ul class="overview_list " id="projectList">

  • The Rubber House, Almere

    The Rubber House as a price winning project in the Eenvoud/ Simplicity competition was selected to be built in Almere, Netherlands, as one of 12 experimental housing projects. In volume and style inspired by the simple and archetypal Dutch barn architecture the Rubberhouse forms a simple asymmetric double pitched roof inhabiting 2 storeys, in combination with a single pitch roof with one storey. The resource saving construction consists of massive wood panels from cross-laminated timber. The outer walls and the roof surface are clad with black EPDM foil. In contrast to that the atmosphere of the inside is characterized by the natural warm surface of the massive wooden walls. The utilization concept proposes small private rooms in favour of a generous open plan living area. Clear lines of sight through the entire building support the robust, open space sequence and allow visual connections into the adjacent forest. The living room can be expanded via the large sliding glass doors onto the terrace. The high degree of prefabrication allowed for a building period of only three months.

    completed
    2011

  • Max and Moritz, Erfurt

    The primary focus of our project entails the resilient and environmentally conscious transformation of two Plattenbau buildings situated on the outskirts of Erfurt, with the objective of establishing a model that can be universally applied throughout the entire neighborhood. The volumes of the two buildings are enveloped by a prefabricated modular grid system, thereby creating an aesthetically refined and low-maintenance design. This approach facilitates not only the seamless integration of novel features, such as entrances on the north side and more expansive balconies on the south side, but also fosters the customization of living spaces and engenders a vibrant sense of community. Additionally, a continuous base serves to integrate the building into the surrounding street context, thereby reinstating a harmonious relationship with the adjacent neighborhood.

    Our material choices prioritize economic and sustainable utilization. Easily replaceable wood is employed for planter cladding and facade, complemented by natural fiber insulation and plant charcoal to offset the CO2 emissions associated with the concrete structure. Concurrently, the primary load-bearing structure is composed of concrete, ensuring both fire safety and minimal maintenance costs. A pivotal aspect of our climate-resilient transformation involves the incorporation of greenery on the facades to positively influence the microclimate in the vicinity of the building. This is coupled with a comprehensive rainwater management system, incorporating storage for utilization and retention during intense rainfall events. As a contribution to biodiversity, an assortment of plant species is judiciously combined to provide a year-round supply of flowers and sustenance for insects and birds.

    Idea
    2023

  • Rinia Complex, Fier

    The Rinia Complex is located in a former youth park in the center of Fier, on a plot that is open to 3 sides, facing different contexts. Our design for the mixed-use complex addresses these contexts, which represent the different and differing needs of the area. The building seeks to express the ambitions of the City of Fier, that is: to create a new image, one that is fitting for a city that is dynamic and continually growing, and to add important functions to the city like a public 25m pool and a cinema.

    Rinia Complex is a truly multifunctional building, with a program that also includes a 5-star hotel, 2 floors of parking space, residential units, a bank, a shopping center, a restaurant, and a casino. All public functions of the complex are accessible directly from the street via external staircases and are embedded into their urban surroundings. The building has been designed to be used in different ways at different moments throughout the day, offering both public/open access and private/restricted access areas. The intricate program has been fitted into a single volume, a uniquely shaped building that is internally 'fragmented' in order to give an answer to the different needs and the diversity of the context, but which also retains its flexibility as an urban 'shelf' that can take on a variety of functions.

    under construction
    2018

  • circUlar Hall - Green Ring, Mannheim

    The existing U-Hall is the heart of the BUGA. A green ring floats above it as a landmark visible from afar.
    It is a living sculpture that stands for sustainable recycling management, the willingness to experiment and a spirit of optimism.

    This circularly conceived tree hall, brought into the vertical, is not only part of the exhibition, but also a break in the tour and a place for the best views over the entire site. The tree house, built from recycled building materials, provides a habitat for flora and fauna, exhibition opportunities for field research and allows views of the solar power plant on the U-hall. Thus the ring is the central location of the U-Hall. This is where the tours and guided tours start, where people meet and where smaller and larger events take place.

    Idea
    2020

  • Kieler Knick, Kiel

    striking gate + green neighbourhood

    The area at the Waldwiesenkreisel forms an important, previously misused entrance to Kiel city centre. With the development of the property, there is now a great opportunity to formulate a distinctive entrance to the city and to create urgently needed, high-quality living and working space.

    By shielding the street noise, a quiet, green residential area is created inside the building complex, which brings the lush, northern open space into the quarter through its open design. This creates a green gem with its own identity in a heterogeneous urban environment.

    The structural composition and the landscape-architectural interventions of the mixed-used "Kieler Knick" create a concise design language. The courtyard and the roof terraces are open-space extensions of the building and form an urban meeting point for workers, residents and visitors. Based on the diverse spatial program, places of encounter and exchange are created, as well as space for retreat and peace. The interplay of the dense trees and green roofs creates a particularly pleasant climatic situation in the quarter. In dialogue with the different types of living, a wide range of open spaces is created for shared and private use.

    Additionally, Mobility is entirely geared towards the environmental network. Pedestrian and bicycle traffic are prioritized with different concepts. All necessary parking spaces for the MIT (tenants and visitors) are organized in the two separate underground garages. There are charging stations for e-vehicles as well as possible car-sharing offers in the direct vicinity of the development cores.

    completed
    2021

  • Integrated Comprehensive School Langenhagen, Langenhagen

    With the new building respectively renovation, IGS (Integrated Comprehensive School) Langenhagen is changing from a school location with many buildings and addresses, separate uses and not barrier-free routes to an inclusive landscape of shared learning in close contact with the city and nature. Learning clusters with classrooms, differentiation areas and mixed-use recreation areas are organized around a central common centre and thus offer a variety of places to learn, linger, communicate and relax.

    The new school building is located at an urban node. While the south is characterized by loose and urban development and large-scale centre functions, the north is a green recreational area with old trees, green meadows and biotopes close to the water. The new structure mediates between these two worlds and creates a clear, urban address in the south as well as a central schoolyard in the north, which turns into a landscape park.

    Together with the existing cafeteria, the school building takes up a clear and public space. This is the place to arrive and linger for students, teachers and visitors. Supported by the large terrace of the cafeteria, this creates a lively space. The square is in close spatial connection with the newly designed bus stop, the bicycle parking spaces and the town hall square on the opposite side of the street. In the north, the structure interlocks carefully with the school park. Between the new building and the refurbished creative pavilion, there is a lively, enclosed, green break room, which connects the existing buildings (sports halls and creative pavilion) in an east-west direction. The compact building cubature maximizes the preservation of the existing trees and minimizes surface sealing.

    The building is designed as a wood-concrete hybrid construction. Optimal sun and glare protection while maximizing the use of daylight is guaranteed by blinds that align automatically depending on the amount of sunlight.

    completed
    2021

  • ANA Residences, Tirana

    The residential complex AnA is situated close to the Student Village of Tirana University on a magnificent hillside. The oddly-shaped site starts with a narrow edge along the street and widens sloping down 15 meters of level difference. The building folds as a continuous figure, respecting all the necessary distances to the property line and on itself. This stepped form creates a local landmark with an identifiable skyline in a very heterogeneous context.

    The site opens itself to allow a pedestrian connection between the student village and the northern areas. This passage enlivens the commercial ground floor and the compound piazettas. The cuts in building volume are a response to the urban regulations and a way to break down the overall massing into pieces more related to the human scale. The same 'cut' approach is used in order to provide light and natural ventilation for circulation spaces. The attic floor has setbacks in strategic locations of the building for best views from the terraces for the exquisite apartments. The materialization aims for an elegant appearance with differentiated materials and patterns but an overall clean white look: the plinth is of fair-faced concrete with a diamond-shaped relief, the body from white plaster, crowned by an attic floor clad in beveled tiles for a shimmering reflection of the strong Albanian sun.

    completed
    2013

  • Student City 2, Tirana

    Our reconstruction concept of Tirana's "Student City 2" aims to show the great potential for particularly thermal energy savings in construction, modern student housing and is showcasing a well performing example how public and private sector can interact. As the buildings suffers from massive deterioration on the inside, main focus of the energy concept lays on a replacement of all basic infrastructure, including a adequate ventilation and heating systems as well as new windows as its centrepiece to remedy humidity. Different subdivisions of student rooms with joined shared bathrooms and modifications in use of common rooms allows spacious privacy and reacts on students needs. Applying a complementary colored orientation and material system for each dormitory allows visual indication of buildings, floors and rooms and provides "Student City 2" with a unique identity. As the roofs of the buildings offer common space, they can be used according to public or economic visions of its users and leverage "Student City 2" to be Albania's pilot energy efficiency project.

    under construction

  • Aquarium Bay Hotel, Himarë

    Grounded on rich Albanian heritage.

    Aquarium Bay Hotel is designed based on the concept of sustainable tourism. The hotel comprises four separate pavilions, offering different experiences to their guests. Each pavilion has a distinct architectural language and shelters an inner courtyard with a specific and unique character. The four buildings contrast with their surroundings, as a way to accentuate and respect the outstanding local landscape. This landscape of rolling seaside hilltops covered in Mediterranean scrub, as well as the remote location, are considered two of the strongest, unique ‚assets' of the hotel.

    The approach to the hotel - by car, boat and helicopter but also by foot and bicycle – is carefully orchestrated, as it forms the start of the customers' journey. Internal circulation is organized by a series of footpaths, - a seaside path, a forest path and a main ‚barefoot' path - making for a sensory experience. The central lobby pavilion provides direct access to the spa, restaurants, conference rooms and casino. Additionally, atmospheric facilities like the plunge pool, the bonfire area, the botanical garden and the rock pool add to the guest experience. The most remote volume houses a small restaurant and bar that allows this building to be operated independent from the others, thus maximizing the privacy of its guests.

     

    Idea
    2019

  • CLG Training Institute, Chalimbana

    A very special project in our portfolio is the Chalimbana Local Government (CLG) Training Institute in Chalimbana, Zambia as it can be seen as a good example of a passive and self-sufficient city. The aim of the masterplan was to increase the quality of life of both students and academic staff of the Institute, to structure the campus for the long term, and to provide the grounds with a clear, recognizable identity.

Low-tech in construction but high-tech in designing, we created a plan that included everything needed for an autarchic project. In a very sustainable manner, we used the excavated soil to press it into bricks contributing to the buildings being passively cooled and heated. To achieve that we mainly used the sun energy. From a special angle and material of the roofs to the orientation of all buildings to strictly East-West, with the main facades (North & South) avoiding the low angles of the sun, CLG Training Institute became an eco-friendly vision made into reality. Also, we made sure that the rainwater and the cleaned sewage can drain into the groundwater locally, granting a precise water cycle.

    The existing road provides access to the campus by car. Simultaneously, a new main route for pedestrian connections is established as the new 'heart' of the campus. It runs between the mostly residential area on the North and the educational program on the South side of the grounds. These two clusters - housing and education - at the two opposite ends of the campus are surrounded by the lecturers' houses, and by leisure activities. By closing off some of the student housing blocks, small neighbourhoods are created, with inner gardens and courtyards providing atmospheric living quarters.

    completed
    2021

  • Urban Living. Vacant sites over the rooftops of the city, Berlin

    In accordance with building regulations, one could build at least three more full floors on top of the existing multi-storey car park Briesestraße: There is a vacant lot on top of the car park. In static terms one or two additional stories are feasible. By converting the existing floors and adding floors on top a unique building is created with a special atmosphere and spatial quality for different user groups (live and work).

    The concrete areas between the ramps are removed, which allows daylight to reach below street level. The additional units of the 2 ½ storeys are built as a light wooden panel construction. The visibility of the past leads to special appreciation. Thus, the acceptance for a good remix in the neighbourhood is far higher than for demolition and a new beginning.

    Idea
    2013-2014

  • SAVI Guggenheim Helsinki, Helsinki

    The Guggenheim will access the richness of Nordic culture and open a door towards the East of Europe. Helsinki gets the opportunity to integrate a site with landmark potentials into the heart of the City: Reachable for pedestrians from Eteläesplanadi, adjacent to Tahititornin Vuori Park, and neighbouring Olympia Terminal, the site will be a new Connecter within the city.

    The urban design introduces a plinth to meet the challenges and foster the potentials of the site: It connects the park with the waterfront via a pedestrian bridge crossing Laivasillankatu. Pedestrians from Eteläesplanadi are directed towards the site via a stage and a grand ramp with seating – here the exhibition begins! A civic space of great quality for tourists and residents to gather and socialize. At the same time, the plinth covers the port vehicles access, ensuring undisturbed port operations. Above the Plinth and the Forum "flys" a wooden box. Its height fits into the surroundings and allows great views. The slim shape and horizontal gesture enhance the character of the site at the waterfront: a subtle yet genuine new element of Helsinki's cityscape.

    Idea

  • Martin-Luther-Schule, Rimbach im Odenwald

    The Martin Luther School is an upper secondary school with a special focus on musical education. It houses about 1600 pupils. The extension of the existing building became necessary to adapt to contemporary didactic concepts and to allow for all-day care. It contains classrooms, a natural science block, music rooms, a canteen and a gymnasium.

    The design translates the demands concerning resource efficiency and preservation in a sensual and sensible manner. The main climatic feature of the building is the shape of the building itself: So-called solar chimneys foster natural ventilation by stack effect and become a significant formal element. The expressive roofscape also em­phasizes places inside the building – large roof lights extend the space upwards and provide particular light. During school hours these areas are open spaces to be appropriated by different age groups for independent learning. The building is conceived as a timber frame structure with a larch-wood cladding.

    Idea
    2009

  • Drymades Village, Drymades

    Located in Drymades beach, the holiday resort Drymades Village is composed of a series of stepped courtyards framed by architecture blending the project into a cohesive village feeling. Following the topography with a 15-meter height difference, the architecture articulates the ground levels to the stepped courtyards bringing an introverted feeling, while on the three upper floors, the units incorporate extended terraces and balconies, expanding the public life to all the levels.

    Typologically the villas are approached by the study of the predominant architecture of the location and the aim to find a different output to a resort project where individualization breaks a monotonous design. The iconic image of the Mediterranean villages will be communicated in the architecture with pre-determined elements, such as roofs and facades that compose a catalogue to personalize the villas. Mainly three differently sized units form the masterplan varying from studio units to large family units. They can also be joined horizontally and vertically, widening the possibilities for future owners.

    In total, six plazas are interlaced to each other, forming a large interior courtyard that articulates the private with the public space through openings in the architecture. Located at different heights and alternating one to the other, they open up the views of the seafront and offer a range of activities to the visitors. The main approach for the landscape is to keep as much as possible existing vegetation. The landscape changes its composition from a dense forest in the lowest part of the plot to an urban plaza in the highest part. Native species (cypress and olive trees), and plants with low maintenance (Bougainvillea, Cacti), constitute the selected vegetation.

    in progress

  • West African Science Center - WASCAL, Ouagadougou

    The guiding principles in the design for the landmark building accommodating the West African Science Center, are developed from the site and its conditions as well as from vernacular forms of spatial organization and construction of Burkina Faso. The building itself is reflecting the idea of scientific research as it serves as a hub, connecting the centre and its partners with each other, with visitors as well as with the city of Ouaga¬dougu.

    The heart of the building is the three-storey science area, containing all offices and their serving spaces. The ground floor connects all functions both spatially as well as programmatically through long visual axes. Inspired by traditional houses and settlements, the round shape of the building is effectively avoiding the low-standing sun as it slowly travels around the building. The climate concept focuses on natural ventilation in combination with night cooling and air movement by ceiling fans and solar chimneys and is in this way a best practice example for climate-adapted construction and sustainability.

    Idea
    2014