Urban Form & Urban Nature – City Archipelago Revisited

Task

After WWII destruction and cold war division in the 20th century, the changing layers of the city are still revealing traces of the past like a fading book. This history left space for urban nature to grow amongst traces of former transportation infrastructure. While the divided city left areas free for cultural and natural experimentation, recent real estate developments have pushed urban nature into smaller and smaller pockets, yet Berlin’s carbon neutral urban development goals require open spaces to act as breathing spaces for urban residents inside and between buildings and combat building overheating. In a famous theoretical architectural manifesto Oswald Matthias Ungers in the 1970s developed the concept of City Archipelago, islands of habitation within an overgrown landscape. While the climate is warming, passive design strategies are still dominant and prominent in Berlin. Apartments and even larger office buildings are naturally ventilated and cooled and even passively heated. To keep these strategies feasible natural elements and energy flows need to remain integrated within development and retrofits.

Key Themes

• Environmental performance in architecture: understanding and integrating solar, light, air and heat flows
• Designing for climate change: Berlin is projected to have a climate similar to mid-Italy by 2050
• Urban form meets urban nature: exploring the tension between real estate development and ecological resilience
• Parametric modeling as a tool for evaluating environmental impact and design effectiveness
• Focus on passive design strategies: daylighting, solar radiation, natural ventilation and climate adaptation
• Final outcome: A design proposal and environmental performance analysis for rooftop modular housing in Berlin’s urban core

Studio Coordinators

Prof. Ulrike Passe (Iowa State University) and Prof. Alexander Kader (German University of Technology Oman)

Aedes Theme