21.01.22
  • Berlin
  • Lazio

  • Work

    • FIVE PIECES HOUSE (213)

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      Five pieces house is a free standing house in northern Bavaria.

      Five pieces house consists of five elemental building components, ordered from five different suppliers: A plinth to separate from the earth; a pre-fab barn system to protect against rain; a standard glass facade to protect against the climate; an interior wall system to create different grades of privacy; a stone wall to separate from the street. The house itself is complemented by a sixth, natural element: The thick green hedges that surround it.

    • POSSIBILITY 1: CONSTELLATION HOUSE (196)

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      Constellation House is a high-density, flexible, urban residential building type.

      The Constellation House is an architectural design for a Baugruppe that rethinks privacy and community by breaking up the apartment of the nucleus family into day rooms and night rooms on different floors. This not only enables larger communality without the loss of privacy, but also makes the apartments more flexible in the long run and therefore usage of space more efficient – avoiding family apartments being only inhabited by the old parents. When you need more space, you rent night rooms of your neighbours; to reduce space, you rent out some of your night rooms. If you have a large dinner, you use the communal floor. The Constellation House provides apartments that are always adequate in size.

    • DO THINGS (190)

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      Do Things is an exhibition on Something Fantastic’s work and inspiration at BNKR, Munich, curated by Joanna Kamm and Ludwig Engel.

      ‘Only those with no memory insist on their originality’ is a quote by Coco Chanel that perfectly describes our position when it comes to ingenuity and authorship in architecture and design. We find no harm in copying things we find and like, and we are honoured to see our own work replicated. The show at BNKR illustrated this approach with a set of large-format collages and a screen displaying a 450-images slideshow of the office’s output of the last 5 years.

      For the opening, we installed a bar in the trunk of a drive-now BMW i-3,
      playing a playlist by Hannes Grasegger over the car stereo.

    • BONJOUR TRISTESSE (137-2)

      We like the beauty and directness of simple things. When something is not more or less complicated than necessary. We’d call that basic. What is the difference between basic and standard? For us, standard is more about definition and restriction, and only seldomly perfectly fitted for the actual purpose or situation. Basic is more flexible, can sometimes be extremely pure, and sometimes, if it makes sense, quite sophisticated. At the apartment in Alvaro Siza's Bonjour Tristesse building we tried to walk along that line and create a very basic environment. The layout, surfaces and furniture are practical, simple and direct, and together form the project's very own character and atmosphere.

    • CITY AHEAD (104)

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      Invited by the Flemish Bouwmeester to study the potential of communal housing in Flanders, we developed a typology that would not only allow for more communality but could also heal a wound of contemporary urban fabrics: the suburban. Placed at the edge between rural and urban – along the outer edges of parking lots of supermarkets – the linear building would define the spaces on both sides. Where the urban before was not lively and dense, and the rural was not calm and green, the City Ahead building would allow those spaces to regain their specific qualities. The building would negotiate between those types of spaces, with large, shared, rooms to the urban, and small and intimate rooms facing the rural side.

    • VISUAL ATLAS OF INFRASTRUCTURE SPACE (174)

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      The Visual Atlas is a collection of imagery compiled for the publication ‘Infrastructure Space’ published by Ruby Press.

      Judged on its performance, infrastructure is only seldom looked at from a spatial point of view. However, a great variety of spaces are created in, on, under, between or around infrastructural buildings. The Visual Atlas presents an insight into those spaces, and emphasizes their heterogeneity as it arranges them not according to their function but to their spatial attributes.

    • SILVER RISE (170)

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      Silver Rise is a travel stage system.

      To minimize materials that have to be moved around, we decided to skip all elements of a typical stage, and concentrate budget and efforts on a highly reflective stage curtain.

    • EINFACHE MÖBEL (175)

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      Einfache Möbel is loose series of furniture designs.

      With this series of designs we are working on a redefinition of basic furniture. In a globalized urban context, the palette of easily available materials differs from that e.g. of the 70s, when people like Enzo Mari designed their basic furniture lines from wood. Each piece of Einfache Möbel is therefore designed to be built from a material that is beautiful and functional, but maybe most important also currently easily available. Furthermore they are designed to require minimal work. For most pieces in the range no cutting of pieces is required.

    • BONJOUR TRISTESSE (137)

      Bonjour Tristesse is a strategic design for a publicly accessible rooftop

      Bonjour Tristesse is the inofficial name of a residential IBA building by Álvaro Siza in Treptow-Kreuzberg. It is mostly known for its graffito that has been there since more than 30 years, as well as for its slightly curved roof shape. What most people do not know is that it has a very generous roof terrace that, because of the curved wall surrounding it, has a very cosy, yard-like atmosphere. It reminds us of Corbu's destroyed yet legendary Beistegui penthouse in Paris, and our first idea was to make a perfect copy of Corbu's exterior interior. We adjusted the design to the program, still embracing the interesting atmosphere between cosy interior and exposed exterior.

    • DISILLUSIONED OFFICE (160)

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      Disillusioned Office is a minimally invasive office renovation for digital industry association Bitkom.

      After having completed the organisational study Über das Arbeiten for Bitkom, we translated our concept into a spatial design aiming to minimize the turnover of materials in the process while improving future ways of working inside the office. Similar to the Verfremdungseffekt of epic theater, we created a situation that would disillusion the office as what it is: a pragmatic built-in structure with wood chip wallpaper, suspended ceiling and carpet floor. This was achieved by introducing a clearly marked border where the office space would start/end, with very different surfaces and material treatments. Along a new staircase connecting all three floors the new entrance area, conference room, meeting rooms and cafeteria were arranged, while some small conference rooms were distributed over the two office floors in a way that they would turn three former individual offices into a cluster of two rooms and one meeting point. Planning was executed with the help of Gonzalez Haase AAS.

    • MAKING HEIMAT, LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA (166)

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      ‘MAKING HEIMAT’ is an exhibition on Arrival Cities in the German Pavilion
      at the 15th Biennale di Architettura di Venezia, 2016.

      The exhibition Making Heimat curated by Peter Cachola Schmal, Oliver Elser and Anna Scheuermann investigated and communicated what urban planning should know in order to plan Arrival Cities – quarters that give immigrants the possibility to integrate both socially and economically. Being responsible for all design questions – from exhibition design over CI, websites, catalogues, to the opening party – we proposed to highlight the accessibility of arrival cities in a spatial way. As simple as effective, we cut four openings into the German Pavilion making it inviting and hospital, and both changing the spatial quality of the rooms as well as its relationship with its surrounding.
      Photography: Zara Pfeifer

    • PERRET SCHAAD FW16/17 (79-32)

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      The Perret Schaad FW16/17 collection was presented in a Hellweg building center
      at Yorckstrasse, Berlin.

      We have always been astonished and intrigued by the fact that the typically suburban type of the building center is often found in central locations in Berlin. Using the selling floor of Hellweg Yorckstrasse with its high ceilings, good lighting, (partly) aesthetic products, and big rollup-doors during shop hours is a direct translation of our general aim to make space with minimal material efforts.

      Watch the video here

    • MUSEUM DES 20.JAHRHUNDERTS (168)

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      Our proposal for the addition to Neue Nationalgalerie provides the essential space for showing art in the 20th century: the white cube. The house not only offers a great variety of white cubes –neutral, white rooms with light ceilings– for the display of art, it also provides those spatial characteristics for any other room in the house, from offices over workshops to storage spaces. The logistic center-like volume with trapezoidal metal sheet facade is contrasted by the generosity and posture of a gently curved plinth opening and welcoming the public inside its transparent ground floor. As in 20th century, everything inside an art museum became art, this museum provokes constant questioning and positioning of art and the context it depends on. The concept was co-developed with Rimpau & Bauer Architekten.

    • ÜBER DAS ARBEITEN HEUTE (160)

      Über das Arbeiten Heute is a research and design study conceived in collaboration
      with Ludwig Engel and Stefan Carsten.

      When umbrella organization of digital industries Bitkom asked us to propose a new office design for their 3500 sqm Berlin headquarters, we were first shocked and then fascinated by how ‘normal’ their space looked. This led to the idea to treat Bitkom’s office as a propotype, and make a general investigation on how working today should be. The study includes several case studies and references, and concludes with a set of 5 thesis on organisation, underlying 5 thesis on space, which are illustrated by basic design proposals. 

    • SOMETIMES MINI (183)

      Sometimes Mini is a design study for an industrially producible house commissioned by Mini.

      For this design study we tried to push a principle we like to the extreme, proving that reduction does not mean sacrificing generosity: A highly complex, optimized core is combined with a simply (and cheaply) built shell. The space in between can be used differently depending on the user, the season, the climate, the location, and the time of the day.

    • PERRET SCHAAD SS16 (79-25)

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      The Perret Schaad SS16 collection was presented in a public pool in Berlin.

      Also for the SS16 collection presentation we followed our ambition to find a fitting environment instead of creating one. In this case, we pushed it a bit further by choosing a public outdoor space, a beautifully shaped turquoise kids pool on a playground 200m off Alexanderplatz.

    • THE ICCC (117)

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      The ICCC is a design for a 960-room-hotel in Berlin.

      In the context of the collaboration with Bureau N, that resulted in the concept of ICCC, the International Center for Contemporary Culture Berlin, we were wondering what a hotel would be like that carries forward ICCC's concept of creating a surplus value through well-managed synergies, efficient organisation and flexible use. So in practice, ICCC and The ICCC would share and complement each other's range of restaurants, business and recreational amenities.

      Architecturally, we looked for ways to maximize the possible number of corner rooms, doing justice to the fact that the hotel is situated at the edge of the city, and great views would be – next to good traffic connections – its major USP.

    • CRYSTAL (158)

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      Crystal is a pendant lamp produced by New Tendency

      We have a fascination with things that look digital but aren't. When we had a chance to collaborate with New Tendency, we transformed a design we had originally developed to be built from Styrofoam into perforated, folded steel. Depending on from which distance you look at the lamp, you will see different Moiré effects and different forms in the lampshade that make the very solid object come to life. For further information visit New Tendency.

    • SEASONALITY HOUSE (122)

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      Seasonality House is a residential unit on a Berlin rooftop.

      The fact that seasons in our latitudes climatically differ quite extremely from each other, but buildings, streets and cities – and our way of using them – don't, seems off. The concept of Seasonality is our vision to include the changing properties of seasons into architecture and urban design.

      We find some aspects of Seasonality in Lacaton Vassal's work in general, and its Berlin interpretation Hegemonietempel in particular. The lightweight, cost-efficient greenhouse shell is only a partial climate barrier, thus creating a direct dependance of the weather outside and the use of the space inside, which actually is the essence Seasonality. We aim to prove that high comfort, individuality and generosity can be achieved in an ecologically sustainable way and at comparably low cost.

      The estimated production cost is 1000EUR/sqm. We are still looking for a flat rooftop as building ground, and are grateful for suggestions/offers.

      Model: Friedemann Heckel

    • THIS IS TOMORROW (Für einen Kopfarbeiter) (136)

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      THIS IS TOMORROW

      This Is Tomorrow (für einen Kopfarbeiter) is an installation conceived for the group show How Soon is Now, initiated by Frank Barkow, Arno Brandlhuber and Sam Chermayeff. It represents a loosely defined, open working environment.

      The show includes works by Barkow Leibinger, Arno Brandlhuber, Jesko Fezer, Christoph Gengnagel, Gonzales Haase, Konstantin Grcic, June-14 Meyer-Grohbrügge & Chermayeff, Jürgen Mayer H, Sauerbruch Hutton and is thought as a re-edition of 'This Is Tomorrow, an exhibition and architectural statement that was first shown in 1956 in London.

      This Is Tomorrow (für einen Kopfarbeiter) represents our idea of what tomorrow should be like. We started off with a few basic statements that we first presented at one of the group's early meetings, like 'it will be painted,' 'it will be thin,' 'it will be heavy,' and 'not everything will be aligned,' and translated them into several objects: A set of all-wooden table stands designed on the basis of the Cavalete, a lightweight foldable table popular with street vendors in Rio de Janeiro, a large diagonal curtain screen made from a common contemporary building material, and a number of small objects and prints, like a set of engraved water glasses by Friedemann Heckel.

    • ICCC (117)

      ICCC is a vision for the re-use of ICC convention center in Berlin.

      When we entered the multidisciplinary team led by Bureau N in order to develop a spatial and programmatic concept for turning the recently closed ICC building in Berlin's westend into a Center for Contemporary Culture (ICCC), we were fascinated by its complexity and size.

      We analysed and categorised the existing 32 000 sum GFA of the building in order to identify existing potentials and problems, one of which is extremely high maintenance and operation costs. To make the spaces available for a great variety of users, we believe it is crucial to be able to provide them at a low price, and not only develop strategies to do a cost-efficient refurbishment, but, even more important, cut the building’s maintenance cost. We therefore looked into technical matters like cooling and ventilation, and put together a set of heterogeneous measures, both large-scale organizational aspects, as well as high-tech details.

      The project is ongoing.

    • VILLA URBANA

      Villa Urbana is a prototypical peripheral residence designed as a contribution to the exhibition ‘Generazione: a call from Rome’ at Casa Dell’ Architettura, Rome.

      The Villa situated between Rome and Fiumicino airport is investigating the aesthetic of the suburban: Combining the monumental spatial generosity of a villa with the clean, sober beauty of industrial prefabricated building elements, we aim to define a contemporary version of the luxury of Palladian Villa types.

    • GREENHOUSING PTII (104-02)

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      Greenhousing PTII is a communal apartment building design commissioned by Housing Cooperative De Arc in Turnout, Belgium, that is based on a design study we proposed to the Flemish Bouwmeester in 2013.

      We are quite critical towards communal living concepts. We believe that in many cases, the loss of privacy and autonomy outweigh the benefits of additional amenities or reduced costs.
      However, the shrinkage of unbuilt environment is a more and more pressing issue in Belgium, so minimizing spatial use per capita is imperative. In order to offer sufficient privacy and generosity at minimal use of space, we applied the Lacaton-Vassal-inspired concept of combining a greenhouse and a residential building, developping a row-house type with a clear, yet flexible order of private and communal spaces.

    • PERRET SCHAAD FW2014/15 (79-06)

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      The Perret Schaad FW2014/15 collection was presented at DCA Berlin's showroom in Berlin Mitte.

      We like Fashion, as well as fashion week, but we do not like the artificial exclusiveness of many fashion week events. So what we found interesting about presenting Perret Schaad's FW 2014/15 collection at David Chipperfield Architect's showroom was not only the perfectly balanced aesthetics of the space, but also the fact that it is way too small for a regular presentation.

      We designed a faux-marble stair that serves as a runway and solves both concerns: Lifting the models above the heads of invited guests makes them visible from the street, where both the crowd awaiting access as well as random bypasses are able to see the 21 looks presented.

      Photos: Zara Pfeifer

    • SPECULATIONS (104)

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      Speculations is a Research-to-Design on Communal Housing in Flanders,
      commissioned by Peter Swinnen and realised in collaboration with Belgian and Dutch architecture
      and urban planning firms TRANS, V+ and Monadnock.

      After having completed a general research on communal funding and production of housing worldwide, we focused on the specific Flanders context with its mix of agricultural and industrial production and housing. Our three proposed designs are a combination of a Baugruppe and a greenhouse, a larger scale Genossenschaft (Cooperative) and a logistic hall, and what we call a 'split single family house' as altermative to common single family houses, inspired by the 'curated community' known from Tokyo's Moryama House.

      The logistic hall Coop is based on the economic consideration that a group of investors is able to create a spatial surplus exceeding their investment in the long run. The close spatial juxtaposition of aspects of life –like work, private life, leisure and mobility– allow for a number of synergies like for example the double-use of space according to daytime, and incite to reduce the negative impacts these uses usually have on each other.

    • PERRET SCHAAD SS2014 (79-01)

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      The Perret Schaad SS14 collection presentation at Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin was planned
      as an informal event with a formal character.

      Choosing the Neue Nationalgalerie as a fashion show location is as obvious as impossible. The high aesthetic standards of the brand and comparably low budget inspired us to dare a borderline informal, minimally-invasive show concept: The 25 models bought tickets, entered the current exhibition during opening hours, and walked along the glass facades, fully complying with the museum's house rules, while the invited crowd watched from outside.

    • A GREAT VILLAGE (95)

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      A Great Village is a masterplan for the City of Gooik
      commissioned by the Vlaams Bouwmeester in Bruxelles.

      The proposal follows our vision of Inclusive Urbanism, manifested in a variety of mostly small-scale projects that can be implemented within a flexible schedule and by various combinations of initiators, financial backers and clients. We believe that Flanders is already very successful at combining all kinds of functions from industry over agriculture to living and leisure, which makes it a perfect role model.

      The core goals like supporting the heterogenic mix of uses, establishing connections between neighboring functions, increasing public accessibility and intensifying and densifying functions and spaces is for example addressed by the Agora, one of eight exemplary projects, that connects all existing institutions of the city with a Pergola. We believe it could be a first step for Gooik towards becoming a great contemporary village that generates quality of life from combining all aspects of life within its limits.

    • ENCYCLOPEDIA (47)

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      Encyclopedia is an illustrated index for those who want to re-invent construction.

      For this book contribution we searched and compiled content that we thought could form an inspiring base for anyone interested in pushing the current status of building. The entries range from vernacular architecture and physical principles to inspiring examples and the most high tech materials and are linked with each other like in an encyclopedia. The Index is part of the book Re-Inventing Construction containing work by, among others, 51N4E, Biarke Ingels and Lacaton Vassal. The book was published by Ruby Press.

      Re-inventing Construction
      Ilka & Andreas Ruby (Eds.). With an Illustrated Index by Something Fantastic, 2010
      English, 440 pages, 17,5 x 23,5 cm, hardcover
      ISBN 978-3-9813436-2-5

      Buy the book online:
      Ruby Press

      Go to the wiki-version of the index:
      whatwow.org

    • DRUOT, LACATON & VASSAL (88)

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      Druot, Lacaton & Vassal–Transformation of a 1960s Residential Highrise is an exhibition at Deutsches Architektur Museum Frankfurt on the refurbishment of Tour Bois-le-Prêtre, Paris, curated by Ilka and Andreas Ruby.

      What we like most about Location Vassal's PLUS principle in general and their high-rise refurbishment in particular is to see how people are using that additional, undefined space provided by their projects. To reproduce Druot, Lacaton & Vassal's gesture of opening up the 60's high-rise's facade and the intermediate spaces added to the apartments, we wallpapered life-size interior photographs of the project on all walls of the exhibition space, and combined them with plants and furnitures that resemble those used by inhabitants.

    • MAYBE, MAYBE NOT (44)

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      Maybe, Maybe Not is a fictional research project on the surrounding of Sint-Eloois-Winkel in Flanders, Belgium.

      In 2003, Julie and Michel Vandenbroucke had their house redesigned by 51N4E. Since then, they from time to time invite artists into their home. When we visited them, we were fascinated by the suburban countryside around Sint-Eloois-Winkel, and greatly enjoyed the short road trips Michel took us on. We produced a series of photos, plan drawings, and texts, of which the latter two were developed back home in Berlin. Maybe they are displaying and describing the reality, maybe not. Maybe, Maybe Not was made for Julie and Michel, for their neighbours, for everybody interested in Belgium, for the mystery behind the super-normal, for fantasy. It was published in the book 'Reasons for Walling a House', documenting the first seven contributions to Julie and Michel Vandenbrouke's ongoing artist's residency project. The book was published by Ruby Press, edited 51N4E, and designed by us.

    • HOLIDAY HOME

      The holiday home is designed to host six people in Sistiana, Province of Trieste, Italy

      We enjoy luxury. And if something is comfortable, and simple. The holiday home at the Adriatic sea near Sistiana, in the Province of Trieste, Italy, is designed to achieve the maximum of the three. It is composed of a common kitchen building with storage, service and a rainwater collecting roof and three individual towers. It will host six friends, three couples, a lot of stories, tranquil leisure and culinary delights.

    • THE DUMPLING EXPRESS (00)

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      The Dumpling Express is a solar fueled cooking machine made for the city.

      In many ways it is a 1:1 Manifestation of how we think architecture should be. It is high-tech and low-tech at the same time. It uses the existing, it creates a space to interact, it is flexible. It enables you to cook food without using fossile fuels, coal or even electricity. It is cheap, simple, mobile and white.

    • SOMETHING FANTASTIC (05)

      Something Fantastic is our own manifesto on worlds, people, cities, and houses

      Eventually, the book is about architecture. It is about the future. It is about the environment, energy and politics, and how everything is linked. It is about beautiful things. It is about being naïve enough to ask the right questions and what it means to us to be an architect.

      Something Fantastic is about interconnection and dialog. In Interviews Werner Sobek, Gerhard Matzig, Markus Miessen, and many more contribute their thoughts as they speak about subjects as diverse as the future of architecture, evolution, poetry and communication. Thinkers as diverse as Thomas Hobbes, Alain de Botton, Walter Benjamin and Mies van der Rohe are excerpted, letting the reader choose from a smorgasbord of word and thought. These quotations are then annotated to reference, connect, and illuminate the themes and issues discussed throughout the book.

      Ultimately, Something Fantastic is about hope for the future, inspiration, and the courage to call for the new.

      Something Fantastic
      A Manifesto by Three Young Architects on Worlds, People, Cities, And Houses
      Ruby Press, 2010
      English, 218 pages, 18 x 29,7 cm, paperback
      ISBN 978-3-9813436-1-8

      Buy the book online:
      Buchhandlung Walther König (Germany)
      Motto Distribution (Switzerland)
      AA Book Store (UK)
      NAi Booksellers (Netherlands)
      Copyright Books (Belgium)
      Stout Books (USA)

  • Art Department

    SF Art Department is an Art Direction consultancy founded by Something Fantastic
    to spread ideas worth spreading.

    Images above in order of appearance:
    Campaign for The Things Around us, Canadian Centre for Architecture, CCA, Montréal (2020)
    Book cover "A book about a large building recently built in Asia ... by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin, edited by Something Fantastic, Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne, (2020)
    Elements of new identity for Bureau N (Photo curtesy of Gonzalez Haase AAS taken by Thomas Mayer – Ostkreuz, art work by Roman Schram, 2019)
    Installation view "The University is Now on Air" CCA, Montréal (2018-2019)
    Collages for Artek Advertisment campaign (Photo Zara Pfeifer and Leonard Streich, 2018)
    Book cover and sleeve "Collage City, eds. Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, Russian edition, Strelka Press, Moscow, (2018)

    GO TO SF ART DEPARTMENT

  • Ideas

    (things we work and would like to work on)

    • Arcadia

    • Seasonality

    • Inclusive Urbanism

  • Teaching

    • STUDIO FOR IMMEDIATE SPACES

      GERRIT RIETVELD ACADEMIE, SANDBERG INSTITUUT

      Everything manifests in space. Migration is about space, ecology is about space, equality is about space. Space is political, economic, social, aesthetic. The Studio for Immediate Spaces (SIS) at Sandberg Institute will deal with space, how it is produced, how it is used, occupied, and freed.

      Facing a collapse of ecological systems and a widening gap between rich and poor, the avant-garde and the mass, insiders and outsiders, SIS aims at preparing students for a future spatial practice using artistic means and architectural approaches to critically reflect and actively produce space. SIS consciously operates outside the classic disciplines of art, design or architecture that we feel are trapped in their inherent logics and fail to establish alternatives to the current modus operandi. Thus we value the collective effort of making space, not the genius gesture of the individual master.

      Space is both, a theoretical entity and a real thing that inform one another. To deal with space means to deal in space. To deal in space one needs to understand space as a form of discourse as well as the realm of action in the real world. To bridge theory and practice of spatial operations one needs knowledge, tools and courage. Knowledge to know what is possible. Tools to know how to achieve it. And courage to push through toward execution. 

      SIS is programmed for everyone who wants to develop an alternative spatial practice, not as a free artist or fashionable designer nor as private architect. It’s for those who dare to critically confront their profession with ecological urgencies and social inequalities in their strive for relevance and beauty.

      The Studio for Immediate Spaces is directed by Something Fantastic and Ludwig Engel

    • BUILDING FOR THE UNESTABLISHMENT

      Building for the Unestablishment is an exhibition at DAM Frankfurt about the research and Design work of MAS Urban Design.

      The fact that an increasingly high number of young people in Europe still live with their parents drew our interest on the obviously increasing number of people that could for various reasons be called unestablished. Connecting this insight with the topic of Inclusive Urbanism, an urban design principle that aims to create more functionally, socially and spatially heterogeneous, and thus inclusive, neighbourhoods led to the topic of the MAS Urban Design 2016/17 and the exhibition at DAM Frankfurt. Next to architectural and urban designs for Offenbach near Frankfurt, the course presents financial principles in the field of building production, a collection of industrial building elements collected during a road trip excursion to Veneto, and global urban patterns that are rooted in migratory movements.

    • HOUSING CAIRO: THE INFORMAL RESPONSE

      Cairo is not only Africa's biggest city, but with 60 percent of its population living in so-called informal housing, Cairo is mirroring a global phenomenon that we have been investigating with the MAS Urban Design at ETH Zurich over the past years. 'Housing Cairo: The Informal Response' illuminates the architecture of informality and its mechanisms of production through a series of theoretical essays and architectural design proposals. Central to the project is a re-examination of the concept of “informality” itself and its often negative connotations. As the book argues, Cairo’s informal response to housing needs is not a marginal phenomenon, but rather an intelligent, optimized answer to planning incapacities – an answer that architects and planners should themselves be participating in.

      Editors: Marc Angélil and Charlotte Malterre-Barthes with Something Fantastic and Cluster
      Language: English
      Published in: 2016
      306 pages
      240 x 175 mm
      ISBN: 978-3-944074-17-7

      available, amongst others, at Books People Places, pro qm, or William Stout Architectural Books

    • MAS URBAN DESIGN ETH ZURICH

      HS 2014/SS 2015 - RESISTANCE, RELEVANCE, RESILIENCE

      Something Fantastic is happy to announce that Charlotte Malterre Barthes has joined the core teaching team of MAS Urban Design, directing the course's focus on Cairo, Egypt.

      In a global context where architects have been loosing ground to both informal modes of construction and to the speculative real-estate sector, this program conducts a reflection towards a defiant repositioning of our discipline against its eroding leverage.

      (1)RESISTANCE: Reacting/ Rebellious/ Urgent/ Insurgent/ Opposing/
      Defiant Investigating the role of design in the production of urban space, and the position of designers in market-driven development logics, the underlying mechanisms of brutal urbanization that have led
      to untenable situations of spatial and social injustice will be identified.

      (2)RELEVANCE: Significant/ Pertinent/ Substantial/ Momentous/ Meaningful/
      With the idea to re-radicalize the design field, the program's goal is in a second phase, to generate tactics that should reposition architecture as a relevant and central method to making the city.

      (3) RESILIENCE: Rebound/ Robust/ Spirited/ Durable/ Enduring/ Flexible/
      Buoyant/ Because the program is addressing the challenges of the profession faced on all fronts by forces of urbanization, resilience is a theme to be explored not as the over worn concept of sustainability but as a framework for an ethical, social, political practice of architecture and urban design.

      The program addresses young professionals in the field of architecture and urban design that have a special interest in practicing within informal territories and environments. This year's course focuses on the comparably sophisticated informal building industry of Cairo, its economic mechanisms and challenges. How can a city like Cairo develop and grow despite an extreme scarcity of fertile, well-connected land?

    • MINHA CASA—NOSSA CIDADE!

      Innovating Mass Housing for Social Change in Brazil

      In 2009, Brazil launched the mass housing program "Minha Casa, Minha Vida" ("My House, My Life"), which aims to build 3.4 million housing units by the end of 2014.

      By reexamining the program at a critical time, Minha Casa—Nossa Cidade ("My House, Our City") attempts to hack the production of mass housing and tackle the profound social changes currently underway in Brazil. In three chapters, the book reviews the history and implementation of the government program, highlights the ingenuity of "Popular Brazilian Architecture," and presents design proposals by MAS Urban Design for low-cost housing.

      Building on the program's success in broadening access to housing, Minha Casa—Nossa Cidade puts forth a vision for the city as a common project and the transformation of monotonous urban areas into popular neighborhoods—living environments that can be appropriated according to individual as well as collective needs.

      Minha Casa—Nossa Cidade
      Innovating Mass Housing for Social Change in Brazil
      Ruby Press, 2014
      English, 496 pages, 20 x 27 cm, paperback
      ISBN 978-3-944074-09-2

    • MAS URBAN DESIGN ETH ZURICH

      HS 2013/SS 2014 - THE GROWING HOUSE

      Something Fantastic is happy to announce that another year of teaching the MAS Urban Design at Marc Angelil's chair at ETH Zurich is going to start soon.

      The program addresses young professionals in the field of architecture and urban design that have a special interest in practicing within informal territories and environments and diverse situations. This year's course is going to operate within- and compare two different contexts: India and Brazil. The focus thereby lies on the principle of the Growing House, an alternative concept of the production and use of buildings and its specific potential within informally built neighborhoods.

      The program is going to be held by Something Fantastic in collaboration with Anne Fenk, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and Rainer Hehl with excursions to India in autumn 2013 and Brazil in spring 2014. Something Fantastic is happy to announce that another year of teaching the MAS Urban Design at Marc Angelil's chair at ETH Zurich is going to start soon.

      The program addresses young professionals in the field of architecture and urban design that have a special interest in practicing within informal territories and environments and diverse situations. This year's course is going to operate within- and compare two different contexts: India and Brazil. The focus thereby lies on the principle of the Growing House, an alternative concept of the production and use of buildings and its specific potential within informally built neighborhoods.

      The program is going to be held by Something Fantastic in collaboration with Anne Fenk, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and Rainer Hehl with excursions to India in autumn 2013 and Brazil in spring 2014.

    • MAS URBAN DESIGN ETH ZURICH

      HS 2012/SS 2013 - Architettura Popular Brasilia

      This year's course focuses on the popular as a phenomenon but also as means to introduce new kinds of architectures in the informal context in particular and developing contexts in general. The course is going to investigate patterns and mechanisms of the popular to understand and make use of its potentials. Next to a three week excursion that includes collaborations and meetings with institutions, organizations and planners on site in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, the course includes a research focus on small-scale technologies and prototypes to be introduced in the field of action, as well as two design tasks both on building and urban scale.

      As the goal is to imbed the designers ambitions in regard to the aesthetic, social and ecological development of the world in the popular culture and the natural environment, a focus is put on communicating the ideas in presentions in front of decision makers on site, in a book publication (follow up of Building Brazil and Cidade de Deus - City of God) and in exhibitions (last two years: USA, Singapore, Brazil).

      The course is bridging between idealistic ideas and the urgency for immediate action.

    • CIDADE DE DEUS–CITY OF GOD

      Working with Informalized Mass Housing in Brazil

      Cidade de Deus serves as the inspiration and case study for Cidade de Deus – City of God, a widely relevant study of the appropriation and customization of standardized mass housing over time.

      The once-notorious favela in Rio de Janeiro, which grew out of a government-housing program, is today a safe and vibrant neighborhood and a viable counter model to gated condominiums. This research-based design study by the Master of Advanced Studies in Urban Design program at the ETH Zurich unpacks the implications of Cidade de Deus' hybrid environment, as it exists today. What results is a model for improving mass housing programs using the ingenuity of informal practices—a model applicable not just in Brazil, but world-wide.

      Cidade de Deus – City of God
      Working with Informalized Mass Housing in Brazil
      Ruby Press, 2013
      English, 352 pages, 20 x 27 cm, paperback
      ISBN 978-3-944074-02-3

    • THE WORLD IS NOT FAIR – 2012

      Lecture and Discussion at Institut für Raumexperimente's Tempelhof outpost

      Something Fantastic was invited by Eric Ellingsen of Olafur Eliasson's Institut für Raumexperimente to take part in their program at the Worlds Fair at Flugfeld Tempelhof. Something Fantastic not only presented some of their latest book projects and took part in the discussions but also cooked Espressos with the solar cooker of the Dumpling Express. They failed baking Amarettini on it.

    • BUILDING BRAZIL!

      Proactive Urban Renewal of Informal Settlements

      In Building Brazil!, the Master of Advanced Studies in Urban Design program at the ETH Zürich turns its attention to the settlements blanketing the hills of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

      As cities strain under a growing population and demand for resources, Brazil will provide a test case for how politicians, architects and urban planners can work together with local stakeholders to improve living conditions in informal settlements without upsetting their social structures. Against the backdrop of recent and exemplary developments in Brazilian public policy and slum-upgrading practices, Building Brazil! puts forth a proactive approach to the favela that opens up the existing urban fabric to architectural and urban interventions.

      Shifting between micro and macro levels of analysis, Building Brazil! investigates the way forward for the favelas of Jardim Colombo, Heliópolis, Cidade Ipava and Rio das Pedras. Practical design solutions for informal, risk-prone areas are situated within overarching urban strategies; and context-specific projects are complemented by editorials on the spatial, social and financial dynamics of the informal Brazilian city.

      At once specific and general, particular and allegorical, Building Brazil! reflects on the problems and prospects of a rapidly urbanizing world.

      Building Brazil!
      Proactive Urban Renewal of Informal Settlements
      Ruby Press, Forthcoming 2011
      English, 464 pages, 20 x 27 cm, paperback
      ISBN 978-3-9813436-4-9

    • COURSE POSTERS

      The Science of Science (Lernen lernen durch Fragen fragen), Universität der Künste Berlin

      The The Science of Science – Lernen lernen durch Fragen fragen was thought by Schubert, Schütz and Streich at the University of the Arts Berlin during 2010 and 2011. On a didactic level the class tried to reduce the inhibition threshold of the students in the pursuit of getting their own questions answered. On a content level it investigated ways of gaining knowledge on fields that are not considered part of the architecture discipline as such but nevertheless are instrumental from the view point of Something Fantastic: The belief that architecture is affected by everything and vice versa does affect everything is the basis of their claim that working as architects today involves a general interest and involvement in the world.

      Their current course at the MAS UD at ETH Zürich entitled "Technology Exchange" builds upon the same principals and tries to produce, invent or transfer smart, touching, simple technologies to informal settlements in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

  • Downloads

    • About Something Fantastic (EN)

      pdf document (20.83 kB)

    • About Something Fantastic (DE)

      pdf document (20.54 kB)

    • Something Fantastic – A Manifesto

      Reading Sample
      pdf document (1.11 MB)

  • Contact

    Something Fantastic is an undisciplinary architectural practice committed to smart, touching, simple architecture. The firm’s agenda is based on the idea that architecture is affected by everything and vice versa – does affect everything – and therefore working as architects implies a broad interest and involvement in the world.

    Something Fantastic’s practice includes designing books, exhibitions, furniture, buildings, and urban development schemes. Next to designing, the partners write (e.g. Something Fantastic, Ruby Press), teach (ETH Zurich 2012-2019, Sandberg Instituut at Gerrit Rietveld Academie since 2019), lecture, and art direct (since 2015 for Finnish furniture brand Artek). In 2016 the studio was responsible for the design of the German Pavilion at the 15th La Biennale di Venezia entitled Making Heimat. Germany Arrival Country.

    Something Fantastic, Leipziger Str. 61, D-10117 Berlin

    @somethingfantastic_official

    Copyright Something Fantastic, 2011-2020. All rights reserved.
    Site designed by Pieterjan Grandry, Jonas Lindström, and Something Fantastic.

  • Miscellaneous

    • A SECTION OF NOW

      –

      A Section of Now: Social Norms and Rituals as Sites for Architectural Intervention, Exhibition, CCA (Canadian Centre for Architecture), 13 November 2021 to 1 May 2022

      The exhibition also highlights the Constellations House designed by Something Fantastic. We also highly recommend the conversation a "New Society" between Giovanna Borasi and Sam Chermayeff, the essay "Cuddling Rooms, Body Banks, and Collab Houses" by Giovanna Borasi, the film "What if not the family?" and the introduction video to the show all available on the CCA Website. (Image: Screenshot from cca.qc.ca showing a part of the exhibition; Photograph by Matthieu Brouillard © CCA)

    • LACIA VIVERE

      –

      Lascia Vivere, Something Fantastic with Erika Mayr, Galleria Villa Massimo

      Image: Oasis outside of Berlin, 2021, conceived and realized at a former hog farm in collaboration with Ludivigne Gragy and Niklas Fanelsa.

    • THE STATE OF ART OF ARCHITECTURE MILANO

      –

      We contributed an aluminium model of Constellations House at the exhibition/symposium The State of the Art of Architecture curated by Joseph Grima at the Triennale di Milano in February 2020. The exhibition is on display until the end of March. Further info: triennale.org

    • STUDIO FOR IMMEDIATE SPACES

      We are happy to announce that together with Ludwig Engel we will be responsible for the direction of the Studio for Immediate Spaces at Gerrit Rietveld Academies Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam.

    • RWTH AACHEN

      We are honoured to give a "Werkbericht" at RWTH Aachen on June 18 at 8pm. The lecture will take place on campus in the Reiff Museum in hall R5.

    • UDK BERLIN

      We are going to join the class of Monica Bonvicini and Florian Riegler to discuss our perspective on UdK Berlin and other educational institutions we've been involved with. This public lecture and discussion is part of their research and design project from one to many. Feel free to join us at R95 at 10 am.

    • EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE

      –

      We are happy to be part of a session on Urban Planning for Refugee Inclusion at this year's Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion symposium, where we are going to speak about Inclusive urbanism and what we call The Unestablishment.

    • SEASONALITY

      The Sooner Now: FvF Friends Space, Glogauer Straße 2, 10999 Berlin, Noon

    • STATION PLUS

      Watch our favourite youtube videos on station.plus, the channel curated by students of Arno Brandlhuber's studio at ETH Zurich.

    • LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

      We are happy to share that the exhibition Architectural Ethnography from Tokyo: Guidebooks and Projects on Livelihood curated by Momoyo Kaijima co-founder of Atelier Bow-Wow will feature two publications designed by SF Art Department (Sudu Manual by Dirk Hebel and ETH Zurich and Architecture Reading Aid Ahmedabad by Niklas Fanelsa, Marius Helten, Björn Martenson, Leonard Wertgen and RWTH Aachen).

    • RIBA EUROPA SUPER SESSION

      British Pavilion Viale Giardini Publici 302122 Venezia, Italy

    • COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY – CONSTRUCTING PRACTICE

      We are happy to be invited to participate in Constructing Practice, a symposium as part of an ongoing research initiated by Juan Herreros and Enrique Walker of GSAPP. The symposium brings together architecture firms from around the world to talk about their way of developing and maintaining their architecture practice.
      17.11.2017, from 9:30am, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall,
      Columbia University, 1172 Amsterdam St., New York

    • CCA MONTREAL

      The University Is Now on Air: Broadcasting Modern Architecture, an exhibition on the legendary architecture course module A305 of the Open University, the UK public distance education system from the 1970s, curated by Joaquin Moreno, can be visited from November 2017 until May 2018.
      We collaborated with APPARATA from London on the exhibition design,
      focusing on graphic concept and design.
      14.11.2017 – 1.4.2018, Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1920, rue Baile, Montreal

    • ETH ZURICH – I PREFER NOT TO

      Our friend and colleague Peter Swinnen is not only running a very inspiring studio at ETH Zurich, but also curates a lecture series with the title I prefer not to. The quote is taken from Herman Melville’s short story ‘Bartleby, the scrivener: A story of Wall Street’ and is a core reference of the ongoing discussion on the culture of 'NO' that architecture, the discipline of 'YES', could, according to Peter, deeply and critically learn from. We are very excited to be part of this discussion! Please join us.
      7.11.2017, 20:00, HIL E4, Hönggerberg, Zürich

    • RIBA LONDON

      EUROPA: Connecting Ideas Across Borders is a lecture series at RIBA London, focusing on the relationship between European countries and the UK. The talks provide a platform for emerging architects practising in Europe to engage in critical dialogues with UK audiences about contemporary architecture. As part of the Europa II section, Something Fantastic is invited along with BeL, Christ & Gantenbein and Sauter von Moos.
      24.10. 2017, 7pm, RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London

    • VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM

      Together! The New Architecture of the Collective, initiated and curated by Ilka and Andreas Ruby together with EM2N focuses on communal housing world wide. The exhibition not only shows a great variety of organisational-, financial-, and building types, but also exhibits hands-no advice for those who are interested in living together with others. We did the graphic design for both exhibition and catalogue, available both in german and english.
      2.6.2017, 19:00 (Opening ), Vitra Design Museum, Charles-Eames-Str. 2, Weil am Rhein

    • BIENNALE VENICE 2016

      Something Fantastic is responsible for the exhibition and publication design of the german pavilion at the coming Venice Biennale. Very much looking forward to the ongoing collaboration with Anna Scheuermann, Peter Schmal and Oliver Elser of DAM Frankfurt, and Julia Albani and Silke Neumann of Bureau N. We hope to see you at the opening!
      26.05.2016 from 4pm, Padiglione Germania, Giardini, Biennale di Architettura, Venice

    • UNIVERSITY OF HASSELT

      Something Fantastic is invited to lecture in the course of the A-Z Lecture Series
      at the University of Hasselt. There is an open discussion planned already in the afternoon,
      and we hope to see you there!
      15.03. from 8pm, afternoon discussion from 1.30pm, Z33, Zuivelmarkt 33, 3500 Hasselt, Belgium

    • MAS ETH ZURICH

      Please join Marc Angélil, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Something Fantastic and all participating students for the public final crits of the MAS Urban Design 15/16 at the Chair of Marc Angélil. We are happy to have Sarah Sabry of the University of Zürich, Omar Nagati of Cluster, Cairo, and Hamdi Reda of Artellewa, Cairo as guest critics.
      14.12. from 1pm, ONA, Neunbrunnenstr. 50, Zürich

    • SHENZEN BIENNALE

      We are happy and excited about being invited to present, together with our colleague Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, the work of the MAS Urban Design 14/15 on Cairo's informal neighborhood Ar-El-Liwa, at the Shenzen Biennale 2015 Radical Urbanism curated
      by Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner.

      On display are several 1/20 models of typical Ard-El-Liwa housing typologies, and three improved typologies conceived by the MAS. 5.12. from 3pm, Shenzen Biennale,
      Shekou Ferry Port, Shenzen, China

    • ARTEK–ART AND TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION

      Artek, the iconic finnish furniture brand founded, amongst others, by Aino and Alvar Aalto, is giving an insight into its roots, technology and recent development in the exhibition Art and Technology.
      05.11. from 7pm, Exhibition 06.11. – 28.11. Modus, Wielandstrasse 27-28, Berlin
      26.11. – 09.01. MC Selvini, Via C. Poerio 3, Milano
      05.11. – 24.11.Living Center OZONE 3F Welcome Plaza, Tokyo

    • NEW DESIGN UNIVERSITY

      Something Fantastic is invited to lecture on exhibition design at the occasion of this fall's semester start at the faculty of Information and Spatial design, led by Prof. Christine Schweiger. 9.10. from 10am, New Design University, Mariazellerstraße 97a, St. Pölten, Austria

    • CENTRO MUNICIPAL DE ARTE HÉLIO OITICICA

      We are happy and proud to be part of the exhibition CASA CIDADE MUNDO, Curated by Evandro Salles of Instituto Casa, and to be able to present our vision of a Tropical Brazilian Arcadian City. 04.10.-14.11.2015, Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rua Luís de Camões, 68, Rio de Janeiro

    • ARCHITEKTURMUSEUM DER TU MÜNCHEN

      The exhibition PAUL SCHNEIDER-ESLEBEN. ARCHITEKT at Architekturmuseum der TU München curated by Regine Heß focuses not only on Schneider-Esleben'sbuilding projects, but also asks about today's perspective on post-war architecture in Germany. We are excited and happy to see our exhibition design becoming reality this coming week. 16.07.-18.10.2015, Pinakothek der Moderne, Barer Str. 40, München

    • cà phê sữa đá AT SOMETHING FANTASTIC

      Something Fantastic is opening a Vietnamese Coffee Shop outside Leipziger Str. 61 for one day. The shop is open all afternoon the 27th of June on the occasion of Make City Festival 2015. Come by, sit down on a tiny plastic chair, have a coffee, check out a first dummy of the publication APB–Architetura Popular Brasileira, have a chat with us and enjoy summer on Leipziger Strasse. 27.06.2015, from 2pm, Something Fantastic Office, Leipziger Str. 61

    • DISPLAYED SPACES

      Something Fantastic is happy to announce the publishing of Displayed Spaces. New Means of Architecture Presentation through Exhibitions, edited Roberto Gigliotti, that issues from last year's conference of the same name, featuring texts by Giovanna Borasi, Anne Holtrop, Wilfried Kühn, Emanuela De Cecco, Something Fantastic, Ilka & Andreas Ruby, Andres Lepik, Tina di Carlo and two interviews with Kersten Geers and Maarten Gielen.
      Leipzig/Bozen 2015, 216 pages, english, ISBN: 978-3-944669-69-4, €26.00, www.spectorbooks.com

    • POST STUDIO TALES AT SOMETHING FANTASTIC

      District and Something Fantastic are happy to announce the publishing event of Post-Studio Tales at Leipziger Str. 61. At this happy occasion, Friedemann Heckel has installed a large neon work on our wall, and there will be drinks from 5pm. 02.05.2015, 5pm, Something Fantastic Office, Leipziger Str. 61

    • HARVARD ABROAD STUDIO BERLIN BRUNNENSTR. 9

      Something Fantastic is just finalizing the project documentation for this year's Abroad Studio of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design taught by Frank Barkow and Arno Brandlhuber with Niklas Maak and Fritz Neumeyer. 21.04.2015, 10.00 am, final Crits, Harvard Abroad Studio, Brunnenstr. 9, Berlin

    • Y-GSA YOKOHAMA

      Something Fantastic is going to participate in an international symposium on urban habitats hosted by Y-GSA of Yokohama National University, presenting the research and design work of the MAS Urban Design Marc Angélil at ETH Zurich. Recent work addressed in the lecture will be, amongst others, the MAS' contribution to the UNEVEN GROWTH exhibition at MoMA New York. 23.03.2015, Y-GSA, 79 Energy Center, Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 240-8501, Japan

    • SUMMER SCHOOL RIO DE JANEIRO

      –

      Something Fantastic and Dr. Rainer Hehl would like to invite students of UdK Berlin and TU Berlin to a summer school and excursion trip to Brazil in collaboration with PUC Rio de Janeiro and ETH Zurich from march 9th to 16th on the topic of Tropical Architecture In The Anthropocene with the goal of analysing and improving low-cost housing in tropical climates. Participants will have the chance to contribute to an exemplary Minha Casa, Minha Vida pilot project in Parauapebas, Para. 06.03.2015, 10.00 am, Santa Tereza, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
      (Image: MAS UD 2012/13 ETH Zurich

    • THE BARTLETT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

      Sophia Psarra and Fani Kostourou of The Bartlett School of Architecture invited Something Fantastic to the midterm crits of their E-merging Design Research program. The course under the title 'Active Architecture' focuses on alternative approaches to improve life in the favelas through spatial, social, economic and ecological innovation–A topic and context we're especially interested in! 06.03.2015, 11am, 140 Hampstead Road, London

    • IAKOV CHERNIKHOV PRIZE

      Something Fantastic is grateful and excited for being nominated for the 5th Iakov Chernikov Prize. The prize set out by the Iakov Chernikhov International Foundation in Moscow under the title 'Challenge of Our Time' is going to be awarded in mid-2015. Former laureates include Ensamble Studio, Dogma and Jun'ya Ishigami. 01.06.2015, Iakov Chernikhov International Foundation, Moscow, Russia

    • FINAL CRITS MAS ETH ZURICH 2014

      Marc Angélil, Charlotte Malterre Barthes, Something Fantastic and the students of the MAS Urban Design would like to invite you to this semester's final crits at ETH Zurich.

      This time the presentation focuses on informal housing in Ardilewa, Cairo. Each group is going to present their proposals, that follow the market logic of the informal building sector, but aim for higher quality buildings, a more livable neighborhood, and a more sustainable urban development, on one feddan of land. 12.12.2014, 9.00 am, ONA, Neunbrunnenstr. 50, Zürich

    • MOMA NEW YORK

      Something Fantastic is happy to announce the opening of UNEVEN GROWTH at MoMA New York featuring Varanda Products, a project we've developed together with RUA architects, Rio, and the ETH Zurich MAS Urban Design. Veranda Products is an urban tactic for Rio based on products that first are practical and desirable, and second change the cityscape on an urban level, for example by increasing urban vegetation or offering shade. 19.11.2014, 7pm (opening reception), MoMA, 11 W 53rd St, New York

    • HDA GRAZ

      The Druot, Lacaton & Vassal Tour bois le Pretre exhibition is going into a third round, hosted by Haus der Architektur Graz. As at DAM Frankfurt and DAZ Berlin, the interiors of Tour Bois Le Pretre will displayed in 1:1 dioramas. And as in the two previous exhibitions, the approach of Lacaton & Vassal to open up the tower to the outside will translate and be applied to the spaces of HDA Graz. 27.09.2014, 6pm (opening reception and talk), Haus der Architektur, Mariahilferstraße 2, Graz

    • JUDIN GALLERY BERLIN

      Barkow Leibinger, Arno Brandlhuber, Jesko Fezer, Christoph Gengnagel, Gonzales Haase, Konstantin Grcic, June-14 Meyer-Grohbrügge & Chermayeff, Jürgen Mayer H, Sauerbruch Hutton and Something Fantastic have been discussing and now will present their personal re-edition of This Is Tomorrow, an exhibition and architectural statement that was first shown in 1956 in London. Something Fantastic's contribution to this project called How Soon Is Now is going to be a small collection of things that stand exemplarily for their idea of themes and tendencies in architecture and design, life and work, in the close future. 12.09.2014, 7pm (opening reception), Galerie Nolan Judin, Potsdamer Straße 83, Berlin

    • CHAIR OF SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION, ETH ZURICH

      Guillaume Habert, head of ETH Zurich's chair of sustainable construction invited Something Fantastic to hold a lecture on their understanding and practice of sustainable construction as part of his seminar. 07.05.2014, 4.45pm, E1, Campus Hönggerberg, ETH Zurich

    • AIRBNB PAVILION, BIENNALE VENICE

      –

      Something Fantastic's Berlin Rooftop House is going to be exhibited at the airbnb Pavilion on the 14th Venice Biennale next to works by Etienne Descloux, GRAU and Sergison Bates architects and others . The exhibition opens May 4th, but neither the exact address nor the time has been announced so far. We'll keep you posted. 04.05.2014, airbnb Pavilion, Venice

    • RECEPTION, BERLIN

      Something Fantastic is presenting and discussing the APB – Catalogue of Popular Brazilian Architecture at the UP Bar at RECEPTION Gallery in the course of this season's gallery weekend. 03.05.2014, RECEPTION, 5PM, Kurfürstenstrasse 5/5a, Kurfürstenstrasse 5/5a, 10785 Berlin

    • MUSEU DE ARTE DO RIO

      Something Fantastic is happy to announce that the work of the MAS Urban Design, Minha Casa–Nossa Cidade,
      is being exhibited in Rio de Janeiro at the occasion of a symposium on informal housing at the Museu de Arte do Rio, MAR. 03.04.2014, Museu MAR, Praça Mauá, 5, Centro, Rio de Janeiro

    • MINHA CASA, NOSSA CIDADE

      Something Fantastic is happy and proud to announce the publication of the third MAS book on Brazilian Mass Housing, this time focusing on the State's social housing program Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life), turning it into Minha Casa, Nossa Cidade (My House, Our City). Available now at a bookshop near you.

    • FINAL CRITS MAS ETH ZURICH 2012

      Marc Angelil, Rainer Hehl and Something Fantastic is inviting everyone to join this semester's final crits of the MAS Urban Design. The 14 projects situated on sites in Paraisópolis and Cabuxo de Baixo, SP, are going to be discussed with Sarah Graham of agps architecture Zürich and a Project Leader of MMBB from Sao Paulo that is responsible for the current master plan of Paraisópolis. 14.12.2012, 9.00 am, ONA, Neunbrunnenstr. 50, Zürich

    • WHAT IS CRITICAL SPATIAL PRACTICE?

      Markus Miessen and Nikolaus Hirsch's publication on critical spatial practice is out now. Please note Something Fantastic's message from Rio.
      Sternberg Press 2012
      ISBN 978-3943365276
      240 pages, english
      available at Motto Berlin or elsewhere

    • LECTURE MÜNSTER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

      Something Fantastic was invited by Joachim Schultz-Granberg to hold a public lecture at his master class at Münster School of Architecture. 05.12.2012, 7.00 pm, Lecture hall LEO 1, Leonardo-Campus 5, Münster

    • LECTURE HOCHSCHULE MÜNCHEN

      Something Fantastic is going to lecture together with Florian Fischer and Sebastian Multerer of Fischer Multerer at the opening of a lecture series with young architects at Hochschule München. 04.12.2012, 7.00 pm, Hochschule München, Lothstr. 34, München

    • DOMUS, LONG LIVE THE CRISIS!

      Something Fantastic contributed to the October issue of DOMUS with a selection of drawings of their favourite great ideas and the essay Long Life the Crisis that outlines a positive approach to the consequences of the crisis on quality, sustainability and innovation in architecture. The DOMUS October issue is available at news stands worldwide.

    • DUMPLING EXPRESS AT VIA PARIS

      The Dumpling Express is being presented at the exhibition Ma Cantine en Ville at VIA Paris on invitation by Damien Antoni and Lydia Blasco who initiated the exhibition project for the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine. The show will be on until November 18th and features their research on mobile kitchens worldwide as well as a choice of mobile kitchen projects like the Dumpling Express or Bow Wow's long dining-table-bike. 10.10.2012 - 18.11.2012, Galerie VIA, 29, Avenue Daumesnil, Paris

    • DAM FRANKFURT: DRUOT, LACATON, VASSAL

      The exhibition Druot, Lacaton & Vassal, Transformation eines 60er Jahre Wohnhochhauses curated by Ilka and Andreas Ruby in collaboration with Something Fantastic is focusing on the Tour Bois le Prêtre, the first PLUS-project to be realized in Paris. 06.10.2012 - 13.01.2012, Deutsches Architektur Museum Frankfurt, Schaumainkai 43, 60596 Frankfurt am Main

    • AGPS CLUES at AEDES

      –

      The exhibition agps clues is being presented at AEDES Berlin. Something Fantastic cooperated with agps on the exhibition design. 17.09.2012 - 18.10.2012, AEDES Berlin, Christinenstr. 18-19, Berlin

    • SPANISH PAVILION, BIENNALE VENICE

      –

      Something Fantastic and Ilka & Andreas Ruby present their participative book Thats Really Cool as a contribution to the spanish pavilion at the 13th Biennale di Architettura in Venice. The book invites everyone to share their favoutite idea in architecture and, by doing so, becoming a part of the Biennale exhibition. 29.08.2012 – 25.11.2012, Spanish Pavilion, Giardini, 13th Biennale di Architettura, Venice, Italy

    • 19 HOURS AT THE KIOSK, HKW BERLIN

      Something Fantastic is invited to contribute to Markus Miessen's event series 19 Hours at the Kiosk in the context of Between Walls and Windows - Architektur und Ideologie at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin on September 29th at 7pm. Next to a screening of Eduardo Coutinho's documentary Edificio Master Something Fantastic are going to mix their Brazilian favorite caipis: Sake-Litchi and Wodka-Maracuja, and talk on their take on the topic.

      The evening will be complemented with a DJ set and the appearance of performance artists Wet Nails.

    • EXHIBITION FAVELA RULES!

      –

      The exhibition Favela Rules! on the MAS Urban Design's outcome of its occupation with Cabuxo de Baixo is opening in Sao Paulo's central station. Heart of the exhibition is a 20-m-section of the area including buildings and infrastructure proposals in 1/100 scale. 30.06.2012 - 14.07.2012, Estação Júlio Prestes, São Paulo

    • EXHIBITION CIDADE DE DEUS!

      –

      The Exhibition Cidade de Deus – City of God is opening the 26th of July in Rio de Janeiro. The show features the resulting prototypes of this year's MAS Urban Design at ETH Zurich, the 26-piece-collection of posters of essential ideas of student projects and research, and two exemplary strategies for both informal and social housing in CDD. 26.06.2012 - 08.07.2012, Studio X, Praça Tiradentes, 48, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    • LECTURE INSTITUT FÜR RAUMEXPERIMENTE

      Something Fantastic has been invited to lecture at The World is not Fair Fair initiated by Olafur Eliasson's Institut für Raumexperimente. 08.06.2012, 14.00 pm. The World is not Fair Fair, Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin

    • FINAL CRITS ÉCOLE NATIONALE SUPÉRIEURE D’ARCHITECTURE PARIS-MALAQUAIS

      Something Fantastic has been invited to critique the work of students of architecture at Paris Malaquais that focuses on ways of improving their spatial and political situation at the school and in relationship with the neighboring École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, initiated and supervised by Andreas Ruby. 07.06.2012, 12.00 pm. 14, Rue Bonaparte, 75272 Paris

    • MID TERM CRITS TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT BERLIN

      Something Fantastic has been invited to co-critique the current state of work at Prof. Jörg Stollmanns Chair for Urban Design and Architecture. 02.06.2012, 10.00 am. TU Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni, 10623 Berlin

    • EXHIBITION POST STUDIO TALES

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      Post-Studio Tales is a residency-as-exhibition investigating »contemporary art practice and the spaces of its production«. For one month, eighteen artists and the project's three curators will stay and work at District Kunst- und Kulturförderung in a site-specific exhibition architecture designed by the Berlin-based architectural collective Something Fantastic. The lecture andpresentation series Raconter et rencontrer will take place on three days during the project; details and further events will be announced online.

      From 13.04.2012–30.04.2012, POST-STUDIO TALES will be open to visitors Wednesday–Friday 12.00pm - 6.00pm and Saturday–Sunday 2.00 pm - 6.00 pm as well as by appointment. For more information, please contact the curators either on site during opening hours or via email at post@district-berlin.com.

      District Berlin, Bessemerstraße 2-14, 12103 Berlin

    • LECTURE: LEHRCANAPÉ, PHILLIP URSPRUNG, ETH ZÜRICH

      Something Fantastic will hold a talk about their office at the "Lehrcanapé" Lecture Series originally insituted with great acclaim by Lucius Burckhardt in the 1970s and revived by Phillip Ursprung and his Institute for Art and Architecture history at the ETH Zürich. 29.03.2012, 13.45 pm. ETH Zürich, Höngerberg, HIL E1

    • BOOK LAUNCH VALERIE TRAAN GALLERY ANTWERP

      The book "Reasons For Walling A House" edited by 51N4E and published by Ruby Press will be released on thursday
      the 15th of March between 4pm and 9pm. The publication contains pieces relating to 51N4E's Espeel-Vandenbrouckee residence by 51N4E, BeL, Andrea Branzi, Dirk Braeckman, Josse de Pauw, Enrique Marty and Something Fantastic.

    • EXHIBITION VALERIE TRAAN GALLERY ANTWERP

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      The exhibition "Reasons For Walling A House" currated by 51N4E will be opened on thursday the 15th of March between 4pm and 9pm. The exhibition contains pieces relating to 51N4E's Espeel-Vandenbroucke residence by 51N4E, BeL, Andrea Branzi, Dirk Braeckman, Josse de Pauw, Enrique Marty and Something Fantastic.
      Valerie Traan Gallery, Reyndersstraat 12, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

      Photograph by Filip Dujardin

    • ÉCOLE NATIONALE SUPÉRIEURE D’ARCHITECTURE PARIS-MALAQUAIS

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      Something Fantastic has been invited by Andreas Ruby to co-create a strategic study with his students on the ENSA Paris Malaquais' future development and its possible synergies with Paris Beaux Arts school.

    • 9A BIENAL INTERNACIONAL DE ARQUITETURA DE SAO PAULO

      The municipality of São Paulo will present the book Building Brasil edited by Marc Angélil and Rainer Hehl in collaboration with Something Fantastic on the 17th of November at 7pm at the OCA, Parque do Ibirapuera as part of the 9a Bienal de Architectura de São Paulo.

    • DAM FRANKFURT: CITY OF FUTURE CONFERENCE

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      Something Fantastic will participate in the City of Future Conference initiated by the Goethe Institut and the Deutsches Architektur Museum [DAM]. Their will be a public lecture on thursday the 10th of November at 5pm at the DAM. Other lecturers include among others Arno Brandelhuber, Jan Liesegang of raumlabor Jörg Leeser of BeL and Steffan Rettich of KARO.

    • EXHIBITION KUNSTHALLE DÜSSELDORF

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      Something Fantastic is working on an exhibition design with Matthias Boettger of raumtaktik, who is continuing his occupation on "Raumproduktion" with an exhibition in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. Featured Artists are Ingrid Hora, Julika Gittner, Larissa Fassler, Juul Hondius and Alex Schweder.

    • UDK Buchshop 2011

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      Something Fantastic is mentoring the student team of this year's UdK Buchshop that will open between 15th and 17th of July. The image shows the winning proposal of the interdisciplinary shop furniture competition that was supervised by Julian Schubert, Leonard Streich and Elena Schütz in collaboration with Axel Kufus.

    • ETH ZÜRICH

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      Something Fantastic has been invited by Rainer Hehl to develop a publication on Rio and Sao Paulo with master students of MAS, Marc Angélil' chair at the ETH Zürich. Next to two intense workshops Something Fantastic will spend large parts of the summer working with the stundents on bringing out the best of their work.

    • sub-40, UNIVERSITÄT KASSEL

      Something Fantastic will hold a lecture at the sub.40 Discussion Forum at Kassel University on the 28th of June at 7.45pm. The Lecture and following Discussion will be held in front of Room 1140 at the Architectural Department.

    • HORIZONTE ISSUE 03

      The current issue of the student initiated magazine for architectural discourse "Horizonte" of the Bauhaus Universität Weimar features an article on improvisation as an architectural technique written by Something Fantastic.

    • POP-UP LECTURE, NAL, OSLO

      Something Fantastic has been invited by the National Association of Norwegian Architects to give the inauguration lecture to "POP-UP", one of its "Year of Architecture" programmes marking the 100 year existence of the NAL. The Lecture will be held at the office of Snøhetta, thursday the 20th of january 2011, 7pm.