Photographer: Andrew Alberts | ArchDaily

New Models for Collective Housing

Andreea Cutieru — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 07:30:00 +0000

Housing production has been relying on the same spatial configurations for almost a century, catering to a vision of domestic life that no longer constitutes the norm. The widespread housing shortage, the issue of affordability, the rise of single-person households, and an aging population prompt a re-evaluation of existing housing models to address a broader range of demographics and adapt to the changing needs of city dwellers. The following explores contemporary collective housing models that provide the framework for new dwelling experiences and support current lifestyles.

Umspannwerk Sellerstrasse Energy Plant / Heide & von Beckerath

Andreas Luco — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 02:00:00 +0000

The Sellerstrasse electrical substation is situated in Berlin-Mitte. The new building will supply power for Europacity, which is currently under construction on Heidestrasse, north of Berlin Central Station. It forms an essential part of a differentiated building complex that is being developed immediately adjacent to the Scharnhorst substation near Nordhafen.

Spiegelfabrik Housing / Heide & von Beckerath

Paula Pintos — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 19:00:00 +0000

The site of a former mirror factory is located between Wilhelminian housing on Lange Straße in the southwest and Dr.-Mack-Straße in the northeast near the water meadows on the river Pregnitz at Fürth’s city park. It is accessible from both streets and runs transversely to a story-high drop in the terrain. The old forge is the only remaining building on the site. The party wall of a neighboring building forms the north-western boundary. A new development is anticipated along the southeastern border. The after-use of the industrial site gives significant impetus to the urban neighborhood’s transformation and the innovative form of housing lends it model character.

New Housing on Briesestraße / EM2N

Paula Pintos — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Made up of several constituent parts, this building mediates at the joint between the heterogeneous block perimeter development with its typical firewalls and the large, meandering late modern structures dating from the Sixties and Seventies. The new building increases the density of the site and unites the two different scales and typologies, the slab, and the courtyard, which dominate its surroundings.

Paul-Zobel-Strasse Apartments / Heide & von Beckerath

Andreas Luco — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 10:00:00 +0000

The residential development is located within a spacious ten-storey housing complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and delivers densification. The construction of additional flats and a new day-care centre for children provides the opportunity for contemporary development in the neighbourhood near Berlin’s centre and considers both individual and collective housing options. The two eight-storey residential towers react to the urban environment by being slightly offset, and a common podium helps blend them into the surroundings. The careful placement of the buildings creates a three-sided courtyard in the south, connects to an existing footpath in the west, a sequence of spaces in the east, and a sheltered garden for the day-care centre in the north.

Residential and Studio Building at the Former Berlin Flower Market (IBeB) / ifau + Heide & von Beckerath

Andreas Luco — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 02:00:00 +0000

The former central flower market is situated in the historic Südliche Friedrichstadt in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. The actual market hall is used by the Academy of the Jewish Museum, which stands across the road. The surrounding areas are characterised by post-war housing and in particular buildings that were constructed for the 1984/87 International Building Exhibition, as well as by a variety of cultural facilities and creative enterprises. Several galleries, a higher education institution for design, changing exhibitions, temporary projects and public art collections stand alongside the publishing house Springer Verlag and the TAZ daily newspaper.

Real Takes on Real(ly Successful) Housing Experiments

PLANE—SITE — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 06:00:00 +0000

The challenges associated with the provision of adequate and affordable housing around the world demand that architects respond with original solutions that challenge traditional building forms, typologies and methods of delivery.

Shortlisted Projects Announced for the EU Mies Award 2019

Niall Patrick Walsh — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 10:30:00 +0000

The European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation have announced the 40 shortlisted works that will compete for the 2019 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. The Prize, for which ArchDaily is a media partner, has seen a jury distill 383 nominated works into a 40-project-strong shortlist, celebrating the trends and opportunities in adaptive reuse, housing, and culture across Europe.

BIOBANK / Heide & von Beckerath

Cristobal Rojas — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 10:00:00 +0000

The new research building for the Max Delbrück Centre is situated at the Campus Berlin-Buch. It accommodates an automated cold storage for biological samples, the associated technical facilities and administrative offices plus ancillary rooms. All of these functions are contained within a compact building volume. The development is aligned along a historic central axis in the former Berlin-Buch parish cemetery while spatially interpreting the layout and orientation of existing larger and smaller laboratory buildings. The location, configuration and accessibility of the new building allow for its expansion in two directions at a later stage.

DnA Podcast Asks: Can Berlin's Group Housing be a Model for LA?

Eric Oh — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 08:00:00 +0000

The latest episode of KCRW's podcast, “Design and Architecture” (DnA), explores whether the Baugruppen, a co-housing model in Berlin, could work in Los Angeles. Produced by Frances Anderton and Caroline Chamberlain, the episode looks at how LA residents and Berliners have approached the same problem of affordable living space. The Baugruppen (“building groups”) are communities of homes where you can choose who to live with and share the development costs. After visiting R50, a Baugruppe complex by firms Heide & Von Beckerath and IFAU, co-principals Christoph Schmidt and Verena von Beckerath explained the process of collaborative design that came with building the 19 households of R50. Listen to the whole podcast here.

Co-Housing Movement Sweeps through Europe

Holly Giermann — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In the Spanish suburb of Alfafar, conditions were looking grim as economic hardships plunged over 40% of its residents into unemployment and left significant portions of its housing vacant. In response, a group of young architects have developed a co-housing plan for the area to accommodate its shifting needs, enabling residents to exchange and share space as needed. Using the existing buildings as the framework, the line between public and private will evolve over time with changing conditions, following in the footsteps of other European countries that have successfully employed similar undertakings. Read more about Alfafar's co-housing plan, here.

R50 – Cohousing / ifau und Jesko Fezer + Heide & von Beckerath

Daniel Sánchez — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

R50 – cohousing is a joint building venture project in Berlin-Kreuzberg. It was initiated by the architects during the course of a concept-based award procedure for building plots and implemented in close cooperation with the clients. The building proposal is founded on a clear urban design position, robust and precisely detailed architectural design, and both a collective and individual process of occupancy.