TRAVELLING STUDIO

UNLIVEABLEBERLIN

UNLIVEABLE BERLIN

Unliveable Berlin is a University of Melbourne design studio, organised and run by Michael Roper (Director, Architecture Architecture). Running in second semester of 2018, this studio will take a group of masters students from architecture, landscape and urban design to the ANCB Metropolitan Laboratory in Berlin where they will explore and develop ideas for experimental housing projects.

STUDIO THEME: VISIBLE HISTORIES

Berlin has undergone several periods of trauma and transformation. Growing out of two world wars, living through three decades of east-west division followed by re-unifi cation, rebuilding and more recent bankruptcy, Berlin is riddled with the scars of its history. Politically caught between socialism and capitalism; physically, between the destruction of war and urban regrowth; culturally, between division and unity; this is a city coming to terms with its physical and cultural territories, revelling in the uncertainty of its future.

STUDIO THEME: DESIGNING FOR INCLUSION

Berlin has a history of social exclusion and ideological seclusion. In this context we ask, how does a city express its hostilities and how, as architects, can we foster cities of inclusion? With Berlin as our lab rat, we will consider what it means to accommodate the excluded, and to redress cultural hostilities through architecture and urban thinking.

STUDIO THEME: A VISION FOR HOUSING

Berlin is the heartland of Baugruppen, a model for housing that empowers ordinary citizens to design and fi nance their own apartment buildings. In Melbourne, the Nightingale movement is a revolution in housing inspired by Baugruppen. Students will have the opportunity to study and visit the Baugruppen projects, along with Berlin’s other experimental housing movements from the 1950s (Hansaviertel) and 1980s (IBA).

STUDIO OUTCOMES: GLOBAL THINKERS

Stripped of well-worn reference points, the travelling studio encourages students to see with fresh eyes. They come to sense a city’s unconscious – its undercurrents – developing instincts for the manifold cultural forces that drive a place. Through the travelling studio, we aim to foster broad, global-thinking problem solvers, versed in the physical mechanisms (infrastructural, geographical) and cultural forces (political and social) that underpin urban life.

STUDIO OUTLINE

ANCB: A METROPOLITAN LABORATORY

ANCB is the headquarters for an extensive international network of institutions and universities, supporting research and knowledge transfer in an environment where architects, planners, economists, philosophers, scientists, artists, engineers and ecologists come together to tackle the issues facing globalised urban environments. At ANCB, students will engage with a range of academics, researchers and specialists relevant to the themes of the studio.

DATES

Melbourne23rd July – 19th AugustIntensive research & design esquisses

Berlin20th – 31st August Intensive exploration & design

Melbourne10th September > Complete design project. Reduced contact hours.

COSTS

Students will be expected to cover the costs of their fl ights, accommodation and living expenses as well as any additional activities undertaken in Berlin. Students may wish to apply for Global Mobility Fund sponsorship.

MANAGING ELECTIVES

Students will need to speak with their elective co-ordinators to ensure that they are able to be away from Melbourne for the dates listed above.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, you will need to email Michael Roper at mr@archarch.com.au and include the following:

150 word statement on who you are, why you are interested in the studio and what you would like to get out of it.

A fi ve page folio containing work from previous design studios.

D ES I G NT U TO R

CO - H O U S I N GR ES I D E N T

B E R L I NA RC H I T EC T

B E R L I NH I STO R I A N

A E D ES B E R L I ND I R EC TO R

BAU G R U P P E NA RC H I T EC T

CO - H O U S I N GI N I T I ATO R

G R A P H I CD ES I G N E R

N I G H T I N G A L ED I R EC TO R

A N C B B E R L I N D I R EC TO R

H O U S I N GP O L I C Y

H O U S I N GA F FO R DA B I L I T Y

BU S ITO

N I G H T ID I R EC TOD I R EC TO R

S I NL I C

I N GI N GO RO R

G HG HD I R EC TD I R EC TD I R EC TOD I R EC T

H O U SH O U SP O L IP O L

STUDIO COLLABORATORS

BERLIN: HOUSING PROJECTS

A LVA R A A LTO

L ECO R B U S I E R

Z A H AH A D I D

O S C A RN E I M E Y E R

J O H N H E DJ U K

A LVA RO S I Z A

DAV I DC H I P P E R F I E L D

WA LT E RG RO P I U S

K A D E NK L I N G B E I L

H E I D E & VO NB EC K E R AT H

M I ES VA N D E R RO H E

H E R M A NH E RT Z B E RG E R

BERLIN: SITES OF SIGNIFICANCE

BERLIN: ARCHITECTURE

REFERENCE TEXTS

REFERENCE FILMS

THEME: VISIBLE HISTORIES

THEME: DESIGNING FOR INCLUSION

IMAGE(250/300 dpi, PDF)

THEME: A VISION FOR HOUSING

CORRIDORSBERLIN IS AN URBAN METROPOLIS WITH A LARGE POPULATION THAT IS ALWAYS ON THE MOVE. THE STREETS, ROADS, HIGHWAYS, SUBWAYS, BICYCLE LANES AND PEDESTRIAN LANEWAYS SERVE AS ACTIVE CORRIDORS AND SPACES IN WHICH CONVERSATION TAKES PLACE. LIKENED TO THE BODY, THESE CORRIDORS SUPPLY THE CITY WITH A RICH AND DIVERSE CULTURAL IDENTITY AND FORM PART OF BERLIN’S UNIQUE URBAN MORPHOLOGY. WITH A CITY THAT HOLDS AS MUCH SIGNIFICANCE IN HISTORY AND CULTRE AS BERLIN, THESE CORRIDORS ARE PHYSICAL ARCHIVES WHICH EMBODY THE CULTURE AND SPIRIT OF THE CITY.

ARCHIPELAGOTHOUGH MANY IDENTIFY ALEXANDERPLATZ AND POSTDAMER PLATZ AS BEING BERLIN’S CITY CENTRES, THE CITY IS IN FACT MORE OF AN ARCHIPELAGO OF DISTRICTS AND CLUSTERS OF CULTURAL COMMUNITIES EACH WITH ITS OWN UNIQUE IDENTITY. EVIDENT IN THE WAY ITS CULTURAL PRECINCTS AND PROGRAMS ARE SCATTERED ACROSS THE CITY, BERLIN’S IDENTITY IS ONE THAT IS PHYSICALLY FRAGMENTED BUT COVERTLY UNIFIED.

AIDED BY THE EXTENSIVE NETWORKS OF CORRIDORS, ONE STUMBLES UPON POCKETS OF CULTURE AND ACTIVITY CENTRES THROUGHOUT THE CITY.

HACKESCHE HOFE IS ONE OF IF NOT BERLIN’S MOST NOTABLE COMPLEX WHICH IS ESSENTIALLY AN ARCHIPELAGO OF PROGRAMS THAT CONSISTS OF RESIDENTIAL APARTMENTS, CRAFTS, TRADE AND CULTURE.

COURTYARDSIN GERMANY, THE TERM CORRESPONDING TO TENEMENT IS MIETSKASERNE (RENTAL BARRACKS) AND THE CITY MOST WELL KNOWN FOR THIS IS BERLIN. REFERRED TO AS THE LARGEST TENEMENT CITY IN THE WORLD. THE COURTYARD BLOCKS WERE BUILT IN RESPONSE TO A RAPID INCREASE IN POPULATION BETWEEN 1860 AND 1914, A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THE CITY’S URBAN FABRIC CONSISTS OF THIS BUILDING TYPOLOGY. THESE BUILDINGS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS 5 STOREYS HIGH DUE TO THE MUNDATED MAXIMUM HEIGHT BY THE STATE’S BUILDING REGULATIONS.

LANDSCAPESCATTERED THROUGHOUT THE CITY ARE A LARGE NUMBER OF PUBLIC SPACES AND PARKS WHICH CONTRIBUTES TOWARDS BERLIN’S OPENESS AND SENSE OF PUBLIC DEMOCRACY DESPITE IT BEING SOMEHWAT DENSELY POPULATED WITH ITS TENEMENT BLOCKS.

OFTEN THE SITE OF PUBLIC EVENTS, GIGS AND FESTIVALS, THESE PARKS AND OPEN SPACES ARE SEEN TO BE PLACES OF CULTURAL ACTIVITIES. AS THESE PROGRAMS ARE OFTEN SPONTANEOUS AND AD HOC, THEY FORM AN IMPORTANT PART OF BERLIN’S IDENTITY.

THESE COURTYARD HOUSING BLOCKS ARE OBSERVABLY VERY LARGE AND ARE IN THEMSELVES INDIVIDUAL COMMUNITIES. THE LARGEST AND MOST FAMOUS OF THESE WAS MEYERS HOF IN GESUNDBRUNNEN WHICH AT THE TIME HOUSED UP TO 2000 PEOPLE.

THE COURTYARD/TENEMENT BLOCKS, THOUGH MADE TO ACCOMMODATE THE LOWER CLASS, FOSTER INTERACTION THROUGH ITS PLANNING, PERMIT NATURAL LIGHT AND HAVE GOOD CROSS VENTILATION THAT REGULATES TEMPERATURES ALL YEAR ROUND.

SIMIILAR TO MELBORUNE TO SOME EXTENT, BERLIN IS A CITY IDENTITFIED THROUGH ITS SPACES, PLACES AND VOIDS, AND NOT WITH ITS FUNCTIONAL AND PROGRAMMATIC PREOCCUPATIONS. IT IS THIS QUALITY THAT MAKES THE LANDSCAPE DIVERSE AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE.

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LOWER GROUND FLOOR PLAN 1:500

ANCB FIRST FLOOR PLAN1:500

ANCB SECOND FLOOR PLAN1:500

GROUND FLOOR PLAN 1:500

OUTCOME: GLOBAL THINKERS

ANCB CAMPUS, BERLIN