Work

• ACKERSTRASSE COOP (229-1)

  Ackerstraße is a coop housing and atelier building that enables clyclic use of space.

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  The Ackerstraße studio building is organized into a street side facing southwest, towards Pappelplatz, and a courtyard side facing northeast, towards Eierpark. The spacious and noise-insensitive room uses, the studios, kitchens, and living rooms, are at the front, while the bedrooms are at the rear. In addition to creating space in which the connection between living and working can be more closely interlinked, the aim is to avoid vacancies­ – both in the weekly rhythm of individual rooms and in the life cycle of the building's inhabitants. Studios and offices that are only used during the week can be used for other purposes in the evenings or at weekends. With regard to life cycles in general, it is primarily the non-use of children's rooms in family apartments once they fall idle. To avoid such vacancies, the Atelierhaus Ackerstraße has core apartments and one-room studios. On each upper floor there are two core apartments with two bedrooms to the rear and a spacious kitchen to the front. A studio apartment adjoins each of the core apartments on the courtyard side, which can be used as part of the living constellation, but can also be used independently thanks to the connectivity of a small kitchenette. Towards the front of the square, between the two kitchens of the core apartments, there are up to five ateliers that can be used as part of the apartment as required.

• LASCIA VIVERE (286-1)

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  Lascia Vivere is a project initiated with Erika Mayr in Rome.

  It concerns itself with nature and the way we see it. It sometimes makes visible, it sometimes tells the story, it sometimes adds, it sometimes removes, it always works with what is there. The exhibition Lascia Vivere at Galleria Villa Massimo introduced the collaboration via a set of pieces and documentations. Image 1: Oase 5 outside of Berlin, 2021, conceived and realized at a former hog farm in collaboration with Ludivigne Gragy and Niklas Fanelsa, photographs, printed on porcelain, 8 cm x 18 cm; Image 2: Oase 2, Garching, 2020, digital collage, digital print on paper, 15 cm x 10 cm; Image 3: The principle of Borrowed Landscape/Continuous Gardens, 2021, digital drawing, digital print on paper 20.3 cm x 25.6 cm; Image 4: Tree sign installed around Rome, 2021. Each sign draws attention to an individual tree and its situation. Photographs, tiled, plastered paper laser prints, 180 cm x 240 cm; Image 4: Sky, a live video projection of the sky outside of the gallery, 320x180cm.

• 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.

• 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. Much of the 2.5 million Euro budget was spent on preserving what was already there. Similar to the Enttäuschung 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, in which non the less anything new and different can happen. 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 together with Gonzalez Haase AAS. Photography: Zara Pfeifer

• 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. Currently it is displayed at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) within the exhibition a Section of Now. Giovanna Borasi, director of the CCA explains the concept of the Constellation House in the introduction video to the show.

• 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)

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  Our renovation of Alvaro Siza’s Bonjour Tristesse is an attempt at respecting an original structure and its history while simultaneously not trying to imitate it. The interventions proposed and executed encompass a re-use of the lift huts no longer needed. One shelters a bar, the other is a modest sleeping and storage space. A new stair and balustrade makes it possible to watch the sunset from the roof terrace with its unusually high awning. Dark blue flooring, railings to hang curtains or things on, as well as a set of furniture designed especially for the building enable new use without mayor changes to the original plan by Alvaro Siza. As most of our projects, it tries to use minimal material means with maximum effect. It tries to somehow consider both Siza’s original design as well as the two wall inscriptions “Bonjour Tristesse” and “Bitte Leben”. Both claims, quoting titles by Françoise Sagan, where added anonymously to the building after the projects completion and are part of the pluralistic history and reading of the building. Photography: Zara Pfeifer

• 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.

• BONJOUR TRISTESSE (137-2)

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  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. Photography: Zara Pfeifer

• 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.

• 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)

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  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)

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  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

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  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)

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  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)