in partner cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The design concepts will draw from learnings of a Living Lab in Kenya and test the replicability in different contexts. This studio will be guided by international partners and linked to study groups of other partner universities in the ULLC context.
The PiV component will concentrate on the development of dedicated project brochures in cooperation with Wuppertal Institute.
Course Information
Design Studio 1/2 + PIV Integrative Seminar
15 ECTS
Contact
Prof. Anke Hagemann, Dr. Oliver Lah, Dr. Jakub Galuszka
Habitat Unit
During this semester you are invited to (re/un)design material urban devices (e.g. apparatus, infrastructure, building ensembles) and their rituals that allow for correspondence between urban bodies of water in Berlin and beyond. These design speculations situated in specific hydro-stories ripple out from watery sites along the Panke, Landwehr and Teltow canals and make fluid connections with riparian correspondents in São Paulo, Brazil.
Urban design has always referred to both the product and creative processes of planning and organising Modern infrastructure of urban spaces: roads, buildings, grids and the like. Here, we suggest that the notion of correspondence invites us to speculate on what Judith Butler calls “radical interdependence” – between watery bodies, both human and nonhuman that flow between and leak across all sorts of boundaries, spaces, and scales.
In contrast to Modern modes of design and planning shaped by rigid binaries and hard borders, with the fluid concept of correspondence you will investigate the possibilities of a relational decentred design approach that celebrates, amongst others, feminist practices of repair, healing, justice, and care-full criticality. To navigate this passage towards a more critical spatial design practice fit for what Dipesh Chakrabarti amongst others refers to as the “planetary”, you will be guided by the question: “What does it do to the possibilities for future urban space to rethink spatial design as a mode of correspondence between urban bodies of water in a planetary age?”
Course Information
Design Studio 1/2 + PIV Integrative Seminar
15 ECTS
Contact
Prof. Jörg Stollmann and Jamie-Scott Baxter
FG Urban Design and Urbanization (CUD)
Across natural and cultivated spaces, but also in inhabited areas, soils form a thin, fragile and dynamic layer at the interface of the geo-, bio- and atmospheres. By infiltrating water, acting as carbon sink, growing food and supporting biodiversity, they provide crucial ecosystem services for global mitigation and local adaptation to climate change. The new Chair of Urban Transitioning Ecosystems is therefore committed to develop design strategies for URBAN SOIL preservation and regeneration through the ecological transition and sustainable requalification of metropolitan areas.
This design studio contributes to a transdisciplinary and research-by-design project supported by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment. An experimental / participative workshop in Lausanne and Zurich will give students the opportunity to interact with stakeholders, research partners and local actors, while a series of design assignments during the semester will help them to gradually engage with the fundamental concepts of urban ecology. By performing cross-scalar mapping and conceiving novel typologies of urban habitats, the objective is to build up various spatial and metabolic scenarios targeting the sequestration of organic carbon in Swiss urban soils.
Course Information
Design Studio 1/2 + PIV Integrative Seminar
15 ECTS
Contact
Prof. Antoine Vialle
Chair of Urban Transitioning Ecosystems