The Antarctic Treaty of 1961 allows to visit the continent for research purposes only, which is why until today it has remained vastly untouched by civilization. Research, i.e. exploration of unknown territories is always a question of how well one is able to adapt to the conditions on the ground and advance further. Creating shelter from an absolute minimum of materials makes use of pragmatic technology while simultaneously appealing to one of the most primary instincts of man: satisfying his innate urge of discovery and settling on unspoiled land.

Situated in the sandy dunes of the northern shore of Long Island, this private house  is a negotiation between aspects of landscape, view and enclosure. Two dug-in, and stepped linear building volumes are intersecting in a common, inhabitable stairwell which serves as a mediator between the upper, more public part and the lower, more private area. The volumes are rotated towards north east, for am light and the lower volume towards north-west for pm light.

This response to the typology of a learning centre is a three-dimensional, complex space which comes alive through various activity and student culture. A large superstructure with a highly flexible kit of building parts enables a radically new type of studio space. The proposed building is understood as a multifunctional, informal space that allows for all kind of campus activities.

The artist Isa Genzken is known, among other things, for her large-scale installations in the public spaces. The purpose of this exhibition was to make these projects, built and unbuild, accessible to a wider public to ultimately be presented at the Venice Art Biennale. An important part of the task was to develop a specific form of communication that allows the individual projects to be exhibited side by side. Together with the artist, scale models of the work were made, depending on the project and materiality, but in their base and appearance coordinated.

A pyramidal structure was constructed as part of the lecture series “vernacular 1:1”. In stark contrast to modern high-tech architecture, traditional or vernacular constructions stand for a site-specific and resource-conserving use of local materials. From these centuries-old techniques, contemporary approaches can be deduced and combined with modern methods to create new material systems. 

This large hangar like building is part of a revitalization program for a disused airport in Long Island, New York which deals with the question of what kind of industrial production uses the still intact infrastructures such as runways and production halls in an appropriate, modern and sustainable way. Long Island is well known for tourism as a get-away from New York City. 

Inspired by the history of the pavilion in the 20th century and from its own earlier prototypes, such as the “Loom Hyperbolic” installation for the Marrakech Biennale 2012 by Barkow Leibinger, a light glass and steel construction was designed for the garden of the villa. The main element of the building, which offers space for seven study rooms and a small kitchen, is a double-curved roof made of steel beams that seems to float above the rooms. The shape of the roof follows a regular geometry that produces four hyperbolic paraboloids from two-dimensionally offset and twisted straight lines.

The Industrial City is a strategy for the integration of architecture and infrastructure. This project explores the potential of existing infrastructures in a changing post-industrial landscape (Port of Hamburg) through the implementation of a new form of large-scale industrial production. The thesis for this project is that the remains of heavy industry in the form of large-scale infrastructures in post-industrial landscapes (ports, canals, rails, etc.), as found in many Western metropolis, have the potential to move away from the progressive paradigm shift to adapt the heavy industry towards high-tech industry.

Regarding a possible future of increasing material efficiencies as a result of material shortages this spatial installation is a tessellated thicket. By reducing the material of each structural member to an absolute minimum, space is only defined by the increasing and decreasing density of material.  „Thicket“ also begs a comparison between our artificially contrived one and those found in nature as in: to be lost in a thicket, a kind of labyrinth.

The project references the flat, horizontal tents of the Berbers, in which one moves bent over and sits on the floor. The hyperbolic geometry creates a series of spaces that, through the translucency of the surfaces, combine with the simple beauty of the environment and whose repetitive arrangement captures the adaptive patterns and ornaments that are omnipresent in the Arab world.

The Light-Installation is mimicking natural organizations of hierarchy and structure. By turning principles of energy harvesting inside out, the luminaire is artificial and technoid but is evoking feelings of beauty and vulnerability at the same time.

The Space-Frame series are furniture designs developed between 2008 and 2011, which are based on space-consuming structural elements (space-frame). The aim was to test architectural principles of scale, structure and production on a real object. Digital and manual techniques have been researched and developed in a series of prototypes. The resulting furniture was produced in small series with a network of workshops and distributed.

The public program of the former airport site includes a restaurant with a large outdoor area serving as a observation deck situated on the north end of the east runway. Here visitors as well as employees and clients can overlook the runway and experience a fully operating airport with departing airplanes as a public happening. The observation-deck allows for public gatherings, marking a new destination on the map of Long-Island ́s tourist attractions.

A prototype for a large span dome structure constructed of bend plywood. 

The german island Borkum is the most western of all german north sea islands and offers perfect conditions for water sports such as kite-surfing. Surf-Point is a proposal for a new type of surf-shack which is situated on the wide open wet lands of the of the Watt (mudflat). The proposal aims to combine the necessary infrastructures for surfing with a social hang out, celebrating the unique endless space of the ocean by offering a sloped sundeck which serves as a theater to watch the surf. 

At present, housing sits in a context of work that is largely ours to define. It would be a mistake to think of housing in terms of the building alone. The Integral Housing Strategy (the Design Principles & Design Module) aims to elevate the way we think about and design, housing interventions. We seek to show the central role that design plays as a way to achieve superior value in housing interventions for the Social Property Impact Fund. The superior value of the intervention can be measured through three scales: Social Impact, Economic Integration and Increased Property Value over time.

The Gallery Space was transformed by exploiting the very basic medias of architectural representation. A series of wallpapers with two dimensional patterns were firstly translated into a three-dimensional perspectival drawings to finally being realized as physical ceiling piece.

The juxtaposition of these elements created an illusion which seamed to extend the gallery in all directions.

Cross bracing originally is a structural technique to add rigidity to mining tunnels. “Cross Braces” is a series of algorithm- based experiments to explore the spatial potential of these elements by creating deep-structures that are reduced to crossing beams in order to create fluid spaces with a structural identity.