On November 8, 2024, the symposium Dialogue on doubt and error organized by Sebastian Multerer and Christian Inderbitzin will take place at the KIT Faculty of Architecture. Together with guests Angelika Hinterbrandner, Dietrich Erben, Holger Schurk representatives of HouseEurope!, Thomas Padmanabhan, Tina Küng, Jocelyn Froimovich, Rosa Menkman and Steffen Hägele, they will talk about the importance and potential of error for architectural design. You are all cordially invited to attend! The lectures and discussion will take place in the Grüne Grotte between 9.00 and 17.00.
In the coming semester, we will be designing large wooden houses. We want to focus on an architecture in which time and material are expressively intertwined. The temporal dimension is particularly vivid in wood: in the annual rings of the trunk, in the work of a wood joint that has taken shape or in the charring of continuous weathering by sun, wind and rain. Regardless of whether a house is conceived as permanent or ephemeral, we assume a non finito in the projects, i.e. buildings without completion, use and decay. The linear understanding of time gives way to a cyclical one, which is why the continued construction, maintenance and care of the houses also become form-defining. We speak of open forms in which change is inherent.
In the coming semester, we will be designing "unusual" residential buildings. In the sense of internal densification, they will occupy various empty spaces in Karlsruhe's urban fabric or will be added to existing urban building blocks. The focus is on the individual apartment, its spatiality, its floor plan and the form of living it provides. We are interested in looking behind the scenes of everyday life: Living is characterized by the conventional, the pragmatic and the conventional; at the same time, one's own apartment is always a projection surface for idiosyncrasies, longings and dreams, a place for the personal lifeworld.
The focus of the seminar is the exhibition planned for 2025 by the Faculty of Architecture to mark the bicentenary of the KIT. Stadt und Wohnen's contribution to the exhibition deals with the structural and cultural history of Heinrich Hübsch's plant houses and the botanical gardens at the palace. Based on this, we trace the territorial and ideological-historical networks of the complex. Together with other contributions, a picture of the city of Karlsruhe will emerge. The materials and knowledge of the Constructed Natures studio from the winter semester 23/24 and a seminar from the summer semester 24 will form the basis. In addition to the content-related work, we will further develop the concrete curation. The resulting content includes, among other things, a film about the greenhouses and its employees as well as various models.
This fall, the Engadine Architecture Days, curated by Christian Inderbitzin and Roger Boltshauser, will take place for the fourth time. The title of the event is "Building differently? Architects from Switzerland and abroad will discuss their positions and work with regard to the question of how "different", perhaps simpler building is still or once again possible in view of the major challenges of our time. What alternatives are there to the standardized, often complex and hybrid building constructions of our construction industry? How can we build in a resource-saving and low-emission way? What impact would such construction have on our living space? The background to the discussions is the building tradition of the Engadin with its archaic and climate-adapted construction methods. Information on the program can be found here.
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Our team is changing at the start of the 2024/25 winter semester. We say goodbye to Prof. Sebastian Multerer and Srdjan Zlokapa. You were both a great asset, thank you very much! And we say hello to Prof. Gian Trachsler and Niklas Nalbach. Gian Trachsler is an architect in Zurich and will be sharing the position with Christian Inderbitzin next year. Niklas Nalbach is an architect in Basel and is starting to work independently after working for Herzog & de Meuron.
Christian Inderbitzin moderated a panel at the first congress on city tourism in Zurich. Together with guests Gian-Marco Jenatsch and Daniel Niggli, he held an informal discussion on the importance of urban planning and architecture for current and future city tourism. What significance do so-called icons play? What role do the landscape and public space play? Is there such a thing as over-tourism in Zurich? The congress took place on August 29, 2024.
On July 30 and 31, 2024, the final critic of our design studio Wohnen für Alle will take place. We are looking forward to our guests Carla Ferrando, Elena Masla and Gian Trachsler. You are all invited to the Glashaus in the Waldgarten to take part!
As part of the Housing for All master's program, the Chair of City and Housing is hosting another colloquium on the morning of 20 June 2024. The three guests will each talk about different projects for living beyond the standard. Matthias Haber is an architect from Munich who researches and teaches at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences and will talk about design and construction in housing and existing buildings. Architect Jan Haerens will talk about working with reused materials and introduce us to the Zinneke project in Brussels. Christian Hadaller, an architect from Munich, will give us an insight into the housing construction processes of a cooperative. You are all cordially invited to attend!
As part of the Housing for All master's program, the Chair of City and Housing is holding its first colloquium on the morning of May 16, 2024. The guests will talk about different housing projects that go beyond the standard. Anne Femmer is an architect and will talk about her own conversion in Leipzig. Elena Masla and Zora Syren, together with Gesche Bengtsson, are founding members of etal. Architektinnen from Munich, together they have explored the limits of single-family house law with the Mietshäusersyndikat. Alex Humpert talks about the conversion of a former warehouse building into a cooperative housing project in Bern. Architect Lina Lagerström from Septembre in Paris gives an insight into her conversion project Porte de Montreuil. Sören Pihlmann is an architect and talks about his project, which he uses as a materials warehouse.
From April 26 to 28, we will go on a joint excursion to Paris to visit a number of social housing buildings. In Paris, we will visit the Le Corbusier Apartment and have dinner together at the Brassarie Polidor. In addition to various guided tours and apartment visits, we will also visit the Centre Pompidou. We are looking forward to an inspiring time together in Paris!
In spring 2024, Christian Inderbitzin's architecture firm won the competition for the EKZ Steilshoop shopping center development in the north of Hamburg. The project involves the transformation, redensification and reuse of a central development from the 1970s. The core idea is a typological reinterpretation of the existing building: The currently introverted base with mall and internal circulation will in future be occupied by retail and restaurant uses, which are consistently addressed from the outside and via a circumferential arcade, thus helping to activate the disused urban space. And the two built-up slabs will be supplemented by new building sections to form a block whose façades will embrace the street spaces and turn the center into a townhouse. Click here to go to Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin.
In the coming semester, we will examine the architectural possibilities for creating living space within existing spatial structures in the urban fabric of Karlsruhe. The overarching theme is social housing, the development and stock of which is steadily declining in Germany. With the creation of affordable housing for low-income groups, this type of housing construction is an important instrument for social equality. Through a careful collage of the existing and the new, floor plan configurations and façades are created on a larger scale that reflect our times. The integrated deepening serves to develop the basics, approach the form of housing and develop models of the existing buildings.
Among the architectural elements, the door occupies a fundamental position, as it connects the outside with the inside and thus makes human habitation possible in the first place. In residential construction, it is of particular importance as it structures the movements in the numerous rooms of a home. The circulation in the living space therefore also essentially determines how we live. We want to work on an impromptu floor plan that explores this potential by creating different spatial connections and doors. The urban planning disposition is specified for the design. The submission consists of a floor plan and a section, as well as a brief explanation of the narrative.
In the Forest Garden and Flower Garden seminar, we are working together on the implementation of the two courtyard projects for the Faculty of Architecture building. The forest garden and flower garden represent an aesthetic and functional enhancement of the two courtyards, which benefits the microclimate, biodiversity and people. In the coming semester, a small group will focus on the maintenance of the forest garden, continue the planning of the flower garden and concretize the monitoring that has already begun.
The focal point of the seminar is an exhibition planned for 2025 by the Faculty of Architecture to mark the bicentenary of the KIT. Stadt und Wohnen's contribution to the exhibition deals with the architectural and cultural history of Heinrich Hübsch's plant houses and the botanical gardens at the palace. Based on this, we trace the territorial and ideological-historical networks of the complex. Together with the other contributions, this will create a picture of the city of Karlsruhe. The materials and knowledge of the Studio Konstruierte Naturen form the basis. In addition to the content-related work, we will develop the specific curation. Conceivable are familiar exhibition forms as well as a presentation with audio or film.
In the Building stories seminar, we look at the question of how construction projects are created. We will analyse the background of existing projects in group work and we will look at the working methods of community-oriented structures, cooperatives, building groups and collectives as well as self-build. "Who are the actors?", "Who are the users?", "By what means was the project implemented?", "Was a bottom-up or top-down strategy pursued?". Once we have gained an understanding of the complexity of the creation of a building, we tell the stories behind individual buildings and depict them graphically.
During the seminar week, we continue our series of sailing trips and this year we spend a week in the Stockholm archipelago. The architectural discoveries will focus on the rich heritage of the city of Stockholm, the "Venice of the North" with its fourteen islands. From there, we will sail to lesser-known buildings on the numerous archipelagos. The idea will be to understand the architecture and its genesis in relation to the territory, i.e. the geology and the water. In the evenings we will moor in harbors or anchor and cook, eat and sleep together on the ship.
On February 21/22, 2024, the final critique of our bachelor and master studio Constructed Natures will take place. We are looking forward to our guests Verena von Beckerath, Céline Bessire, Daniel Ganz and Elli Mosayebi. You are all cordially invited to participate!
As part of the bachelor's and master's degree course Constructed Natures, the Chair of City and Living is organizing a second colloquium on 18 January. idA Architects from Zurich will present the new greenhouse for the botanical garden in Grüningen. Sophie von Schwerin, an employee of Ganz Landscape Architects in Zurich and lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Eastern Switzerland, will talk about her dissertation on the Berggarten in the context of botanical gardens. Johannes Kuehn, partner of the Berlin office Kuehn Malvezzi, presents two works that are characterized by their function as greenhouses in symbiotic relationships with other typologies. Lars Ruge, landscape architect and office manager of Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten in Zurich, uses the Masoala rainforest hall at Zurich Zoo to show how closed environments with an artificial climate provide access to other realities.
At the symposium Eternal buildings in future cities at the Instituto svizzero in Rome, Christian Inderbitzin gave a presentation on the project for the renovation of the listed Rämibühl cantonal school in Zurich, thereby contributing to the question of the interaction between existing buildings, their maintenance and further development in the future city. The symposium took place on 23 and 24 November 2023 and was organized by Maria Böhmer, Silke Langenberg and Elli Mosayebi. Other speakers included Maria Conen, Maria Vittoria Capitanucci, Philipp Esch, Philippe Koch, Katrin Gügler, Anna Karla De Almeida Santos, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Anna-Laura Pisello, Elena Dorato, Andrea Benze and Christina Schumacher.
The Chair of City and Living is launching the research project "Building with natural stone" with the professorship of Elli Mosayebi at ETH Zurich. Together with industrial partners, in particular Christian Bärlocher's sandstone quarry on Lake Constance, future construction methods with load-bearing natural stone are being researched and tested in real laboratories. Against the backdrop of pressing challenges in the construction industry such as the emissions balance, resource conservation and circularity, renewable and earth-based building materials have experienced an upswing in recent years. Wood, clay and straw have moved into the focus of research and practice as ecological resources. Natural stone, one of the oldest and most durable materials, has so far been excluded. The research project "Building with natural stone" is addressing this gap in knowledge and application.
As part of the Bachelor's and Master's degree program Constructed Natures, the Chair of City and Living is holding its first colloquium on 9 November. Van Bergen Kolpa Architects from Rotterdam will present the Agrotopia project, a research institution for urban food production with different artificial climates. Prof. Peter Nick, Head of Research on Molecular Cell Biology at KIT, talks about the importance of botanical research and its perspectives. The architects Comte/Meuwly from Zurich will present their work, in which glass architecture plays an important role. Maurus Schifferli, landscape architect from Bern, will talk about the recently completed bird house at Basel Zoo, among other things.
From November 10 to 12, we will go on a joint excursion to London and the surrounding area to visit a number of historic greenhouses, gardens and contemporary architecture. In London we will visit the Aviary London Zoo, the Barbican Conservatory and have dinner together at the Garden Museum. In addition to a visit to Kew Gardens in Brighton, our excursion will focus on a visit to Petworth House and Gardens. We will visit various glasshouses and greenhouses and some landscape gardens to enable us to take a deeper look at this typology for the coming semester. We are looking forward to an inspiring time together in the natural spaces of London!
In February 2023, Christian Inderbitzin's architectural office won the planning competition for the complete renovation of the Rämibühl cantonal school. Rämibühl is the largest grammar school in Zurich, is the main work of Eduard Neuenschwander and has been a listed building since the 1980s. The project shows great respect for the well-preserved building fabric and the landscape ensemble. Against this backdrop, a concept of careful repair was proposed that marks a departure from the idea of a complete overhaul in favor of continuous maintenance. The office began planning in January 2024 and the project is scheduled for completion in 2030. Click here to visit Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin.
In the coming semester, we will take the exhibition project for the upcoming KIT anniversary as an opportunity to examine the history and infrastructure of the botanical gardens in Karlsruhe. This history goes back to the 18th century and is based on aristocratic curiosity as well as the need for representation and enjoyment. It later found its way into the academy, the bourgeoisie and modern research, which is still relevant and important at KIT today. Botanical gardens are heterotopic places that enable "silent journeys" to distant and imaginary spaces - spaces with a different climate and exotic vegetation. Science and technology create the conditions for these constructed natures. In the design, we want to attempt to continue the genealogy of the gardens and greenhouses in Karlsruhe - whether in the form of a new installation or an extension remains open for the time being.
A monographic issue of the Japanese magazine a+u Architecture and Urbanism about Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin Architects was published at the end of November 2023. Entitled "Ruins and Machines", the booklet shows around twenty projects from the office and the last fifteen years. These are supplemented with texts by Jeannette Kuo, Zurich/Munich and André Tavares, Lisbon, as well as the conversation "What Unites Our Projects Are the Stories They Tell" between Ron Edelaar, Elli Mosayebi and Christian Inderbitzin.
Christian Inderbitzin was a participant and speaker at the international conference Architecture in Transformation Societies - History and Present of Reconstruction, which took place at TU Munich from October 26 to 28, 2023. The wide-ranging contributions highlighted historical, but mostly contemporary conversion projects and strategies. Christian Inderbitzin presented the project for the renovation of the listed Rämibühl cantonal school in Zurich, which his office developed together with Silke Langenberg, Professor of Monument Conservation at ETH Zurich.
In the seminar Forest Garden, Flower Garden we work together on the realization of the two courtyard projects for the Faculty Building of Architecture. The students of the past master studio Imagination and Mimesis are offered space and supervision for realization of their designs with the seminar. All other students are invited to participate and collaborate. We hope for a growing group that will become part of this lasting project for the Faculty of Architecture. The forest and flower garden mean an aesthetic and functional enhancement of the two courtyards, benefiting the microclimate, biodiversity and people.
In the seminar Error/Accupuncture we will take a methodical reinterpretation. Together we will make use of the error as a spatial and design tool in the context of a small architectural intervention within an existing building. We want to consciously integrate error into the process of design in order to destabilize ourselves and thereby establish a way of dealing with it, but also an honest culture of discussion about it. Accompanying this, we will develop a theoretical background that supports our speculative thesis. The error as something positive and committed to progress.
In the seminar How much is enough? we want to develop a deeper understanding of what growth means in our society. Each week, we will read about the questions How long do we want to keep growing?, Is there a system form beyond capitalism? and Are we ready to do without? Together we want to imagine and dream about the future of working, living together or a new currency.
Like no other element of the home, the bathroom and its furnishings seem to be subject to a particularly high level of convention. We would like to investigate whether the everyday act of cleaning can produce a place within the home that eludes unambiguous classifications and rethinks the cycles of water. Among other things, observations from Japanese bathing culture will serve as a starting point for a differentiated consideration. The urban disposition and the lighting situation are given for the design. The delivery consists of a floor plan and a section, as well as a brief explanation of the narrative.
We are happy to welcome two new colleagues, Maximilian von Zepelin and Sebastian Multerer at our professorship! Maximilian von Zepelin studied at the Bauhaus University Weimar and has been working for Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin Architekt*innen in Zurich since 2018. We welcome Sebastian Multerer as a visiting professor. He lives in Munich and is the office owner of Multerer Architekten.
On August 03, 2023, the final critique of our master studio Flesh and Stone will take place. We are looking forward to our guests Fabrizio Ballabio, Hans Kollhoff, Elli Mosayebi, Helga Timmermann and Marco Zünd. You are all invited to the Glass House in the Forest Garden to participate!
As part of the Master Studio Flesh and Stone, Michaela Türtscher will talk about her doctoral thesis on Fernand Pouillon on the morning of June 29, 2023. Michaela Türtscher is an architect and works with her architectural office Schneider Türtscher in Zurich. You are all cordially invited to attend!
As part of the ZukunftBau research project to explore the OP-OD method, Christian Inderbitzin will participate in the panel discussion Nah am Nutzen on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. The discussion will take place at the Chair of Housing and Foundations of Design at RWTH Aachen University. The professorship invites to a conversation or an intensive debate and exchange of experiences about authorship today, about collective design and about participatory methods. Other invited panelists are the architects Verena von Beckerath, Anne-Julchen Bernhardt and Jan de Vylder.
As part of the Master Studio Meat and Stone, we invite Christian Bärlocher for an input lecture on June 15, 2023. The Bärlocher family has owned a quarry in the Kreienwald near Staad since 1890, and Christian will talk about his work in the quarry and the further processing of the stone. We are very much looking forward to the input. You are all cordially invited to attend!
Designers and studios from several European Union countries will present sustainable, future-oriented solutions at ECO Solidarity 2023 in New York, May 21-23, 2023. The Goethe Institut New York has invited Edda's collective CollColl to exhibit as the German contribution. CollColl works between architecture, scenography and art, creating prototypes and experiments between urbanism, sculpture and performance on participatory building sites.
As part of the Master Studio Flesh and Stone, we invite Christian Hörler for an input lecture and workshop on May 11, 2023. Christian Hörler is a sculptor and will present his work with clay. Afterwards we will learn about different techniques of modeling with clay. We are very much looking forward to the input and the workshop afterwards. You are all cordially invited to participate!
During the week of April 11-14, 2023, we continued the redesign of the two courtyard projects for the Faculty Building as part of another construction week. Together with landscape architect Daniel Ganz from Zurich, we planted the western courtyard. Many thanks to all who were involved in the implementation!
The semester title refers to the well-known book Flesh and Stone by Richard Sennett. In it, the American sociologist outlines an urban history that talks about the sensual relationship between people and the physicality of the built city. With the design of a townhouse in Naples, we want to address this fundamental relationship architecturally. The architecture of the façade comes first, defining the threshold between public and private space. When designing the façade, we will deal with stone as a building material, questions of structure, composition and proportion as well as aspects of construction and semantics. Naturally, we have to deal with the historical context, the classical orders, but also the mannerisms in between and position ourselves in relation to them.
In the seminar Forest Garden, Flower Garden we work together on the realization of the two courtyard projects for the Faculty Building of Architecture. The students of the past master studio Imagination and Mimesis are offered space and supervision for realization of their designs with the seminar. All other students are invited to participate and collaborate. We hope for a growing group that will become part of this lasting project for the Faculty of Architecture. The forest and flower garden means an aesthetic and functional enhancement of the two courtyards, benefiting the microclimate, biodiversity and people.
Show me your kitchen and I'll tell you who you are! Under this title we want to explore a living situation that locates cooking and eating beyond the convention of the fitted kitchen and family table. As in past Stegreifen on living, your idea will be guided by a narrative. How do we cook? What do we eat? In what spaces and in what society do we cook and eat? Is the way we eat characterized by hedonism or asceticism? The submission consists of a floor plan and a section as well as a short written explanation of the idea.
During the seminar week we sail in the Gulf of Naples between the mainland and the islands of Naples, Ischia, Procida, Sorrento, Capri and Amalfi . During the cruises we will prepare ourselves for the visits on land. We will focus our attention on the relationship between architecture and territory, which is determined by the beauty of the topography, the sea of Mediterranean vegetation, but also by the danger and majesty of volcanism, which equally characterize the architecture and mentality of this cultural area. In the evening we will moor or anchor in ports and cook, eat and sleep together on the ship.
The Chair of City and Housing continues the implementation of the two courtyard projects for the Faculty Building of Architecture in a second building week under the title "Forest Garden, Flower Garden". The designs for the courtyards were created last summer semester as part of the master's studio "Imagination and Mimesis". In the second week of construction, we will begin planting the western courtyard together. Daniel Ganz, landscape architect from Zurich, will be present during the construction week to assist us with the plantings. All students are very welcome to participate in this project.
At the symposium More Than Fifteen Years, Six Takes on Housing After the Neoliberal Turn, organized by Prof. Reto Geiser at Rice University Houston, Christian Inderbitzin gave the lecture On Community. The symposium focused on current housing construction in Switzerland and France and took place on March 2 and 3, 2023. Christian Inderbitzin's lecture focused on his work in cooperative housing construction in Zurich. Other presentations were given by Emanuel Christ, Sofie Delhay, Simon Hartmann, Eric Lapierre and Oliver Lütjens.
On February 23, 2023, the final critique of our master studio Imagination and Mimesis will take place at our professorship. We are looking forward to our guests Verena von Beckerath, Elli Mosayebi and Siegfried Weber. You are all cordially invited to participate!
On Tuesday, February 21, the final critique of the bachelor studio will take place. The presentations will begin at 9:00 am in the Tullahalle. Serafina Eipert and Bettina Satzl will be our guests. We are very happy about your coming!
From November 18 - 24, 2022 we showed student works of our master studio Ideal and Reality at the TU Munich and were part of the exhibition project Zwischenstand of the Zwischenstadt. The works of our students dealt with the edges of the built city and approached found situations. Existing forms of production were adapted and synergies between different uses were sought. The designs give specific answers to the respective "edge situation" and thereby link new forms of living and working. You can find a contribution to the exhibition by Christian Holl here: marlowes.de/viel-arbeit/
As part of the Master's Studio Imagination and Mimesis, the Chair of City and Housing is organizing another colloquium entitled Selber Bauen on 19 January 2023. The four guests each represent different forms of self-initiative in building and living beyond the standard. Maria Lisogorskaya is a founding member of Assemble Studio and will present the work of the London-based collective. As an architect and co-founder of Kooperative Großstadt, Christian Hadaller will give us an insight into the work of the housing cooperative. Marc Frohn, Professor of Interior Design at KIT, will report on the "Wohnregal" project in Berlin-Moabit, in which he was both architect and client. Sergio Marazzi and Andreas Reinhardt are architects from Winterthur and talk about self-build in their projects.
As part of the master's studio Imagination and Mimesis, the Chair of City and Housing is organizing a first colloquium entitled Anders Wohnen on January 12, 2023. Jan Engelke is an architect and will present the work on his dissertation Wohnmodell Eigenheim in the context of its development during the years of the German economic miracle. The architect Tilmann Jarmer, project manager at Florian Nagler Architekten, will present the project "Einfach Bauen - Die Forschungshäuser Bad Aibling". Gian Trachsler is an architect from Zurich and works with his studio Trachsler Hoffmann on projects that include participatory building processes to create community and identity for future residents. We are very much looking forward to the input and the subsequent exchange.
The Karlsruhe Architecture Lectures 2022 bring together personalities and their architectural works. On each of the four evenings, an architect will talk about their work and ask their counterpart a question. This forms the starting point for a dialog with an open outcome. Invited are Donatelle Fioretti and Francesco Buzzi, Anne-Julchen Bernhardt and Sebastian Skovsted, Jan de Vylder and Stéphanie Bru as well as Daniel Niggli and Anna Popelka. The lectures were organized together with Simon Hartmann's professorship.
As part of an impromptu project, students Julius Maisch, Vincent Ruffra and Philipp Schmider designed a kitchen for our professorship and subsequently built it themselves. The kitchen is constructed from anodized aluminum system profiles and covered with reused terrazzo floor tiles. Frames made of green GRP molded grates span between the anodized metal. Finishing off the countertop is a horizontally arranged mirror element. The City and Living team looks forward to cooking evenings together!
In the winter semester 2022/23, we will design a prototypical, perhaps experimental living situation. In the built form, a real laboratory housing is to be created, which will be inhabited and researched over a few years. The background for the design is formed by the major challenges of the present: social and demographic shifts with corresponding demand for "different" living space, as well as aspects of energy, resources and emissions with the urgency for "different" building. The project thus has an aesthetic and a functional dimension that is condensed in the architecture of the interior. The semester will be accompanied by contributions and critiques from experts.
In the coming semester, we will be working on small apartment buildings that occupy empty spaces in the urban body and are intended to achieve an internal densification on a small scale. The focus will be on the individual apartment, its floor plan, its spatiality, and the form of living prefigured therein. In keeping with the title of the semester, we will cross the prevailing conventions and search for living concepts for alternative forms of living through the "intentional, pleasurable breaking of rules and the imaginative, playful transgression of academic norms".
In the seminar Forest Garden, Flower Garden we work together on the realization of the two courtyard projects for the Faculty Building of Architecture. The students of the past Master Studio are offered with the seminar space and supervision for realization of their designs. All other students are invited to participate and collaborate. We hope for a growing group that will be part of this lasting project for the Faculty of Architecture. The forest and flower garden mean an aesthetic and functional enhancement of the two courtyards, benefiting the microclimate, biodiversity and people.
Diogenes of Sinope lived in a barrel to escape superfluous luxury. The "impromptu" explores how it is possible to accommodate everything necessary for a house in a living unit of 6m2. The unit could be seen as a platform for a nomadic life, a shelter for an emergency situation, or simply an investigation into the type of archaic hut. For the design of such a housing unit, the area is determined. The outer form, the situation and the concept can be chosen freely. In addition to the floor plan and section, a brief written explanation of the idea is expected.
This fall, the Engadin Architecture Days will take place for the second time. Personalities from the Engadine will discuss their view of the valley in three panels. The discussions will be accompanied by short guest contributions. Which approach to Engadin's building culture is suitable for exploiting its potential? Which strategies for the conversion of existing buildings make sense? These and other questions will be discussed by architects, specialists - and Engadiners. The days are curated by Roger Boltshauser and Christian Inderbitzin. Information about the program can be found here.
We say goodbye to our colleague Michael Grunitz who leaves our chair. Michael has played a major role in building up the chair over the past two years and has led the seminar on cityscapes. We wish him all the best for his future and look forward to having him as a guest and skipper on our next sailing trip. Srdjan Zlokapa will become the newest member of our faculty at the beginning of this semester. Srdjan is an independent architect and part of A-A Collective and Stadler Zlokapa.
During the seminar week we were sailing in the strait between Sweden and Denmark and visited the houses of Sigurd Lewerenz, Arne Jakobsen, Kay Fisker, Jörn Utzon and other heroes of Scandinavian modernism. A beautiful film was made, which you can watch here. We are looking forward to our next sailing trip together!
The final review of our masters studio will take place on Thursday, August 04. The presentations will start at 9:00 am at our professorship. Our guests will be Rita Illien and Fanny Kranz. We look forward to your coming!
The interim review of our masters studio Imagination and Mimesis will take place on July 14, 2022. We are looking forward to our guests Elli Mosayebi and Daniel Ganz. You are all cordially invited to participate!
As part of the Master Studio Imagination and Mimesis, the Chair of City and Living invites Luzia Rink and Nina Schwarz to an input lecture and drawing workshop on June 29, 2022. As illustrators, Luzia Rink and Nina Schwarz teach at the Zurich University of the Arts. They will give us insights into the scientific drawing of plants. How do our plans become pictorial? How can we abstract botanical drawing and still capture the essence of a plant? We are very much looking forward to the input. You are all invited to participate!
As part of the Master's Studio Imagination and Mimesis, the Chair of City and Housing invites Rita Illien to give a lecture on June 30, 2022. Rita Illien is a landscape architect in Zurich and will talk about the realm of fungi. Fungi form the third great kingdom of living things, along with plants and animals. They are commonly less known, but are of crucial importance for the functioning and balance of the biosphere. We look forward to their contribution and the conversation we will have together. You are all cordially invited to participate!
As part of the Master Studio Imagination and Mimesis, the Chair of City and Housing invites André Rey to give a lecture on June 16, 2022. Landscape architect and wildlife ecologist, André Rey will talk about wild bees as key species in our ecosystems and about wild bee promotion in urban spaces through the association IG Wilde Biene: Project Pocketparks. We are looking forward to the contribution and the common conversation. You are all cordially invited to participate!
As part of the Master Studio Imagination and Mimesis, the Chair of City and Housing invites Christian Körner to give a lecture on the morning of May 26, 2022. Christian Körner is professor emeritus, he teaches and researches at various universities, most recently at the Univeristät Basel and Yale University. Entitled Ecological Principles and 'Green' in the City, he will give us insights into ecological and biological issues. We are looking forward to the contribution and the common conversation. You are all cordially invited to participate!
As part of the Master Studio Imagination and Mimesis, the Chair of City and Housing invites Christoph Küffer to give an input lecture on the afternoon of May 12, 2022. Christoph Küffer is professor for settlement ecology at the Institute for Landscape and Open Space at the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland in Rapperswill. Entitled Terranauts or Permaculture? Ecosystem design on a wounded planet, he talks about the functioning of our ecosystems. What is an ecosystem? What are the (dominant) influencing variables? Can an ecosystem be designed at all, pre-drawn and determined to some extent? What is set, what is left open, evolving? You are all invited to participate!
From May 13-15, we will take a joint field trip to Berlin and the surrounding area to visit a number of historic gardens and contemporary outdoor spaces. In Berlin, we will be traveling by bicycle and exploring different ecosystems, gardens, open spaces, and landscape architecture. In addition to a visit to Park Sanssouci in Potsam, our excursion will focus on the current exhibition 'Architectures of Cohabitation'. Various urban gardening projects around and on the Tempelhofer Feld, a bee course and food in a restaurant with its own ecosystem are also part of our excursion. We are looking forward to summer temperatures in the natural spaces of Berlin!
The colloquium of the first Engadin Architecture Days, curated by the two architects Roger Boltshauser and Christian Inderbitzin, focused on architectural identity. This marks towns and villages with a specific character, distinguishes them and makes them places. But what constitutes such an identity, how do we preserve or recreate it? In three panel discussions on the history, present and future of the Engadine, these questions were discussed with national and international guests. Aita Flury summarized the discussions here.
We say goodbye to our colleague Conrad Kersting who leaves our chair. Conrad has played a major role in building up the chair over the past two years. We wish him great success for his future and look forward to welcoming him as a guest again soon. Edda Zickert will become the newest member of our chair at the beginning of this semester. Edda is a freelance architect and member of the collective CollColl in Munich.
As part of the master's studio Imagination and Mimesis, Anette Busse will present to us on April 28 the results of the construction documentation on the faculty building, which were created in the seminar "Building in the Existing Context, Structure, Elements". Annete Busse teaches and researches at the Institute for Art and Building History in Karlsruhe. We are looking forward to her contribution!
As part of the introductory event of the Master's Studio Imagination and Mimesis, the professorship City and Housing visited the KIT Botanical Garden on April 21. Dennis Wendlinger, member of the Friends of the Botanical Garden, gave us an overview of the historical development of the botanical garden and guided us through the different greenhouses. We thank him very much for the great introduction to botany!
After working on speculative projects on a large scale last year, we want to develop concrete projects on a small scale over the next two semesters. Concrete means designs that aim to be realized. The individual projects should come together to form an overall project that reaches the level of detail of an implementation project. In the summer semester 2022, we will design gardens for the courtyards of the Faculty of Architecture. With the design and implementation, the courtyard, which currently lies fallow, is to be reshaped and upgraded in terms of the qualities of stay and ecology. The project thus has an aesthetic and a functional dimension, which are condensed into an autonomous ecosystem that encompasses all aspects of flora and fauna, plant sociology, water, climate, etc.
In the seminar Cityscapes we continue the series of city portraits started in the last semesters. They form the basis for a long-term research project on the European city at the Department of City and Housing. The aim of the study is to gain a fundamental understanding of our cities and their current transformation. Especially for the grown, European cities this will be a turning point: Possibly cities can no longer be designed exclusively according to traditional-spatial criteria, but must increasingly be subjected to a "metabolistic" logic. In the coming semester we will choose a series of cities around the Baltic Sea and thus create a connection to the planned seminar trip at the Øresund.
During the seminar week we sail on our own hull into the strait between Sweden and Denmark to visit the homes of Sigurd Lewerenz, Arne Jakobsen, Kay Fisker, Jörn Utzon and other heroes of Scandinavian modernism. As a crew, we will provide maneuvering, accommodation and meals together on board two yachts. Before we depart from Rostock in June, we will meet during the semester to prepare for the cruise and to work on an excursion reader.
Impromptu is about the design of an apartment, which addresses the climate of the interior. Current residential buildings provide for all rooms uniform temperatures with seasonally small fluctuations. Accordingly, the houses must be heated, ventilated and insulated. How might an apartment floor plan be constructed that deviates from this credo? Which function requires a warm temperature, which a cooler one? Could the living space "breathe" seasonally? Could we "insulate" a house via interstitial spaces instead of layers of insulation? For the design of such a dwelling, the external dimensions and the lighting situation are specified. In addition to the floor plan and section, a brief textual explanation of the idea is expected.
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The architectural office of Christian Inderbitzin won the competition for a residential building for the Habitat Foundation in Basel in March 2022. The project with nineteen larger apartments for families is planned in timber construction. The requirement for sustainable construction is comprehensive and structural: the choice of wood as a renewable building material is combined with a consistent system separation, which begins with the separation of the load-bearing (skeleton) and spatial structure (non-load-bearing lightweight construction) and ends with the ventilated facade cladding in carbonized wood shingles. Click here for Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin.
We are pleased to be invited to the final critique of the Department of "Design and Urban Architecture" of the Bauhaus University Weimar on February 10. The semester draft in Weimar and our master studio have the suburban space of the north of Munich as their theme.
On Thursday, February 17, starting at ten o'clock, we will finally discuss the designs of our master studio "Ideal and Reality". The designs in the suburban space of the north of Munich were created parallel to the semester draft of the chair "Design and Urban Architecture" of the Bauhaus University Weimar. As guest critics we could win Elli Mosayebi, Lukas Burkhart, Andreas Garkisch and Marco Zünd. The presentation will take place at our chair in presence and digitally on Zoom. You are all cordially invited to participate.
On Wednesday, February 16, we will hold the final critique of the undergraduate draft. The presentations will start at 9:00 am in the AOC Hall in building 11.40, with Magdalena Stadler and Marco Zünd as guests. You are all cordially invited to attend.
As part of the Ideal and Reality Master Studio, we are organizing a third colloquium together with the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar entitled "Building differently?" on 14 January 2022, at which six guests will report on their concepts and approaches for a different, sustainable way of building. Florian Kirfel gives us insights into his work from practice and teaching. Andres Herzog, editor at Hochparterre, will talk about the small handbook "Klima bauen". Peter Grundmann introduces us to alternative design, construction and realization methods. Marc Loeliger is researching the reuse of building components and will report on this. Peter Weigand and Lukasz Lendzinski from Studio Umschichten will provide insights into selected works and Andreas Haug will talk about his practice at Insitu.
As part of the Ideal and Reality Master Studio, we are organizing another colloquium together with the Bauhaus University Weimar under the title Landscape, Ecology, Cohabitation on 9 December 2021. The guests each represent different topics. Ludivine Gragy is a landscape architect and will present her research project on the Monumentale Verano cemetery. As a sociologist, Julian Müller will give us an insight into the sociological issues surrounding the province. Ella von der Haide will inform us about solidarity agriculture. Christoph Küffer, professor of settlement ecology, will report on the functioning of our ecosystems. Lisa Euler, co-author of the book "achtung: die Landschaft", talks about the landscape as an identity-forming element and Céline Baumann presents work from her practice and research.
As part of the Master's Studio Ideal and Reality, the Chair of City and Housing, together with the Chair of Design and Urban Architecture at the Bauhaus University Weimar, is organizing a colloquium entitled Munich North with seven guests on the morning of November 18, 2021. The experts will look at Munich North from the different perspectives of their respective fields. You are all cordially invited to participate!
Exam registration for our impromptu in the winter semester is done via completed impromptu slip and not via Campus Management. Exam registration via Campus Management for individual impromptu exams is not available. Attendance at the December 17 drop-off date and submission of the impromptu slip for drop-off/presentation on January 21 is sufficient.
Next week, the 1st Engadine Architecture Days will take place at the Fundaziun Nairs near Tarasp. Curated by Roger Boltshauser and Christian Inderbitzin, the days will focus on the architectural identity of the high valley. Within the framework of three panels (Tradition and Present of the Engadine, External Perception of the Engadine and Potentials of the Engadine), a wide variety of questions on the topic will be discussed with local and international guests. Christian Inderbitzin will moderate the discussion on Friday, October 22 with Momoyo Kaijima, Jonathan Sergison and Jaume Mayol. Click here for the detailed program.
The teaching program for the current semester is online. Questions about the Master Studio can be submitted via Zoom on October 13 from 4:30 pm.
Christian Inderbitzin has contributed a short essay to the current book publication by Daniel Ganz Landschaftsarchitekten from Zurich. The book will be presented in Zurich on 7 October 2021 and will be published by Hochparterre Bücher. Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin and Ganz Landscape Architects have enjoyed a long and friendly collaboration, which has found expression in numerous building projects as well as the exhibition project Garden at the Architektur Galerie Berlin. The exhibition was followed by a publication under the same name with contributions by Martin Steinmann and Stephen Bates.
Basel has an international reputation as a city of architecture and a long tradition in the field of new music.ZeitRäume Baselhas been bringing both areas together since 2015: Every two years, a compact and innovative festival presents numerous actors, institutions and artists* from the region, Switzerland as well as the international space at a wide variety of venues. As a representative ofCountdown2030, a Basel-based association that promotes sustainable building culture, Conrad will give a lecture on Saturday, September 18, followed by a discussion.
Christian Inderbitzin's architectural practice has won the 2019 Swiss Art Award. The award-winning project will be realized this September and will frame this year's Swiss Art Awards exhibition in Basel. The vernissage will take place on September 20, and Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin will speak with Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen at the finissage on September 26. The installation, entitled Anthropomorphic Form, forms a textile roof that spans the exhibition hall and hangs from forty-two ropes. Sensors that record visitor behavior feed an algorithm that controls the motors of the ropes and makes the textile form new spaces again and again. The spatial formations alternate between archaic tent roof and mimetic cloud.
This year, the second-year design course at the Oslo School for Architecture and Design(AHO) will focus on large-scale housing. As an introduction to the topic, various guests will be invited to present selected housing projects under the title "developing ideas + selected housing projects". The guests are not asked to present their own work, but projects that are inspirations for the presenters themselves and to which they have a personal or academic connection. On September 15, Conrad will give a lecture on the Hammer I residential building by Diener&Diener Architekten. Conrad is currently working on a publication about this building.
Under this title, Elli Mosayebi and Christian Inderbitzin, together with Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen, discussed the question: Have we ever been postmodern? In doing so, they explore the role that some marginal figures (but also protagonists) of the Zurich architectural scene of the 1960s and 1970s play for recent and contemporary architecture in Switzerland, in that they each broke with modernism in different ways. With a view to the present, the assumption suggests itself that the formal absence of an international postmodernism has released an all the more effective, subversive transformation energy. In connection with the talk of 31 August 2021, there is an online exhibition with pictures by Gion von Albertini showing some of the buildings discussed.
Christian Inderbitzin and Elli Mosayebi have published a jointly written article on bay windows in the architectural journal Werk, Bauen und Wohnen, issue "Besser Wohnen" 7/8-2021. In it, they describe the various functions and potentials of the building element in current residential construction based on a selection of their own projects. As designers, they see the bay window as an option of resistance against a smooth and marketing-conform architecture. Click here for Werk, Bauen und Wohnen.
On July 29, the final critique of the master studio Ideal and Reality with designs for the Postareal in Karlsruhe will take place at our chair. Guest critics are Andreas Garkisch and Elli Mosayebi. You are all invited to participate!
On 27 July, Conrad Kersting will be a guest critic in the Bachelor Studio of André Kempe and Oliver Thill at Leibniz Universität Hannover. The students of the 2nd semester deal with the type of villa.
On June 30, the inaugural lecture of Christian Inderbitzin will take place. You are all cordially invited! In his lecture, Christian Inderbitzin will address some issues that concern him in teaching, research and practice as well as present a project from his office.
As part of the Corners of modernity project, Christian Inderbitzin's architectural practice was invited to address the legacy of modernity in an exhibition. The installation Circuit, on show in Lausanne in June 2021, takes as its theme the waste that must be seen as a product of modernity and our prosperity. The still life on a large pile of compost combines organic and inorganic waste and pleads for an imaginary world of cycles, where waste grows into new things that perish once again. Click here for the website of the organizer, Maladière moderne, Lausanne
On 25 June, Conrad Kersting will give a lecture at the first edition of a new online conference of the Chamber of Architects of Baden Württemberg. Under the heading 'What if... we talk about tomorrow?', he will represent the Countdown2030 association on a panel on questions of future living in the city.
The Vacancy - no vacancy living laboratory will be given a second life after its research period at ETH Zurich. On 22 June 2021, it will be transported to the Kunstgiesserei Sitterwerk near St. Gallen, where it will be used by guests and artists of the foundry. The research project on performative space was developed in collaboration between the Chair of Architecture and Design of Elli Mosayebi and the architectural office of Christian Inderbitzin. The apartment is also a prototype for the residential building currently under construction on Stampfenbachstrasse in Zurich. Click here for Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin.
As part of the Ideal and Reality master's program, the Chair of Urbanism and Housing is hosting another colloquium entitled"Wood and Brick" on 4 June 2021. Dr Wilko Potgeter did his doctorate on brick shell construction in the age of industrialization and will talk about brick and masonry in line with this topic. Daniel Kaschub is an architect at Baumberger & Stegmeier, where he was project manager for a large timber-frame residential building, Haus Krokodil in Winterthur. He will introduce us to the project and talk about the challenges of timber construction on this scale. Finally, Christian Inderbitzin will present some current projects from his practice that focus on simple construction with brick and timber.
In May 2021, Christian Inderbitzin's architectural office won the competition for a residential building for the "Einfach wohnen" foundation in Zurich-Unterstrass. The project sets new standards for living with little individual space consumption and a lot of communal space. In its architectural conception, the house is determined by the old tree population, which is largely preserved, as well as a construction that is simple, adaptable and cost-effective. Click here for Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin.
Exam registration for our impromptu in the summer semester is done via completed impromptu slip and not via Campus Management. Exam registration through Campus Management for individual impromptu exams is not available. Attendance at the issue date on June 2 and submission of the impromptu slip for delivery/presentation on June 11 are sufficient
As part of the Master's Studio Ideal and Reality, the Chair of City and Housing is organizing a colloquium entitled"Fügungen" (Joints) on the morning of May 21, 2021, at which six guests will each present and discuss a project from their practice. What interests us about the projects is the linking of a housing idea with a specific and sustainable construction beyond conventional solid construction. You are all cordially invited to participate!
As part of the Ideal and Reality Master Studio, the Chair of Urbanism and Housing is organizing a colloquium entitled"Building differently?" on May 6, 2021, at which four guests will present their concepts for a different, sustainable way of building. The four guests each represent different areas. Prof. Florian Nagler combines academic teaching with building in his research project Einfach bauen and will tell us about it. Prof. Dirk Hebel, a leading figure in sustainable building, will speak from a research perspective, Severin Lenel, consultant at Intep in St. Gallen, will provide insights into his practical consulting work and Palle Petersen, editor of the architecture magazine Hochparterre, will report on his work as a critic and observer of current trends in sustainable building.
At the beginning of April, Christian Inderbitzin's architectural office completed a residential building in Pfäffikon/ Zurich and handed it over to the tenants. The house focuses on living away from the urban centres, which is reflected in the floor plans as well as the materials and construction of the building. The house is the office's most cost-effective residential project to date. Click here for Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin.
The Graz Architecture Lectures 2021 are dedicated to the topic "Corrections". There is no design process that comes about without corrections of previous ideas, plans and sometimes also convictions. Corrections are the most important engine for change and (in the best sense) progress - especially in the field of architecture. However, corrections are rarely talked about publicly. GAL21 - Corrections will take place on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 and on Thursday, March 25 from 16:00 - 19:00.
The teaching program for the current summer semester 2021 is online. We are pleased about your participation
In March 2021, Christian Inderbitzin's architectural office won the competition for a cooperative housing development with around 130 apartments in Zurich-Schwamendingen. The project is one of the first building blocks along the enclosure of the local motorway section that is currently under construction, marking an urban development turning point in the neighbourhood. The buildings are designed in a timber construction, with the primary structure being a skeleton. With timber construction and other additive joining principles, the project is consistently focused on renewable resources, system separation and circular economy. Click here for Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin.
The program of the master draft in the summer semester 2021 is online. We are pleased about your participation
The Badische Neueste Nachrichten newspaper is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary with an anniversary edition. In its look into the future, it asked Christian Inderbitzin and Markus Kaltenbach about the current and expected changes in the city as well as the challenges in building and living. Under this link you can find the whole statement. Click here for the article in the BNN.
We say goodbye to our colleague Markus Kaltenbach and thank him for the extremely pleasant and productive collaboration. As a long-time employee at the Institute Design of City and Landscape, Markus was the first employee of our professorship City and Housing after its reestablishment. After completing his doctorate last year, he is now devoting himself more to practical work. We wish him all the best and are already looking forward to welcoming him as a guest at KIT.
On Thursday, February 25, the final critique of our master studio "Archetypes and Hybrids" took place. We would like to thank our excellent guests, Elli Mosayebi from ETH Zurich and Alex Lehnerer from TU Graz.
Our brochure "Die räumliche Relevanz berufsbedingter Nebenwohnsitzen" (Markus Kaltenbach) is now available online. It documents a part of the research project "Daheim Unterwegs" funded by the KIT Strategy Fund. The work was done in cooperation with Volkswohnung GmbH.
As part of the research project "Daheim Unterwegs" (Prof. K. Gothe, Prof. Dr. C. Kramer, funded by the KIT-Strategiefond), an expert workshop on the spatial relevance of occupational multilocality took place on October 13, 2020. In addition to Dr. Markus Kaltenbach, who organized the workshop, Prof. Christian Inderbitzin also participated in the event.
The teaching program for the winter semester 20/21 isonline. We are looking forward to your participation!
The Chair of City and Housing would like to thank Prof. Elli Mosayebi (ETH / EMI Architekten), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Anke Karmann-Wössner (Head of Stadtplanungsamt Karlsruhe), Prof. Uwe Schröder (RWTH Aachen) and Eva-Maria Mitterwieser for their guest critique on 30.07.2020 in the master studio "Archetypes and Hybrids".
The Chair of City and Housing would like to thank Prof. Anne-Julchen Bernhardt (BeL Sozietät für Architektur & RWTH Aachen) and Roman Leonhartsberger (pan m & TU München) for their guest critique on 22.07.2020 at Studio Kontext "Neuenburg: Living between 3 countries".