Housing Models for the Future
Pratt Institute, New York
29 August – 2 December 2024
Students from Pratt Institute, led by Prof. Dagmar Richter, spend the fall semester at Aedes, immersing themselves in Berlin’s distinctive architectural and urban culture. The programme combines a design studio with two seminars, focusing on Berlin’s experimental approaches to public space and housing. These approaches emphasise innovative and just solutions for collective urban living.
Task
The programme invites students to engage deeply with Berlin’s unique urban history and explore the city’s diverse housing typologies, cooperatives, alternative communities, independent cultural events and public spaces. Their resulting projects will critically address the tension between gentrification and maintaining free access to the city—an ongoing challenge in Berlin.
The study of these typologies will inform the design of a collective space that not only serves as a venue for open-ended social gatherings but also proposes alternative housing models, with a particular focus on cooperative housing.
At the start of the semester, the group will visit various sites and analyse Berlin’s urban fabric. Each student will then select and analyse a site of their choice. This analysis will take the form of a concise manifesto, outlining the student’s decisions, the rationale behind them, relevant precedents and a detailed examination of the chosen context. The manifesto will also propose and justify a programmatic approach for their project.
What if..
”Berlin could be a model for a cooperative city?
Studio Coordinator
Prof. Dagmar Richter
