We work where architecture is most exciting: in existing buildings.
During Berlin Design Nights, we open our office and provide insight into our approach, our projects and the reality of renovation.
The focus is on our own office – a former Berlin shop that used to sell milk and cheese. Here, we show what renovating existing buildings means today: the qualities that existing spaces offer, their limitations, and how sustainability, reuse, and contemporary design can be combined. Not in theory, but in a built example.
In addition, we present the progress of the renovation of a listed three-sided courtyard in Thuringia. The half-timbered ensemble exemplifies many questions that currently occupy us: How do we deal with vacant properties in rural areas? How can large building volumes be repurposed without losing sight of their original use? And how much transformation can a listed building withstand?
In addition, we are showing other ongoing projects from our office that also deal with the further construction, repurposing and rethinking of existing buildings.
We are also joined by architect and ceramicist Sylvia Sauerwald from Düsseldorf, whose ceramic works oscillate between object, utility and sculptural installation. Her precise handiwork creates pieces that deliberately address materiality, surface and irregularity, thus opening up an exciting dialogue with the architecture of the existing building. Sylvia Sauerwald will be present in person.
