Lagodekhi Protected Areas (LPA) in the extreme north-eastern part of Georgia at the southern slopes of the Caucasus and with altitudes from 590 to 3500 m, is one of the world's best-preserved areas with diversity of natural landscapes. The project of developing a TreeTop Trail as a new touristic product is to attract more visitors and, considering the transboundary potential of the LPA, make it one of the most attractive destinations, to be included in future transboundary ecotourism products.

The concept emphasizes the forest as the protagonist and proposes a minimalistic design, a circular shaped trail that gradually ascends towads the tree canopies. Additional program is added in order to enhance the experience of forest. This includes a watch tower, a dome, a large net, a cave, and multiple platforms.

The development vision transforms the former industrial site into an urban, mixed-use neighborhood. The proposal relies on clear spatial edges, strong address formation, and a carefully calibrated relationship between living, working, and public space. Distinctive building corners, a finely tuned grain, and a differentiated height profile create orientation and identity.

At its center lies a generous public playground that acts as the heart of the neighborhood, framed by active ground-floor uses. A continuous east–west connection strengthens links to the surrounding green corridors and introduces new addresses within the quarter. The courtyard structures draw inspiration from the characteristic Listhöfe, creating protected outdoor spaces for housing, childcare, and community uses.

The open space concept focuses on climate resilience, diverse planting, clear places to stay, and the option of a sponge-city approach. Flowering meadows, retention areas, and green facades support biodiversity and a pleasant microclimate.

The buildings draw on local typologies: office and commercial blocks with distinctive plinth zones, and residential buildings with colour-differentiated façades, dormers, loggias, and mansard roofs. Flexible floor plans allow long-term adaptability. An underground car park, bicycle hubs, and short distances support a car-free lifestyle. The result is a vibrant urban building block that brings together openness, diversity, and high-quality open spaces to form a clear and robust neighborhood.

Together with BOOM Landscape and in close collaboration with the Municipality of Prishtina, we're using Nature-Based Solutions to tackle urban flooding in Kosovo's capital. The project focuses on an 11-hectare vacant site on Prishtina's
northern edge. Here flows the Prishtina River, the only visible stretch within the city before it disappears underground. Until the late 1940s, Prishtina sat between two rivers: the Vellusha and the Prishtina. In the 1950s–70s, these rivers
were buried, and by the 1980s, Prishtina had no visible rivers. This site is the last open stretch—a rare glimpse of the city's natural heritage.

Today, the area faces challenges: illegal dumping, flooding, and a lack of public spaces and infrastructure. Our role has been to support the municipality in defining the project scope, designing a concept masterplan, and assessing
feasibility.

Our vision? To transform this neglected land into the Wild Botanical River Park—a resilient, multifunctional landscape that restores natural water flows, reduces flood risks, and revitalizes biodiversity. A new bypass channel will guide clean
water through the park, supported by wetlands and native plants that filter runoff and improve water quality. More than flood control, this project reconnects Prishtina to nature. It creates a green-blue corridor linking neighborhoods, offering
space to relax and explore.

The park is a living laboratory, using native plants to clean air, water, and soil while supporting research and education. The Wild River Park creates a vibrant ecological gateway—a bold step toward a greener, healthier, and more resilient
Prishtina.

Under the title 'Blankenburg Quartet', a new urban quarter is being created with four independent neighbourhoods that combine to form a diverse, communal and sustainable whole. The design further develops the plans for the circular city in the south of Blankenburg. Water cycles, biodiversity, microclimate, active mobility and diverse uses of open space form the basis of a resilient neighbourhood structure that gives equal consideration to social, ecological and economic aspects.

The neighbourhoods have different focuses in terms of landscape, mix of uses, public space and community infrastructure:

AuenKiez: Landscape-oriented residential quarter along the tram line, characterised by the Schmöckpfuhlgraben with retention areas and wetlands – a climate-adapted living environment.

WaldAllmende: Island neighbourhood with a school, sports hall, daycare centre, playgrounds and open spaces for residents, clubs and educational institutions. The adjacent forest remains a natural and recreational area.

ZenKiez: A combination of residential areas in the east and commercial courtyards in the west, combining work, everyday life and retreat, and integrating existing spiritual use.

Production triangle: Urban commerce with a circular hub at the heart of a resource-saving circular economy.

All neighbourhoods are connected via a common centre that serves as a social, cultural and functional meeting place. Existing paths and green corridors are continued, landscape structures are integrated and small-scale developments and green transition zones are used to mediate between them at the edges.

Sustainable and Community-Oriented Neighbourhood
The project is developing a sustainable, community-oriented and ecologically responsible residential neighbourhood. A central neighbourhood axis connects the neighbourhoods, provides recreational and play areas, and integrates climate-friendly elements such as trees, unsealed surfaces and rainwater management. Green courtyards structure the neighbourhood, promote biodiversity and create lively places for interaction.

Active Ground Floors and Building Types
The ground floors activate neighbourhood life with co-working spaces, workshops, guest apartments, a daycare centre, mobility services and small-scale commercial enterprises. Three building types – polygon, point and bar – enable diverse forms of living, clear orientation and serial, economical implementation. The project will be realised in four construction phases, integrating existing buildings.

Pilot Project for Circular Construction
The polygonal structure serves as a pilot project for circular construction. It is characterised by simple cubature, timber construction, biogenic insulation materials, low-tech building services, reduced spans and uniform grids. These principles ensure dismantlability, material efficiency, short construction times and cost advantages. The experience gained will form the basis for all subsequent construction phases.

Open Spaces and Climate Resilience
The open spaces are clearly structured and interconnected. Open courtyards, small neighbourhood squares and a car-free axis with play, sports and recreation areas ensure orientation, interaction and a high quality of life. Unsealed surfaces, climate-resilient vegetation, meadows and decentralised rainwater management create 'cool islands' and increase the climate resilience of the neighbourhood.

Diverse Housing Supply and New Identity
A total of around 440 residential units of various sizes and types are being built – from small flats to cluster and family flats. The mix of housing, community, social facilities and neighbourhood-friendly businesses creates a lively, sustainable and future-proof neighbourhood that is oriented towards the scale of the location and at the same time creates new identities.

The Kiosk project was developed in response to the removal of informal structures in Dhermi, a fast-growing tourist village on Albania's coast. With tourism rising, the need for organized, adaptable infrastructure became pressing.

The design focuses on sun protection, upper-level storage, and layout flexibility for various vendors. Modular and affordable, the kiosk is easy to build, dismantle, and relocate using local, climate-appropriate materials. Its defining feature; a tapered, canopy-box roof, opens for shade by day and closes for secure overnight storage. This dynamic element allows smooth transitions between active use and closure, aligning with daily commercial rhythms.

The open ground level supports multiple configurations, while design investment is concentrated in the expressive roof. Quick to assemble and season-ready, the kiosk offers a cost-effective, climate-responsive solution for small businesses.

The Kiosk was one of the pavilions displayed at the first editoin of Bread&Heat Festival, which took place in Tirana, Albania, in June 2025.

Integration and community
The starting point of the design is a coherent, compact structure that creates a clear urban figure that fits naturally into the logic of the master plan. The block structure creates a spacious, communal inner courtyard that is available to all residents. At the same time, the closed construction method achieves maximum structural noise protection.

Contextualization
The design defines a clear urban prelude on Dottendorfer Strasse: a six-storey building marks the entrance to the district. With its staggered heights towards the southern residential quarter, the building blends naturally into the scale of the surroundings. On the first floor, an open passageway connects the public street space with the quiet, green inner courtyard.

Framework and accentuation
The boulevard is emphasized by the positioning of the building and defined in terms of urban space. A clear edge is created towards Dottendorfer Strasse, which appropriately accompanies the main traffic axis. On the public square, the building makes an active contribution to programmatic revitalization with its mix of uses.

Modularity and right angles
The design consistently implements the principle of modularity. The use of prefabricated elements is optimized by avoiding special solutions, consistent orthogonality, high repetition rates and adherence to simple 90° geometries. The targeted resolution of the block at the corners avoids complex special solutions and creates ideal lighting conditions for each residential unit.

Housing mix & development
The design differentiates the distribution of the subsidized and privately financed apartments into independent building blocks. This creates a clear allocation, simplifies address formation and enables differentiated development. The floor plans follow a logical stacking pattern and make optimum use of the structural grid. Towards Dottendorfer Strasse, a glazed arcade provides the dual function of access and noise buffer.

A community-oriented neighborhood is taking shape on the site of the former municipal plant nursery, combining living, education, care, and nature conservation.
The existing fabric, including the greenhouses, seedbeds, and wild green spaces, shapes the design. The characteristic sloped roofs become a design motif, while generous green spaces invite the landscape to flow into the neighborhood.
At the heart of the quarter lies the ‚Werkhof' – a vibrant hub with workshops, gardens, a canteen, and programs offered by the Montag Foundation and the Neue Stadtgärtnerei initiative. Care facilities and a café complement this communal enter. The residential buildings follow the north-south orientation of the existing layout. The timber frame construction allows for flexible layouts and supports diverse living concepts. Shared outdoor spaces encourage neighborhood interaction.
A green belt with wild zones, large trees, and seedbeds links the neighborhood to the landscape, fosters biodiversity, and invites exploration along an adventure trail.

The design is based on the historical elements of Münster's cultural landscape and incorporates them into the spatial concept. Starting from the waterway, a carefully configured open space framework of landscape and park areas with site-specific focal points and functions structures the space and forms the basis for an attractive and future-proof model district. A combination of a high mix of uses for revitalization and open-use structures for flexible development
forms the structural backbone of an adaptable and sustainable urban quarter. New ideas of living, sharing and working together will become a living reality here.

The open space concept pursues a careful interlocking of landscape and urban development, in which the natural topography and existing biotope structures are integrated into the urban development. Starting from the waterway, the landscape flows through the entire design area and connects the new buildings with their surroundings. This creates a harmonious interplay between open cultural landscape, urban life and natural design. The focus here is on the use of rainwater, which is integrated into the open spaces not only functionally but also in terms of design.
The mobility concept is based on the promotion of eco-mobility with a clear focus on public transport, cycling and walking and thus contributes to reducing emissions, increasing quality of life and climate-resilient development of the
neighborhood.

Expand sensitively
SeThe design for the extension and renovation of the daycare center in Rosenthal-Schwicheldt is a careful continuation of the existing building. Characteristic elements such as the asymmetrical pitched roof and the staggered building structures are incorporated and developed further. Three new 'group houses' fit as independent volumes into a small-scale, village-like ensemble - lively, manageable and scaled to the perception of children.

Connecting in-between
A central corridor zone stretches between the existing and new buildings, which not only provides access but also connects: Places of arrival, meeting and community are created here - with a common center as a parents' café and children's library, play zones and glimpses into the kitchen. Everyday routes become experiences, the sequence of rooms is varied but clearly structured.

Integrating open space qualities
Outside, the characteristic trees will be preserved and become part of a climate-adapted garden that combines shade, retreats and play areas. The new building is being constructed using sustainable timber frame construction. Geothermal energy, photovoltaics and the use of ecological materials contribute to the daycare center's energy efficiency and sustainability.

(Re-)structuring
A clearly structured construction process in three phases allows the facility to continue operating - while at the same time making the construction process visible and understandable for the children.

The proposed neighbourhood combines compact urban living with generous landscape access. Two distinct spatial characters define the overall structure:

1. Ems-Karree, an urban block structure anchored by a central neighbourhood square, providing space for local amenities, working and community uses.

2. Ems-Gärten, a residential area of green courtyards and open structures with a direct link to the restored Ems river landscape.

A public axis connects the main road to the southern riverside. This spine creates a coherent sequence of urban spaces and green corridors, ending in the Deichterrasse – a central public landscape element with promenade, playground and open lawn.
The urban figure responds to topography and noise with a robust perimeter edge towards the Münsterdamm and a gradual opening towards the Ems floodplain. Different housing typologies and compact building forms allow for a mix of uses and flexible living models.
The open space concept merges urban squares, shared courtyards and riverside landscape into a continuous network. The Ems cycle path links the neighbourhood to regional routes and reinforces the experience of nature as part of everyday life.

The new primary school with 2-court sports hall combines high architectural quality with clear functional structures and a sustainable concept that promotes long-term education and community.

4 buildings - 4 wings:
The school uses are divided into four clearly structured buildings, which are arranged along the common centre. The public areas - sports hall, music school and community library are located in the north and open up towards the town.

Centrality:
The 'Common Centre' forms the heart of the school and combines communal and external
uses into a harmonious overall structure. It links the open spaces and creates a flowing transition between indoor and outdoor spaces.

Connections to all sides:
The central axis links the school in all directions. Side entrances integrate between the buildings on the ground floor and create small, informal passages. At the same time, separate entrances provide access to independent utilisation units.

Sustainable learning houses:
In accordance with the "house within a house" principle, the classes and differentiation rooms in the new self-sufficient learning houses are organised around an educational centre. Concentration,ncommunication and play find the right space here.

Hanover's Vahrenwald district is on the move. The development of the previously isolated area around the Musikzentrum and the reconnection with its surroundings offer the opportunity to act as a catalyst for sustainable neighbourhood development in the surrounding and beyond - as an exciting productive quarter for cultural industries and urban production, as a green corridor that connects and improves the urban climate and as an open, inviting urban space for play, sport and exercise, especially for children and young people.

In terms of urban space, the neighbourhood has two central qualities. On one side, the urban space is characterised by the typical 'Vahrenwald block' - clearly structured spaces, characterised by residential use and protected greenery in the inner courtyards, but also a lack of public green, recreational and play areas. On the other side, the railway line borders the neighbourhood - a strong barrier effect, noise pollution, but also biotope structures worthy of protection and plenty of space for previously underrepresented uses and new ideas.

A targeted opening towards the neighbourhood and a diverse mix of uses will turn the site into an inclusive meeting place that combines commerce, housing, culture, education and social participation. Low-threshold cultural and leisure activities not only promote creativity and equal opportunities, but also strengthen the residents' sense of belonging. By reflecting on different planning scenarios, an overall concept was developed that focuses on resilient, phased urban development, utilises the potential of the existing buildings and anticipates the dynamics of the local cultural scene.

The transformation of Trnavské Mýto into a dynamic cultural and urban hub is entering its next phase. With the building permit secured, Istropolis—designed by CITYFÖRSTER and KCAP in collaboration with Immocap—will break ground in summer 2025.

The project will introduce a state-of-the-art concert and congress hall, modern residences, and high-quality office spaces. The 3,000-person venue will host diverse cultural and business events, featuring in-the-round seating and multi-event flexibility. Offices will include a grand atria and flexible workspaces, while the residences will be nestled within green courtyards and pedestrian-friendly streets.

Istropolis sets new standards in sustainable urban development, integrating passive climate solutions, energy-efficient design, and biodiverse public spaces with 147 trees, 70 local plant species, and dedicated cycling infrastructure. Long overlooked despite its central location, Trnavské Mýto will soon be revitalized with green promenades, fountains, and a lively public square, supporting markets, gatherings, and everyday life.

With construction set to begin, Istropolis moves from vision to reality, shaping the future of Bratislava through architecture, sustainability, and vibrant public life.

The Cetrumprogramma Papendrecht 2040 sets a clear direction for the integrated and sustainable development of the village's heart. Strategically located in the Drechtsteden region and directly connected to the Merwede, Papendrecht Centrum offers broad opportunities.

Through a three-phase process- from analysis to scenarios to the final program -CITYFÖRSTER and BLOC developed a participatory vision with citizens, stakeholders, and the municipality. The 2040 programma positions the centrum as a vital, green heart that unites the historic Dijkdorp character with new connections to the Merwede and the economic strength of the region.

Key interventions include transforming the waterfront into the blue-green face of Papendrecht, developing Winkelpark De Meent into a mixed-use hub, and redesigning the oversized 1980s Market Square into a green, human-scale meeting point. Together with the municipality, long-term goals, a timeline, and project ideas provide a step-by-step path toward realizing the vision.

The following link leads to the comprehensive booklet:

bloc.nl/wp-content/assets/251009_pap_centrum-programma_ml.pdf