What if architecture does not solve conflicts or tries to organize them by assignments?
What if architecture enhanced conflicts to activate their inherent potentials for action and negotiation?
Insights into actual projects of the Berlin based architectural group ifau regarding urban housing development processes in Hamburg and Berlin. According to two projects the participatory planning processes are strongly connected with and controlled by the local communities and the political-admininstrative municipalities. Developments and participatory planning processes for a new mixed residential and non-residential quarter with sub-cultural forms of use providing a mix of live and work units meeting the needs of artists, producers and creative professionals. The starting point for the spatial layout and design is a collaborative and socially mixed concept of use. Moreover, the comparatively low land prices allow the cross financing of co-operative living and studio spaces within the project.
Create situations for conflicts to be negotiated by the users!
ifau is a Berlin-based working group of architects with a focus on interrelated, interdisciplinary projects in the field of architecture and urban design. Their flexible methodology extends from research projects to interventions in the urban realm. All of their work aims to involve contextual processes, difference and diversity to create space for negotiation in design development. They are particularly interested in process-oriented strategies and participative design methods. They realised several projects for arts institutions. Their works and texts have been published in numerous books and architectural magazines. References include Palais Thinnfeld in Graz, Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory in Utrecht, The Showroom in London, Artists Space and Goethe Institute – Wyoming Building in New York, R50-cohousing, Residential and studio building at the former Berlin flower market (IBeB) in Berlin
Christoph Schmidt is a founding member of ifau (institute for applied urbanism, 1998). He studied architecture at the RWTH Aachen University of Technology and the University College of Portsmouth. He worked as a freelance architect in Cologne and Berlin. He has been teaching architecture as assistant professor at the Technical University of Berlin where his research and taught courses where focused on innovative design methods, process-oriented design strategies and cooperative housing projects. Currently he teaches as professor at the department of urban context design at the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf.
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