Gustav Düsing

Picknick, Berlin 2024

Picknick, Berlin 2024

‘Picknick’ Berlin, 2024, Fotos by Leonhard Clemens, Gustav Düsing

‘Picknick’ is a modular, movable, and scalable lightweight structure designed for a wide range of ground-level activities. Its form, based on doubly curved surfaces, responds to both social and climatic conditions, making it versatile for indoor and outdoor use. Easily assembled and stored, ‘Picknick’ represents a transient architecture not tied to a specific location but rather supporting recurring rituals.

New Architecture School, Siegen, Competition 1st Prize, with FAKT Office for Architecture, May 2024

New Architecture School, Siegen, Competition 1st Prize, with FAKT Office for Architecture, May 2024

Competition entry for a reuse campus building for the University of Siegen, 1st Prize, with FAKT Office for Architecture.

Transsolar (Climate), sbp (Structure) and Bureau b+b (Landscape), Inside Outside (Curtain Concept)

The New Architecture School is an innovative adaptive reuse proposal for a new type of central campus building in the city of Siegen. Developed through a multi staged participatory process with students, faculty staff and community members, NAS aims to be a new urban agent, merging academia, culture, and public space. The program ranges from an Architecture Museum on the ground floor – a seamless continuation of the near by city centre, a large studio spaces as the heart of the school and a grand open space on the top floor.

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Studierendenhaus TU Braunschweig, 2023 with Max Hacke

Studierendenhaus TU Braunschweig, 2023 with Max Hacke

Demountable campus building, with Max Hacke. Structural engineering by knippershelbig, Berlin. Photos by Iwan Baan, Lemmart and Leonhard Clemens

The new Study Pavilion on the campus of the Technical University Braunschweig is an open space concept designed to accommodate various student activities. The concept follows the principle of a superstructure that allows the user to change and reconfigure the floor plan of the building to meet the ever-changing needs in a rapidly evolving campus context. The high degree of flexibility in the floor plan makes the pavilion ephemeral and therefore responsive, ensuring its enduring relevance as a new emerging campus typology.

Fellows Pavilion - American Academy in Berlin, 2014

Fellows Pavilion - American Academy in Berlin, 2014 Architects: Barkow Leibinger, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger

Fellow’s Pavilion at the American Academy Berlin, 2014

Architects: Barkow Leibinger, Berlin, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger
Team: Tobias Wenz (project architect), Gustav Düsing, Ulrich Fuchs, Annette Wagner
Photos © Stefan Müller © Simon Menges

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, 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.

'Ephemerals' at Dittrich & Schlechtriem

'Ephemerals' at Dittrich & Schlechtriem

‘Ephemerals’ solo exhibition at Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin 2024

Photos by Jens Ziehe

Confronting the challenges of a changing climate has become central to the architect’s work. Almost 40 percent of the gases making the planet’s systems inhospitable to continued human habitation come from the building sector. Propelled by the momentum of industrialization—fueled by centuries of exploited people and environments—we are actively building a world designed for human suffering and extinction. If building is the problem, what should architects do instead? How can architecture minimize its disruption of natural systems? Put differently, what is the smallest gesture that still counts as architecture? The historian Spiro Kostof has argued that the campfire is one of the most minimal and ancient forms of architecture. A ring of people sitting around a flame, the circular form emerges from the interaction of social and physical factors. Heat from an open fire dissipates with distance: sit too close and you burn, sit too far and you don’t stay warm. Gathered at the optimal distance, our ancient relatives formed a circle around the fire, inscribing the form with a set of interrelational, biological, environmental, and symbolic codes that continue to inform the architectural imagi- nation today. Commonly found in prehistoric societies around the world, the circular form delimits space, encloses community, and provides protection—a closed interior apart from the open expanses beyond its boundaries. In Gustav Düsing’s sunsight to sunclipse (2021), Kostof’s fire is replaced with the sun. Made during his residency at Villa Massimo in Rome, the work defines space as it spins, raising a giant fabric disc into a sinusoidal canopy. Its central motor is powered by solar panels, transforming energy from the sun—a distant spher

German Embassy Tel Aviv, Residence, Competition 1st Prize, June 2023

German Embassy Tel Aviv, Residence, Competition 1st Prize, June 2023

Competition entry for the German Embassy in Tel Aviv, Residence. (1st Prize) Team: Ana Filipovic Mecke, in collaboration with wolff:architekten, EMMERIK Garden Design & Research, Architekten für Nachhaltiges Bauen (Building physics), Bollinger Grohmann (Structural Engineering)

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Our winning design for the German Embassy in Tel Aviv is a transformation of an existing building and garden to meet the spatial and representational requirements of an embassy residence. A new, convertible lightweight structure wraps the existing building and creates a climatic buffer zone that allows for various public activities. The design follows the principle of “eco-minimalism,”* in which the idea of reduction is understood as an expression of climate awareness and a resource-conserving design approach in architecture.

Tent on Cuverville Island, 2017 Antarctic Biennale

Tent on Cuverville Island, 2017 Antarctic Biennale

Frozen Tent for the 2017 Antarctic Biennale,

Cuverville Island, Antarctica

Tent on Cuverville Island, Antarctica is a site-specific installation for the Antarctic Biennale 2017. For the concept of a nomadic journey through the Antarctic Peninsula, we designed a tent made of frozen fabric. Inspired by the heroic adventures of the early twentieth century, such as Ernest Shakelton’s Endourance Expedition, the tent is the most iconic architectural typology of Antarctica.

Loom Hyperbolic, Marrakech 2012

Loom Hyperbolic, Marrakech 2012 Architects: Barkow Leibinger, Berlin, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger

4th Marrakech Biennale, 2012

Architects: Barkow Leibinger, Berlin, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger
Project Leader: Gustav Düsing
Photos: Johannes Förster

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 whose repetitive arrangement captures the adaptive patterns and ornaments that are omnipresent in the Arab world.

Thicket, Berlin 2014

Thicket, Berlin 2014 Architects: Barkow Leibinger, Berlin, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger

Ticket @ HOW SOON IS NOW
Judin Gallery, Berlin, 2014

Architects: Barkow Leibinger, Berlin Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger
Project Architect: Gustav Düsing
Photos: ©Ina Reinecke/Barkow Leibinger

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.

Grande Maxxi, Rome, Competiion, honorable mention, 2022

Grande Maxxi, Rome, Competiion, honorable mention, 2022

*competition entry, finalist

with Max Hacke, Violetta Burckhardt and Marcel Troeger

structural consultancy: Knippers Helbig

Our award winning proposal for the extension of the Maxxi Museum in Rome is essentially an industrial scale timber-frame structure on a rammed earth base covered by a large photovoltaic screen. The program ranges from an innovation hub to laboratories and art storages. The proposal challenges the traditional definition of inside and outside, by introducing a new type of space, “mid-doors” – a naturally air-conditioned communal space that is suitable for social events regardless of pandemics.

Small Bridge in Gundelsheim, Bavaria, Competition 2023, 1st Prize

Small Bridge in Gundelsheim, Bavaria, Competition 2023, 1st Prize

We designed a small pedestrian and bicycle bridge for the village of Gundelsheim. The unusually wide bridge is intended to give the village a new public space, seemingly floating over the natural landscape. The project is a collaboration with the structural engineers of knippershelbig and the landscape architects of studio erde.

We designed a small pedestrian and bicycle bridge for the village of Gundelsheim. The unusually wide bridge is intended to give the village a new public space, seemingly floating over the natural landscape. The project is a collaboration with the structural engineers of knippershelbig and the landscape architects of studio erde.

Dissolution and Sanctuary 2024 - in planning

Dissolution and Sanctuary 2024 - in planning

with Büro Hacke, sbp, transsolar and terrain integral design

This parasitic spatial concept integrates with the complex technological conditions found on site—a courtyard inside a large mega factory in Germany. At the foot of a thirty-meter-tall pylon, the circular tensile structure offers a human-scale social space, contrasting with the vast manufacturing landscape inside the factory.

Space Pockets, Berlin 2019

Space Pockets, Berlin 2019

spatial transformation,

Photos: Johannes Förster

Sited between the nature reserve of the Rummelsburger-Bucht and the still operating, industrial monument Klingenberg, the project examines the spatial potential of ultra-light moving elements in the context of open floor plans. In various applications, light, stretched fabrics and curtains were used to create space pockets in different scales, generating areas for multiple functions. Over two floors, the layout offers auditoriums, several intimate meeting rooms, two catering areas and a number of undefined areas for expansion. The space can easily be converted from domestic to corporate and from community to private. Custom furniture elements, including tables, benches, sofas, large storage units as well as kitchens for catering, support a variety of scenarios. The multi-purpose event space serves both the local creative scene and the nearby city center and is bridging the industrial past with the preserved landscape.

Industry & Leisure, Berlin 2020

Industry & Leisure, Berlin 2020

permanent Installation

Team: Mariami Kurtishvili

permanent Installation Berlin, 2020 Team: Mariami Kurtishvili

sunsight to sunclipse, Villa Massimo, Rome 2021

sunsight to sunclipse, Villa Massimo, Rome 2021

Kinetik Installation @ Villa Massimo // Deutsche Akademie in Rom

Video by Johannes Förster

The name ‘sunsight to sunclipse’ refers to the earth rotating around the sun, which means the sun does not rise, but rather becomes visible (sunsight) and darkens again to our sight in the evening (sunclipse). The atmosphere can ultimately be understood as a gigantic architectural shell, in which we live together with all other species.

Notes on Fortnightism (2020), with Carson Chan

Notes on Fortnightism (2020), with Carson Chan

A scalable and transportable medical facility as a response to the 2020 corona pandemic, with Carson Chan

Visuals by Grau

Pathogens do not follow spatial or temporal boundaries, and neither should architecture’s response to disease outbreaks. ›Notes on Fortnightism‹ (2020) features the Responsive Care Center, easy set-up medical quarantine tents that pop-up around the world where needed. Easily stored and shipped, Responsive Care Centers are designed to mitigate disease spread, preventing epidemics from becoming pandemics that, as we know by now, can bring human activity to a grinding stop.

...and it came to pass, not to stay, Rome 2021

...and it came to pass, not to stay, Rome 2021

with Students of the University Roma Tre, 2021

For our studio at the Department of Architecture at the University of Roma Tre, we left the surface of the earth behind to create a new type of co-housing structure which is elevated from the ground as a new architectural model for a near future of material shortage and environmental consciousness. Each proposal became a cell in the larger structure, while we experimented with lightweight materials in the spirit of Frei Otto, Yona Friedmann and Buckminster Fuller.

Opaion, 2021 with Katharina Pelosi

Opaion, 2021 with Katharina Pelosi

Soundinstallation, with Katharina Pelosi as part of Villa Massimo in Cittá, 2021
Foto by Leonhard Clemens

The name Opaion refers to the 19th century secret room hidden under the inconspicuous concrete cover in Villa Torlonia, Rome which was only discovered in 2004. The concise round shape with it’s dome including an opaion (dome eye), its niches, frescoes and wall paintings in the Etruscan style are the basis of a sound composition that was projected into the park via hidden loudspeakers.

Talus - Berlin Teufelsberg, IAD, TU Braunschweig 2019

Talus - Berlin Teufelsberg, IAD, TU Braunschweig 2019

Research excerpts developed as an assistant professor at the Institute for Architectural Design, Prof. Volker Staab at the Technical University Braunschweig in 2018/19

In the substance of the Teufelsberg, Berlins highest Trümmerberg, everything from intact bricks to reinforced concrete can be found. Although found to be unusable and disposed of, all these fragments still bear signs of an intelligent coherence, differentiating them as architectural fragments against the naturally grown soil from which they originate.

The Local Vernacular, Berlin 2016

The Local Vernacular, Berlin 2016

Log-construction build with first year architecture students at the UDK Berlin, 2016,

KET, Prof. Christoph Gengnagel
Design: Serena Abbondanza, Livia Nowak, Jan Wilkens
Teaching: Gustav Düsing

A pyramidal structure was constructed as part of the lecture series “vernacular 1:1” at the University of Arts, Berlin. 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.

Windmill Luminaire, Berlin 2013

Windmill Luminaire, Berlin 2013 Architects: Barkow Leibinger, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger

Windmill Luminaire, 2013

Architects: Barkow Leibinger, Berlin, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger

Project Coordinator: Prof. Kazu Blumfeld Hanada, Werkstatt Blumfeld

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.

Frames, 2010 - 2018

Frames, 2010 - 2018

Frames – Material Concepts & Systems for everyday use.
Prototypes and Small Series developed between 2009 and 2015.

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.

We made a small box for “boxes” by Sam Chermayeff Office at dropcity as part of the 2025 Milan Design Week.
Ungetüm—German for a gigantic or misshapen creature—started with a discarded box we found in a bush near our studio. We covered it with leftover materials from a previous installation until nothing was left. It’s a simple exercise in using what’s there, reflecting how we currently approach our work in the studio
Size: 45 x 45 x 45cm

The modular installation “Picknick” – BAW Garten at Gropius Bau Berlin as part of the Berlin Art Week.

‘Ephemerals’ at Dittrich & Schlechtriem. 16-31 Aug 2024. Linienstrasse 23, Berlin

Our joint project with FAKT is officially reported in the local newspaper ‘Siegener Zeitung’. Read the full article here.

A well researched review by Katinka Corts / German Architects of our latest competition win together with FAKT. Read the full article here.

We won the 2024 EUmies Award!! What an unbelievable honor. Thanks to the Fundazió Mies van der Rohe, the jury led by Frédéric Druot and the whole EUmies Award team for your effort. We are endlessly thankful for all our supporters, the Technische Universität Braunschweig for being the best client one can only wish for, for knippershelbig for pushing the structure as far as only possible, for iwb Ingenieure for keeping things under control, for Cornils GmbH for putting the steel together in perfection, for Iwan Baan, Lemmart, Leonhard Clemens and Studio Förster for outstanding documentation and above all Volker Staab for having the vision.
Foto by Lemmart

We have received planning permission for our experimental tensile pavilion for an inner courtyard in a large mega-factory in Germany. We are looking forward to the next steps.

World Architects has published an interview about our design philosophy and how we think architects should more often pursue self-initiated projects and research as a strategy to actively participate in the discourse. Many thanks to Katinka Corts for the interview. English Version / German Version

At -8 °C, our team member Felix Schuschan and his friends took the opportunity to set up our frozen tent, originally designed for the 2017 Antarctic Biennale, in front of our Berlin Studio. Thanks for the vision and the effort.

In the Jung Talk podcast on ‘Eco-Minimalism,’ Gustav Düsing discusses over-engineered building envelopes and an increasing disconnection between indoor and outdoor spaces in modern architecture. He explains how he aims to reduce the material effort in his projects while still perpetuating the achievements of modernism.

There is some incredibly exciting news. Together with Max Hacke, we have won the 2024 DAM Prize. The student house for the TU Braunschweig was selected from 104 projects in Germany and will be exhibited in the German Architecture Museum for the next few months.

What an honor! Our project for the TU Braunschweig has been awarded the German Architecture Prize. The state prize is awarded every two years for “outstanding achievements in building culture” and is considered the most important award for architects in Germany.

On November 13th Gustav Düsing is giving a public lecture about his work at the TU Munich as part of the lecture series Montagsreihe.

On November 8th Gustav Düsing is giving a public lecture about his work at the University of Stuttgart as part of the Novemberreihe Lecture Series organized by the IRGE, the BDA Baden-Württemberg and the Sto-Stiftung.

Our winning scheme for the German Embassy in Tel Aviv is on the cover of Wettbewerb Aktuell. Thanks to the whole team for your work and effort.

Our project for the TU Braunschweig is on the cover of the Deutsches Architektenblatt, published by the German Chamber of Architects. The author Frank Maier-Solgk points out the unique process from which the project emerged: an internal design competition between the faculty of the TU Braunschweig. To the article

another publication in the DBZ (Deutsche Bauzeitschrift). The author Ina Lülfsmann describes very nicely that our project wants to be much more than a desk for studying, but rather a new kind of social space for student culture. To the article

Our project for the TU Braunschweig has been featured in the current issue of Bauwelt. The Author Anna Raischl especially points out the innovative and fully demountable steel – wood hybrid structure. To the article

We are excited to share the news that together with FAKT-Office for Architecture we are selected to be one of six teams to develop strategies for the future of the Architecture School in Siegen as part of the 2023 Siegen Summer School.
You can apply now at Architektur Uni Siegen.

We are pleased about the 1st prize in the design competition for the residence of the German Embassy Tel Aviv / Israel!
Based on our design strategy “Eco-Minimalism” – the questioning of material- and energy-intensive comfort claims – the existing building of the residence (instead of a demolition and a new construction), is covered only with an ultra-light and changeable umbrella in steel-wood hybrid construction. For the preservation and optimization of the existing building, wolff:architekten bring their decades of experience in the fields of “building on” and “building in the existing”.
The jury particularly praised the way EMMERIK garden design and research dealt with the existing garden, preserving the existing vegetation and, where necessary, carefully adapting it to the local climatic conditions.

On Wednesday 14th of June Gustav Düsing will give a talk about his work on temporary structures as part of the lecture series Studio Talks at BTU Cottbus. The talk will be in conversation with the architect Sebastian Hoffmann of hoffmannfontana architekturen, Zürich.

Our project for the TU Braunschweig has been covered on Baunetz. Thanks to Maximilian Hinz for the great article and Leonhard Clemens for the beautiful cover shot.

On Wednesday 6th of June Gustav Düsing is giving a lecture about his recent projects at the Hochschule Darmstadt, Fachbereich Architektur organized by Prof. Winston Hampel

Together with Knippers-Helbig and the landscape architects of Studio-Erde we won a competition to design a new bridge in Gundelsheim, Bavaria. The project aims to create a new public space connecting the street level with the river.

Together with Fakt-Office for Architecture we taught a design studio for the winter semester 22/23 at MSA. Thanks to the students and faculty for making it possible.

Thanks so much for the beautiful PLAT 11: Soft – Co-Editors: Jane van Velden + Paul DeFazio of Rice Architecture with a conversation between philosopher Dehlia Hannah and Gustav Düsing about Antarctica as a project, energy as a building material and blackouts as future scenarios.

In todays Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung the architectural critic Niklas Maak wrote about our soon to open Studierendenhaus TU Braunschweig. Apart from its unique program Niklas Maak pointed out the demountable structure as a way to make buildings last way beyond their conventional life span. In a different form in a different place, buildings like ours can be demounted and reassembled to serve a new purpose. A house for tomorrow and for all days. With Max Hacke.
Photos by Leonhard Clemens.

In the spring semester of 2022 Gustav Düsing will teach a design studio at Cornell AAP alongside Val Warke and Daniele Durante as part of the Cornell in Rome Program.